The purpose of this thesis is to explore the nature of the audit oversight system and examples of national and international collaboration by means of a joint inspection process between the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) of the United States and the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway (FSA). In addition, the thesis will analyze literature regarding how auditors detect fraud ...

Ocean shipping has for centuries been essential to mankind, and is the most efficient way of transporting goods across the world. With increasing global temperatures, the Arctic ice cap is reduced in thickness and extent, making Arctic shipping more feasible. The thesis looks into the biological and environmental implications of shipping in the European Arctic Seas. A scenario involving a shipping ...

Recent Arctic studies contradict a long-held paradigm of winter quiescence by documenting activity at many trophic levels in the marine food web even during the darkest months of winter. Previous studies have failed to identify which species are performing patterns of vertical migrations during polar night in Kongsfjorden (Svalbard). In the present study, acoustic data supplemented by zooplankton ...

The highly adapted parasitic plants of the genus Cuscuta infect other plants to steal their water and nutrients. They do so by developing specialized organs called haustoria that grow into the tissue of the host plant establishing interspecies connections through which the parasite feeds. Although it has long since been suggested that some manner of modification to host cell walls is necessary to ...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are often established for conservation objectives. Benefits provided by MPAs exceed pure biodiversity conservation as they may include contributions to social and economic benefits of local communities. And though it is still debated, MPAs may provide a management tool for sustainable fisheries and/or solving conflicts of interests between users of marine resources. It ...

The present study was aimed at investigating northern diatoms as sustainable sources of omega-3 fatty acids widely used and now much needed in salmon aquaculture as well as ingredients to be used in nutraceuticals in the human diet. As known, fish oil is currently the main source of physiologically requisite fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acids (DHA). Due to the rapid ...

The temporal dynamics of meroplankton, manly comprised of larvae of benthic invertebrates that only temporarily inhabit the pelagic environment, is poorly understood in Arctic environments. The main objective of this thesis was to increase our knowledge on meroplankton dynamics and their ecological role in the Arctic marine coastal ecosystem. Three different approaches including high-frequency field ...

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has become a serious global problem. Infections that once were easily cured with antibiotics have now become nearly impossible to treat. Thus, there is a desperate need for new antibacterial drugs. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a diverse group of compounds. Amongst their unique features are their ability to kill bacteria (often both Gram-positive and Gram-negative) ...

Biological invasions are a major challenge facing coastal waters and increasingly threaten high-latitude environments. The red king crab is one of the world’s largest decapods and was introduced into the Barents Sea in the 1960s. It has since become a valuable fishery resource in Russian and Norwegian waters. In the early 2000s, red king crabs entered Porsangerfjord, which now holds one of the ...

The phenological adaptation of herbivorous insects in the Arctic may be particularly prone to the negative impact of the current global climate change. Increasing temporal dissociation with their plant resources, and to their natural enemies such as parasitoids may be detrimental for their survival. The life history adaptations for gall-inducing sawflies in the Arctic (Tenthredinidae: Nematinae: ...