The Relationship of the Institutionalized Juvenile Delinquent’s Self-Concept to reading Achievement and IQ

The literature has suggested that delinquents are characterized by a reading disability and a negative self-concept. The problem was to determine if there was a significant correlation between the measured self- concept and reading achievement, self-concept and IQ, and reading achievement and IQ of Institutionalized Juvenile Delinquents. A secondary purpose of the study was to determine if there was a significant difference between the self-concept of the present sample and the self-concept of the standardization sample used in the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale

Training load and health problems in football: More complex than we first thought?

Avhandling (doktorgrad) - Norges idrettshøgskole, 2021Background: Health problems are prevalent in football, and in both elite youth and professional football, players are expected to sustain several health problems per season. Also, at any given time of the season, the prevalence of health problems (both injuries and illnesses) exceeds 40% among elite youth players. Training load has recently emerged as a potential risk factor for health problems in football; subsequently, many teams, particularly those at an elite level, attempt to manage players’ training loads as a preventative measure to mitigate health problem risk. However, the evidence supporting this practice is limited, and its effectiveness is never tested. Therefore, this dissertation aims to improve our understanding of the relationship between training load and health problems and to guide preventative efforts. Methods: All studies were performed on Norwegian football players and coahces, Papers I, II and III in elite youth (U19 age category) and Paper IV in professional football. In the first study (Paper I), we registered daily training load and health data to assess methodological issues in the relationship between the Acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR) and health problems. The second study (Paper II) was a cluster-randomised trial that assessed the effectiveness of a load management programme on health problem prevention. We followed 482 players for a full season, registering their monthly health problem prevalence. In Paper III, we surveyed 250 of the players included in Paper II about their attitudes, beliefs and experiences of load management and health problems. In Paper IV, we assessed the injury characteristics of two different football seasons in the Norwegian premier league. This explorative descriptive study collected injury data from eight teams participating in the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Main results: In Paper I, we found 24 (22%) significant associations between ACWR and health problems among the 108 analyses performed. These were spread across various methodological combinations. We did not observe any patterns of combinations that substantially increased the chance of a significant association. There was a considerable variation in the size and precision of the estimated strength of the association. In Paper II, the average prevalence of health problems was 65.7% (61.1% to 70.2%) in the intervention group and 63.8% (60.0% to 67.7%) in the control group. The prevalence was 1.8%-points (-4.1 to 7.7%-points; P=0.55) higher in the intervention group, and there was no reduction in the likelihood of reporting a health problem in the intervention group (Relative Risk, RR 1.01 (95% CI 0.91 to 1.12 ); P=0.84). In Paper III, we found that most players (88%) think scientific evidence for improved performance is a key facilitator to implementation. Similarly, the coaches reported that the most crucial facilitator was scientific evidence that the preventive measures were effective (100%). Players reported that the coach’s attitude to preventive measures was important (86%), and similarly, 88% of coaches reported that the player’s attitude was important. In Paper IV, the match incidence was 7.23 per 1000h lower in 2020 (22.82 per 1000h; CI 18.07 to 28.44; Incidence Rate Ratio; IRR 0.76) than in 2019 (30.05 per 1000h; CI 24.55 to 36.41); however, this was not a significant difference. There were no differences in either availability, severity or injury burden across the two seasons. Conclusion: Based on our findings, we conclude that the relationship between ACWR and health problems is highly affected by the methodological approach, which can lead to p-hacking and cherry-picking of results. Future training load studies should pre-register their definitions, hypotheses, models and report all performed analyses' results. Furthermore, managing training loads using ACWR in a onesize-fits-all approach does not appear to prevent health problems in elite youth football. When implementing future health problem preventive measures, practitioners and researchers should focus on time-efficient interventions and create buy-in from club and federation stakeholders as well as coaches and players by focusing on both performance and prevention. Finally, we found no differences in injuries comparing a match-congested season with a regular one, suggesting a congested season can be a safe alternative.publishedVersionInstitutt for idrettsmedisinske fag / Department of Sports Medicin

Does climate transition investments pay off? An empirical analysis of active Nordic funds and performance effects of exposure to carbon transition risk

Sustainable finance and investment strategies have received increasing attention the previous years. In this thesis, we investigate the performance effects of carbon transition risk exposure in Nordic mutual funds. The analysis is restricted to 655 funds between the period from March 2017 to September 2022. We provide evidence that carbon transition risk does not independently impact the risk-adjusted performance in Nordic mutual funds. This result is inconsistent with existing literature on the topic where expanding carbon transition risk has a negative impact on performance. Furthermore, we conduct a portfolio analysis where we investigate the impact of active management on performance within high and low carbon risk environments. Including this perspective does not change the result, and we conclude that the carbon risk does not impact risk-adjusted performance in our sample. As we find that carbon risk is closely related to volatility and systematic risk, we hypothesize that carbon risk are increasingly accounted for by financial risk. This could explain why our findings deviate from the literature, as indirectly changing financial risk would not change the risk-adjusted performance. The decreasing performance of growth stocks due to rising interest rates could also eliminate the excess risk-adjusted return of low carbon risk funds.nhhma

Quantification of an Approximate forward-backward Algorithm applied to a Convolutional Model

In this master thesis an approximated forward-backward algorithm for binary Markov random fields is applied to and evaluated for a convolutional Bayesian model. The Bayesian model is transformed into its unique corresponding energy function of binary variables, where interaction parameters defines the function. We quantify the quality of the approximation by using an independent proposal Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, where we apply the approximation to a variety of synthetic test cases. The acceptance rates increases as the maximum number of neighbors increase, which was to be expected. Highest percentage was generated for a case with increased noise in the likelihood, with a resulting acceptance rate of 94.95% for 10 neighbors. The lowest acceptance rates were gained from low noise cases, and for the binary Markov chain prior an acceptance rate of 8.03% was registered. For this last mentioned case the approximation was also simulated without the use of the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, and compared with the aposteriori, where these two cases have approximately the same marginal probabilities. The same was seen for the four state Markov chain prior. Thus we conclude that the approximated forward-backward algorithm is viable even when the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm generate low acceptance rates

Remote vessel survey using VR

I denne masteroppgaven ble en VR-applikasjon for eksterne skipsundersøkelser utviklet i spillmotoren Unity. Oppgaven ble gitt av det marine forsikringsselskapet Gard. Covid-19 pandemien har gjort det vanskelig for Gard å gjennomføre fysiske skipsinspeksjoner på grunn av reiserestriksjoner. Å gjennomføre en fysisk inspeksjon kan også være kostbart og forurensende siden inspektører vanligvis reiser med fly. Nåværende metoder Gard har brukt for eksterne undersøkelser har ikke vært ansett som gode nok. En ny metode ble derfor foreslått. Den nye metoden foreslår å tildele mannskap på skip en LiDAR sensor og et 360° kamera for å scanne og ta bilder av de relevante områdene på skipet. Materialet kan så sendes til en inspektør som genererer et virtuelt miljø fra det. Det virtuelle miljøet kan så utforskes i VR. Ved å bruke en LiDAR sensor som er inkludert i nyere mobile enheter fra Apple, får man nøyaktige 3D modeller fra scannene. Kvaliteten på LiDAR scannene er bra når enkle omgivelser scannes, men blir fort dårligere hvis omgivelsene blir komplekse. For å ta hensyn til dette brukes 360° bildene til å supplementere LiDAR modellen og gi et høyere detaljnivå enn det LiDAR sensoren klarer. For å ta 360° bilder brukes et GoPro Max kamera. Kameraet gir bilder av høy kvalitet med gode detaljer. Det er mulig å se relevante detaljer som rust og sprekker fra bildene. Å ta en LiDAR scan og de nødvendige bildene av en omgivelse tar bare noen få minutter. Fra det innsamlede materialet kan man lage et virtuelt miljø av de skannede omgivelsene. Dette miljøet kan så utforskes av en inspektør i VR. Verktøy som gir nødvendig funksjonalitet for å gjennomføre en skipsinnspeksjon ble implementert og lagt til i den utviklede applikasjonen. Brukere kan sømløst bytte mellom LiDAR modellen og 360° bildene, samarbeide og kommunisere med andre via nettverksfunksjonalitet og dokumentere mulige funn med et virtuelt kamera. I tillegg kan brukere interagere med informasjonspunkter som henter info om relevante objekter fra databaser, måle avstander i LiDAR modeller og laste ned andre virtuelle miljøer fra applikasjonen. Alle de implementerte verktøyene fungerer som forventet. Den utviklede applikasjonen ble demonstrert for inspektører på Gard. Inspektørene synes teknologien virker lovende, men synes kvaliteten på LiDAR scannene var for dårlig. Inspektørene tror at metoden som ble demonstrert kunne blitt brukt som et sorteringsverktøy for å bestemme hvilke skip som er verdt å undersøke nærmere fysisk for noen av klientene deres. Med alt tatt i betraktning blir den utviklede applikasjonen ansett som vellykket, da den gjør det mulig å undersøke skip virtuelt i tillegg til at alle de utviklede verktøyene fungerer som de skal. En video som demonstrerer den utviklede applikasjonen kan bli sett ved å trykke på den følgende video lenken.In this thesis, a VR application for conducting remote vessel surveys was developed in the Unity game engine. The task was given by the marine insurance company Gard. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for Gard to conduct physical surveys due to travel restrictions. In addition, conducting physical vessel surveys can be costly and leaves an environmental footprint because of airplane travel. Current methods used by Gard for conducting remote surveys were deemed not satisfactory, and a new method was therefore proposed. This method proposes to provide vessel crew with a LiDAR sensor and a 360° camera. The provided equipment could then be used to scan and photograph the vessel. The gathered material would then be sent to a surveyor that would explore a virtual environment generated from the material in VR. By using a LiDAR sensor integrated in the latest mobile devices from Apple, accurate 3D models of vessels could be generated from LiDAR scans. The quality of the LiDAR scans are good for simple environments but becomes insufficient in more complex environments. To supplement the LiDAR model to provide a higher level of detail, 360° images from a GoPro max were used. The 360° images hold a high quality, and relevant details such as rust and cracks are visible from them. Taking a LiDAR scan and the necessary 360° images take only a few minutes. From the gathered material, a virtual environment can quickly be created. This environment can then be explored in the VR application. Tools that provide functionality necessary to perform surveys were developed and integrated in the application. Users can seamlessly switch between the LiDAR model and 360° images, collaborate and communicate in the virtual environment with others via online functionality, and document their findings with a virtual camera and audio recorder. In addition, users can interact with informational datapoints retrieving information about relevant objects from a database, measure distances in the LiDAR model and download other virtual environments from within the application. All implemented tools work as desired. The developed application is demonstrated to surveyors at Gard. The surveyors find the technology promising. However, they think the quality of the LiDAR scans are too low. The surveyors think a method like the one presented in the application could be used for some clients as a sorting tool to decide which vessels are worth investigating in further detail physically. All things considered, the developed application is considered successful as it enables virtual walkthroughs of vessels combined with working surveyor tools. A video demonstrating the developed application can be seen in the following video link