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Managing Your Outsourced IT Services Providerteaches executives and managers of organizations how to unleash the full potential of their outsourced IT services workforce and IT-enabled business processes safely and profitably. Drawing on two decades of experience managing client relationships for global IT services companies, Venkatesh Upadrista guides outsourcing organizations around the hazards of geographic distance, linguistic miscommunication, organizational mismatch, and functional disparity between receiver requirements and provider capabilities.The first half of the book describes what an outsourcing organization needs to know about the IT services providers industry in general to deal intelligently with specific providers: namely, the industry's organizational types, strategic drivers, competitive labor market constraints, and tactics for hitting PL targets. The second half of the book teaches outsourcers how to evaluate prospective providers, craft service level agreements, formalize best practices, and manage the full gamut of receiver?provider relationships to optimize outcome in terms of cost, timeliness, and quality of services received.The descriptions and prescriptions in Managing Your Outsourced IT Services Providerapply equally to onshore and offshore outsourcing, but examples and case studies focus on offshoring. In addition, Upadrista analyzes the advantages, disadvantages, and special considerations and caveats of single provider outsourcing and captive centers. Venkatesh Upadristais a global client executive at CapgeminiFinancial Services in Amsterdam. He was formerly a global solutions manager atTata Consultancy Services, a client partner at Wipro Services, a CIO partner atMcKinsey Co., and a manager at Cognizant Technology Solutions. He is theauthor of Managing Offshore DevelopmentProjectsand Distributed Agile: TheProven Agile Software Development Approach and Toolkit for GeographicallyDispersed Teams. Upadrista took his degree in mathematics and computerscience from Andhra University.

Offshore interactions of inter-nesting flatback turtles Natator depressus with resource industry activities are potentially frequent, yet the associated impact is largely unquantified. Consequently, there is a need to understand the degree of interaction and to provide data that can assist with effective conservation and management. We used satellite tracking to highlight the potential interaction of inter-nesting flatback turtles (n = 56) from 4 rookeries in Western Australia with regional resource industry activities. Flatback turtles demonstrated varying inter-nesting movements, with displacement distances ranging from 3.4 to 62.1 km. Some turtles at all 4 rookeries remained <10 km from the nesting beach. Core home range areas for inter-nesting flatback turtles ranged from 1.4 to 601.1 km2. The proportion of core home range areas for Thevenard and Barrow Island turtles that overlapped offshore petroleum title areas was 85.7 and 88.6%, respectively. The proportion of median daily positions that overlapped petroleum title areas was also high, 80.8% (Thevenard) and 87.3% (Barrow). There was no overlap of home range areas and median daily positions with petroleum title areas for Mundabullangana and Port Hedland turtles, although some inter-nesting movements of Port Hedland turtles were in close proximity to a proposed port expansion. The wide-ranging inter-nesting movement patterns highlight a need for the Australian Government and industry to expand the scope of Environmental Impact Assessments, ensuring adequate protection is provided to inter-nesting flatback turtles. The similar nearshore inter-nesting movement pattern recorded by some flatback turtles at each rookery provides an opportunity to establish boundaries for small-scale spatial and temporal protection measures.

Marine bacterioplankton in the coastal region off Aveiro (NW Portugal) develop under the influence of the plume of a mesotrophic estuarine system (Ria de Aveiro) and, more recently, under the influence of the discharges of a marine sewage outfall (S. Jacinto). In an attempt to compare the degree of disturbance introduced by these 2 features to the abundance of sewage bacteria and heterotrophic activity of natural bacterioplankton, water samples were collected at 10 offshore and nearshore locations. Rates of ectoenzymatic activity and monomer incorporation were determined as proxies for potential heterotrophic activity of natural bacterial communities. ATP and chl a concentrations were used as estimates of the total abundance of phytoplankton. Faecal coliforms and total colony counts were used as indicators of sewage bacteria contamination. However, ATP, chl a, faecal coliforms, total colony counts, aminopeptidase activity and the maximum rate of leucine incorporation (leucine Vm) correlated negatively with linear distance to the mouth of the estuary, establishing the estuarine plume as an importance source of disturbance. Chl a, aminopeptidase activity and total colony counts also correlated negatively with linear distance to the sewage outfall, but no significant impact on the concentration of faecal bacteria could be detected. Compliance with the European Union Bathing Water Directive 76/160/EEC was achieved in 97% of samples. The ratio between β-glucosidase activity (polymer degradation) and glucose incorporation (monomer uptake) increased as the distance from the mouth of the estuary and from the sewage outfall increased. This indicates that, in addition to inputs of bacteria and nutrients, changes in the quality of the available organic substrates and/or sewage-related toxic effects may impose a shift in the functioning of heterotrophic bacterioplankton communities in this costal area.

Abstract. This paper presents an analysis of the distributions of nonlinear crests, troughs and heights of deep water waves from mixed following sea states generated mechanically in an offshore basin and compares with previous results for mixed crossing seas from the same experiment. The random signals at the wavemaker in both types of mixed seas are characterized by bimodal spectra following the model of Guedes Soares (1984). In agreement with the Benjamin–Feir mechanism, the high-frequency spectrum shows a decrease in the peak magnitude and downshift of the peak with the distance, as well as reduction of the tail. The observed statistics and probabilistic distributions exhibit, in general, increasing effects of third-order nonlinearity with the distance from the wavemaker. However, this effect is less pronounced in the wave systems with two following wave trains than in the crossing seas, given that they have identical initial characteristics of the bimodal spectra. The relevance of third-order effects due to free modes only is demonstrated and assessed by excluding the vertically asymmetric distortions induced by bound wave effects of second and third order. The fact that for records characterized by relatively large coefficient of kurtosis, the empirical distributions for the non-skewed profiles continue deviating from the linear predictions, corroborate the relevance of free wave interactions and thus the need of using higher-order models for the description of wave data.

Impacts of man-made acoustic noise on the marine environment are associated to the frequency and timing of any activity as well as the distribution and abundance of marine life. Offshore commercial operations, shipping activities, energy exploration and pile driving add noise to the already established ambient noise levels. Attention has been raised by the years to the topic of underwater noise and its effects on marine life, but the effects of underwater noise are not yet fully understood. As the adoption of the European Marine Directive (MSFD 2008/56/EC - Descriptor 11) has given great impulse to the research in this field, governments, companies and institutes are working to specify the background ambient noise levels. Those studies have formed the guidelines and have set the protocols for performing safer offshore operations, which are adopted by the major energy companies. Hellenic Petroleum S.A. has undertaken a Marine Seismic Survey in West Patraikos Gulf waters in Greece between January and February 2016, which was coupled with an intensive sound noise monitoring program. Acoustic data were collected around Marine Protected Areas of the Inner Ionian Archipelago during three monitoring phases: 1) the pre-start, 2) the concurrent and 3) the post-completion ones. Sound pressure levels (SPLs) were collected using drifting hydrophones deployed on a frequent schedule, spanning 1.5 months, collecting more than 130 hours of data. The ambient noise data gave insight into the footprints of the anthropogenic and biogenic factors on the soundscape of the Inner Ionian Archipelago. Most importantly, the recorded SPLs of the impulsive seismic and the continuous shipping noises were studied against the bearing and distance to the corresponding sound sources.

With the Norwegian government moving the ice edge farther north than ever before, opening for new areas for petroleum exploration, it will need research on how these areas can affect oil and gas operations. A sensitive environment along with the harsh Arctic climate and remote distances means that severe accidents, like blowouts, will have serious impacts and make cleanup and rescue actions to challenging operations. Additionally, humans working under these conditions are prone to be affected with regards to their reliability, which means that human errors are more likely to occur. The use of dynamic positioning systems as position-keeping solutions on mobile offshore drilling units is becoming increasingly popular as it is quick and easy to change position, independent on seabed conditions and does not need handling of anchors. The dynamic positioning operation is managed by an operator who is responsible for keeping the vessel in position, in addition to being a barrier for safely shutting in the well and disconnecting the riser configuration from the BOP when position-keeping is not possible. Quantitative risk assessment techniques have been used in the offshore industry for decades. They are usually applied to operations and systems, but are also possible to utilize for analyzing humans and their contribution in a risk picture. Based on a set of precautions, a model for analyzing dynamic positioning systems during loss-of-position events in the Arctic, with the focus particularly on the dynamic positioning operator, is in this thesis developed. A fictional comparison between a dynamic positioning drilling operation influenced by Arctic conditions and a similar operation in an area not exposed to such conditions is also provided. The comparison will indicate to which extent the reliability of the dynamic positioning operator is decreased by influence of Arctic conditions, and the role this plays in the recovery phase of loss of position events. Hopefully the findings in this thesis can contribute to safer oil and gas operations in the Arctic.

The volume goes back to an international lecture series at Trier University in summer 2016 and contains a foreword and eight papers. They deal with types of sails (e.g. square rig, artemon, sprit-sail), sailing, and seamanship in the ancient Mediterranean (Whitewright), climatic influences on riverine transport on the Roman Rhine (Franconi), Roman trade routes in the Mediterranean Sea and modelling of routes and duration of ancient travel with modern offshore regatta software (Warnking), an archaeological addendum to the Res Gestae regarding Augustus? contribution to the unification of the maritime world of Imperial Rome by means of extensive building measures of maritime infrastructure in an opus caementitium technique (Hohlfelder), trade and the integration and cultural homogenisation of the Roman Empire (Morley), cities as institutions, markets, and urban centres of consumption and their significance for maritime trade under the Roman Empire (Arnaud), a profit & loss-based business model for Roman maritime grain trade (Warnking), and with olive oil for Roman Germany and some thoughts on Roman long-distance trade, esp. via the Atlantic Ocean and the River Rhine (Schäfer)

This paper surveys the process of discursive contestation by intellectual agents in Hong Kong that fostered a counter-public sphere in China's offshore. In the post-war era, Chinese exiled intellectuals leveraged the colony's geopolitical ambiguity and created a displaced community of loyalists/dissenters that supported independent publishing venues and engaged in the cultural front. By the 1970s, homegrown and left-wing intellectuals had constructed a hybrid identity to articulate their physical proximity to, yet social distance from, the Chinese nation-state, as well as to appropriate their sense of belonging to the city-state, through confronting social injustice. In examining periodicals and interviewing public intellectuals, I propose that this counter-public sphere was defined first by its alternative voice, which contested various official discourses, second by its multifaceted inclusiveness, which accommodated diverse worldviews and subjectivities, and third by its critical platform, which nurtured social activism in undemocratic Chinese societies. I differentiate the permissive conditions that loosened constraints on intellectual agencies from the productive conditions that account for their penetration and diffusion. Habermas's idealized public sphere framework is revisited by bringing in ideational contestation, social configuration and cultural identity. (China Q/GIGA)

Underpinning the role of law in disaster resilience. An introduction / Alexia Herwig and Marta Simoncini -- Multi-risk analysis : a new paradigm for territorial resilience / Sara Bouchon and Carmelo Dimauro -- Resilience in retrospect : interpreting Fukushima's disappearing consequences / John Downer -- Resilience and international (quasi-)judicial bodies in water cases : an uneasy relationship? / Mønika Ambrus -- Disaster risk regulation in the European Union : the path to resilience / Marta Simoncini -- Risk regulation and resilience in offshore oil and gas operation / Preben J Lindøe -- Smart cities and the challenge of resilience / Carmelo Dimauro -- Resilience and responsibility in international law : the achievements of the Sendai framework throught the example of climate change / Alexia Herwig -- Governing from a distance : European Union foreign policy and resilience building / Jonathan Joseph -- Resilience strategy in the United States : incentivising resilient practices and behaviour / David A Trissell -- The resilient constitution : lessons from the financial crisis / Xenopho Contiades and Alkmene Fotiadou -- Tort law as an instrument for the prevention and remediation of catastrophic harm / Monika Hinteregger -- Resilient compensation mechanisms : the role of government intervention in the insurance of catastrophic risks / Michae G Faure and Tobias Heldt -- Conclusions : one law to bind them all : International law and disaster resilience / Emanuele Sommario

Rising anthropogenic CO 2 emissions and global temperatures are a technological, social, and political challenge. These necessitate deep decarbonization through carbon management strategies for sustained climate action. Cost-effective transportation of CO 2 from point sources to utilization and storage sites is a significant bottleneck for at-scale carbon management. A new mechanism to achieve international cooperation on carbon management through effective CO 2 -source and CO 2 -use or sequestration matching is addressed in this paper. The mechanism is founded on utilizing the growth of global LNG trade to transport CO 2 over long distances via dual-use vessels that carry CO 2 on their return journey following LNG delivery. A foundational carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS)-based economic model for the utilization of CO 2 originating in South Korea and Japan via enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in the offshore U.S. is explored. The model sets forth the objectives, scale, costs, and implications for the international trade and commoditization of CO 2 , as against its current status of a waste product. Further, policy frameworks that can accelerate the international trade of CO 2 via this dual-use shipping model are discussed.

Advances in technology and engineering, along with European Union renewable energy targets, have stimulated a rapid growth of the wind power sector. Wind farms contribute to carbon emission reductions, but there is a need to ensure that these structures do not adversely impact the populations that interact with them, particularly birds. We developed movement models based on observed avoidance responses of common eider Somateria mollissima to wind farms to predict, and identify potential measures to reduce, impacts. Flight trajectory data that were collected post-construction of the Danish Nysted offshore wind farm were used to parameterize competing models of bird movements around turbines. The model most closely fitting the observed data incorporated individual variation in the minimum distance at which birds responded to the turbines. We show how such models can contribute to the spatial planning of wind farms by assessing their extent, turbine spacing and configurations on the probability of birds passing between the turbines. Avian movement models can make new contributions to environmental assessments of wind farm developments, and provide insights into how to reduce impacts that can be identified at the planning stage.

This paper presents the technical and economic feasibility analysis of the subsea shuttle tanker (SST). The SST is proposed as an alternative to subsea pipelines and surface tankers with the primary purpose of transporting CO2 autonomously underwater from onshore facilities to subsea wells for direct injection at marginal subsea fields. In contrast to highly weather-dependent surface tanker operations, the SST can operate in any condition underwater. The technical–economic analysis is performed in two steps. First, the SST's technical feasibility is evaluated by investigating designs with lower and higher capacities. The purpose is to observe the appearance of technical limits (if present) when the SST is scaled down or up in size. Second, an economic analysis is performed using the well-reviewed cost models from the publicly available Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP) and Maritime Un-manned Navigation through Intelligence in Networks (MUNIN) D9.3 reports. The scenarios considered are CO2 transport volumes of 1 to 20 million tons per annum (mtpa) with transport distances of 180 km to 1500 km in which the cost per ton of CO2 is compared between offshore pipelines, crewed/autonomous tanker ships, and SST. The results show that SSTs with cargo capacities 10,569 m3, 23,239 m3, and 40,730 m3 are technically feasible. Furthermore, the SSTs are competitive for short and intermediate distances of 180–750 km and smaller CO2 volumes of 1–2.5 mtpa. Lastly, it is mentioned that the SST design used the DNVGL Rules for Classification for Naval Vessels, Part 4 Sub-surface ships, Chapter 1 Submarine, DNVGL-RU-NAVAL-Pt4Ch1, which is primarily catered towards military submarine design. It is expected that a dedicated structural design code that is optimized for the SST would reduce the structural weight and corresponding capital expenditure (CAPEX).

238Sea — Maritime boundaries — Delimitation — Continental shelf — Customary international law principles regarding delimitation — Use of equitable principles in order to achieve an equitable solution — Opposite States — Relevant equitable considerations — Importance of natural prolongation — Relevance of rift zone between States — Proportionality between length of coastline and share of continental shelf — Islands — Island State with restricted coastline — Economic circumstances of States — Equidistance methods of delimitation — Whether relevant in contemporary law — Overlap between claims advanced by Parties and claims of third party StateSea — Continental shelf — Juridical nature of continental shelf — Whether rights of State to continental shelf dependent upon considerations of natural prolongation — Distance principle — Whether State entitled to continental shelf extending to distance of 200 miles from baselines irrespective of natural prolongation — Effects on delimitation — Relationship between continental shelf and exclusive economic zoneSea — Islands — Island State — Continental shelf — Whether island State to be treated differently from other States in respect of entitlement to continental shelf — Island State with small coastline — Offshore islands — Uninhabited islet — Whether to be taken into account in delimitation of continental shelf boundaryInternational Court of Justice — Jurisdiction — Special agreement — Continental shelf boundary dispute between two States referred to Court by special agreement — Claims advanced by Parties overlapping with claims made by third State — Whether Court possessing jurisdiction to determine principles or rules governing rights of third State — Whether Court required to confine itself to the delimitation of the continental shelf between the Parties in area where no third party claimsSources of international law — Customary international law — Relationship between customary international law and treaty — Convention adopted by large majority of States but not yet in force — Effect upon customary international law — Law of the Sea Convention, 1982 — Provisions regarding continental shelf delimitation — Concept of the exclusive economic zone

Vietnamese 'blue boats' - small wooden-hulled fishing boats - are now entering the territorial waters of Pacific Island countries and illegally catching high-value species found on remote coastal reefs. Crossing several international boundaries and traversing a distance of over 5000 km, these intrusions have alarmed Oceanic countries, including Australia. Lacking administrative capacity as well as jurisdictional authority to effectively control the vast stretches of island coastlines individually, governments and intergovernmental bodies in the region have called for strengthened coordination of surveillance efforts while also pressuring Vietnam diplomatically. This paper reviews these latest developments and is the first to provide a focused assessment of the issue. Through the lens of Copenhagen School of securitisation theory, we analyse responses of national and regional actors and their portrayal in online media to understand how blue boats are constructed as a security threat within a narrative of maritime, food and human security. Arguably, Australia together with the Forum Fisheries Agency, who advise on the governance of offshore tuna resources, have so far acted most decisively - in a way that might see them extend their strategic role in the region. We propose a comprehensive empirical research agenda to better understand and manage this nascent, flammable and largely unpredictable inter-regional phenomenon.

This book collects and reports on the results of a study conducted on the Chinese Software and Services Outsourcing (SSO) industry, focusing on one of its main players as a key case study. Two sets of research findings are presented: first, the knowledge management and communication processes inherent within a highly collaborative software development project between the case study company and one of its long-term UK clients are explored and distilled into specific practices; second, at the organizational level, the strategies used by the company to build and exploit capabilities and to dynamically configure resources to promote specific value positions along its outsourced services value networks are identified and discussed. The significance of these findings for similar China-based global high-tech firms and the value of this organizational form in moving closer to the goals of the 2020 enterprise vision are both discussed, along with the implications of the findings for EU/UK businesses operating in similar digital domains. Pamela Abbott is a lecturer in Information Systems at Brunel University, London. She obtained her PhD at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK, in research done on nearshore models of offshore software outsourcing. Her research interests include the suitability of locations for software and services outsourcing, strategies for software and services export in developing countries, the role that distance plays in managing offshore working arrangements and the relationship between context and the development of client-supplier relationships.Yingqin Zheng is a Lecturer at the School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London. She obtained a PhD in Management Studies from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Scholar. Her research interests lie with the implications of information technologies in organizational and social transformation. Her recent research investigates distributed collaboration, organizational learning, social innovation, collective action, and social inclusion.Dr Rong Du is a professor at the School of Economics and Management, Xidian University, China. In the past, she has worked as a visiting professor in the Department of Computer Information Systems, Georgia State University, US, the Department of Information Systems and Computing, Brunel University, UK, and the Quinn School of Business, University College Dublin, Ireland. Her research interests include knowledge management and cross-cultural management.