Recruitment of shrimp (Pandalus borealis) in the Barents Sea related to spawning stock and environment

The shrimp spawn in autumn, and the females carry their eggs as out roe until spring when the larvae hatch. Within a period of 2 months the shrimp larvae settle to the bottom. It has been claimed that the year-class strength probably is determined during the larval phase. Today's assessment and forecast of the shrimp stock productivity and potential fishing yields are weak. This is partly due to poor knowledge on population dynamics from hatching until the shrimp are caught in the fishery at the age of 3 or 4 years. We, therefore, here identify the most important abiotic and biotic factors that affect recruitment in addition to spawning stock biomass. Since 1995, a net attached to the underbelly of the survey trawl used at the annual cruise in the Barents Sea has caught juvenile shrimp. The abundance of settled shrimp larvae varies in time and space. The recruitment to the fishery has been quite stable with the exception of the 1996 year-class, which was observed as 1-year-olds but has not been registered since. The temporal pattern of the three youngest year-classes is studied in relation to abiotic factors such as sea temperature, ice index and North Atlantic Oscillation, as well as biotic factors such as spawning stock biomass and presence of copepods, euphausiids and predating cod. Recruitment indices and factors identified by the Spearmann correlation to be significantly correlated with recruitment were used as input in a principal component analysis (PCA) and a generalized additive model (GAM) was applied. Abundance of 1-year-old shrimp is positively correlated to spawning stock biomass the previous year and to temperature of the previous winter, and negatively correlated with the number of 1-year-old cod. Two-year-old shrimp show significant correlation with temperature, whereas there is a strong negative correlation with euphausiids. Three-year-old shrimp are significantly correlated with the number of 2-year-old shrimp the previous year but negatively correlated to temperature at sampling time. This is probably due to less overlap with the main predator cod when cold. Ricker functions indicate an increased density-dependent mortality with age. When predicting the recruitment of shrimp to the fishery, the spawning stock biomass, the abundance of cod and euphausiids, as well as the temperature should be included

Money laundering in the norwegian securities market: on the conditions of money laundering

Norwegian authorities often claim that the financial sector, and especially the securities market, is particularly vulnerable to activities of money laundering. Money laundering is a recurrent theme in the Norwegian media. Usually the media tend to present the forms and extent of money laundering in simple and rather vague terms. The numbers circulating in the media are based upon the assumption that all proceeds are laundered, an assumption which makes the black economy virtually equal to money laundering. Our starting point is that every discussion on the forms and extent of money laundering must be based upon concrete empirical analyses of the conditions of money laundering and on a precise definition of this concept. For this reasons it is relevant to analyse two conditions: who has the possibility and the need to launder money. Control is of major importance in this connection. Money laundering is a crime without a specific victim. Money laundering per se does not create new victims apart from those connected to the predicate offences. There is no prejudiced party that will have an interest to report the offence of money laundering to the police. Prevention and uncovering of laundering or rather, conveying suspicions thereof, are completely left to the regulating system of banks, financial institutions and all other entities obliged to report unusual or suspicious transactions. Furthermore, there are many economic sectors which offer opportunities for laundering: restaurants and pubs, real estate, or gambling. There is also concern about crime-money being laundered in the higher financial echelons: the securities markets. If that concern is correct we have to ask who really has the opportunity to launder money in the securities market, is this a way of laundering which is available to everybody

Survival of the Fittest? An empirical analysis of spillover effects following M&A announcements in the Norwegian stock market

This thesis aims to add to the difficult issue of announcement returns in rivals of acquisition targets. As existing M&A literature has predominantly focused on the acquirer, the target, and the merged entity, much remains to be known about the competitive effects of merger activity. Accordingly, our research may help challenge the widespread perception among regulators that being a merger outsider represents a competitive threat. We aim to add to the ongoing investigation of rival returns by examining announcement returns in rivals of Norwegian acquisition targets. Specifically, we investigate if several non-researched deal-specific and firmspecific variables can help explain sources of rival gains following acquisition announcements. Using a sample of 163 acquisition announcements and 987 rival firms in Norway between 1995- 2020, we find that, on average, rivals of Norwegian acquisition targets experience positive announcement returns. We hypothesize that in acquisitions where the acquirer and target are competitors, rivals will gain less than rivals where they are not. This is because horizontal transactions are more likely to negatively impact rival firms' future cash flows. Our findings confirm our hypothesis, as rivals, on average, gain less when the transaction is horizontal. Moreover, we find that rival returns increase when the acquirer is foreign and when the bid surprises the market. Both are likely due to positive signalling effects such as increased industry growth expectations or a greater probability that the rival will become a subsequent target. Furthermore, we investigate if concerns of increased competition can explain the lower announcement returns in horizontal acquisitions. Using market share and EBITDA margin as proxies for the competitive position of rivals, we test if they impact rival returns differently in horizontal and nonhorizontal acquisitions. We find that a higher market share correlates with higher announcement returns in horizontal acquisitions but not in the total sample. This coincides with our theory that investors prefer investing in rivals with solid competitive positions following intra-industry mergers but smaller targets after nonhorizontal transactions. However, the EBITDA margin does not impact the subsamples differently. Thus, we cannot conclude that competitive concerns drive down rival returns in horizontal acquisitions. Finally, the extant literature neglects the link between rival returns and ownership structure, despite corporate finance making strong predictions between target returns and ownership structure. We aim to add to this loophole in the literature by including four proxies capturing the ownership concentration of rival firms in our analysis. However, we find no evidence that ownership structure impacts rival announcement returns.nhhma

Not so different altogether : Putting Lean and sociotechnical design into practice in a process industry

publishedVersio

Orchestrated learning : creating a company-specific production system (XPS)

Author's accepted manuscript.This author accepted manuscript is deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) licence. This means that anyone may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, subject to full attribution. If you wish to use this manuscript for commercial purposes, please contact [email protected]: Companies create company-specific production systems (XPS) by tailoring generic concepts to fit their unique situation. However, little is known about how an XPS is created. This paper aims to provide insights into the creation of an XPS. Design/methodology/approach: A retrospective case study was conducted in a Norwegian multinational company over the period 1991–2006, using archival data and interviews. Findings: The development of the XPS did not start with a master plan. Instead, dispersed existing initiatives were built upon, along with an external search for novel ideas. Widespread experimentation took place, only later to be combined into a coherent approach. Once established, the XPS was disseminated internally and further refined. The CEO orchestrated the experimentation by facilitating the adaptation and combination of different concepts and by allocating resources to institutionalize the XPS in the global network. Originality/value: This paper is the first to study how an XPS is created. This study contributes with novel empirical insights, and it highlights the role of top management in facilitating experimentation and step-by-step organizational learning.acceptedVersio

Power Efficient Video Communication for Mini Helicopter

In this thesis, a video communication system for use in a mini helicopter is reviewed. The transmitter is located in a small battery powered mini helicopter, weighing about 15 grams, and the receiver is the helicopter's remote control. The operator controls the helicopter only based on the video feed sent from the helicopter, hence it is critical that the delay is kept to a minimum. Due to the helicopter's small size, the energy available is very limited, and both coding and transmission should be efficient and have low complexity. Since processing takes considerable less energy than transmission, compressing the video is an important factor to reduce the needed transmission rate. Video compression is done using three-dimensional DPCM with motion compensation. The prediction is done around the channel noise; hence, the system uses joint source channel coding. The analog system utilizes the feedback channel already needed for closed loop DPCM to transmit every sample in an iterative fashion which expands the bandwidth to reduce transmission power. The simulations shows that for an ideal feedback channel and with a Gaussian distributed input, the system acts according to OPTA.The system is simulated in different environments and components are added to the system to make the simulations more realistic and the system more robust. The sampling period of the system with a bandwidth expansion of three is 288 ns, and with a carrier frequency of 2.39 GHz, it is reasoned that this would give flat fading in an indoor office environment.When flat fading is introduced, channel estimation and diversity are implemented to reduce the degradation caused by fading, and by adding three-dimensional DPCM, the system becomes very robust against the fast channel fluctuations caused by multipath fading. Further, in fading the iterative system experiences graceful degradation, meaning the system does not break down below a certain power but has a steady decrease in performance for decreasing Ep/No. The system shows good results (received PSNR greater than 40 dB) for an average Ep/No of 3.5 dB in the receiver, averaged over all test inputs.Simulations shows a substantial gain in lowering of the variance of the transmitted signal by video compression. For high Ep/No, the transmission power can be reduced by 17 dB to yield the same result as with no compression

Spesialpedagogens diffuse rolle i den norske inkluderingsskole

Masteroppgave i tilpassa opplæring - 2020Sperret til 2023-05-1

Description and validation of a three-dimensional numerical model of the nordic and Barents Seas

As a part of the VEINS project, IMR carries out both a numerical model study of the seasonal and interannual variability of the flow through the Barents Sea and an observational programme at the Bear Island-Fugløya section. A numerical simulation with realistic wind forcing covering the period November 1996 to April 1998 has been performed, and the results of this simulation are compared to observations. The numerical ocean model results are generally in reasonable agreement with the observations, and the simulated transports across the Bear Island-Fugløya section are in accordance with previous knowledge. A weakness of the present version of the model is the lack of ice modelling, and the model performance in areas of ice formation and strong thermodynarnical forcing is unsatisfying. However, after a scheduled inclusion of an ice model, the model performance is expected to improve significantly in the Barents Sea

Transport of Atlantic Water in the western Barents Sea

Measurements from an array of current meter moorings along a section between Norway and Bear Island indicate that the seasonal mean of inflowing Atlantic Water extends further to the north during the summer than during the winter. To further investigate this seasonal divergence and the transport routes of Atlantic Water in the western Barents Sea, numerical experiments of tracer advection have been performed. The numerical results agree with the observations by showing a more northerly transport route of tracer water masses in the western Barents Sea during summer. The tracer water masses originate in the core of the Atlantic Water inflow at the Norway-Bear Island section, thus represents an indication of the transport routes of the Atlantic Water. The main reason for this change from summer to winter is probably the seasonal changes in the atmospheric fields