Dynamic Analysis of a Vessel-shaped Fish Farm for Open Sea

Master's thesis in Offshore Technology : Marine and Subsea TechnologyIn recent years, aquaculture has been the fastest-growing animal food producing industry in the world. However, the absence of suitable production areas might potentially become the most limiting factor for future production growth. This motivates and necessitates the development of open sea fish farming. Design of offshore aquaculture systems is a novel and unique engineering challenge, which will depend on numerical tools that can simulate and predict the structural response in open sea conditions. In this master thesis, a vessel-shaped fish farm concept for offshore fish farming is studied. The vessel uses a turret mooring system for station keeping and is designed to break incoming waves and reduce environmental loads on the system. Dynamic analyses have been carried out using numerical simulation programs, with the aim to analyse vessel motions, mooring lines, fish nets, and coupled motions of the system. For studies of the hydrodynamic properties of the vessel, different panel models were created using the design analysis tool GeniE. The RAOs in heave, roll, and pitch were obtained from frequency domain analyses of the vessel hull, using the potential flow solver Wadam. Hydrodynamic data acquired from frequency domain analyses were exported from Wadam to SIMO, the program used for quasi-static time domain analysis of the vessel and simplified mooring system. Based on the mooring lines performance in SIMO, new mooring line parameters were established for the fully coupled time domain simulations in SIMO-Riflex, where fully coupled time domain analyses of the vessel-shaped fish farm was carried out. A sensitivity study was carried out from the fully coupled time domain simulations by comparing three different fish net models; rigid model, flexible model, and flexible model with no reduction factor. It was found that the simplified models overestimate the drag forces on the system, and it is recommended that neither of the simplified models should be used for future dynamic analyses of aquaculture systems. Development of tension in the foremost and rearmost fish nets was studied in steady current conditions, and with a conjunction of regular waves and steady currents. A mutual dependency between the forces on the net and its deformations was found. Motions of the coupled fish farm system and the efficiency of mooring lines were studied in time domain simulations with regular waves and steady currents

TRS-measurements as a nondestructive method assessing stage of maturity and ripening in plum (Prunus domestica L.)

n plum fruit with dark red or blue blush colour covering the whole fruit, the change in ground colour from green to yellow during maturation and ripening is masked. Hence, the maturity stage is difficult to judge. Time-resolved reflectance spectroscopy (TRS) has been used as a nondestructive method to assess changes in important internal quality factors in ‘Jubileum’ plums (Prunus domestica L.). Absorption coefficients (µa) and scattering coefficients (µs) were measured at both 670 and 758 nm during 5 days of storage. The changes in soluble solids content, titratable acidity and firmness were as expected. No change in soluble solids content was observed, while the plums became less acid and softer during storage. The TRS-measurements of plums indicated that TRS could give interesting information on internal quality factors in plums as the absorption at 670 nm was closely related to firmness, TA and TSS at the time of picking. Absorption at 758 nm was more closely related to the quality parameters after storage. The study did not indicate that scattering could be used in assessing maturity stage in plum

Is tax transparency associated with a better ESG score? An empiric look into the state of Tax transparency and ESG for OBX25

In this thesis, our primary goal is to examine the state of tax transparency, then identify the relationship between ESG score and tax transparency performance for the Norwegian companies that make up the OBX25 index. To accomplish this, we conduct a documentary analysis of all relevant organizational documents and sources to assess the tax transparency performance of each company while we extract ESG data from the Refinitiv database. The newly introduced tax standard, GRI 207, is operationalized by assigning numerical values for each disclosure if the content of the disclosures is covered in organizational sources. In addition, we explore measurements of company characteristics to examine potential factors that may contribute and explain the tax transparency performance. Our findings show that the tax transparency performance for companies listed on the OBX25 index leaves a lot to be desired, with a relatively low compliance rate when an established framework for sustainability reporting, GRI 207, is utilized. This is evidenced by the average tax transparency performance of 22.6%. We find that companies that are larger, more profitable, and have a higher degree of public ownership, achieve the highest tax transparency performance. We also find evidence that tax transparency performance and ESG score is connected. When companies are sorted after tax transparency performance based on segments, our findings suggest that a better tax transparency performance is connected with a better ESG score. In addition, we find a low number of outliners in the sorting matrices, insinuating that most companies´ individual score does correspond with the ESG score.nhhma

Preharvest application with calcium and maturity at harvest affects postharvest fungal fruit decay of European plum

The combination of preharvest treatments with calcium chloride and fungicides, and storage of maturity graded fruit were assessed in five European plum cultivars. At harvest, samples of fruit within a commercially suitable range in ripening were divided into two categories: less-ripe (tree ripe-) and more-ripe (tree ripe+). The fruit were stored for 10–14 days at 4 °C followed by 2–3 days at 20 °C before the assessment of fungal decay. If calcium chloride was applied six times each season, postharvest fruit decay was significantly reduced in four of nine experiments, with a total mean reduction of around 50%. Two calcium applications in combination with a fungicide treatment reduced decay by approx. 60% compared to the untreated in one experiment. In six of seven experiments there was no effect of preharvest fungicide applications. In six of 10 experiments, fruit of the category tree ripe- had fewer fruit with fungal decay after storage than the tree ripe+fruit. The higher incidence in the category tree ripe+fruit was primarily due to brown rot, Mucor rot, and blue mould. For the category tree ripe+, there was two to ten times more decay than on tree ripe- fruit after a simulated shelf-life period. To ensure low incidence of fungal decay, fruit of commercial harvest maturity may thus be separated in two ripening categories, one for rapid distribution to the market (tree ripe+) and another for extended distribution time (tree ripe-).publishedVersio

Optical Absorption and Scattering Phenomena in 'Jubileum' Plums in Relation to Their Colour Properties

Absorption and scattering of laser light pulse passing through the fruit determine among others, the optical properties of the product. Efforts have been made in the recent past to utilize innovative techniques such as time-resolved reflectance spectroscopy (TRS) to study the quality aspects of different fruit such as nectarines. These optical properties have been well related to firmness, sugars, acids and other quality attributes. TRS measurements were performed on ‘Jubileum’ plums at two different wavelengths: 670 nm and 758 nm. The fruit were harvested in Norway and brought to Italy under protected conditions. After sorting the fruit by size, TRS measurements were made and the fruit were randomized for different examinations of quality aspects. It was observed that the absorption coefficient (µa) increased for both wavelengths as ripening progressed towards the melting stage of the fruit. The µa values at 670 nm were higher than those at 758 nm. The higher rate in the µa was distinguishable from the third day onwards as the fruit ripened. Similarly, it was interesting to note that the internal colour measured after destructing the fruit related well with the TRS absorption coefficient (µa), i.e., a decrease in the CIE L* (towards darker region) and b* (towards blue) value along with an increase in a* (towards red) from third day of storag

Water loss in horticultural products. Modelling, data analysis and theoretical considerations

The water loss of individual fruit (melon, plum and mandarin) was analysed using the traditional diffusion based approach and a kinetic approach. Applying simple non linear regression, both approaches are the same, resulting in a quite acceptable analysis. However, by applying mixed effects non linear regression analysis, explicitly including the variation over the individuals, the kinetic approach was found to reflect the processes occurring during mass loss better than the diffusion approach. All the variation between the individuals in a batch could be attributed to the initial mass or size of the individuals. The fraction of the fruit mass that is available for transpiration is the key item in the water loss process, rather than the skin resistance and fruit area. Obtained explained parts are well over 99%

Informasjon om akutte munnhelseproblemer på norske blogger og diskusjonsforum

Målsetting og bakgrunn: Internett brukes i økende grad til helseformål, inkludert søk etter informasjon vedrørende munnhelseproblemer. I vår oppgave ønsket vi derfor å se på hvordan det snakkes om akutte munnhelseproblemer på nett (blogger og diskusjonsforum). Metode: Studien er basert på en kvalitativ dokumentanalyse av utvalgte innlegg som omhandlet akutte munnhelseproblemer på Blogg.no og Diskusjon.no, hentet fra Google.no. De 60 første innleggene fra søket med den utvalgte søkestrengen ble tatt ut, hvor vi satt igjen med 52 innlegg som ble analysert. Vi gjorde deretter kvalitative analyser gjennom koding og kategorisering, hvor vi også gjennomførte kvantitative analyser for å se etter eventuelle forskjeller mellom de ulike nettsidene. Resultater: Ti innholdskategorier ble identifisert gjennom kvalitativ analyse. De ti kategoriene var tannverk, bekymringer og angst for tannbehandling, tilgjengelighet, kjerringråd, økonomi og politikk, andre årsaker – ikke tann-relatert, smertestillende, tannlegeerfaringer, kunnskap og smerter og behandling på reise. Vi så at kategoriene tannverk, kunnskaper og smertestillende var kategoriene som ble vektlagt mest. Under analysene av kategoriene så vi en normativ type bruk av nettstedene, og hvilke typer innlegg som gikk igjen. Et mer uventet funn var mindre misnøye i forbindelse med tilgjengelighet, og færre innlegg om dårlige tannlegeerfaringer enn vi forventet. Rundt helsekompetanse og språkbruk viste innleggene varierende grad av kunnskap rundt både smertestillende preparater og årsaker til smerter. De to nettstedene vi har brukt i oppgaven vår viser også hvordan forskjellige nettsamfunn egner seg bedre enn andre for å ta opp spesifikke tema rundt akutte munnhelseproblemer. Konklusjon: Formålet med oppgaven var å se på hvilken tematikk som ble lagt vekt på vedrørende akutte munnhelseproblemer på Blogg.no og Diskusjon.no. Funnene i oppgaven kan brukes videre til å se på hvor tilgjengelig og forståelig informasjon om akutte munnhelseproblemer som ligger på internett er. Det kan også tenkes at det mangler en type informasjonssentral for pasienter med akutte munnhelseproblemer ettersom flere kanskje oppsøker lett forståelige nettsider som Blogg.no og Diskusjon.no

The effect of organic fertilizers and thinning methods on quality parameters and the yield on apple cultivars ‘Aroma’ and ‘Discovery’ in Norway

In Norway, apple growers with the packinghouses are focused in medium size apples for 6-pack consumer packages when it comes to cultivar ‘Aroma’. ‘Aroma’ can have an excessive and uneven fruit set and therefore there is a growing need to find out method to reduce the fruit size of cv. ‘Aroma’. 'Discovery' is rather small-fruited cultivar, hence more even and bigger size fruit is desired. In our study, different thinning methods with two different types of organic fertilizers were used to influence the fruit size and the yield. Our hypothesis was that organic fertilizers provide optimal nutrient ranges during the growing season to cultivars ‘Aroma’ and the ‘Discovery’ and have a positive effect on the yield and quality parameters

Dokumentasjon og begrunnelseskravet i barneverntjenesten. Kravets betydning for rettssikkerheten til barn og foreldre i møte med offentlig forvaltning.

MasteroppgaveJUS399MAJUR-2MAJU