Norwegian Centre for Research Data

Accurate monitoring of stress hormones is essential forunderstandingphysiological responses and optimizing human performance. Selectiveand precise detection of these biomarkers is particularly importantfor evaluating stress levels in high-demand environments. Herein,we report a multimodal sensor based on zinc oxide tetrapods (ZnO-Ts)for the detection of cortisol and testosterone. The platform integratesfluorescence and electrochemical transduction, enabling a complementaryand highly sensitive analysis. ZnO-Ts exhibited fluorescence quenchingupon interaction with steroid hormones with detection limits of 0.16μg/dL for cortisol and 0.25 μg/dL for testosterone. Stern–Volmerand time-resolved photoluminescence analyses revealed analyte-dependentquenching behavior, with cortisol exhibiting a dynamic quenching componentand testosterone showing static quenching. A solid-state electrochemicalsensor was further fabricated by embedding ZnO-Ts in a poly­(vinylalcohol) matrix and depositing them onto printed silver electrodes,which demonstrated concentration-dependent electrochemical responseswith higher sensitivity toward cortisol. By a combination of opticaland electrochemical readouts, this dual-mode sensing strategy providesrobust, rapid, and scalable hormone monitoring. The platform’sbiocompatibility and duality in identifying two steroidal hormonesselectively underscore its potential for wearable diagnostics andpoint-of-care stress monitoring technologies.

Forskning på helse-, omsorgs- og sosialtjenester, forstått som velferdstjenester, har økt mye og er svært omfattende. Likevel har forskningsfeltet som sådan i liten grad vært gjenstand for egne beskrivelser og analyser. Artikkelformålet er å bidra til konstruksjon av velferdstjenesteforskningsfeltet i norsk kontekst gjennom en konseptuell analyse, typologisering og diskusjon. Historisk og etymologisk er ordet «tjeneste» relatert til en slave- eller hjelpefunksjon (tjener-rolle), mens «velferd» er en omskrivning av det å ferdes vel. I vår tid knyttes velferdstjenestene til institusjoner og ordninger etablert for å støtte folk til å ferdes vel, selv når sykdom, skrøpelighet, inntektstap og sosial nød oppstår. I artikkelen beskrives og diskuteres velferdsfeltets fenomener, tjenester og forskningsområder. Det argumenterer for «velferdstjenesteforskning» som en overordnet betegnelse for forskning innen helse-, omsorgs- og sosialtjenestene. Velferdstjenesteforskning er et tverrvitenskapelig felt som studerer folks velferd, tjenestetilgang og tjenestenes kvalitet og kostnader, og hvordan ulikhet i individuelle, sosiale og materielle vilkår virker inn på dette. Myndighetenes begrepsbruk, tjenesteorganisering og forskningsfinansiering setter ofte premisser for denne forskningen. En konstruktiv velferdstjenesteforskning bør foreta empiriske og teoretiske analyser som bryter med og utfordrer rådende forståelser, for derigjennom å bidra med nye perspektiver og ny innsikt.

I artikkelen beskrives de grensene artikkel 13 i Den europeiske menneskerettskonvensjonen (EMK) angir for når krav om erstatning for ikke-økonomisk skade (oppreisning) kan foreldes, og det vurderes hvordan grensene kan og bør overholdes i norsk rett. Grensene etter EMK gjelder først og fremst spørsmålet om hvordan man skal beregne utgangspunktet for en foreldelsesfrist. Dersom man skal forstå hvilke krav artikkel 13 stiller til beregningen av nasjonale foreldelsesfrister, må bestemmelsen sees i sammenheng med både den «overnasjonale foreldelsesfristen» etter EMK artikkel 35 nr. 1 og retten til domstolstilgang etter artikkel 6. Disse gir uttrykk for minstekrav som må gjelde etter artikkel 13. Kravene innebærer at nasjonale foreldelsesfrister må beregnes basert på en bredere vurdering enn den foreldelsesloven (fl.) § 9 legger opp til. Man må ta hensyn til karakteren av myndighetenes konvensjonsbrudd, krenkelsens alvor og den konkrete skadelidtes forutsetninger for å kunne anlegge oppreisningssøksmål mot myndighetene. Derfor må norske domstoler i flere sammenhenger kunne gjøre unntak fra fristene i fl. § 9, på tilsvarende måte som i svensk og dansk rett. Den norske lovgiveren bør utvise varsomhet med å vedta en mer detaljert regulering av foreldelsesspørsmålet enn det som foreslås i lovutredningen gjennomført av professor Kjetil Mujezinović Larsen.

ABSTRACT Sustainable investing has been gaining momentum in recent years. This paper investigates the relationship between ownership structure, sustainability performance, and financial performance using a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach in the shipping sector by utilizing 56 listed shipping companies’ financial and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings information. The results provide evidence that institutional ownership is positively associated with ESG scores, particularly from firms listed in the U.S. suggesting these investors’ consciousness in ESG investments in shipping stocks. Conversely, family ownership is negatively related to ESG ratings, while public ownership is more financially performance-driven, but not ESG-conscious. Additionally, firms with larger market capitalization tend to achieve higher ESG scores. However, this study finds no statistically significant relation between sustainability and financial performance. This research enhances the understanding of the investment behavior in the international shipping sector and has implications for investment strategy, investor relationship and policy development.

Despite the potential for market domination and power abuse, big businesses can also enhance consumer choice, job benefits, and welfare. Yet, big businesses are often portrayed as inherently bad, powerful actors. Does this matter for how consumers morally treat these organizations? Informed by moral typecasting theory, we suggest that consumers are less likely to perceive big businesses as victim-like than small businesses, making it seem more acceptable to cheat them for selfish gain. We studied this business-size bias in consumer dishonesty across three surveys (combined N = 1,171) and eight experiments (combined N = 5,670). Study 1 shows that consumers think it is appropriate to be less honest toward big than small businesses, and also believe that others act similarly. Providing causal behavioral evidence from incentivized economic games, Studies 2A-C find that people actually behave more dishonestly toward big than small businesses as well. Studies 3A-C and 4A-B find that greater dishonest intention toward big businesses is mediated by perceptions of big businesses being less vulnerable and less moral than small businesses.

The Himalayan ecosystem is fragile and needs robust management strategies for sustainability of natural resources such as water and vegetation. Therefore, reliable precipitation estimation becomes quite important from operational and regulation standpoints. It is crucial for numerous activities including policy/planning, agriculture, reservoir operations, disaster management, and others. In addition, reliable information on temporal variability of precipitation is also crucial for various applications such as agricultural and hydrological. The western Himalaya receives two distinct weather systems during summer and winter. Summer is responsible (largely) for rainfall and winter is for snowfall. Therefore, we hypothesize that there may not be a single set of parameterization schemes that can represent well both the weather systems. To investigate, we set up the WRF modeling system and performed six experiments with a combination of three microphysics (MP3, MP3, and WSM6) and two cumulus schemes (KF, and BMJ). It was found that the precipitation along the Himalayan foothills (near to basin terminal) is underestimated in four out of six experiments. Only experiments with BMJ cumulus scheme along with WSM6 and MP8 microphysics were able to show a considerable amount of precipitation along these foothills. It was noted that all six experiments showed high precipitation in the upstream region and over the mountain peaks and ridges in North-Western Himalaya. For DJF, each experiment was found to have large biases and none of them represented the observation with high confidence. However, the selection of observation reference data itself is a challenging task because of data paucity in this region. Therefore, the closest experiment to the most appropriate observation was selected as the reliable configuration (MP8_KF: MP8 microphysics and KF cumulus scheme) for DJF precipitation simulation. In this study we have, for the first time, reported the role of seasonal sensitivity for the climate scale simulations as we found that different schemes were suitable for different weather systems.

In this paper, we look at two research questions. First, can lower ad-valorem taxes, on the selling of news and on the selling of advertising, conduce to lower prices in the media sector? Second, can lower ad-valorem taxes stimulate firms to increase the diversity of content that they offer? The purpose of this work is to give tax political guidelines to policy makers for the media sector. This is important for a sector that has seen the reduction in payment subscriptions by readers (due to competition from free news from the Internet), and reduction of advertisement revenues due to competition from media giants like Google and Facebook. With this purpose we build on the Hoteling product competition model, which is the workhorse model in media economics. We show that ad-valorem taxes on the selling of advertising are preferable to ad-valorem taxes on the selling of news because the former conduce to reduction in prices of newspaper. However, both ad-valorem taxes on the selling of news and on the selling of advertisement reduces media diversity, because they reduce revenues that media firms can use to invest in media content.

Abstract Decision problems may be subject to objectives or constraints that make the formal model intractable. We propose an adaptive and pragmatic approach to address such nonstandard objectives or constraints, where these are first circumvented for feasibility, then accounted for through heuristics. One example is managing risk and resilience in a natural system facing uncertainty. Our procedure is exemplified in a predator‐prey fisheries system where a reference policy that maximizes expected profits implies a risk of prey stock collapse. The reference policy includes a no‐fishing section for the prey and harvest beyond myopic catch for the predator in parts of state space. We construct heuristic recovery plans, based on the reference policy, to reduce the risk of collapse by partly backing in the auxiliary objective. Under the heuristic policies, system resilience is enhanced with limited economic losses. Via Monte Carlo simulations, we calculate viability probabilities as measures of improved resilience and employ dynamic programming to assess value losses.

Many areas in the Arctic are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. We observe large-scale effects on physical, biological, economic and social parameters, including ice cover, species distributions, economic activity and regional governance frameworks. Arctic living marine resources are affected in various ways. A holistic understanding of these effects requires a multidisciplinary enterprise. We synthesize relevant research, from oceanography and ecology, via economics, to political science and international law. We find that multidisciplinary research can enhance our understanding and promote new questions and issues relating to impacts and outcomes of climate change in the Arctic. Such issues include recent insights on changing spawning migrations of the North-east Arctic cod stock that necessitates revisions of socioeconomic estimates of ecosystem wealth in the Barents Sea, better integrated prediction systems that require increased cooperation between experts on climate prediction and ecosystem modelling, and institutional complexities of Arctic governance that require enhanced coordination.