Economic evaluation of gas to liquids (GTL) product transportation through the Trans Alaska Pipeline Systems (TAPS)

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2003The Alaska North Slope is a potential candidate for the Gas to Liquid (GTL) technology. With over 38 Tcf of natural gas reserves stranded on the Alaska North Slope, the GTL technology is considered as a possible method of harnessing the abundant resources. GTL fuels are environmentally friendly (sulfur free) with better ignition and burning properties than conventional petroleum products from crude oil. Evaluating the options of transporting GTL products through the existing Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) together with crude oil either as a blend of crude oil and GTL (commingled) or as alternate slugs of each product (batching) is the main focus of this study. Economic evaluation using Rate of Return analysis to identify the most favorable mode of transportation of the GTL products was performed. Batching, using the modem tracking and sensor techniques was found to be the most economic method yielding the highest return on investment

Economic evaluation of gas to liquids (GTL) product transportation through the Trans Alaska Pipeline Systems (TAPS)

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2003The Alaska North Slope is a potential candidate for the Gas to Liquid (GTL) technology. With over 38 Tcf of natural gas reserves stranded on the Alaska North Slope, the GTL technology is considered as a possible method of harnessing the abundant resources. GTL fuels are environmentally friendly (sulfur free) with better ignition and burning properties than conventional petroleum products from crude oil. Evaluating the options of transporting GTL products through the existing Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) together with crude oil either as a blend of crude oil and GTL (commingled) or as alternate slugs of each product (batching) is the main focus of this study. Economic evaluation using Rate of Return analysis to identify the most favorable mode of transportation of the GTL products was performed. Batching, using the modem tracking and sensor techniques was found to be the most economic method yielding the highest return on investment

Widowhood Levirate Rites and The Politics of Choice in Julie Okoh’s Our Wife Forever

The problem in the relationship between man and woman as free beings, has been that of understanding the place of other, the desirability of being in objective terms, and the value of reconciling gender differences in the politics of necessary interaction. Further to the above thrust in Simone de Beauvoir’s The second sex, this paper also indulges the radical theoretical position in Barbara Johnson’s “Nothing fails like success” which anchors thought on the function of the disruption in the interpretation of the identity of the sexes, especially as this inclination avails a complementary theoretical threshold to Beauvoir’s aforementioned approach. Based on the foregoing framework, this paper has analytically examined the intricate contradictions inherent in the practice of levirate system among the Etsako people of Nigeria, re-enacted in Julie Okoh’s Our Wife Forever, exposing the fact that blinded by tradition, the people of this community derive values from their cultural mindset which regards human right in relation to patriarchal order, at the expense of the female gender. Regarding such a cultural backdrop, this paper revealed that failure to reciprocate the recognition of gender differences between the sexes is a function of contending contradictions; the failure on the part of people to experience their ignorance concerning the otherness of the sexes, by their individual actions, explain the lack of consciousness to recognize the need for the complementarity of the sexes based, on the failure to apprehend the differences of the sexes as aspects of identical classification.Key Words: Patriarchy, feminism, levirate rites, contradictions, otherness, marginal characterizatio

Sources of Cardiovascular Health Information and Channels of Health Communication Among Urban Population in Nigeria

This study employed mixed methods to investigate the preferred sources of health information and later explored the views of community healthcare workers on the enablers, barriers and ways of overcoming barriers to health communication. The study found that majority of the participants preferred their source of CV (cardiovascular) health information from the healthcare workers including the medical doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. On the other hand, the least preferred source of health information was from friends, family members, and community leaders. Some of the identified enablers to community health communication include awareness programme via Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations such as faith-based organisations and healthcare facilities. Others are traditional media and social media. The identified barriers to community-based health communication include lack of knowledge and poverty, language barriers, and other miscellaneous issues including misuse of internet, lack of basic amenities and religious beliefs. The community-based healthcare providers articulated ways to overcome the identified barriers, including enlightenment programmes, using the language of the target audience, funding health awareness programmes, and monitoring of health education interventions. This study concludes that dissemination of health information using numerous channels is essential in ensuring population-wide primary prevention of diseases

Color image-based shape reconstruction of multi-color objects under general illumination conditions

Humans have the ability to infer the surface reflectance properties and three-dimensional shape of objects from two-dimensional photographs under simple and complex illumination fields. Unfortunately, the reported algorithms in the area of shape reconstruction require a number of simplifying assumptions that result in poor performance in uncontrolled imaging environments. Of all these simplifications, the assumptions of non-constant surface reflectance, globally consistent illumination, and multiple surface views are the most likely to be contradicted in typical environments. In this dissertation, three automatic algorithms for the recovery of surface shape given non-constant reflectance using a single-color image acquired are presented. In addition, a novel method for the identification and removal of shadows from simple scenes is discussed.In existing shape reconstruction algorithms for surfaces of constant reflectance, constraints based on the assumed smoothness of the objects are not explicitly used. Through Explicit incorporation of surface smoothness properties, the algorithms presented in this work are able to overcome the limitations of the previously reported algorithms and accurately estimate shape in the presence of varying reflectance. The three techniques developed for recovering the shape of multi-color surfaces differ in the method through which they exploit the surface smoothness property. They are summarized below:• Surface Recovery using Pre-Segmentation - this algorithm pre-segments the image into distinct color regions and employs smoothness constraints at the color-change boundaries to constrain and recover surface shape. This technique is computationally efficient and works well for images with distinct color regions, but does not perform well in the presence of high-frequency color textures that are difficult to segment.iv• Surface Recovery via Normal Propagation - this approach utilizes local gradient information to propagate a smooth surface solution from points of known orientation. While solution propagation eliminates the need for color-based image segmentation, the quality of the recovered surface can be degraded by high degrees of image noise due to reliance on local information.• Surface Recovery by Global Variational Optimization - this algorithm utilizes a normal gradient smoothness constraint in a non-linear optimization strategy, to iteratively solve for the globally optimal object surface. Because of its global nature, this approach is much less sensitive to noise than the normal propagation is, but requires significantly more computational resources.Results acquired through application of the above algorithms to various synthetic and real image data sets are presented for qualitative evaluation. A quantitative analysis of the algorithms is also discussed for quadratic shapes. The robustness of the three approaches to factors such as segmentation error and random image noise is also explored

Pharmacotherapies for COPD

This review article summarizes the main treatments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, their mechanisms, and the key evidence from trials supporting their use. Drug classes covered were short acting beta agonists (SABA), short acting muscarinic antagonists (SAMA), long acting beta agonists (LABA), long acting antimuscarinics (LAMA), inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), LABA/ ICS combinations, specific phosphodiesterase (PDE4) inhibitors, non-specific PDE inhibitors, mucolytics, and oxygen. Non-specific therapies, such as opiates for relief of dyspnoea and therapies for smoking cessation, are also covered briefly. For each class of drug, mechanisms of action are described, key clinical trial results are reported, and available agents compared. Finally, the place of each drug in therapy is compared between current worldwide guidelines

Persistent meningeal signs despite previous treatment for cryptococcal meningitis -- a case report

Corresponding author: Michela M. Fabricius, School of Medicine, University of Missouri-ColumbiaCryptococcal meningitis continues to be a life-threatening fungal infection in patients with HIV. Treatment involves a year of antifungal therapy, and persistent meningeal signs months after treatment initiation are uncommon. We report a case of a 29-year-old male with HIV who was diagnosed with cryptococcal meningitis ten months earlier and underwent induction, maintenance and consolidation therapy and ART. Subsequently, he continued to have persistent headaches and developed severe meningeal signs with leptomeningeal enhancement on imaging. This case discusses the importance of keeping both immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome and a cryptococcal meningitis relapse in the differential diagnosis for patients with persistent meningeal signs.Michela M. Fabricius, BS (School of Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia), Shannon Ejiofor, DO (Department of Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia)Includes bibliographical reference

Universal Electronic Student Course Registration Model (U-ESCRM)

Student course registration is an integral facet of university registration processes, which holistically cater for organizational resources: manpower and material. Although several approaches have been proposed in addressing student registration, this research paper provide a comprehensive approach with the aim of addressing comprehensiveness in courses registration through the integration of departmental units within the university into a single architecture framework. This architecture has the propensity in supporting organizational procedures and processes while lessening overhead costs associated with process depletions