Financial sustainability of cooperatives: a case of portuguese olive oil cooperatives

En Portugal, como en otros países, las cooperativas agrícolas tienen un papel económico importante en el sistema alimentario. Similar a otras organizaciones económicas, las cooperativas agrícolas han sido testigos de cambios estructurales en las últimas décadas en términos de modelos de gobernación y gestión. Las cooperativas agrícolas portuguesas se han visto constreñidas por su contexto a adoptar un modelo tradicional de propiedad y control. El objetivo principal de este estudio era analizar cuestiones relacionadas con la estructura de gestión y desempeño financiero de las cooperativas, basada en los datos recogidos de cooperativas de aceite de oliva situadas en la región interior norte de Portugal. La combinación de un análisis cualitativo de la estructura y toma de decisiones, una evaluación financiera y la aplicación de un enfoque en varios criterios (PROMETHEE II), los resultados están en línea con expectativas (por ejemplo, bajos niveles de participación de los miembros, gestión no profesional, ratios de rentabilidad bajos, bajo apalancamiento y una capacidad para cumplir compromisos financieros), excepto la relación entre la gestión profesional y el desempeño financiero. La existencia de gestión profesional no conduce a mejores resultados financieros. Este resultado refuerza la creencia de que las cooperativas que están estructuradas de diferente manera tienen intereses diferentes y contradictorios a las partes interesadas.

Continuous statistical modelling for rapid detection of adulteration of extra virgin olive oil using mid infrared and Raman spectroscopic data

The main objective of this work was to develop a novel dimensionality reduction technique as a part of an integrated pattern recognition solution capable of identifying adulterants such as hazelnut oil in extra virgin olive oil at low percentages based on spectroscopic chemical fingerprints. A novel Continuous Locality Preserving Projections (CLPP) technique is proposed which allows the modelling of the continuous nature of the produced in-house admixtures as data series instead of discrete points. The maintenance of the continuous structure of the data manifold enables the better visualisation of this examined classification problem and facilitates the more accurate utilisation of the manifold for detecting the adulterants. The performance of the proposed technique is validated with two different spectroscopic techniques (Raman and Fourier transform infrared, FT-IR). In all cases studied, CLPP accompanied by k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN) algorithm was found to outperform any other state-of-the-art pattern recognition techniques.

Methodology for Labeling Oil Products with 123I

The objective was the development a methodology to label organic compounds with radioactive iodine (123I) from the reaction of organic compound with iodine nomochloride (ICL). The process begins with the production of 123ICl from the oxidation of potassium iodate in acid medium. The ICL labeled with 123I is extracted from aqueous phase using diethyl ether and then mixed with the organic compound to be labeled and the process is based on adding the radioactive iodine to the Carbon-Carbon double bonds of the organic compound. To measure the efficiency of the labeling process, in all stages samples were collected and the total activity of 123I was measure. The results show a production yield of 82% for lubricant oil and 85% for gasoline and diesel.

Techno-Economic Assessment of LNG and Diesel Production and Global Trading Based on Hybrid PV-Wind Power Plants and PtG, GtL and PtL Technologies

With growing demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquid transportation fuels, and concerns about climate change and causes of greenhouse gas emissions, this master’s thesis introduces a new value chain design for LNG and transportation fuels and respective fundamental business cases based on hybrid PV-Wind power plants. The value chains are composed of renewable electricity (RE) converted by power-to-gas (PtG), gas-to-liquids (GtL) or power-to-liquids (PtL) facilities into SNG (which is finally liquefied into LNG) or synthetic liquid fuels, mainly diesel, respectively. The RE-LNG or RE-diesel are drop-in fuels to the current energy system and can be traded everywhere in the world. The calculations for the hybrid PV-Wind power plants, electrolysis, methanation (H2tSNG), hydrogen-to-liquids (H2tL), GtL and LNG value chain are performed based on both annual full load hours (FLh) and hourly analysis. Results show that the proposed RE-LNG produced in Patagonia, as the study case, is competitive with conventional LNG in Japan for crude oil prices within a minimum price range of about 87 - 145 USD/barrel (20 – 26 USD/MBtu of LNG production cost) and the proposed RE-diesel is competitive with conventional diesel in the European Union (EU) for crude oil prices within a minimum price range of about 79 - 135 USD/barrel (0.44 – 0.75 €/l of diesel production cost), depending on the chosen specific value chain and assumptions for cost of capital, available oxygen sales and CO2 emission costs. RE-LNG or RE-diesel could become competitive with conventional fuels from an economic perspective, while removing environmental concerns. The RE-PtX value chain needs to be located at the best complementing solar and wind sites in the world combined with a de-risking strategy. This could be an opportunity for many countries to satisfy their fuel demand locally. It is also a specific business case for countries with excellent solar and wind resources to export carbon-neutral hydrocarbons, when the decrease in production cost is considerably more than the shipping cost. This is a unique opportunity to export carbon-neutral hydrocarbons around the world where the environmental limitations on conventional hydrocarbons are getting tighter.

North Sea Oil and Genuine Saving in the Scottish Economy

The World Bank has published estimates of sustainability of consumption paths by adjusting saving rates to take account of the depletion of non-renewable resources. During the period of North Sea oil production Scotland has been in a fiscal union with the rest of the UK. The present paper adjusts the World Bank data to produce separate genuine saving estimates for Scotland and the rest of the UK for 1970-2009, based on a ‘derivation’ principle for oil revenues. The calculations indicate that Scotland has had a negative genuine saving rate for most of the period of exploitation of North Sea oil resources, with genuine saving being positive in the rest of the UK during this period.

FPGA-based architecture for hyperspectral endmember extraction

Hyperspectral instruments have been incorporated in satellite missions, providing data of high spectral resolution of the Earth. This data can be used in remote sensing applications, such as, target detection, hazard prevention, and monitoring oil spills, among others. In most of these applications, one of the requirements of paramount importance is the ability to give real-time or near real-time response. Recently, onboard processing systems have emerged, in order to overcome the huge amount of data to transfer from the satellite to the ground station, and thus, avoiding delays between hyperspectral image acquisition and its interpretation. For this purpose, compact reconfigurable hardware modules, such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are widely used. This paper proposes a parallel FPGA-based architecture for endmember’s signature extraction. This method based on the Vertex Component Analysis (VCA) has several advantages, namely it is unsupervised, fully automatic, and it works without dimensionality reduction (DR) pre-processing step. The architecture has been designed for a low cost Xilinx Zynq board with a Zynq-7020 SoC FPGA based on the Artix-7 FPGA programmable logic and tested using real hyperspectral data sets collected by the NASA’s Airborne Visible Infra-Red Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) over the Cuprite mining district in Nevada. Experimental results indicate that the proposed implementation can achieve real-time processing, while maintaining the methods accuracy, which indicate the potential of the proposed platform to implement high-performance, low cost embedded systems, opening new perspectives for onboard hyperspectral image processing.

A Study of Environmental Disclosures in the European Oil and Gas Industry : With Reference to the Global Reporting Initiative

Background and Problem: Sustainability reporting is a growing trend in the society. One of the most exposed industries to environmental matters is the oil and gas industry, which commit to sustainability reporting in order to deal with the industry’s destructive operations. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) provides voluntary guidelines in sustainability reporting, which increase transparency for the company’s stakeholders. However, it is controversial that the oil and gas industry put a great effort into sustainability reporting even though the industry is environmentally destructive. This gap is interesting to investigate and will contribute to the academic discussion. Therefore, this thesis will focus on the sustainability reporting in the oil and gas industry and to what extent the industry actually discloses material environmental information about their operations. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the sustainability reporting has changed in the oil and gas industry in Europe. This is performed from a stakeholder perspective. Further, it aims to investigate how oil and gas companies have followed the GRI guidelines and how the reporting has changed over time. Method: A quantitative method is used in order to answer the research questions. The data sample is based on oil and gas companies reporting according to the GRI framework during year 2012 to year 2014. The empirical data is gathered from the studied companies’ environmental category in their sustainability reports. Further, a content analysis technique, with a coding scheme, was set up to interpret and analyse the information. To enable an easy overview of the findings, the relevant data is presented in tables and diagrams. Empirical Findings and Conclusion: The majority of the studied companies have increased their level of compliance in the environmental category. Although, the majority of the companies have increased their reporting, the compliance level differs between the companies. The most reported sectors are the; “Water”, “Biodiversity”, “Emissions”, “Effluents and Waste”, “Compliance”, and “Overall”. Further, the empirical findings show that there is an overall increase in the amount of disclosed information per indicator. The conclusion of this thesis is that the environmental disclosures have increased in the oil and gas industry from year 2012 to 2014.

Effects of IFRS adoption on the financial statements of Nigerian listed entities: the case of oil and gas companies

On 28 July 2010, the Nigerian Federal Executive Council approved January 1, 2012 as the effective date for the convergence of Nigerian Statement of Accounting Standards (SAS) or Nigerian GAAP (NG-GAAP) with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). By this pronouncement, all publicly listed companies and significant public interest entities in Nigeria were statutorily required to issue IFRS based financial statements for the year ended December, 2012. This study investigates the impact of the adoption of IFRS on the financial statements of Nigerian listed Oil and Gas entities using six years of data which covers three years before and three years after IFRS adoption in Nigeria and other African countries. First, the study evaluates the impact of IFRS adoption on the Exploration and Evaluation (E&E) expenditures of listed Oil and Gas companies. Second, it examines the impact of IFRS adoption on the provision for decommissioning of Oil and Gas installations and environmental rehabilitation expenditures. Third, the study analyses the impact of the adoption of IFRS on the average daily Crude Oil production cost per Barrel. Fourth, it examines the extent to which the adoption and implementation of IFRS affects the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of listed Oil and Gas companies. The study further explores the impact of IFRS adoption on the contractual relationships between Nigerian Government and Oil and Gas companies in terms of Joint Ventures (JVs) and Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) as it relates to taxes, royalties, bonuses and Profit Oil Split. A Paired Samples t-test, Wilcoxon Signed Rank test and Gray’s (Gray, 1980) Index of Conservatism analyses were conducted simultaneously where the accounting numbers, financial ratios and industry specific performance measures of GAAP and IFRS were computed and analysed and the significance of the differences of the mean, median and Conservatism Index values were compared before and after IFRS adoption. Questionnaires were then administered to the key stakeholders in the adoption and implementation of IFRS and the responses collated and analysed. The results of the analyses reveal that most of the accounting numbers, financial ratios and industry specific performance measures examined changed significantly as a result of the transition from GAAP to IFRS. The E&E expenditures and the mean cost of Crude Oil production per barrel of Oil and Gas companies increased significantly. The GAAP values of inventories, GPM, ROA, Equity and TA were also significantly different from the IFRS values. However, the differences in the provision for decommissioning expenditures were not statistically significant. Gray’s (Gray, 1980) Conservatism Index shows that Oil and Gas companies were more conservative under GAAP when compared to the IFRS regime. The Questionnaire analyses reveal that IFRS based financial statements are of higher quality, easier to prepare and present to management and easier to compare among competitors across the Oil and Gas sector but slightly more difficult to audit compared to GAAP based financial statements. To my knowledge, this is the first empirical research to investigate the impact of IFRS adoption on the financial statements of listed Oil and Gas companies. The study will therefore make an enormous contribution to academic literature and body of knowledge and void the existing knowledge gap regarding the impact and implications of IFRS adoption on the financial statements of Oil and Gas companies.

The development of a photoacoustic Instrument for the monitoring of oil and other hydrocarbons in water.

The present methods for the detection of oil in discharge water are based either on chemical analysis of intermittent samples or bypass pipelines with instrumentation to detect either dissolved or dispersed hydrocarbons by a variety of optical techniques including absorption, scattering and fluorescence. However, test have shown that no single instruments entirely meets either present needs or satisfies the requirements of the future more stringent legislation which may limit total hydrocarbon content to 30 ppm or even less. Hence, in this paper, a detector is devised which can detect both dissolved and dispersed oil products, has a high immunity to scattering and can operate in-line and harsh environments with a detection sensitivity of a few ppm throughout a wide range of operations.

A numerical model for prediction of oil, trajectory due to extraction activity in the north coasts of the Persian Gulf

This thesis considers a three- dimensional numerical model based on 3-D Navier— Stokes and continuity equations involving various wind speeds (North west), water surface levels, horizontal shier stresses, eddy viscosity, densities of oil and gas condensate- water mixture flows. The model is used to simulate the prediction of the surface movement of oil and gas condensate slicks from spill accident in the north coasts of Persian Gulf.

Design of unique composites based on aromatic thermosetting copolyesters

Aromatic thermosetting copolyester (ATSP) has promise in high-temperature applications. It can be employed as a bulk polymer, as a coating and as a matrix for carbon fiber composites (ATSP/C composites). This work focuses on the applications of high performance ATSP/C composites. The morphology of the ATSP matrix in the presence of carbon fiber was studied. The effect of liquid crystalline character of starting oligomers used to prepare ATSP on the final crystal structure of the ATSP/C composite was evaluated. Matrices obtained by crosslinking of both liquid crystalline oligomers (ATSP2) and non-liquid crystalline oligomers (ATSP1) tend to crystallize in presence of carbon fibers. The crystallite size of ATSP2 is 4 times that of ATSP1. Composites made from ATSP2 yield tougher matrices compared to those made from ATSP1. Thus toughened matrices could be achieved without incorporating any additives by just changing the morphology of the final polymer. The flammability characteristics of ATSP were also studied. The limiting oxygen index (LOI) of bulk ATSP was found to be 40% whereas that of ATSP/C composites is estimated to be 85%. Thus, ATSP shows potential to be used as a flame resistant material, and also as an aerospace reentry shield. Mechanical properties of the ATSP/C composite were characterized. ATSP was observed to bond strongly with reinforcing carbon fibers. The tensile strength, modulus and shear modulus were comparable to those of conventionally used high temperature epoxy resins. ATSP shows a unique capability for healing of interlaminar cracks on application of heat and pressure, via the Interchain Transesterification Reaction (ITR). ITR can also be used for reduction in void volume and healing of microcracks. Thus, ATSP resin systems provide a unique intrinsic repair mechanism compared to any other thermosetting systems in use today. Preliminary studies on measurement of residual stresses for ATSP/C composites indicate that the stresses induced are much lower than that in epoxy/C composites. Thermal fatigue testing suggests that ATSP shows better resistance to microcracking compared to epoxy resins.

Interactions between drugs and drug-nutrient in enteral nutrition: a review based on evidences

Introduction: Enteral nutrition (EN) provides calories, macronutrients and micronutrients in adequate quantity and quality to meet the patient's needs. Some drugs when crushed and diluted may have their properties altered, including the reduction of bioavailability causing the reduction of the serum concentration of the drug; tube obstruction; drug-drug interaction or drug-nutrient interaction. Methods: The study was conducted through review of submitted articles in the databases of the Virtual Health Library (VHL): MEDLINE (National Library of Medicine, USA), Lilacs (Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences) PUBMED - NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) and COCHRANE. Results: For this survey, 42 articles were identified during database searching. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 08 articles were selected, obtained from the MEDLINE and Lilacs. Discussion: Some interactions were found such as the aluminium hydroxide and lactulose with the enteral nutrition, which may result in a precipitation and reduction of drug bioavailability. Mineral oil will alter the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and reduces the tube light. Others results were found as phenytoin, warfarin, captopril and furosemide with enteral nutrition may reduce the maximum serum concentration. Conclusion: Drug interactions are more common in day-to-day activities than health professionals may suppose. Knowledge on the matter may also assist in reducing cases of obstruction of tubes, through which enteral nutrition and medications are administered. Thus, the multidisciplinary team, acting together, may have more beneficial effects to the patient.

Desenvolvimento de tubulação em compósito polimérico revestida externamente com poliuretano de alta densidade

Pipelines for the transport of crude oil from the production wells to the collecting stations are named production lines . These pipes are subjected to chemical and electrochemical corrosion according to the environment and the type of petroleum transported. Some of these lines, depending upon the composition of the fluid produced, may leak within less than one year of operation due to internal corrosion. This work aims at the development of composite pipes with an external protecting layer of high density polyurethane for use in production lines of onshore oil wells, meeting operational requirements. The pipes were manufactured using glass fibers, epoxy resin, polyester resin, quartz sand and high density polyurethane. The pipes were produced by filament winding with the deposition of high density polyurethane on the external surface and threaded ends (API 15 HR/PM-VII). Three types of pipes were manufactured: glass/epoxy, glass/epoxy with an external polyurethane layer and glass/epoxy with an intermediate layer of glass fiber, polyester, sand and with an external polyurethane layer. The three samples were characterized by Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) and for the determination of constituent content. In addition, the following tests were conducted: hydrostatic test, instant rupture, shorttime failure pressure, Gardner impact, transverse stiffness and axial tension. Field tests were conducted in Mossoró RN (BRAZIL), where 1,677 meters of piping were used. The tests results of the three types of pipes were compared in two events: after two months from manufacturing of the samples and after nine months of field application. The results indicate that the glass/epoxy pipes with an intermediate layer of fiber glass composite, polyester e sand and with an external layer of high density polyurethane showed superior properties as compared to the other two and met the requirements of pressure class, axial tensile strength, transverse stiffness, impact and environmental conditions, for onshore applications as production lines

Development of hydroxyapatite-based nanomaterials to enhance biological response of osteoblast cells for clinical application

Purpose: To develop a novel chitosan/gelatin-hydroxyapatite (CGHaP) microspheres for evaluating the biological response of pre-osteoblast cells. Methods: The microsphere was prepared by water-in-oil emulsion method. Cell proliferation was studied using AlamarBlue colorimetric assay and DAPI staining while alkaline phosphatase assay was carried out by colorimetric assay method. Chitosan microspheres as well as chitosan-hydroxyapatite microspheres was prepared and tested for biological response from MC3T3-E1 cell line. Results: The results showed that CGHaP promotes MC3T3-E1 cell proliferation and spread on the surface of microspheres. The cells were clustered with more actin filaments and well-linked with neighbouring cells or adjacent cells when cultured in CGHaP microspheres whereas fewer cells were spread on chitosan (CH) microspheres. CGHaP microspheres significantly (p < 0.05) promoted cell attachment, proliferation and extracellular matrix mineralization. CGHaP microspheres presented significantly (p < 0.02) higher calcium deposition (0.5 ng) than CH microspheres (0.28 ng). Specifically, CGHaP microspheres exhibited high ALP activity (8 units; 2-fold) compared to CH with 3 units, after 7 days of incubation. The results suggest that CGHaP possesses a great ability to facilitate bone ingrowth formation and possibility of good osteointegration in vivo. Conclusion: The nanomaterial enhances the proliferation of pre-osteoblast cells in tissue engineering microspheres. The outcome of this study may have a major impact on the development of novel nanomaterials for bone tissue engineering.

EVALUATING THE OIL SANDS RECLAMATION PROCESS: ASSESSING POLICY CAPACITY AND STAKEHOLDER ACCESS FOR GOVERNMENT AND NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING IN ALBERTA’S OIL SANDS

By employing interpretive policy analysis this thesis aims to assess, measure, and explain policy capacity for government and non-government organizations involved in reclaiming Alberta's oil sands. Using this type of analysis to assess policy capacity is a novel approach for understanding reclamation policy; and therefore, this research will provide a unique contribution to the literature surrounding reclamation policy. The oil sands region in northeast Alberta, Canada is an area of interest for a few reasons; primarily because of the vast reserves of bitumen and the environmental cost associated with developing this resource. An increase in global oil demand has established incentive for industry to seek out and develop new reserves. Alberta's oil sands are one of the largest remaining reserves in the world, and there is significant interest in increasing production in this region. Furthermore, tensions in several oil exporting nations in the Middle East remain unresolved, and this has garnered additional support for a supply side solution to North American oil demands. This solution relies upon the development of reserves in both the United States and Canada. These compounding factors have contributed to the increased development in the oil sands of northeastern Alberta. Essentially, a rapid expansion of oil sands operations is ongoing, and is the source of significant disturbance across the region. This disturbance, and the promises of reclamation, is a source of contentious debates amongst stakeholders and continues to be highly visible in the media. If oil sands operations are to retain their social license to operate, it is critical that reclamation efforts be effective. One concern non-governmental organizations (NGOs) expressed criticizes the current monitoring and enforcement of regulatory programs in the oil sands. Alberta's NGOs have suggested the data made available to them originates from industrial sources, and is generally unchecked by government. In an effort to discern the overall status of reclamation in the oil sands this study explores several factors essential to policy capacity: work environment, training, employee attitudes, perceived capacity, policy tools, evidence based work, and networking. Data was collected through key informant interviews with senior policy professionals in government and non-government agencies in Alberta. The following are agencies of interest in this research: Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP); Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (AESRD); Alberta Energy Regulator (AER); Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA); Alberta Environment Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting Agency (AEMERA); Wood Buffalo Environmental Association (WBEA). The aim of this research is to explain how and why reclamation policy is conducted in Alberta's oil sands. This will illuminate government capacity, NGO capacity, and the interaction of these two agency typologies. In addition to answering research questions, another goal of this project is to show interpretive analysis of policy capacity can be used to measure and predict policy effectiveness. The oil sands of Alberta will be the focus of this project, however, future projects could focus on any government policy scenario utilizing evidence-based approaches.