Beyond locutionary denotations: exploring trust between practitioners and policy

This study reports the findings of a research on the trust relationship between practitioners in the Skills for Life (SfL) area and the policy that informs their practice. The exploration of this relationship was premised on an extended notion of trust relationship which draws from the Speech Act theory of Austin (1962; Searle 1969; Kissine 2008), leading to the claim that the existence of different layers of imports in textual analysis makes it possible for a trust relationship to exist between the human/physical and the non human/non physical. The study found that the majority of practitioners in the SfL field trust policy to deliver its inherent policy only to a limited extent. Amongst others, the study identified the impact of the perlocutionary import of policy text on practitioners as a viable reason for this limited level of trust. Such perlocutionary imports, it also found, have adverse impact on practitioners who are considered to have drawn from previous experience to mediate the import of contemporary policies

All sky CMB map from cosmic strings integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect

By actively distorting the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) over our past light cone, cosmic strings are unavoidable sources of non-Gaussianity. Developing optimal estimators able to disambiguate a string signal from the primordial type of non-Gaussianity requires calibration over synthetic full sky CMB maps, which till now had been numerically unachievable at the resolution of modern experiments. In this paper, we provide the first high resolution full sky CMB map of the temperature anisotropies induced by a network of cosmic strings since the recombination. The map has about 200 million sub-arcminute pixels in the healpix format which is the standard in use for CMB analyses (Nside=4096). This premiere required about 800,000 cpu hours; it has been generated by using a massively parallel ray tracing method piercing through a thousands of state of art Nambu-Goto cosmic string numerical simulations which pave the comoving volume between the observer and the last scattering surface. We explicitly show how this map corrects previous results derived in the flat sky approximation, while remaining completely compatible at the smallest scales.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, uses RevTeX. References added, matches published versio

Peran Lembaga Badan Amil Zakat Nasional (Baznas) Dalam Penyaluran Zakat Ditinjau Menurut Undang-Undang Nomor 23 Tahun 2011 Di Kabupaten Bengkalis

This study discusses the role of the National Amil Zakat Agency (BAZNAS) in distributing Zakat in review according to Law Number 23 of 2011 in Bengkalis Regency. Particularly related to the distribution of Zakat which indicates the distribution of Zakat to the mustahik who are not on target. As well as inhibiting factors in the implementation of the role of the BAZNAS Intitution in the distribution of zakat in Bengkalis Regency. Zakat distribution which is distributed to Mustahik must be in accordance with Islamic shariah, the applicable regulations and also the Operational Standars in BAZNAS Bengkalis Regency. The nature of this study is qualitative with the type of Sociological Juridical. From the results of research on the Role of the Institution of BAZNAS in the Distribution of Zakat in Bengkalis Regency to the mustahik has been carried out optimally in accordance with existing operational standards, and of course in accordance with Islamic sharia and applicable regulations, but still must continue to make improvements, innovations, innovation to continue to improve the performance of Amil BAZNAS Bengkalis Regency. However, there are also several factors that hamper the role of BAZNAS institutions in the implementation of zakat distribution, namely in Human Resources (HR), limited operational funds, low public khowledge about Zakat, and lack of public trust in the goverment in dealing with zakat issues, especially the National Zakat Boards as an official goverment body

Temperature effects on the 15-85-micron spectra of olivines and pyroxenes

Far-infrared spectra of laboratory silicates are normally obtained at room temperature even though the grains responsible for astronomical silicate emission bands seen at wavelengths >20 micron are likely to be at temperatures below ~150 K. In order to investigate the effect of temperature on silicate spectra, we have obtained absorption spectra of powdered forsterite and olivine, along with two orthoenstatites and diopside clinopyroxene, at 3.5+-0.5 K and at room temperature (295+-2K). To determine the changes in the spectra the resolution must be increased from 1 to 0.25 cm^-1 at both temperatures since a reduction in temperature reduces the phonon density, thereby reducing the width of the infrared peaks. Several bands observed at 295 K split at 3.5 K. At 3.5 K the widths of isolated single bands in olivine, enstatites and diopside are ~ 90% of their 295 K-widths. However, in forsterite the 3.5-K-widths of the 31-, 49- and 69-micron bands are, respectively, 90%, 45% and 31% of their 295 K widths. Due to an increase in phonon energy as the lattice contracts, 3.5-K-singlet peaks occur at shorter wavelengths than do the corresponding 295-K peaks; the magnitude of the wavelength shift increases from \~ 0-0.2 micron at 25 micron to ~0.9 micron at 80 micron. Changes in the relative absorbances of spectral peaks are also observed. The temperature dependence of lambda_pk and bandwidth shows promise as a means to deduce characteristic temperatures of mineralogically distinct grain populations. In addition, the observed changes in band strength with temperature will affect estimates of grain masses and relative mineral abundances inferred using room-temperature laboratory data.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures including figures 3a and 3b. includes latex and eps files. Accepted by MNRAS on 15th March 200

Advanced technologies for future ground-based, laser-interferometric gravitational wave detectors

We present a review of modern optical techniques being used and developed for the field of gravitational wave detection. We describe the current state-of-the-art of gravitational waves detector technologies with regard to optical layouts, suspensions and test masses. We discuss the dominant sources and noise in each of these subsystems and the developments that will help mitigate them for future generations of detectors. We very briefly summarise some of the novel astrophysics that will be possible with these upgraded detectors

A framework for design engineering education in a global context

This paper presents a framework for teaching design engineering in a global context using innovative technologies to enable distributed teams to work together effectively across international and cultural boundaries. The DIDET Framework represents the findings of a 5-year project conducted by the University of Strathclyde, Stanford University and Olin College which enhanced student learning opportunities by enabling them to partake in global, team based design engineering projects, directly experiencing different cultural contexts and accessing a variety of digital information sources via a range of innovative technology. The use of innovative technology enabled the formalization of design knowledge within international student teams as did the methods that were developed for students to store, share and reuse information. Coaching methods were used by teaching staff to support distributed teams and evaluation work on relevant classes was carried out regularly to allow ongoing improvement of learning and teaching and show improvements in student learning. Major findings of the 5 year project include the requirement to overcome technological, pedagogical and cultural issues for successful eLearning implementations. The DIDET Framework encapsulates all the conclusions relating to design engineering in a global context. Each of the principles for effective distributed design learning is shown along with relevant findings and suggested metrics. The findings detailed in the paper were reached through a series of interventions in design engineering education at the collaborating institutions. Evaluation was carried out on an ongoing basis and fed back into project development, both on the pedagogical and the technological approaches

Perancangan Aplikasi Untuk Mendeteksi Sabuk Pengaman Mobil Menggunakan Algoritma Backpropagation Neural Network (Bpnn)

- To enforce traffic regulations on the highway, police officers face obstacles in monitoring the use of seat belts on cars because cars on the highway are always on the move and almost all cars use window film to avoid the heat of the sun entering the car. Based on the above problems, the authors build a software that can monitor or detect drivers wearing seat belts or not with Microsoft Visual C # 2010. To monitor the use of seat belts, digital cameras are used to conduct image acquisition to be processed by computers. . Furthermore, the image is studied by a system using the Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) Artificial Neural Network method as the image of the driver using a seat belt. To make a detection, the test image is input that is the same size as the training image. The test results obtained the level of accuracy for image acquisition with a distance of 1 meter with a similarity using a seat belt with a maximum value of 9% and a degree of similarity without a seat belt of less than 4%. Keywords - Image, Neural Network, Backpropagation Algorith

Stability of the Submillimeter Brightness of the Atmosphere Above Mauna Kea, Chajnantor and the South Pole

The summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the area near Cerro Chajnantor in Chile, and the South Pole are sites of large millimeter or submillimeter wavelength telescopes. We have placed 860 GHz sky brightness monitors at all three sites and present a comparative study of the measured submillimeter brightness due to atmospheric thermal emission. We report the stability of that quantity at each site.Comment: 6 figure