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Careful with zooplankton! |
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Photo: Nils Tokle |
Redfeed, a type of zooplankton, represents the largest single resource in Norwegian waters. These tiny animals are a considerable part of the diet of Norway’s most valuable fish species, and many hope that the capture and use of redfeed will save the country’s fisheries and aquaculture industry.
Norway is a leader in research on redfeed, but until now there have been restrictions on the commercial capture of the species. Many would like to see these restrictions lifted – both in Norway and elsewhere.
Now a group researchers in the humanities, social sciences and biology at NTNU warn in an interdisciplinary collection of articles called “Redfeed – rescue or ruin?” that the international deregulation of redfeed in northern waters could quickly lead to a state of anarchy, which in turn could cause international problems in the Svalbard zone. The researchers underlined the need for strong, prefer-ably international, management and control agreements if the commercial capture of redfeed is allowed.
 The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has given NOK 500 000 to support the establishment of an ice laboratory at NTNU. Researchers will be able to study road construction and winter operations under different weather conditions. The Ice Lab will cost close to NOK 2 million and will be in operation in 2009. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has also contributed funds to NTNU to strengthen basic research and education on winter physics and winter operations.
Flexible software development |
Software is often developed based on the specification of requirements for a particular IT solution. The developer goes back to their desk, develops the new software, tests it and delivers it. The problem is that changes imposed by the client, and in technology, as well as the distance between developer and users, lead to “wrong” deliveries, delays and cost overruns.
Nowadays, the trend is in the direction of “flexible development”. The product to be delivered is divided into smaller units that carry less risk, and are sent a bit at a time to the client, who can then supply feedback.
Flexible development will be the subject of “XP”, a major internation- al conference that is due to be held in Trondheim on June 1–4 next year. “The conference will be a forum for researchers and industry. Such a meeting place has not existed to date; researchers have had little influence on industry, and many of the changes that have taken place have been imposed by gurus without any basis in studies,” says Torgeir Dingsøyr at SINTEF ICT.
Tape became an energy winner |
The new energy requirements that apply to new houses have increased the amount of attention being paid to airtightness, i.e. the relative ability of a house to “leak” air. One of the critical leakage points in a building is the area around its windows. For this rea- son, SINTEF Building Research has been finding out which methods of tightening leakages give the best results on the energy barometer. Tape turned out to be the best of six methods tested.
Building tape installed between the window-frame and the wall itself reduced air leaks to zero. Second place went to wind-barrier strips, which left a leakage rate of 0.1 air changes per hour (ACH50), compared to the worst solution, where the figure was 3.2 per hour. The authorities require that the leakage figure should be no higher than 2.5 ACH50. The tests were carried out in the course of a doctoral study at NTNU, which formed part of a SINTEF research project entitled “Climate Adapted Buildings”.
A special, but harmless character |
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Photo: SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture |
The microalga Thecadinium yashmin- aense has been discovered for the first time in Norwegian waters. The alga was found in a water sample that had been collected near Rissa in the county of Sør-Trøndelag, and it aroused so much interest that the Species Databank made a news item of it. The 0.5 mm-long alga originally came from Japan and the North Pacific region, and was either carried to Norway by ocean currents or brought in a ship’s ballast water.
SINTEF scientist Karl Tangen says that the alga is not toxic and could be regarded as enriching the local environment. All the same, it belongs to a family in which some members produce toxins. The fact that the alga was found in an ordinary sample of water suggests that there is a lot of it around. The scientists intend to follow up on the alga and check it more thoroughly if it turns up again in water samples.
More self-help and independence |
The coming “boom” in the older generation is leading to a need for a larger work-force in the health services, and the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) and the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) wish to evaluate so-called “welfare technology’” (robot and sensor technology) in this area in order to balance the labour requirements of different sectors. KS is therefore about to launch an R & D project in collaboration with health and ICT researchers at SINTEF.
The objective of the project is to map the need and potential for robot and sensor technology in the health and care sector. Technology of this sort will also develop and guarantee high-quality services in this sector, and offer the possibility of long-term industrial development. Such technology could also indirectly help to improve the quality of life of its users by helping them to help themselves and to become more independent. The project is led by Kristine Holbø of SINTEF Health Research.
 SINTEF scientists are working on a plastic capsule that measures scarcely more than 2 x 1 cm and is capable of examining body cavities. The micro-robot has a camera lens and foldable legs, and its plastic shell is packed full of advanced microtechnology, all designed to study our gastrointestinal tract. The robot pill is sleek and easy to swallow. Once it has passed into the digestive system it unfolds its little legs and behaves like a large beetle.
The doctors who follow its course from the outside can control the speed and direction of the robot as it crawls through the gut and transmits the images captured by the little camera that sits at one end to a computer screen. If the robot sees any signs of cancer, the doctors can stop it or make it turn back for a closer look. In addition to its camera, the microrobot carries a knife and forceps to take biopsy samples. It carries its tissue samples out to the doctors so that traditional analyses can be performed. The robot is expected to be ready for use in 2010.
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On the hunt for new materials |
Peter S. Riseborough, a professor of theoretical physics at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA, was awarded the 2008 Onsager Prize and an honorary Onsager professorship at NTNU. Professor Riseborough was honoured because of his exceptional work with the effect of strong mutual electrostatic interations between electrons, which can give non-magnetic metals lasting magnetic fields.
He has participated in the NTNU group as a researcher on the rare earth species cerium and holmium, which are found at the boundary between magnetism and non-magnetism. The group examines whether earth species react to very small external effects of magnetism or electricity. This is interesting for researchers who are hunting for new materials with hitherto unknown properties, particularly for possible applications in information technology and nanotechnology.
Better cure for gigantism |
 Acromegaly (gigantism) is a rare illness that affects 15 to 20 Norweg- ians a year. It is due to the overproduction of growth hormone in the pituitary gland, and affects most of the body’s tissues. About half of all patients can be cured by surgery. The remainder manages to keep their symptoms in check by taking medicine for the whole of their lives.
Now a study by researchers at NTNU and St. Olavs Hospital, in cooperation with Norway’s other university hospitals, shows that a combination of surgery and drugs gives the best result. “Patients who get regular injections in the 6 months before their operation are much healthier than patients who are operated on without any pre-surgery treatment”, says researcher Sven M. Carlsen at NTNU's Faculty of Medicine.
Testing the world’s largest bulk ship |
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Photo: Osmund Enga |
At the beginning of the year, designs for the world’s biggest cargo carriers were tested and improved at MARINTEK’s Ocean Laboratory. The vessels will be 360 m long and 30 m high, with a 10 metre diameter propeller and a capacity of 400 000 tonnes of cargo. The ships will carry iron ore from Brazil to China, and the Chinese shipping company Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. will build no fewer than 12 bulk carriers of this type.
Since the vessels will both operate on the open sea and be required to manoeuvre in shallow water in narrow channels, the design has to meet very stringent demands. “That is why this vessel type has to undergo an unusually comprehensive programme of tests, which has involved building four models with which we can documents its characteristics,” says MARINTEK’s project manager Bjørn Ola Berge.
Flame retardants threaten house sparrows |
 House sparrow populations are dropping all over Europe just as in Norway. One of the reasons may be that that they absorb environmental pollutants, even though the birds live far from people and industry.
Biologists Bjørn Munro Jenssen and Thomasz Ciesielski from NTNU have found large concentrations of a specific type of bromated flame retardant in the livers of house sparrows along Norway’s Helgeland coast. The chemical is called deca-BDE and is used in textiles, electronics and cars. It can damage genetic material, and affect reproduction in birds and animals.
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Photo: Morguefile |
High quality wood and low emissions are the key to increasing the use of timber as a fuel, which is what the EU’s Quality Wood project is all about. Solutions that offer higher combustion efficiency and fewer emissions can be applied not only to new installations; older equipment can achieve similar results by adopting good firing practices. The project partners are ADEME (France), ApE (Slovenia), A.E.A. (Austria), CENER (Spain), CIS (Spain), SINTEF (Norway) and VTT (Finland), which is the project coordinator. The EU’s Quality Wood project started in 2006 and is due to run until 2009.
 High-level athletes tend to shelve their studies for purely practical reasons. Now the combination of a top education and top training will provide excellent candidates for both sports and businesses. Team NTNU will be Europe’s first university cross-country ski team. That means that 6-8 nationally competitive cross-country skiers will be offered top training under the direction of the Ski Association and Olympiatoppen, Norway’s national Olympic training association, while they also study on a half-time basis or more.
Stave off early death with fish |
 Even if a person is old and ill, they can still benefit from eating a little more fish. A study undertaken by researchers at NTNU and St. Olavs Hospital documents a clear connection between omega-3 fatty acids and mortality.
A large group of elderly with acute and serious illnesses were followed over three years, and the conclusion was unambiguous: Those who had a measurable amount of omega-3 fatty acids in their blood had a 48 per cent lower risk of dying than patients with lower levels.
A couple of spoonfuls of cod liver oil, two omega-3 capsules or an additional fish meal per week is enough to give better protection from illness and early death, and it is never too late to begin, concluded Professor Kristian Bjerve, who headed the study.
Published April, 2009
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