Nære pårørende av alkoholmisbrukere - hvor mange er de og hvordan berøres de?

Alkohol står for det største omfanget av rusmiddelproblemer i Norge, både med hensyn til hvor mange personer som har et rusmiddelproblem og omfanget av de helsemessige og sosiale konsekvensene av rusmiddelbruken. Denne rapporten omhandler de negative konsekvensene av alkoholbruk for nære pårørende som barn og ektefelle/partner. Både spørsmålet om hvor mange nære pårørende det er til alkoholmisbrukere og hva slags negative konsekvenser de erfarer, blir for første gang ved hjelp av norske data belyst her. Vi har tatt utgangspunkt i to tilgjengelige datasett; en intervjuundersøkelse blant vel 2000 voksne personer og en spørreskjemaundersøkelse blant vel 20 000 ungdommer. Et viktig anliggende i rapporten har vært å vise at det ikke er noen distinkte skiller mellom alkoholmisbrukere eller personer med et risikofylt alkoholkonsum og andre alkoholbrukere. Vi må derfor anta at de negative konsekvensene som nære pårørende opplever både varierer betydelig i type, varighet og alvorlighetsgrad og kan tilskrives en større gruppe av alkoholbrukere enn den lille gruppen som drikker mest. Våre beregninger viste at vi kan anta at det i Norge er i størrelsesorden 50 000 – 150 000 barn og 50 000 – 100 000 ektefeller/partnere som bor sammen med personer med et risikofylt alkoholkonsum. Det er trolig mer enn 130 000 personer som i løpet av sitt voksne liv har opplevd visse typer negative konsekvenser (sjikane/utskjelling, trusler om vold og vold, uønsket seksuell tilnærming, hærverk og seksuelt overgrep) av foreldres eller partners alkoholproblemer. Blant ungdom ser vi at forekomst av ulike typer psykososiale problemer som voldsutsatthet, dårlig mental helse og dårlige foreldrerelasjoner øker med hvor ofte de opplever å se foreldrene beruset. Likevel er det, selv blant dem som ofte opplever foreldrene beruset, et flertall som ikke rapporterer noen av disse problemene. Gjennomgang av forskningslitteraturen har vist at dette er et forsømt forskningsområde. Det er ikke bare et åpenbart behov for mer forskning om norske forhold på dette feltet, men også viktig å bidra til den internasjonale forskningsbaserte kunnskapen på området

Experimental and numerical study of the response of the offshore combined wind/wave energy concept SFC in extreme environmental conditions

This paper deals with an experimental study of the survivability of the offshore combined concept Semisubmersible wind energy and Flap-type wave energy Converter (SFC) and with comparisons of the experimental data with numerical predictions. The SFC is a combined energy concept consisting of a braceless semisubmersible type floating wind turbine and three fully submerged rotating flap-type Wave Energy Converters (WECs). In order to study the survivability of the concept the focus is on extreme environmental conditions. In these conditions the SFC will not produce wind or wave power; the wind turbine is parked with the blades feathered into the wind and the WECs are released to freely rotate about their axis of rotation. Firstly the development and set-up of the physical model are presented. Static, quasi-static, decay, regular waves and irregular waves with wind loading tests are conducted on an 1:50 scale physical model. Aligned and oblique wave with wind loading conditions are considered. Measured variables that are presented include motions of the semisubmersible platform in six rigid body degrees of freedom, rotation of the flap-type WECs, tension of mooring lines, internal loads of the arms that connect the flap with the pontoon of the platform and tower base bending moment. The experimental data are compared with numerical predictions obtained by a fully coupled numerical model. The comparison is made at model scale. A good agreement between experimental data and numerical predictions is observed confirming the accuracy of the numerical models and tools that are used. The discrepancy between numerical and experimental results is smaller for regular than irregular waves. Compared to oblique conditions a better agreement between experimental and numerical results is obtained for the case of aligned wave and wind loadings. The results obtained demonstrate the good performance of the SFC concept in extreme environmental conditions. No strong nonlinear hydrodynamic phenomena are observed in the tests

Evidence of an Alternative Currency for Altruism in Laboratory-Based Experiments

Research shows that altruistic behaviours arise in varying social situations in line with different theories of causes of such behaviours. However most research uses financial costs only, which makes our understanding of altruism currently limited. This study presents findings of three experiments that use a novel and simple laboratory-based task that measures altruism based on the amount of time participants are willing to spend as a cost to help others. This task assessed two specific theories; altruistic punishment (Experiments 1 & 2) and empathy-altruism (Experiment 3). All experiments showed that the task was successful, as participants were more likely to altruistically punish violators of social contracts than other scenarios (Experiments 1 and 2), and also incur more costs to behave altruistically towards others when feeling empathic than different emotional states (Experiment 3). These results provide clear support for the use and value of this novel task in future research

Response Analysis and Comparison of a Spar-Type Floating Offshore Wind Turbine and an Onshore Wind Turbine under Blade Pitch Controller Faults

This paper analyses the effects of three pitch controller faults on the responses of an onshore wind turbine and a spar-type offshore floating wind turbine. These faults include: a stuck blade pitch actuator, a fixed value fault and a bias fault of the blade pitch sensor. The faults are modeled in the controller dynamic link library and a short-term extreme response analysis is performed using the HAWC2 simulation tool. The main objectives of this paper are to investigate how different faults affect the performance of wind turbines for condition monitoring purposes and which differences exist in the structural responses between onshore and offshore floating wind turbines. Statistical analysis of the selected response parameters are conducted using the six 1-hour stochastic samples for each load case. For condition monitoring purpose, the effects of faults on the responses at different wind speeds and fault amplitudes are investigated by comparing the same response under normal operation. The severities of the individual faults are categorized by the extreme values of structural loads and the structural components are sorted based on the magnitude of the fault effects on the extreme values. The pitch sensor fixed value fault is determined as the most severe fault case and the shaft appears as the structural component that experiences the highest risk. The effects of fault conditions on the offshore floating and the onshore wind turbines are compared to investigate the potential differences. The results show that faults cause more damage to the tower and the yaw bearing for the onshore wind turbine and more damage to the shaft for the offshore floating wind turbine