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Photo: Morguefile |
Even the planned increase in combined thermal energy and power schemes will be insufficient to meet the Norwegian government’s goal of generating 14 TWh from bioenergy sources by 2020. Scientists believe that electricity will also have to be generated from our forests.
This is why SINTEF is working on a project that goes by the name of KRAV and which will map out how Norway can exploit its timber as a source of energy. Four Norwegian electricity companies, Trondheim Energi, Agder Energi, Eidsiva Energi and Solør Bioenergi, will participate in the project.
The aim is to identify the ideal technology for small-scale electricity generation from Norwegian forest products, while as much energy as possible is extracted from the biomass. As a first step, the scientists envisage systems with a capacity of up to 10 MW.
Can artistic expertise improve commercial value? |
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Photo: SINTEF Technology and society |
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce has financed a one-year research project in which SINTEF researchers have been studying whether collaboration with an artist can improve conditions within a company. Until now, sponsorship has been the most usual form of collaboration, rather than suggesting models for cooperation and added value. The project report offers twelve examples of successful collaboration.
Boen Parkett in Risør asked artists to design a unique and environmentally appropriate timber floor for its product range. A percussionist composed a work that includes the sounds of rubbish being emptied by Bergen’s waste collection department, which uses the “music” in its self-profile. The photo shows a wall of material collected from a boatshed, which car mechanics in the Lie group of companies used to create a work of art.
Ultrasound prepares parents |
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Photo: DHD Multimedia Gallery
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Increasingly better ultrasound technology can show more foetal aberrations, often during a routine examination undertaken in the 18th week of pregnancy. These aberrations typically reflect chromosomal problems, syndromes, illnesses and deformities. Nevertheless, this new information has not increased the number of pregnancies being terminated, according to an NTNU PhD research project conducted by Kristin Offerdal.
She studied nearly 50 000 pregnancies and found that women did not chose an abortion after deformities such as clubfoot or cleft palate were found, unless there were life threatening or fatal conditions. On the other hand, the information from the ultrasound helped prepare parents to care for their malformed or sick baby.
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Photo: Morguefile |
Children who react to both pollen and fruit during their first two years of life are at serious risk of developing allergies. This has been demonstrated in studies carried out by Xiao-Mei Mai of SINTEF Health Research and scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Of the 3619 one- to two-year-olds that they studied, 228 (6.3%) displayed a reaction to pollen while 215 (5.9%) produced reaction symptoms to fruit, including nuts.
Fifty of the children (1.4%) had a reaction to both ingredients. This little group was at considerably greater risk of developing a number of allergic diseases such as asthma and eczema when they were studied again as four-year-olds. The children who had only displayed reactions to either pollen or fruit, on the other hand, were at no greater risk than other children.
Norway’s oldest stave church |
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Photo: Terje Thun |
The ground under the Urnes stave church is sinking, and this national treasure in Sognefjord has begun to sink at its northern end. Researchers from NTNU worked in the summer of 2008 to determine how the church can be lifted and stabilized without being ruined. At the same time, dendrochronologist Terje Thun took tree ring samples from the oldest wood. The samples confirm that the church was erected over a longer period in the 1130s.
At the same time it was shown that a portion of the church – including the north wall, with its spectacular carvings – was actually recycled material from another church that previously stood at the same spot. The youngest of these timbers were felled around 1070. This is the oldest Norwegian church building material that has been dated.
Diving to the bottom of climate change |
Climate change and rising sea levels will give diving a new and larger role than in the past. We have to assume that we will increase our use of the sea for food production, and that we will have to turn to the sea for energy from oil and gas, wind and waves. All these things will require divers, and consequently research on diving. “We have to improve the technology and find out more about how the underwater environment affects people,” says NTNU’s foremost expert in diving physiology, Professor Alf O. Brubakk.
Published April, 2009
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