42 research outputs found
World cities and peripheral development: The interplay of gateways and subordinate places in Argentina and Ghana’s upstream oil and gas sector
Serving as “gateways”, some world cities tie their wider hinterlands to global networks. The article revisits gateway–hinterland relations against the backdrop of assessments that lead to opposed conclusions on the benefits and shortcomings of integration into the world economy. Referring to the oil and gas sector in Argentina and Ghana, it answers the question of how gateways interact with subordinate places and also uncovers obstacles to peripheral development. The author finds that Accra and Buenos Aires concentrate corporate control. Argentina's capital serves as a gateway for knowledge generation and logistics too. Opportunities for peripheral development in both countries are considerable, albeit largely limited to generic services. Besides a certain concentration of business activities in the gateway cities, more important challenges to peripheral development are typical for small and medium enterprises (insufficient finance and management capabilities, unawareness of business opportunities, and the like). They include rent seeking and subcontracting. The latter leaves local companies in a particularly weak position vis‐à‐vis lead firms. The author argues that while integration into the world economy allows for peripheral development, the corresponding outcomes may not meet everyone's expectations. Related expectations must, therefore, be more down‐to‐earth than overly optimistic statements frequently made by politicians
The First Flight of the Marshall Grazing Incidence X-ray Spectrometer (MaGIXS)
The Marshall Grazing Incidence X-ray Spectrometer (MaGIXS) sounding rocket
experiment launched on July 30, 2021 from the White Sands Missile Range in New
Mexico. MaGIXS is a unique solar observing telescope developed to capture X-ray
spectral images, in the 6 - 24 Angstrom wavelength range, of coronal active
regions. Its novel design takes advantage of recent technological advances
related to fabricating and optimizing X-ray optical systems as well as
breakthroughs in inversion methodologies necessary to create spectrally pure
maps from overlapping spectral images. MaGIXS is the first instrument of its
kind to provide spatially resolved soft X-ray spectra across a wide field of
view. The plasma diagnostics available in this spectral regime make this
instrument a powerful tool for probing solar coronal heating. This paper
presents details from the first MaGIXS flight, the captured observations, the
data processing and inversion techniques, and the first science results.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figure
The Resource Curse and Rentier States in the Caspian Region : A Need for Context Analysis
Although much attention is paid to the Caspian region with regard to energy issues, the domestic
consequences of the region’s resource production have so far constituted a neglected field of research.
A systematic survey of the latest research trends in the economic and political causalities of
the resource curse and of rentier states reveals that there is a need for context analysis. In reference
to this, the paper traces any shortcomings and promising approaches in the existent body of literature
on the Caspian region. Following on from this, the paper then proposes a new approach; specifically,
one in which any differences and similarities in the context conditions are captured. This
enables a more precise exploration of the exact ways in which they form contemporary post-Soviet
Caspian rentier states.Obwohl der Region am Kaspischen Meer im Zuge von Energiediskursen große Aufmerksamkeit zuteil
wird, stellen die innerstaatlichen Folgen der Ressourcenproduktion in der Region ein bislang
vernachlässigtes Forschungsfeld dar. Ein systematischer Überblick über die jüngsten Forschungstrends
zu wirtschaftlichen und politischen Kausalzusammenhängen des Ressourcenfluchs und zu
Rentierstaaten offenbart die Notwendigkeit von Kontextanalysen. Hierauf Bezug nehmend, analysiert
der Aufsatz sowohl die Mängel als auch viel versprechende Ansätze in der betreffenden Literatur
zur Region am Kaspischen Meer. Der Aufsatz stellt letztendlich einen neuen Ansatz vor, der
Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten in den Kontextbedingungen erfasst, um zu erforschen, wie diese
die gegenwärtigen post-sowjetischen Rentierstaaten in der Region am Kaspischen Meer tatsächlich
prägen
The Formation of Preferences in Two‐Level Games: An Analysis of India’s Domestic and Foreign Energy Policy
The First Flight of the Marshall Grazing Incidence X-Ray Spectrometer (MaGIXS)
The Marshall Grazing Incidence X-ray Spectrometer (MaGIXS) sounding rocket experiment launched on 2021 July 30 from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. MaGIXS is a unique solar observing telescope developed to capture X-ray spectral images of coronal active regions in the 6–24 Å wavelength range. Its novel design takes advantage of recent technological advances related to fabricating and optimizing X-ray optical systems, as well as breakthroughs in inversion methodologies necessary to create spectrally pure maps from overlapping spectral images. MaGIXS is the first instrument of its kind to provide spatially resolved soft X-ray spectra across a wide field of view. The plasma diagnostics available in this spectral regime make this instrument a powerful tool for probing solar coronal heating. This paper presents details from the first MaGIXS flight, the captured observations, the data processing and inversion techniques, and the first science results