Norway

We report data collected in a representative sample of 17-year-old Norwegians to investigate prevalence rates of non-problem, risk, and problem gambling, as measured by the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI). In addition, we explored the importance of demographic, personality, motivational, social, and health variables explaining variance in adolescent gambling. Prevalence rates of risk and problem gambling were low but similar to those found in previous studies outside of Norway using the PGSI in adolescent samples. With regard to the relative importance of the various covariates, we found that motivational variables (future gambling intentions, attitudes toward gambling, and gambling-related knowledge) distinguished best between those who did not gamble, non-problem gamblers, and risk and problem gamblers. Furthermore, social variables were important covariates of adolescent gambling; significant associations were found for family and friends’ approval of gambling, parental monitoring, father’s level of education, and having relatives or friends with a history of a gambling disorder. We discuss possible reasons for differences between the covariates with regard to their importance for explaining adolescent gambling and address implications for future research.

"Thermodynamic losses usually take place in machineries used for agricultural activities. Therefore, it is important to identify and quantify the losses in order to devise strategies or policies to reduce them. An exergy analysis is a tool that can identify the losses occurred in any sector. In this study, an analysis has been carried out to estimate energy and exergy consumption of the agricultural sector in Malaysia. Energy and exergy efficiencies have been determined for the devices used in the agricultural sector of Malaysia, where petrol, diesel and fuel oil are used to run the machineries. Energy and exergy flow diagrams for the overall efficiencies of Malaysian agricultural sector are presented as well. The average overall energy and exergy efficiencies of this sector were found to be 22% and 20.728%, respectively, within the period from 1991 to 2009. These figures were found to be lower than those of Norway but higher than Turkey. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421511007348  "

"The Hoard of Medieval Coins from the Village Stizhok. In the spring of 2011, a clay pot was found in a field nearby the village Stizhok (Shumsk district, Ternopil’ region,Ukraine). The pot contained about 2500 silver coins struck in the Golden Horde, Crimean Khanate, Caffa, Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, and Lithuania. The significant part of oriental coins bears the Tartar, Moldavian and Lithuanian countermarks. Most likely, the treasure was hidden during the Tartar military expansion atthe end of 15th and beginning of 16th centuries.

Keywords. Numismatics, medieval numismatics, coin hoard, Genoese colonies in Crimea,  Genoese history, Poland, Ukraine, Golden Horde, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Moldova, Romania, Wallachia, Asprokastron, 15th century."

Riassunto dell'intervento che sarà presentato in occasione dell'Atelier de formation doctorale "Politique et religion: sociologie, anthropologie, histoire", Roma 13-16 maggio 2014, presso l'École française de Rome - École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.

This article introduces the author’s recent study on the ‘strategic impact’ of routinely arming the New Zealand Police and discusses how two significant research findings are consistent with published theory. First, the utility of taking a binary, black and white approach when analysing the ‘routinely armed versus routinely unarmed’ debate, is limited in terms of considering police officer behaviour. This is because police departmental policies shape police officer risk-taking and behaviour to a considerable degree. Second, despite departmental policies, the routine armament of a routinely unarmed police force, say for health and safety reasons, may be counterproductive; such a change exposes police officers to increased risks. Both findings come from an analysis of Scandinavian police forces. The author’s study was primarily concerned with the police forces of Norway and Sweden; however, comparisons were made, at times, within a wider Scandinavian context.

Interdisciplinary studies comparing fisheries-dependent regions across the North Atlantic find a number of broad patterns. Large ecological shifts, disastrous to historical fisheries, have resulted when unfavorable climatic events occur atop overfishing. The ‘‘teleconnections’’ linking fisheries crises across long distances include human technology and markets, as well as climate or migratory fish species. Overfishing and climate-driven changes have led to a shift downwards in trophic levels of fisheries takes in some ecosystems, from dominance by bony fish to crustaceans. Fishing societies adapt to new ecological conditions through social reorganization that have benefited some people and places, while leaving others behind. Characteristic patterns of demographic change are among the symptoms of such reorganization. These general observations emerge from a review of recent case studies of individual fishing communities, such as those conducted for the North Atlantic Arc research project.

Dependence on a vast shared resource built up the economies of herring towns around the north-central and northeastern Atlantic during the first half of the 20th century. During the postwar years, culminating in the early-1960s spike, the fishery rapidly drew down its resource. This killer spike disastrously coincided with an adverse climatic event, collapsing the fishery in the late 1960s. That pattern, of collapse resulting from climatic variation on top of overfishing, has characterized other fisheries crises (for example see Hamilton et al., 2004b). The fisheries events reflect a more general proposition: climate changes tend to impact human affairs largely through interactions with resource use and distribution behaviour, which can reduce or exacerbate climate impacts. We should not expect to see simple, physical impacts from climate alone, unmitigated by social factors.

A review of selected commission reports from Norway and the United States suggests that a pattern of blaming individuals for disasters has over time been replaced by a tendency toward faulting organizational systems. The research examines three alternative explanations for the adoption of the system view. The shift implies that modern investigative commissions principally serve as policy evaluators and initiators of system change.

"As research has indicated that what is sometimes described as traditional forms of politicalparliamentary
participation are dwindling in most western democracies, the role of the Internet
has often been pointed to as harboring the means to hinder these developments. While empirical
studies on these matters have at best provided mixed results, social media services, like Twitter,
has yet again fanned the flames of the most enthusiastic debaters. This paper moves beyond the
often-studied context of parliamentary elections and instead offers a structural study of everyday
political discussions on Twitter. Specifically, tweets from political contexts in Sweden and
Norway are collected and analyzed with a specific focus on the top users and their activities.
Results indicate that while thematic Twitter discussion can indeed serve as a potential channel for
citizens, the influence of established as well as political extremist actors is also clearly discerned."

"The tourism potential is a very important starting point, if we consider the development of tourism in the region. It is a collection of elements of the geographical environment, and human behavior that can be used for tourism or to deal with it. Only the relevant configuration items mentioned above allows us to talk about creating opportunities for the development of the tourism industry.
The aim of this article is to analyze the tourist potential of the Lodz region presented in the strategic documents and to suggest ways to use the existing potential for tourism based on the analysis of tourism products Oppland county.
In the first part of this article can be found a theoretical discussion of tourism development strategy and tourism potential. However, it was also examined selected strategic documents from the viewpoint of the tourist potential.
The second part of the article is devoted to the identification of economic and social elements of the tourist potential based on the previously selected strategic documents. In addition, they were confronted with the assumptions of documents nationwide. In this way created a list that shows the elements of the tourist potential, which at present are not fully used.
The last part of the article is devoted to presenting the best practices for managing tourism and touristic products in the county of Oppland, which can be adapted to the specific region of Lodz."

Es curioso como los preconceptos geopolíticos afectan nuestra percepción. Cuando el pasado viernes 22 de julio a las 3.26 pm escuché una explosión mis oídos me decían que se trataba de una bomba. Pero no podía ser, esas cosas suceden en Tel Aviv, en Nueva York o en Buenos Aires. Pero no en Oslo. Decidí atribuir ese ruido a las usuales tormentas del verano boreal.