Databases

Latest Database News

Pyrrho is a compact and efficient relational database management system for the .NET framework. It supports the SQL2003 standard including advanced OLAP functions, and the free edition works for database files up to 8MB in size. The server has a 500KB footprint, so will run successfully on .NET enabled PDAs and mobile phones. Despite its small size it is scalable and efficient. It has been tested on high-volume scenarios, where it significantly outperforms existing commercial products, and the DataCenter edition is designed for supercomputing clusters.

Raytheon Company demonstrated the potential to employ a UK adaptation of the US-deployed Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) to provide a more accurate, timely understanding of an adversary and their actions. The demonstration took place during the 2008 Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration in Portsmouth, U.K. The Raytheon team used key technologies, including DCGS and the DCGS Integration Backbone (DIB), to integrate existing applications, data bases and shared services from diverse intelligence suppliers and users providing UK forces with network-enabled solutions.

"As part of the [IMF] assessment," German newspaper Der Spiegel said, "the US Federal Reserve Bank, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the major investment banks, mortgage banks and hedge funds will be asked to hand over confidential documents to the IMF team. They will be required to answer the questions they are asked during interviews. Their databases will be subjected to so-called stress tests — worst-case scenarios designed to simulate the broader effects of failures of other major financial institutions or a continuing decline of the dollar."

Automatic Number Plate Reading (ANPR) equipment involves the use of special cameras that scan the number plates of passing vehicles and check them out against 100 separate computerised databases. These include every police force in England and Wales and most of Scotland, the Police National Computer, DVLA records and the MIDAS system, to identify vehicles that are untaxed, have no insurance.

CCTV cameras are not preventing crime in the UK, but new databases could help. Being deeloped and piloted which include:
Â· A new database of images which is expected to use technology developed by the sports advertising industry to track and identify offenders.
Â· Putting images of suspects in muggings, rape and robbery cases out on the internet from next month.
Â· Building a national CCTV database, incorporating pictures of convicted offenders as well as unidentified suspects. The plans for this have been drawn up, but are on hold while the technology required to carry out automated searches is refined.

The US parent company Cognia Corporation, which filed for bankruptcy there, does not implicate Cognia EU, which extracted information from databases and was involved in a £5.3m project with Edinburgh University, funded by the Scottish Government Intermediate Technology Institute for Life Sciences . Now some 30 employees of the Gyle-based Cognia EU awarded pay and compensation by tribunal, after being made redundant in November last year, seem likely to never see the money.

Arnhem-based Human Inference, one of Europe's leading organisations in the area of data quality solutions, has been listed by Gartner Inc in its Visionaries quadrant of its 2008 Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Tools. Gartner examined fourteen iinternational providers of data quality solutions based on completeness of vision and ability to execute.

Big-cat investigators have come up with a plan which might capture the legendary Beast of Buchan – on camera. An investigative group, Big Cats in Britain (BCIB), wants to develop a Big Brother-style scheme to try to shoot footage of the elusive creatures on strategically placed cameras. A spokesman for the organisation said: “The webcam will mean that people will be able to go big cat spotting on their own home computer."

A computer-generated 'fly-through' and artist's impressions offer a sneak preview of what the revamped National Museum will look like from 2011 will be there this summer, as a new gallery Scotland: A Changing Nation, will bring together a range of Scottish stories, words, costumes, photographs, objects and film. Opening at the National Museum of Scotland on 11 July 2008, the permanent gallery will present a bold and innovative look at modern Scotland over the last century.
And if you can't get there, try an absorbing web-browse.

Developing a Europe-wide research infrastructure on biodiversity is the ambitious goal of the recently-started LIFEWATCH project. which hopes to enable the exchange and linking of biodiversity data, the development of online analysis tools and the creation of virtual laboratories in EU Member States. Ultimately, project partners hope their approach will contribute to better managing environment and halting biodiversity loss. But the map of participants suggests more may be needed to stem the tide of loss

European researchers argue that biobanks would be easier to trace for research purposes if they can with a unique International Standards Biobank Number (ISBN). Looking at tissue and the emerging stem cell banks, and the amazing lack of centralised linking, perhaps an ISBTSCN (International Standards for Bio,,Tissue and Stem Cells Number is what should be on the international agenda.

Flax, the open source enterprise search engine from Cambridge-based Lemur Consulting, has been selected to provide free-text searching for the Newspaper Licensing Authority. The l capabilities of Flax; rapid free text searching, the ability the look inside proprietary file formats, etc, have proven to be hugely useful in searching the NLA's database of over ten million articles quickly and easily.

Project coordinator Dr Mark Morrison, scientific manager at the Institute of Nanotechnology in Glasgow, UK, explains the project to e stablishing a permanent European Observatory on Nanotechnologies is one of the goals of the EU-funded observatoryNANO project, which started recently. Based on the methodologies developed and validated during the project and in the framework of similar initiatives, the observatory will in the future provide ongoing and independent support to decision-makers, the project partners hope. The role of the observatory would be to present reliable, complete and responsible science-based and economic expert analysis across different technology sectors and establish a dialogue with decision makers and others regarding the benefits and opportunities of nanotechnologies, balanced against barriers and risks.

The merger or takeover that's hit the rocks from the inability to amalgamate IT departmental data rings bells. Last year data migration software expert Celona Technologies surveyed what is apparently an uncomfortably resonant subject with telecoms IT professionals. "Some 59% did not start the migration, or cancelled through fear of failure. Around 33% who started never finished the migration. Another 32% delivered late, while 35% failed to get the data across," CEO Charles Andrews rattles off the bleak figures which Celona historically working on billing migration, now believes it can transform. Gail Purvis reports.

Daphne Koller, a researcher at Stanford whose work has led to advances in artificial intelligence, sees the world as a web of probabilities was honored recently with a new computer sciences award sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery and the Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Indian computer services firm Infosys.

A groundbreaking free tool to help oncologists choose the best therapies for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer has been launched this week by scientists at the 1st European Lung Cancer Conference jointly organised by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) in Geneva, Switzerland. From Israel and Italy researchers report new genetic techniques helpful for diagnosis and treatment.

The Building Control Training Academy at Westminster, London, has been officially launched with the help of Napier University’s Dr Sean Smith. He has been instrumental in designing Napier’s new post-graduate, Building Performance and Technical Direction course, which welcomes its inaugural students in September. Coming at a time when The Office of Fair Trading has formally accused 112 construction firms in England of participating in "bid rigging"the biggest investigation of cartel activity to date, building 'control' would seem to be a red hot topic

The London Evening Standard reports that parts of the Metropolitan Police Force are deliberately preventing Londoners from reporting crime to keep the figures down, an official report Crime Data Recording Scrutiny for London Metropolitan area has found. Published crime statistics are "inaccurate" and sometimes "dishonest" and police have been "pressured" to massage the numbers for political reasons, it claims. Data is stored on a variety of often obsolete and incompatible computer systems and "often has to be entered several times on different systems, increasing the likelihood of mistakes".

The Bank, slammed by Financial Union Unite for shutting down its payments processing centre in Livingstone, Scotland, with the loss of 164 jobs: failed In March to renew its digital certificate, causing customers to see a message saying that its site could not be verified as secure; and made news by losing a computer disc containing confidential personal details (down to smoker level!) of around 370,000 UK life assurance customers, is now trying to sort out its Secure ePayments system.

â��While we routinely search the databases of countries like Canada, Scotland and Australia â�� who all share similar concerns with rural health issues to those we confront in New Zealand â�� we have been surprised to find no similar online library to the one we have set up. There are plenty of research papers, of course, but not the â��thumbnailâ�� descriptions of â��how toâ�� ideas being used in the field.

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