International benchmarking of electricity distribution utilities.

Benchmarking by means of applying the DEA model is appearing as an interesting alternative for regulators under the new regimes for electricity distributors. A sample of large electricity distribution utilities from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands for the year 1997 is studied by assuming a common production frontier for all countries. The peers supporting the benchmark frontier are from all countries. New indexes describing cross country connections between peers and their inefficient units are developed, as well as productivity measurements between units from different countries.Electricity utility; benchmarking; efficiency; DEA; Malmquist productivity index

Politi på psykiatrioppdrag – uniform eller sivil? : en teoretisk oppgave

Bachelor i politiutdannin

Validation of Rocking Displacement for Segmented Cross Laminated Timber Shear Walls in Multi-Story Buildings Under Lateral Loads

In this thesis parametric analyses from numerical and analytical methods for one-story CLT shear walls are compared and validated for the upcoming Eurocode 5. The analytical methods are the already proposed method in Annex R and a new proposal from Arup. In addition, numerical and analytical analyses for multistory behavior are compared to see their preciseness for multistory behavior. The thesis only looks at kinematic rocking as a contribution to lateral deflection. The parametric analysis for one-story utilizes Open Application Programming Interface with Python to manipulate the model made in the Finite Element Method program SAP2000 to do different series of analyses. The method allows for the extraction of the result made in the numerical analysis and compares the results from the analytical analyses. The method changes the different parameters such as stiffness of hold-downs, vertical joint stiffness, and the number of panels in segmented walls. For multistory calculations Python is used for the analytical methods and hand modeling is done to make the SAP2000 models. Only certain cases are looked at in this scenario and therefore the comparison is done by hand. The results showed very good agreement between the two analytical models from Annex R and Arup and the numerical analyses in SAP2000 when looking at single-story behavior. For multistory behavior, Annex R generally had a larger displacement, and Arup generally had a lower displacement when Kv > Kh. One difference between these methods is their way of calculating the rotation of the walls and that may be the reason for the discrepancy between those methods. In addition, Arup uses the moment at the top of the wall and lateral shear force as its input, while Annex R only uses the moment at the bottom of the wall. This may also be a contributor to the difference in multistory deflection. More studies are needed to further validate the analytical methods for multistory calculations

Biochemical composition and antioxidant capacity of two sea cucumbers (Cucumaria frondosa and Parastichopus tremulus)

Sea cucumber is one of the most expensive seafood products in the world and dried sea cucumbers can be valued at more than USD 300 per kilogram for Astichopus japonicus, which is one of the highest priced species. Both market and consumption are centred in East- Asia. Sea cucumbers are sold in various forms, but the majority are distributed to the ’beche-de-mer’ market (gutted, boiled and dried body wall of sea cucumber). Norway has a long history as a seafood nation and has set new export records every year since 2012, but has no commercial harvest of sea cucumbers. They mostly occur as by-catch during shrimp trawling and crayfish fishing in the fjords. The Norwegian Government has set a goal to increase economic growth for new marine species. Out of the 31 species of sea cucumber along the Norwegian coast, Norwegian red sea cucumber (Parastichopus tremulus) and Orange-footed sea cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa) are considered to be the species of interest for the Asian market. Especially P. tremulus, as it belongs to the same family as preferred species A. japonicus. Based on market feedback, the estimated price potential for dried Norwegian sea cucumber is NOK 1000-2000 per kilogram. The analyses in this study were conducted on freeze-dried material and were recalculated to wet weight. The amount of fat, protein, water and ash was analysed, including analyses of amino acid composition and fatty acid composition. Analyses were also made of antioxidant capacity in the sea cucumber species. Significant differences were found for the proximate composition between the sea cucumber species in this study, for example, the fat content was 0:4% for P. tremulus and 2:0% for C. frondosa. The composition of fatty acids were similar for both species, with the highest content of PUFA followed by MUFA and SFA respectively. Both species had a favourable ratio of n-6:n-3 fatty acids, but only C. frondosa complied with the daily recommendation of EPA and DPA by consuming 100 grams of sea cucumber. The protein content was higher in C. frondosa than in P. tremulus with 6:6% and 3:2%, respectively. Both total amino acid content and essential amino acid content were significantly different between the species and significant differences were found for all amino acids except glycine, methionine and proline. In general, C. frondosa had a lower antioxidant capacity than P. tremulus demonstrated by both ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and oxygen radical antioxidant capacity (ORAC-) assay. In conclusion, P. tremulus and C. frondosa appear to have a beneficial biochemical composition for human consumption

Far out or alone in the crowd: Classification of selfevaluators in DEA

The units found strongly efficient in DEA studies on efficiency can be divided into self-evaluators and active peers, depending on whether the peers are referencing any inefficient units or not. The contribution of the paper starts with subdividing the selfevaluators into interior and exterior ones. The exterior self-evaluators are efficient “by default”; there is no firm evidence from observations for the classification. These units should therefore not been regarded as efficient, and be removed from the observations on efficiency scores when performing a two-stage analysis of explaining the distribution of the scores. A method for classifying self-evaluators based on the additive DEA model is developed. The application to municipal nursing- and home care services of Norway shows significant effects of removing exterior self-evaluators from the data when doing a two-stage analysis.Self-evaluator; interior and exterior self-evaluator; DEA; efficiency; referencing zone; nursing homes

Automatic detection of the mental foramen for estimating mandibular cortical width in dental panoramic radiographs

Screening tests are vital for detecting diseases, especially at early stages, where efforts can prevent further illness. For example, osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease characterized by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue, resulting in bone fragility and susceptibility to fracture. Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry is commonly used to diagnose osteoporosis since it evaluates bone mineral density. It is the most standard method for diagnosing osteoporosis, but it is not immediately available and is commonly used for research due to the high capital cost. Further, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry is not used for populational-based screening due to its suboptimal ability to predict hip fractures based on measurements. Therefore, it is recommended to adopt a case-finding strategy to identify individuals at risk who benefit from the dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry examination. Several indices have been developed to estimate bone quality in dental panoramic radiographs to identify individuals at risk of osteoporosis. In particular, the mandibular cortical width index. Studies suggest that dentists can measure the mandibular cortical width to identify individuals at risk and refer them for bone mineral density testing. However, this endeavor is time-consuming and inconsistent due to the bone's unclear borders and the challenge of determining the mental foramen's position, leading to varying measurements between clinicians. Therefore, the dentistry community is investigating how to automate this process effectively and accurately. In an attempt to address some of these problems, this thesis presents a method to assess the mandibular cortical width index automatically. Four different object detectors were analyzed to determine the mental foramen's position. EfficientDet showed the highest average precision (0.30). Therefore, it was combined with an iterative procedure to estimate mandibular cortical width. The results are promising

A top-down implementation of a dynamic management control system - as easy as it seemed? A case study of Sparebank 1 Nord Norge

Masteroppgave i bedriftsøkonomi - Nord universitet, 201

Detection, Identification and Size distribution of micro-plastic particles

Pollution by micro-plastic in ecosystems is one of the major problems we are facing now, especially in marine environment. Many studies are going on the detection of different micro substances that pollute our environment. Micro-plastics are among the more frequent pollutants of the sort in aquatic ecosystems. There have been some studies earlier on methodologies to detect and identify micro-plastic particles, in the order of one micrometer in environmental samples. Raman spectroscopy in combination with Raman spectral imaging is one of these methodologies. In theory, it is proven that the Raman spectral imaging can be used for the analysis of micro-plastic, but the applicability of this method has yet to be demonstrated. The aim of this project is to find the application of Raman microscopy in combination with Raman spectral imaging for the detection and identification of micro-plastic particles in ecosystems. In Raman spectroscopy, the sample often will produce unwanted fluorescence excited by the laser producing the Raman spectrum. Hence, more research is necessary to find the optimum laser wavelength for a compromise between suppressed fluorescence and low signal intensity for assessments of micro-plastics in environmental samples

Effect of carbonation on bulk resistivity of cement/carbon nanofiber composites

The conductivity of cement/carbon nanofiber (CNF) composite materials has previously been shown to be affected by parameters such as e.g. CNF content or water to cement (w/c) ratios, water saturation and temperature. However, whether and to what extent chemical processes like cement carbonation can affect the electrical conductivity of cement/CNF materials remains unexplored. To investigate this the resistivity changes upon carbonation of Portland G cement/CNF composites were followed for more than 4 months. An increase in resistivity was observed within the first weeks of carbonation followed by a plateau and a subsequent decrease after 4 months. The changes in resistivity were correlated with the progress of the carbonation front followed using X-ray tomography. The magnitude of the resistivity changes was found to be related to w/c ratio. Volumetric changes affecting the connectivity between the CNFs can explain the resistivity changes.publishedVersio