Djibouti: changing influence in the Horn's strategic hub

Change in Djibouti’s economic and strategic options has been driven by four factors: the Ethiopian–Eritrean war of 1998–2000, the impact of Ethiopia's economic transformation and growth upon trade; shifts in US strategy since 9/11, and the upsurge in piracy along the Gulf of Aden and Somali coasts. With the expansion of the US AFRICOM base, the reconfiguration of France's military presence and the establishment of Japanese and other military facilities, Djibouti has become an international maritime and military laboratory where new forms of cooperation are being developed. Djibouti has accelerated plans for regional economic integration. Building on close ties with Ethiopia, existing port upgrades and electricity grid integration will be enhanced by the development of the northern port of Tadjourah. These strategic and economic shifts have yet to be matched by internal political reforms, and growth needs to be linked to strategies for job creation and a renewal of domestic political legitimacy

The use of simulated whole effluents in toxicity assessments: A review of case studies from reverse osmosis desalination plants

Seawater desalination is an increasingly common means to meet the demand for freshwater. Resulting wastewater discharges can, however, impact biota of the surrounding environment. Concern exists that interactive effects specific to the outputs of each desalination plant may result in unique impacts difficult to predict by studying existing plants or assessing the effects of individual chemicals found in waste streams. Given this, we highlight an alternative approach to assess potential toxicity of desalination outfalls. Specifically, we review three recent case studies from Australia in which simulated whole effluents were used in toxicity assessments before desalination plants were constructed. This approach enabled potential toxic effects of wastewater to be considered before the plants became operational and, in one case, even facilitated consideration of potential effects of different treatment processes and suppliers. As in many whole effluent toxicity assessments, the time required for testing and restricted range of species considered were limitations. Given the benefits of this method, however, the use of simulated whole effluents is a development that could facilitate an improved capacity to forecast impacts of proposed desalination plants

Foreword

N/

Increased Usage Of Cash Rent: Factors Influencing Illinois Farmland Leases Over The Past Two Decades

In recent years, cash rent leases have become increasingly popular amongst farm landowners in Illinois. Since 1995, Illinois has seen a 44% rise in cash rent lease usage in Northern Illinois, a 105% increase in Southern Illinois, and a 117% increase in Central Illinois for acres enrolled in the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management Association, which helps operators make farm management decisions. The rise in cash rent lease usage has been attributed to many factors such as crop yields, commodity prices, crop revenue, commodity payments, and crop insurance. This study aims to determine which factors are the most pivotal in driving the shift toward the use of cash rent leases in Illinois. Using data from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS), the Environmental Working Group (EWG), and University of Illinois farmdoc, the determinants mentioned above were examined to explore the effects they have on the increasing use of cash rent leases. Data from each variable was collected from all 102 counties in Illinois over a 21-year period and then moved into the correct region. Comparisons were made across the three regions in Illinois (Northern, Central, and Southern) from 1995-2015 using four different fixed effects regression models. Results indicate that crop insurance payments (p \u3c .001), corn price (p \u3c .05 ), soybean price (p \u3c .05 ), corn revenue (p \u3c .05 ), soybean revenue (p \u3c .05 ), and commodity payments (p \u3c .05 ) have all influenced the increasing use of cash rent leases in Illinois. However, corn and soybean yield did not influence increasing cash rent usage in Illinois. Although there were only 5,500 Illinois farms examined in this study, the findings can be viewed as a starting point for why the usage of cash rent leases are increasing in Illinois. With agriculture consistently changing, any variations that occur to the variables examined in this study could potentially have major ramifications on the leasing market in the years to come

Social Media Use in the Australian Energy and Resources Sectors

Social media is becoming ubiquitous, but may not always be an effective way for companies to interact with their stakeholders. This paper reports the results of ongoing assessments of social media use in the Australian energy and resource sectors, starting from 2013. Nearly all energy and mining companies had publicly accessible websites but, while increasing, social media use is (still) relatively limited compared to other industries. LinkedIn (with a recruitment focus) was the social media channel most commonly adopted across the extractive sectors although Twitter and YouTube increasingly are being adopted. Larger companies use more channels, post more and have more followers. In contrast, even small environmental and community groups frequently used a range of social media. While this might suggest social media should be a place to engage such groups in dialog, other recent studies suggest that in practice social media platforms are often difficult venues to do this. Not least, this is because companies cannot control the directions of conversations. For example, customers of utility companies frequently use Social Media to bypass official grievance mechanisms, which over time has apparently led to demand driven increases in resourcing needed to deal with this. In addition to providing an industry-wide benchmark of social media use, these surveys provide a basis for comparison to other industries to understand what role social media could have in better engaging stakeholders associated with the extractive sectors

The efficiency factorization multiplier for the Watson efficiency in partitioned linear models: some examples and a literature review

We consider partitioned linear models where the model matrix X = (X1 : X2) has full column rank, and concentrate on the special case whereX0 1X2 = 0 when we say that the model is orthogonally partitioned. We assume that the underlying covariance matrix is positive definite and introduce the efficiency factorization multiplier which relates the total Watson efficiency of ordinary least squares to the product of the two subset Watson efficiencies. We illustrate our findings with several examples and present a literature review

Franco-Iraqi relations and Fifth Republic foreign policy, 1958-1990

This study analyses the evolution of France's relations with Iraq since 1958. It seeks to understand the motivations behind French government, state and private sector interests in Iraq. This is done in the dual context of France's economic rivalry with other western powers in the Middle East, and the Iraqi state's attempts to follow an independent foreign policy while using its oil revenues to rapidly industrialise and arm itself. The text first charts France's rivalry with Britain in the ex-Ottoman empire and its fears of Anglo-American domination of oil supplies. It then demonstrates that while France's early links with Israel continued under President De Gaulle, by the mid sixties they had been eclipsed by the commercial importance of trade with Arab states. The core text then focuses on France's relationship with Iraq since 1958, the year in which new governments came to power in both states. Despite the 1972 nationalisation of the Iraq Petroleum company, in which France had a 25% stake, French politicians and businessmen nevertheless gained favourable access to oil supplies, greatly increasing their exports of defence and high technology products, including a nuclear reactor, to Iraq during the seventies. The Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) intensified both bilateral trade links and the indebtedness of Iraq to France. By the mid-eighties what become a de-facto alliance generated severe problems for France's middle eastern policies, particularly towards Iran. The central themes of the study are the processes of foreign policy formation in France, and the extent and impact of economic interests underlying policy making. The thesis argues that substantial state ownership in France's oil, defence and aeronautical industries, coupled with the common interests and interpretations of a relatively homogeneous and interconnected corps of businessmen, politicians and civil servants, helps explain the continuity of French policy in the region. This is seen to be true despite the change of government (from Gaullist to Socialist) in France in May 1981

An illustrated introduction to Caïssan squares: the magic of chess

We study various properties of n × n Caïssan magic squares. Following the seminal 1881 article by "Ursus" [Henry James Kesson (b. c. 1844)] in The Queen, we define a magic square to be Caïssan whenever it is pandiagonal and knight-Nasik so that all paths of length n by a chess bishop are magic (pandiagonal, Nasik, CSP1-magic) and by a (regular) chess knight are magic (CSP2-magic). We also study Caïssan beauties, which are pandiagonal and both CSP2- and CSP3-magic; a CSP3-path is by a special knight that leaps over 3 instead of 2 squares. Our paper ends with a bibliography of over 100 items (many with hyperlinks) listed chronologically from the 14th century onwards. We give special attention to items by (or connected with) "Ursus": Henry James Kesson (b. c. 1844), Andrew Hollingworth Frost (1819–1907), Charles Planck (1856–1935), and Pavle Bidev (1912–1988). We have tried to illustrate our findings as much as possible, and whenever feasible, with images of postage stamps or other philatelic items