bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Notes from the Underground
Authors: Editors The
Published: March 2015

It may be true, as one of our New Age acquaintances recently

advised us, that 1999 is the first year of the rest of the Millennium, but it is certainly the last year we’ll ever see with quite so many 9s in it. In any case, we minions of Persephone have chosen to celebrate this event by gracing The Pomegranate with a new format. By using a more delicate typeface we’ve been

able to increase our content by 15% without adding extra pages. We all hope that our readers will find this new look easier to read and more esthetically pleasing.
Love, Suffering and Evil: A Neopagan View
Authors: DiZerega Gus
Published: March 2015

No one born in the 20th century can have missed the challenge to spiritual worldviews raised by the carnage of its wars and massacres, as well as the suffering caused by disease, natural disasters and general hard knocks of everyday life. So much pain! So much unhappiness! Neopagan religion celebrates and honors all basic dimensions of existence, but in light of so much suffering, some critics ask whether in doing so we demonstrate a naive or even willful blindness to evil and the omnipresent nature of human affliction.
Hekate Soteira, A Study of Hekate’s Roles in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature. by Sarah Iles Johnston
Authors: Slater Kate
Published: March 2015

Gods and peoples do not give each other up without a struggle. During the thousand years following the temples and plays of Classical Greece, when the Gods slept no further away than Olympus, inclination toward Neoplatonic philosophy made those Gods that survived transcendent, removing them to the celestial sphere above the moon. Hekate was a survivor. In the minds of many ordinary people, she always remained the chthonic goddess of the crossroads and source-protectress for witches; but to a select cadre of philosophers and theurgist-magicians, she became the intercessor between the celestial deities and the world of man, and furthermore, the Cosmic Soul from which each human’s soul flowed.
Book Review: Mything in action: new ethnicities, paganisms and English law
Authors: Edge Peter W
Published: March 2015

In this text Poulter considers the way in which the English legal system engages with a variety of ethnic groups, concentrating on a number of case studies. Although the focus of the work is ethnicity, rather than religious identity and practices, the case studies make this an important work for any student of the interaction between the law and religion in the United Kingdom jurisdictions.
Notes from the Underground
Authors: Editors The
Published: March 2015

It is with great pleasure that we welcome back Jenny Blain and Robert Wallis, whose work first appeared in our Fall 98 issue. In this instance, they are the co-authors of an article on the fascinating subject of seidhrwork and gender. Those

of us who are (still!) running into people who believe that only women can be Witches will be interested in the parallels between this all-too-common misunderstanding and the challenges faced by Heathen men who engaged in the oracular practice of seidhr.
The Pomegranate: Readers' Forum
Authors: Editors The
Published: March 2015

Please contribute to our Readers’ Forum so that we may continue to present this valuable venue for the exchange of ideas. Letters may be edited to conserve space or to avoid repetition. Writers of published letters will have their subscriptions extended.
Men and ‘Women’s Magic’: Contested Narratives of Gender, Seidhr, and ‘Ergi’
Authors: Blain Jenny , Wallis Robert
Published: March 2015

Seidhr appears most often as a female activity... male seidh workers were spoken of as 'ergi', a term of insult relating to behaviour seen as 'unmanly'.
Notes from the Underground
Authors: Editors The
Published: March 2015

As you read this new journal, you will find yourself among those eaters of the Divine Pomegranate who are compelled to look beneath the daylit world, beyond the details of what we do; to the whys and hows and wherefores of the Craft of the Wise.
Notes from the Underground
Authors: Editors The
Published: March 2015

I am most pleased to see that so many of you have returned to read the second edition of our new journal. We have prepared for you a veritable feast of articles designed to entertain as well as to educate. Although thematic issues were never part of our original plans for this magazine, several of the writings here assembled for your pleasure might be thought of as having been inspired by Cleo, the muse of History.
Book Reviews: Two New Books on Pagan Ritual
Authors: Tracy Diana
Published: March 2015

Back in the dark ages when many of us started Wicca, we were starved for knowledge and, being of the intellectual bent, headed to our nearest libraries and book stores looking for revealing tomes. What we found were abstruse esoterica only indirectly relayed to our doings, or decidedly spare recipe books of 'spells' and a few rituals. There were few sources that provided satisfactory 'whole cloth' rituals, nor were there books that explored the implications and obligations of doing magic.
2 Twisted
Authors: Burlein Ann
Published: March 2015

Why do we speak so insistently of the genome in terms of the Book—even going so far as to literalize this language? Drawing on Bakthin’s insight that our thought begins when we double-voice the words of others, using and re-accenting, this article argues that double-voicing religion is how the scientific secular is made. The insistence on treating scriptural metaphors as somehow real (even though we have long known better) arises from the need to use and thereby re-accent “internally persuasive words” in order to create new ways for words to mean. This article investigates two kinds of dialogue between the science of the gene and the book. Internally, invoking scriptural metaphors enables medical genetics to represent itself as having at long last sutured the gap between thought and being that Foucault deemed central to Western modernity. Externally, invoking the biblical signifier enables medical science to stabilize its popular reception by using “the family” to colonize affect.
The Five That Remain
Authors: Twomey Jay
Published: March 2015

The re-imagined television series Battlestar Galactica engages issues of contemporary significance throughout its four-season run. This paper, drawing upon Benjamin, Derrida, Agamben and other theorists, explores a number of significant messianic motifs and messiah figures (or groups of figures) in the series. Although each instance of the messianic moves Battlestar Galactica’s narrative forward, the consistency with which the series undermines any and all messianic pretensions provides an intriguing critical opportunity to reflect upon the theo-political. The series clearly seems to take issue with the messianic discourse of the Bush years. But reading the insufficiency of its messianic moments in theoretical terms may also allow for a nuanced critique of theory’s recent fascination with the idea of the messianic itself.
The Challenge and Promise of Decolonial Thought to Biblical Interpretation
Authors: Banazak Gregory Allen , Reyes Ceja Luis
Published: March 2015

Critical theory has taken a new turn in Latin America. Post-colonial thought, post-structuralism, cultural studies, liberation thought, subaltern studies, world-systems theory, and other contemporary theoretical foci have combined with indigenous influences to produce a new form of critical theory called decolonial thought. Through its unique take on power, knowledge, culture, history, human existence, and globalization, this thought aims at elaborating not just another paradigm within the typically modern way of thinking but a totally new paradigm the shatters such thinking, a paradigma otro in the lapidary expression of Mignolo. Although it does not explicitly discuss the interpretation of Scripture, decolonial thought holds out promise for an innovative approach to the interpretation of the New Testament. In this article, we offer an overview of decolonial thought, differentiate it from other forms of critical theory, and suggest three potential contributions to Biblical studies.
From Technologies of Power to Technologies of the Self
Authors: Carr Jamie
Published: March 2015

This essay examines Christopher Isherwood’s resistance to normative narratives of homosexuality and pacifism and Western culture’s attitude toward Eastern spirituality, each of which get constructed in the 1930s and beyond as passivity and developmental failure and ultimately as regression from modernity. I read this resistance in light of Michel Foucault’s notion of “governmentality,” which involves both technologies of power over individual subjectivity and technologies of the self. The latter, in which a subject works to transform the self, becomes a form of “spirituality” for Foucault that strikingly resembles Isherwood’s response to discursive power made possible through his practice of Vedanta, the religious philosophy based on the ancient Indian scriptures the Vedas. Vedanta becomes at once a counter-discourse for Isherwood in opposition to Western notions of subjectivity and a mode of “intentional living.”
Scriptures, Myths, and Power: The Bible at Work - Chapter Five
Authors: Mack Burton
Published: March 2015

Part 6 of Burton Mack's extended conversation with Vincent Wimbush and Institute for Signifying Scripture, Claremont Graduate University. The conversation revolves around the cultural function of the Bible as Christian myth in American society, and the African-American domestication of the Bible as their Scripture. The essay explores the differences between the Bible as myth in the dominant Euro-American tradition, and the Bible as Scripture in African-American experience. Drawing upon the work of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the concept of "signifying" describes a remarkable linguistic style characteristic of African-American mentality and culture.
Cultural protectionism in a deregulated and diversifying broadcasting environment
Authors: Cattermole Jennifer
Published: March 2015

While radio broadcasting in post-colonial New Zealand has been dominated by P?keh?, M?ori have challenged their dominance of the nation’s airwaves in recent decades, having successfully carved out a space for themselves within the New Zealand mediascape. Nevertheless, getting more M?ori music (especially songs with te reo lyrics) on radio and other forms of broadcasting media remains a challenge—especially in the New Zealand commercial broadcasting sphere. This challenge has been addressed in various ways by the two organizations mandated to promote M?ori language and M?ori culture via broadcasting, Te M?ngai P?ho (TMP) and New Zealand On Air (NZOA). This article describes and evaluates their responses to calls for more M?ori music on air, and suggests further measures that could be implemented to increase the broadcasting of such music. It will also place TMP and NZOA’s strategies in the context of broader New Zealand cultural-political shifts, and changes in the New Zealand broadcasting environment. The article asks whether, or to what extent, cultural protectionism is needed in New Zealand’s current deregulated and diversifying broadcasting environment.
Religious Conflict or Religious Anxiety
Authors: Park Jin Young
Published: March 2015

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Specifying Sacred Space
Authors: Mulder Karen L
Published: March 2015

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Lineage, Shrine, Qawwali and Study Circle
Authors: Qureshi Regula
Published: March 2015

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Roman Catholic Church in Poland and Civil Society
Authors: Mariański Janusz
Published: March 2015

In this article, I address the stance taken by the Church viz-à-viz the social and political structures of Polish society. This arises because the new situation of a democratic state presupposes a secular, civil society environment. In my analysis, I show that the Church has moved away from political engagement with this new situation, and is now shaping itself as a key element, but only one of several, in a pluralistic culture. This will mean a quite different Church in the future.
L’ Église catholique et le nouveau régime socio-politique en Pologne
Authors: Adamski Franciszek
Published: March 2015

The issue of the Church’s involvement in public life of the nation has always generated debate. Particularly under communism, when the Church had to resist the dominance of an atheistic doctrine, the Church was relied upon to articulate the value of religiosity without running afoul of the authorities. It was, in essence, valuable to ordinary Poles who respected its social and cultural importance for their lives. As the analysis here shows, the situation faced by the Church has changed dramatically; it faces the challenge of remaining relevant in a society switching to democratic and culturally secular assumptions. Just how this relationship will develop and what the role will be for the Church in the future is a central concern of this paper.
The Transformation of Blame: “Religious Thought” and the Genealogy of Scientific Explanation
Authors: Thomson Cameron M.
Published: March 2015

This essay discusses Donald Wiebe’s account of the relationship between “religious thought” and the mode of thought that he thinks typical of objective science and rational theology.

First I present what I take to be Wiebe’s position. Then, drawing on René Girard’s fundamental anthropology and Michael Tomasello’s cultural-psychological work on joint attention, I offer a critique and articulate an alternative approach. I argue that the dichotomy between ostensibly objective modern scientific thought, on the one hand, and religious thought, on the other, is not an internal structural one, but concerns the radically differing value for social order accruing to otherwise commensurate modes of intersubjective

attention to objects in a shared environment. I argue that the class of procedures aiming at relatively disinterested, nonagentic explanation is genetically related to the class of relatively parochial, affect-laden acts of blaming, a class that includes ex post facto (mythological) rationalizations of those proto-human reactions that engendered archaic ritual practices and systems of interdiction in the first place. The transition from religious thought to science, I conclude, is not a dichotomy in “kinds” of thought, as Wiebe argues, but arises with the historical emergence of a novel human potential for empathy and the concomitant erosion of the individual’s susceptibility, in the context of collective crises, to persuasion framed in terms of blame.
Altizer, Thomas J.J. The Call to Radical Theology. Edited by Lissa McCullough
Authors: Gay David
Published: March 2015

Altizer, Thomas J.J. The Call to Radical Theology. Edited by Lissa McCullough. State University of New York Press, 2012. 181pp., $27.76. ISBN–13: 9781438444529.
PUBLICIDADE EM CELULARES UTILIZANDO O SISTEMA DE BUSCA DE PERFIL
Authors: Araújo Bruno Gomes de , Valentim Ricardo Alexsandro de Medeiros
Published: March 2015

A publicidade vem causando um impacto cada vez mais perceptível na sociedade moderna, o qual se percebe nas mudanças de hábitos e costumes das pessoas. Entretanto, os atuais métodos de transmissões publicitárias estão se tornando problemáticos, devido à incorreta utilização e também devido à grande preocupação com o meio ambiente e com a qualidade de vida. Neste contexto, esse trabalho propõe a criação de um sistema para envio de mensagens publicitárias via celulares. Para tanto, utilizando um mecanismo de busca de perfil. A busca é responsável por localizar os celulares ativos, baseando-se no padrão Bluetooth. Um perfil consiste em todas as informações referentes a um usuário, as quais caracterizam os seus interesses. Após a localização e identificação do perfil o usuário receberá em seu celular mensagens de seu interesse. O processo de localização e sincronização de perfil é realizado de forma totalmente automática, aumentando assim a usabilidade do sistema.
SISTEMA DE SIMULAÇÃO DE PRESENÇA RESIDENCIAL
Authors: Campos Antonio Luiz P. S. , Silva Thiago Dantas da , Lima Filho Francisco Sales de
Published: March 2015

Neste artigo é detalhado um sistema eletrônico de baixo custo para ser empregado em automação residencial, visando a simulação de presença residencial. Para isso, foram empregadas técnicas de comunicação com portadora em linhas de potência (Power Line Carrier Communications – PLCC), que oferecem métodos de instalação de redes domésticas de automação economicamente viáveis, em qualquer residência. Este projeto deu continuidade a diversas pesquisas desenvolvidas pelo Prof. Antonio Campos, que seguem a mesma linha dessa proposta. O sistema é um dispositivo de acionamento de cargas remoto controlado por um programa computacional, que faz a interface homem-máquina com o usuário.
Características físico-químicas de frutos de feijoa influenciadas por la posición en el canopi
Authors: Martínez-Vega Ronald R. , Fischer Gerhard , Herrera Aníbal , Chaves Bernardo , Quintero Omar Camilo
Published: March 2015

Con el fin de evaluar el efecto de la posición del fruto en el árbol de la feijoa cv. Quimba, se cosecharon frutos fisiológicamente maduros en cinco cuadrantes diferentes de la copa: (1) base interna, (2) base externa, (3) medio interno, (4) medio externo y (5) superior. El estudio se llevó a cabo en un huerto en las inmediaciones del municipio de la Vega (Cundinamarca, Colombia) a 2.350 msnm. Se observó que bajo un día nublado las diferencias en la intensidad lumínica, que se filtra a lo largo del dosel, son menos marcadas que en un día soleado. Las características evaluadas en los frutos fueron peso fresco, porcentaje de masa seca, pH, acidez total titulable (ATT), sólidos solubles totales (SST), relación de madurez y color. Los análisis mostraron que el peso fresco del fruto fue mayor en el cuadrante medio externo al igual que lo fue la relación de madurez en el superior, mientras el color de las feijoas fue más verde intenso en la base y en la parte interna de la copa. El porcentaje de masa seca, el pH, la concentración de SST y la ATT no se vieron mayormente afectadas por la posición del fruto. Se observó que los frutos del cuadrante medio externo presentaron buenas características en general. Los frutos del cuadrante superior mostraron mayor madurez pero menor peso.
APPLICATION OF FACTORING UNDER THE CRISIS CONDITIONS
Authors: Payevska-Kvasny R. , Krechmanska-Gigol K.
Published: March 2015

Enterprises have difficulties in financing the needs for the net circulating capital connected with operating activities during a crisis, as banks under the crisis conditions limit availability of loans. One of the solution is to decrease the needs for the net circulating capital. Factoring is a financial service application of which results in decreasing these needs. The restructured factoring combining the results of the debts factoring (shortening of the payment rotation cycle) and reverse factoring (extension of the commercial obligations performance cycle) is especially useful during a crisis. The article has the results of the studies confirming that the factoring ensures financial safety to enterprises more than a banking loan
ASSESSMENT OF INVESTMENT PROJECTS TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE ECOLOGIC FACTOR
Authors: Borlakova А. К.
Published: March 2015

The need to taking into account an environmental friendliness factor in the process of investment projects estimation is defined. The method of eco-economic estimation of the projects, which help to draw conclusions about the projects feasibility and to rank them according to the level of environmental and economic efficiency, is provided.To objective justification for the investment decision, the projects efficiency criteria is suggested to calculate with using the elements of the fuzzy sets theory, through which many uncertainties factors may be formalized and correctly considered in the estimation process.
PREREQUISITES OF DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR HOUSING AND UTILITIES
Authors: Chernyshov L. N.
Published: March 2015

The main prerequisites and principles of establishment of new mechanism of management of social-labor relations in housing and utilities on the grounds of professional standards have been disclosed. Their principle difference from existing system of management of social-labor relations based on qualification references and method of development of professional standards have been shown.
ANTI-CRISIS STRATEGY EXECUTION AT A FUNCTIONAL LEVEL OF MANAGEMENT
Authors: Kuznetsov S. Y.
Published: March 2015

Theory and practice of strategic management requires strengthening the role of functional execution of strategy to effectively address issues of balancing long-term and short-term objectives, the successful implementation of strategy under the strategic plan, strategic alignment of functional management of a firm. Reasons for the increase in importance of functional strategies’ level reflect the formation of different kinds of rivalry capabilities of a firm. Functional efficiency of management is being measured. Strategic role of top management in the organization is about to change.
SCALARIZATION OF THE VECTOR PREFERENCES: OVERCOMING PRIMITIVIZATION
Authors: Troshin D. V.
Published: March 2015

It considers the drawbacks of the method for a scalar function preferences defined in a vector space on the basis of additive form and coefficients of importance. The advantages of the approaches based on the use of utility functions, replacement rates, pairwise comparison of indicators are discussed. Proposed ways of levelling shortcomings of the method of pairwise comparisons. As an alternative approach proposed target approach to the definition of the functions of preferences on the basis of the description of the physical effects of the system's functioning and use of criteria for substitution. Target approach considered on the example of the use of the entropy measures to assess the quality of surveillance. The hypothesis about the possibilities of cataloguing the main systems and development models scalarizаtion vector preferences using a targeted approach.
PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC DEBT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN RUSSIA
Authors: Tsvirko S. E.
Published: March 2015

The problems of the Russia’s debt management are revealed. Evolution of the public debts’ problem of the Russian Federation including the question of its interaction with private debts is discussed. Risks in debt sphere are analyzed. Specific features of the Russian economy such as the dependence on world energy prices, low efficiency of public expenditures, rapid growth of internal public debts and external quasi-sovereign and private debts are defined. Principles of debt management and areas of improvement in the system of Russia’s debt management were defined.
RATING EVALUATION OF SELF-REGULATING ORGANIZATIONS OF ARBITRATION MANAGERS AS A MECHANISM TO IMPROVE THEIR PERFORMANCE
Authors: Alferov V. N.
Published: March 2015

The ways of increasing the effectiveness of self-regulatory organizations of arbitration managers are discussed. Particular attention is given to the creation of indicators and the results of approbation-rated activities of self-regulatory organizations. Reliability rating groups of activities of self-regulatory organizations are defined.
TRIGENERATION AS A WAY OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT REVIEW ARTICLE
Authors: Pantsyrnaya T. V. , Parabin V. A. , Dyakov A. V.
Published: March 2015

The overview of current scientific literature on one of the key aspects of the development of the energy sector is presented, it is the increase of the efficiency of energy systems. The ability of cogeneration and trigeneration systems to increase energy efficiency of power stations, supermarkets, shopping centers, airports, etc. was demonstrated. In addition, it was shown that these systems have a high potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The examples of polygeneration systems and ways to optimize them by improving techno-economic parameters were also demonstrated.
2. A MORTE DE IVAN ILITCH: Para Além do Direito e da Justiça
Authors: FELDENS Guilherme De Oliveira
Published: March 2015

O presente artigo objetiva traçar um paralelo entre a obra A morte de Ivan Ilitch e o texto Força de lei: o Fundamento místico da autoridade de Jacques Derrida, visando, de forma crítica, analisar a ideia de justiça apresentada pelos autores.
6. A PESSOA HUMANA E O ESTADO DE EXCEÇAO: UMA LEITURA DE GIORGIO AGAMBEM
Authors: LUIZ Ramon Perez
Published: March 2015

A figura do Estado se apresenta de duas formas: o grande protetor da dignidade da pessoa, como seu ferrenho defensor ou, com o grande aniquilador e supressor de direitos, se tornando o mais perverso instrumento contra a pessoa. Nessa condição paradoxal que perpassa a potência do Estado é que se analisa a figura do estado de exceção como instrumento utilizado amplamente ao longo da história do Estado como meio “legítimo” de controle da vida humana. Para tanto, suscitamos em Giorgio Agamben e em seu Estado de Exceção e no seu Homo Sacer – O Poder soberano e a vida nua, conceitos e ideias que nos permitirão desenvolver com maior eloquência este estudo e apontarmos determinadas situações aonde se verifica que o Estado de Exceção é, e sempre foi, uma ameaça possível de vir a tona.
Herbivore population regulation and resource heterogeneity in a stochastic environment
Authors: Hempson G. P. , Illius A. W. , Hendricks H. H. , Bond W. J. , Vetter S.
Published: March 2015

Large‐mammal herbivore populations are subject to the interaction of internal density‐dependent processes and external environmental stochasticity. We disentangle these processes by linking consumer population dynamics, in a highly stochastic environment, to the availability of their key forage resource via effects on body condition and subsequent fecundity and mortality rates. Body condition and demographic rate data were obtained by monitoring 500 tagged female goats in the Richtersveld National Park, South Africa, over a three‐year period. Identifying the key resource and pathway to density dependence for a population allows environmental stochasticity to be partitioned into that which has strong feedbacks to population stability, and that which does not. Our data reveal a density‐dependent seasonal decline in goat body condition in response to concomitant density‐dependent depletion of the dry‐season forage resource. The loss in body condition reduced density‐dependent pregnancy rates, litter sizes, and pre‐weaning survival. Survival was lowest following the most severe dry season and for juveniles. Adult survival in the late‐dry season depended on body condition in the mid‐dry season. Population growth was determined by the length of the dry season and the population size in the previous year. The RNP goat population is thereby dynamically coupled primarily to its dry‐season forage resource. Extreme environmental variability thus does not decouple consumer resource dynamics, in contrast to the views of nonequilibrium protagonists.
Growth and ecophysiology of succulent seedlings under the protection of nurse plants in the Southern Chihuahuan Desert
Authors: Pérez-Sánchez Reyes M. , Flores Joel , Jurado Enrique , González-Salvatierra Claudia
Published: March 2015

In arid zones, light and water are two important factors that limit seedling development. The shade provided by nurse plants can reduce overheating, excessive transpiration, and photoinhibition in protégé seedlings. The difference that a nurse plant microenvironment may provide on the physiological performance of succulent desert seedlings could be tested by measuring plant growth and photosynthesis. Specifically, in this study we measured the variables related to chlorophyll fluorescence: Quantum yield of photosystem II photochemistry (ΦPSII) and electron transport rate (ETR), as well as relative growth rate (RGR) and its components (net assimilation rate, NAR, and leaf area rate, LAR), root to shoot (R/S) ratio, and relative water content (RWC) for seedlings transplanted under nurse plants and seedlings transplanted under direct sunlight. We tested whether ΦPSII, ETR, LAR, R/S ratio, and RWC, were lower, and RGR and NAR were higher for seedlings of seven succulent species common to the Southern Chihuahuan Desert (Agave lechuguilla, A. salmiana, Echinocactus platyacanthus, Ferocactus histrix, Myrtillocactus geometrizans, Stenocactus coptonogonus and Yucca filifera) grown under direct sunlight than for those grown under nurse Mesquite trees. Although species responded differently to treatments, in general we found that seedlings grown under nurse plants had higher ΦPSII and lower ETR than those grown under direct sunlight. RWC, R/S ratio, and RGR and its components varied in response to microenvironments for some species but not consistently. The ecophysiology variables tested here were more clearly affected by solar radiation than the morphology variables. These results are the first field study including the ecophysiological and morphological mechanisms of seedlings of succulent species under nurse plants.
Considering Whether Medicaid Is Worth the Cost: Revisiting the Oregon Health Study
Authors: Muennig Peter A. , Quan Ryan , Chiuzan Codruta , Glied Sherry
Published: March 2015

The Oregon Health Study was a groundbreaking experiment in which uninsured participants were randomized to either apply for Medicaid or stay with their current care.

The study showed that Medicaid produced numerous important socioeconomic and health benefits but had no statistically significant impact on hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, or diabetes. Medicaid opponents interpreted the findings to mean that Medicaid is not a worthwhile investment. Medicaid proponents viewed the experiment as statistically underpowered and, irrespective of the laboratory values, suggestive that Medicaid is a good investment.

We tested these competing claims and, using a sensitive joint test and statistical power analysis, confirmed that the Oregon Health Study did not improve laboratory values. However, we also found that Medicaid is a good value, with a cost of just $62 000 per quality-adjusted life-years gained.
The Impact of Reproductive Health Legislation on Family Planning Clinic Services in Texas
Authors: White Kari , Hopkins Kristine , Aiken Abigail R. A. , Stevenson Amanda , Hubert Celia , Grossman Daniel , Potter Joseph E.
Published: March 2015

We examined the impact of legislation in Texas that dramatically cut and restricted participation in the state’s family planning program in 2011 using surveys and interviews with leaders at organizations that received family planning funding.

Overall, 25% of family planning clinics in Texas closed. In 2011, 71% of organizations widely offered long-acting reversible contraception; in 2012–2013, only 46% did so. Organizations served 54% fewer clients than they had in the previous period. Specialized family planning providers, which were the targets of the legislation, experienced the largest reductions in services, but other agencies were also adversely affected.

The Texas experience provides valuable insight into the potential effects that legislation proposed in other states may have on low-income women’s access to family planning services.
Equilibrium or Nonequilibrium Models: A Critical Issue in Determination of Gas Diffusivity in Oil
Authors: Guindon Leah
Published: March 2015

The various effects of a diffusion process on estimation of a gas-diffusion coefficient were studied in the complete paper. Considering both classical and recently attempted boundary conditions, the effects of taking into account the nonequilibrium nature of a diffusion process on estimation of mass-transfer parameters using pressure-decay data of carbon dioxide (CO2), methanw(CHH), and nitrogen (N2) dissolution in Athabasca bitumen at two different temperatures were found to be negligible, considering the gas/oil-interface resistance on calculated values of diffusivities.
First Polymer Injection in Deep Offshore Field Angola: Recent Advances in the Dalia/Camelia Field Case
Authors: Morel Danielle C. , Vert Michel , Jouenne Stéphane , Gauchet Renaud , Bouger Yann
Published: March 2015

The polymer injection project on the Dalia field, one of the main fields of Block 17 in deep offshore Angola, is a world first in both surface and subsurface aspects. An in-depth integrated geosciences and architecture study culminated, in January 2009, in the start of polymer injection in one of the Dalia water-injection wells. The Dalia field is a high-permeability sandstone reservoir (> 1 D on average) and contains a medium-viscosity oil (1 to 11 cp under reservoir conditions).

The key challenges of the project were to start polymer injection

Very early in the field development (first oil was in December 2006)

With much wider well spacing than in any other project

Under high-salinity conditions (>25 g/L)

With the specific logistics of a remote deep offshore area

A phased approach has been retained in order to progressively derisk the project, starting from a single-well, short-duration injectivity test, followed by a full line injection in the three injectors of one of the reservoirs, and hopefully concluding with an injection extension.

A single-well, short-duration injectivity test was successfully implemented in the first quarter of 2009. The Phase 1 project started on 8 February 2010 in the Camelia reservoir. Viscosified water was injected into one of the four injection lines of the Dalia field (average BSW) of 20% on the associated producers at beginning of Phase 1 polymer injection]. By December 2011, more than 5 million bbl of cumulative of polymer solution has been injected in the Camelia reservoir.

The specificities of the Dalia field (large well spacing and low BSW at polymer-injection startup) mean a late response if the usual EOR monitoring techniques are applied. Various monitoring options were considered to verify the injected-polymer-solution properties in situ, and to accelerate the sanction for a full-field development. The studies concluded with a recommendation to drill a well to sample in situ the injected viscosified water. Location of the sampler well at a distance of 100 m from an injector, and the best timing to drill the well, were based on a 4D-seismic-data history match and waterflood-performance forecast.
Design and Implementation of Comprehensive Tank Overfill Protection Program
Authors: Erickson Michael E.
Published: March 2015

Protecting human health and protecting the environment are essential requirements in today's exploration and production (E&P), refining, and petroleum marketing workplaces (pipelines and terminal facilities). Preventing tank overfills at above-ground, atmospheric storage tanks is essential, for "overfills" and the attendant consequences (e.g., potential volitization and groundwater/soil contamination) pose significant risk to the safety of workers, surrounding communities, and the environment itself. Overfill incidents demonstrate the need, and urgency, for tank-overfill-protection (TOP) measures to be evaluated and, as determined, undertaken.

The design and implementation of a TOP program offers potential benefits for E&P in the environmental, human-health, community-welfare, and safety performance areas. E&P operations do not necessarily involve the numbers of atmospheric tanks that are involved in, say for example, midstream (pipeline) operations; nonetheless, safety and environmental contamination are issues of concern. There are common attributes of a comprehensive overfill protection that can be applied to E&P settings.

A TOP program for a large pipeline organization--consisting of more than 800 above-ground, atmospheric storage tanks (Class 1 through 3 liquids), at more than 90 facilities--was recently developed and implemented, and is currently undergoing its first year of compliance and assurance (C&A) evaluation. This program was comprehensive in nature, containing its own unique objectives and distinctives.

The comprehensive approach and method undertaken provided major benefits to the organization and successful and long-term implementation. Such benefits apply to large-scale programs and projects alike and include the following:

Defined management philosophy/vision

Organizational commitment

Strengthened accountability

Identification of systemic gaps

Consistency in policies, standards, and operations

Long-term C&A

The results yield enhanced operations, risk reduction, and improved safety, all of which were evidenced in the TOP program.

There are two aspects to an overfill-protection program. The first is the "programmatic" aspect, which addresses the various program features [i.e., policy development, standards and procedures, roles and responsibilities, program management (PM) functions] and various content features of the overfill policy to be implemented. The second aspect deals specifically with overfill equipment, to include equipment identification and related engineering, procurement, and construction (installation) activities, as well as any necessary electrical and instrumentation upgrades at a facility. The programmatic aspect, in a proactive and preventive sense, is deemed the most protective regarding tank-overfill events.

This paper addresses a "conceptual model" for an overfill-protection program, based on this recent industry example. Key portions of the programmatic and overfill-equipment aspects will be addressed.
Twelve Steps to Engineering Safe Onshore Oil and Gas Facilities
Authors: Johnstone James , Curfew James
Published: March 2015

Late in the evening of a wintery night, a worker is hurrying to respond to an alarm that has gone off. Suddenly, the unexpected happens. The worker is severely injured. The ensuing investigation finds that the incident could have been prevented if the equipment had been engineered properly.

How many times have you heard of incidents that have severely injured a person and you thought, "That incident could have been prevented if only the equipment had been engineered properly?" One of the first lines of defense in preventing incidents is to "engineer out the hazards." However, equipment is often installed without taking into consideration how it can be engineered properly to minimize or eliminate operating risks.

The safety of an onshore facility is a function of how safely the facility is designed. People are hurt and sometimes killed when explosions, fires, and toxic-gas releases occur at oil- and gas-producing facilities that were designed without regard to measures that could have prevented such incidents. The safety of people and equipment needs to be considered and included along every step in the engineering of oil and gas facilities. Properly designed oil and gas facilities can eliminate injuries and deaths.

Many wellsites, tank batteries, and production facilities are at risk because of design or installation errors. These errors may have occurred when the facility was built or occurred over time because the facility had been continually "added on to" through the years. Lack of proper engineering design can lead to equipment failure, lost production, human injury, or harm to the environment.

This paper reviews the key areas for facility designers and engineers to include when designing facilities to ensure safe facilities. Use and incorporation of all safety engineering principles outlined in this paper should enable facility engineers and designers to build safe facilities that reduce the risk of major incidents.
Prediction and Experimental Measurements of Water-in-Oil Emulsion Viscosities During Alkaline/Surfactant Injections
Authors: Kalra Amrit , Venkatraman Ashwin , Raney Kirk H. , Dindoruk Birol
Published: March 2015

Oil production is generally a complicated multiphase flow inside pipelines, with possible water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions present with other usual phases such as free water and free oil. The W/O emulsions formed can present significant hurdles in production facilities for pumping fluids and during pipeline transport. It is well known that high shear rates provided by pumps, chokes, or valves result in stable emulsion behavior for a field in primary production. Several field tests are under way to test the potential of surfactant flooding as a tertiary-recovery mechanism. The effect of addition of surfactants on the emulsion rheology of production fluids, as in alkaline/surfactant/polymer (ASP) flooding, is not very well understood. This understanding of W/O-emulsion rheology in ASP-injection oil recovery is essential for design of pumps and pipelines as well as for handling flow-assurance issues.

In this paper, we report results from experiments as well as modeling of W/O-emulsion rheology that can form during ASP injections. We focus here only on the alkaline/surfactant (AS) part of these injections in order to clearly understand the impact of surfactants, removing the uncertainities that come with large rheology changes with polymer addition. The effect of surfactants on the rheology of W/O emulsions was studied by making two different types of emulsions: (1) native-brine W/O emulsions without surfactants to provide a baseline and (2) brine W/O emulsions with surfactants used in ASP injections. This way, the impact of ASP injections on emulsion rheology can easily be quantified. A new correlation is developed, based on in-house historical experimental data, to describe rheology of emulsions without surfactants. This correlation should assist in managing the uncertainties that come from extrapolating emulsion rheology measured in the laboratory to actual field conditions. Further, to understand the effect of ASP injections, new experimental measurements were made by adding surfactants to brine solutions. The addition of surfactants resulted in different rheology as compared with emulsions formed by brine solutions. These differences have been attributed to the W/O interfacial tension (IFT), and IFT was added to modify the original correlation. To our knowledge, this is the first study that explicitly relates emulsion rheology with IFT.
Case Study--Calcium-Carbonate-Scale Inhibitor Performance Degradation Because of H2S-Scavenger Injection in Semoga Field
Authors: Sumestry Meiliza , Tedjawidjaja Hendy
Published: March 2015

Semoga field is an oil field in the Rimau block, which is located in South Sumatra, Indonesia. There is also a nearby oil field, Kaji field, in this block. These fields experienced reservoir souring and suffered a history of calcium-carbonate (CaCO3) -scale cases before a proper scale-inhibition program was implemented. At the end of January 2011, there was a separation-system problem at free water knock-out (FWKO) #2 Semoga Station. FWKO outlet lines were dismantled for inspection purposes, and it was found that the oil-outlet line at the downstream of the level control valve (LCV) was clogged by deposits, leaving an inner diameter (ID) of only 0.5 in.

X-ray defraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses confirm that the deposit is CaCO3 scale, even though routine scale-coupon monitoring shows very low scale growth. There is a hydrogen sulfide (H2S) scavenger Brand X injection at the downstream of the LCV on the FWKO #2, with a concentration of 11,050 ppm. The scale-inhibitor dosage in the water line on Semoga Station was only 9-10 ppm. Laboratory simulation shows that H2S scavenger Brand X injection reduced the scale-inhibition percentage from 97.2 to 35.3%, with 9 ppm of scale inhibitor. Meanwhile, no deposits were found in the oil-outlet line at the downstream of the LCV at Kaji Station, which has the same H2S scavenger-injection point and dosage. The scale-inhibitor dosage in the water line at Kaji Station was 17.5-22 ppm. Laboratory simulation shows that 20 ppm of scale inhibitor resulted in a scaleinhibition percentage of 58%. Laboratory analysis shows that the scale-inhibition percentage increases linearly as the scale inhibitor increases under H2S scavenger Brand X influence.

However, another laboratory test conducted using H2S scavenger Brand Y shows that the scale-inhibition percentage will decrease with the increase of scale inhibitor concentration, until it reaches the lowest value before increasing again with the increase of scale inhibitor concentration. Thus, the scale-inhibitor performance under H2S scavenger Brand Y influence behaves parabolically.

It is concluded that H2S-scavenger injection increases system pH, resulting in the increase of scaling tendency. However, adding scale-inhibitor concentration is not always the answer to overcoming scale growth resulting from this effect. It is important to understand scale-inhibitor performance behavior on certain H2S scavenger brands before taking preventive measures. Scale-inhibitor performance might have a linear correlation between increasing concentration and scale-inhibition percentage, as shown by the behavior with H2S scavenger Brand X, but it might also have a parabolic correlation, as shown by the behavior with H2S scavenger Brand Y or even other correlation types.
Design of Gelled Fluid for Debris Removal in Subsea Pipeline
Authors: Misra Chaitali , Danait Achala , Salgaonkar Lalit
Published: March 2015

Transportation of hydrocarbon through a pipeline may be hindered as a result of deposition of debris. The presence of debris within the pipeline leads to reduction in the effective flow area, thus reducing the efficiency of the transportation system. Some of the factors leading to formation of the debris are changes in temperature and/or pressure of the transported fluid and chemical reactions, which occur therein.

Pipeline-maintenance pigging is performed routinely to extend the operational life of pipelines. Recently, a combination of mechanical and chemical remedial measures has shown beneficial results in pipeline cleaning. Mechanical-brush pigs loosen the debris adhering to the walls, while chemical techniques, such as the use of gelled fluids, enhance the carrying capacity and help to transport the loosened debris out of the pipeline.

This paper presents the results of tests conducted to design a fast-breaking gelled fluid for a debris-removal operation in a long, large-diameter subsea pipeline in the Asia Pacific region. In addition to exhibiting good stability and debris-carrying capacity under the laboratory test and field conditions, the gel had to be compatible and demonstrate stability when mixed with other additives in the transported hydrocarbon. A highly viscous, aqueous-based linear polysaccharide gel was designed to satisfy these requirements. A key environmental and operational consideration was the easy and fast disposal of the gel after completion of the cleaning operation. With oxidizing breaker, gels prepared in potable water resulted in viscosity of < 10 cp within 2 days, which was significantly shorter than when seawater-based gels were treated similarly. Preliminary field results indicate that the combined mechanical and gel system removed a significant amount of debris. Data from future trials will help evaluate the feasibility of such a technique for effective cleaning of the pipeline.