Decommissioning – a path forward for Australia

2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Stuart J. Barrymore ◽  
Jane Ballard
Keyword(s):  
Review Process ◽  
Australian Government ◽  
Discussion Paper ◽  
Adequate Funding ◽  
Sea Bed ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Selection Of

Australia has embarked on a review of its decommissioning law and practice with a comprehensive discussion paper being issued by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. Initial stakeholder comments and submissions have been made, and the Department is now considering those submissions with a view to issuing recommendations to the Minister. The discussion paper ultimately proposes that new laws will be implemented to ensure that Australia has a 21st century fit-for-purpose decommissioning regime to apply to its offshore petroleum installations. After an overview of the review process and the selected issues that the Department regards of significance, this article considers a selection of the issues that emerge. It is evident that diverse views exist on almost all topics, and it will not be an easy task to find a balance that both meets the goals and aspirations of industry and community sectors. This challenge is compounded by the scale of decommissioning operations and the cost that will be incurred to remediate wells and remove associated facilities. The balance sought is one that does not stifle industry’s capacity to further invest nor impose onerous or uncompetitive imposts or controls, but also assures that adequate funding is available to carry out decommissioning works. Everyone seemingly accepts that it is not the role of the Australian Government to remove the facilities and restore the sea bed. Globally, techniques that are being increasingly utilised to manage this risk involve the imposition of securities or other assurance and enhanced statutory liability mechanisms. These legal and commercial considerations are given particular focus in the article.

scholarly journals Role of Scaling Factor in Robust Digital Watermarking

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1658-1669
Keyword(s):  
Digital Watermarking ◽  
Scaling Factor ◽  
Digital Data ◽  
Efficient Tool ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Human Eyes ◽  
The Empirical Analysis ◽  
Copyright Authentication ◽  
Selection Of

Digital watermarking has been identified as an efficient tool to provide copyright authentication and protection of digital data. Robustness and Imperceptibility are the two key parameters in designing of watermarking system. It is always desired to design a watermarking system that provides excellent robustness to malicious attacks and the watermark is invisible to human eyes. The robustness and imperceptibility can be controlled by choosing an effective scaling factor. Scaling factor decides on the amount of insertion of watermark in the host image. Higher the value of scaling factor more visible the watermark will be in watermarked image, this leads to poor imperceptibility. However the increase in scaling factor leads to a more robust watermarking system. Finding a trade-off among both is the key issue of research in this area. This paper aims at describing the effect of selection of scaling factor on robustness and imperceptibility by taking different values of scaling factor during each watermarking process. The empirical analysis done in this work shows robustness can be improved at the cost of imperceptibility and vice-versa.

scholarly journals Transparency in extractive industry commodities trading

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olle Östensson
Keyword(s):  
Financial Management ◽  
Extractive Industry ◽  
Market Participants ◽  
Conflict Minerals ◽  
Public Financial Management ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Responsible Sourcing

The paper reviews the debate about transparency in extractive industry commodities trade. It examines the obstacles to improved transparency. A critical review of the experience with estimating losses from a lack of transparency concludes that many of the published estimates of losses from transfer mispricing and misinvoicing suffer from methodological deficiencies and appear to be exaggerations. The role of finance in extractive commodities trade is briefly discussed and it is noted that lending to companies owned by the state may affect the government’s standing with donors and investors. The most important transparency and responsible sourcing initiatives are reviewed. The initiatives appear to have had some positive effect on public financial management, investment climate, and economic growth. The experience of government-initiated responsible sourcing, including for conflict minerals, concludes that initiatives must include all or almost all market participants and that the cost of due diligence be equitably shared. Finally, a number of recommendations are made.

scholarly journals The Current Role of Osteoclast Inhibitors in Patients with Prostate Cancer

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diomidis Kozyrakis ◽  
Dionyssios Paridis ◽  
Stefanos Perikleous ◽  
Konstantinos Malizos ◽  
Anastasios Zarkadas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prostate Cancer ◽  
Locally Advanced ◽  
Fragility Fractures ◽  
Bone Mass Loss ◽  
Skeletal Related Events ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Refractory Malignancy

Purpose. Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most frequently diagnosed malignancies worldwide. Hormonal deprivation therapy is a well-established treatment for locally advanced or metastatic diseases but exposes patients to the risk of osteoporosis and fragility fractures. Furthermore, the tropism of the PCa cells to osseous metastases increases the incidence of skeletal-related events (SREs). Methods. A nonsystematic review of the international literature was performed in respect to the use of osteoclast inhibitors zoledronic acid (ZA) and denosumab (DEN) in PCa patients. Results. DEN and ZA have proved their efficacy in preventing osteoporosis and bone mass loss in patients treated with hormonal therapy with no proven superiority of one agent over the other. However, the effectiveness in reducing fragility fractures has been proved only for DEN so far. In metastatic-free castrate-sensitive high-risk PCa patients, ZA has not shown any efficacy in preventing osseous metastasis, and evidence is lacking in favor or against the use of DEN. The use of osteoclasts inhibitors had no evident positive effect in overall and disease-specific survival in this group of patients. In advanced castrate-refractory malignancy, DEN has shown clinical superiority over ZA in preventing new SRE but not in overall survival. Conclusion. Superiority of DEN over ZA has been proved only in advanced castrate refractory disease in terms of preventing new SRE. In the rest of the cases, the selection of either agent should be based on the clinical condition of each patient and the cost of the treatment.

scholarly journals Agroecological role of biohumus on sod-podzolic soil during irrigation of the rump-timothy grass mixture

2020 ◽  
Vol 210 ◽  
pp. 04003
Author(s):  
Farrukh Musayev ◽  
Sergey Danilin ◽  
Olga Zakharova ◽  
Sergey Rodikov
Keyword(s):  
Podzolic Soil ◽  
Plant Density ◽  
First Year ◽  
Net Income ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Quality Of Products ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Soil Activation

It has been established that it is possible to increase the productivity of grasslands on sod-podzolic soil with the introduction of biohumus against the background of irrigation. The optimal variant of the experiment with the introduction of vermicompost at the rate of 8 t/ha. The research results revealed an increase in the content of basic nutrients in the soil by 0.2 … 4 mg/100 g of soil, activation of the cellulose-degrading activity of the soil twice, which was characterized as strong on the Zvyagintsev scale. The content of organic matter in the soil increased to 0.28 t/ha. The plant density increased by 1.5 times, the height – 2 times, the yield of the grass mixture increased on average to almost 5 t/ha, the quality of products improved, which corresponded to the zootechnical norm in almost all parameters. The cost of production amounted to 2.04 rubles/kg, conditionally net income – 3.64 rubles. In the summer of 2019, the research results passed the first year of approbation at Igor VyacheslavovichBelousov LLC on an area of 1.5 hectares. The yield was 4.8 t/ha of dry matter, which is 31% higher than the control option – traditional technology.

scholarly journals Developing and Publishing Strong Empirical Research in Sustainability Management—Addressing the Intersection of Theory, Method, and Empirical Field

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Seuring ◽  
Tara Stella ◽  
Mareike Stella
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Theory Method ◽  
Discussion Paper ◽  
Sustainability Management ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Hygiene Factors ◽  
Empirical Field ◽  
Selection Of

Students starting their research into sustainability management are often driven by a normative assumption of wanting “to do something good” or “save the world” from this or that problem. This also holds for many researchers, where the pressure to do research that has an immediate impact on the local business or natural environment is paramount. This often gets into the way of developing sound research that might pass the review process in strong academic journals. Good (empirical) research builds on the interplay of the theoretical foundation, appropriate research method, and a well-justified selection of the empirical field. The discussion paper offers some guidelines and reflections on how to do this. The core point is that academic papers get cited for their theoretical contribution, so this has to be in the foreground of research question and design. If implemented in the wrong manner upfront, this can usually not be corrected later on, preventing the research to be published in top journals. This has to do with the interplay of theory, method, and empirical field. While we would see theory as the winning factor, methods and empirical field-related choices often constitute what might be called qualifying for hygiene factors. Methods and empirical field would hardly sell the paper on their own, but if done wrongly, they will prevent it from having a chance of being accepted. The paper explores some core ideas around theory, methods, and empirical field and offers some related guidelines on how to link them. This is illustrated at some points borrowed from debates in sustainability management.

Role of the proneural gene, atonal, in formation of Drosophila chordotonal organs and photoreceptors

Development ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 121 (7) ◽  
pp. 2019-2030 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.P. Jarman ◽  
Y. Sun ◽  
L.Y. Jan ◽  
Y.N. Jan
Keyword(s):  
Sense Organ ◽  
Proneural Gene ◽  
Morphogenetic Furrow ◽  
Helix Loop Helix ◽  
Eye Disc ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Stimulation Of Division

The Drosophila gene atonal encodes a basic helix-loop-helix protein similar to those encoded by the proneural genes of the achaete-scute complex (AS-C). The AS-C are required in the Drosophila PNS for the selection of neural precursors of external sense organs. We have isolated mutants of atonal, which reveal that this gene encodes the proneural gene for chordotonal organs and photoreceptors. In atonal mutants, all observable adult chordotonal organs, and almost all embryonic chordotonal organs fail to form; all adult photoreceptors are missing. For both types of sense organ, this defect is already apparent at the level of precursor formation. Therefore it is a failure in the epidermal-neural decision process i.e. a proneural defect. The failure to form photoreceptors results in atrophy of the atonal mutant imaginal disc, due to apoptosis and lack of stimulation of division. Lack of photoreceptors should also eliminate signalling that arises from differentiating photoreceptors and is required for morphogenetic furrow movement in the wild-type eye disc. Nevertheless, a remnant morphogenetic furrow is still observed in the atonal mutant disc. This presumably reflects the process of furrow initiation, which would not depend on signals from developing photoreceptors.

Antimicrobial Treatment of Otitis Media: Penicillins, Cephalosporins, Sulfonamides

1981 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 376-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Parkin
Keyword(s):  
Otitis Media ◽  
Family Physicians ◽  
Antimicrobial Treatment ◽  
Etiologic Agent ◽  
Antimicrobial Drug ◽  
Hemophilus Influenzae ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Made In

Otitis media continues to be one of the most common diagnoses made in the offices of family physicians, pediatricians, and otolaryngologists. The emergence of ampicillin resistant Hemophilus influenzae as an important etiologic agent for otitis media has altered the selection of a therapeutic antimicrobial drug. This article reviews the role of the penicillins, cephalosporins, and sulfonamides in the treatment of otitis media. Amoxicillin continues to be the drug chosen for the uncultured otitis media. Backup drugs for use in unresponsive cases include trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, erythromycin-sulfisoxazole, and cefaclor. The cost of the drug should be a factor in the selection when efficacy is equal.

The Role of Alloying Elements on the Surface Treatment and Finishing of Aluminium

2006 ◽  
Vol 519-521 ◽  
pp. 615-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
George E. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Material Processing ◽  
Surface Treatment ◽  
Alloy Film ◽  
Conversion Coating ◽  
Alloying Elements ◽  
Alumina Film ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
Selection Of

The influence of alloying elements, deliberate or otherwise, and material processing on the performance of aluminium during surface treatment and finishing are considered. Thus, with a significant focus on copper, but with consideration of other elemental additions, the behaviour of aluminium during growth of oxide at ambient temperature, etching or pickling, conversion coating and anodizing, essential processes for generation of fit-for-purpose products, is highlighted. Further, such processes generate, modify or transform the initially present air-formed alumina film. Consequently, with knowledge of the phenomena proceeding at the alloy/film and film/environment interfaces and those within anodic or other films, the possibility of controlling features of nanoscale dimensions for improved performance arises. For example, deliberate selection of alloying elements enables control of nanotextures formed at treated surfaces, and formation of compositionally and morphologically modified films as well as generation of nanoparticles with various functional properties.

Women’s disadvantage in holding supervisory positions. Variations among European countries and the role of horizontal gender segregation

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Dämmrich ◽  
Hans-Peter Blossfeld
Keyword(s):  
Labour Force ◽  
Gender Segregation ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Labour Force Survey ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Male Dominated ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Selection Of

Using the Labour Force Survey 2013, this paper examines gender differences in holding supervisory positions in 26 European countries and relates these differences to horizontal gender segregation, i.e. women and men working in different jobs. First, we confirm the findings of previous studies that women are still disadvantaged in holding supervisory positions in almost all countries. Second, by examining how women’s disadvantage varies when working in male-dominated, gender-mixed, and female-dominated occupations, we observe women’s lowest disadvantage in male-dominated occupations in most countries. Third, applying a two-stage multilevel analysis, we explore at the macro level how the country variation in women’s disadvantage in holding supervisory positions is related to horizontal gender segregation, selection of women in the labour market, and conditions facilitating the combination of work and family, and whether women’s disadvantage significantly differs among welfare regimes. We provide evidence that differences among welfare regimes capture much better country variation than single macro indicators.

Nematode parasite control practices of sheep and goat farmers in the region of Trikala, Greece

2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Theodoropoulos ◽  
H. Theodoropoulos ◽  
G. Zervas ◽  
E. Bartziokas
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Visual Perception ◽  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Average Weight ◽  
Parasite Control ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Worm Control ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractInformation concerning worm control practices of sheep and goat farmers in the region of Trikala (central Greece) was collected through a questionnaire survey by visiting farms and interviewing farmers. Questionnaires from 57 farmers residing in 23 rural communities were collected. Anthelmintics were used by 89% of the farmers. On average, lambs, kids and goats were treated once annually, while sheep were treated either once or twice annually. Only 2% of farmers reported treatment of animals with anthelmintics when moving to new pastures. The most common broad-spectrum anthelmintics used were those belonging to the benzimidazoles and probenzimidazoles. Fifty nine percent of the farmers used the same anthelmintic group for 3 or more years and 34% used two or more anthelmintic groups in the same year. Almost all farmers reported estimating live weights for calculating anthelmintic doses through visual perception on the basis of an average weight (96%). Tablets and boluses were the most preferred anthelmintic formulation used by 96% of farmers. The selection of an anthelmintic was based for 58% of farmers on recommendation by a veterinarian and for 39% of farmers on the cost of the drug. The most common occasions for deworming the animals were at turn out (86%) and after parturition (31%). Only 6% of farmers reported deworming new animals before introducing them onto the farm. Farmers preferred to seek information about the use of anthelmintics and worm control strategies from veterinarians (63%) and other farmers (37%).

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