The endocannabinoid-CB receptor system: a new player in the brain-gut-adipose field

The 1990's have witnessed the discovery of the 'endocannabinoid-cannabinoid (CB) receptor (ECBR) system' consisting of specific receptors (CB1 and CB2), at least 3 endogenous ligands (anandamide, 2-arachidonyl glycerol and noladin ether) and their enzymes. Subsequently, a series of discoveries were made on the involvement of the ECBR system in many physiological functions including immunity, inflammation, neurotoxicity and neurotrauma, epilepsy, depression and stress, appetite, food intake and energy homeostasis, cardiovascular regulation, reproduction, and bone remodeling. The brain-gut-adipose axis regulates digestive processes, food ingestion and energy balance and is closely associated with hormonal regulation by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal stress axis and by the mesolimbic reward system. It is proposed to call these interfacing systems the "alimentary control system". ECBR presence in brain, gastrointestinal as well as adipose tissue explains its role in food intake, digestion and the regulation of adipose tissue mass. Moreover, the ECBR system's involvement in stress and emotional processing, makes it eminently suited to be (one of) the principle players in the alimentary control system. The ECBR system is present during the early embryonal and postnatal stages and we have discovered endocannabinoids in maternal milk. The ECBR system seems to be of critical value for newborn milk ingestion and suckling. Ghrelin, an orexigenic gastric hormone, exerts many effects similar to those of endocannabinoids. Therefore this review will compare some of the functions and anatomy of ghrelin and endocannabinoids. It is concluded that (i) the ECBR system is a major mediator between the brain and the alimentary system, and possibly, the adipose tissue, (ii) the role of the ECBR system in adult regulation of food processing is a remnant of its critical role for the initiation of feeding in the newborn, and (iii) the pervasive influence of the ECBR system in alimentary control make it a highly suitable target for therapeutic developments for pathophysiological conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, gastric ulcers, nausea, anorexia and failure-to-thrive.Biomedical Reviews 2006; 17: 23-42

The catalytic direct conversion of methane to methanol with metal-exchanged ZSM-5

Metangass er en av klimagassene som bidrar mest til global oppvarming, og er en rik ressurs som kan brukes i den petrokjemiske industrien ved å omdanne den til metanol. En mer bærekraftig mekanisme for konvertering gjøres med metal-utbyttet ZSM-5 zeolit, og effekten av katalysatoren med kobber, kobolt og jern undersøkes i rapporten nedenfor. En selektivitet mot metanolproduksjon og metanaktivering har blitt antydet å øke i rekkefølgen Fe<Co<Cu, mens fra eksperimentelle data ble det bimetalliske Cu-Fe-ZSM-5-komplekset funnet å være den overlegne katalysatoren for metanolselektiviteten. Andre aspekter ved omdannelsen har også blitt diskutert der effekten Si/Al-forhold, surhet, metallkompleks og syklisk evne er undersøkt som variabler for konvertering.Methane gas is one of the greenhouse gases that contributes the most to global warming, and is an abundant resource that can be incorporated into the petrochemical industry by converting it into methanol. A more sustainable mechanism for conversion is done with metal-exchanged ZSM-5 zeolite, and the effect of using Copper, Cobalt and Iron is investigated in the report below. A selectivity towards methanol production and the methane activation has been suggested to be increasing the order of Fe<Co<Cu, while from experimental data the bimetallic Cu-Fe-ZSM-5 complex was found to be the superior catalyst for the methanol selectivity. Other aspects of the conversion have also been discussed where the effect Si/Al ratio, acidity, metal-complex and cyclic ability has been investigated as variables for the conversion

Numerical Simulation of Installation of XL Monopile for Offshore Wind Turbines

There has to be a significant increase in the share of power supplied by renewable energies to reduce global emission, simultaneously as the wealth is rising in the newly industrialized countries. Wind energy is one of the sustainable resources predicted to provide an increasing share of this power, due to the large extent of untapped resources offshore. Kiełkiewicz et al. (2015) argue that, with regards to cost per megawatt of rated power, it is more favourable to use higher capacity wind turbines supported on larger piles than to use the turbines commonly used today. Even though the capital costs depend more on the number of structures than the size of the units (BVG Associates (2012)), larger components and a harsher environment do, however, bring more risky and expensive operations. Thus to make offshore wind profitable, at the same time as the structures move further offshore and to deeper waters, the installation procedures have to be optimized. This thesis addresses numerical simulation of the installation of XL monopile sub- structures for offshore wind turbines. Even if monopiles are the most frequently used support structures, few numerical studies have been performed on installation of these. In this thesis, the behaviour of a coupled installation system composed of a heavy lift- ing vessel and an XL monopile is studied. To predict the responses of this system, a numerical model is established in SIMO and simulations of the lowering phase of the installation are conducted. The hydrodynamic system properties, used in the dynamic analysis of the system, are obtained from a frequency-domain analysis in HydroD. As these properties are time varying and obtained during steady-state conditions, they cannot be implemented dir- ectly in a non-stationary situation. The common simplification of conducting steady- state simulations in the most onerous position is thus utilized to study the effect of radiation damping from the XL monopile. The issue connected to the time varying hydrodynamic properties, which occurs when the entire lowering operation is to be simulated, can be solved if strip theory is ap- plied and the potential damping is neglected. Since the radiation damping of the XL monopile might affect the system responses considerably for moderate seas, the sig- nificance of simulating the entire lowering operation rather than conducting stationary simulations at the most intolerable position is also investigated. From the eigenvalue analysis of the time-invariant model it is found that the XL mono- pile has a strongly depth-dependent natural period in pitch, which varies in the range of approximately T = 3.25 s to T = 4.65 s as the monopile is lowered. The eigenfrequency of the vessel pitch motion is, on the other hand, not affected by the chancing monopile draft and stays steadily at T = 8.89 s. Regarding the coupled rotational and translational oscillations, the pendulum motions, they have higher eigenperiods than the other rigid body modes. In most sea states, the wave power close to these natural periods is too low to excite the motion. Due to the significant depth-dependency of these natural periods it is, nonetheless, important to investigate these pendulum effects especially at small drafts and in severe sea states, as they might be critical for the operation. When the difference in the response spectral density obtained by an irregular and a regular wave analysis is investigated, it is found that the response collected from the regular wave analysis either corresponds to or is larger than the irregular analysis re- sponse. If the irregular wave spectrum has a peak which coincides with a resonance frequency, an exception to this tendency is observed. For such cases, the frequency resolution in the regular wave analysis might not be sufficient to capture the peak. When the spectral peak period corresponds to the eigenfrequency of the motion stud- ied, higher short-term extreme responses and standard deviations are found for the irregular analysis, as expected. If not, the estimated extreme responses is lower for the irregular analysis. The extreme responses in surge are, however, found to be more critical in the irregular wave analysis than in the regular. This deviates from the ex- pectations and implies that a further study of these responses should be conducted. When the radiation damping effect of the monopile is investigated, a significant re- duction in the rotational resonance motion is observed when the potential damping is included both in short and longer waves. In the Tp = 8 s case, there is a peak in the spectrum corresponding to the spectral peak period of the wave spectrum. For this peak, no reduction is observed. This is due to the fact that this monopile motion is induced through the crane, by the increasing vessel motion, and is not affected by the radiation and diffraction of the monopile. In the final part the significance of performing complete non-stationary simulations of the operation is investigated. The short-term extreme response in the lift wire, obtained from steady-state simulations at the most onerous position, is compared to the extreme responses obtained from repeated deployments to examine the effect of conducting non-stationary analyses. A significantly higher short-term extreme wire tension is ob- served for the steady-state simulations. This indicates that the simplification of con- ducting stationary simulations overestimates the responses and consequently may re- duce the allowable sea states established for the operation. In this Master s thesis only a few critical factors for the operation are studied. To ac- curately model the lowering of an XL monopile and establish operational limits on the basis of the obtained system responses, further work is required. Based on the analyses conducted, additional studies should be performed to further verify the results. Before well-founded operational limits can be established, shielding effects, wave spreading and nonlinear loads should also be taken into account

Prediction Models of Systolic Blood Pressure Based on HUNT Study Data

I denne oppgaven blir prediksjonsmodeller for systolisk blodtrykk foreslått, implementert, evaluert og sammenlignet med Framingham modellen, basert på data fra Helseundersøkelsen i Trøndelag, heretter forkortet til HUNT-studien. Modellens evne til å klassifisere den binære systoliske hypertensjon statusen til deltakerne vil også evalueres. I tillegg til dette så ser vi nærmere på effekten fysisk aktivitet, målt gjennom PAI (Personlig Aktivitets-Intelligens), har på det systoliske blodtrykket. Målet til prediksjonsmodellene er å predikere det systoliske blodtrykket ved HUNT3 for personer som i utgangspunktet har sunt blodtrykk ved HUNT2, basert på informasjon fra HUNT2. Vi starter med å utforske det tilgjengelige datasettet fra HUNT og velge ut de relevante deltakerne og variablene. Deretter korrigerer vi effekten av blodtrykksmedisin på det systoliske blodtrykket ved HUNT3 for deltakerne som bruker slik medisin ved HUNT3. Det endelige datasettet inneholder det systoliske blodtrykket og 15 relevante forklaringsvariabler fra HUNT2, samt noen få ekstra variabler med diverse nyttig informasjon, for $n$= 17 365 deltakere. Vi utfører en utforskende dataanalyse av det endelige datasettet, der hovedresultatene er at distribusjonen til det systoliske blodtrykket ved HUNT3 er tilnærmet normalfordelt med en litt tyngre høyre hale, og at det systoliske blodtrykket ved HUNT3 hovedsakelig er korrelert med det systoliske og diastoliske blodtrykket ved HUNT2, fødselsår og BMI ved HUNT2. Vi standardiserer så forklaringsvariablene før vi tilpasser modellene. Vi foreslår fire prediksjonsmodeller; en liten og en stor versjon av en Gaussisk generalisert lineær modell, og en liten og en stor versjon av en gamma generalisert modell. I tillegg til dette så implementerer vi en modifisert versjon av Framingham-modellen, som er en velkjent prediksjonsmodell for risk av hypertensjon fra litteraturen, på vårt datasett. Vi oppdager umiddelbart at de tilpassede prediksjonsmodellene har veldig like regresjonskoeffisienter og residualer. Videre ser vi at standardavviket til residualene avhenger lineært av det predikerte systoliske blodtrykket og forklaringsvariablene. Vi observerer også en overraskende liten effekt av fysisk aktivitet, målt gjennom PAI, på det predikerte systoliske blodtrykket. Til slutt, bruker vi noen kjente evalueringsmetoder som rot-middel-kvadrat-avvik, Brier score, Continuous Rank Probability Score, PIT diagram, sensitivitet, spesifisitet og C-statistikken til å evaluere modellenes prediksjoner. Vi konkluderer med at prediksjonsmodellene vi foreslår er i stand til å identifisere noen klare trender i datasettet, for eksempel viktigheten av fødselsår og tidligere systolisk og diastolisk blodtrykk. Modellene predikerer stort sett høyere sannsynlighet av systolisk hypertensjon for de som blir systolisk hypertensive, og har en C-statistikk som er lik C-statistikken til Framingham modellen av \cite{Framingham}. På den andre siden så er variansen i de individuelle prediksjonsfordelingene stor og modellene klarer ikke å gi nøyaktige prediksjoner av det systoliske blodtrykket ved HUNT3. Som mulig videre arbeid foreslår vi å inkludere livsstilsvariabler fra senere tidspunkter, for eksempel ved HUNT3, og å velge en prediksjonsmodell som modellerer variansen.In this thesis, prediction models of systolic blood pressure are proposed, implemented, evaluated, and compared to the Framingham model, based on data from The Troendelag Health Study, hereafter shortened to the HUNT Study. The ability of the models to classify the binary systolic hypertension status of the participants is also evaluated. In addition to this, we study the effect of physical activity, measured by PAI (Personal Activity Intelligence), on systolic blood pressure. The goal of the prediction models is to predict the systolic blood pressure at HUNT3 for people with initially healthy blood pressure at HUNT2, based on information from HUNT2. Firstly, we examine the available data set from HUNT and select the relevant population and variables from the total available data set. Secondly, we correct the effect of blood pressure medication on the systolic blood pressure at HUNT3 for the people using this kind of medication at the time of HUNT3. The final data set includes the systolic blood pressure, and 15 relevant explanatory variables from HUNT2, as well as a few other variables with various information, for $n$=17 365 participants. We perform an exploratory data analysis on the final data set, where the main results are that the distribution of systolic blood pressure at HUNT3 is approximately normal with a somewhat heavier right tail, and the systolic blood pressure at HUNT3 is mainly correlated with the systolic and diastolic blood pressure at HUNT2, birth year and BMI at HUNT2. Before fitting the models we standardize the explanatory variables. We consider four prediction models; a small and large version of a Gaussian generalized linear model, and a small and a large version of a gamma generalized linear model. In addition to this, we implement a modified version of the Framingham model, which is a well-known prediction model of hypertension risk from literature, on our data set. We immediately observe that the fitted prediction generalized linear models have very similar regression coefficients and residuals. Furthermore, we discover that the standard deviation of the residuals depends linearly on the predicted systolic blood pressure and on the explanatory variables. We also observe that the effect of physical activity, measured by PAI, on the predicted systolic blood pressure is surprisingly small. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the models with some common evaluation methods such as root mean squared error, Brier score, Continuous Rank Probability Score, PIT diagrams, sensitivity, specificity, and C-statistic. We conclude that the prediction models we propose are able to identify some clear trends in the data, for instance the importance of birth year and previous systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Furthermore, they generally predict a higher probability of systolic hypertension for the participants who become systolic hypertensive, and have a C-statistic similar to C-statistic of the Framingham model by \cite{Framingham}. However, the variances in the individual prediction distributions are large and the models are not able to accurately predict the systolic blood pressure at HUNT3. As possible future work we suggest including lifestyle explanatory variables from later time points, for instance HUNT3, and choosing a prediction model that models the variance

An Investigation of Enhancing Moderators for the CSR-AC Relationship

Masteroppgave(MSc) in Master of Science in Leadership and Organizational Psychology - Handelshøyskolen BI, 2019A substantial amount of research indicates that there is a positive relationship between employees’ perception of their workplace’s degree of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and affective commitment (AC). Yet, little is known about how the employee’s cognitive processes modify this relationship. First, drawing on the self-concern and other-orientation as moderators (SCOOM) hypothesis (De Dreu & Nauta, 2009), the current thesis tests the hypothesis that the relationship is enhanced by cognitive processes rooted in other-orientation (OO): Being biased towards information that is relevant to outcomes on the collective level increases the employees' AC to the organisation when they have a positive evaluation of its CSR climate. Further, as previous studies indicate that perceived organisational support (POS) positively enhances the effect of CSR on AC, the study also aims to investigate whether organisational support will act as a moderator in a new context. A cross-sectional study was carried out to test these hypotheses. The study was set in the legal industry, through the collection of data from Norwegian law firms, a largely neglected context for research on CSR and AC. The main findings indicate that OO is insignificant for the CSR-AC relationship, while the statistically significant moderating effect of POS was replicated. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. Keywords: affective commitment; corporate social responsibility; perceived organisational support; other-orientation; Norway; law firm; legal industry; private secto

Implementing continuous consent in qualitative research

This article examines ways of approaching informed consent as a relationally constituted process in qualitative research practices. It argues that a researcher’s operationalization of informed consent should be coherent with the overall epistemological framework of the project. Based on empirical examples from an ethnographic inquiry in an educational setting, the principle of informed consent is discussed as a reflexive and ethical tool throughout the inquiry, including its pre-fieldwork, fieldwork and post-fieldwork phases. Strategies of explicitly and implicitly (re)negotiated consent and dissent are discussed and illustrated by drawing on some of the recent discussions of continuous consent practices. The article’s conceptualization of a continuous, situated and relational approach to informed consent is also supported by the concepts of response-ability and thinking with care in research ethics.publishedVersio

‘Are we going to do that now?’ Orientations and response-abilities in the embodied classroom

Asking ‘How do spatial and bodily processes produce teaching as a phenomenon?’ this paper approaches ‘teaching’ as a relational, spatial and bodily encounter. Findings from a video-based ethnographic account of everyday teaching situations in a Norwegian upper secondary classroom are explored using an analytical framework inspired by feminist perspectives on bodies. The argument made is that material organisations of social practices are politically and ethically charged. A series of pedagogical encounters are mapped and discussed by engaging the concepts of affect, orientation and alignment. The article demonstrates that one recurring material relation was the collective orientation towards a configuration of the boundaries for ‘doing school’. The bodily and spatial practice of aligning with the local configuration of response-abilities is proposed as a material relation that actively contributed to producing teaching as a phenomenon.publishedVersio

The teaching apparatus : Understanding the material entanglement of practices in the upper secondary classroom

Utdanning er en levende prosess som består av hverdagslige undervisningssituasjoner og deres romlige og kroppslige sammenhenger. Materialiteten i pedagogisk praksis blir i økende grad adressert i forskning. Imidlertid er empiriske beretninger om hvordan materielle praksiser oppstår i faktiske klasseromsundervisningssituasjoner sjeldne. Derfor tar denne doktorgradsavhandlingen sikte på å forstå ‘undervisningens’ materielle kompleksiteten gjennom å undersøke hvordan den oppstår som et relasjonelt og kollektivt forhandlet fenomen i et norsk videregående klasserom. For å undersøke dette bruker avhandlingen et sosiomateriell rammeverk og et videobasert etnografisk forskningsdesign. I tråd med rammeverket plasseres det analytiske fokuset på den diskursive rollen som materielle relasjoner og prosesser spiller i pedagogiske møter. Bruken av videoopptak i kombinasjon med en etnografisk tilnærming støtter prosjektets empiriske utforskning av hvilke materiell-diskursive praksiser som har betydningsfulle konsekvenser i undervisning. Oppgaven består av tre artikler og en kappe. Mens artiklene følger tett de kroppslige og romlige prosessene i videregående klasserom, fokuserer hver artikkel på et spesifikt sett av materielle relasjoner i undervisningssituasjonene. Den første artikkelen handler om forskningspraksisen og de etiske relasjonene i feltet. Ved å trekke på relasjonell etikk og tidligere konseptualiseringer av kontinuerlig samtykkepraksis, utforsker artikkelen hvilke måter forskeren kan tilnærme seg informert samtykke som en situert og relasjonelt konstituert prosess. Artikkelen bruker empiriske eksempler fra feltarbeidet for å diskutere prinsippet om informert samtykke som et refleksivt og etisk verktøy som kan brukes gjennom hele forskningsprosessen, inkludert i fasene før, underveis, og etter feltarbeidet. Artikkelen argumenterer for at ‘eksplisitt og implisitt (re)forhandlet samtykke og dissens’ er en måte for forskere å kalibrere sin etiske respons med en relasjonell og prosessuell forståelse av kvalitativ forskning. Den andre artikkelen undersøker hvordan romlige og kroppslige prosesser kan forståes som å produsere ‘undervisning’ som et fenomen. Artikkelen bruker begrepene affekt, orientering og justeringer (‘alignment’) for å undersøke hvordan klassens handlinger etablerer klasserommets ‘romlige politikk’. Diskusjonen belyser hvordan spesifikke orienteringer fikk betydning (‘came to matter’), gjennom å gi retning til elevenes oppmerksomhet og responser, og ble etablert som legitime måter å ‘gjøre skole’ på. Et tilbakevendende mønster i dette klasserommet var elevenes praksis med å orientere seg mot hver situasjons regler, grenser og muligheter. Artikkelen hevder derfor at praksisen med å ‘tilpasse seg den lokale konfigurasjonen av response-ability’ var en kroppslig og romlig prosess som formet ‘undervisning’ som fenomen. Den tredje artikkelen undersøker hvilke materiell-diskursive praksiser som har betydning (‘matter’) i videregående undervisningssituasjoner og hvordan deltakernes kropper ble formet og formet av disse praksisene. Artikkelen kombinerer et posthumant sosiomateriell praksisbegrep med de agentisk realistiske begrepene material-diskursivitet og apparatus for å skape en relasjonell redegjørelse for hvordan flere praksiser oppstår og samarbeider. De empiriske eksemplene viser hvordan to distinkte praksiser fremtrer fra det analytiske arbeidet: ‘Oppgavepraksisen’ og ‘vennskapspraksisen’. Artikkelens hovedargument er at disse to praksisenes gjensidige forviklinger fører til at de virker sammen som en større materielt og relasjonelt arrangement, kalt ‘undervisningsapparatusset’. Konseptet bidrar med et nytt perspektiv på undervisning. Ved å rette oppmerksomheten mot det sammenvevde og uforutsigbare prosessene i klasserommet, tillater dette konseptet en finmasket forståelse av undervisningen og dens relasjonelle kvaliteter. Samlet sett viser denne studiens funn hvordan flere materiell-diskursive praksiser er involvert i å produsere fenomenet undervisning, inkludert oppgaver-, vennskap, og forskningspraksiser. Avhandlingens argumenter styrker eksisterende forskning på undervisning som komplekst relasjonelt og kontekstuelt fenomen. Avhandlingens konseptualisering av undervisning som et apparatus legger vekt på at kropper, rom og praksiser inngår som aktive deler i dens materiell-diskursive produksjon. Avslutningsvis hevdes det at denne artikulasjonen tillater en alternativ, ikke-instrumentell tilnærming til å vurdere undervisningens kvaliteter.Education is a living process that consists of everyday teaching situations and their spatial and bodily interrelationships. The materiality of educational practice is increasingly addressed in research. However, empirical accounts of how material practices emerge in actual classroom teaching situations are rare. Therefore, this PhD thesis aims to understand the material complexity of ‘teaching’ by investigating how it arises as a relationally and collectively negotiated phenomenon in a Norwegian upper secondary classroom. The thesis employs a sociomaterial framework and a video-based ethnographic research design to address this aim. In line with this framework, the analytical focus is on the discursive role played by material relations in educational encounters. The use of video recordings in combination with an ethnographic approach supported the empirical exploration of which material-discursive practices ‘matter’ in teaching situations. The thesis consists of three articles and an extended abstract. While the articles provide close tracings of the bodily and spatial processes in the upper secondary classroom, each focuses on a distinct set of material relations and practices in the teaching situations. The first article concerns the research practice and its ethical, in-field relationships. By drawing on relational ethics and previous conceptualisation of continuous consent practices, the article explores how we can approach informed consent as a situated and relationally constituted process. The article uses empirical examples from the ethnographic fieldwork to discuss the principle of informed consent as a reflexive and ethical tool that can be used throughout the inquiry, including its pre-fieldwork, fieldwork and post-fieldwork phases. The article argues that ‘explicitly and implicitly (re)negotiated consent and dissent’ is one way for researchers to align their ethical responsiveness with a relational and processual understanding of qualitative research. The second article examines how spatial and bodily processes produce ‘teaching’ as a phenomenon. The article uses the concepts of affect, orientation and alignment to investigate how the class enacts the spatial politics of the upper secondary classroom. The discussion illuminates how specific orientations came to ‘matter’ as legitimate ways of ‘doing school’ through the direction of attention and alignment of responses. A recurrent pattern of this classroom was the students’ practice of orientating towards each situation’s boundaries, rules and allowances. The article contends that the practice of ‘aligning with the local configuration of response-abilities’ was a bodily and spatial process that shaped the phenomenon of teaching. The third article investigates which material-discursive practices ‘mattered’ in the upper secondary teaching situations and how participants’ bodies were shaping and being shaped by these practices. The article combines a posthuman sociomaterial concept of practice with the agential realist concepts of material-discursivity and apparatus to create a relational account of how multiple practices emerge and co-operate. The empirical examples show how two distinct practices emerged from the analytical work: ‘the practice of tasks’ and ‘the practice of friendship’. The article’s main argument is that these two practices’ mutual entanglement co-perform a larger sociomaterial arrangement, termed ‘the teaching apparatus’. The concept of a teaching apparatus offers a new perspective on teaching. By drawing attention to the classroom’s inter-connectedness and unpredictability, the conceptualisation of a teaching apparatus allows for a more fine-grained understanding of teaching and its relational qualities. Overall, this study's findings show how multiple material-discursive practices are involved in producing the phenomenon of teaching, including the practices of tasks and friendship, as well as the practices of research. The thesis’ arguments strengthen existing research accounts of teaching as a complex relational and contextually embedded phenomenon. The thesis conceptualises a teaching apparatus that emphasise bodies, spaces and practices as active parts of its material-discursive production. In conclusion, it is argued that this articulation offers an alternative, affirmative and non-instrumental approach to considering the qualities of teaching.Doktorgradsavhandlin

The Development and Impact of Educational Neuroscience: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Summary: The discourse of educational neuroscience is a complex field of study, encompassing an intricate and interrelated network of discursive structures, relations, and practices within and between different discursive levels. This multifaceted dissemination makes educational neuroscience an interesting topic for research, and in my doctorial study I use a critical discourse analysis in order to investigate the development and impact of educational neuroscience as a discourse. Attention is on academic, public, political, and Norwegian levels of the educational neuroscience discourse, as I address the four discourse analytical concepts of emergence, hegemony, recontextualisation over structural boarders, and recontextualisation over scalar boarders. In the first analytical part historical series of text from the 19th century and to the present day are analysed and discussed in order to elucidate the emergence and development of educational neuroscience as an academic project. I argue that educational neuroscience can be seen as a discipline emerging from a field of prior discourses by way of boundary problematization, transgression, and negotiation where old discursive elements are rearticulated into new discursive facets. The academic level of educational neuroscience is also the focus of attention in the second part, where I consider discursive struggles, hegemonic relations, notions of dominance, marginalisation, and power dimensions. A chief argument herein is that an underlying struggle between the ‘robust’ neuroscience (viz. natural science) and the ‘softer’ field of education (viz. social science) can be seen reverberated in hegemonic notions of neuroscientific dominion and marginalisation of educational explanations and educational practices within the field. In the third part attention is shifted from the academic level towards an analysis of how educational neuroscience is recontextualised in public media, in brain-based learning industries, in political documents, and in texts from intergovernmental interest actors. Attention is on the ways in which these different actors represent, appropriate, and have (or lack) dialogue with educational neuroscientific research. Also the forth analytical part considers educational neuroscience’s recontextualisation, although this time attention is across scalar boarders to the Norwegian level of discourse. My findings do at this level evince that there barely is any academic attention and debate concerning the linkage of education and neuroscience in Norway, this despite the fact that numerous (and often unscientific) traces of educational neuroscience are represented in Norwegian public and political fields. Overall, my critical discourse analytical findings evince that educational neuroscience is a complex and a continuous changeable discourse. The discourse can be seen manifested at different levels (e.g. the academic, the public, and the political level), it encompasses an intricate set of representations, values, approaches, structures, relations, practices, and actors, and it can additionally be seen to have emerged, and continue to develop, by means of discursive structures and strategic actions (viz. the power of discourse and the power over discourse). I further argue that certain difficulties arise by reason of educational neuroscience’s novelty and complexity. Not only do issues arise due to philosophical, theoretical, methodological, practical, and ethical bridging problems at the academic level, but difficulties do also arise when educational neuroscientific research is recontextualised at the public and political level. Considering that educational neuroscience is still developing as a discourse, I deem that actors working at the interface of education, psychology, and neuroscience - and also at the interface of the academic, public, and political level - have an opportunity to negotiate, re-articulate, and shape the discourse of educational neuroscience. In this construction I claim that much is to be gained by perceiving educational neuroscience as an anti-reductionistic and transdisciplinary endeavour.Norsk sammendrag: Den pedagogisk nevrovitenskapelige diskursen er et kompleks felt, som favner om et interaktivt nettverk av diskursive strukturer, relasjoner og praksiser både i og mellom ulike diskursive nivå. Denne kompleksiteten og mangfoldigheten gjør pedagogisk nevrovitenskap til et spennende forskningsobjekt og i mitt doktorgradsstudium tar jeg i bruk et kritisk diskursanalytisk og diskursteoretisk rammeverk for å studere utviklingen og nedslaget av pedagogisk nevrovitenskap som diskurs. Fokus ligger på det akademiske-, offentlige-, politiske- og det norske nivået av pedagogisk nevrovitenskap, der jeg videre tar for meg de fire analytiske konseptene ‘emergence’, ‘hegemony’, ‘recontextualisation over structural boarders’, and ‘recontextualisation over scalar boarders’. I den første analysedelen blir historiske tekster fra 1800-tallet og frem til i dag analyser og drøftet, dette for å belyse fremveksten og utviklingen av pedagogisk nevrovitenskap som et akademisk prosjekt. Her argumenterer jeg for å forstå pedagogisk nevrovitenskap som en disiplin som har vokset frem fra et felt av forhenværende diskurser - en utviklingsprosess som har funnet sted ved problematisering, overskridelse og forhandling av tidligere diskursive grenser, der gamle diskursive element har blitt re-artikulert til nye diskursive konsept. Det akademiske nivået ved pedagogisk nevrovitenskap er også i sentrum i den andre analysedelen, der jeg studerer diskursive kamper, hegemoniske relasjoner, forhold av dominans, marginalisering, samt ulike maktdimensjoner. Et sentralt argument her er at en underliggende kamp mellom den ‘robuste’ nevrovitenskapen (jf. naturvitenskapen) og det ‘mykere’ pedagogiske feltet (jf. humaniora og samfunnsvitenskapen), har fått utslag i hegemoniske aspekt knyttet til nevrovitenskapelig dominans og marginalisering av pedagogiske forklaringer og pedagogisk praksis i feltet. I den tredje delen er oppmerksomheten flyttet fra det akademiske feltet til en analyse av hvordan pedagogisk nevrovitenskap er rekontekstualisert i media, i den ‘hjernebaserte’ læringsindustrien, i politiske tekster og i tekster fra internasjonale organisasjoner. Fokus er på hvordan disse ulike aktørene representerer, tilegner seg, og har (eller mangler) dialog med pedagogisk nevrovitenskapelig forskning. Også den fjerde analysedelen omhandler rekontekstualiseringen av pedagogisk nevrovitenskap, men her er oppmerksomheten rettet over internasjonale og nasjonale grenser og til Norge. Mine funn viser her at det er liten akademisk oppmerksomhet og debatt rundt pedagogikk og nevrovitenskap i Norge, dette på tross at mange (og ofte uvitenskapelige) fremstillinger av koblingen mellom pedagogikk og nevrovitenskap er representert i det offentlige og det politiske felt i Norge. Samlet sett viser mine analytiske funn at pedagogisk nevrovitenskap er en kompleks diskurs i kontinuerlig forandring. Diskursen er manifestert i ulike nivå (slik som det akademiske, offentlige og politiske nivå) og den innehar et intrikat sett med relasjoner, verdier, perspektiver, retninger, strukturer, relasjoner, praksiser og aktører. Den har vokst frem, og utviklet seg videre, ved hjelp av strategiske handlinger og diskursive strukturer (dvs. ved hjelp av makten til diskursen samt makten over diskursen). Jeg argumenterer for at den relativt nyetablerte og komplekse diskursive strukturen til pedagogisk nevrovitenskap fører til visse utfordringer. Ikke bare oppstår utfordringer grunnet filosofiske, teoretiske, metodiske, praktiske og etiske brobyggingsproblematikk mellom feltene, men vanskeligheter oppstår også når pedagogisk nevrovitenskapelig forskning er rekontekstualisert til det offentlige og det politiske felt. Tatt i betraktning at den pedagogisk nevrovitenskapelige diskursen fortsatt er under utvikling, vil jeg hevde at aktører som jobber i møte mellom pedagogikk, psykologi og kognitive nevrovitenskap - samt i møte mellom de akademiske, offentlige og politiske diskursnivåene - har muligheter til å forhandle, re-artikulere, og forme den pedagogisk nevrovitenskapelige diskursen. I denne konstruksjonen vil jeg argumentere for viktigheten av å forstå pedagogisk nevrovitenskap som et anti-reduksjonistisk og transdisiplinært arbeid

Educational Neuroscience and Reconsideration of Educational Research

Abstract: Educational neuroscience is a cross-disciplinary field where researchers work at the interface of education, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. Certain difficulties arise in the merging of the disciplines due to the traditions differences in philosophies, methodologies, theories, and practices. Critical consideration of the ‘bridging project’ is essential for educational neuroscience’s development, but I will also argue that questions arising in the wake of this cross-discipline can be relevant for reconsidering educational research. Keywords: Educational research, Educational neuroscience, Reconsideration, Transdisciplinary research