RISK MANAGEMENT IN OIL AND GAS SECTOR

The objective of this dissertation is to examine risk management in the oil and gas sector with particular reference to the use of captives as a tool for risk transfer. The oil and gas sector has the biggest companies in the world and operate internationally. As a result of changes in the geopolitical and economic climate the sector is faced with new challenges such as consolidation, increased business interruption exposures, growing regulatory pressures, continued global competition etc. These further expose the business of oil and gas exploration and production to uncertainties arising from their operations, the market, the environment, and political issues. Standard risk management procedures are adopted to manage these risks holistically. These procedures consist of continual processes of risk identification, risk estimation, risk evaluation, risk treatment, and risk monitoring and control. In the course of risk treatment certain strategic decisions are taken depending on the evaluated impact of the project outcome on the organisation. Some of these decisions are avoidance, control, cooperation, imitation and flexibility (Miller, 1991). The oil and gas sector opts for controlling insurable risk through the use of captives as a transfer tool. The captives commonly used are single parent captives (owned by the individual companies). The group captives are not common but there are the association captives. This research finds out that the sector claims that the use of captives, which is seen as self-insurance is adopted due to the fact that the conventional insurance companies are risk averse and would not provide them with the capacity of cover needed for their high-risk operations. But the conventional insurers refute this arguing that the sector sees itself as too big to allow risk sharing so would rather retain its risk for the benefit of cash flow management. The research further examines a case study on a disaster in an organisation in the sector, and finds out that typically industrial accidents are caused by management errors

Repositioning the Boundaries between Public and Private Healthcare Providers in the English NHS

Background and Objectives: Neoliberal ‘reform’ has in many countries shifted services across the boundary between the public and private sector. This policy re-opens the question of what structural and managerial differences, if any, differences of ownership make to healthcare providers. This paper examines the relationships between ownership, organisational structure and managerial regime within an elaboration of Donabedian’s reasoning about organisational structures. Using new data from England it considers: 1. How do the internal managerial g regimes of differently owned healthcare providers differ, or not? 2. In what respects did any such differences arise from differences in ownership or for other reasons? Methods: An observational systematic qualitative comparison of differently-owned providers was the strongest feasible research design. We systematically compared a maximum-variety sample (by ownership) of community health services (CHS); out-of-hours primary care (OOH); hospital planned orthopaedics and ophthalmology providers (N=12 cases). The framework of comparison was the ownership theory mentioned above. Findings: The relationships between ownership (one one hand) and organisation structures and managerial regimes (on the other), differed at different organisational levels. Top-level governance structures diverged by organisational ownership and objectives among the case-study organisations. All the case-study organisations irrespective of ownership had hierarchical, bureaucratic structures and managerial regimes for coordinating everyday service production, but to differing extents. In doctor-owned organisations the doctors’, but not other occupations’, work was controlled and coordinated in a more-or-less democratic, self-governing ways. Conclusion: Ownership does make important differences to healthcare providers’ top-level governance structures and accountabilities; and to work coordination activity, but with different patterns at different organisational levels. These findings have implications for understanding the legitimacy, governance and accountability of healthcare organisations, the distribution and use of power within them, and system-wide policy interventions, for instance to improve care coordination; and for the correspondingly required foci of healthcare organisational research

The Pi-puck extension board: a Raspberry Pi interface for the e-puck robot platform

This paper presents the Pi-puck extension board - an interface between the e-puck robot platform and a Raspberry Pi single-board computer that enhances the processing power, memory capacity, and networking capabilities of the robot at a low cost. It allows high-level control algorithms, wireless communication, and computationally expensive operations such as real-time image processing to be handled by a Raspberry Pi, while the e-puck's microcontroller deals with low-level motor control and sensor interfacing. Although two similar extension boards for the e-puck robot platform already exist, they are now out-dated and expensive in comparison. Our open-source hardware design and supporting software infrastructure offer an inexpensive upgrade to the e-puck robot, transforming it into the Pi-puck – a modern and flexible new platform for mobile robotics research

Intermuscular coherence analysis in older adults reveals that gait related arm swing drives lower limb muscles via subcortical and cortical pathways

KEY POINTS: Gait related arm swing in humans supports efficient lower limb muscle activation, indicating a neural coupling between the upper and lower limbs during gait. Intermuscular coherence analyses of gait related electromyography from upper and lower limbs in twenty healthy participants identified significant coherence in alpha and beta/gamma bands indicating that upper and lower limbs share common subcortical and cortical drivers that coordinate the rhythmic four limb gait pattern. Additional directed connectivity analyses revealed that upper limb muscles drive and shape lower limb muscle activity during gait via subcortical and cortical pathways and to a lesser extent vice versa. Our results provide a neural underpinning that arm swing may serve as an effective rehabilitation therapy concerning impaired gait in neurological diseases. ABSTRACT: Human gait benefits from arm swing, as it enhances efficient lower limb muscle activation in healthy participants as well as patients suffering from neurological impairment. The underlying neuronal mechanisms of such coupling between upper and lower limbs remain poorly understood. The aim of the present study was to examine this coupling by intermuscular coherence analysis during gait. Additionally, directed connectivity analysis of this coupling enabled to assess whether gait related arm swing indeed drives lower limb muscles. To that end, electromyography recordings were obtained from four lower limb muscles and two upper limb muscles bilaterally, during gait, of twenty healthy participants (mean age 67 years, SD 6.8). Intermuscular coherence analysis revealed functional coupling between upper and lower limb muscles in the alpha and beta/gamma band during muscle specific periods of the gait cycle. These effects in the alpha and beta/gamma bands point at involvement of subcortical and cortical sources, respectively, that commonly drive the rhythmic four limb gait pattern in an efficiently coordinated fashion. Directed connectivity analysis revealed that upper limb muscles drive and shape lower limb muscle activity during gait via subcortical and cortical pathways and to a lesser extent vice versa. This indicates that gait related arm swing reflects the recruitment of neuronal support for optimizing the cyclic movement pattern of the lower limbs. These findings thus provide a neural underpinning for arm swing to potentially serve as an effective rehabilitation therapy concerning impaired gait in neurological diseases. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Time-dependent directional intermuscular coherence analysis reveals that forward and backward arm swing equally drive the upper leg muscles during gait initiation

BACKGROUND: Human bipedal gait benefits from arm swing, as it drives and shapes lower limb muscle activity in healthy participants as well as patients suffering from neurological impairment. Also during gait initiation, arm swing instructions were found to facilitate leg muscle recruitment. RESEARCH QUESTION: The aim of the present study is to exploit the directional decomposition of coherence to examine to what extent forward and backward arm swing contribute to leg muscle recruitment during gait initiation. METHODS: Ambulant electromyography (EMG) from shoulder muscles (deltoideus anterior and posterior) and upper leg muscles (biceps femoris and rectus femoris) was analysed during gait initiation in nineteen healthy participants (median age of 67 ± 12 (IQR) years). To assess to what extent either deltoideus anterior or posterior muscles were able to drive upper leg muscle activity during distinct stages of the gait initiation process, time dependent intermuscular coherence was decomposed into directional components based on their time lag (i.e. forward, reverse and zero-lag). RESULTS: Coherence from the forward directed components, representing shoulder muscle signals leading leg muscle signals, revealed that deltoideus anterior (i.e. forward arm swing) and deltoideus posterior (i.e. backward arm swing) equally drive upper leg muscle activity during the gait initiation process. SIGNIFICANCE: The presently demonstrated time dependent directional intermuscular coherence analysis could be of use for future studies examining directional coupling between muscles or brain areas relative to certain gait (or other time) events. In the present study, this analysis provided neural underpinning that both forward and backward arm swing can provide neuronal support for leg muscle recruitment during gait initiation and can therefore both serve as an effective gait rehabilitation method in patients with gait initiation difficulties

Assessment of lymphatic filariasis prior to re-starting mass drug administration campaigns in coastal Kenya.

BACKGROUND: Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a debilitating disease associated with extensive disfigurement and is one of a diverse group of diseases referred to as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) which mainly occur among the poorest populations. In line with global recommendations to eliminate LF, Kenya launched its LF elimination programme in 2002 with the aim to implement annual mass drug administration (MDA) in order to interrupt LF transmission. However, the programme faced financial and administrative challenges over the years such that sustained annual MDA was not possible. Recently, there has been renewed interest to eliminate LF and the Kenyan Ministry of Health, through support from World Health Organization (WHO), restarted annual MDA in 2015. The objective of this study was to evaluate the current status of LF infection in the endemic coastal region of Kenya before MDA campaigns were restarted. RESULTS: Ten sentinel sites in Kwale, Kilifi, Tana River, Lamu, and Taita-Taveta counties in coastal Kenya were selected for participation in a cross-sectional survey of LF infection prevalence. At least 300 individuals in each sentinel village were sampled through random house-to-house visits. During the day, the point-of-care immunochromatographic test (ICT) was used to detect the presence of Wuchereria bancrofti circulating filarial antigen in finger prick blood samples collected from residents of the selected sentinel villages. Those individuals who tested positive with the ICT test were requested to provide a night-time blood sample for microfilariae (MF) examination. The overall prevalence of filarial antigenaemia was 1.3% (95% CI: 0.9-1.8%). Ndau Island in Lamu County had the highest prevalence (6.3%; 95% CI: 4.1-9.7%), whereas sites in Kilifi and Kwale counties had prevalences?<?1.7%. Mean microfilarial density was also higher in Ndau Island (234 MF/ml) compared to sentinel sites in Kwale and Kilifi counties (< 25 MF/ml). No LF infection was detected in Tana River and Taita-Taveta counties. Overall, more than 88% of the study participants reported to have used a bed net the previous night. CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of LF infection is generally very low in coastal Kenya, but there remain areas that require further rounds of MDA if the disease is to be eliminated as a public health problem in line with the ongoing global elimination efforts. However, areas where there was no evidence of LF transmission should be considered for WHO-recommended transmission assessment surveys in view of stopping MDA

A diagnostic illusory? : The case of distinguishing between "vegetative" and "minimally conscious" states

Throughout affluent societies there are growing numbers of people who survive severe brain injuries only to be left with long-term chronic disorders of consciousness. This patient group who exist betwixt and between life and death are variously diagnosed as in 'comatose', 'vegetative', and, more recently, 'minimally conscious' states. Drawing on a nascent body of sociological work in this field and developments in the sociology of diagnosis in concert with Bauman's thesis of 'ambivalence' and Turner's work on 'liminality', this article proposes a concept we label as diagnostic illusory in order to capture the ambiguities, nuanced complexities and tensions that the biomedical imperative to name and classify these patients give rise to. Our concept emerged through a reading of debates within medical journals alongside an analysis of qualitative data generated by way of a study of accounts of those close to patients: primarily relatives (N=51); neurologists (N=4); lawyers (N=2); and others (N=5) involved in their health care in the UK