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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

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)

Algebraic Theory of Information Quantities

Information theory is a discipline at the intersection of statistics, engineering and computer science. As the study of information quantities, such as compression or communication capacities, information content or measures of statistical dependency, it is one of the theoretical underpinnings of data science.

Computational problems in information theory are highly non-linear. The goal of this project is to transfer state-of-the-art methods of computational non-linear algebra to information theory, to study the inherent algebraic complexity of information-theoretical problems and to provide tools for solving them in practice. The algebraic point of view has proven to be fruitful in seemingly unrelated areas, as witnessed by a surge of recent work in algebraic statistics, in particular on likelihood geometry. However, maximizing the likelihood function is the same as minimizing relative entropy — a specific information quantity. Hence, this project also aims at generalizing the techniques developed in likelihood geometry.

One focus is on the practical computation of information quantities using numerical and differential algebraic geometry. Such quantities are defined via non-linear optimization problems and we aim to pinpoint the algebraic complexity of these problems in instances of general interest, such as common information measures. The final objective is finding fundamental laws and limits of data science imposed by non-linear inequalities constraining the entropic region. These inequalities provide, by duality, universal bounds for many of the optimization problems studied in information theory.

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

Norge har under Parisavtalen påtatt seg en forpliktelse til å redusere klimautslippene sine med minst 55 prosent innen 2030 sammenlignet med nivået i 1990. Hittil har vi kun oppnådd 5 prosent av dette målet; vi har følgelig kun syv år på å redusere de resterende 50 prosent for å imøtekomme målene. For 2050 har vi satt oss enda større mål: å redusere klimautslippene med hele 90 prosent. Bakgrunnen for målene er at vi prøver å unngå de verste scenarioene FNs klimautvalg skisserer opp i sine rapporter. I tillegg har energiforbruket økt, og prognosene fra Statnett for ulike scenarier viser at energiforbruket skal fortsette å øke. Vi trenger følgelig mer energi. Dette har bidrat til at diskusjoner rundt kjernekraft i Norge er høyaktuelle og pågående. Norsk Kjernekraft AS har blitt opprettet med formål om å bygge Norges første kjernekraftverk. I tillegg ble det i fjor også bevilget 200 millioner kroner fra Regjeringen til et nytt senter som skal drive med nukleær forskning. Målet er å styrke den norske kunnskapsberedskapen på det nukleære området. Dette betyr at vi beveger oss i en retning hvor kjernekraft en dag kan bli aktuelt i Norge, og noen mener at dette er den eneste veien å gå hvis vi skal nå målene våre for 2050. Men i dag sitter vi med flere spørsmål enn svar, blant annet: Hvilken teknologi og leverandør burde vi velge? Er regelverket for snevert og strengt? Hvordan kan dette gjøres og samtidig ivareta sikkerhet? Hvordan tjener et kjernekraftverk penger?

Dette prosjektet skal svare på samtlige av disse spørsmålene i en detaljert og omfattende analyse. Her bruker vi grunnlagsdata til å vurdere dagens forskning opp mot hvordan industrien i andre land opererer, og ut ifra dette forsøke estimere hva risikoen knyttet til å bygge kjernekraft som industri i Norge er. Prosjektet sikter på å gi et så helhetlig bilde som mulig slik at vi kan gjøre oss opp en mening basert på fakta; om kjernekraft passer inn i miksen av det som utgjør norsk energi.

Denne prosjektbeskrivelsen skisserer forskningen Vala Maria Valsdottir (omtales herunder som stipendiaten) skal utføre innenfor sin doktorgradsavhandling. Prosjektet skal være en del av Senter for nukleær forskning (SNF) som fikk midler vinteren 2023.
Ph.d.-prosjektet er initiert av Inmeta Consulting AS, som igjennom denne ph.d.-stillingen vil bli en del av SNF. Inmeta planlegger en prosjektperiode på fire år, hvor stipendiaten arbeider 75 % med ph.d.-prosjektet og 25 % med vanlig virksomhet hos Inmeta. 
Prosjektet skal undersøke muligheten for kjernekraft som industri i Norge. Dette er både en samfunnsaktuell problemstilling samt en som medlemmene i SNF er interessert i å utforske. Stipendiaten kommer derfor til å samarbeide med alle aktørene som er involvert i senteret og benytte forskningsdata fra dem. Dette gjelder da spesielt Institutt for energiteknikk (IFE) som har mest grunnlagsdata som er relevant for dette prosjektet.
Kandidaten ferdigstilte en masteroppgave høsten 2020 i kjernefysikk på Universitetet i Oslo (UiO) og har derfor gode og relevante grunnkunnskaper for å ta på seg et slikt prosjekt. I tillegg har kandidaten tre års erfaring innenfor energibransjen, og er derfor oppdatert på industrien og forstår deres problemstillinger godt.

Er kjernekraft aktuelt for Norge?

InART is recognized as one of the main conference series in the field of Heritage Science and since its first edition in 2013 (Evora, Portugal) it mainly focused on the contribution of natural sciences to the field. A major change occurred after the COVID-19 pandemic, when a greater number of researchers from different branches of heritage science participated in InART 2022 (Paris, France). 
InART is an open platform for knowledge-sharing among professionals in the field of Heritage Science, including conservation.
These aspects are covered by the main conference topics:
•	Development of new tools (devices, technology, software, etc.), advanced data analysis and FAIR data management
•	Development and/or implementation of new methods and routines (diagnostic and conservation) for the understanding of heritage materials, techniques, and degradation processes (chemical, physical and biological)
•	Development, testing (includes mechanical testing), and characterization of new materials for conservation (special attention to green conservation treatments)
•	Application of non-invasive/non-destructive techniques
•	Preventive conservation: environmental monitoring techniques and climate/microclimate effects on the conservation of heritage sites and exposed objects.

Heritage science is a highly multidisciplinary research field. Consequently, topics covered during the InArt2024 conference can be approached from different points of view and the conference aims to merge natural sciences and conservation, providing a dynamic space for active interaction, scientific exchange, and debates on the central issues of heritage science research. InART2024 welcomes contributors from diverse fields to join and create an interdisciplinary discussion about cultural heritage conservation within the fields of archaeological objects, artworks, built heritage, etc.

6th International Conference on Innovation in Art Research and Technology

Applied Biocatalysis is the development through science and engineering of useful biological catalysts and their commercial applications. The BNCM 2024 conference has an intention to gather approx. 100 international and national scientists from academia and industry in addition to PhD students from the international community. BNCM 2024 will be the 7th in this series of meetings with attendees from both academia and industry presenting and discussing the newest research in enzyme catalysed reactions in other media than water. The conference series was started in 1986 by professors Hans Tramper and Urs von Stockar, University of Wageningen, the Netherlands, and has later been chaired in Russia, Italy and Germany before Elisabeth Jacobsen at NTNU was give the honor of chairing the conference.  Collaboration in biocatalysis research has been supported by EU Frameworks as three subsequent COST actions. The first action, COST Action D25 "Applied Biocatalysis. Stereoselective and environmentally friendly reactions catalysed by enzymes " (2001-2007) was initiated and chaired by professor Thorleif Anthonsen, NTNU, the founder of the Biocatalysis Group at NTNU, which the project leader of this conference now chair. The strategy of applied biocatalysis fits well under the definitions of white biotechnology and Sustainable chemistry (Suschem) and fits also well with the EU Green Deal Strategy.

7th International Conference on Biocatalysis in Non-Conventional Media

End-to-End Green House Gas (GHG) Monitoring Service

Sustainable cultivation of polychaetes as feed in aquaculture

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

Midlene fra DIV-INT-Annet internasjonalt samarbeid fordelt på år

Midlene fra DIV-INT-Annet internasjonalt samarbeid fordelt på fylker

Midlene fra DIV-INT-Annet internasjonalt samarbeid fordelt på fagområde

Professor

Symposiet arrangeres hvert fjerde år og har bred internasjonal deltakelse. Norge er valgt som arrangør på bakgrunn av den aktive rollen Norge har hatt i internasjonal ozonforskning og i arbeidet med tiltak for å redusere utslipp av ozonnedbrytende stoffer .

Internasjonalt Ozonsymposium i Tromsø
29. juni til 5.juli 2008

Convective rainfalls are of enormous importance for agriculture and water resource management in semi-arid areas such as Central-North-Eastern South Africa, where more than 50% of the country population is concentrated. This project will contribute into t he redress and capacity development of the South African Universities in the area of micro-meteorology and adaptation to changing environment such as climate change or urbanization. This redress will be achieved through promotion of micro-meteorological e ducation and research on the basis of the most recent advances in the theoretical understanding (non-local and roughness turbulence theories) and numerical modelling (large-eddy and non-hydrostatic simulations). The main beneficiaries will be historically  disadvantaged and indigenes The project will give to their representatives the necessarily knowledge, field equipment and inexpensive numerical tools to rational landscape planning to support sustainable agricultural and air quality management. Impossibl e without extensive collaboration, the project will link established international consortiums driving all necessarily research components and lead them to attack the convection and rainfall problem successfully. An absolutely novel, and thus risky, eleme nt of the project, is a study of possibility to control the micro-meteorological processes through rational landscape management. In the case of success, it may bring major benefits to humanity, in the third world where other means to improve environmenta l conditions could be too costly.

Analysis and Possibility for Control of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Processes to Facilitate Adaptation to Environmental Changes

The success in combating AIDS may depend upon whether we are able to support women´s agency and emerging leadership roles, overcome the overly moralist and curative discourse of AIDS and extend the field to include a deeper, communal healing approach. Thi s must include women´s yearning for radical social change, be alert to a new field of ritual invention and appropriation at the interface of Christian and indigenous resources. In this field mother´s try to protect their daughters, rework violent experien ces and invoke new hopes for the future by renegotiating faith and what it means to live womanly with balanced social relations. The yearning for change has the effect of ongoing creative activity in reconstituting rituals and making them new and powerful  in the present. Our research will be based on ethnographic and narrative methods and contribute to an understanding for why women re-appropriate African indigenous knowledge systems in order to find tools for healing and fight for social and gendered cha nges. What do these resources consist of, and to what extent do they include visions of new partnership models between women and men? Which roles do mediators as male and female Sangomas play in interpreting, bridging and filling them with power? It is im portant to learn how this work is orchestrated socially and incorporated ritually to help guard integrity and boundary of the subject. Re-appropriation of tradition is not a culturally or politically innocent move but is itself in need of critical examina tion, in our case, with the discipline of theology and its critical discourse on autonomy versus interdependence. This study provides new knowledge for critical gender studies and the religious construction of gendered personhood. It raises critical quest ions for how we construct interventions in the field by asking how we can contribute to building healing communities of active prevention and self-education.

Broken Women, Healing Traditions? Indigenous resources for gender Critique and Social transformation in the Context of AIDS in South Africa.

The effects of environmental pollutants on human health are often subtle, long-term, sometimes transgenerational and difficult to measure even in long-term epidemiological studies in large populations. There is therefore a need for comprehensive research that monitors the concentration and distribution of toxic substances in humans. A number of persistent toxic substances are recognised as being responsible for adverse development and health effect in children. The growing foetus and newborn child are esp ecially sensitive to the toxic effects of many environmental pollutants, and several of them move from mother to foetus via the umbilical cord and to the child via mother's milk. Of particular concern are long-term, subtle effects that might influence rep roductive health, pregnancy outcomes, reduce defence against diseases, affect the children?s mental development, or increase the risk of cancer.

Within this project we intend to obtain data on the current levels in mother?s blood and milk of DDT and othe r pesticides used for malaria vector control and/or in agriculture in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, to evaluate the exposure to foetuses and children of the target chemicals, and to investigate if their main source is the malaria control programme or agricultur e. We will take samples from areas where there is an active malaria vector control with DDT and other compounds and from areas where malaria vector control is not needed. In KwaZulu-Natal such areas are located quite close to each other and have essential ly the same conditions for agriculture and social life. We, therefore, expect to be able to distinguish between pesticide residues that are due to malaria control activities and those that have other sources, e.g., agriculture. The data will be compared w ith general medical history, reproductive outcome and child development. Ultimately the data can be used in policy decisions on appropriate malaria vector control procedures.

DDT and "current use pesticides" in mothers and children in a malaria control area in South Africa

The question of the gender in relation to rhetoric studies understood as the discipline tasked with studying public argumentation and popular deliberative practices that are at the heart of a social and liberal democracy, has undergone radical development s in the past twenty years. It has led to a diversification of rhetoric theory and practice concerning democracy and deliberation, and, in keeping with Third Wave Feminism, has made rhetoric studies a field of excellence to re-examine gender-in-politics. 

South Africa's consolidated democracy stands firmly by its constitutional principle of non-discrimination on the basis of gender as well as a sustained policy of gender redress and progress (if 52% percent of South Africans are women, 29% are elected to wn councillors and 18% are mayors, while their ratio in Parliament is one of the highest among democratic states). South Africa offers a field of enquiry on the rhetoric of gender on a new and challenging scale, unknown before in the South, while Norway p rovides a touchstone or reference for achieving gender parity.

The project will establish:
1) A typological understanding of what rhetoric studies call 'ideographs'or how the media construct visual arguments regarding, in this case, gender.
2) A typology  of verbal arguments concerning gender as they are played out in the public arena (political and corporate) with regard to policy making, whether the issues are or are not gendered (examples: rape crimes, or defence policy).
3) A typology of what rhetoric  calls 'taken-for-granted', that is, sets of arguments and styles or arguing which operate without public debaters or agents being aware of their usage and effect on audiences.

Our aim is to make a significant contribution to gender studies and to rhetor ic studies by providing historical, theoretical and practical comparative analyses about women as subjects of public deliberation and as objects for public deliberation.

Gender in the Deliberative Public Sphere

NIVA and CGS are to embark on a pilot study to develop methodologies and techniques to determine ecological footprints and volumetric contributions for apportioning liability for sustainable management of pollution and water ingress into underground gold mine openings of the Witwatersrand Central Basin, South Africa.

Water is ingressing into the underground mine voids in the Central Rand Basin of the Witwatersrand, necessitating dewatering of operational areas through pumping.  Such pumping also ensures avoidance of sterilization of remaining gold reserves.

The CGS has been tasked by the South African Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) to identify sustainable management options to, amongst other objectives, apportion liability of costs to polluters  and/or contributors to ingress and water contamination.

Furthermore, regional mine closure strategies are being developed to ensure that there is a financial provision for sustainable environmental management, once mining operations cease.  Based upon t he polluter pays principle adopted by the DME, apportioning of such financial liability in the industrial area of the Central Rand Basin and environs is critical to implement such mine closure strategies.  A scientific basis for such apportionment is plan ned in this pilot project.  This groundbreaking approach has not been attempted anywhere else in the world, and would serve as a pilot approach for other areas similarly impacted by mining operations in South Africa, and further afield in areas of Africa where an immature mining industry exists.

Apportioning liability for environmental problems is a contentious issue with high potential for legal objections from identified impactors or contributors. The involvement of NIVA, an independent, impartial, non -partisan, and credible international water research institution would bring legitimacy to the research and apportionment process likely to reduce the risk of objections from affected parties.

Witwatersrand Central Basin Mine Water Apportionment Pilot Study

The black population expected redistribution of land when the apartheid regime fell. However, ther land reform had a rather slow start but the redistribution program is now speeding up. Close to 15.000 households are now receiving grants each year, which is mainly used to buy land which was earlier part of large estates owned by white comercial farmers. The South African Land Reform Program first only benefited poor families, but more successfull entrepreneurs can now recieve grants to as part of the blac k empowerment approach. As land redistribution speeds up, it becomes vital to analyse the experience until now in order to make 
program as usefull as possible towards it twin ends: (i) poverty aliviation and income restribution and (ii) black empowerment .

We will have access to a novel cross section data set from the Quality of Life 2005 survey made by the South African Land Reform Program. It's spesific design with 2000 program beneficiaries and 2000 pairwise "identical" non-beneficiaries opens for val id impact assessment of the program. The large number of observations furthermore makes it possible to single out the caracteristics of the households and communities that have been able to improve their lives through the land grants compared to the less successfull ones. Are the individual caracteristics like education that is most important, or to access to infrastructure, transport and the local institutions and social capital more important? What is the role of regional differences that is already ref lected in the existing income distribution. 

The results from this econometric analysis is the starting point for a quantitative field studies that will disclose the dynamics of how the significant variables actually affects the results. This will be a s eparate result in itself, and in addition opens for more spesific design of the econometric models in a second iteration.

Land at last - Criteria for success in South African land redistribution

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global public health concern. Approximately 2 million people die per year from TB, with South East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe showing the highest levels of new cases and deaths. South Africa is one of the  countries with the highest number of TB cases per capita.  Recent advances in TB research have shown that the global TB epidemic is caused by many different variants of the causative agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  Furthermore, research suggests that the properties of the different types of M. tuberculosis may have changed.  These new forms of M. tuberculosis may be able to spread more rapidly, cause more disease, evade the effects of vaccination or reinfect individuals who have had a previous episode  of TB.  However, despite these advances in our understanding, the mechanisms underlying these different forms of M. tuberculosis  remain to be determined.  In this study we aim to determine whether the different forms of M. tuberculosis are caused by dif ferences in the way proteins are modified.  To our knowledge no study has been done to measure which of the M. tuberculosis proteins are modified and how this modification could change the proteins function.  Furthermore it is not known whether the patter ns of modification will change during different growth phases, during nutrient starvation, during hypoxia, and whether these patterns of modification will differ between the different forms of M. tuberculosis.  Changes in the patterns of protein modificat ion may provide novel insights into mechanisms regulating bacterial growth.  Such information may enable the identification of pathways regulating latent infection, pathogenicity and virulence.  These modified proteins will be important targets for the de signs of novel anti-tuberculosis drugs and may be candidates for the design of new anti-tuberculosis vaccines.

Characterization of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis phosphorylome and its role in pathogenesis

This is a proposal for a multi-disciplinary research project involving the academic fields of public health and informatics that will link two universities in South Africa (University of Pretoria, Department of Informatics,  and the University of Western Cape, School of Public Health), and the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo, Norway. The interdisciplinary nature of this consortium is highly relevant to address research in two areas of health management information systems that are high ly relevant in the current South African context, namely the integration of information systems across functional areas (e.g. integration of vertical programs such as nutrition and HIV/AIDS), and the integration of different types of data, namely: patient  based data, statistical routine data and routine survey data (such as a waiting times and efficiency survey) in a single system. 

We address three areas identified in the call for proposals, namely the health and medical sciences (with emphasis on mothe r and child health, public and community based health, preventative health and nutrition), HIV/AIDS (including non-clinical and multi-sectoral perspectives), and information and communication technology. 

We propose two hypotheses, firstly that effective  information systems (IS) and systematic use of information, and pragmatic perspectives on implementation of information systems will significantly increase quality, equity and accessibility of services. Secondly, that better integration of HIS across ver tical programs and incorporation of routine surveys will significantly enhance the overall information system and the information available for each program. An action research methodology is proposed. An important consideration is the fact that the conso rtium already has a proven track record of experience and existing networks in the countries mentioned, and will thus quickly be able to scale up initiatives in support of the research agenda.

Integrated Health Information Systems for Public Health in South Africa

Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of death worldwide. Impaired coronary circulation in the heart following a myocardial ischemic episode will lead to compromised hemodynamic function and ultimately cell death. Coronary reperfusion is the only  means of limiting infarct size, provided that it occurs early after coronary occlusion, but may paradoxically directly result in tissue injury (lethal reperfusion injury). The management of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has improved dra matically with the widespread use of thrombolytic and antiplatelet therapy as well as mechanical disruption of the occlusive coronary thrombus or plaque. Even so, attention has turned to adjunctive pharmacologic treatments to enhance myocardial tolerance to ischemia/reperfusion induced stress. This strategy is being pursued in an attempt to further reduce mortality in patients undergoing reperfusion therapy.This project is part of a translational effort dedicated to the development of new therapeutic prot ocols for the identification and validation of novel therapeutic targets in the treatment of acute myocardial ischemia (AMI) and reperfusion injury, in addition to development of novel MRI imaging protocols and sequences to be used in both clinical and ex perimental settings. The project will utilize state-of-the-art technologies in global gene expression analysis, retroviral vector RNAi technology, functional in vivo validation by inducible siRNA transgenic mouse model targeting candidate genes regulated by insulin therapy at reperfusion, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Overall, this research program will provide greater insight into the genetic mechanisms orchestrating insulin pro-survival effects, providing new targets for therapeutic interventi on in the context of ischemia/reperfusion injury in patients and implementation of more advanced and sensitive MRI protocols and sequences for studying progression of AMI in patients.

A Translational Effort to Develop Novel Magnetic Resonance Imaging Protocols and Sequences for Studying Myocardial Lethal Reperfusion Injury

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in developing countries as well as in the Republic of South Africa (RSA). Despite significant strides in case detection and treatment, the prevalence of TB continues to rise at an alarming, also in the RS A. More effective diagnostic methods are required as early diagnosis is the cornerstone of effective TB control. The inexpensive standard Mantoux skin test which is currently used to identify TB suffers from poor specificity and poor positive predictive v alue (PPV) because the antigens are present in environmental bacteria as well as in the BCG vaccine. The ESAT-6 antigens are specific for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), the causative agent of TB. New blood-based in vitro IFN-gamma release assays (IGRA s), based on ESAT-6 antigens, are more specific than the Mantoux skin test and have shown to have enhanced sensitivity in diagnosing active TB disease in HIV-infected and malnourished HIV-infected children. We hereby propose to evaluate the diagnostic val ue and utility of the new ESAT-6-based IGRAs to detect M.tb infection and predict TB disease in HIV-infected and uninfected South African children.

TB drugs are often administered to malnourished individuals, despite the fact that specific micronutrient deficiencies may negatively affect drug kinetics, decrease their efficacy and increase their toxicity. A randomised controlled trial will assess the effect of adjunctive micronutrient supplementation, administered as part of the established Directly Obser ved Treatment Short-course (DOTS), on treatment outcome among pulmonary TB patients. Depending on the magnitude and range of effects, the data from this trial could lead to national and international policy recommendations to include micronutrient supplem entation as an adjunct to standard anti-TB treatment.

Nutritional intervention and novel diagnostics to improve community-based control of tuberculosis

The dependency on critical habitats, such as estuaries, represents a bottleneck in the life-history of many exploited fishery species. The proposed project aims to assess the management implications of estuarine dependency in two important South African c oastal fishery species, spotted grunter (Pomadasys commersonnii) and dusky kob (Argyrosomus japonicus). 
The poor stock status of both species has been ascribed, in part, to the overexploitation of juveniles during their obligatory dependence on estuarine  habitats. A rational management plan for these species cannot be developed without explicit information on their movement patterns and ontogenetic use of estuaries. Despite heavy exploitation of juveniles within estuaries, the same stocks also support co astal and marine fisheries. Therefore, successful management for these species relies on knowledge of their dispersal characteristics, migrations between estuaries and the sea, and the possible movements between neighbouring, nearby and/or other estuaries . 
This study will assess ontogenetic changes in habitat use and the movement patterns of individuals between their natal estuary, other estuaries and coastal areas, using otolith microchemistry and acoustic telemetry methods. The results will provide imp roved knowledge on two of South Africa's most data-deficient fisheries, namely estuarine and subsistence fisheries, and be used to (i) evaluate the role of single estuaries in the production and export of juveniles to coastal fisheries, (ii) evaluate the role of protected areas as a management option to assist with restoring spawner stock biomass levels, (iii) develop an appropriate management procedure to ensure sustainability, and (iv) form the scientific basis for capacity building and education of stu dents. 
The project promotes capacity building, equity redress and research excellence through collaboration during fieldwork and publication of project results.

Assessment of estuary dependency and management of two important fishery species

Agricultural trade liberalization is high on the agenda for the World Trade Organisation, specifically underscoring the potential positive effects for the world?s poor. This project will study how better international market access will ?trickle down? to rural livelihoods in the developing world. The project focuses on the effects from trade to rural economic growth and development. Based on a theoretical analysis of these effects both short run and long run effects will be studied, using data from South Africa. The project will study both the direct effects for agricultural products, and indirect effects from improved market access.

DIV-INT-Annet internasjonalt samarbeid

Internasjonalt Ozonsymposium i Tromsø 29. juni til 5.juli 2008

Awarded: NOK 0.14 mill.

Summary

Funding scheme:

DIV-INT-Annet internasjonalt samarbeid

Funding Sources

Thematic Areas and Topics