Attitudes towards the Covid-19 vaccine on Twitter in Norway

The goal of this thesis is to characterize the distribution of attitudes present on Norwegian Twitter concerning the Covid-19 vaccine by implementing methods for text analysis and social media network analysis. The first analysis performed was manually classifying a sample of the dataset into four categories: irrelevant, neutral, vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine hesitancy. This sample dataset was used to train a supervised machine learning model, using BoW and SVM, in order to classify the total dataset. Furthermore, two methods for topic modeling were implemented: Latent Dirichlet Allocation and Biterm. Lastly, three main social networks were created: a mentioning-network containing users mention or mentioning in the dataset, a retweet-network containing users retweeted/quoted or retweeting/quoting and a sentiment network only including users classified as vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine hesitancy in the sample network. The ten users with highest scores for in-degree, out-degree and betweenness from the retweet network were analyzed to determine sentiment. The main findings are that the methods for topic modeling did not fit expectations and gave limited findings concerning topics in the theme, but topic modeling illustrated the amount of noise in the dataset. The manual classification resulted in approximately 30% vaccine hesitancy, while the trained supervised machine learning model resulted in only 10% vaccine hesitancy. The mentioning-network illustrated that the debate evolved and then stabilized through the autumn/winter of 2020. The most mentioned users were positive towards the vaccine. There was a separation regarding sentiment for the most retweeted and users retweeting most. Users displaying vaccine hesitancy sentiment tended to retweet slightly more than users displaying anti-vaccine hesitancy sentiment, and there were signs of echo chambers.Masteroppgave i informasjonsvitenskapINFO390MASV-INF

Trends in extreme precipitation and the influence by meteorological parameters following the RCP8.5 scenario over 2 catchments in India

The Historical1 simulation (1960-2000) and the RCP8.5 scenario (2060-2100) from the NorESM are used to investigate trends in extreme precipitation, as well as the impact from vertical velocity, specific humidity, divergence and temperature on the precipitation formation. The calculations are performed over the Indian catchments Godavari and Krishna, and are restricted to the monsoon season (June-September). Precipitation from the APHRODITE observations are used to validate the NorESM precipitation, and the vertical velocity, specific humidity, divergence and temperature are validated against the NCEP1 reanalysis. The calculated trends in extreme precipitation show that both the yearly mean intensity and the yearly number of events will increase in the future, by approximately 30 % and 40 % (90 % over Krishna), respectively. Using linear regression analysis, the vertical velocity is found to be the most important factor in the formation of extreme precipitation with a correlation of 0.66 over Godavari and 0.47 over Krishna. Along with the specific humidity, most of the precipitation amounts can be accounted for by only including these two parameters, while the temperature is assumed to be less important. A simple model is also applied to estimate precipitation under the assumption that an air parcel follows the moist adiabatic lapse rate. This estimated precipitation is underestimated, and the extreme precipitation has its maximum values 20 mm below the NorESM extreme values. This shows the importance of including diabatic terms such as radiative cooling, which increases the condensation rate of an air parcel.Master i Meteorologi og oseanografiMAMN-GEOFGEOF39

Coeval Dancefutures in the Nordics: Dance-as-Art after the Decolonial Turn

This paper looks at the conceptual boundaries of dance-as-art in the Nordics and discusses strategies towards coeval dancefutures away from contemporaneity as a colonial idea(l) of time. The future of dance-as-art in the Nordics needs to be pluralised for the artform to be representative of the regional demography and, as such, stay relevant. This paper proposes two research strands that can contribute to this pluralisation. The first investigates how the conceptual boundaries of dance-as-art shape the leading dance education courses in the Nordics in terms of curricula and student mass, and how these could be expanded. The second strand focuses on diversifying the professional field through artistic research in choreography as a format of speculative future fiction that can suggest new, coeval dancefutures. Dance-as-art is frequently equated with the genre referred to as Contemporary Dance, a highly contradictory term. Rather than denoting all dance forms of the present, it commonly implies a specific set of formalized dance techniques and choreographic formats derived from Western-European and North American modern dance of the twentieth century. Contemporary Dance holds a somewhat exclusive access to formal dance education, art funding as well as networks of dissemination and distribution in the Nordics. Other dance forms are often met with a denial of coeavalness by the Contemporary Dance field, hence largely excluded from the realm of art. This paper argues for the creation of structures for a large variety of coeval dancefutures through revising professional and ethical standards in the Nordic dance field. Instead of continuing to claim the defining power of what constitutes dance-as-art, those of us who currently do have access to education, funding, and dissemination need to take responsibility for challenging and expanding these systems to create a diverse, cultural sustainability within dance-as-art

The included outlaw: A study of the seclusion in Amalie Skram's Professor Hieronimus

This article presents an analysis of Amalie Skram’s 1895 novel Professor Hieronimus, with an emphasis on the seclusion aspect of this patient narrative. In the article, I give a close reading of the novel where I make use of insights from theorists from different disciplines, such as Shoshana Felman, Erving Goffman and Giorgio Agamben. The intent of the analysis, is to show how Skram manages to expose the rigid social categories that characterize the total institution in which the novel’s protagonist, Else Kant, claims to be wrongfully lodged. Through a critical assessment of the institutional hierarchy, both social and medical, Amalie Skram makes her novel well-suited for the type of interdisciplinary readings that in the last couples of decades have expanded and become more accessible, thanks in part to the emergence of the field of literature and medicine. This development grants us the opportunity to revisit the works of the Scandinavian literary canon with a fresh theoretical perspective, where fiction bears the potential to articulate aspects of the patient experience that has yet to be encapsulated by theory. This article shows how this phenomenon includes studies that are not limited to this interdisciplinary field alone, meaning that a complex patient narrative such as Skram’s Professor Hieronimus is accessible to a broader theoretical material as well

Precipitation and hydrolysis of thorium in aqueous solution. V. Studies of the system: thorium Nitrate-Ammonium Oxalate

The precipitation of thorium from aqueous solution of thorium nitrate (1.25 mM) and ammonium oxalate (2.5—80 mM) was investigated at pH from 1 to 10. The following precipitates were identified with the brutto formula: Th(OH)ˇ4 and Th(Cˇ2Oˇ4)ˇ2 X 6 Hˇ2O (by means of Chemical analyses). The soluble thorium oxalato complex is formed between these two precipitates and contains 4 oxalate bound to thorium, with the simplest formula [Th(Cˇ2Oˇ4)ˇ4^4~] (as determined by coulometric titration). Using log Kˇ0 = 34.8 for the dissolution constant of thorium hydroxide in ammonium oxalate bˇ4 for thorium oxalate was obtained: 1.58 X 10^24

Developing spatial literacy through design of built environments: Art and crafts teachers’ strategies

Designing built environments demands the ability to make translations between your visions, visual representations of these, and the full-scale environment that is to be built. Pupils working on architectural tasks face these challenges of translation. How can the teacher come to their aid? Research on teaching strategies for the architectural studio has sought to articulate the entire design process, something that leads to overarching strategies but less hands-on, detailed descriptions. This article offers greater in-depth insight into the strategies teachers use to enhance pupils’ spatial literacy. In semi-structured interviews, six lower secondary school Art and crafts teachers described their teaching practice related to architectural tasks. From the teachers’ detailed moves, we have identified five teaching strategies and placed them in a visual model that demonstrates what role they may play in aiding pupils in the process of designing built environments. By articulating these strategies, we hope to contribute to the development of the vocabulary used in and about teaching design and architecture

Rights and responsibilities : intellectual disability in China : family, governmental and non-governmental care

According to the latest official survey (2005) there are 5.54 million people with intellectual disabilities in China. The large majority of these are still confined to the home, depending on their families for any needed assistance. One of the organisations that do provide services for people with intellectual disabilities is Huiling. Huiling is a Chinese non-governmental organisation currently operating in twelve cities all over the country. When founded in 1985, it was the first organisation offering services to people with intellectual disabilities in China. The two questions discussed are: First, who has responsibility for the welfare of people with intellectual disabilities in China? Second, what are the general and more specific strategies Huiling is pursuing in the organisation’s work with and for people with intellectual disabilities? The short answer to the first question is the family, yet there has been some changes in the last two decades that may indicate there is an increased awareness on disability-issues in China, and as a result the government is offering more services to people with intellectual disabilities, and is also opening up for more non-governmental organisations to do the same. The short answer to the second question is that Huiling, from starting out as provider of care in the form of covering the most basic needs, like eating and a place to sleep, has developed and now works towards the more ambitious goal that “persons with intellectual disabilities should have the same rights as others.” The organisation now works actively, and with several approaches, towards giving people with intellectual disabilities a more visible and independent role in society. Huiling can be said to have a double objective with its services: On one side it tries to influence society to accommodate people with intellectual disabilities. This is primarily achieved through the organisation’s stress on an active use of the public space, and through what may be called a “deinstitutionalised” service model. On the other side, it tries to influence and train people with intellectual disabilities, in order for them to better adapt to society. In this regard, the organization not only stress each individuals equal rights, but also the responsibility to do ones best, relating to work, relations to others and self development

Eficacia antibacteriana in vitro del extracto etanólico de plantago major al 50% sobre escherichia coli enteropatógena

Objetivo: Evaluar la Eficacia antibacteriana in vitro del extracto etanólico de Plantago major al 50% sobre Escherichia coli enteropatógena. Material y método: Estudio de tipo experimental y prospectivo. Se utilizó el extracto etanólico del Plantago major “Llantén mayor” y Escherichia coli enteropatógena. Se ensayó una concentración de extracto etanólico al 50%, para determinar la susceptibilidad antibacteriana por halo de inhibición, la concentración mínima inhibitoria (CMI), expresada en ug/ml. Para determinar la eficacia antimicrobiana se realizó el método de comparación con ciprofloxacino. Resultados: Observamos que el extracto etanólico de Plantago major al 50% presentó eficacia antibacteriana in vitro sobre Escherichia coli enteropatógena. En relación a los halos de inhibición y comparado con la escala de Duraffourd (ANEXO 6), Escherichia coli enteropatógena mostró ser sumamente sensible a ciprofloxacino (40,87 mm) y muy sensible frente al extracto etanólico de Plantago major al 50% (15,53 mm). No se encontró crecimiento de colonias con el extracto etanólico del Plantago major al 50%, ni con el control. Conclusión: Demostramos que el extracto etanólico de Plantago major (llantén) al 50% presenta eficacia antibacteriana in vitro sobre Escherichia coli enteropatógena.Objective: To evaluate the antibacterial efficacy in vitro of the ethanol extract of 50% Plantago major on enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. Material and method: Experimental and prospective type study. The ethanolic extract of the Plantago major "Llantén mayor" and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli were used. A 50% ethanolic extract concentration was tested to determine the antibacterial susceptibility by inhibition halo, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), expressed in ug / ml. To determine the antimicrobial efficacy, the comparison method with ciprofloxacin was performed. Results: We observed that the ethanol extract of Plantago major at 50% presented antibacterial efficacy in vitro on enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. In relation to the inhibition halos and compared with the Duraffourd scale (ANNEX 6), enteropathogenic Escherichia coli showed to be extremely sensitive to ciprofloxacin (40.87 mm) and very sensitive to the ethanol extract of 50% Plantago major (15, 53 mm). No growth of colonies was found with the ethanol extract of 50% Plantago major, nor with the control. Conclusion: We demonstrate that the ethanol extract of Plantago major (plantain) at 50% has antibacterial efficacy in vitro on enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. Palabras claves: Treatment Outcome, in vitro techniques, Plant extracts, Plantago major, Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli.Tesi