67 research outputs found
Oil and Challenges of Trade Policy Making In Sudan in a Globalizing Arena
No full textAbstract The purpose of this study is to examine the potential impact of oil revenues on the economy of Sudan and the challenges facing the Government in policy making, particularly trade policy and allocation of oil revenues for long-run development and diversification of the production and export structure of the economy. The exploitation of oil resources has been accompanied by impressive liberalization of the economy by the Government of Sudan. Since then the country has been integrating into the world economy rapidly based on oil revenues. Yet, little has been achieved so far in integrating various sectors of the domestic economy despite relatively rapid GDP growth based on oil revenues. Rapid economic growth and diversification of the economy are among the main objectives of the Government. Therefore, the challenge facing the Government is to design and implement a long-term development strategy in order to build up a solid industrial and agricultural sector for sustainable development and expansion of non-oil exports. In such a strategy the design, and implementation, of trade and industrial policies and the way oil revenues are allocated, takes, inter alia, importance. Developing a conceptual framework of analysis, the author will argue that while export of petroleum provides financial resources for the acceleration of investment and growth, prospects for sustained growth and diversification will be still limited by some physical and institutional bottlenecks which can not be easily overcome by ample oil revenues. Trade in oil itself may have some detrimental socio-economic effects, including the attitude and policies of the Government, on the prospects for development and diversification of the economy in the long-run. Therefore, the Government policies, particularly trade policies, and the way oil revenues are allocated may not be necessarily conducive to long-run development and diversification of production and export structure. Proposing an alternative long-run trade and industrial policy for the country, the author will also outline the practical problems of its implementation under current international trade rules. ---------- *The author is a development economist with D.Phil from Oxford Univsity. He is currently an international consultant affiliated to the Institute of Economic Research, University of Neuchatel, Switzerland. He is the former Head, Macroeconomic and Development Policies Branch, UNCTAD and the author of a large number of articles, published in international journals, on trade and industrial policies, economic reform and other development policy issues. His latest book is: Trade Policy at the Crossroads; the recent experience of developing countries, Macmillan, 2005. This paper is developed on the basis of a part of a study undertaken for the World Bank under a DTSI project financed by the same Organization. The author benefited from interviews with Government authorities and comments from Mr. P. Shuler to whom goes his thanks. Comments are welcome and can be sent to author: [email protected] economies, trade policy, Sudan, economic development, diversification
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Petro-phantoms in Fāḍil al-ʿAzzāwī’s The Last of the Angels (1992) and Imīl Ḥabībī’s Saraya, the Ogre’s Daughter (1991)
No full textContributing to the fields of eco- and petro-criticism, this article argues for significant connections in the Arabic novel between fantastical and uncanny aesthetics, on the one hand, and ecological awareness and energy anxiety on the other. Moving from nation-based comparisons, in recognition of how energy ecologies similarly traverse sovereign borders, it does so through Iraqi author Fāḍil al-ʿAzzāwī’s Ākhir al-malāʾikah (1992) and the Palestinian Imīl Ḥabībī’s Sarāyā, bint al-ghūl (1991). Set at either end of the Kirkuk-Haifa oil pipeline, in their authors’ home cities, these novels were completed within a few weeks of one another, during the first months of the petroleum-fuelled driven First Gulf War (1990-1991), to which they allude. Through phantoms, jinn, angels, and zombies, they dramatize the emotional, environmental, and social disturbances of petromodernity
Tasks with parameters: a digitized approach
No full textTechnological and methodological aspects of using freeware software, such as GeoGebra, Wolfram|Alpha, Maxima, SageMath and GRAN1, for solving tasks with parameters, are presented in the article. Criteria were defined for selection of computer mathematics system (CMS) to solve tasks with parameters, including plotting a graph of a function given in explicit and implicit forms, using a parameter in a function’s analytical definition, and automatically changing the graph of a function depending on the parameter value; ability to changing the parameter step change; plotting of a tangent and a normal to a curve at a point; ability to change the scale; determination of the coordinates of the intersection of graphs of functions; obtaining an analytical solution. In the article, some examples were presented for graphic and analytical tasks that used CMS parameters. GRAN1 and GeoGebra are recommended to use for plotting and analyzing of the graph
Asymmetry of acetylcholinesterase and acetylcholine receptor in intact secretory vesicles from adrenal medulla
No full textTransmission of facial expressions of emotion co-evolved with their efficient decoding in the brain: behavioral and brain evidence
No full textCompetent social organisms will read the social signals of their peers. In primates, the face has evolved to transmit the organism's internal emotional state. Adaptive action suggests that the brain of the receiver has co-evolved to efficiently decode expression signals. Here, we review and integrate the evidence for this hypothesis. With a computational approach, we co-examined facial expressions as signals for data transmission and the brain as receiver and decoder of these signals. First, we show in a model observer that facial expressions form a lowly correlated signal set. Second, using time-resolved EEG data, we show how the brain uses spatial frequency information impinging on the retina to decorrelate expression categories. Between 140 to 200 ms following stimulus onset, independently in the left and right hemispheres, an information processing mechanism starts locally with encoding the eye, irrespective of expression, followed by a zooming out to processing the entire face, followed by a zooming back in to diagnostic features (e.g. the opened eyes in "fear", the mouth in "happy"). A model categorizer demonstrates that at 200 ms, the left and right brain have represented enough information to predict behavioral categorization performance
Re-curing of calcium aluminate cements post contact with molten slag
No full textCalcium aluminate cements (CAC) are widely used for the production of refractory concretes that are able to withstand extreme temperatures. During exposure to such temperatures, the main hydration phases revert to mayenite, calcium aluminate and calcium dialuminate. Many investigations focused on the description of this mechanism and how it affects the remaining mechanical properties of the concrete. However, subsequent contact with air humidity after high temperature exposure further modifies the composition of the cement paste. The effects of re-hydration on the pore network and mechanical properties of concrete are critical to the design of durable systems under repeated exposure to high temperatures, as well as assessing the remaining quality of damaged structures. Yet such effects remain poorly understood. This research focuses on the use of CAC as a compatible protection layer to concrete made with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) in order to sustain infrastructure in industries which may have occasional or even constant high temperature spills (such as steel, aluminum, petro-chemicals and others). To achieve such goal, slabs with one layer composed of CAC mortar and a second layer made of OPC mortar will be subjected to contact with molten glass at 1530°C followed by exposure to ambient moisture in a fog room. The microstructure of these samples will then be studied and compared.Materials and Environmen
Water, Sanitation and the Modern City: Colonial and Post-colonial Experiences in Lagos and Mumbai
No full texthuman development, water, sanitation
Outcrop analogue study to determine reservoir properties of the Los Humeros and Acoculco geothermal fields, Mexico
No full textThe Los Humeros geothermal system is steam
dominated and currently under exploration with 65 wells
(23 producing). Having temperatures above 380 ◦C, the
system is characterized as a super hot geothermal system (SHGS). The development of such systems is still challenging due to the high temperatures and aggressive reservoir fluids which lead to corrosion and scaling problems. The
geothermal system in Acoculco (Puebla, Mexico; so far only
explored via two exploration wells) is characterized by temperatures of approximately 300 ◦C at a depth of about 2 km.
In both wells no geothermal fluids were found, even though
a well-developed fracture network exists. Therefore, it is
planned to develop an enhanced geothermal system (EGS).
For better reservoir understanding and prospective modeling, extensive geological, geochemical, geophysical and
technical investigations are performed within the scope of the
GEMex project. Outcrop analogue studies have been carried
out in order to identify the main fracture pattern, geometry
and distribution of geological units in the area and to characterize all key units from the basement to the cap rock regarding petro- and thermo-physical rock properties and mineralogy. Ongoing investigations aim to identify geological and
structural heterogeneities on different scales to enable a more
reliable prediction of reservoir properties. Beside geological
investigations, physical properties of the reservoir fluids are
determined to improve the understanding of the hydrochemical processes in the reservoir and the fluid-rock interactions,
which affect the reservoir rock properties
Strategic marketing management of oil and gas industry: A review of literature
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to review the literature on strategic marketing management. This study adopted an expost facto research methodology to examine the strategic marketing management literature in an attempt to attain their desired level of performance. The overall findings suggest that strategic marketing is a driver of organizational positioning in a dynamic environment, and that it helps to enhance the development of new products/services for existing markets. These findings, along with other interesting findings of the study, are discussed. From the empirical and anecdotal managerial evidence as well as from the literature, implications are drawn for the efficient and effective strategic marketing practices in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. Based on the findings of the study, the concepts and principles of total quality management within a holistic framework it is recommended that (i) efforts should be made by organizational marketers towards understanding the relevant economic factors that affect both clients’ behaviour and the strategic options that may be adopted to cope with such behaviours; (ii) in a constantly changing business environment, firms can adopt different strategic marketing practices since the yardstick is the enhancement of business performance.Strategic Marketing, Strategies, Dynamic environment, Deployment, Resources, Management
Petro-chemical features and source areas of volcanic aggregates used in ancient Roman maritime concretes
No full textWe present and discuss data from petrographic observation at the optical microscope, electron microprobe analyses
on selected glass shards, and trace-element analyses on 14 mortar aggregates collected at the ancient harbors
and other maritime structures of Latium and Campania, spanning the third century BCE through the
second CE, aimed at identify the volcanic products employed in the concretes and their area of exploitation.
According to Latin author Vitruvius assertion about the ubiquitous use of Campanian pozzolan in the ancient
Roman sea-water concretes, results of this study show a very selective and homogeneous choice in the material
employed to produce the concretes for the different investigated maritime structures, evidencing three main
pumice compositions, all corresponding to those of the products of the post-Neapolitan Yellow Tuff activity of
the Phlegraean Fields, and a systematic use of the local Neapolitan Yellow Tuff to produce the coarse aggregate
of these concretes. However, mixing with local products of the Colli Albani volcanic district, located 20 km east
of Rome, has been evidenced at two fishponds of Latium, in Punta della Vipera and Torre Astura. Based on
these petrographic and geochemical data, we conclude that the selective use of pozzolan from Campania, rather
than of unproved different chemical properties, was the consequence of a series of logistic, economic, industrial
and historical reasons
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