Information technology and electronics firms from Taiwan Province of China in the United Kingdom: Emerging trends and implications

This article examines the modal choices, key activities and motivations of non-dominant information technology and electronics firms from Taiwan Province of China in the United Kingdom, against the backdrop of recent trends in the global economy. Its main findings include the limited prospects of the sample firms' evolution into manufacturing activity in the United Kingdom and the increasing importance of inter-firm logistics collaboration. Among the key policy implications discussed in the article are: the need for appropriate measures to support the United Kingdom's positioning as a gateway to, and a preferred base for intelligence gathering on, other European markets; the need for "high-wage" advanced economies to capitalize upon their not-easily-replicable location-specific advantages (e.g. reputable research-anddevelopment clusters; substantial domestic market) in targeting foreign direct investment in the research and development, design and sales-related areas; and the importance of a more balanced investment attraction strategy that actively targets major global players (and their capacity to attract secondary inward investment) without compromising support for indigenous growth companies. Future research should pay greater attention to the intra-regional, rather than intra-country, context of firms' evolution in international markets

O uso da análise de dados para resolver problemas de habitação em Lagos, Nigéria

The constant growth in population has made a significant impact on housing and accommodation in Lagos Nigeria and the shortage and the problem of distribution of housing for both homes and offices and urban planning, in general, has been a challenge in African cities in general. Housing a fast-developing city with a population in record speed increase like that constated in Lagos needs to be reviewed most especially with the fast rate of digital development and internet access. The United Nations (UN) has ranked Nigeria among the countries that will drive the growth of cities over the next four decades, posing challenging challenges in terms of job creation, energy consumption and infrastructure, as well as housing. This thesis aims to explore a maximum of data on housing, the development of the internet of things and how these perspectives envisaged by the government. One of the main sources of information of our century is big data, this element is extracted from the opinions of the inhabitants of Lagos on housing problems, their practice and information available in public services. The goal of using data is to improve practices, anticipate problems, etc. But to do this, it is necessary to digitally collect useful information to help public policies to the deployment of housing using these datasets. The results of the thesis and the prospects for research or the deployment of applications, software or models could be useful to the Lagos government to manage the challenges of the future related to the expansion of the population, the disappearance of surfaces to urbanize and more global issues such as climate change and its effects on the population.O crescimento constante da população cosou um impacto significativo nas moradias e acomodações em Lagos, na Nigéria, e a escases e o problema da distribuição de moradias para residências e escritórios, e o planetamento urbano, em general, tem sido um desafio nas cidades africanas em general. Viver dentro de uma cidade em rápido desenvolvimento, com uma população em aumento recorde de velocidade como a constatada em Lagos, precisa ser revisado principalmente com a rápida taxa de desenvolvimento digital e acesso o Internet. As Nações Unidas (ONU) classificaram a Nigéria entre os país que impulsionarão o crescimento das cidades nas próximas quatro décadas, apresentando desafios desafiadores em termos de criação de empregos, consumo de energia e infraestrutura, além de moradias. Esta tese visa explorar o máximo de dados sobre habitação, o desenvolvimento da Internet das coisas e como essas perspectivas são vistas pelo governo. Uma das principais fontes de informação do nosso século é o big data, esse elemento é extraído das opiniões dos habitantes de Lagos sobre problemas habitacionais, sua prática e informações disponíveis nos serviços públicos. O objetivo do uso dos dados é melhorar práticas, antecipar problemas etc. Mas, para isso, é necessário coletar digitalmente informações úteis para ajudar políticas públicas a implantação de moradias usando os conjuntos de dados. Os resultados da tese e as perspectivas de pesquisa o implantação de aplicativos, software o modelos podem ser úteis ao governo de Lagos para gerenciar os desafios do futuro relacionados a expansão da população, ao desaparecimento de superfícies a serem urbanizadas e mais globais questões como as mudanças climáticas e seus efeitos sobre a população

Promoting African digital multinationals for a more inclusive post-pandemic future

This paper advances policies for promoting the intraregional and international investment prospects of African digital multinationals in the post-pandemic era. Based on the building blocks of organizational capabilities, funding access, digital infrastructure and regulatory environment, it advocates a more globally inclusive investment landscape in which African-born digital multinationals would no longer be a rarity. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 crisis and its amplification of humankind’s shared and digital future, policymakers and influential stakeholders at all levels are challenged to intensify the push for a more inclusive global digital economy

Analysis of 3D printed NDFeB polymer bonded and organic based magnets

Additive manufacturing (AM), or commonly known as 3D printing, has introduced to the manufacturing and commercial sectors novel ways of reducing production times, decreasing material waste, and enabling end products with multi-material configuration and complex geometric designs. From industrial scale to customer-based printers, AM has revolutionized the approach to manufacturing, prototyping, and designing in the field of medical, automotive, aerospace, biomedical, electronics and customizable products. Recently, additive manufacturing has crossed over to the area of applications in magnetism due to the economic push for the miniaturization of electronic and mechanical devices, reduction in production costs and material & design flexibility. The goal of this research is to add to the groundwork for the additive manufacturing with NdFeB bonded and organic based magnetic materials. Development of 3D printing methods will open doors to new applications in magnetism and will lead to significant opportunities in its applications. NdFeB bonded composites and organic based magnetic materials will be converted to feedstock and implemented into the 3D printer to fabricate magnetic objects with complex and unique shapes. The molecular, electronic and structural properties of these materials will be characterized using various analytical and physical methods and the results will be compared

A transdisciplinary-based coupled approach for vulnerability assessment in the context of natural resource-based conflicts using remote sensing, spatial statistics and fuzzy logic adapted models

This thesis presents a new approach for investigating vulnerability assessment in the context of natural resource-based conflicts (NRBCs). It develops SEFLAME-CM (A Spatially Explicit Fuzzy Logic Adapted Modeling for Conflict Management). SEFLAME-CM is an innovative tool that improves the holistic vulnerability assessment (the external and the internal driver components) of NRBCs at a community scale towards co-creating scenarios for future conflict management (CM) strategies. It was perceived specifically that a methodology with the worldviews and the knowledge of the actors is capable of understanding conflicts better than the previous linear models such as the Multiple Linear Regression Model (MLRM) and the Multinomial Logistic Regression Models (MNLR). SEFLAME-CM, an adapted model proved to be a reliable modeling tool for capturing the non-linearity, uncertainty, and ambiguity characteristics of the vulnerability assessments of NRBCs. The spatial extent of the study was limited to selected test sites within Ogoni and Okrika territories of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. These comprise of LGAs/communities and villages. Despite the uncertainty involved in real-world problems such as the Socio-ecological Systems (SES), the NRBCs, the increase in the computational power in the last decades has enabled the modeling of the complexities involved. Issues that cut across social-economic and biophysical interfaces, such as NRBCs, require both the knowledge of the experts and that of the local actors. This is thus following the recommendation of Seidl et al. (2013) on science with social research in the Anthropocene: “A systems perspective on coupled human-environmental systems (HES) help to address the inherent complexities. Additionally, a thorough interaction between science and society (i.e., transdisciplinarity) is necessary, as sustainable transitions are sometimes contested and can cause conflicts. In order to navigate complexities regarding the delicate interaction of scientific research with societal decisions these processes must proceed in a structured and functional way” (: 5). The main sections of the thesis after the introduction and the study area description began by reconceptualizing NRBCs. Current publications indicate that the study of NRBCs in the era of the Anthropocene needs to be reconceptualized to be able to explore strategies for conflict management which are beyond the hitherto military strategies often employed in the different international interventions on conflicts in the developing countries, particularly in Africa and Asia (Section 3). Multilateral agencies such as the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other peacekeeping international organizations, often embark on the use of military strategies which have proved to be unsustainable. This is because NRBCs are complex and “wicked” in nature (Brauch, 2003a, Spring et al., 2009, Brauch, 2010, Brauch, 2016b, Brauch, 2016a). By reconceptualizing NRBCs, the research firstly clarifies the concepts of risk, risk perception resilience, vulnerability assessment, and the “Vulnerability Cube”. Secondly, the bridging of the gap between the concepts of a holistic vulnerability assessment (HVA) and the NRBCs was discussed. Thirdly, the integration of HVA of NRBCs into fuzzy logic theory was presented. This was implemented in Section 5. The main argument of this Section 3 is that the complex characteristics of vulnerability to NRBCs require the use of a non-linear theoretical model that is adaptable and capable of addressing the complexities of NRBCs research. After the reconceptualization of NRBCs in Section 3, the thesis then followed the three phases of the transdisciplinary research approach proposed by Mauser et al. (2013) (see also Section 1.4 and Section 5.1). This phase dealt with a joint problem framing. This helped to operationalize NRBCs for simulation (see Section 4). The problem of NRBCs was framed by integrating the problem structuring methods (PSMs) (e.g GIS) with the qualitative method (e.g discourse analysis). The results of this joint problem framing showed the different drivers of NRBCs which were selected by the actors. With the aid of GIS, the actors’ mental maps were presented based on the different dimensions of NRBCs vulnerability. The results also show the similarities in the interest of local actors. The joint problem framing equally helped to organize and operationalize the input variables that were used for the modeling phase of the research. Hence the operationalization of the conflict drivers/factors generated from the joint problem framing is seen as a critical step in the transdisciplinary-based coupled approach to NRBCs. The second phase of the research after the joint problem phase is a co-production of knowledge for managing the NRBCs with the integration of knowledge from the actors. Here the overall research methodology and the algorithm of SEFLAME-CM were presented in Section 5. This was validated following a rigorous validation process (see Section 6). Prior to the validation of SEFLAME-CM, a non-spatially explicit model, Fuzzy Logic Adapted Modeling for Conflict Management (FLAME-CM) was developed, improved and validated following an iterative process using scores like R2, p-values, RMSE. The results of the validated FLAME-CM was conducted at village scale as a test site, but this was transferred to a spatially explicit context using a resolution of 200 x 200m2. The content of the FLAME-CM helped to establish a SEFLAME-CM. The validation of SEFLAME-CM is, therefore, an extension of FLAME-CM validation result (Figure 6.7). As seen in Figure 6.7, the result of the validated SEFLAME-CM is the final output of the model and the process does not have to go back to the FLAME-CM process. Figure 6.7 shows the schematics of the overall validation process. SEFLAME-CM was firstly validated by comparing outputs with spatial multi-criteria evaluation for conflict management (SMCE-CM) and secondly by using satellite remote sensing data. The result of the latter proved that the model result corresponds with the real world data (remote sensing). The result of the former shows that SEFLAME-CM performed better even when compared with the already established model of SMCE-CM. However, the advantage of SEFLAME-CM is that it accepts weighted inputs by the actors or stakeholders right from the problem framing phase. The entire methodological procedure of the research, therefore, shows a blend of methodology from the natural sciences and the social sciences, and integration of integration co-created knowledge with the actors. The third and the last phase of the research process of this thesis is the outlook and conclusion (see Section 7). It dealt with the research proposal for co-construction of scenario pathways for long-term conflict management strategies. The scenario construction, when applied in the future, would address the positive potential of collective natural resource management for longer-term peacebuilding and sustainable peace (Bruch et al., 2009, Ratner et al., 2013). It was conceived that after developing and validating an innovative spatially explicit component of the simulation model, SEFLAME-CM, the next logical step of the thesis is to apply the methodology for future conflict management. The “scenario” proposal for future CM is a period from 2016 to 2060. The justification is that while global scenarios cover time horizons of say 50–100 years, local scenarios focus on shorter periods, 20–30 years (Folhes et al., 2015). The choice of a scenario time frame that is longer than 20–30 years is because the study outcome is considered to be applicable to regional or national governance. When the co-constructed scenarios are implemented, they would help to explore CM options and strategies that can influence policy and decision making over natural resource management (NRM). For example, in the Niger Delta, the investments in CM can be re-channeled from military strategies and the current unsustainable Presidential Amnesty Programmes to achieve both peacebuilding and sustainability. Since social resilience is a “naturally emergent” response to harm or disaster, it is argued that conflict management plans must recognize and build on community adaptive capacities, while the areas of high resilience in terms of peace should be priority areas for future NRM. In a nutshell, the thesis enables the application of a transdisciplinary-based coupled approach that is based on co-creation of knowledge between the experts and the local actors in the management of NRBCs. Both the external and internal vulnerability drivers of NRBCs were assessed. The results demonstrate that environmental degradation, socio-economic and political drivers of resource conflict can be addressed holistically as well as being treated as separate drivers in the interplay of natural resources and conflicts at the community scale. Though there are limitations, relating to cost, time and the complex social processes involved in modeling a real-world process, the results at a fine-grained spatial and temporal scale proved to be very useful and form the basis for supporting integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) strategies for the future management and development of the Niger Delta region. The model remains very adaptable to other NRBCs cases in Africa and other regions of the world. This is especially where both natural resource extraction and conflicts intertwine, and particularly when there is either data scarcity or the available data sets are imprecise.Diese Arbeit demonstriert eine neue Herangehensweise zur Analyse von Vulnerabilität gegenüber Konflikten, die auf natürlichen Resourcen beruhen (Natural Resource Based Conflicts: NRBCs). Gezeigt wird die Entwicklung von SEFLAME-CM-A, ein räumlich explizites Fuzzy Logic Modell für Konfliktmanagement. SEFLAME-CM-A ist ein innovatives Tool, welches an co-konstruierte Klimamodellszenarien unter verschiedenen Bedingungen anpassbar ist. Im Speziellen wurde festgestellt, dass eine Methode mit weltweitem Blick und Expertenwissen besser dazu in der Lage ist Konflikte zu erklären, als die bisherigen linearen Modelle, wie etwa multivariate lineare Regressionen (MLRM) oder multinomiale logistische Regressionen (MNLR). SEFLAME-CM zeigte sich als verlässliches Tool um die Nicht-Linearitäten, Unsicherheiten, fehlende Präzision und Mehrdeutigkeiten abzufangen, welche Vulnerabilitätsanalysen prinzipiell mit sich bringen. Das räumliche Ausmaß der Studie ist auf ausgewählte Gebiete im Niger Delta begrenzt, die in LGAs/Communitys und Dörfer strukturiert sind. Trotz Unsicherheiten, welche bei realen Anwendung der NRBCs eine Rolle spielen, z.B. sozial-ökonomische Systeme, ermöglichte die zunehmende Leistungsstärke von Computern in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten auch Modellierungen von Sachverhalten höherer Komplexität. Probleme, die sozio-ökonomische und biophysikalische Räume spalten, schaffen eine Notwendigkeit sowohl für Expertenwissen, als auch für Mitwirken der lokal Beteiligten. Seidl et al. (2013) empfehlen für eine Wissenschaft mit Sozialforschung im Anthropozän, dass die Perspektive auf gekoppelte Mensch-Umwelt-Beziehungen dabei helfe, die damit einhergehende Komplixität besser berücksichtigen zu können. Zusätzlich sei eine gewissenhafte Interaktion zwischen Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft (also Interdisziplinarität) notwendig, da nachhaltige Umstellungen manchmal umstritten seien und Konflikte hervorrufen könnten. Um sich in der Komplexität zurechtzufinden, welche die heiklen Interaktionen zwischen wissenschaftlicher Forschung und gesellschaftlichen Entscheidungen mit sich bringen, müssten diese Prozesse auf strukturierte und funktionale Art und Weise ausgeführt werden. Das Hauptkapitel dieser Arbeit, welches sich an die Einleitung und die Beschreibung des Untersuchungsgebiet anschließt, begann mit der Entwicklung eines neuen Denkansatzes bezüglich NRBCs. Aktuelle Veröffentlichungen zeigen, dass die Untersuchung dieser Konflikte neue Strategien des Konfliktmanagements erforderlich macht, die jenseits der bisherigen militärischen Lösungen liegen, wie sie derzeit in Entwicklungsländern vor allem in Afrika und Asien eingesetzt werden. Obwohl sie sich im Anthropozän als nicht nachhaltig erwiesen, da die Ursachen der Konflikte eindeutig in Umweltproblemen zu suchen sind, sind zahlreiche multilaterale Vertretungen wie die Vereinten Nationen, NATO oder internationale Organisationen zur Friedenswahrung auf die militärischen Strategien aufgesprungen (Brauch, 2003a, Spring et al., 2009, Brauch, 2010, Brauch, 2016b, Brauch, 2016a). Aus diesem Grund klärt diese Studie erstens die Konzepte von Risiko, Risikowahrnehmung, Resilienz, Vulnerabilitätsanalysen und Vulnerabilitätswürfel. Zweitens wurde eine Brücke zwischen dem Konzept der holistischen Vulnerabilitätsanalyse (holistic vulnerability assessment HVA) und NRBCs geschlagen. Drittens wurde die Integration der HVA von NRBCs in die Fuzzy Logic Theorie vorgestellt. Dies wurde in Section 5 eingebaut. Dessen Hauptargument war, dass die komplexen Eigenschaften der NRBCs einem nicht-linearen theoretischen Modell bedürfen, welches sowohl anpassungsfähig ist, als auch der Komplexität der NRBC-Forschung gerecht wird. Nach der Neukonzeptionalisierung von NRBCs in Section 3, folgte die Arbeit schließlich dem Ansatz der drei Phasen transdisziplinärer Forschung von Mauser et al. (2013, siehe Section 1.4). Diese Phase verfolgte einen vereinten Problemlösungsansatz. Dieses Framework mit seiner Strukturierung ermöglichte die Operationalisierung von NRBCs für Computer-Simulationen. Dabei werden problemstrukturierende Methoden, wie beispielsweise GIS, mit qualitativen Methoden, z.B. einer Diskursanalyse, kombiniert. Die Ergebnisse der Implementierung von Problemabgrenzung und –strukturierung zeigt die unterschiedlichen Treiber von Konflikten über Naturresourcen, die von den Akteuren genannt wurden. Mithilfe von GIS wurden Mental Maps der Akteure basierend auf den verschiedenen Dimensionen des Konflikts und der Vulnerabilität visualisiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen die Gemeinsamkeiten des Interesses lokaler Aktuere. Gleichwohl half die gemeinsame Problemabgrenzung dabei, die Eingangsvariablen zu organisieren, die in der Modellierungsphase genutzt wurden. Deshalb wird die Operationalisierung der Konfliktfaktoren, welche bei der gemeinsamen Problemabgrenzung erzeugt wurde, als kritischer Schritt im interdisziplinären Modellansatz naturresourcenbedinger Konflikte gesehen. Die zweite Phase nach der gemeinsamen Problemphase war die Koproduktion zwischen Wissen über Konflikte über Naturresourcen und die Integration des Wissens der Akteure. Die Methodik und der Algorithmus von SEFLAME-CM wurde in Section 5 vorgestellt und anschließend einem strengen Validierungsprozess unterworfen (Section 6). Vor der Entwicklung des disziplinübergreifenden Modellansatzes SEFLAME-CM, welcher validiert und in dieser Arbeit angewandt wurde, wurde ein ähnliches, aber räumlich nicht explizites Modell – FLAME-CM – entwickelt, verbessert und einem iterativen Prozess folgend mit Methoden wie R², p-Values und RMSE getestet. Das Ergebnis des validierten FLAME-CM wurde auf lokaler Skala durchgeführt, aber dann auf räumlich expliziten Kontext mit einer Auflösung von 200x200 Metern übertragen. Wie in Abbildung 6.7 gezeigt, ist der Modell-Output von SEFLAME-CM final und der Prozess muss nicht länger auf FLAME-CM zurückgestuft werden. Abbildung 6.7 skizziert den übergreifenden Validierungsprozess. SEFLAME-CM wurde zunächst validiert, indem die Outputs mit einer räumlich multikriteriellen Evaluierung im Konfliktmanagement (Spatial Multi-Criteria Evaluation for Conflict Management, SMCE-CM) verglichen wurden. Die Ergebnisse des zuletztgenannten Verfahrens belegten, dass die Modellergebnisse korrekt mit echten Daten (Fernerkundung) übereinstimmen. Das Ergebnis des erstgenannten Verfahrens zeigt, dass SEFLAME-CM bessere Resultate erzielt, selbst wenn es mit dem existierenden Modell SMCE-CM verglichen wird. Der Vorteil von SEFLAME-CM ist jedoch, dass es ohne Weiteres gewichtete Inputs durch die Akteure und Stakeholder direkt in der Phase der Problemabgrenzung annimmt. Die gesamte methodologische Wissenschaftsprozedur zeigt daher einen Methodenmix aus Natur- und Sozialwissenschaften, wie beispielsweise eine integrative Kooperation der verschiedenen Akteure. Die dritte und letzte Phase der Arbeit beinhaltet den Ausblick und die Schlussfolgerung (Section 7). Sie behandelt die Anwendung der gekoppelten Informationen. Diese finale Wissenschaftsphase umfasst eine gemeinschaftliche Erarbeitung von Szenarien und eine Simulation von Langzeitstrategien zum Konflikt-Management. Die Erstellung der Szenarien behandelt das Potential eines gemeinschaftlichen Management natürlicher Resourcen. Eine Verbesserung der Zusammenarbeit wird im Konflikt-Management zunehmend als wichtiger Bestandteil dauerhafter Friedensschließung angesehen (Bruch et al., 2009, Ratner et al., 2013). Nach Entwicklung und Validierung einer innovativen, räumlich expliziten Modell-Komponente, SEFRAME-CM, war der nächste logische Schritt dieser ArbAeit die Methoden auf zukünftiges Konflikt-Management anzuwenden, indem das Management natürlicher Resourcen in Klimamodelle integriert wurde. Der Vorschlag für ein „Szenario“ für zukünftiges Konfliktmanagement beinhaltet die Zeitperiode von 2016 bis 2060. Dies liegt darin begründet, dass sich lokale Szenarien mit 20-30 Jahren (Folhes et al., 2015) auf kürzere Zeiträume konzentrieren, während globale Szenarien einen Horizont von 50-100 Jahren umspannen. Die Wahl fällt auf einen Zeitraum von 20-30 Jahren, da die Ergebnisse der Studie auf regionaler und nationaler Regierungsführung anwendbar sind. Eine Implementierung der gemeinschaftlich konstruierten Szenarien würde dabei helfen Optionen und Strategien des Konfliktmanagements zu erkunden, welche die Politik und deren Entscheidungsträger im Bezug auf Ressourcenmanagement beeinflussen. Eine Investition in Konflikt-Management, z.B. im Niger Delta, kann durch Neuausrichtung militärischer Strategien und das derzeit nicht-nachhaltige Presidential Armnesty Programm geschehen um Friedensbildung und Nachhaltigkeit zu erreichen. Da soziale Resilienz eine naturgemäße Antwort auf Unheil und Katastrophen darstellt, wird oft so argumentiert, dass Pläne zum Konflikt-Management die adaptiven Möglichkeiten der Communitys anerkennt und auf ihnen aufbaut, während Gebiete mit hohem Potential an Resilienz prioritär für Naturresourcen-Management der Zukunft angesehen wird Zusammenfassend lässt sich sagen, dass die in dieser Arbeit dargestellte Herangehensweise die Anwendung eines interdisziplinären Modells ermöglicht, das auf gemeinsam entwickeltem Wissen von Experten und lokalen Akteuren im Management von NRBCs beruht. Sowohl die externen als auch internen Vulnerabilitätstreiber der NRBCs wurden bewertet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Degradation der Umwelt sowie sozio-ökonomische als auch politische Treiber von Resourcenkonflikten jeweils holistisch, aber auch als separate Treiber im Zusammenspiel natürlicher Resourcen und Konflikten auf kommunaler Ebene behandelt werden können. Trotz allem gibt es Limitierungen, die hauptsächlich auf den komplexen sozialen Prozessen der realen globalen Prozesse beruhen. Die Ergebnisse aus räumlich und zeitlich hoch aufgelösten Daten zeigte sich als sehr nützlich und stellt die Basis für die Unterstützung der Strategien des integrierte Management von Küstenzonen dar, wie sie für ein zukünftiges Management in der Region des Niger Deltas Anwendung finden soll. Das Modell bleibt dabei stark anpassungsfähig für ähnliche Fälle von NRBCs in Afrika und anderen Regionen der Welt, bei denen biophysikalische, sozio-ökonomische und politische Verbindungen entzweit werden. Dies gilt besonders dann, wenn die Datengrundlage knapp und die verfügbaren Datensätze unpräzise

Investigation on the effects of ultra-high pressure and temperature on the rheological properties of oil-based drilling fluids

Designing a fit-for-purpose drilling fluid for high-pressure, high-temperature (HP/HT) operations is one of the greatest technological challenges facing the oil and gas industry today. Typically, a drilling fluid is subjected to increasing temperature and pressure with depth. While higher temperature decreases the drilling fluid’s viscosity due to thermal expansion, increased pressure increases its viscosity by compression. Under these extreme conditions, well control issues become more complicated and can easily be masked by methane and hydrogen sulfide solubility in oil-base fluids frequently used in HP/HT operations. Also current logging tools are at best not reliable since the anticipated bottom-hole temperature is often well above their operating limit. The Literature shows limited experimental data on drilling fluid properties beyond 350°F and 20,000 psig. The practice of extrapolation of fluid properties at some moderate level to extreme-HP/HT (XHP/HT) conditions is obsolete and could result in significant inaccuracies in hydraulics models. This research is focused on developing a methodology for testing drilling fluids at XHP/HT conditions using an automated viscometer. This state-of-the-art viscometer is capable of accurately measuring drilling fluids properties up to 600°F and 40,000 psig. A series of factorial experiments were performed on typical XHP/HT oil-based drilling fluids to investigate their change in rheology at these extreme conditions (200 to 600°F and 15,000 to 40,000 psig). Detailed statistical analyses involving: analysis of variance, hypothesis testing, evaluation of residuals and multiple linear regression are implemented using data from the laboratory experiments. I have developed the FluidStats program as an effective statistical tool for characterizing drilling fluids at XHP/HT conditions using factorial experiments. Results from the experiments show that different drilling fluids disintegrate at different temperatures depending on their composition (i.e. weighting agent, additives, oil/water ratio etc). The combined pressure-temperature effect on viscosity is complex. At high thresholds, the temperature effect is observed to be more dominant while the pressure effect is more pronounced at low temperatures. This research is vital because statistics show that well control incident rates for non- HP/HT wells range between 4% to 5% whereas for HP/HT wells, it is as high as 100% to 200%. It is pertinent to note that over 50% of the world’s proven oil and gas reserves lie below 14,000 ft subsea according to the Minerals Management Service (MMS). Thus drilling in HP/HT environment is fast becoming a common place especially in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) where HP/HT resistant drilling fluids are increasingly being used to ensure safe and successful operations

Is poor maternal mortality index in Nigeria a problem of care utilization? A case study of Anambra State

Maternal mortality in Nigeria is unacceptably high. Some of the reasons may include poor socioeconomic development, weak health care system, low socioeconomic status of women and socio-cultural barriers to care utilization. A cross sectional study was carried out to assess the use of maternal services in Anambra State. A multi stage sampling technique was used to select 800 nursing mothers from the State who were interviewed on the use of maternal services during their last pregnancy. Over 95% of the subjects had formal education. Almost all the subjects (99.7%) attended antenatal clinics during their last pregnancy with 92.3% (646) of them making 4 or more visits before delivery. Over 97%(680) of the deliveries took place in formal health facilities. Obviously, the women in the study population utilize maternal health services. The problem of maternal mortality in the country may not necessarily lie with utilization but with the quality of services. Keywords: Maternal mortality, maternal services, care utilizationAfrican Journal of Reproductive Helath Vol. 12 (2) 2008: pp. 132-14

Ntụle mbụrụ metụtara nzuzu na nsirihụ ndị igbo: Mgbazi akparamagwa ndị ọchịchị

This paper focuses on various Igbo metaphors that are centred on foolishness and how they can serve as tools for remoulding leadership at various levels. The writer intends to find out those metaphors relating to foolishness in Igbo people’s belief and how they can be used in correcting abnormal attributes of some leaders whom the people see as performing below expectations. The writer notes that some states in the country are having some challenges with regard to non-payment of workers’ salaries, unhealthy environment, insecurity of lives and properties of the people, poor maintenance of infrastructure and so on as a result of bad leadership. The need to address these problems aroused the interest of the writer. The data collected are from secondary sources such as libraries and online platforms. The approach used for the work is survey method. The work adopts two theories namely, the Use Theory and Cognitive Linguistics Theory. The writer examined the characters of bad leaders in metaphorical relationship to animals in Igbo belief system. The findings of this work are that the leaders, based on their characters are identified in the metaphors as wolves, snakes, pythons, tortoise and so on. The animals have different characteristics which include gluttony, greed, slothful, pride, cunning and so on. The paper will be useful to the leaders and those who aspire for leadership, scholars who have interest in topics relating to this subject matter and researchers in this area. The significance of this paper is that people will have a change of manner in the course of selecting their leaders. The writer suggests that in choosing a leader, efforts should be made to see that the person is well known to the entire populace and should be a person of unquestionable character like the ones mentioned here. ỤmịedemedeNchọcha a lebara anya na mbụrụ dị iche iche metụtara nzuzu na ka a ga-esi jiri ha gbazie akparamagwa ndị ọchịchị n’ogo ọ bụla. Odee chọrọ ịchọpụta mbụrụ ndị ahụ metụtara nzuzu n’echiche ndị Igbo na etu a ga-esi jiri ha gbazie akparamagwa ndị ọchịchị a hụtara ka ha amaghị achị. Ihe kpalitere nchọcha a bụ na odee hụrụ ka ụfọdụ obodo na steeti dị n’ala Naịjirịa si enwe nsogbu dị iche iche dị ka iji ndị ọrụ ụgwọ, adịghị ọcha obodo, enweghi ezi nchekwa ndụ na akụnụba, enweghị ezi nchekwa akọrọnwa na mmepe dị ka o si kwesị, ka odee jiri bagide ime nchọcha n’isiokwu a. Nka e jiri mee nchọcha bụ ederede nke bụ nchọpụta site n’ọba akwụkwọ dị iche iche na ọwa ikuku. A gbasoro usoro sọvee wee mee nchọcha a. Atụtụ e jiri mee nchọcha a bụ atụtụ Njirime na atụtụ Ncheke. Odee tụlere ajo akparamagwa ụfọdụ ndị ọchịchị dị ka o si metụta mbụrụ na-akọwa anụ nzuzu na nsirihụ ndị Igbo wee chọpụta na ụfọdụ ndị ọchịchị bụ agụowu, ụfọdụ bụ agwọ, ụfọdụ bụ torotoro, ụfọdụ bụrụ eke, ogwumagala na anụ ndị ọzọ. Anụ ndị a nwere agwa dị iche iche ndị gụnyere oke oriri, anyaukwu, pride, adịghị nkọ, aghụghọ na ndị ọzọ. Nchọcha a ga-abara ndị ọchịchị ma ndị nwere mmasi ịchị ọchịchị uru, ndị nwere mmasị ime nchọcha n’ihe gbasara isiokwu a na ndị na-eme nchọcha na ngalaba a. Ọ ga-enyekwa aka igbazighari usoro ndị mmadụ na-agbaso n’ịhọpụta ndị ọchịchị. Aro odee bụ na onye ọchịchị ọ bụla a ga-ahọpụta ga-abụ onye a maara nke ọma, onye enweghị agwa a na-enyo enyo gụnyere agwa ndị arụtrụ aka ebe a

Comparative study of Aspergillus niger and Penicillium sp. in the biodegradation of automotive gas oil (AGO) and premium motor spirit (PMS)

The comparative study of Aspergillus niger and Penicillium sp. in the biodegradation of automotive gas oil (AGO) and premium motor spirit (PMS) was carried out to ascertain the effectiveness of using these microorganisms in cleaning and restoring the ecosystem when polluted by petroleum products. These fungi were observed to grow at all concentrations of the petroleum products (pollutant) used, but the growth on AGO was considerably reduced compared to the growth on PMS. The mycelia growth of A. niger was observed to be faster in PMS than in AGO. The ability of A. niger and Penicillium sp. totolerate these pollutants and grow on them, suggest that they can be employed as bioremediation agents and can be used in restoring the ecosystem when contaminated by these pollutants