Development and Social Justice: Education, Training and Health in Sudan

This paper discusses the importance of sound policies for achieving social development and social justice in provision of education, training and health services in Sudan. Different from Sudanese literature, we provide new contributions by explaining the low commitment to the standardized international equity criterion related to the supply-demand sides and provision of education, training and health services in Sudan. We fill an important gap in Sudanese literature by explaining that regional inequality in the demand for education (share in enrolment in education) is most probably due to economic reasons (per capita income and poverty rate), demographic reasons (share in total population) and other reasons (degree of urbanization) in Sudan. We find that the increase in the incidence of high poverty rates and low per capita incomes seem to be the most important factor limiting the demand for education, notably, demand for primary education, especially for females in Sudan. The major policy implication from our findings is that poverty eradication is key for the achievement of universal access to primary education, gender equality, equity, social justice and therefore, fulfilment of the second and third UN-MDGs in Sudan by 2015. We recommend further efforts to be made to improve equitable provision of education, training and health services to enhance social justice and social development in Sudan

Assessment of the impacts of oil: Opportunities and challenges for economic development in Sudan

This paper provides an assessment of the impacts of oil and discusses the opportunities and challenges for enhancing economic development in Sudan. One advantage of our analysis in this paper is that we provide a more comprehensive analysis using the most recent secondary data to discuss the positive and negative impacts of oil for enhancing economic development in Sudan. We explain that the various positive impacts of oil and the opportunities for enhancing development in Sudan's economy include the impacts of oil in satisfying domestic consumption and achievement of self sufficiency, increasing government and public revenues, rapid and impressive economic growth as measured by the growth in the GDP and its composition and structure, increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) and increasing the volume of foreign trade as measured by the volume and structure of exports. We find that while oil has recently contributed to the improvement of economic performance in the country, the recent heavy dependence on it, may lead to negative impacts and serious challenges for the Sudan since oil is an exhaustible resource and because of the instability of oil prices in the international market the revenue from oil is uncertain and volatile and may lead to instability of economic growth. Moreover, the increasing dependence on oil leads to increasing debate for and against the incidence of the Dutch Disease in Sudan economy, the lack of diversification and the challenges related to potential north-south conflict and division of the country.oil economy, oil impacts, economic development, Sudan

The Impact of Government Policies on Foreign Direct Investment in Developing Countries: the Case of Sudan

Currently, policies implemented by governments in developing countries are dominated by the view that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is necessary for development and that, without FDI, there would be no growth. They also believe that FDI brings efficient management of resources, new technology, a culture of competition, and access to global markets. FDI is considered the best source of development finance on the grounds, among others, that it is self-liquidating. Obviously, Sudan is not an exception, with policies of economic liberalisation, policies of economic restructuring, attention to the infrastructure, privatisation, and establishment of the capital market, and other measures to attract FDI. The aim of this research is to explore the impact of policies followed by the host country on the amount of inward FDI and the impact of FDI on the economic development of the host country. It is important to focus on the theoretical foundation of the FDI phenomenon and its relevance in explaining FDI determinants. In conducting this research, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods have been employed. A case study approach has been adopted to investigate the impact of the measures taken by the government of Sudan to encourage FDI. As well as investigating the impact at the macroeconomic level, the study focuses on the three sectors most affected by FDI: oil, real estate and telecommunications. Oil production and exports are of vital importance for Sudan’s economy, and hence the government has focused much of its effort on this sector, which is dominated by Chinese companies. Many of the issues faced were similar to those experienced elsewhere in Africa where China is the source of FDI. The inflows to the real estate sector were mainly from the Gulf, with developers seeking to build residential accommodation and commercial property which would appeal to Sudanese expatriates returning from work there. Telecommunications, in particular mobile services, have brought about a social revolution in Sudan, as well as elsewhere in Africa. The government’s aim was to open the market up, with competition making phone tariffs more affordable. Overall, government policies to encourage FDI have been successful but it is evident that different policies are needed for each sector

Object Information Packs as a Base for Information Modelling in Construction

The construction industry is suffering form the existence of isolated islands of software applications and bottle neck solutions. The idea of an integrated virtual database that consists of separated platforms, representing various disciplines, depending on the web technology is envisaged to solve the problem of integration. This paper is about the production and use of OIPs (Object Information Packs) as a part of the construction material product in the form of XML files that include all the technical and commercial data of the product, which might be needed by any discipline in its overall life cycle. This object information pack is neutral and independent of any software application. It is assumed to fit in a building product model at the IFC (resource layer). An example of brick - wall aggregation process is used to demonstrate the capability of the technology and the ability of non computer science experts to use it

Evaluation of Double Mesh Modification of Chevrel’s Technique in Management of Midline Incisional Hernia

Background: Chevrel’s technique provides tensionfree repair of midline incisional hernia, but wide skin and subcutaneous dissection increases rate of complications. Here, we evaluate the double mesh modification of Chevrel’s technique in midline incisional hernia repair. Methods: 22 patients with midline incisional hernia underwent double mesh modification of Chevrel’s technique. After excision of hernial sac with minimal dissection of the skin and subcutaneous tissue, the anterior rectus sheath is incised on both sides to create medial flaps that are sutured toeach other. Both recti abdominis muscles were dissected off the posterior rectus sheath, opening the retrorectus space. Prolene mesh was fixed in the retrorectus space with prolene sutures, and tailored to cover the bare area of anterior surface of both recti muscles and fixed to the lateral flaps of the anterior rectus sheath with interrupted prolene sutures. Results: We observed no recurrences, no skin necrosis, two cases of seroma, one case of superficial wound infection and one case of temporarychronic pain. Conclusion: Double mesh modification of Chevrel technique is an efficient method for treatment of midline incisional hernia, with minimal surgical site occurrences. Keywords: Chevrel technique, Double mesh technique, Midline incisional herni

Nanoparticles Decorated on Resin Particles and Their Flame Retardancy Behavior for Polymer Composites

New nanocomposites have been developed by doping of amberlite IR120 resin with spherical TiO2 nanoparticles in the presence of maleate diphosphate. Polystyrene composites of resin, maleate diphosphate, and resin-maleate diphosphate were prepared individually. This is in addition to preparation of polymer nanocomposites of polystyrene-resin doped TiO2 nanoparticles-maleate diphosphate. The flame retardancy and thermal stability properties of these developed polymer composites were evaluated. The inclusion of resin and resin doped nanoparticles improved the fire retardant behavior of polystyrene composites and enhanced their thermal stability. Synergistic behavior between flame retardant, resin, and nanoparticles was detected. The rate of burning of the polymer nanocomposites was recorded as 10.7 mm/min achieving 77% reduction compared to pure polystyrene (46.5 mm/min). The peak heat release rate (PHRR) of the new polymer composites has reduced achieving 46% reduction compared to blank polymer. The morphology and dispersion of nanoparticles on resin and in polymer nanocomposites were characterized using transmission and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. The flame retardancy and thermal properties were evaluated using UL94 flame chamber, cone tests, and thermogravimetric analysis, respectively

STRENGTHENING OF CONCRETE DEEP BEAMS USING CARBON FABRIC REINFORCED CEMENTITIOUS/GEOPOLYMERIC MATRIX

This research aimed to examine the effectiveness of using carbon fabric-reinforced matrix (C-FRM) composites to improve the shear response of reinforced concrete (RC) deep beams. Ten RC deep beams with a/h of 1.6 were tested, where a is the shear span and his is the beam depth. Test parameters included the presence of internal shear reinforcement (no shear reinforcement and minimum shear reinforcement), number of C-FRM composite layers (one and two layers), angle of inclination of the second layer of CFRM (90o and 0o with respect to the longitudinal direction of the beam), and type of matrix (cementitious and geopolymer). In the absence of internal shear reinforcement, the use of one layer of C-FRM with cementitious and geopolymer matrices resulted in 95% and 77% increases in the shear capacity, respectively. The sheer capacity of the specimens strengthened with two layers of C-FRM composites was insignificantly higher than that of their counterparts strengthened with one layer of C-FRM. Positioning the second layer of CFRM in the vertical direction (i.e., at an angle of inclination of 90o) tended to be more effective than placing it in the horizontal direction (i.e., at an angle of inclination of 0o). The gain in shear capacity was less pronounced in the presence of internal shear reinforcement where a maximum shear strength gain of 18% was recorded. Three-dimensional numerical models were developed to predict the shear response of the tested specimens. The shear capacities predicted numerically were in good agreement with those obtained from the tests. The ratio of the predicted-to-measured shear capacity was on average 0.90 with a corresponding standard deviation of 0.09 and a coefficient of variation of 10%

A Flexible Model for Incorporating Construction Product Data into Building Information Models

When considering the integration and interoperability between AEC-FM software applications and construction products' data, it is essential to investigate the state-of-the-art and conduct an extensive review in the literature of both Building Information Models and electronic product catalogues. It was found that there are many reasons and key-barriers that hinder the developed solutions from being implemented. Among the reasons that are attributed to the failure of many previous research projects to achieve this integration aim are the proprietary developments of CAD vendors, the fragmented nature of construction product data i.e. commercial and technical data, the prefabrication versus on-site production, marketing strategies and brand-naming, the referencing of a product to the data of its constituents, availability of life-cycle data in a single point in time where it is needed all over the whole life-cycle of the product itself, taxonomy problems, the inability to extract search parameters from the building information model to participate in the conduction of parametric searches. Finally and most important is keeping the product data in the building information model consistent and up-to-date. Hence, it was found that there is a great potential for construction product data to be integrated to building information models by electronic means in a dynamic and extensible manner that prevents the model from getting obsolete. The study has managed to establish a solution concept that links continually updated and extensible life-cycle product data to a software independent building information model (IFC) all over the life span of the product itself. As a result, the solution concept has managed to reach a reliable building information model that is capable of overcoming the majority of the above mentioned barriers. In the meantime, the solution is capable of referencing, retrieving, updating, and merging product data at any point in time. A distributed network application that represents all the involved parties in the construction product value chain is simulated by real software tools to demonstrate the proof of concept of this research work.Die vorliegende Dissertation stellt ein flexibles und dynamisches Gebäudeinformationsmodell vor, mit dem die Produktinformationen der Bauteile erfragt und aktualisiert werden können. Dazu werden Beziehungen zwischen den Bauteilen im Gebäudeinformationsmodell und den Produktinformationen der Hersteller und Lieferanten definiert. Die Produktinformationen können über eindeutige Produktnamen und über verallgemeinerte Produktparameter identifiziert werden. Der Stand der Technik bei den digitalen Bauteilkatalogen besteht überwiegend in einer Beschreibung der Produkte in Dokumenten im HTML- oder PDF-Format. Diese Dokumente können mit Hilfe von Schlüsselwörtern durchsucht werden. Hierbei besteht das Problem, dass die Produktinformationen nicht dauerhaft den Objekten im Gebäudeinformationsmodell zuzuordnen sind. Demzufolge kann verfügbare CAD-Software die verwendeten Produkte der Bauteile nicht vollständig beschreiben. Da viele Prozesse aktuelle Informationen der Bauteilprodukte benötigen, ist eine Erweiterung vorhandener Gebäudeinformationsmodelle um diesen Aspekt erforderlich. Obwohl dies Gegenstand zahlreicher proprietärer Entwicklungen ist, ist der Austausch von Daten infolge fehlender Standardisierung nicht ohne Informationsverluste möglich. Diesem Thema widmen sich derzeit unabhängige Forschungsprojekte, in denen neue Taxonomien und Ontologien für die Beschreibung der Semantik von Bauteildaten auf Basis von XML entwickelt werden. Diese Lösungsansätze haben den Nachteil, dass die Produktinformationen der Hersteller und Lieferanten notwendigerweise in einer gemeinsamen Datenbasis gespeichert werden müssen. Die Untersuchung des Lebenszyklus von Bauwerken im Hinblick auf die Wertschöpfungskette und die Beschaffungskette ergab, dass die Informationen sowohl der Bauteile als auch der Produkte über die gesamte Lebensdauer des Bauwerks verfügbar sein müssen. Aus kaufmännischer Sicht besteht das Problem, dass die Produkte eines Herstellers unter verschiedenen Markennamen angeboten und verkauft werden. Untersuchungen haben gezeigt, dass der Markenname ein wesentlicher Faktor einer Marktstrategie ist. Auch die Zwischenhändler spielen hierbei eine wichtige Rolle – selbst dann, wenn die Geschäfte über das Internet abgewickelt werden. Bauteile haben die Besonderheit, dass sie teilweise oder ganz auf der Baustelle hergestellt werden. Dies muss bei der Konzeption eines Informationssystems, das sich mit der Wertschöpfungskette von Bauwerken befasst, beachtet werden. Eine Erkenntnis der vorliegenden Arbeit ist, dass eine parametrisierte Produktsuche nur möglich ist, wenn die Produkte eindeutige Namen und standardisierte Parameter besitzen. Dieser Lösungsansatz könnte die derzeitige Arbeitsweise in der Praxis ändern. Für die prototypische Umsetzung im Rahmen der Dissertation hat sich eine Abstützung auf das verfügbare IFC-Modell als besonders geeignet erwiesen, da dieses Modell nicht-proprietär, fachübergreifend sowie durch Eigenschaften erweiterbar ist. Der Kerngedanke des vorgestellten Lösungskonzepts besteht in der Entwicklung des OIP-Konzepts (Object Information Pack), welches eine dauerhafte und dynamische Datenquelle für Gebäudeinformationsmodelle behandelt. Die OIP ist nicht nur ein eindeutiger Produktname, sondern eine ganze Datenstruktur für Produktinformationen im Bauwesen. Die OIP besteht aus einer dreischichtigen Hierarchie, welche sich sowohl in der Struktur der Datenbasis als auch in der Struktur der Klassen widerspiegelt. Diese Struktur wird über eine Gruppe von Relationen vom OIP-Kern verwaltet. Das Format der OIP-Namen sowie die Verteilung der Daten zwischen den Beteiligten (produktunabhängige technische Daten und produktabhängige Daten der Lieferanten) sind die wesentlichen Neuerungen gegenüber den bekannten Ansätzen mit einer zentralen Datenbasis. Das in dieser Arbeit vorgestellte Lösungskonzept basiert auf einer eingehenden Betrachtung und Analyse der Beschaffungskette von Bauwerken unter Beachtung der Besonderheiten des Bauwesens. Es hat sich herausgestellt, dass das OIP-Konzept allein nicht ausreicht, um eine Brücke zwischen den Daten der Hersteller und Händler auf der einen und dem Kunden auf der anderen Seite zu schlagen. Darüber hinaus wurde eine integrierte Softwarelösung für die Umsetzung des Konzepts benötigt, die zum Zeitpunkt des Entstehens dieser Dissertation nicht verfügbar war. Daher hat der Autor Werkzeuge mit folgender Funktionalität entwickelt: Parsen von STEP-ISO-10303-P21-Dateien Interpretation der geparsten Daten in IFC2x-Java-Klassen Abbildung und Integration von Produktdaten in das IFC-Modell Instanziierung, Löschen und Änderung von Objekten Definition von Suchparametern durch den Anwender Extraktion von Suchparametern aus dem CAD/IFC-Model Durchführen von parametrisierten Suchen Bereitstellung verschiedener Arten der Visualisierung des IFC Modells Export des modifizierten IFC-Modells in Form einer STEP-P21-Datei Mit diesen Werkzeugen konnte das Konzept der Arbeit verifiziert werden. Aufgrund ihres flexiblen Entwurfs können diese Werkzeuge darüber hinaus auch bei anderen Problemstellungen im Zusammenhang mit dem IFC-Modell verwendet werden. Es handelt sich nämlich um einfache Werkzeuge, die eine Integration des IFC-Modells in andere Applikationen ermöglichen. Die Einführung des Konzepts in die Praxis erfordert die Verwaltung durch eine eigene Organisation. Die Rolle dieser OIP-Organisation und das Internetportal der Hersteller wurden ebenfalls innerhalb einer verteilten Applikation simuliert. Zur übersichtlichen Darstellung der Ergebnisse und zum Nachweis der Anwendbarkeit des Konzeptes wurden alle Werkzeuge mit einer graphischen Nutzeroberflächen ausgestattet. Schließlich möchte der Autor betonen, dass eine Übernahme eines solchen „Business Process Re-engeneering“ (BPR) Konzeptes in die industrielle Praxis nicht frei von Barrieren und Problemen ist. Aus der Literatur über Firmenkultur und Psychologie ist bekannt, dass Nutzer oft ablehnend auf die Einführung neuer Systeme reagieren, wenn diese die gewohnte Arbeitsweise in Frage stellen. Hierbei spielt es keine Rolle, ob das resultierende Ergebnis auf lange Sicht zu einer Optimierung und Reduzierung des Aufwands führt. Ein Wechsel der derzeitigen Praxis könnte jedoch erreicht werden, wenn einige innovative Unternehmen ihren Anwendern die Gelegenheit gäben, sich von den Vorteilen der neuen Arbeitsweise zu überzeugen

Investigating the Effects of Core Length on Pore Volume to Breakthrough (PVBT) Behavior in Carbonate Core Samples during Matrix Acidizing with Hydrochloric Acid

Most literature contains Hydrochloric acid (HCl) carbonate acidizing experiments performed on short (2 - 6 inch) cores. These cores do not accurately represent reservoir conditions, as spent acid is not propagated for any appreciable distance along the length of the sample. In this work, HCl injection experiments are performed on both short (6 inch) and long (20 inch) calcite cores to investigate the pore volume to breakthrough (PVBT) behavior. PVBT is defined as the volume of acid necessary to propagate the wormhole network from the inlet to the outlet of the core sample, divided by the pore volume of the core. HCl (5 and 15 percent by weight) injection core flood experiments were performed on 6 inch and 20 inch calcite (Indiana Limestone) cores. The cores were CAT scanned before and after acid injection to observe wormhole propagation. Core outlet effluent samples were collected and their calcium concentration was measured using Inductively- Coupled Plasma. Results from core flood experiments show an increased PVBT for 20 inch cores compared to the 6 inch samples. Results from CAT scan experiments show enlarged worm-holing and face dissolution on the 20 inch cores compared to the 6 inch cores, due to increased acid spending at the same acid concentration, flow rate, and injection temperature. Results from experiments performed at various flowrates indicate the existence of an optimum injection rate for 20 inch cores, just as in 6 inch cores. This study summarizes and explains the results obtained from the aforementioned experiments