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Precise ischemic lesion segmentation plays an essential role in improving diagnosis and treatment planning for ischemic stroke, one of the prevalent diseases with the highest mortality rate. While numerous deep neural network approaches have recently been proposed to tackle this problem, these methods require large amounts of annotated regions during training, which can be impractical in the medical domain where annotated data is scarce. As a remedy, we present a prototypical few-shot segmentation approach for ischemic lesion segmentation using only one annotated sample during training. The proposed approach leverages a novel self-supervised training mechanism that is tailored to the task of ischemic stroke lesion segmentation by exploiting color-coded parametric maps generated from Computed Tomography Perfusion scans. We illustrate the benefits of our proposed training mechanism, leading to considerable improvements in performance in the few-shot setting. Given a single annotated patient, an average Dice score of 0.58 is achieved for the segmentation of ischemic lesions.

Baggrund: Den tiltagende udvikling af antibiotikaresistens overfor traditionelt anvendt antibiotika er blevet et stigende problem globalt, og grundet dette er nye behandlingsformer i søgelyset. Antimikrobielle peptider kan være en mulig løsning på denne problematik, og optimering af disse peptider er allerede ved at blive undersøgt. Det kan være nødvendigt at tage andre fremgangsmåder i brug for at stabilisere peptidernes strukturer, hvis de skal bruges som fremtidige terapeutiske midler.Formål: Formålet med dette speciale er derfor at undersøge, hvorvidt den antimikrobielle aktivitet af derivater, der er baseret på den alfa-helikale region af Tenecin 1 mod Staphylococcus aureus, vil blive forbedret efter tilsætningen af sølv.Metode: Undersøgelserne er baseret på analyse af nye data fra HPLC, LC-MS, CD, minimum inhiberende koncentration, biofilm-og hæmolyse forsøg.Resultater: CD-spektrene viste forskellige resultater, hvor resultaterne fra peptid AC m. Ag+, 4c+ m. Ag+ og 4c+n+ m. Ag+ viste et stort potentiale i forhold til at adoptere en alfa-helikal struktur. MIC-værdierne for alle peptider uden tilsat Ag+ viste intet antimikrobielt potentiale, hvorimod alle peptider med tilsat Ag+ viste lovende resultater. Derudover viste peptiderne ingen signifikant aktivitet overfor Staphylococcus aureus biofilm, og ligeledes viste de ingen toksicitet mod humane røde blodceller.Konklusion: Flere kriterier skal imødekommes før antimikrobielle peptider kan anvendes som terapeutiske lægemidler. Visse peptider (AC, 4c+ og 4c+n+) undersøgt i denne afhandling udviste potentiale i form af deres strukturelle ændringer efter tilsætning af Ag+, og samtidig havde de en lav MIC-værdi. Det er dog uvist, i hvilket omfang de frie Ag+-ioner har påvirket resultaterne, og derfor er flere dybdegående eksperimenter nødvendige at udføre. Det kan dog konkluderes, at binding af Ag+-ioner forekommer hos andre peptider end AC, og at dette udviser potentiale i forhold til udvikling af fremtidige lægemidler. Derudover kan det konkluderes, at der er potentiale for peptiderne med ekstra ladninger (4c+ og 4c+n+).Nøgleord: AMP, antibakteriel aktivitet, antimikrobielle peptider, behandling, biofilm, CD, fremtidig lægemiddel, HPLC, hæmolyse, LC-MS, MIC, struktur, Tenecin 1, Tenecin 1 derivater., Background: The rapid development of antibiotic resistance towards traditionally used antibiotics has become an increasing problem globally and therefore novel treatment options are currently in the spotlight. Antimicrobial peptides could be a possible solution to this problem, and the optimisation of these peptides is already being investigated. However, other methods may be needed to stabilise their structures before they can be used as therapeutics.Objective: The objective of this thesis is to investigate whether the antimicrobial activity of the derivatives based on the alpha-helical region within Tenecin 1 against Staphylococcus aureus will improve following the addition of silver.Method: The investigation is based on the analysis of newly provided data from HPLC, LC-MS, CD, minimum inhibitory concentration, biofilm, and haemolysis assays.Results: The CD-spectra showed a variation of results. Based on the CD results, peptide AC w. Ag+, 4c+ w. Ag+ and 4c+n+ w. Ag+ showed great potential in terms of adopting an alpha-helical structure. The MIC-values for all peptides without Ag+ showed no antimicrobial potential, whilst all peptides with Ag+ added showed promising results. The peptides showed no significant activity against Staphylococcus aureus biofilms, and likewise, they did not show toxicity towards human red blood cells.Conclusion: Several criteria must be met before the peptides can be used as therapeutic drugs. Certain peptides (AC, 4c+ and 4c+n+) investigated in this thesis exhibit potential in terms of their structural changes following the addition of Ag+, and likewise, they had a low MIC-value. However, it is unbeknown to which extent free Ag+-ions have affected the results, and therefore more in-depth experiments are necessary. However, it can be concluded that binding of Ag+-ions occurs for other peptides besides AC, and that this exhibits potential, especially for the peptides with additional charges (4c+ and 4c+n+).Key words: AMP, antibacterial activity, antimicrobial peptide, biofilm, CD, haemolysis, HPLC, LC- MS, MIC, potential drug, structure, Tenecin 1, Tenecin 1 derivatives, treatment.

The expeditious progress of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSC) for therapeutic intervention calls for means to compare differences in potency of cell products. The differences may be attributed to innumerable sources including tissue origin, production methods, or even between batches. While the immunomodulatory potential of MSC is recognized and well-documented by an expansive body of evidence, the methodologies and findings vary markedly. In this study, we utilized flowcytometric analysis of lymphocyte proliferation based on cryopreserved peripheral blood mononuclear cells for quantification of the inhibitory effect of MSC. Technical aspects of fluorescent staining and cryopreservation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells were evaluated to obtain optimal results and increase feasibility. A range of common specific and unspecific mitogens was titrated to identify the conditions, in which the effects of Adipose tissue-derived Stromal Cells (ASC; a type of MSC) were most pronounced. Specific stimulation by antibody-mediated activation of CD3 and CD28 via TransAct and Dynabeads lead to substantial proliferation of lymphocytes, which was inhibited by ASC. These results were closely mirrored when applying unspecific stimulation in form of phytohemagglutinin (PHA), but not concanavalin A or pokeweed mitogen. The mixed lymphocyte reaction is a common assay which exploits alloreactivity between donors. While arguably more physiologic, the output of the assay often varies substantially, and the extent of proliferation is limited since the frequency of alloreactive cells is low, as opposed to the mitogens. To heighten the proliferative response and robustness, combinations of 2-5 donors were tested. Maximum proliferation was observed when combining 4 or more donors, which was efficiently suppressed by ASC. Several desirable and unfavorable traits can be attributed to the tested stimuli in the form of keywords. The importance of these traits should be scored on a laboratory-level to identify the ideal mitogen. In our case the ranking listed PHA as the most suited candidate. Developing robust assays is no trivial feat. By disclosing the full methodological framework in the present study, we hope to aid others in establishing functional metrics on the road to potency assays.

The need for interpretable models has fostered the development of self-explainable classifiers. Prior approaches are either based on multi-stage optimization schemes, impacting the predictive performance of the model, or produce explanations that are not transparent, trustworthy or do not capture the diversity of the data. To address these shortcomings, we propose ProtoVAE, a variational autoencoder-based framework that learns class-specific prototypes in an end-to-end manner and enforces trustworthiness and diversity by regularizing the representation space and introducing an orthonormality constraint. Finally, the model is designed to be transparent by directly incorporating the prototypes into the decision process. Extensive comparisons with previous self-explainable approaches demonstrate the superiority of ProtoVAE, highlighting its ability to generate trustworthy and diverse explanations, while not degrading predictive performance.

Current machine learning models have shown high efficiency in solving a wide variety of real-world problems. However, their black box character poses a major challenge for the comprehensibility and traceability of the underlying decision-making strategies. As a remedy, numerous post-hoc and self-explanation methods have been developed to interpret the models’ behavior. Those methods, in addition, enable the identification of artifacts that, inherent in the training data, can be erroneously learned by the model as class-relevant features. In this work, we provide a detailed case study of a representative for the state-of-the-art self-explaining network, ProtoPNet, in the presence of a spectrum of artifacts. Accordingly, we identify the main drawbacks of ProtoPNet, especially its coarse and spatially imprecise explanations. We address these limitations by introducing Prototypical Relevance Propagation (PRP), a novel method for generating more precise model-aware explanations. Furthermore, in order to obtain a clean, artifact-free dataset, we propose to use multi-view clustering strategies for segregating the artifact images using the PRP explanations, thereby suppressing the potential artifact learning in the models.

The recent trend of integrating multi-source Chest X-Ray datasets to improve automated diagnostics raises concerns that models learn to exploit source-specific correlations to improve performance by recognizing the source domain of an image rather than the medical pathology. We hypothesize that this effect is enforced by and leverages label-imbalance across the source domains, i.e, prevalence of a disease corresponding to a source. Therefore, in this work, we perform a thorough study of the effect of label-imbalance in multi-source training for the task of pneumonia detection on the widely used ChestX-ray14 and CheXpert datasets. The results highlight and stress the importance of using more faithful and transparent self-explaining models for automated diagnosis, thus enabling the inherent detection of spurious learning. They further illustrate that this undesirable effect of learning spurious correlations can be reduced considerably when ensuring label-balanced source domain datasets., Comment: To appear in ISBI 2022

I denne studien ble den bentiske algevegetasjonen i Indre Oslofjord undersøkt. Hensikten var å undersøke hvordan vegetasjonen hadde endret seg siden Jon Fonnlid Larsens (1995) undersøkelser fra 1993 og 1994, og finne ut hva som var årsaken til eventuelle endringer. Det ble gjort undersøkelser på fire stasjoner i mai og august 2021, der stasjonene var valgt ut fra Larsens (1995) 31 stasjoner. Resultatene fra undersøkelsen ble sammenlignet med Larsens (1995) resultater. Totalt ble det funnet 51 algearter i 2021 og 53 arter på de samme stasjonene i 1993/94. Fordelingen av andel arter i de tre gruppene rød-, brun- og grønnalger hadde endret seg noe, med en liten økning i rød- og brunalgene og noe nedgang i grønnalgene. Det var likevel store mengder grønnalger på stasjonene, spesielt på stasjonen Huk. Epifytt- og lurvemengden hadde trolig gått opp siden 1993/94, og algesamfunnet var muligens skiftet mot et lurvesamfunn. Det var også tilkomst av nye fremmede arter som japansk drivtang (Sargassum muticum) og strømgarn (Dasya pedicellata). Blæretang (Fucus vesiculosus) og sagtang (Fucus serratus) hadde økt sin utbredelse til to stasjoner siden 1993/94, mens spiraltang (Fucus spiralis) var fraværende på de samme stasjonene i 2021. På grunn av Oslofjordens lange forurensningshistorie, og ettersom bentiske alger er gode indikatorer på vannkvaliteten i grunne kystområder, ble endringene i algevegetasjonen diskutert i lys av eutrofisituasjonen i fjorden. De ble også diskutert med andre påvirkende abiotiske og biotiske faktorer. Selv om endringene i tangsamfunnet kan skyldes eutrofinedgang, er det flere aspekter (endringer i mengde lurv, epifytter og grønnalger) som kan forklares av det motsatte. Det kan derfor se ut som eutrofieringssituasjonen har blitt noe forverret på stasjonene. Andre årsaker til endringene i artssammensetning kan være økt temperatur og minkende antall beitende snegl. Økt utbredelse av tangartene kan også forklares av lite isdekke, og fraværet kan forklares av mangel på substrat og tørke. Selv om det er vanskelig å konkludere med hva som var årsakene til endringene, er det likevel sikkert at det har skjedd endringer siden 1993/94, som er påvirket av flere faktorer. Det skal også sies at denne undersøkelsen er ganske liten og ble gjennomført på kun to dager. Større undersøkelser bør utføres over tid for å utelukke år-til-år-variasjoner og for å få et mer omfattende bilde av algevegetasjonen i Indre Oslofjord. Forhåpentligvis kan denne undersøkelsen gi et innblikk i Indre Oslofjords algevegetasjon og faktorene som påvirker den, og være til nytte i utformingen av nye undersøkelser.

The majority of existing methods for machine learning-based medical image segmentation are supervised models that require large amounts of fully annotated images. These types of datasets are typically not available in the medical domain and are difficult and expensive to generate. A wide-spread use of machine learning based models for medical image segmentation therefore requires the development of data-efficient algorithms that only require limited supervision. To address these challenges, this thesis presents new machine learning methodology for unsupervised lung tumor segmentation and few-shot learning based organ segmentation. When working in the limited supervision paradigm, exploiting the available information in the data is key. The methodology developed in this thesis leverages automatically generated supervoxels in various ways to exploit the structural information in the images. The work on unsupervised tumor segmentation explores the opportunity of performing clustering on a population-level in order to provide the algorithm with as much information as possible. To facilitate this population-level across-patient clustering, supervoxel representations are exploited to reduce the number of samples, and thereby the computational cost. In the work on few-shot learning-based organ segmentation, supervoxels are used to generate pseudo-labels for self-supervised training. Further, to obtain a model that is robust to the typically large and inhomogeneous background class, a novel anomaly detection-inspired classifier is proposed to ease the modelling of the background. To encourage the resulting segmentation maps to respect edges defined in the input space, a supervoxel-informed feature refinement module is proposed to refine the embedded feature vectors during inference. Finally, to improve trustworthiness, an architecture-agnostic mechanism to estimate model uncertainty in few-shot segmentation is developed. Results demonstrate that supervoxels are versatile tools for leveraging structural information in medical data when training segmentation models with limited supervision.

De globale temperaturøkningene forårsaker endringer i det hydrologiske kretsløpet. I Norge har vi observert økende temperaturer og nedbør siden 1900-tallet. Selv om det er knyttet usikkerhet til hvor stort omfanget av klimaendringene vil bli, kommer den globale temperaturen til å øke gjennom det 21. århundret. Kunnskap om hvordan disse endringene globalt vil påvirke klimaet lokalt er nødvendig, slik at vi kan tilpasse oss et klima i endring, ved å planlegge, utøve tiltak og minimere skadepotensiale. I denne oppgaven har det blitt foretatt en vurdering av hvordan fremtidige endringer i klimatiske forhold vil påvirke vannkvaliteten i innsjøen Glitre. Glitre er drikkevannskilde til rundt 130 000 mennesker i Drammensregionen. Kvaliteten på råvannet i innsjøen er avgjørende for effekten av videre vannbehandling og endelig drikkevannskvalitet. Vurderingene av hvordan klimaendringene vil påvirke vannkvaliteten i Glitre ble basert på rapporten «Klima i Norge 2100», der det har blitt utarbeidet klimaprognoser for norske regioner frem mot år 2100, basert på IPPC sine «Representative Concentration Pathways» (RCPer). RCPer representerer ulike scenarioer for utvikling av globale klimagassutslipp. Framskrivinger basert på RCP4.5 og RCP8.5 for periodene 2031-2060 og 2071-2100 ble lagt til grunn. Det ble fokusert på to hovedområder innenfor vannkvalitet. Mikrobiologisk vannkvalitet og farge på vannet. For vurdering av mikrobiologisk vannkvalitet ble det foretatt et kvalitativt studie, med fokus på mulige endringer i temperatur- og nedbørsmønstre, og hvilke konsekvenser dette vil kunne ha på tilførsel av mikrobiologiske forurensninger til innsjøen. Samt forhold som vil kunne påvirke beskyttelsen av vanninntaket. For å studere utviklingen i farge ble det konstruert en modell basert på årlig nedbør og temperatur i innsjøens nedslagsfelt. Modellen ble benyttet til å predikere fargetall for perioden 2031-2060 og 2071-2100, basert på framskrevne endringer i årlig nedbør og temperatur for Buskerud. The global temperature increase is causing changes to the global hydrological cycle. Since the 19th century Norway has been experiencing increased temperature and precipitation. Even though there are uncertainties related to how big the impact of global climate change is going to become, there is no doubt that the global temperature will keep increasing throughout the 21st century. Knowledge of how these global changes will affect the climate on a local scale is important for planning, adaption, and minimizing the potential risks of a changing climate. The main focus of this paper is assessing the impact future changes in climatic conditions might have on the water quality in lake Glitre. Glitre is a drinking water source supplying about 130 000 people in the region of Drammen in the South-East of Norway. The raw water quality in the lake is decisive for the effect of further water treatment, and for the final drinking water quality. The assessment was based on the predictions described in the report “Klima i Norge 2100”. The report describes predictions of future climate conditions, in different regions of Norway throughout the century. The predictions are based on IPCCs “Representative Concentration Pathways” (RCPs). The RCPs represent different scenarios of global climate-gas emissions. Predictions based on RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, for the periods 2031-2060 and 2071-2100, was used. The paper focuses on to main aspects concerning drinking water quality. Microbial water quality, and the colour of the water. The assessment of the microbial water quality is based on a qualitative study, of changes in precipitation- and temperature patterns. How this will affect conditions, that might have an impact on microbial contamination of the lake, and conditions concerning how well the lake water intake is protected from these contaminants. Predicting future colour of the lake was done by constructing a model based on lake specific annual mean precipitation and temperature. The model was then used to predict how the colour of the water would develop in the years 2031-2060 and 2071-2100, based on predicted changes in mean annual temperature and precipitation for the study area. M-VM

Additional file 3 Adapted as original from the publication: Thestrup Hansen, S., Kjerholt, M., Friis Christensen, S., Brodersen, J., & Hølge-Hazelton, B. (2020). Nurses’ Experiences When Introducing Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in an Outpatient Clinic: An Interpretive Description Study. Cancer Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1097/NCC.0000000000000808

Additional file 2 Adapted as original from the publication: Thestrup Hansen, S., Kjerholt, M., Friis Christensen, S., Brodersen, J., & Hølge-Hazelton, B. (2020). “I Am Sure That They Use My PROM Data for Something Important.” A Qualitative Study About Patients’ Experiences From a Hematologic Outpatient Clinic. Cancer nursing, 43(5), E273–E282.

Limited research has been done on adult immigrants with disabilities in Canada. Adopting a mixed-methodology, the thesis explores the intersection of immigrant status and disability from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective. Previous research on immigrants with disabilities has primarily focused on parents with disabled children. Little is therefore known about the lived experiences of adult immigrant with disabilities and how these experiences are negotiated and can change across time and place. The quantitative section of the thesis utilized the Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) from 2006 to examine the receipt of and need for services based on gender, immigrant status, income, education, and age. Quantitative results identified that immigrant women as receiving the least amount of services compared to any group, potentially resulting in them being more vulnerable compared to any other group. The qualitative part of the research consisted of two studies. First, community leaders and disability activists from Middle Eastern and South Asian communities were interviewed to examine the understandings of disability within their communities. Building on key informant findings, the second part explored the lived experiences of physically disabled adult immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia through in-depth interviews. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative results it was identified that place, gender, culture, and policy significantly influence the lived experiences of immigrants with disabilities. Overall, the research highlighted the need for further research on larger service organizations and their provision of services to immigrants. The findings also identified the need for a greater understanding and provision of culturally appropriate services. Thesis Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Limited research has been done on adult immigrants with disabilities in Canada. Adopting a mixed-methodology, the thesis explores the intersection of immigrant status and disability from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective. Quantitative methods examine and compare the receipt and need of support services between immigrants and the Canadian born population with disabilities. Building on the quantitative findings, the qualitative research adopts a feminist disability theory and an intersectional framework to explore the lived experience of immigrants with physical disabilities from the Middle East and South Asia, living in Canada. The qualitative chapter examines how different categories, for example disability, gender culture, religion, and immigrant status can intersect to create unique lived experiences that changes over time and place. The quantitative and qualitative findings were evaluated to further the knowledge of immigrants with disabilities and future research directions are suggested.

Additional file 1: Overview of the multimethod study.

Additional file 2: Additional information on the PROMs implemented.

Since 1999, the Pine Wood Nematode (PWN) has spread, infected and damaged growing areas of pine forest in Portugal. The pest is subject to strict quarantine measures, that require forest owners to register, fell and dispose of infected trees. As remote sensing from satellites provides repetitive and consistent data sets with high temporal resolution and large spatial coverage, a surveillance based on satellite images would be advantageous. Moreover, since multispectral images from the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Sentinel-2 mission are freely available, a monitoring based on these data is preferrable. The most commonly used tool for monitoring vegetation by remote sensing is the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). However, the infection by PWN may appear more prominent in other combinations of channels, and by introducing machine learning techniques, allowing for the exploration of changes in all spectral bands, one may end up with a better discrimination. This thesis is intended as a feasibility study that aims to explore the viability of an operational PWN detection system based on Sentinel-2 data. To this purpose, traditional feature extraction algorithms, including Fisher's linear discriminant analysis (FLDA), and sparse linear discriminant analysis (SLDA) are examined, as well as some spectral unmixing algorithms, including iterated constrained energy minimization (ICEM), mixture-tuned matched filtering (MTMF) and the 2D-Corr-NLS algorithm. The methods are examined with respect to the impact of spatial and spectral resolution, and the performances are measured and compared using a constant miss rate (CMR) detector. Multisource data with different spatial and spectral resolution are used in experiments to investigate how these resolutions constrain successful PWN detection. The results show that the spatial resolution of the Sentinel-2 data is too low for the selected methods to be useful for PWN detection, whilst it remains an open question whether the spectral resolution of Sentinel-2 is a limitation.

The research group Foodscapes Innovation and Networks has addressed integrated food studies issues in re-search and education since 2010. Based on experiences in the group, this paper aims at discussing the chal-lenges, learning outcomes and potentials for pushing an integrated thinking into research and education. It also addresses the challenges in integration when the methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks chosen are ontologically and epistemologically different. A discussion of the limitations of integration is thus also part of the paper.The conceptual framework of ontonorms (Mol, 2013) is suggested as a common point of departure for a further development of integration. This is suggested relevant due to the fact that it forces different traditions to reflect their own value-related basis and discuss implications of this approach in a broader sense. The common values have been identified to be sustainability, healthy and better food, food systems change and enhanced food experiences. An approach that qualifies the discussions of ontological differences is suggested by Mol (2013) with the term ontonorms emphasizing that all ontological assumptions are embedded in scientific norms (what is good or bad science) and traditions (how do we see the world) rather than being based in the essentialist static and objective worldview of ontology in singular. Thus, what is considered ‘good’ and ‘proper’ obviously differs within different disciplines, but is often based on implicit normativities that can make it difficult to address the differences openly and constructively.

The proceedings contain 36 papers. The topics discussed include: using patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) in cancer care; validation of the long-term conditions questionnaire (LTCQ) in a diverse sample of health and social care users in England; the national institutes of health patient-reported outcomes measurement information system (PROMIS): a view from the UK; constructing and validating the short recovering quality of life (ReQoL) measure for use in a mental health population; developing preference based measures for diabetes for calculating QALYs: DHP-3D and DHP-5D; development of a novel patient reported outcome measure for patients with haematological malignancy: a qualitative study; and examining the relevance of PROMs to patients: a review of qualitative data capturing which HRQoL domains are important to patients.

Drawing on a recent doctoral research project that examined the everyday life perspectives during kindergarten mealtime, this paper discusses the methodological issues related to the concepts of child and adult perspectives during mealtime, and to the children’s participation in research. Through the paper, we take part in a critical discussion of the dichotomization of child and adult perspectives (Lee, 2001; Spyrou, 2011; Wyness, 2013). Instead, we suggest to approach perspectives as something that is created through situated interactions between human and nonhuman elements. We argue that perspectives could be studied as constructed from a net of human, material, and discursive elements. In doing so, we also question children’s participation in research as a source for production of knowledge that is more authentic than that produced by adults (Gallacher & Gallagher, 2008; Lomax, 2012). Hence, the kindergarten mealtime will provide the arena for discussing methodological issues that are relevant beyond studies on food and meals.International Research in Early Childhood Education, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 33–48

This thesis addresses critiques of neuroscientific claims about innate and hardwired differences in male and female brains and investigates their normative implications. Neuroscience enjoys great authority when it comes to explaining human behaviour, not least due to its seeming objectivity. This thesis scrutinizes the methodology and implicit assumptions that leads to the brainsex theory. It problematizes its use of binary distinctions, as they function as both predictor and result in a way that obstructs paths to greater gender equality. By deploying poststructuralist feminist epistemology and concepts drawn from neuroscientific research to fashion an ethical response, I argue that the view - and language of differences, both neuronal and behavioral - can be dramatically transformed, making visible differences that have been obscured within a frame of comprehension that allows only two complementary - and ontologically different - sexes. In my conjoinment of feminist theory with critiques from a variety of fields, including neuropsychology and biology, I investigate the potential of cross-disciplinary cooperation on the topic of sex/gender differences and human behaviour that might lead research to a different place and enable greater scope for culturally intelligible diversity.

This file contains the following: Table S1: a table with FISH data of TOP1/CEN-20 and TOP2A/CEN-17, TOP1/CEN-20 analyses of 52 human breast cancer cell lines. Figure S1: correlations between TOP1 copynumbers from FISH and SNP analyses, and correlation between TOP1 copy numbers and gene expression, presentation of 9 breast cancer cell lines with regards to TOP1 copy numbers, ER and HER2 status and the sensitivity to SN-38. Figure S2: consistency between Top1 protein levels and TOP1 copy numbers, Top1 enzymatic activity in 9 breast cancer cell lines and the influence of SN-38 on Top1 enzymatic activity, dose–response of 9 breast cancer cell lines to SN-38 and IC50 values. Figure S3: MTT data demonstration that the the acquired and de novo SN-38 resitant cell lines are resistant when grown in the concentration of SN-38 at which the the development of resistance was terminated. Figure S4: Growth curves of the SN-38 resistant cell lines in comparison to their parental and DMSO controls. Figure S5: Cell cycle distribution of resistant cell lines in comparison to their respective DMSO controls. Figure S6: Sensitivity to SN-38 in docetaxel resistant breast cancer cell lines. Figure S7: Global expression analysis showing sample clustering, the number of differentially expressed genes between resistant and wild type DMSO control cell lines and Enrichment of Gene Ontology Molecular Function. Figure S8: Western blotting of Top2a in SN-38 resistant cell lines in comparison to their respective controls. Figure S9: Nannocapillary analysis of Top1 and β-actin in SN-38 resistant MCF7 and MCF7 control cells. Figure S10: Western blotting of ID3 in SN-38 resistant MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells and their controls cells. (PDF 757 kb)

The Scandinavian brown bear population was persecuted in the last half of the 1800s and almost went extinct. They got protected in Sweden in 1927 and in Norway in 1973, and have since reached a level that can be hunted. The bears choose areas with as little human activity as possible, but dangerous situations may occur especially during hunting. There have been 32 incidents of bear attacks on humans since 1977, and it is mainly hunters that have been injured by bears. Many of these situations involved hunting where a dog was chasing and/or baying the bear. This has made the public question if it is dangerous to bring dogs with when hiking. In this study I have tried to answer this question and my hypothesis was that bears will have a different reaction to being startled by humans with dogs compared to being startled by humans with no dogs. That is that the bears will have a stronger reaction to being startled by humans with dogs. My first prediction was that a bear will move away from a human with a loose dog at a longer distance than a human with no dog, and my second prediction was that the bears will be moving further away from the initial site after being startled by humans with dogs compared to being startled by humans with no dogs. The study was conducted on the southernmost bear population in Scandinavia (Dalarna and Gävleborg Län), using a total of 112 approaches, of which 71 was humans with no dogs and 41 was humans with dogs. I found that my first prediction was true – that bears moved away from humans with dogs at a further distance than humans with no dogs. This may be because the dog indicates human presence and gives the bear a chance to move away before even seeing the human. It may also be because dogs are usually in hunting situation and the bear moving away from the dog may be necessary for its survival. I also found that my second prediction of the bear moving further away from initial site when approached by humans with dogs compared to humans with no dogs was true. A dog will be able to follow a bear further than a human will, and it may therefore be necessary to move further from a dog than a human to avoid being discovered again. In conclusion: based on my findings my answer to the public concerns about bringing their dogs on hikes in areas with bears is that loose dogs do not elevate the danger for getting into conflicts with bears. M-NF

En vanlig arbeidspraksis i norskfaget er analyse og tolkning av dikt. I analyse- og tolkningsarbeidet er det ikke uvanlig at elever benytter seg av ulike tolkningsverktøy eller støtteark, ofte gitt i form av analyseskjemaer. Skjemaene kan ses på som oppskrifter som tydeliggjør en forventet struktur i analysen og hva den skal inneholde, samtidig viser skjemaene sentrale fagbegreper som bør være med i analysen. På den måten skal analyseskjemaer fungere som støtte for eleven og gjøre tolkningsarbeidet lettere. Men tendensen i analyse og tolkning som skolepraksis har utviklet seg til å bli temmelig mekaniske øvelser med fokus på tekstanalysen etter analyseskjemaer. Mitt mål i denne avhandlingen har vært å få svar på denne problemstillingen: Hvordan kan elevers perspektiver slippe til i analyse og tolkning av dikt etter analyseskjemaer? For å besvare problemstillingen min stilte jeg også tre forskningsspørsmål som mer spesifikt uttrykker hva jeg ser etter og ønsker svar på: 1) Hvilken plass har analyseskjemaer i lyrikkundervisningen, 2) Hva gjør lærerne konkret for å åpne for og slippe til elevers perspektiver i analyse og tolkning, og 3) Hvorfor bruker lærerne analyseskjemaer i lyrikkundervisningen. Undersøkelsene mine ble foretatt i to studiespesialiserende klasser på Vg1. Utvalget bestod av to lærere fra samme skole og lærerne benyttet seg av det samme analyseskjemaet i sin undervisning. Slik fikk jeg en mulighet til å sammenligne og kontrastere bruken av analyseskjemaet og plassen elevers perspektiver fikk i analyse- og tolkningsarbeidet i de to klassene. Min intensjon med oppgaven gjorde at kvalitativ metode egnet seg best, og gjennom klasseromsobservasjon og intervju med to lærere samlet jeg inn mitt datamateriale. Undersøkelsene viser at analyse og tolkning av dikt ikke trenger å være øvelser etter faste analyseskjemaer som ikke slipper til elevers perspektiver, selv om analyseskjemaet har en sentral plass i undervisningen. Lærerne som deltok i mine undersøkelser startet analyse- og tolkningsprosessen med å tolke diktet, så beveget de seg gradvis over i mer analytiske lesemåter av diktet. En innfallsvinkel til diktanalyse kan derfor være å ikke starte analyseprosessen så teknisk gjennom analytiske lesemåter med fokus på begreper, men heller ta tak i elevens egen opplevelse av diktet gjennom en personlig tilnærming og erfaringsbaserte lesemåter. En slik innfallsvinkel kan være med på å skape åpne holdninger blant elevene og vise dem at de selv er i stand til å tolke et dikt. På den måten slippes elevenes perspektiver til i analyse- og tolkningsprosessen.

Immigrants are an important part of Canada and Canadian culture. Despite a large number of immigrants in Canada relatively few studies have focused on disability and immigrants. Even less research has been conducted on immigrants with visual impairments. The first paper uses the Participation Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) from 2006 to examine the prevalence of vision impairment in immigrants compared to non-immigrants, 50 years of age and over. First, descriptive statistics were used to determine the prevalence rate of vision impairment. Then, multivariate logistic regression was utilized to examine differences in providers of support and characteristics of individuals who receive support. Results disclosed that there was no difference in the prevalence rates of adult immigrants and non-immigrants over 50 years of age when controlling for age and gender. Results confirmed that there is a relationship between having a vision impairment and living in a low income household. Results also showed that receiving support is linked to severity of impairment. The second paper used qualitative analysis to examine visually impaired immigrants’ perception of vision impairment and disability and if perception influenced utilization of care. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 clients of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). Results showed that immigrants’ employ three different views when explaining their impairment, these were; the medical view, social view and theological/ traditional view. All participants used two or more views interchangeably demonstrating that all views are important in understanding how immigrants perceive and navigate their impairment on an everyday basis. Results also suggested that negative perceptions did not keep most immigrants from accessing services; however, traditional barriers such as not being eligible to receive services and transportation were main barriers. Thesis Master of Arts (MA)

Studentarbeid i sykepleie (bachelorgrad) - Universitetet i Nordland, 2014

The project discusses the problems of the traditional feminist subject and proposes an anti-sexist course for further gender studies

Økologi er i de senere år kommet på dagsordenen i forhold til offentlige indkøb, særligt i forhold til mad i institutioner og skoler. I mad til vuggestuer og børnehaver er økologi allerede udbredt, mens økologisk skolemad særligt findes i hovedstadsområdet. Således ses et voksende ønske om økologi i offentlig bespisning til børn og unge. Imidlertid indebærer indføringen af økologiske fødevarer i institutioner en række udfordringer, som typisk er knyttet til de vanskeligheder, der er forbundet med at omstille et køkken fra konventionelle råvarer til økologiske råvarer. Vanskelighederne kan f.eks. omhandle omstilling til årstidens grøntsager på baggrund af et ønske om at reducere mængden af kød i menuerne, nye menuer, nye rutiner – alt kan ikke fås i de samme pakninger og halvfabrikata som det konventionelle hvorfor der kræves en lidt anden håndtering mm. (Mikkelsen et al). En særlig problemstilling i denne forbindelse er knyttet til leverancerne af de økologiske fødevarer, og herunder kommunernes håndtering af indkøbene. Nedenstående er baseret på interview indsamlet i forsknings-projektet iPOPY.

This report is a mapping of the activities within public procurement of organic food for youth in Denmark, with a special focus on school meals. In Denmark, it is voluntary whether local municipalities or schools arrange school meals or not. Until lately this was also the situation for meals in daycare institutions, but in 2008 a new legislation made it mandatory for the municipalities to offer a lunch meal in all daycare institutions, though this is still mainly financed by user charge. This change in legislation received much public attention, and has been heavily debated. School meals in Denmark were first introduced around 1900 as a social project for children in poverty, and have since been undergoing many changes. In the 1930‟s the warm meal was replaced by a cold lunch. During the 1970‟s free meals for malnourished children was gradually replaced by food stalls, selling milk, bread and fruit. Until the beginning of the 2000‟s such food stalls were widely spread, and in the 1980‟s and 1990‟s it was very common that pupils were responsible for running the stalls, receiving the profit for class excursions etc. In recent years a public and political debate about school meals has again aroused, mainly arguing that the food stalls is often offering a very unhealthy selection of food, and also pointing to the fact that many pupils bring unhealthy lunch from home or from nearby shops. Hence the argument that the public should help to ensure a healthy lunch for the pupils is again beginning to manifest, though there is no consensus on how this should be done and to what extent this should be funded by the public. Over time, more and more schools or municipalities choose to establish school meal systems, but these vary extensively in the way they are organized, what kind of food is served, and how they are financed. This report includes an overall mapping of the different ways of organizing school meals and their dissemination. Organic food has also been increasingly debated in relation to public procurement for children and youth, mainly in relation to meals in daycare institutions. Organic food is used in some school meal systems especially in municipalities inspired by Agenda 21, such as the municipalities in the Green Cities cooperation, but also other municipalities such as Esbjerg, Gladsaxe and Roskilde emphasize organic food. Whether the subject of organic food is discussed and implemented depends on the local values, goals, resources and politics. Hence there are municipalities and institutions with no organic food at all, while others have an organic share of more than 90 %. This is particularly in the municipalities situated in the Greater Copenhagen area. The municipalities in the Green cities cooperation have an average share of 59 % organic in all public procurement. The number is even higher when looking exclusively at public procurement for children and youth. These cases are briefly described in the report, along with a short mapping of other municipalities using organic food in meals for daycare institutions or schools. The report was produced in the iPOPY project, “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth”. Similar reports have been produced for the other iPOPY countries; Norway, Finland and Italy.