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Aberdeen and the North East

Latest news from Aberdeen and the North East

Back in November, a new report ‘Evaluating SME experiences of Government procurement,’ commissioned by the British Venture Capital Association together with the CBI and the Federation of Small Business, found that small businesses continue to face a number of barriers in winning public contracts.

Aberdeen City Council has awarded a £140,000 contract to ESRI (UK), a lead US supplier in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) solutions, to supply GIS software with the ultimate aim of which is to give its citizens quick and easy access to information on local services and activities. The purchase has been funded by the Scottish Governments Modernising Government Fund and is due to go live in spring 2009.

Rail passengers in Scotland face growing disruption following a sudden rise in the theft of copper cables from railway lines, since soaring global prices for metals, fuelled by growing demand from China, has triggered a surge in metal thefts from Scotland's railway lines. Perhaps the railways should take a leaf out of the Gauteng Soweto development in South Africa, which receives a business boost with a R1bn investment by shared broadband infrastructure company, Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), to lay fibre in the township.

Capgemini (one time Computers Analysts and Programmers) and already located in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness, demonstrates its commitment to the oil and gas industry by establishing a dedicated team of specialist industry consultants in Aberdeen. The new office in Aberdeen, which opened with a client reception this week, supports the growth of Capgemini’s Scottish business. Meanwhile in Swansea it is now in negotiations with the Council to reach a commercial settlement to an outsourcing deal worth £83m in total.

Gaberlunzie was sent some gentle laughter, with a tale accompanying the graphic, by which Swansea council wanted to put a sign up on a Road Stopping HGV's. Almost simultaneously he also noted a story in The Times and The Press & Journal, where an Aberdeen computer software and Scots language expert and his bride to-be, had looked to be denied their minority language rights.

A study led by Professor Fiona Gilbert (Below) from the Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre ( University of Aberdeen, Scotland), set out to determine whether the performance of a single reader using a CAD system would match the performance achieved by two separate readers. The sensitivity of screening mammography for detecting small breast cancer has been shown to be higher when a mammogram is read by two readers as opposed to a single reader, with studies suggesting that double reading increases the rate of cancer detection by 4 to 14 %, and by 10 % according to a meta-analysis. Double reading is now standard practice in at least 12 European countries.

Two Scottish poets have scored for both the best single poem and the best collection in the 2008 Forward prizes. Don Paterson's "Love Poem for Natalie 'Tusja' Beridze" entwines the language of computing with that of unrequited love across the internet, in a long-distance literary passion for an avant-garde Georgian musician “Tusja” Beridze - in which both Google and Myspace play the links, has earned him the 2008 Forward Prize for Poetry. The Best Collection award meanwhile went 52 year old Aberdonian, Mick Imlah collection, The Lost Leader, has won Best Collection award.

Aberdeenshire Council is using the latest satellite and laser technology to monitor land fill sites and new developments. Using a handheld satellite positioning system, specifically designed for field mapping applications, a laser distance measurement device and GGP Systems advanced geographical information system (GIS) staff at the Council are accurately mapping development projects, land fill sites and quarries. The field-captured information is then used to ensure that development projects and activities are progressing in accordance with planning permissions, development policy and operating licences.

James Watt and Martin Dickie, founders of Scottish microbrewery, Brewdog Ltd, have been named Grampian’s top young entrepreneurs after winning the prestigious business award and a cash boost of £1000. James, 26 and Martin, 25, beat the business talents of Grampian’s best young start ups to win the regional final of the 2008 Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ Awards. Moray Council sponsored an achievement award for another young business, Alan Duncan who runs a successful mobile mechanic business, not unlike the farrier trade of old. Trading since 2006, Alan works in all weathers repairing customer vehicles.

Genetix Group, the cancer diagnostic and biopharmaceutical technologies group, has been awarded a contract to develop and implement a nationwide network of Automated Cytogenetic Analysis Systems by NHS National Services Scotland. The project will connect NHSScotland's five cytogenetic laboratories - located in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness - through a network of over 70 CytoVision workstations, delivering a completely integrated, standardised, automated cytogenetic analysis solution.

Speaking at the British Ecological Society’s meeting at Imperial College, London, Jane DeGabriel from the University of Aberdeen explains how a new technique for genetically 'bar-coding midges could help the spread of bluetongue - a serious animal disease in the UK.
Just as human genetics has been mapped across Europe, midge genetics and their differing ability to spread disease can also be tracked.

Murders join microscopes and quills at a conference on how thriller writers and forensic scientists can fight real crime. David Charters reports for the Liverpool Daily Post on two sessions devoted to crime, as part of the British Association for the Advancement of Science’s Festival of Science being held in Liverpool between September 6 and 11. Scotland fields a fine portfolio of expertise in both approaches.

Educationalists in Aberdeen are concerned that not enough money is available to buy IT equipment for 10 schools being built under the £120m 3Rs project. It has been suggested that £250,000 allocated to purchase computer servers, PCs, monitors, laptops, printers, interactive whiteboards for every classroom and data projectors is insufficient.

Researchers led by Professor James Naismith and Professor Ian Booth from the Universities of St Andrews and and Aberdeen respectively, with help of a£1.5M grant from the Wellcome Trust, have discovered a pressure release valve mechanism. Two other routes are also under development. At Oxford, Prolysis works on inhibiting FtsZ protein, while scientists at Swansea University, Wales, pursue on a new type of antibiotic found in maggot secretions.

Indigo’s newly developed system supports international energy companies in Aberdeen, with further applications possible in the multi-media sector, video and audio companies, scientific research, data companies and financial institutions that analyse and access statistics and large volumes of data. Its newly-developed solution is very relevant to many other sectors beyond reservoir engineering and characterisation.

As the grouse shooting season gets under way, two scientists involved in high-profile studies of hen harriers and red grouse at Langholm Moor in Scotland have called for field trials of a 'ceiling' on harrier numbers in an attempt to end the long running conflict between conservationists and grouse managers. Anyone studying the approach of large area wildlife conservation will know that predators and prey need careful 'ceiling' monitoring so an equilibrium can be achieved. The same should hopefully prove viable for Scotland's grouse moors.

A computer-based vision restoration therapy for stroke victims who have suffered partial vision loss has been developed by researchers at the University of Aberdeen who have designed an interactive program that can help sufferers of partial vision loss (hemianopia), caused by damage to the brain's visual pathways after a stroke.

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