339 research outputs found
Public Highways
The history of public highway development throughout many of the world’s civilizations and a discussion concerning their overall importance, features and use
The language of leadership in Laos
© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016. This paper responds to recent calls in the leadership studies literature for anthropologically informed empirical research on leadership phenomena in non-Western and non-Anglophone settings. The authors have worked extensively on rural development projects in Laos and draw on ethnographic ‘observant-participation’ and interview data to explore how leadership is construed in a contested terrain where traditional concepts intersect with those of official government and international development agencies. A theoretical discussion of linguistic relativity and the socially constitutive nature of language in general is offered as background justification for studying the language of leadership in context. The anthropological distinction between etic and emic operations is also introduced to differentiate between various interpretative positions that can be taken in relation to the fieldwork and data discussed in this paper. The study shows how difficult it can be for native Lao speakers to find words to describe leadership or give designations to ‘leaders’ outside of officially sanctioned semantic and social fields. A key finding of the study is that, viewed from the perspective of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, authority and leadership are coextensive. This social fact is reflected in the linguistic restrictions on what can and cannot be described as leadership in Laos
Bostonia: The Boston University Alumni Magazine. Volume 34
Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs
CASTER - a concept for a Black Hole Finder Probe based on the use of new scintillator technologies
The primary scientific mission of the Black Hole Finder Probe (BHFP), part of
the NASA Beyond Einstein program, is to survey the local Universe for black
holes over a wide range of mass and accretion rate. One approach to such a
survey is a hard X-ray coded-aperture imaging mission operating in the 10--600
keV energy band, a spectral range that is considered to be especially useful in
the detection of black hole sources. The development of new inorganic
scintillator materials provides improved performance (for example, with regards
to energy resolution and timing) that is well suited to the BHFP science
requirements. Detection planes formed with these materials coupled with a new
generation of readout devices represent a major advancement in the performance
capabilities of scintillator-based gamma cameras. Here, we discuss the Coded
Aperture Survey Telescope for Energetic Radiation (CASTER), a concept that
represents a BHFP based on the use of the latest scintillator technology.Comment: 12 pages; conference paper presented at the SPIE conference "UV,
X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XIV." To be
published in SPIE Conference Proceedings, vol. 589
A Bayesian network model to explore practice change by smallholder rice farmers in Lao PDR
© 2018 A Bayesian Network model has been developed that synthesizes findings from concurrent multi-disciplinary research activities. The model describes the many factors that impact on the chances of a smallholder farmer adopting a proposed change to farming practices. The model, when applied to four different proposed technologies, generated insights into the factors that have the greatest influence on adoption rates. Behavioural motivations for change are highly dependent on farmers' individual viewpoints and are also technology dependent. The model provides a boundary object that provides an opportunity to engage experts and other stakeholders in discussions about their assessment of the technology adoption process, and the opportunities, barriers and constraints faced by smallholder farmers when considering whether to adopt a technology
Rice farming systems in Southern Lao PDR: Interpreting farmers’ agricultural production decisions using Q methodology
© 2017 The agricultural sector in Lao PDR is forecast to move from subsistence rice production to a more modernized and market-oriented sector with greater focus on commercialization of agricultural production. Intensification of agricultural production in the southern and central rice growing regions of Lao PDR is problematic as dryland farmers rely on rainfall and soils are poor, yet rural households have been experiencing rapid change in their farming and livelihood systems. This paper employs Q methodology techniques to explore 35 farmers' viewpoints when contemplating their production goals and potential to adopt technologies to improve productivity. Findings describe the two emerging viewpoints among farmers as ‘labour saving productivity maximization’ and ‘traditional labour productivity using improved techniques’. The two viewpoints describe the different issues currently guiding production decisions. While the Lao Government forecasts substantial increases in rice production in the southern plains, farmers will require specialized and tailored support, accounting for their envisaged livelihood and production goals, to allow the sector transformation that many stakeholders currently envisage
Small-scale Magnetic Flux Ropes in the First two Parker Solar Probe Encounters
Small-scale magnetic flux ropes (SFRs) are a type of structures in the solar
wind that possess helical magnetic field lines. In a recent report (Chen & Hu
2020), we presented the radial variations of the properties of SFR from 0.29 to
8 au using in situ measurements from the Helios, ACE/Wind, Ulysses, and Voyager
spacecraft. With the launch of the Parker Solar Probe (PSP), we extend our
previous investigation further into the inner heliosphere. We apply a
Grad-Shafranov-based algorithm to identify SFRs during the first two PSP
encounters. We find that the number of SFRs detected near the Sun is much less
than that at larger radial distances, where magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)
turbulence may act as the local source to produce these structures. The
prevalence of Alfvenic structures significantly suppresses the detection of
SFRs at closer distances. We compare the SFR event list with other event
identification methods, yielding a dozen well-matched events. The cross-section
maps of two selected events confirm the cylindrical magnetic flux rope
configuration. The power-law relation between the SFR magnetic field and
heliocentric distances seems to hold down to 0.16 au.Comment: Accepted by ApJ on 2020 Sep 1
On the Evolution of the Anisotropic Scaling of Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence in the Inner Heliosphere
We analyze a merged Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and Solar Orbiter (SO) data set covering heliocentric distances 13 R⊙ ≲ R ≲ 220 R⊙ to investigate the radial evolution of power and spectral index anisotropy in the wavevector space of solar wind turbulence. Our results show that anisotropic signatures of turbulence display a distinct radial evolution when fast, Vsw ≥ 400 km s−1, and slow, Vsw ≤ 400 km s−1, wind streams are considered. The anisotropic properties of slow wind in Earth orbit are consistent with a "critically balanced" cascade, but both spectral index anisotropy and power anisotropy diminish with decreasing heliographic distance. Fast streams are observed to roughly retain their near-Sun anisotropic properties, with the observed spectral index and power anisotropies being more consistent with a "dynamically aligned" type of cascade, though the lack of extended fast wind intervals makes it difficult to accurately measure the anisotropic scaling. A high-resolution analysis during the first perihelion of PSP confirms the presence of two subranges within the inertial range, which may be associated with the transition from weak to strong turbulence. The transition occurs at κdi ≈ 6 × 10−2 and signifies a shift from −5/3 to −2 and from −3/2 to −1.57 scaling in parallel and perpendicular spectra, respectively. Our results provide strong observational constraints for anisotropic theories of MHD turbulence in the solar wind
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