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Noen av oss tåler stressende livshendelser godt. Andre derimot utvikler vedvarende fysiske og psykiske plager som følger av stress. Hvor godt vi håndterer stress avhenger av et komplekst samspill mellom miljøfaktorer, sosiale forhold, biologisk sårbarhet og indre motstandskraft. Forskning på stressreaksjonene til dyr og pasientgrupper som til vanlig lever under mye stress viser at en gruppe signalstoffer i kroppen som aktiverer det samme hjernesystemet som cannabis – endocannabinoidene – kan begrense styrken på stressreaksjoner og bidra til at man raskere kommer seg til hektene. I dette prosjektet skal vi undersøke hvordan mestring av stress på kort og lang sikt henger sammen med nivåer av endocannabinoider i kroppen for å forstå hvorfor noen personer er mer motstandsdyktige mot stress enn andre. I den ene studien følger vi pasienter som skal gjennomgå en stressende, men veldig vanlig, situasjon: kirurgi. Her måler vi pasientenes opplevelse av stress, samt mentale og fysiske helse, fra tiden før til to år etter operasjonen og undersøker hvordan dette henger sammen med nivåene deres av endocannabinoider og andre stresshormoner. I den andre studien bruker vi data fra et eksperiment hvor deltakerne har blitt utsatt for psykososialt stress til å undersøke om endocannabinoidnivået deres påvirker hvordan de reagerer på stress, og om stresset i seg selv kan påvirke kroppens produksjon av endocannabinoider. Til syvende og sist er målet med studien å vurdere hvorvidt målinger av endocannabinoidnivåer kan brukes til å forebygge helseplager og til å evaluere behovet for økt oppfølging etter alvorlig stressende påkjenninger i livet.

In the face of major life stressors, some individuals cope well whereas others develop ill health and long-term adverse outcomes. Predicting who needs additional support in response to major life stressors is essential for targeted prevention and more efficient allocation of resources. The endocannabinoid system is emerging as a promising target for understanding vulnerability and resilience to stress. This system appears to buffer stress in two ways: by limiting the magnitude of the stress response, and by facilitating recovery after a stressful event. While the early findings are intriguing, they mainly stem from studies in rodents and small clinical groups with high stress burden. What role endocannabinoids have more globally for human resilience, health and well-being remains elusive. 

In this project we address this gap by leveraging comprehensive experimental and clinical data on two potent stress models: psychosocial stress and surgery. Drawing on these unique datasets, which combine experimental control with ecological validity, we will decipher how endocannabinoid levels influence people’s stress response and recovery across minutes, days, weeks and years. The project represents a novel directional shift for endocannabinoid research and will (i) determine the value of endocannabinoid levels as a biomarker to predict outcomes after surgery, (ii) quantify sex differences, (iii) assess endocannabinoid interplay with opioid analgesics, sex hormones and other stress markers (iv) spearhead open and reproducible science practices in endocannabinoid research, and (v) make this fine-grained and novel data available through an interactive web application. 

This project represents an ambitious effort to understand endocannabinoids’ role in stress resilience and will determine the value of endocannabinoids as a predictive biomarker and potential target for individualized treatment.

Deciphering endocannabinoid stress buffering in humans: 
Mechanistic and clinical investigations

Hovedmålet med kreftbehandling er å eliminere kreftceller og dette er tradisjonelt oppnådd ved kirurgi, bruk av giftige medikamenter (cellegift) og stråling. En ny og betydningsfull tilnærming til kreftbehandling kalt immunterapi, har derimot fått mye oppmerksomhet det siste tiåret; Her forsøker leger og forskere å utnytte immunsystemet vårt for å målrettet  ødelegge kreftceller. En nøkkelaktør i denne banebrytende tilnærmingen er en gruppe «drapsmenn» i immunsystemet kjent som cytotoxiske T-lymfocytter (CTL-er). Disse cellene har en bemerkelsesverdig evne til å oppdage kreftceller ved å gjenkjenne unormale molekyler på overflaten av kreftcellene - molekyler som friske celler ikke har. Når CTL-er gjenkjenner kreftcellene ødelegger de dem ved å frigjøre giftige molekyler som initierer kreftcellenes selvdestruksjon. 
 
Selv om betydelige innsats har blitt dedikert til å forstå hvordan CTL-er aktiveres og hvordan de gjenkjenner kreftceller, vet vi mindre om de påfølgende hendelsene inne i kreftcellene som fører til deres død. Fra før vet vi at CTL-er kan initiere to forskjellige typer celledød i kreft: den første, kalt apoptose, er en stille og ordnet prosess der kreftcellene krymper og brytes opp uten å varsle immunsystemet; den andre, kalt pyroptose, er en mer dramatisk prosess som involverer dannelse av åpninger i cellemembranen, noe som fører til at cellene svulmer opp og sprekker. Under denne cellebristen blir innholdet inne i cellene frigitt i omgivelsene, og dette kan fungere som 'faretegn' som kan stimulere en sterkere immunrespons mot kreftcellene. Betydningen av denne cellebristen for å forsterke anti-tumorresponsene vil bli undersøkt i dette prosjektet. 
 
Videre er vi fascinert av muligheten for å avdekke ytterligere, ennå ukjente, former for celledød indusert av CTL-er. Utforsking av disse dødsrelaterte prosessene i kreftcellene kan potensielt øke effektiviteten av immunterapi og bidra betydelig i den pågående kampen mot kreft.

The primary goal of most cancer therapies is to induce cancer cell death. Immunotherapy relies on the cytotoxic activity of lymphocytes such as natural killer cells (NKs) and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) to achieve this. While a significant amount of research in immunotherapy focuses on the events within cytotoxic lymphocytes or at the interface between cytotoxic lymphocytes and cancer cells, less is known about the molecular mechanisms that orchestrate cancer cell death, particularly in the case of CTL-mediated death.
CTLs are known to induce two types of cell death in cancer: non-inflammatory apoptosis and proinflammatory pyroptosis. Pyroptotic cancer cells release proinflammatory signals that attract immune cells to the tumor site, thereby enhancing the anti-tumor response. Cell lysis is a common outcome of pyroptotic cell death. It is unclear whether lysis can be decoupled from pyroptosis in cancer cells and whether the proinflammatory properties of pyroptotic cancer cell death depend on lysis. Moreover, it remains unknown whether CTLs can induce other forms of cell death in cancer, apart from apoptosis and pyroptosis.
Studying the mechanisms of CTL-mediated cancer cell death is challenging because CTLs selectively target cells expressing specific antigens. However, given the critical role of CTLs in immunotherapy, it is essential to deepen our understanding of CTL-induced cancer cell death.
This project aims to develop novel methodologies to investigate the death mechanisms that are initiated by CTLs. In addition, we will identify new pathways and mediators involved in CTL-induced cancer cell death. Furthermore, we will assess the contribution of proinflammatory cell death and lysis in promoting anti-tumor responses in vivo. Overall, this research will improve our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of CTL-mediated cancer cell death and potentially reveal novel targets to enhance the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy.

T-cell-mediated proinflammatory cell death and lysis in cancer

En av de vanligste, men minst studerte, utfordringene med å bli eldre er problemer med å kommunisere. Mange eldre sliter spesielt med pragmatiske ferdigheter, som å forstå undertekst, eller tilpasse det de sier til personen de snakker med. 

La oss si at en lege må gi en alvorlig beskjed til en pasient. For å gjøre det litt lettere å takle, bruker legen vagere språk, som "kanskje" i stedet for "sannsynligvis". Mens yngre voksne ofte tar hensyn til høflighetsstrategier i måten de tolker det som blir sagt på, har eldre ofte vanskelig for å forstå når noen snakker indirekte. Mange eldre voksne har vanskelig for å forstå ikke-bokstavelig språk og kan misforstå alvorlighetsgraden av diagnosen. Dette kan påvirke beslutningen deres om behandling, noe som kan føre til utilsiktede konsekvenser. 

Siden god kommunikasjon er viktig både i viktige medisinske samtaler og i hverdagen, er det viktig at vi finner ut hva som gjør at eldre kan ha vansker med å forstå og bli forstått. RESILIENCE skal hjelpe til med denne utfordringen ved å samle data om praktiske, kognitive og språklige ferdigheter hos voksne i alderen 18-90 år over tid. Dette vil gi oss en stor mengde data om pragmatiske, kognitive og språk ferdigheter og gjøre det tilgjengelig for forskning. Med denne dataen som grunnlag har vi følgende mål: 

• Forstå hvordan praktiske evner endrer seg generelt gjennom voksenlivet. 
• Finne ut hvilke mekanismer som påvirker pragmatiske evner på forskjellige tidspunkter i livet.
 • Utvikle en teoretisk modell som forklarer hvordan pragmatiske ferdigheter endrer seg med alderen.
 • Lage algoritmer som kan forutsi hvordan pragmatiske evner vil utvikle seg for enkeltpersoner i årene som kommer. 
• Utvikle og teste et verktøy som kan måle pragmatisk helse (både pragmatiske ferdigheter og deres underliggende mekanismer), noe som kan åpne  for å iverksette tiltak. 

Dette vil gi oss muligheten til å forstå bedre hvordan folk kan utvikle pragmatisk resiliens gjennom livsløpet.

A cornerstone of human communication is our reliance on pragmatic skills to guide linguistic interactions (e.g., reasoning about others' mental states to bridge the gap between what is said and intended in conversation). However these skills are highly sensitive to age-related decline, leading to miscommunication and uninformed decision making in the older adult population. This raises an important question, one which has puzzled linguistics and psychologists for decades: if pragmatic competence is fundamental to communication, why do individuals vary so much in this capacity? 

Traditionally, psychologists have approached pragmatic competence from a cognitive angle, reasoning that individual differences in executive functions (i.e., the cognitive skills associated with goal-directed actions) are what underlie effective pragmatic behavior. In a similar vein, language scientists have taken a linguistic approach, reasoning that one’s language background (e.g., the frequency with which individuals shift between languages) shapes pragmatic skills by enhancing sensitivity to the communicative context. This focus on either cognitive or linguistic influences has resulted in two expansive yet disparate areas of research.

RESILIENCE will unite these disciplines to pursue a longstanding debate on what underlies pragmatic resilience and decline using a large-scale, interdisciplinary and longitudinal approach. By gathering data on adults' (ages 18-90) pragmatic, cognitive and language skills over multiple time points, we will develop a comprehensive theoretical model that explains how cognitive and linguistic systems interact to shape pragmatic competence as we age, and create algorithms that predict the trajectory of an individual’s pragmatic abilities in upcoming years. Based on these results we will design a multidimensional tool that detects the earliest signs of pragmatic deficits, leading to future interventions, allowing us to uncover the paths to pragmatic resilience.

Uncovering the paths to pragmatic resilience

Wheelchair users (WCU) are three to five times more inactive than the general population, leading to a high risk of developing preventable secondary conditions. Although physical activity (PA) guidelines have been specifically developed for WCU, we lack systematic approaches to implement them in practice, as well as valid algorithms to monitor PA change in WCU through sensor-based solutions. Accordingly, the overall scientific aim of the WHeelchair Activity Monitoring project (WHAM) is to advance PA research and practice in WCU by developing valid digital markers for monitoring of and providing feedback on PA, paving the way for implementation and intervention. I will accomplish this through combining the complementary research fields of 1) behavioural intervention studies focusing on increasing PA in WCU (core competence University of British Columbia, UBC; outgoing phase) and 2) sensor-based PA monitoring (core competence Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU; returning phase – consolidated by non-academic placement at Maastricht Instruments, which develop research prototypes including PA monitors). WHAM’s scientific aim is achieved through three objectives: 1) Measure the effect of a pragmatic exercise intervention trial on self-reported physical activity levels and cardio-respiratory fitness, 2) Develop valid algorithms for tracking PA markers in WCU, and 3) Co-create a framework that outlines how PA can be conjointly monitored and provided feedback on in WCU. This fellowship will enable me to become established as an internationally recognized researcher in the field of “physical activity and disability”, while bringing together ongoing national disjointed research activities in this field. Altogether, my overall ambition is to contribute to reducing inequalities in daily-life participation among WCU compared to the rest of the population.

WHeelchair Activity Monitoring project (WHAM)

The goal of the Bilingual Experiences, Cognitive Ageing and underlying Mechanisms (BECAME) project is to examine the functional neuroplastic mechanisms underlying mitigatory effects of bilingual experience on age-related cognitive decline. While evidence is available for structural brain changes supporting bilingualism-induced effects on cognitive aging (CA), functional mechanisms underlying such effects are not yet well understood. BECAME aims to fill this gap by investigating the trajectory of bilingualism-induced functional neuroplasticity across the adult lifespan (ages 18-85), crucially adopting an individual differences approach related to measurable degree of bilingual engagement. Importantly, although such benefits are thought to be rooted early in the lifespan, evidence for the timeframe and conditions of their early emergence is scarce. The choice of including the whole adult lifespan allows us to investigate these mechanisms and their emergence more directly from a lifespan perspective. I combine behavioral testing with brain recordings via electroencephalography (EEG). EEG is widely used in cognitive neuroscience to assess brain activity and the degree of communication between brain regions (functional connectivity) in response to stimuli and at rest. Combining behavioral and EEG modalities will allow me to test bilingualism’s effect on functional connectivity, as well as its consequences for functional efficiency, the minimum required neural activation to successfully perform a task. This will enable a detailed, evidence-based account of the protective effects observed in older-aged bilinguals, and how they are built from earlier life stages. By illuminating the relationship between multilingualism and resulting neurocognitive adaptations, BECAME will enable to capitalize on it as a health initiative, with manifold societal implications and the potential to be translated into actionable policies exploiting multilingualism to ameliorate effects of CA.

Bilingual Experiences, Cognitive Ageing and underlying Mechanisms

Per- og polyfluorerte stoffer (PFAS) er en stor gruppe menneskeskapte kjemikalier med høyt fluorinnhold som antas å ha negative helseeffekter. Kilder til PFAS kan være produksjon av vann-, varme- og flekkbestandige produkter og disse kjemikaliene er en del av hverdagen vår. PFAS påvirkning av biologiske systemer er ikke fullstendig forstått. Noen PFAS er antatt å øke risikoen for å utvikling av ikke-alkoholisk fettleversykdom (NAFLD) og øke risikoen for diabetes. 

For å forstå hvordan PFAS påvirker organene våre ønsker vi å bruke små laboratoriedyrkede organmodeller, kalt organoider. Disse miniatyrorganene kan dyrkes fra menneskelige stamceller og tilbyr et kontrollert miljø for å studere hvordan PFAS påvirker f.eks lever og bukspyttkjertelen vår, uten bruk av dyreforsøk.

For å studere helseeffekter må vi kunne måle nivået av biomolekyler som fettstoffer i leveren og hormoner i bukspyttkjertelen. Til dette trenger vi å utvikle analytiske verktøy for å måle effektene. Først vil vi bekrefte at når leverorganoidene eksponeres for enkelte PFAS-forbindelser utvikles det NAFLD-lignende sykdom ved å sammenligne den biokjemiske profilen (proteiner og metabolitter) til organoider av lever med PFAS-eksponerte organoider. Deretter vil vi utvide den analytiske verktøykassen for å undersøke hvilke metabolske veier som påvirkes, og om effekten er den samme i NAFLD-induserte og PFAS-eksponerte organoider. Vi vil også eksponere insulinproduserende bukspyttkjertelorganoider for PFAS for å undersøke effekten av PFAS på hormonproduksjon. Når effektene av PFAS-eksponering på lever- og bukspyttkjertel-organoider er etablert, vil organoidene bli samkultivert i en chip, og effektene av PFAS-eksponering vil bli undersøkt og sammenlignet med individuelle organoider.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are believed to contribute to metabolic diseases, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and type 1 diabetes. HE-POP aims to investigate the effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAS), a type of POPs), on organ function in a controlled environment.

Organoids are multicellular laboratory-grown miniature organs, that are grown from stem cells. HE-POP will use organoids to examine how PFAS affects our organs and develop cutting-edge bioanalytical tools and methodology to measure these effects using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. HE-POP hypothesizes that PFAS negatively affects organ function, as evidenced by changes in hormone and lipid levels characteristic of NAFLD and type 1 diabetes. 

Organoids offer a controlled environment to study the effects of PFAS on the liver and pancreas, without the use of animal models. HE-POP aims to gain evidence of the negative effects of PFAS on organ function through controlled experiments on organoids and aid in understanding the biological mechanisms underlying NAFLD and type 1 diabetes.

HE-POP has fundaments in UN sustainable development goals, specifically #3, #12, and #14/15, seeking an understanding of diseases with worldwide prevalence, and understanding how POPs affect our life and surroundings and help enable the right regulatory actions and replacement chemicals.

HE-POP: Studying the Health Effects of Persistent Organic Pollutants, Using Mass Spectrometry, Organoids, and Organ-On-A-Chip

Rundt 7% av norske 4-åringer har så store psykiske vansker at de kvalifiserer for en diagnose, men det tar ofte lang tid fra vanskene oppstår, til de blir oppdaget og barna får rett hjelp. Myndighetene har derfor lagt tydelige føringer for at de som jobber med barn, må vite hva de skal se etter og hvordan de skal gå frem for at barna skal få den hjelpen de trenger. I Norge går over 95% av barna i barnehage hvor pedagogene blir godt kjent med barna over tid i deres naturlige miljø og har utviklingssamtaler med de foresatte 1-2 ganger i året. Barnehagen skulle derfor være en ideell arena for tidlig oppdagelse av psykiske vansker. Det har imidlertid ikke vært tilgjengelig noen tilpasset metode for de arbeidsformene og terminologi som er vanlig i barnehagene. Vi har derfor utviklet metoden Dialogbasert tidlig oppdagelse (DBTO) i nært samarbeid med pedagoger og foreldre i 8 ulike barnehager. Metoden går ut på å bruke utviklingssamtalen mer systematisk ved at både foreldre og barnehagelærer på forhånd fyller ut et spørreskjema om mulige bekymringer de har hatt for barnets utvikling og trivsel de siste månedene. I samtalen kan de så utforske og forsøke å enes om forståelsen av barnet og om det er behov for ytterligere vurdering eller andre tiltak. Tilbakemeldingene under utviklingen og tidlig utprøving tyder på at metoden fungerer godt og oppleves som et nyttig verktøy i foreldresamarbeidet. For å få tydeligere dokumentert kunnskap om hvordan DBTO fungerer i barnehagene, har vi utviklet forskningsprosjektet PRO-DIALOG. Vi ønsker med det å få kunnskap om (1) hvordan DBTO fungerer som et screening-instrument, (2) hvor brukervennlig den er, (3) hvordan den påvirker tidspunkt for igangsetting av tiltak og (4) hvordan den påvirker utviklingen av den psykiske helsen til barna over tid. 12 barnehager er plukket tilfeldig ut til å gjennomføre metoden, mens 11 skal fungere som kontroller. Foresatte til rundt 300 barn som har tre år igjen av barnehagen, vil bli spurt om å delta.

There is an unambiguous call for early interventions at the municipal level for children at risk of developing mental health problems. However, there is a surprisingly absence of socially valid methods for detecting children in need of early support.
        The aim of the project is to establish the properties of such a novel method; Dialogue Based Early Detection (DBED). We will study its properties as a mental health screener, how well it is adapted in an ordinary kindergarten context, and whether it affects activation of interventions for mental health concerns and children’s future mental health.
        The novel aspect of DBED is the systematic assessment of the child’s development and well-being by the kindergarten teacher and his/her parents, and the subsequent dialogue that aims to explore and converge their understanding of the child and conclude whether there is a need for further assessment or supportive actions.
        Parents of approximately 300 children in 23 different kindergartens aged 2-3 years will be invited to participate for the three last years before school start and follow-up the next two years. The kindergartens will be randomized to an implementation group or a control group. Parents’ socio-demographic characteristics and data from parent-teacher meetings, initiated interventions, user satisfaction, parental stress, and child mental health will be collected biannually, as well as tape recordings from interviews about user experiences of parents and teachers.
        The most critical challenges of the project will be participation rate of the invited parents in addition to attrition due to the time pressures in a busy workday in the kindergartens, and willingness of the control parents to complete the repeated questionnaires. Appropriate measures are made to take those risks into account.

Promoting mental health in young children – a sustainable dialogue based approach in kindergartens (PRO-DIALOG)

Dette prosjektet, kalt Hukommelse for musikk, fokuserer på det økende antallet mennesker over hele verden som lever med demens, spesielt Alzheimer's sykdom (AD). AD starter typisk med hukommelsesproblemer og påvirker etter hvert daglige aktiviteter. Aktive musikkintervensjoner, spesielt sang, har vist positive effekter på humør, atferd og livskvalitet for personer med demens, men deres innvirkning på kognisjon er ikke godt forstått. Prosjektet har som mål å fylle dette kunnskapsgapet ved å studere effektene av å lære nye sanger på kognitiv, atferdsmessig og hjernemessig funksjon.

Studien vil omfatte hjemmeboende voksne over 65 år med AD fra Argentina, Østerrike og Norge. Deltakerne vil gjennomgå 5 måneder med intensiv musikalsk opplæring (to ganger i uken) og 5 måneder med minimal opplæring (en gang i måneden) i tilfeldig rekkefølge, med en to måneders pause imellom. Intervensjonene inkluderer å lære nye sanger med en personlig musikklærer. Generell kognisjon vil bli målt ved bruk av Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive (ADAS-cog), og hukommelse for musikk vil bli vurdert gjennom ulike metoder, inkludert atferdsoppgaver og hjerneaktivitet (EEG). Humør vil også bli evaluert i hver økt.

Målet er å inkludere 113 deltakere for å sikre pålitelig påvisning av meningsfulle effekter. Studien vil utforske hvordan humør og hukommelse for musikk bidrar til endringer i kognitive evner, og om disse effektene varierer basert på faktorer som kjønn, alder, AD-stadium, eller tidligere musikalsk opplæring og generell utdanning. Prosjektet vektlegger samarbeid mellom forskere, tjenesteytere og brukere for å sikre studiens relevans og anvendelighet.

The number of people living with dementia is increasing and is high in low, middle, and high-income countries. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common type of dementia, manifests itself initially with cognitive impairment in memory domains, and later affects all activities of daily living. Active music interventions, particularly singing, can help to improve mood, behaviour problems, and quality of life. Too little is known about their effects on cognition, although some promising studies exist. The M4M project aims to fill this gap by measuring effects of learning new songs on clinical, behavioural and brain functioning. Specifically, M4M aims to examine changes in general cognitive functioning and memory for music in non-musician adults with AD undergoing intensive individual musical training based on singing novel songs, compared to minimal training.
        Home-dwelling adults with AD, 65 years or older, in 3 countries (Argentina, Austria, Norway), will receive 5 months of intensive intervention (2x/week) and 5 months of minimal intervention (1x/month), in random order, with a 2-month break in between. Interventions will entail learning new songs with an individual music teacher. At the end of each intervention period, general cognition will be measured with the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale – Cognitive (ADAS-cog) by a person who is unaware of the intervention received. Memory for music will be tested with observations, behavioural tasks, and brain responses (EEG). Mood will be assessed in each session. We aim to include 113 participants; this will help us to reliably detect clinically meaningful effects. We will also examine how mood and memory for music lead to changes in cognitive abilities, and whether effects depend on sex, age, AD stage, or previous musical training or general education. M4M will be conducted in close collaboration between academic researchers, service providers, and service users to ensure relevance and applicability.

Memory for Music: Effects of individual intensive musical training based on singing in non-musicians with Alzheimer’s disease

InterNASH - An intercellular-pathway therapeutic for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis

Seksuelle overgrep mot kvinner er et stort folkehelseproblem. Vi vet at seksuelle overgrep er svært utbredt, og at overgrep medfører vesentlige helseproblemer/helseplager for mange utsatte. Likevel er det stor mangel på kunnskap om psykisk helse hos overgrepsutsatte. RESPOND vil frembringe ny innsikt i hvilke forhold og hva slags helsetjenester som fremmer god helse hos de som utsettes for overgrep og har oppsøkt et overgrepsmottak. Målet er derfor at RESPOND skal føre til bedre helsetjenester og bedre helse etter overgrep.
RESPOND vil søke å besvare tre forskningsspørsmål: 1) Hva er de viktigste betingelsene for psykiske helseplager og symptomlette i løpet av det første året etter et seksuelt overgrep? 2) Hvordan påvirker det sosiale miljøet spesifikke tankemønstre som vi vet er forbundet med psykisk uhelse? 3) Hvordan opplever de utsatte møtet med overgrepsmottaket, og hvilken betydning har eventuelt dette møtet for helseplager i den akutte fasen og i løpet av det første året?
Forskerne i prosjektet samarbeider med overgrepsmottak over hele landet i gjennomføringen av studien. Pasienter ved overgrepsmottakene vil bli spurt om de ønsker å delta, og de som samtykker vil bli kontaktet fire ganger: 2-3 uker etter overgrepet, etter 3 måneder, etter 6 måneder og etter ett år.
I RESPOND samarbeider forskerne med personer som selv har vært utsatt, og med fagpersoner som jobber med å hjelpe utsatte, slik som overgrepsmottak, DIXI og NOK-sentre. I tillegg til teoriutvikling vil RESPOND søke å legge et faglig grunnlag for utvikling av nasjonale retningslinjer for psykososial støtte etter overgrep og formidle ny kunnskap til allmennheten, til utsatte og til pårørende. Vi vil også arrangere en nasjonal konferanse for å fremme dialogen mellom alle relevante aktører, slik som beslutningstagere, politiet, rettsvesenet, støttesentre, helsevesenet og representanter for personer som har opplevd overgrep.

Sexual assault is highly prevalent among women in our society and constitutes a major challenge to public health. The primary aim of this study is to improve mental health and wellbeing in victims of sexual assault. We have three research objectives: (I) To understand mental health development in sexual assault care center patients over the first-year post-assault and identify vulnerability factors for mental health problems. (II) To acquire knowledge of how the social environment influences individual thought processes in a way that can promote a resilient or a negative mental health development. (III) To understand how sexual assault care center practices influence patients’ experiences with psycho-social care and potentially impact mental health. These objectives correspond to the following knowledge gaps: (1) The influential resilience model for human adaptation to extreme stress seems to fit sexual assault victims poorly. There is a lack of knowledge about risk factor for mental health problems in this patient group. (2) The role of responses from social network for maladaptive thinking and mental health problems is unknown. (3) Little is known about how the psychosocial services at the sexual assault care centers affect patients’ experiences and their mental health. RESPOND builds on a national multicenter observational cohort study that recruits patients from sexual assault care centers. The design is longitudinal with repeated measurements at four waves. RESPOND will have close communication with each participating sexual assault care center and with our user panel to adapt to potential challenges and discuss interpretations and implications of results. Our research group with cooperating partners represent unique expertise regarding sexual assault, mental health, social interaction, cognition, and psychosocial interventions.

Responding to Mental Health Problems in Victims of Sexual Assault

Midlene fra SME-4.02 Research for the benefit of SMEs fordelt på år

Midlene fra SME-4.02 Research for the benefit of SMEs fordelt på fylker

Midlene fra SME-4.02 Research for the benefit of SMEs fordelt på fagområde

Development of a Point of Care microfluidic chip unit and self-sampling device for cervical cancer screening and platform technology for Nucleic Acid Detection at the Point of Care

The implementation of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) is envisioned as a key step toward building more resilient and sustainable cities, because of the multiple benefits NBS can provide (e.g., urban flood, heat and drought mitigation, biodiversity restoration, recreation, etc.). Recent research both at NTNU and INSA focussed on design, modelling, and monitoring of NBS. However, the transition toward urban resilience requires the co-existence of NBS with traditional sewer networks as hybrid “green-grey” systems, with a particular attention to asset management and their maintenance. Indeed, the successful implementation of NBS is being slowed down by the lack of knowledge on their long-term performances. The CONPASS projects aims at studying NBS in the frame of asset management, by targeting: (i) uncertainty regarding the long-term behaviour of these solutions, (ii) effect of lack of maintenance and climate change on their performance, and (iii) ignorance of their practical effectiveness and co-benefits as a barrier to their adoption.
The CONPASS project will strengthen the collaboration between NTNU and INSA both in short- and long-term actions. Both partners will share their long-term expertise on NBS (in terms of design, modelling, performance assessment and long-term monitoring) through guest lectures, and MSc and PhD exchange which will also serve ongoing R&D projects at partner institutions. In a longer-term academic collaboration, CONPASS will aim at the elaboration of a proposal for Horizon Europe calls, benefiting from both partner’s competences in NBS and asset management. In particular, it will help to put in common competences, monitoring practices and several long-term NBS datasets which are needed to address the aforementioned barrier to successful implementation of NBS.

Collaboration On Nature-based solutions Performance Assessment

In polar regions and high-altitude mountain ranges, snow algae blooms develop during summer and form colorful surfaces in melting snow. Snow algae not only contribute to primary production and carbon dioxide absorption in snow ecosystems, but these blooms also darken the snow surface, increasing the absorbance of thermal energy and contributing to accelerated melting of these habitats. A wide diversity of snow-algae species and associated microbes have been observed in snow microbiomes, yet little is known about how environmental conditions and the behaviour of cells interact and potentially promote the development, functioning and community dynamics of visible surface blooms. In this project we aim to understand how temperature and biotic interactions affect the behavior of snow-algae adapted to life in the Arctic. Our investigations will first focus on describing the effect of temperature variations on key cellular structures and then explore how snow algae respond to signals from, and interactions with, other microbes.

Unraveling the effects of biotic interactions on snow algae behaviour

The backdrop for our collaboration is rooted in the historical and current landscape of the natural wine industry. The resurgence in popularity of natural wines, tracing back to its modern beginnings in France in the 1950s (Vigneron, 2022) and the subsequent boom after Isabelle Legeron's Raw Wine gained prominence in 2009 (Raw Wine, 2023), underscores the industry's momentum (Sprayregen, 2020). In 2020, the formal recognition of natural wine in France as ‘vin méthode nature’ further highlighted the need to navigate its diverse labelling practices. Through our online experiments, we aim to pinpoint the specific attribute that holds the most value for consumers, delve into the consumer-based food label equity, and understand the premium consumers place on certain labels. The end goal is twofold: to provide actionable insights to producers on enhancing the value of their labels and to empower consumers with the knowledge to discern and select high-quality products. In essence, we are on a quest to bridge the gap between producer intentions and consumer perceptions, ensuring both parties find maximum value.

Sustainability Wine Labelling: A French – Norwegian Scientific Cooperation

This project formalizes an institutional collaboration between SUM (University of Oslo) and KEDGE, two leading European spaces for research on the changing role of the private sector in society. This multi-disciplinary engagement will take the initial form of four exchange visits, two by SUM researchers to KEDGE, and two by KEDGE researchers to SUM. It is also designed to build competency for two promising early career researchers, and provide an opportunity for scholars and researchers outside the direct project to also have an opportunity to engage and collaborate.

Through four team visits (two in Oslo and two in Bordeaux over the project period), the project will create a groundwork and institutional capacity for multiple future grant applications on the emerging global societal role of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles that nearly all large firms now incorporate. Our primary research question that we aim to develop into at least two large-scale proposals is:

How and why does ESG expand and challenge business-society relations in fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) settings?

We have the following subquestions:

1) What is the relationship between business activity, violent conflict, and the role of ESG components within this relationship? In other words, how do ESG activities influence (or not) the likelihood of violent conflict?

2) How is ESG similar or different in FCV settings when compared to non-FCV settings, and do these practices have material impacts on the firm and/or society?

This mobility project will allow project PIs Miklian, Barkemeyer and Hanoteau to formally collaborate for the first time, bridging disciplines of management, peacebuilding, corporate social responsibility, economics, and development studies. These interconnections will force new breakthroughs in business-society scholarship.

Business and Society in Challenging Spaces: The Role of ESG in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings

This collaborative and cross-cultural project responds to the European Union initiatives and the International Olympic Comitees objective for increasing gender equality in sport. Worldwide, women in top leadership positions in sports is reported to be 8.4–20% for coaches and 10-30% for leaders. Efforts to increase women's access to these positions have not yet been successful, despite initiatives such as courses and mentoring programs for women. The persistent issue lies in the fact that the sporting domain remains predominantly masculine. An "ideal" top leader- and coach is often depicted through masculine discourses as someone who is tough and invulnerable. Consequently, more feminine identities and experiences tend to be marginalized. This hierarchical understanding on gender is deeply rooted in sports organizations and is perpetuated and reinforced by top leaders themselves, resulting in unquestioned assumptions about "how to be" a top leader that are difficult to change. Additionally, top leaders and coaches work within a highly competitive and individualized sport environment, where there is an expectation to work 24/7. If this 'masculine logic of ruling' is maintained, alongside the highly pressured jobs, achieving sustainable working conditions for all leaders and coaches are challenging. To be able to achieve gender equality in the sport context, we argue that a novel approach is needed, and suggest a shift in perspective. By focusing on sustainable work conditions for all (top) leaders and (high-performance) coaches in sport, we promote strategies that instead of “fixing the women” will “fix the system”. A better understanding of how women top leaders and coaches experience their workplaces, as well as how they envision a more gender-equal and sustainable future, is needed. In this project, we aim to get this insight from a wider diversity of woman leaders in sport working on differentiated organizational levels and systems and in different cultures.

Gender equality through sustainable work life for leaders and coaches in sport

In a recent study, researchers from NORSAR and ITES - University of Strasbourg worked on how to use machine learning to deal with big data coming from DAS-based geological monitoring. This study was led by joint master’s student M. Donnadille was focusing on the use of machine learning to learn how to classify events based on NORSAR’s conventional seismic data and transfer this model to DAS data. Simultaneously, PhD student J. Rimpot was leading efforts on self-supervised learning of classification of seismological records from a submarine volcano. To continue working on this collaboration, we would like to organize two visits between our two organizations. During these two visits, researchers will focus on the following tasks: Task 1 (Q2 2024) - Knowledge sharing through seminars and a small workshop (A. Turquet, T. Stangeland, C. Hibert, J. Rimpot, C. Huynh). This task will focus on the field of DAS data analysis, self-supervised learning, and transfer learning. Task 2 (Q2-Q3 2024) - Self Supervised Learning on DAS data on the NORFOX and the Pyrénées Datasets (A. Turquet, T. Stangeland, C. Hibert, J. Rimpot, C. Huynh) : Task 2 aims at testing self-supervised learning applied to DAS data for which a prior catalog of events exist. Task 3 (Q2-Q3 2024) - Transfer Learning on DAS data on the NORFOX and the Pyérnées datasets (A. Turquet, T. Stangeland, C. Hibert, J. Rimpot, C. Huynh) : Task 3 is focused on transfer learning of models trained on classical seismological data recorded by large band seismometers and applied to DAS data. The objective is to refine, validate and replicate this work on several datasets and to provide guidelines for future application for environmental seismology. Task 4 (Q3 2024) - ERC Consolidator writing  (A. Turquet, C. Hibert)  : Task 4 centers on the preparation of an ERC (European Research Council) Consolidator Grant proposal. We will work on this project proposal to be submitted to the 2025 ERC consolidator grant call.

DASGEO: Artificial Intelligence investigation of Geo-mass movements using Distributed Acoustic Sensing

The project aims to establish long-term scientific cooperation in Theoretical Computer Science between the Algorithms Research Group of the Department of Informatics of the University of Bergen (UiB) and the Algorithms, Graphs and Combinatorics (AlGCo) team of LIRMM (Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics and Microelectronics of Montpellier). Within our project, we plan to attack hard computational problems on graphs in their most general form, combining the multivariate analysis with algorithmic meta-theorems and structural decompositions. Achieving the scientific objectives would demand a close collaboration of researchers of the AlGCo team of LIRMM and the Algorithms Research Group of UiB. The ALGCo team has a strong background in logic, algorithmic meta-theorems, and graph decompositions. The UiB part has a word-class leadership in all aspects of parameterized computation and other algorithmic techniques. Realizing the project's objective requires a combination of all these topics, which supports the complementarity of the two teams. Our main purpose is to extend the existing and initiate a new collaboration between the AlGCo team and the Algorithms Research Group. The proposal's key objective is to build a consortium for a project application within the Horizon Europe programme and to set up a LIA (Laboratoire International Associé).

Extending Tractability Bounds: Logic and Structure for Algorithms

Every year, road traffic accidents claim 1.35 million lives and cost countries 3% of their GDP, making them a grave concern worldwide. Norway, in its 2022-2033 National Transport Plan, prioritizes Vision Zero for road safety. Among accident types, run-out-off road crashes contribute significantly to fatalities. To mitigate these crashes, roadside barriers are installed, but they still cause severe accidents, particularly involving motorcyclists and infrastructure like bridge columns, leading to traffic disruptions and economic losses. Installing energy absorbers on critical elements can bolster road infrastructure resilience. This project focuses on optimizing the placement and mechanical behavior of these energy absorbers to reduce collision damages and minimize traffic recovery time. Therefore, the following progress is needed, involving: 1) modeling, understanding, and developing architected structures to satisfy the need for traffic collision energy absorbers, 2) evaluating the efficiency of energy absorbers on infrastructure resilience, and 3) vehicle to infrastructure collision modeling. To address this multidisciplinary goal, we gathered a team of recognized researchers with expertise in material science, structural engineering, transport infrastructure, and traffic engineering. This Aurora project will strengthen the collaboration between French and Norwegian partners. Based on the activities planned in this project, both partners will develop a common understanding and knowledge to initiate an R&D proposal for the Horizon project and/or other European initiatives (such as JPI Urban Europe, Erasmus+, and Marie Curie ITN). Moreover, this collaboration will also promote research-based education activities by enhancing staff and student mobility.

POlymer architected structures for Traffic ENergy absorbers in Transport InfrastructuraAL systems

This collaborative effort will boost several projects in the field of nanofluid heat transfer that are currently on in Norway and France. This research direction has been prevalent in the past two decades due to the simplicity of nanofluid production. However, from research literature and user experience, only some developments managed to step out of the lab. The price, toxicity, and un-even colloidal stability are the major obstacles limiting nanofluids from becoming, as initially thought, universal heat transfer fluids. However, there are applications where nanofluids are game changers: solar thermal technology and heat pipes. Both the Norwegian and the French groups run projects in these directions. The French group has developed stable graphene-based nanofluids where very low nanoparticle concentrations significantly improve the base fluid's thermophysical properties. The Norwegian team from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) has successfully conducted a project on the solar evaporation of nanofluids using concentrated solar power. The project resulted in a 20%-increase enhancement of steam generation when the carbon-based nanofluid was used instead of the conventional technology. This observation finds promising applications in solar desalination and CSP. The subsequent Norwegian project concerns the fundamentals of photothermal boiling in nanofluids, where the kinetics of boiling are discovered by medical imaging and acoustics. The Norwegian team also runs an innovation project. In this project, an eco-friendly nanofluid based on organic particles was developed and used as an optical absorber in a custom-made solar collector. French and Norwegian groups possess unique knowledge, equipment, and numerical models. The planned exchange brings a spark to an efficient fusion of this potential and the further strategic development of our research field.

SME-4.02 Research for the benefit of SMEs

Development of a Point of Care microfluidic chip unit and self-sampling device for cervical cancer screening and platform technology for Nucleic Acid Detection at the Point of Care

Awarded: NOK 3.8 mill.

Popular Science Description

Summary

Publications from Cristin

Novel nanoconcentrator for recovering viral particles of biomedical interest: design and simulation

Biomedical micro-refinery system for the enrichment of Giardia cysts in source water

Increasing the protozoan recovery for biomedical membrane filters using multiplexed refining device

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SME-4.02 Research for the benefit of SMEs

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