Global impacts of energy demand on the freshwater resources of nations

The growing geographic disconnect between consumption of goods, the extraction and processing of resources, and the environmental impacts associated with production activities makes it crucial to factor global trade into sustainability assessments. Using an empirically validated environmentally extended global trade model, we examine the relationship between two key resources underpinning economies and human well-being—energy and freshwater. A comparison of three energy sectors (petroleum, gas, and electricity) reveals that freshwater consumption associated with gas and electricity production is largely confined within the territorial boundaries where demand originates. This finding contrasts with petroleum, which exhibits a varying ratio of territorial to international freshwater consumption, depending on the origin of demand. For example, although the United States and China have similar demand associated with the petroleum sector, international freshwater consumption is three times higher for the former than the latter. Based on mapping patterns of freshwater consumption associated with energy sectors at subnational scales, our analysis also reveals concordance between pressure on freshwater resources associated with energy production and freshwater scarcity in a number of river basins globally. These energy-driven pressures on freshwater resources in areas distant from the origin of energy demand complicate the design of policy to ensure security of fresh water and energy supply. Although much of the debate around energy is focused on greenhouse gas emissions, our findings highlight the need to consider the full range of consequences of energy production when designing policy

Environmental and Social Accounting As An Alternative Approach To Conflict Resolutions In A Volatile and E-Business Environment

Profits and improvements in world social welfare are the main reasons for industrialization. However, while governments and business owners are striving to solve one social problem or the other, these same solution processes scoop up other problems along the line which inadvertently breed conflicts and confrontations between the host communities and the owners and operators of the organizations attempting the solution. This is the position which most oil producing companies in the Nigerian Niger Delta region as well as some manufacturing concerns have found themselves. In E-Business, market domination and monopolistic trade practices have pitched major world players in the information and communications technology industry against one another, engendering yet another type of social conflict. This paper believes that a lot could be done to douse the resulting conflagration and pacify those directly affected by applying palliative and preventive remedies using the process of environmental and social accounting aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies as a tool

Using Virtual Reality Technology in Oil and Gas Industry

This article introduces the research of virtual reality technologies used in the oil and gas industry. The industry is so vast that the technologies used there are radically different. Various aspects of oil and gas production were considered, such as geodata modeling, real-time production visualization technology. The problems and possible solutions for translating CAD models into virtual reality applications are indicated. Also, using virtual reality technology, can increase the speed of work and reduce the risk of errors, which is extremely important in the oil and gas industry. As well as the benefits of learning and using virtual reality to improve learning and understanding of production processes

Trialing project-based learning in a new EAP ESP course: A collaborative reflective practice of three college English teachers

Currently in many Chinese universities, the traditional College English course is facing the risk of being ‘marginalized’, replaced or even removed, and many hours previously allocated to the course are now being taken by EAP or ESP. At X University in northern China, a curriculum reform as such is taking place, as a result of which a new course has been created called ‘xue ke’ English. Despite the fact that ‘xue ke’ means subject literally, the course designer has made it clear that subject content is not the target, nor is the course the same as EAP or ESP. This curriculum initiative, while possibly having been justified with a rationale of some kind (e.g. to meet with changing social and/or academic needs of students and/or institutions), this is posing a great challenge for, as well as considerable pressure on, a number of College English teachers who have taught this single course for almost their entire teaching career. In such a context, three teachers formed a peer support group in Semester One this year, to work collaboratively co-tackling the challenge, and they chose Project-Based Learning (PBL) for the new course. This presentation will report on the implementation of this project, including the overall designing, operational procedure, and the teachers’ reflections. Based on discussion, pre-agreement was reached on the purpose and manner of collaboration as offering peer support for more effective teaching and learning and fulfilling and pleasant professional development. A WeChat group was set up as the chief platform for messaging, idea-sharing, and resource-exchanging. Physical meetings were supplementary, with sound agenda but flexible time, and venues. Mosoteach cloud class (lan mo yun ban ke) was established as a tool for virtual learning, employed both in and after class. Discussions were held at the beginning of the semester which determined only brief outlines for PBL implementation and allowed space for everyone to autonomously explore in their own way. Constant further discussions followed, which generated a great deal of opportunities for peer learning and lesson plan modifications. A reflective journal, in a greater or lesser detailed manner, was also kept by each teacher to record the journey of the collaboration. At the end of the semester, it was commonly recognized that, although challenges existed, the collaboration was overall a success and they were all willing to continue with it and endeavor to refine it to be a more professional and productive approach

Human Factors, Ergonomics and Industry 4.0 in the Oil & Gas Industry: A Bibliometric Analysis

Over the last few years, the Human Factors and Ergonomics (HF/E) discipline has significantly benefited from new human-centric engineered digital solutions of the 4.0 industrial age. Technologies are creating new socio-technical interactions between human and machine that minimize the risk of design-induced human errors and have largely contributed to remarkable improvements in terms of process safety, productivity, quality, and workers’ well-being. However, despite the Oil&Gas (O&G) sector is one of the most hazardous environments where human error can have severe consequences, Industry 4.0 aspects are still scarcely integrated with HF/E. This paper calls for a holistic understanding of the changing role and responsibilities of workers in the O&G industry and aims at investigating to what extent, what type of, and how academic publications in the O&G field integrate HF/E and Industry 4.0 in their research. Bibliometric analysis has been conducted to provide useful insights to researchers and practitioners and to assess the status quo. Our findings show that academic publications have mainly focused on simulation-based training to increase process safety whereas revealed the lack of specific studies on the application of cognitive solutions, such as Augmented Reality-enabled tools or Intelligent Fault Detection and Alarm Management solutions

Human Resource Local Content in Ghana\u27s Upstream Petroleum Industry

Enactment of Ghana\u27s Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, 2013 (L.I. 2204) was intended to regulate the percentage of local products, personnel, financing, and goods and services rendered within Ghana\u27s upstream petroleum industry value chain. Five years after the inception of Ghana\u27s upstream oil and gas industry, a gap is evident between the requirements of L.I. 2204 and professional practice. Drawing on Lewin\u27s change theory, a cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the extent of differences between the prevailing human resource local content and the requirements of L.I. 2204 in Ghana\u27s upstream petroleum industry. The extent to which training acquired by indigenous Ghanaians seeking jobs in Ghana\u27s oil fields affects the prevalent local content in its upstream petroleum industry was also examined. Survey data were collected from 97 management, technical, and other staff in 2 multinational petroleum companies whose oil and gas development plans have been approved by the Petroleum Commission of Ghana. To answer the research questions and test their hypotheses, one-way ANOVA was performed with staff category (management, technical, and other) as the independent variable and prevalent local content as the dependent variable. Results indicated that prevailing local content in Ghana\u27s upstream petroleum industry meets the requirements of L.I. 2204. Further, training acquired by indigenous Ghanaians seeking jobs in Ghana\u27s oil fields affects the prevalent local content in its offshore petroleum industry. Findings may encourage leaders within multinational oil companies and the Petroleum Commission of Ghana to organize educational seminars that equip indigenous Ghanaians with specialized skills for working in Ghana\u27s upstream petroleum industry

Geofencing in the GCC and China: A Marketing Trend That’s Not Going Away

This research discusses an emergent marketing trend which is revolutionizing the way in which bricks and mortars retailers are reaching their consumers. This emergent marketing trend falls into the mobile marketing classification and is identified as geofencing. Geofencing is identified as the development of a virtual boundary around a predetermined area be it a single building, shopping center or a section of a municipality. This boundary is developed through the combination of geolocation technology involving GPS, smartphones and the integration of other communication based services such as text, email and social media and so forth. A case study involving the use of a geofence by a bike-sharing company in China, ofo, is utilized to demonstrate how geofencing can be integrated into particular business models. In this case, ofo uses geofencing to monitor specific bike inventories by area and to ensure that its consumers in each area return the inventory to the appropriate market. This case, in turn, is then compared to how geofencing can be developed and applied in a market as diverse as the Gulf Cooperation Council or the GCC which consists of six member states with Saudi Arabia being the largest and most important. In this instance, the use of a geofence and geofencing technology is shown to be relevant with respect to Saudi Arabia’s retail sector which is burgeoning at a rapid pace. Geofencing allows retailers to notify consumers directly via SMS, MMS, email or social media notification of some sort of specials, sales or discounts at a given retailer when the consumer passes near that retailer. Finally, this report also discusses the direction that this geofencing technology within the context of marketing is taking and may take in the future. This includes some discussion about the integration of augmented reality into the framework of geofencing and so forth