Norway has sought a balancing strategy towards Russia since joining NATO in 1949. Deterring measures through NATO has been followed by assuring measures to ease tensions between both Norway and Russia, and NATO and Russia. During Russian aggression, most notably the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Norway sought greater integration with NATO, and has shifted towards a greater focus on measures of ...

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Patients with spinal stenosis and degenerative spondylolisthesis are treated surgically with decompression alone or decompression with fusion. However, there is debate regarding which subgroups of patients may benefit from additional fusion. PURPOSE: To investigate possible treatment effect modifiers and prognostic variables among patients operated for spinal stenosis and ...

The accumulation of floating debris is one of the main challenges of water conservancy projects, which may pollute the vulnerable ecosystem of the reservoir area and impose significant risks on waterway transportation and dam operations. Due to the dynamicity and uncertainty caused by water flow, the collection of floating debris is much more complicated than on-land waste collection. In this paper, ...

Language learners typically experience cross-linguistic influence (CLI) from one or several previously acquired languages when acquiring an additional language. Learners of a second language (L2) are influenced by their native languages in all language domains ranging from phonology, lexicon, and morphosyntax, to semantics, discourse, and pragmatics. In third (and subsequent) language (L3/ Ln) ...

Central Arctic, interglacial intervals have traditionally been associated with diverse and intense bioturbation, and abundant foraminifera, interpreted as indicating relatively low sea-ice concentrations and productive surface waters, while glacial intervals, typically barren, support the inverse. In this respect, the Yermak Plateau is anomalous. Biomarker studies suggest that glacial intervals were ...

Car tire rubber constitutes one of the largest fractions of microplastics emissions to the environment. The two main emission sources are tire wear particles (TWPs) formed through abrasion during driving and runoff of crumb rubber (CR) granulate produced from end-of-life tires that is used as infill on artificial sports fields. Both tire wear particles and crumb rubber contain a complex mixture ...

This thesis explores how the child’s right to family life after a care order is issued safeguarded in care orders. The thesis consists of four studies: Three studies that analyze County Social Welfare Board decisions from period 1. July 2018 to 31. December 2019, and one study that provides an overview of research on how the child’s view is weighted in court proceedings, based on a database search ...

Hypothermia-induced cardiac dysfunction (HCD), commonly seen during rewarming, is one of the feared complications of accidental hypothermia. Animal studies with phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors and sodium nitroprusside have demonstrated positive effects on reversing HCD. These medications act by indirectly increasing intracellular levels of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and cyclic guanosine ...

The Amazon rainforest is threatened by land-use change and increasing drought and fire frequency. Studies suggest an abrupt dieback of large parts of the rainforest after partial forest loss, but the critical threshold, underlying mechanisms, and possible impacts of forest degradation on the monsoon circulation remain uncertain. Here, we use a nonlinear dynamical model of the moisture transport ...

The time series of downward particle flux at 3000 m at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory (PAP-SO) in the Northeast Atlantic is presented for the period 1989 to 2018. This flux can be considered to be sequestered for more than 100 years. Measured levels of organic carbon sequestration (average 1.88 gm⁻² y⁻¹ ) are higher on average at this location than at ...