Researchers from Norway and Singapore are working together to build new cities floating at sea and six stories underneath the ground. Lack of space has provoked this initiative from Asian developers, and the technological experience with floating constructions in Norway comes in handy.

“Norway has a leading edge in floating constructions, but also in underground technology. It’s been a long time since we started storing oil and gas below the ground,” says Øyvind Hellan, research manager for SINTEF Ocean.

Not enough space onshore

The cooperation with Singapore goes back to 2004, when SINTEF and NTNU were contacted about underground storage of oil and gas. Gradually, the cooperation has developed to include floating constructions, where the idea is to exploit the sea surface for a number of purposes, from manufacturing industry to housing. Singapore and Norway are both similar and different. The similarity is that both countries have around the same number of inhabitants. The difference is that Norway’s land area is 1500 times larger.

“We want to exploit sea, land and air to a much greater extent than we do today, both for housing, manufacturing and transport purposes. We have already prepared a plan for how we can use the subsurface to a greater extent,” says the initiator of the cooperation, professor C.M Wang from the University of Queensland.

Six stories have been planned underground, where the top layer will be used for shops, and the lower layers for car traffic, trains, parking, water storage and military facilities. Wang and a delegation from Singapore recently met with the researchers from Norway. They went on a tour to see Western Norway and the mainland connection Krifast, where they inspected floating bridges, and SINTEF Ocean’s laboratories at Tyholt.

Great plans in French Polynesia

A company from Silicon Valley also took part in the seminar in Trondheim. They already have specific building plans, but not in Singapore. “French Polynesia wants to build floating cities. They fear that its islands could be hit by rising sea levels,” says Egor Rujikov, ambassador for Seasteding Institute.

French Polynesia consists of five groups of islands, comprising 121 islands in all, of which 76 are inhabited. The government is working to develop regulations which can allow residential settlements floating at sea. Rujikov has received indications that building can start within a short period of time.

“Few technical limitations”

“We expect to set the first modules afloat during 2018. They will be 50 x 50 metres in size. The idea is to make these floating communities as self-supporting as possible, when it comes to water, energy and food,” Rujikov says.

“This is a good example of success in international cooperation. Now, we hope that more Asian countries can make use of this knowledge,” concludes Øyvind Hellan at SINTEF.

(sintef, maritime-executive )

Norwegian Defence Logistics Organisation (NDLO) has selected Patria to supply on-aircraft maintenance for the Norwegian NH90 helicopters. The scope of the contract covers phase and calendar inspections, associated repairs and maintenance for the Norwegian NH90 NFH Helicopters. The agreement is for two years with option for additional two years and its value is estimated to be up to 100 million NOK.

“This agreement is an important milestone for us in Norway to show Patria’s capability in supporting military programs with cost effective solutions in long-term. Our solid experience with the helicopter type from Finland and Sweden as well as the high number of experienced employees specialized in NH90 gives us a very good base to handle this contract”, says Dan Nordheim, Managing Director and Country Manager of Patria Helicopters in Norway.

Patria Helicopters’ location in Bardufoss, Norway is in close proximity of the customer’s operations. “With this arrangement we are able to build highly competent local capability to support the life of the Norwegian NH90 fleet. This will also provide us with a strong foundation to further develop and grow our operations in Bardufoss”, continues Nordheim.

”Six years ago, in March 2011, we decided to set our foot in the area of aviation support in Norway by acquiring a Bardufoss based aircraft maintenance company, NAC Maintenance – the current Patria Helicopters AS. Our vision was to become a key partner in supporting the Norwegian NH90 fleet which started to ramp up its operations at Air Wing 139. Now, almost exactly six years later we are able to witness this contract as a great milestone in fulfilling the vision. Now we have a chance to prove ourselves and give also the Norwegian customer confidence in all conditions and become their #1 partner for critical operations, as Patria’s mission statement and vision promise”, celebrates Lassi Matikainen, President of International Support Partnerships Business Area at Patria.

Patria Helicopters Norway has already served the Norwegian Air Force and civil customers over many years at Bardufoss by maintaining their training aircraft fleets. Patria is providing large scale of military and civil helicopter life-cycle support services also in Sweden and Finland. Patria is OEM-certified service center for Airbus, Bell and Leonardo helicopters. Patria has also the NH90 Nordic Service Center status from NHI and did the final assembly of 29 Finnish and Swedish NH90 helicopters related to the Nordic Standard Helicopter Procurement Programme.

EU Supply has entered into a contract with Sogn & Fjordane County Council and participating municipalities in Norway for up to 28 local and regional authorities and other public sector bodies to use EU Supply’s CTM platform.

EU Supply said the customer represented a regional collaboration which involved a number of local and regional authorities using the CTM platform on a similar basis to that set out in the company’s contract win for another regional collaboration in Norway announced on 19 January.

It said the contract was expected to generate total revenues of up to £250k over 8 years, including licences and support, implementations and integrations.

On September 18, Telenor Norway will finally switch off the remaining analogue signals on its cable network.

The decision gives the operator the opportunity to fully digitise its network and introduce new services.

“Analogue services require both resources and capacity. We want to free up this capacity to give customers a better digital offering,” says Birgit Bjørnsen, head of TV and broadband division, Telenor Norway.

Most of Telenor’s TV customers are already using digital solutions, and the remaining customers on the analogue network will be assisted in the transition.

Epilepsy is the most common chronic neurological disease in children, affecting between 0.5 to 1 per cent of all children.

In a newly published analysis of epilepsy diagnoses in Norwegian children, however, fully one-third of children had been incorrectly diagnosed, as reported by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) and colleagues in a study recently published in the journal Pediatrics.

“It’s scary that there are so many people who seem to have received a diagnosis of epilepsy without actually having the disease,” said Henrik Peersen, General Secretary at the Norwegian Epilepsy Association, in response to the findings.

“We have long suspected that there are errors in the diagnosis of epilepsy,” he added. “But this can cause problems the other way, in as much as children may not be properly investigated to see if they have epilepsy.”

A rich database provides clues

The researchers used data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. The cohort study includes questionnaires that were regularly filled out by mothers with children born between 1999 and 2009. The questionnaires asked mothers about many different illnesses, including epilepsy.

The study population included 112,744 children from the cohort study who were aged 3 to 13 years at the end of follow-up by the registry on 31 December 2012. The researchers then compared information on these children with the questionnaires filled out by their mothers and to diagnoses that were recorded in the Norwegian Patient Registry.

After the diagnoses had been quality checked, the researchers found that one-third of the children did not meet the criteria for an epilepsy diagnosis. Only 587, or 65.6 per cent, of the 896 children who were either reported or recorded as having epilepsy actually had the disease, according to its classical definition.

“Three-hundred and nine children were recorded as having a diagnosis of epilepsy, even though they did not meet the criteria,” said Kari Modalsli Aaberg, a pediatrician at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health who was head of data collection for the study and its first author.

The classic definition of epilepsy that applied during the study period is that the child must have had at least two unprovoked epileptic seizures at least 24 hours apart.

“It appears that there is a low threshold for referring children to be checked for epilepsy in Norway. The high number of unconfirmed diagnoses may be the explanation for this,” Aaberg said.

Coding errors and different types of seizures

The researchers think one reason so many children had the wrong diagnosis might be from incorrect coding in the Norwegian Patient Registry.

Most of the children who did not meet the criteria for epilepsy had experienced other kinds of seizures, such as those caused by high fevers, or related non- unspecific episodes of “being absent” or other neurological or developmental disorders.

“The study shows that epilepsy can be a difficult diagnosis to make in children,” says Aaberg.

She said, however, that it is important to have correct figures on the occurrence of epilepsy in order to plan follow-up of these children.

Unclear how some diagnoses were made

One-third of the children in the study had received a tentative diagnosis by a clinician during an investigation of suspected epilepsy. One-third had been diagnosed after an EEG examination (examination of the brain’s electrical activity).

“When a doctor makes a diagnosis of epilepsy, he or she is required to contact the specialist health service. In many of the patient journals we found a question mark next to epilepsy, which showed that the doctors thought the diagnosis was tentative. The code for epilepsy was used not only in confirmed cases of epilepsy, but also in some children diagnosed with suspicion of epilepsy,” Aaberg said.

Many of these children were found to not to have epilepsy during a subsequent investigation, so that the clinical conclusion was then that the child did not have epilepsy.

But the researchers were unable to find out where or from whom the diagnoses came for just under a third of the children.

Some children given medications for no reason

Among the 309 children who were incorrectly diagnosed with epilepsy, 57 of them had been given epilepsy medication. The parents of these children were informed of the diagnosis, but the researchers interviewed only 60 per cent of the parents. Therefore, they do not know how many parents in total thought their child had epilepsy even though the child did not.

“Those who were medicated accounted for 18 per cent of the children who were mistakenly diagnosed. These may have been children for whom the suspicion of epilepsy was strong, but that later turned out not to have epilepsy,” Aaberg said.

The study was a collaboration between the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo University Hospital, the Akershus University Hospital, University of Bergen, University of Edinburgh and Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburg.

(sciencenordic)

Rolls-Royce has secured a contract to provide a mooring system for Statoil’s oil platform Njord A, which is being upgraded by Norway-based engineering and construction service provider Kvaerner.

The platform is located in the Njord oilfield, approximately 130km northwest of the city Kristiansund and 30km west of the Draugen field.

Rolls-Royce will upgrade Njord A’s current 12-point mooring system to a new 17-point system under the new £15m deal.

Rolls-Royce customer and services marine director Knut Hovland said: “We are proud to be part of this extensive upgrade programme.

“It is the first time in the Norway’s history as an oil producing country that a platform is being towed to shore for an extensive upgrade. Previous upgrades have been done offshore.”

Njord A is a semisubmersible floating steel platform, which features an integrated deck with drilling and processing facilities, as well as living quarters.

Rolls-Royce will provide low pressure hydraulic driven winches, fairleads and a control system for the four-column production platform, which will then it will be moored at about 330m water depth following installation.

Rolls-Royce is expected to deliver the system next year, and the platform is scheduled to re-commence its operations in 2020.

The latest upgrades are expected to allow the platform to serve for additional 20 years, and form part of the wider ‘Njord Future’ initiative being carried out by Statoil, which aims to increase the lifespan of the Njord field. Kvaerner originally delivered Njord A in 1997.

The topside of the platform was developed at Stord and the hull was built at Verdal, both located on the west coast of Norway.

(offshore-technology)