Eliminating Positions: Syntax and semantics of sentence modification

The dissertation presents a view of clause structure which essentially amounts to denying its existence. Phenomena like adverb placement, short verb movement and verb second, which form core cases in support of contemporary notions of CP-fields and IP-fields in the clause, are better handled in other ways which do not resort to the notion of arbitrary selectional sequences of (functional) syntactic heads. Constraints on the relative ordering with which sentential adverbs can co-occur are treated as a polarity phenomenon. Speaker-oriented adverbs are excluded from monotone decreasing environments, and hence, cannot be outscoped by adverbs like never . Apart from such requirements, adverb placement is argued to be free. The standard analysis of verb-second in terms of the selectional sequence C,I,V and headmovement of the finite verb to C with subsequent topicalization is shown to run into a series of problems which are taken to show that verb-second does not involve head movement, and that it should not be characterized in terms of a selectional sequence of heads. The proposed accound treats topicalization, verb movement and argument shift as surface reflexes of one movement operation to the first position. This is argued to explain a number of puzzling phenomena, including Holmberg s Generalization concerning the constraints on Object Shift in Scandinavian. Finally, (short) verb movement phenomena, as witnessed in italian, are analuzed as a scrambling phenomenon, driven by stress/focus and scope considerations. This explains the optionality of such verb movements and resolves a some paradoxical properties of the standard treatment by removing the need to postulate specific functional heads to attract the verbs

Antigen dose and humoral immune response correspond with protection for inactivated infectious pancreatic necrosis virus vaccines in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L)

An enduring challenge in the vaccinology of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) is the lack of correlation between neutralizing antibodies and protection against mortality. To better understand the immunological basis of vaccine protection, an efficacy trial including Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) vaccinated with a high antigen (HiAg) or low antigen (LoAg) dose vaccine was carried out in a cohabitation challenge model using the highly virulent Norwegian Sp strain NVI015. To pinpoint the immunological basis of vaccine protection, pathogenic mechanisms of IPNV were unraveled in control fish while obtaining feedback on mechanisms of protection in the vaccinated fish. During the incubation period, infection rates were highest in control fish, followed by the LoAg group with the lowest infections being in the HiAg group. Although both the liver and pancreas are target organs prone to tissue damage, infection in the liver was delayed until acute infection in most fish. A correlate of pathology determined as the cutoff threshold of viral copy numbers linked to tissue damage in target organs was estimated at ≥ 107.0, which corresponded with an increase in mortality. The kinetics of IFNα and Mx expression suggests that these genes can be used as biomarkers of IPNV infection progression. Mechanisms of vaccine protection involved reducing infection rates, preventing infection of the liver and reducing virus replication in target organs to levels below the correlate of pathology. Overall, the study shows that antigen dose corresponds with vaccine efficacy and that antibody levels can be used as a signature of protective immunity against pathological disease and mortality

Built Environment Accessibility and Disability as Predictors of Well-Being among Older Adults: A Norwegian Cross-Sectional Study

Knowledge about the influence environmental factors have on well-being is important to deliver policies supporting healthy ageing and sustainable health equity. An under-researched question is whether and how the built environment plays a role on well-being among older adults with disabilities. This study explores the relationship between built environment accessibility and disability on psychosocial well-being among older adults. Data were used from the Norwegian Counties Public Health Survey collected during February 2021 in Møre and Romsdal county (N = 8274; age = 60–97, mean = 68.6). General linear modelling was performed to examine the relationship and interaction between built environment accessibility (services, transportation, and nature) and disability on psychosocial well-being (quality of life, thriving, loneliness, and psychological distress). Higher levels of disability and poorer accessibility were each significantly related to lower psychosocial well-being across all variables (p < 0.001). Significant interaction effects were observed between disability and built environment accessibility on thriving (F(8, 5936) = 4.97, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.006) and psychological distress (F(8, 5957) = 3.09, p = 0.002, η2 = 0.004). No significant interaction effects were found for quality of life and loneliness. These findings indicate good built environment accessibility is associated with thriving and reduces psychological distress among older adults with disabilities. This study supports and extends previous findings on the importance of accessible and equipped environments for well-being and may aid policy makers when planning built environments to foster healthy ageing among this population group.publishedVersio

Nutritional risk, nutrition plan and risk of death in older health care service users with chronic diseases: A register-based cohort study

Background and aims Nutritional risk in older health care service users is a well-known challenge. Nutritional risk screening and individualised nutrition plans are common strategies for preventing and treating malnutrition. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether nutritional risk is associated with an increased risk of death and whether a nutrition plan to those at nutritional risk could reduce this potential risk of death in community health care service users over 65 years of age. Methods We conducted a register-based, prospective cohort study on older health care service users with chronic diseases. The study included persons ≥65 years of age receiving health care services from all municipalities in Norway from 2017 to 2018 (n = 45,656). Data on diagnoses, nutritional risk, nutrition plan and death were obtained from the Norwegian Registry for Primary Health Care (NRPHC) and the Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR). We used Cox regression models to estimate the associations of nutritional risk and use of a nutrition plan with the risk of death within three and six months. Analyses were performed within the following diagnostic strata: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), dementia, type 2 diabetes, stroke, osteoporosis and heart failure. The analyses were adjusted for age, gender, living situation and comorbidity. Results Of the 45,656 health care service users, 27,160 (60%) were at nutritional risk, and 4437 (10%) and 7262 (16%) died within three and six months, respectively. Among those at nutritional risk, 82% received a nutrition plan. Health care service users at nutritional risk had an increased risk of death compared to health care service users not at nutritional risk (13% vs 5% and 20% vs 10% at three and six months). Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for death within six months were 2.26 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.95, 2.61) for health care service users with COPD, 2.15 (1.93, 2.41) for those with heart failure, 2.37 (1.99, 2.84) for those with osteoporosis, 2.07 (1.80, 2.38) for those with stroke, 2.65 (2.30, 3.06) for those with type 2 diabetes and 1.94 (1.74, 2.16) for those with dementia. The adjusted HRs were larger for death within three months than death within six months for all diagnoses. Nutrition plans were not associated with the risk of death for health care service users at nutritional risk with COPD, dementia or stroke. For health care service users at nutritional risk with type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis or heart failure, nutrition plans were associated with an increased risk of death within both three and six months (adjusted HR 1.56 (95% CI: 1.10, 2.21) and 1.45 (1.11, 1.88) for type 2 diabetes; 2.20 (1.38, 3.51) and 1.71 (1.25, 2.36) for osteoporosis and 1.37 (1.05, 1.78) and 1.39 (1.13, 1.72) for heart failure). Conclusions Nutritional risk was associated with the risk of earlier death in older health care service users with common chronic diseases in the community. Nutrition plans were associated with a higher risk of death in some groups in our study. This may be because we could not control sufficiently for disease severity, the indication for providing a nutrition plan or the degree of implementation of nutrition plans in community health care.publishedVersio

Migration of Atlantic salmon post-smolts in a fjord with high infestation pressure of salmon lice

Understanding Atlantic salmon Salmo salar post-smolt coastal migration behaviour is crucial for predicting their exposure to ecological challenges such as the parasite salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis. We compared the migration of acoustically tagged, hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon post-smolts of wild and domesticated origins from the inner, middle and outer part of a 172 km long aquaculture-intensive fjord in western Norway. Additionally, we examined if the timing of the release or treatment with an anti-parasitic drug (prophylaxis) altered migratory behaviour. We found no significant differences in mean progression rates among the 3 release locations, among genetic groups or between treatments (range: 11.5−16.9 km d−1). However, individual variation in progression rates and migratory routes resulted in large differences in fjord residence times (range: 2−39 d). Ocean-current directions during and after release affected swimming speed, progression rate and route choice, and for most post-smolts, swimming speeds were much higher than their progression rates out of the fjord. The predicted lice loads based on lice intensity growth rates on smolts held in sentinel cages throughout the fjord indicated that individuals taking >10 d to exit the fjord in periods with high infestation pressure are likely to get lethally high sea-lice infestations. We conclude that, as migratory routes of S. salar post-smolts are hard to predict and migration times can stretch up to over a month, it is important to develop aquaculture management that keeps salmon lice levels down along all potential migration routes and during the full potential migratory period. Migratory behaviour · Salmo salar · Lepeophtheirus salmonis · Acoustic telemetry · Management · Fish farming · ParasitepublishedVersio

Behavioural precautions to avoid transmission of the COVID-19 virus – low educated groups are not always lagging behind

When COVID-19 started spreading in Norway in early 2020, the government, with strong support from the Directorate of Health and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, launched the most comprehensive health education effort ever seen in Norway. Information about spread of the virus and precautions that needed to be taken were communicated continuously, in all possible media channels and with heavy appeal over several months. There were no obvious and visible disagreements among the central level communicators. From a health education research perspective it is interesting to examine the compliance with the recommendations advocated and its relationship with demographic factors. Knowledge about differences in compliance across population segments and insights into processes determining compliance are important for our ability to cope with future pandemics and health crises.publishedVersio

Inferring Atlantic salmon post-smolt migration patterns using genetic assignment

Understanding migratory patterns is important for predicting and mitigating unwanted consequences of environmental change or anthropogenic challenges on vulnerable species. Wild Atlantic salmon undergo challenging migrations between freshwater and marine environments, and the numbers of salmon returning to their natal rivers to reproduce have declined over several decades. Mortality from sea lice linked to fish farms within their seaward migration routes is proposed as a contributing factor to these declines. Here, we used 31 microsatellite markers to establish a genetic baseline for the main rivers in the Hardangerfjord, western Norway. Mixed stock analysis was used to assign Atlantic salmon post-smolts caught in trawls in 2013–2017 back to regional reporting units. Analyses demonstrated that individuals originating from rivers located in the inner region of the fjord arrived at the outer fjord later than individuals from middle and outer fjord rivers. Therefore, as post-smolts originating from inner rivers also have to migrate longer distances to exit the fjord, these data suggest that inner fjord populations are more likely to be at risk of mortality through aquaculture-produced sea lice, and other natural factors such as predation, than middle or outer fjord populations with earlier exit times and shorter journeys. These results will be used to calibrate models estimating mortality from sea lice on wild salmon for the regulation of the Norwegian aquaculture industry.publishedVersio