THE EMERGENCE OF NEW MOSQUES: MAPPING ISLAMIC INSTITUTIONS, MIDDLE EAST DONATIONS, AND ITS RELIGIOUS IMPLICATIONS IN INDONESIA

This paper is based on my field research during six months (April-September 2015) in Yogyakarta. The paper tries to answer research questions as follows: what are the motivations behind mosques construction by the Islamic Institutions in Indonesia? How do the recipients of mosques construction interpret the donations? Besides, the paper also wants to show current social and religious activities of the Islamic institutions in Indonesia in general and Yogyakarta in particular (as the sample of this study) that have affiliations with the Middle East donations. The method of this research is qualitative research that also utilizes quantitative data. The main technique of qualitative data collection is interviews. The result of the study shows that; 1) mosques construction in Indonesia is a consequence of the important role of Indonesian alumni from the Middle East on connecting the Islamic institutions in Indonesia to the donator from the Middle East, 2) the Islamic institutions that affiliated with the Middle East donations are very multiple and complex, 3) the responses from the recipients of mosques construction can be summarized into three responses: full acceptance, acceptance with modification, and rejection

Adjusting Sails: A Narrative Inquiry into the Transfer Experience of Three Secondary Teachers in the Maldives

'Adjusting Sails' is a narrative inquiry which presents the stories of three secondary teachers who underwent transfer from one school to the other in the Maldives. This metaphoric journey also describes my journey as a narrative researcher, how I sailed into unknown waters with my participants, what I discovered, and the interpretations I drew from their experiences. Semi-structured interviews of teachers and transfer managers and the analysis of official correspondence of the transfer contributed to the richness of the data. The stories of the teachers were analyzed for common themes, partially corroborated by contrasting the data gathered from interviews with two transfer managers, and written in collaboration with the participant storytellers. Trustworthiness of findings was further enforced through member-checking and adhering to reflexive procedures. The findings of this study suggest that the three teachers found the transfer quite stressful and as having impacted negatively on their emotions and professional lives. Communication issues before and after the transfer, personal perceptions associated with the transfer as well as leadership practices in their new environments appeared to have given rise to de-motivation, stress and frustrations. Apart from contributing to existing literature on teacher transfer, this study highlighted factors that made the transfer a negative experience for teachers and provided evidence which may usefully inform school managements and future transfer policies on the impact a transfer can have on the emotional and professional well-being of teachers

Speckle-visibility spectroscopy of depolarized dynamic light scattering

We show that the statistical analysis of photon counts in depolarized dynamic light scattering experiments allows for the accurate characterization of the rotational Brownian dynamics of particles. Unlike photon correlation spectroscopy, the technique is accurate even at low temporal resolution and enables discontinuous data acquisition, which offers several advantages. To demonstrate the usefulness of the method, we present a case study in which we analyze aqueous suspensions of tunicate cellulose nanocrystals and silica particles, and discuss aspects that are specific to particle sizing

"It‘s Hard to Keep Track": Mapping a Shifting Nation in Dylan Horrocks‘s Hicksville

Using an art form that justifiably lays claim to both visual and literary genealogies—the graphic novel—Dylan Horrocks's Hicksville advances, rather than strictly challenges, many of the discussions which have informed the local manufacture of art and literature. My purpose in this thesis is to explore Horrocks's deployment of the critical perspectives of both art historical and literary discourse as they have developed from the pre-colonial to the twenty-first century in New Zealand, especially those associated with cultural nationalism. Hicksville claims a particular relation to the existing traditions within both art-historical and literary lines wherein they are conjoined in practice; integrated into the formal properties of Horrocks's work, the traditional concerns of local art and literature are not only subject matter but guide Horrocks‘s approach to narrative. The tension between art and place—the responsibility of the artist to the nation and its referents—appears in Hicksville as a structuring device rather than polemic via its concern with the economisation of art—or global capitalism—as it bears upon particular places and art practices. Yet Horrocks‘s handling of this theme upholds neither aestheticism nor populism. Rather, he invites the reader to make sense of extensive references to a range of artistic figures, from Heaphy to Hergé to Hotere, in a way that accounts for their equal force. Hicksville thus deliberately destabilises the joint histories of art and literary history to pointed effect, valuing its range of artistic and cultural inheritances—whether the visual or literary, the highbrow or lowbrow—for how they can remind us that contemporary artistic accounts of New Zealand must also consider the various ways the country has been constructed throughout its wide

Water and Oxygen Barrier Properties of All-Cellulose Nanocomposites

Hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) is potentially interesting as a biobased, rigid food packaging material, but its stiffness and strength are somewhat low, and its water and oxygen transport rates are too high. To improve these characteristics, we investigated nanocomposites of HPC and cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). These high-aspect-ratio nanoparticles display high stiffness and strength, and their high crystallinity renders them virtually impermeable. Exchanging the counterions of sulfate-ester decorated CNCs with cetyltrimethylammonium ions affords particles that are dispersible in ethanol (CTA.CNC) and allows solvent casting of HPC/CTA.CNC nanocomposite films, which, even at a CTA.CNC content of 90 wt %, are highly transparent. The introduction of CTA.CNC considerably increases the Young’s modulus (Ey) and upper tensile strength (σUTS). For example, in the nanocomposite with 90% CTA.CNC, Ey = 7.6 GPa is increased 20-fold and σUTS = 42.7 MPa is more than doubled in comparison to HPC, whereas the extensibility (1.1%) remains appreciable. Composites with a CTA.CNC content of 70 wt % or less show a lower water vapor permeability (6.4–9.2 × 10–5 g μm m–2 s–1 Pa–1) than the neat HPC (1.5 × 10–4 g μm m–2 s–1 Pa–1), whereas the oxygen permeability (5.6 × 10–7–1.3 × 10–6 cm3 μm m–2 s–1 Pa–1) is reduced by 1 order of magnitude compared to HPC (3.2 × 10–6 cm3 μm m–2 s–1 Pa–1). The biobased nanocomposites retain their mechanical integrity at a relative humidity of 75% but readily disintegrate in water

Asymmetric Cyclophanes Permit Access to Supercooled Nematic Liquid Crystals with Stimulus-Responsive Luminescence

A novel material with stimulus-responsive luminescence was created by integrating a chromophore with assembly-dependent emission properties into a liquid crystalline compound that can be kinetically trapped in a supercooled liquid crystalline state. This was achieved by synthesizing an asymmetric cyclophane containing one 1,6-bis­(phenylethynyl)­pyrene group. The new compound displays a broad nematic phase above ∼110 °C upon being heated. Quenching to room temperature allows one to avoid crystallization, and the supercooled nematic phase is stable for at least 1 h. When the compound is heated, a phase transition from the kinetically trapped state to a crystalline state occurs, concomitant with a pronounced change in photoluminescence. The crystalline phase thus accessed shows mechanoresponsive luminescence behavior

Mechanochemical Activation of Polymer-Embedded Photoluminescent Benzoxazole Moieties

Despite an increasing number of studies that have investigated mechanochemical effects in polymers, the number of polymers whose fluorescence characteristics change upon exposure to mechanical stress is still limited. We here report the investigation of a mechanofluorophore based on an aliphatic ester of 2-(2′-hydroxyphenyl)­benzoxazole. The free benzoxazole displays green photoluminescence, which is associated with an excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) process, whereas aliphatic esters of this compound emit blue light. When poly­(methyl acrylate) containing an esterified benzoxazole mechanophore at the center of each chain molecule was exposed to ultrasound, a significant reduction of the molecular weight and pronounced changes of the photoluminescence emission and UV–vis absorption spectra were observed. The optical changes and the fact that the time-traces for molecular weight decrease and formation of the ESIPT capable species mirror each other indicate that the mechanophore is preferentially cleaved upon sonication and that such cleavage restores the 2-(2′-hydroxyphenyl)­benzoxazole motif. The concept of mechanical activation of ester-protected ESIPT dyes, and more broadly of other hydroxyl group carrying fluorophores that change their emission properties upon ester formation and cleavage, should be general and allow access to a range of other mechanofluorophores

Structure–Property Relationships in Metallosupramolecular Poly(<i>p</i>-xylylene)s

The self-assembly polymerization of ditopic monomers via metal–ligand binding is a facile route for the preparation of metallosupramolecular polymers. Here this approach was used for the synthesis of supramolecular poly­(<i>p</i>-xylylene)­s based on 2,6-bis­(1′-methylbenzimidazolyl)­pyridine (Mebip) end-capped telechelic oligomers with a <i>p</i>-xylylene core and different metal salts. These polymers can be readily processed from solution and merge the ease of processing of supramolecular materials with the good thermal stability of the <i>p</i>-xylylene core. The nature of the metal cation (Fe²⁺, Zn²⁺, La³⁺) and counteranion (ClO₄^–, OTf^–, NTf₂^–) was systematically varied, and a tetrafunctional supramolecular cross-linker was used to probe how these modifications influence the materials’ properties. Interestingly, and in contrast to other metallosupramolecular polymers, where the nature of the metal salt plays a critical role, only minor property differences were observed for the materials studied. Instead, the properties of the supramolecular poly­(<i>p</i>-xylylene)­s investigated appear to be primarily governed by the crystalline nature of the telechelic oligomer. We note that minor impurities in the latter can exert a significant influence on the metallosupramolecular polymer’s properties and report a new protocol for the synthesis and purification of Mebip-end-capped <i>p</i>-xylylene telechelic oligomers

Isophthalic Acid–Pyridine H‑Bonding: Simplicity in the Design of Mechanically Robust Phase-Segregated Supramolecular Polymers

We report a new series of supramolecular polymeric networks based on the isophthalic acid–pyridine (IPA–Py) H-bonding motif. The IPA units were attached as end-groups to telechelic poly­(ethylene-<i>co</i>-butylene) to create a tetrafunctional macromonomer, which was cross-linked by the addition of various bispyridines. Some of the supramolecular polymer networks thus made display surprisingly good mechanical characteristics. We show that their structure and properties are strongly influenced by the nature of the bispyridine motif and by the fact that some of the IPA–Py motifs aggregate into particularly well-defined hard phases

Shape Memory Composites Based on Electrospun Poly(vinyl alcohol) Fibers and a Thermoplastic Polyether Block Amide Elastomer

The present study aimed at developing new thermally responsive shape-memory composites, that were fabricated by compacting mats of electrospun poly­(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) fibers and sheets of a thermoplastic polyether block amide elastomer (PEBA). This design was based on the expectation that the combination of the rubber elasticity of the PEBA matrix and the mechanical switching exploitable through the reversible glass transition temperature (<i>T</i>_g) of the PVA filler could be combined to create materials that display shape memory characteristics as an emergent effect. Dynamic mechanical analyses (DMA) show that, upon introduction of 10–20% w/w PVA fibers, the room-temperature storage modulus (<i>E</i>′) increased by a factor of 4–5 in comparison to the neat PEBA, and they reveal a stepwise reduction of <i>E</i>′ around the <i>T</i>_g of PVA (85 °C). This transition could indeed be utilized to fix a temporary shape and recover the permanent shape. At low strain, the fixity was 66 ± 14% and the recovery was 98 ± 2%. Overall, the data validate a simple and practical strategy for the fabrication of shape memory composites that involves a melt compaction process and employs two commercially available polymers