[Review of] Milton J. Esman (Ed.), Ethnic Conflict in the Western World

Ethnic conflict has reemerged in the economic and political arenas of the western world, less between nation states, more within the boundaries of particular nations. The type of conflict that emerged in the United States during the 1950\u27s and 1960\u27s was racial, in sharp contrast to the ethnonationalist conflict in western Europe and Canada. The latter has a long history and has been shaped by cultural, linguistic, and religious differences. This conflict declined after World War II but is now back on the scene. The explanation of its return is one of the major purposes of this book. A second purpose is to raise the question of whether the Democratic Conflict Management model of consociationalism is a useful tool by which ethnic conflicts can be solved in a manner fair to all

Three undescribed pathogenic Phytophthora taxa from the south-west of Western Australia

The Phytophthora culture collection of the Vegetation Health Service of the Department of Environment and Conservation of Western Australia (WA) has been re-evaluated using DNA sequencing (Burgess et al., 2009). This has revealed many undescribed taxa previously classified as known morpho-species, one of which has recently been described as P. multivora (Scott et al., 2009). The aim of this study was to describe three of these taxa, all of which occur in WA native ecosystems. They were compared with both the morphological species to which they are most similar and their closest phylogenetic relatives. In addition, the pathogenicity of these taxa was assessed in glasshouse trials

Hollow cathodes in high pressure arc discharges

An orified hallow cathode was tested at high pressure to improve lifetime and efficiency in arcjet thrusters. It is indicated that the arc would not operate with emission from the insert above 200 torr in nitrogen regardless of insert material, orifice diameter, or gas flow direction. Emission occurred from the insert in argon and xenon although it could not be ascertained whether diffuse or spot emission existed within the cathode. Over the extended range of configurations and operating parameters explored the desired diffuse emission mode could not be obtained at high enough pressures for orified hollow cathodes to operate in the range which is considered for arcjet applications

Universal c-axis conductivity of high-TcT_c oxides in the superconducting state

The anisotropy in the temperature dependence of the in-plane and c-axis conductivities of high-T_c cuprates in the superconducting state is shown to be consistent with a strong in-plane momentum dependence of both the quasiparticle scattering rate and the interlayer hopping integral. Applying the cold spot scattering model recently proposed by Ioffe and Millis (Phys. Rev. B {\bf 58}, 11631 (1998)) to the superconducting state, we find that the c-axis conductivity varies approximately as T^3 in an intermediate temperature regime, in good agreement with the experimental result for optimally doped YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-x} and Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+x}.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure, Phys Rev B accepte

Electrode erosion in arc discharges at atmospheric pressure

An experimental investigation was performed in an effort to measure and increase lifetime of electrodes in an arcjet thruster. The electrode erosion of various anode and cathode materials was measured after tests in an atmospheric pressure nitrogen arc discharge at powers less than 1 kW. A free-burning arc configuration and a constricted arc configuration were used to test the materials. Lanthanum hexaboride and thoriated tungsten had low cathode erosion rates while thoriated tungsten and pure tungsten had the lowest anode erosion rates of the materials tested. Anode cooling, reverse gas flow, and external magnetic fields were all found to reduce electrode mass loss

Maenpo Cikalong Souvenir for Cianjur society

Maenpo Cikalong is one of traditional martial art from Cianjur, discovered at 19th century by Raden Haji Ibrahim. Currently, Maenpo Cikalong is well known among martial arts practitioner, indicated by a practice site that held in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Malang and also Singapore. The recognition of Maenpo Cikalong outside Cianjur is interesting because there is still a lot of Cianjur society do not recognize it even though there is a slogan ‘Maos, Mamaos, Maenpo as a cultural tradition. Tauco, mochi, sate maranggi and also sweetmeat is Cianjur traditional culinary souvenir, one of the functions of a souvenir is a reminder for a place, memory or interesting culture from one place or another. Lack of awareness about Maenpo Cikalong among Cianjur society could be improved by make it as a theme for souvenir. The method is using a daily things as a souvenir, it was made to improve visual memory of Cianjur society, hopefully, it also could make Cianjur Society interested and want to learn further about Maenpo Cikalong without reducing the noble traditions. Keywords Maenpo Cikalong, Souvenir, Visual Memory, awarenes

An Inexpensive Liquid Crystal Spectropolarimeter for the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory Plaskett Telescope

A new, inexpensive polarimetric unit has been constructed for the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (DAO) 1.8-m Plaskett telescope. It is implemented as a plug-in module for the telescope's existing Cassegrain spectrograph, and enables medium resolution (R~10,000) circular spectropolarimetry of point sources. A dual-beam design together with fast switching of the wave plate at rates up to 100Hz, and synchronized with charge shuffling on the CCD, is used to significantly reduce instrumental effects and achieve high-precision spectropolarimetric measurements for a very low cost. The instrument is optimized to work in the wavelength range 4700 - 5300A to simultaneously detect polarization signals in the H beta line as well as nearby metallic lines. In this paper we describe the technical details of the instrument, our observing strategy and data reduction techniques, and present tests of its scientific performance.Comment: 32 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in PAS

Canker disease in Corymbia calophylla (Marri) in the south west of Western Australia

Cankering of marri in the southern forests of Western Australia is causing concern as it is increasing considerably in severity and geographic range. The contribution of canker fungi to stem, branch and tree death has not been studied in detail, and the causal agent(s) is yet to be determined (1). This project examined disease incidence and associated pathogens

Towards Quantum Gravity: A Framework for Probabilistic Theories with Non-Fixed Causal Structure

General relativity is a deterministic theory with non-fixed causal structure. Quantum theory is a probabilistic theory with fixed causal structure. In this paper we build a framework for probabilistic theories with non-fixed causal structure. This combines the radical elements of general relativity and quantum theory. The key idea in the construction is physical compression. A physical theory relates quantities. Thus, if we specify a sufficiently large set of quantities (this is the compressed set), we can calculate all the others. We apply three levels of physical compression. First, we apply it locally to quantities (actually probabilities) that might be measured in a particular region of spacetime. Then we consider composite regions. We find that there is a second level of physical compression for the composite region over and above the first level physical compression for the component regions. Each application of first and second level physical compression is quantified by a matrix. We find that these matrices themselves are related by the physical theory and can therefore be subject to compression. This is the third level of physical compression. This third level of physical compression gives rise to a new mathematical object which we call the causaloid. From the causaloid for a particular physical theory we can calculate verything the physical theory can calculate. This approach allows us to set up a framework for calculating probabilistic correlations in data without imposing a fixed causal structure (such as a background time). We show how to put quantum theory in this framework (thus providing a new formulation of this theory). We indicate how general relativity might be put into this framework and how the framework might be used to construct a theory of quantum gravity.Comment: 23 pages. For special issue of Journal of Physics A entitled "The quantum universe" in honour of Giancarlo Ghirard

Electric propulsion options for the SP-100 reference mission

Analyses were performed to characterize and compare electric propulsion systems for use on a space flight demonstration of the SP-100 nuclear power system. The component masses of resistojet, arcjet, and ion thruster systems were calculated using consistent assumptions and the maximum total impulse, velocity increment, and thrusting time were determined, subject to the constraint of the lift capability of a single Space Shuttle launch. From the study it was found that for most systems the propulsion system dry mass was less than 20 percent of the available mass for the propulsion system. The maximum velocity increment was found to be up to 2890 m/sec for resistojet, 3760 m/sec for arcjet, and 23 000 m/sec for ion thruster systems. The maximum thruster time was found to be 19, 47, and 853 days for resistojet, arcjet, and ion thruster systems, respectively