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Prosjektet «Wheelchair Activity Monitoring» (WHAM) sikter både på å øke fysisk aktivitet blant rullestolbrukere, og på å bidra til bredere mål om mangfold og inkludering av personer med nedsatt mobilitet, ved å fremme større tilgjengelighet og deltakelse gjennom innovativ teknologi og forskning.

Rullestolbrukere er tre til fem ganger mindre aktive enn den generelle befolkningen, noe som øker risikoen for å utvikle forebyggbare sykdommer. Selv om det finnes retningslinjer for fysisk aktivitet som er tilpasset rullestolbrukere, trenger vi fortsatt effektive måter å implementere disse på samt nøyaktig teknologi for å spore mulige endringer i fysisk aktivitet. WHAM har som mål å bidra til økt fysisk aktivitet blant rullestolbrukere ved å lage digitale verktøy for å monitorere og gi tilbakemelding på rullestolbrukerens aktivitet. WHAM består av tre faser: to år ved University of British Columbia (UBC), som inkluderer et samarbeid med eksperter innen atferdsendrings-intervensjoner for rullestolbrukere; ett år ved Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet (NTNU) og et halvt år ved Maastricht Instruments - de to siste fasene er viet til å utvikle de digitale teknologiene. 

WHAMs mål er:
1)	Å teste effekten av et treningsprogram på fysisk aktivitetsnivå og fitness blant rullestolbrukere,
2)	Å utvikle nøyaktige algoritmer for monitorering av fysisk aktivitet blant rullestolbrukere,
3)	Å lage et system som både monitorerer og gir tilbakemelding på fysisk aktivitet blant rullestolbrukere.

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) behavioral 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.

Topfinancing - 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.

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)

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?

Potetskrell, et biprodukt fra industriproduksjon av potet (pommes frites, flak, chips mm.) er en råstoff ressurs som kan bli bedre utnyttet til nye formål. Skrellet er nemlig en rik kilde på antioksidanter, stoffer som planter naturlig har i seg for å beskytte mot skadelige UV-stråler og reaktive forbindelser som oksygen radikaler. Antioksidanter behøver vi også å tilsette i matvarer for å beskytte og ta vare på umettet fett så det ikke blir harskt og vondt i kontakt med luft. I dag brukes flere ulike syntetiske stoffer i matvarer for å hindre oksidasjon av fett og oljer. Men det er reist bekymring rundt sikkerheten for bruken av dem. Matvareindustrien, myndigheter og forbruker ønsker derfor å fjerne flere syntetiske antioksidanter og erstatte dem med naturlig alternativer. Det er imidlertid svært få slike produkter som er godkjent og tilgjengelig på markedet. Prosjektet Peel Preserve, som har et klart bærekraft mål, skal vise om et uttrekk av antioksidanter laget på industrielt potetskrell råstoff kan fungere som konserveringsmiddel og erstatte noen av de stoffene som brukes i dag. Tre næringsmiddelbedrifter skal teste potetskrell-ekstraktet i noen av sine produkter og utføre både interne og eksterne analyser på effekten. Men en viktig forutsetning for at potetantioksidant kan tas i bruk som nytt tilsetningsstoff i mat er at det blir godkjent av den Europeiske matsikkerhets myndigheten (EFSA) og gitt et E-nummer. Prosjektet skal igangsette denne lengre flertrinns godkjennings prosessen. Parallelt skal det utvikles en forretningsmodell og nødvendig beskyttelse rundt teknologien. Dersom industrien etter testingen av potetantioksidanten, vurderer denne som er god erstatning til konkurransedyktig pris, og en EFSA-godkjenning kan oppnås på sikt, åpner det for å kommersialisere et naturlig plante-basert produkt til beste for forbruker og for miljøet. Bak prosjektet Peel Preserve står Høgskolen i Innlandet i samarbeid med Nofima og Klosser Innovasjon.

Preserving foods with potato peels: Industry-relevant validation and first regulatory assessment of a new natural antioxidant

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

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

Midlene fra IS-RWE-Musikksamarbeid Norge-Tyskland fordelt på år

Midlene fra IS-RWE-Musikksamarbeid Norge-Tyskland fordelt på fylker

Midlene fra IS-RWE-Musikksamarbeid Norge-Tyskland fordelt på fagområde

Cellostudent ved HMTM Hannover søker pengestøtte.

Inspirasjonskilder som masrerclass, kurs, instrument og generelle utgifter i forhold til universitetsplassen er finansielle utfordringer og et stipend vil være til stor hjelp.

Fremtidige mål med tyskland soppholdet er å skaffe så mye kunnskap som mulig, utvikle meg selv som musiker og medmenneske, og se ting på nye måter. Her i Hannover jobber jeg med å skaffe meg en god base for fokusert øving og mye ny lærdom. Jeg møter hele tiden nye, spennende musiker e, både lærere og medstudenter, og innleder stadig nye, inspirerende samarbeid. Etter å ha fullført bachelor-graden, er planen å studere master. 

Jeg håper søknaden blir vurdert positivt, og at vi høres igjen! Et stipend vil være til stor glede og inspir asjon for videre studier, og vil åpne for flere muligheter.

Cello - Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. "Künstnerliche Ausbildung, Bachelor of Music".

The information revolution over the recent decades has changed how we think about consumption and production over a wide range of goods and services. Factors such as the consumer's limited choice possibilities at a given budget and the cost structure on t he production side has shown to be limited in explaining outcomes of markets for information goods. Rather elements such as lock-in, incomplete information, product heterogeneity, and network effects are considered to be of importance in explaining market  outcomes. In this research project I will develop theoretical models with the aim of explaining equilibrium outcomes under certain market condition with a special emphasis on software products. My research is organized in two sub-projects:
Sub-project 1:  Software piracy and its impact on commercial vs. open source software competition: In a market characterized by network externalities, how does the presence of software piracy affect pricing incentives of commercial software developers in competition wit h a free of charge open source competitor? What are the consequences for the competitive outcome? The results suggest that a combination of strong network effects and high degree of differentiation between products are likely to result in a market dominat ed by commercial software conditional on a initial competitive advantage in size of the installed base.
Sub-project 2: Platform competition with social networks on the buyer side:
Markets where buyers and seller interact over platforms such as operating s ystems and game consoles are called two-sided markets. Since sellers care about how many individuals they can sell to, and buyers care about the quality and quantity of the products sold over the platform, multiple Nash equilibria can emerge. This sub-pro ject aims to identify likely market outcomes whenever buyers engage in social networks, and their utility depends on the choices made by agents in their network in addition to the content available on platforms.

Competition in network goods markets

The mobile researcher, Amir Taherkordi, started his postdoctoral position at the University of Oslo (UiO) in December 2012, working broadly on software design, distribution and adaptation for embedded systems, sensor networks, and IoT systems. Amir is inv ited to carry out a 6-month research visit to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburg, USA. The computer science school of CMU has a long-standing research effort on software architecture design and dynamic adaptation of software systems. Over past  few years, they have particularly focused on Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) from the software architecture viewpoint. CPSs are the next computing revolution with applications in medical systems, environmental control, safety and control, etc. CPS applicatio ns are primarily expected to be reliable, safe and secure (i.e., dependability). To meet these requirements, the CPS software system should support dynamic software adaptation. The special attributes of CPSs, such as high complexity and high degrees of au tomation and control make software adaptation a unique challenging issue in this domain. This project aims to address this from two complementary views: system-view and architecture-view. UiO has long experience in addressing the former for embedded syste ms, while CMU has been focusing on the latter for conventional software platforms over past decades. This joint project is aimed at proposing a generic adaptation software framework, including the software architectural model, for CPSs that promises a sol id and reusable software solution for dynamic adaptation of CPSs. Using this framework, the stakeholders in this domain (developers of CPSs in the industry and the academia) will be able to produce more dependable software for CPSs with less development e ffort.

Adaptable Software for Dependable Cyber-Physical Systems

Civil war remains a global challenge. Justice processes are often offered as solutions to prevent conflict reoccurrence; yet, little work has been undertaken to understand the prevalence of practices while conflict is ongoing. New data and historical case s show that trials, truth commissions, reparations, as well as alternative accountability measures such as amnesties, purges, and exiles are often implemented during violence. The current literature provides little theoretical understanding as to when and  why during-conflict justice processes are implemented and their likely effect on the duration of conflict and durability of peace. To address these deficiencies, support is requested from the Leiv Eiriksson mobility programme to support the travel and re search visit of Dr. Cyanne E. Loyle from West Virginia University for a three-month stay at the Peace Research Institute Oslo. During this time Dr. Loyle will work with Drs. Helga Malmin Binningsbø and Scott Gates to finalize the theoretical development a nd data analysis to advance our existing research collaboration on government's use of transitional justice during ongoing armed conflict. We will examine which justice processes, if any, a government implements during internal armed conflicts, in which c ontexts such processes are pursued, as well as what are the most likely outcomes from these interventions. The long-term goal of our efforts is to establish the rationale for the implementation of justice processes in relation to internal armed conflicts  during the violence, as part of political transitions and after such conflicts occur and to understand the likely outcomes of this implementation. Our overarching motivation is the desire to increase our understanding of the use and possible utility of du ring-conflict justice for the termination of ongoing conflicts leading to more effective conflict termination strategies and shortening the duration of civil conflict.

Understanding Justice During Conflict

Humanitarian logistics is about disaster preparedness, response, and recovery, and accounts for 60-80% of total costs with huge improvement potential. Project objectives are to establish cooperation with US humanitarian logistics research centre(s). Build ing on action research, the project will develop pedagogical tools for forecasting demand in disasters and for mapping capacities in disaster prone countries, and test these with GaTech-, MIT- and other post-graduate students, followed by co-authored pape rs in scientific journals. 
Critical R&D challenges are the gap between practice and research in management, and discussions about relevance vs. rigour, in general and in logistics, operations ? and supply chain management specifically. Action research ca n be one solution to obtaining both relevance and rigor, but is a relatively recent approach in the field, literature reporting few studies. This in spite of being an area that should be particularly well suited, given that the point of action research is  to experiment on real problems designed to assist in solution. Humanitarian logistics in particular lacks practical relevance and the literature does not report any action research. The main R & D challenge for the first study is that while practice reli es on needs assessment that have proven inadequate for the purpose of efficient planning and response, prevailing research claims that there is lack of data for demand forecasting. Our research will demonstrate that there is data and how it can be used fo r planning. For the second study, the main R & D challenge is to understand how disaster prone countries can prepare for disasters, building their own competence and capacity, and for what they need international assistance. 
Anticipated use of project fi ndings constitute the tools potential for improving practice and teaching. Results will contribute to more understanding of action research in humanitarian logistics in particular, and SCM & management in general.

Improving humanitarian logistics through action research - Disaster Relief Supply Chain Management

The current measurement accuracy of marine electromagnetic data facilitates using the technology to study fainter targets and also smaller geological details. Resolving these data responses by imaging software can be challenging when the magnitude of data  variations are dominated by variations in other geological features. This can be the case e.g. for a rough seafloor topography, presence of islands, or a coastline near the survey area. Although e.g. the seafloor topography can be measured to very high a ccuracy, the processing and imaging tools must accurately determine the effect on measured responses. 

Unlike the more commonly used rectangular grids, the use of unstructured meshes can accurately represent the effect of tilts and roughness in the geomo del. This is achieved by the arbitrary placement of grid nodes that facilitates tilted structure, and mesh spacing can be made denser in proximity of local geometrical distortions.

In this project, we will develop new 3D inversion software based on 3D un structured tetrahedral mesh representations and the finite-element approach to modeling. The computational complexity of such an approach is a significant R&D challenge, and we will develop an efficient inversion algorithm that can utilize the new modelin g approach to process large-scale datasets.

The new software will be applied to process a 3D real field dataset where current modeling approaches are known to be a limiting factor. The project will generate new knowledge both in the domain of numerical m ethods for processing of marine EM data and marine geology. The resulting software will enable processing of data acquired in the most complex environments, and the results from real field data processing will be submitted for publication in an internatio nal journal.

EMGS visiting researcher at Scripps Marine EM laboratory

Because of its presumed indicative and predictive relationship to social integration processes, rates and trends of intermarriage have been widely studied by social scientists throughout the 20th century, in recent decades followed by studies of the deter minants of intermarriage. Much of this research has assumed that spouse selection is intimately linked to labor market assimilation. Still, there have been few efforts to study the effects of intermarriage, and evidence concerning its consequences for eco nomic assimilation is recent and ambiguous.

This backdrop constitutes the rationale of this research mobility project. Benefiting from Norwegian register data, the project will provide novel evidence on the relationship between social integration and lab or market assimilation among immigrants and their descendants in Norway. One scientific article will compare the two principal methods applied in the literature to identify the causal effect of intermarriage on labor outcomes. Another scientific article w ill investigate the mechanisms through which this relationship is established more concretely. Both of these works will be greatly facilitated by a stay at UC Berkeley, particularly through collaboration with leading scholars in the areas of quantitative  sociology, integration and stratification research.

In addition to the publication of these articles in high-quality journals, the objectives of the mobility project include presentations at specific prestigious conferences (ASA and PAA), participation i n the Departmental Colloquium Series at UC Berkeley, and both improving a working research network and generate new routes of cooperation between quantitative sociologists in Oslo and Berkeley. 

The project will pioneer analyses of spouse selection and e conomic assimilation using quantitative methods and Norwegian register data, and will provide important knowledge relevant to current concerns and debates over integration, immigration and labor market policies.

Will You Assimilate Me? Intermarriage and Economic Assimilation for Immigrants in Norway

Over the past 30 years high blood pressure and diabetes, i.e. lifestyle-related causes, have become the most important kidney failure risks. The treatment is among the most expencive in medicine, patients have a low quality of life, and mortality rates ar e compareable to breastcancer with metastases.

However, treatment started in the early stages could be much more effective, but little is known about the metabolic changes induced by lifestyle related kidney disease. Such knowledge is potentially importa nt for finding new treatment options and markers of serious disease. 

NTNU Kidney Research Group have published many studies on early kidney disease in high-ranked international journals using epidemiological data from the HUNT studies. However, to move  forwards more basic research is needed. We collaborate closely with the Department of Biotechnolgy at NTNU, which has a large laboratory with state-of-the-art instruments for analysing small molecules (metabolomics; "the systematic study of the unique che mical fingerprints that specific cellular processes leave behind"). However, no research groups in Norway have much experience with such analysis in urine. 

University of California, San Diego represent an exciting mix of several research methods. The Ra ncho Bernando cohort represents a long and strong experience in epidemiological research. UCSD School of Medicine is among the top 10 US institutions in clinical kidney medicine. They are also running a highly reputated metabolomics laboratory studying di abetes nephropathy. Recently, UCSD was established as one of four US core facilities for metabolomics research.

Our research plan is now to continue to develop and run urine analysis her at NTNU for the next 12 months and then visit UCSD for general disc ussions, learn about new metabolomic techniques, run new analysis on our urine samples, and get help from world-class scientists in the very complicated interpretation our urine results.

Chronic kidney disease in Nord-Trøndelag: Risk evaluation and screening tests using clinical epidemiology and modern laboratory techniques.

The indoor environment is important for health and well-being of the general population, but the health impact of a number of indoor pollutants is poorly characterised. In the proposed project we focus on phthalates, a group of chemicals that leak out fro m plastics and are present in most indoor environments. Epidemiological studies concerning both indoor environment and occupational exposures have linked phthalates to development and exacerbation of asthma and allergy, but the involved mechanisms are lar gely unknown.  

To investigate the effects of phthalates on airway immunology we will perform a controlled human inhalation study. The focus will be on the upper airways (bronchi, trachea and nose) and effects on recruitment, activation and functionality  of immune cells. We will recruit allergen-sensitized individuals which will allow us to investigate if the phthalate inhalation modulates the inflammatory response after a nasal allergen challenge. 

The project will provide new knowledge concerning earl y effects of phthalate inhalation on airway immunology and contribute to identification of immunological biomarkers for phthalate exposure. Important outcomes of the project will be its contribution to risk assessment, identification of potential biomarke rs for human inhalation exposure to phthalates, and deeper understanding of the overall toxicology of phthalates.

Effects of phthalate inhalation on airway immunology: a controlled human exposure study

The Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project (SBBRP) is the world's most projective bear project (perhaps the most productive large carnivore project) (155 scientific publications in refereed international journals and 18 completed PhD degrees).  It has b een active since 1984 and has captured more than 750 bears, many of which have been followed from birth to death, creating many generations of pedigrees.  I have been invited to spend my sabbatical year from UMB with researchers at the Interagency Grizzly  Bear Research Project at Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, USA and have decided to spend 6 months there.  This project has been active since 1975, has captured 650 bears, and has produced 89 scientific publications in refereed international jou rnals and 1 PhD degree.

Both projects are management-oriented and provide the scientific basis for the management of brown bears in Scandinavia and grizzly bears (same species) in the Yellowstone Ecosystem, respectively.  However, both projects also cond uct basic research that is important for understanding the ecology, life history, and behavior of bears specifically and large carnivores generally.  Thus, we have so much in common that we can benefit from close cooperation and by establishing cooperativ e research projects.  

My primary objective is to start long-term research cooperation based on our existing data bases.  My time with this project also will help me ensure that the SBBRP remains at the international cutting edge of research on large car nivores.

My secondary objective is to work on a scientific book entitled "The Scandinavian brown bear; ecology, life history, behavior, and management of a hunted species".  This book will summarize and synthesize the results from the first 30 years of o ur research project.  I will edit the book and coauthor many chapters in  with our cooperating researchers and former PhD students.  I will propose the book to Island Press, Washington, DC.

Syngery between the world's two most productive bear research projects

.NTNU has identified six thematic interdisciplinary strategic research areas in Climate, Energy, Environment, Health, Food and water. Under these thematic areas, ecotoxicology is an integral aspects of the all areas, particularly climate, environment, wat er and health areas. Indeed, these thematic strategic areas are significant aspects of Norwegian and global initiatives. Climate change and pollution may have significant effects on biological systems and resources, and environment includes natural divers ity, conservation biology and environmental pollution and may have significant consequences for human and environmental health. Arukwe has for the past 6 years been involved in capacity building projects in developing countries (Nigeria, Vietnam and South  Africa) to provide national and global expertise and integrated efforts for environmental solutions. Part of this training program involves the acquisition of expertise through collaborators and transferring those expertise to developing countries. Prof.  Arukwe will spend this period at Prof. Schlenk´s laboratory for specific purposes (1) initiate and involve Prof. Schlenk´s research group on the collaboration between NTNU´s department of Biology and University of Pretoria (South Africa), and (2) learn f rom Schlenk´s experience in hosting an international conference. Prof. Arukwe will host the 18th International conference on ?Pollutants Responses in Marine Organisms? PRIMO 18, in Trondheim Norway, 24-27 May, 2015. PRIMO 16 was hosted in Long Beach Calif ornia 2011 by Prof. Schlenk with big success and learning from that experience will guarantee success for PRIMO 18 in Trondheim. Overall, it is therefore on these notes and for national and global strategic reasons, that we combining efforts in understand ing the role of pollutants on wildlife and environmental health to provide a perfect ?tool? that connects several of these global issues of the 21st century.

Contaminant mediated reproductive and general health effects of an endangered species, The Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus)

The proposed research collaboration utilize data from university strategic plans as a lens for investigating how public universities in the U.S. and Europe have exercised newfound autonomy.  Strategic planning has become a ubiquitous process in higher edu cation, ostensibly linked to universities? long-term goals and resource-planning. These plans involve much of the university community, including academic staff and administrators, and typically provide explicit goals, metrics and identify how to achieve  these goals.  Because of its ubiquity and public nature, it is an appropriate vehicle to assess whether universities are exercising their autonomy in ways that are market-driven and entrepreneurial, and whether these strategies are likely to reduce in dri ft away from public goals. 

The project will compare the strategic plans of over 20 public universities in the US and Europe and will have implications for both policy and practice. Given the current policy emphasis regarding institutional autonomy, it i s of importance to analyse to what extent and how such policies impact the strategies of universities. For the field of higher education research, a comparative study of this kind is novel, and will link up to current discussions about the globalisation o f higher education, and how increased competition between universities impact upon system diversity.

Changing Missions in Public Higher Education: Analyzing Strategic Plans

We propose to continue to build a strong bridge between the highly theoretical work being done at the Cardiac Modeling Group at Simula Research Laboratory with the clinical and experimental expertise at the Cardiac Biomechanics Laboratory from the Univers ity of California, San Francisco (UCSF).   With this collaboration, we intend to continue to combine our expertise to create advanced patient specific cardiac models to answer important scientific questions and to test clinical hypotheses.  

There are tw o main scientific aims to the project.  The first is to leverage the work done in 2013 through a previous travel grant where we created a detailed electromechanical simulation of an infarct injured ventricle.  We plan to continue to use this developed mod eling pipeline, but also to extend its clinical relevance to not only predict how the heart behaves during a single beat, but to how the organ itself changes over time as a result of injury.   The second project will be to use Simula's simulation tools an d UCSF clinical data sets to create clinically relevant cardiac models to test a novel treatment method for heart failure.  We plan to use developed simulations to investigate its mode of action and optimize the treatment.  

In addition to working toward s common scientific goals, this research stay is intended to benefit both the participants through exchange of information.  The face-to-face time enabled by the grant will give UCSF training with our computational tools and allow input into its developme nt cycle, which will provide them with a powerful tool for their continued research. Meanwhile Simula will gain recognition for the dissemination of its software outside of Norway.  Also, this research stay will give Simula the ability to shape clinical e xperiments along their own needs, bringing back specialty data sets that will be both useful in tuning existing mathematical models as well as developing the next generation of tools for clinical simulation.

Electromechanical Models of the Heart as Predictive Clinical Tools

As the population ages there is an increase in degenerative ophthalmic diseases such as age related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Both AMD and RP results in the loss of photoreceptor cells in the eye and there is currently no c ure for these medical conditions. One alternative that may restore vision is by aid of artificial retinal implants. Most of the retinal implants under development are based on micro- nanoelectronic devices, powered by external sources or incident light, t o activate the neural cells present in the eye. These implants face challenges regarding output power, heat production, biocompatibility and signal transduction efficiency. 

The use of light sensitive proteins can be the solution for these challenges. Th e BIRGE research group, together with Lambdavision Inc., has been exploring the photochemical properties of photoactive proteins, such as bacteriorhodopsin (BR), in their retinal implants. BR, when exposed to light, undergoes a photocycle that pumps proto ns which results in a pH gradient that can be used to activate the neural cells. BR has a quantum efficiency of 65% for the first photochemical event and, if targeted with a red photon in the O-state, it can reach an intermediate state (Q-state) which is  stable for more than 10 years. The Q-state is important to inactivate the BR implant in areas of the retina with working native photoreceptors.

Collaborating with the department of micro- and nanosystems technology at Vestfold University College (HiVe) w ill facilitate the construction of a sensor array (eg. CMOS (photo-) pixels) that may simulate the photoreceptor cells in the human eye. This will permit the investigation of a BR based retina system, in the Q-state, prior to clinical trials. 

This proje ct involves challenges regarding the immobilization of the BR on the surface of the sensor array and the stimulation of the BR into different states of its photocycle (eg. programing of the Q-state).

PHOTOSENS - The interaction of photosensitive proteins with microfabricated sensor arrays

This project will enable the completion of a comprehensive dictionary of Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy using the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen to research the origin and development of key terms and views in Wittgenstein's extensive  Nachlass material. The dictionary will include entries for all of the major terms and views involved in Wittgenstein's philosophy as well as for each of Wittgenstein's published works, with references to further reading following each entry. In addition,  the dictionary will include an essay giving an overview of Wittgenstein's philosophy and a detailed timeline of his life and work. The dictionary is to be published by Continuum in the series 'Continuum Philosophy Dictionaries' and is intended to become  the first-choice dictionary for Wittgenstein's thought through its extensive and up-to-date coverage and its balanced, accessible and in-depth presentation of his views. Currently, the dictionary is 50% complete. The project will focus on writing and revi sing entries in five central areas of Wittgenstein's thought to take account of the material in Wittgenstein's Nachlass and comments from peers. The five areas to be completed during the project are the following: Language, Mind, Philosophy, Mathematics,  and Value. Within each area, the project will complete final versions of five to fifteen individual entries, covering one major topic area per month, to complete the dictionary. At the end of the project, the completed manuscript will be submitted to Cont inuum for publication later the same year. The project will also allow for the development and presentation of on-going work-in-progress developing unique accounts of Wittgenstein's philosophical method and his radically revisionary approach to ethical th ought.

The Wittgenstein Dictionary: A Comprehensive Dictionary of Wittgenstein's Philosophy

In this research project, we quantify the joint impact of short-sale and leverage constraints on asset pricing quantities including asset prices, market volatility, and speculative premium. For a stock, the speculative premium  exists when a stock valuati ons of some agents in the economy are different from each other's and different from the market price.
In practice, those two types of constraints are pervasively active and are frequently implemented simultaneously in financial markets. However, due to t echnical challenges, in the existing literature only either type of constraints can be considered. Specifically, in this project, we study an dynamic discrete-time economy where economic agents are heterogeneous both in risk aversion and beliefs, more pes simistic agents face short-sale constraints and less risk averse agents face borrowing constraints. In such an economic setting, constraints are endogenously binding. Moreover, in my model agents have Epstein-Zin recursive preferences. This feature of the  model allows us to match broad empirical asset pricing moments, and quantitatively calculate the magnitudes of the impacts of multiple constraints on the asset pricing quantities of interest.

Main challenge of this research is the simultaneous presences  of multiple constraints and recursive preferences. Multiple constraints, leverage and short-sale, alone already make the model hard to solve because of market incompleteness, which requires to solve for consumptions and investments simultaneously at any  point of time. In continuous time settings, multiple constraints can cause multiple equilibria. In addition, for the two types of constraints to bind endogenously, it is required to model heterogeneity both in beliefs and risk aversion. The benchmark mode l alone is also hard to handle. Recursive preferences makes the model path-dependent. One needs additional state variables to capture this, adding an extra layer of complication to the computation of the model.

Quantitative Equilibrium Impacts of Short-Sale and Leverage Constraints

Fishing commonly targets large more valuable individuals, while small less valuable ones remain in the sea. By selecting the most profitable individuals, fishermen reduce chances that these valuable individuals pass their genes to next generations, a prax is that any animal breeder would consider counterproductive. Moreover, selective fishing leads to changes in life history traits (e.g., maturation, growth), which has repercussion for stock biomass and economic yield. At the UiB we are currently studying  the consequences of size-selective fishing mortality on life history traits in nine experimental populations of guppies. Initial results show that our fishing regime that removes large individuals leads to slower growth and earlier maturation, as life his tory theory predicts. However, little is known on which other traits are affected by selective fishing. Changes in behaviour are the first response to human-induced environmental change, and have been suggested to be a key aspect in the interplay between  ecology, evolution, conservation, and management. Moreover, fisheries can selectively remove specific behaviours (e.g., removal of less fearful individuals or more active ones) from a population, which can have implications for conservation and fishery pr oductivity. Fisheries scientists mostly overlook this behavioural dimension of fishing impact, and knowledge on its consequences is required. Thus, in collaboration with the University of California Davis we aim to address how fishing affects fish behavio ur. We will study behavioural traits under natural selection (anti-predator response) and behaviours related to adaptation to novel conditions (cognition and stress coping). We will compare the behavioural traits of the experimentally harvested population s from UiB and the wild-type populations present at UC Davis, which have been size-selected by natural predators.

Behavioural consequences of fisheries-induced evolution and their potential for population recovery

Schistosoma haematobium (Sh) infection of the female genital tract, known as female genital schistosomiasis (FGS), induces genital lesions that are heavily infiltrated with macrophages and other immune cells. While the drug praziquantel effectively clears  the parasitic infection, it is ineffective at resolving the associated genital lesions in adult women. Interestingly, when the same drug is given during childhood or adolescence, the genital lesions do resolve following parasite clearance. Thus, there se ems to be a switch that happens after sexual maturation that diverts the normal wound healing pathways toward pathways that result instead in intractable fibrosis.

Here we propose to examine potential mechanisms underlying this switch. First we will dete rmine, by a quantitative RT-PCR panel, expression profiles of 8 genes involved in fibrosis and wound healing. We will perform this analysis in urine and blood samples collected from both children and adults with FGS pre- and post-praziquantel treatment. A dditionally, we will do a similar analysis on vaginal lavage samples from the adults in the cohort only. Obtaining a molecular signature of the expression patterns of these genes pre- and post-treatment will provide a good indication of which pathways are  active in resolution or persistence of FGS lesions in response to treatment in the two age groups.

Secondly, we will develop a cell culture system to scrutinize the phenotype of monocyte-derived macrophages isolated from FGS patients and exposed to Sh a ntigens. Since macrophages are known to be modulated by female sex hormones, we will test if the addition of sex hormones, such as those that become highly active in puberty and beyond, modulate the phenotype of the macrophages in culture. Finally, we wil l try to corroborate our in vitro findings with a small pilot study to phenotype tissue macrophages isolated from vaginal lavages of women with FGS, and attempt to correlate phenotype with hormone levels.

IS-RWE-Musikksamarbeid Norge-Tyskland

Cello - Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. "Künstnerliche Ausbildung, Bachelor of Music".

Awarded: NOK 40,000

Summary

Funding scheme:

IS-RWE-Musikksamarbeid Norge-Tyskland

Funding Sources

Thematic Areas and Topics