British Naval Power and its Influence on Indonesia, 1795–1942: An Historical Analysis

In Indonesian history, Britain has never been considered a prominent player in the politics of the archipelago. From an Indonesian perspective, the British presence only lasted a brief five years (1811–1816) during short-lived interregnum regime led by Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826). This began with the British seizure of Java from the Franco-Dutch administration of Marshal Daendels (1808-11) and his successor, General Janssens (May-September 1811), and ended with the formal return of the colony to the Netherlands on 19 August 1816. However, as this article demonstrates, Britain has had a long-lasting and decisive influence on modern Indonesian history, dating from the time when the archipelago entered the vortex of global conflict between Britain and Republican France in the 1790s. The presence of the British navy in Indonesian waters throughout the century and a half which followed Britain’s involvement in the War of the First Coalition (1792-97) dictated inter alia the foundation of new cities like Bandung which grew up along Daendels’ celebrated postweg (military postroad), the development of modern Javanese cartography, and even the fate of the exiled Java War leader, Prince Diponegoro. in distant Sulawesi (1830-55). This British naval presence had pluses and minuses for the Dutch. On the one hand, it was a guarantor of Dutch security from foreign seaborne invasion. On the other, it opened the possibility for British interference in the domestic politics of Holland’s vast Asian colony. As witnessed in the 20th-century, the existence of the Dutch as colonial masters in the Indonesian Archipelago was critically dependent on the naval defence screen provided by the British. When the British lost their major battleships (Prince of Wales and Repulse) to Japanese attack off the east coast of Malaya on 10 December 1941 and Singapore fell on 15 February 1942, the fate of the Dutch East Indies was sealed. Today, the vital role played by the Royal Navy in guaranteeing the archipelago’s security up to February 1942 has been replaced by that of the Honolulu-based US Seventh Fleet but the paradoxes of such protection have continued

Expanding the scope of statistical computing: Training statisticians to be software engineers

Traditionally, statistical computing courses have taught the syntax of a particular programming language or specific statistical computation methods. Since the publication of Nolan and Temple Lang (2010), we have seen a greater emphasis on data wrangling, reproducible research, and visualization. This shift better prepares students for careers working with complex datasets and producing analyses for multiple audiences. But, we argue, statisticians are now often called upon to develop statistical software, not just analyses, such as R packages implementing new analysis methods or machine learning systems integrated into commercial products. This demands different skills. We describe a graduate course that we developed to meet this need by focusing on four themes: programming practices; software design; important algorithms and data structures; and essential tools and methods. Through code review and revision, and a semester-long software project, students practice all the skills of software engineering. The course allows students to expand their understanding of computing as applied to statistical problems while building expertise in the kind of software development that is increasingly the province of the working statistician. We see this as a model for the future evolution of the computing curriculum in statistics and data science.Comment: 22 page

Automated Spacecraft Communications Service Demonstration Using NASA's SCaN Testbed

The traditional paradigm for space mission operations relies on inefficient, highly scripted pre-planned activities between space communications & navigation service providers and user ground mission operations centers. Typically there is limited or non-existent automation capabilities on the user spacecraft for requesting space communications services, and on the provider network for request dispositioning and service provisioning. In the past, using these processes for space networks was sufficient with the relatively small number of user spacecraft requesting services. However, with an ever increasing number of satellites being launched to orbit, more complex event-driven science objectives, exploration missions involving collaborative platforms, and more distant missions, approaches that improve automation, flexibility and efficiency are needed. This paper describes NASA's recently completed on-orbit demonstration results of a new space communications service concept called User Initiated Service, and a discussion for infusing this innovation into operations

Pengaruh Cash Crops Terhadap Temperatur Permukaan Lahan Kawasan Perkotaan Kabupaten Temanggung: Effect of Cash crops on Land Surface Temperature Urban Area, Temanggung Regency

Kabupaten Temanggung merupakan daerah penghasil tembakau dengan mutu dan harga tinggi Tembakau merupakan salah satu cash crops yang dibudidayakan di Indonesia. Sebagian besar penghasilan petani di Kabupaten Temanggung berasal dari tanaman perkebunan tembakau. Beberapa dekade terakhir terjadi kegagalan panen tembakau akibat adanya variabilitas iklim. Keberadaan lahan bervegetasi berpengaruh terhadap temperature permukaan lahan. Temperatur permukaan lahan yang tinggi berdampak pada kenyaman dan kesehatan manusia. Kawasan perkebunan di Kabupaten Temanggung sebagian besar digunakan untuk tanaman cash crop. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengkaji pengaruh cash crop yang merupakan sumber pedapatan utama petani dengan perubahan temperature permukaan lahan Kawasan Perkotaan Kabupaten Temanggung. Menggunakan metode deskriptif kuantitatif dengan pendekatan spsial dan Citra satelit Landsat 5, 7, 8 sebagai sumber data utama. Kualitas cash crop dideteksi dari tingkat kehijauan tanaman menggunakan Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Hasil penelitian. menunjukkan bahwa cash crop mempunyai pengaruh kuat terhadap temperatur permukaan lahan wilayah studi (R = 1) Temperature permukaan lahan meningkat dari 25.04 oC menjadi 25.01 oC dalam kurun waktu Tahun 1999-2019. Meskipun terjadi peningkatan temperatur di Kawasan Perkotaan Kabupaten Temanggung namun masih dalam kondisi aman berdasarkan acuan Paris Agreement.Temanggung Regency is a tobacco producing area with high quality and price. Tobacco is one of the cash crops cultivated in Indonesia. Most of the farmers' income in Temanggung Regency comes from tobacco plantations. The last few decades have seen tobacco crop failures due to climate variability. The existence of vegetated land affects the surface temperature of the land. High land surface temperatures have an impact on human comfort and health. Most of the plantation areas in Temanggung Regency are used for cash crop plants. This study aims to examine the effect of cash crop which is the main source of income for farmers on the land surface temperature of the Temanggung Regency Urban Area. Using a quantitative descriptive method with a spatial approach and Landsat 5, 7, 8 satellite imagery as the main data source. The quality of the cash crop was detected from the greenness of the plant using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Research result. shows that cash crop has a strong influence on the surface temperature of the study area (R = 1). The temperature of the land surface increased from 25.04 oC to 25.01 oC in the period 1999-2019. Even though there was an increase in temperature in urban area, it was still in a safe condition based on the Paris Agreement reference

Blood parameter changes during stopover in a long-distance migratory shorebird, the bar-tailed godwit Limosa lapponica taymyrensis

Bar-tailed godwits migrate from West African wintering sites to breeding areas in northern Russia with only one stopover. We compared hematocrit (Hct), blood hemoglobin concentration (Hb), and mean cell hemoglobin concentration (MCHb; a measure of the relative proportion of Hb in the cellular blood fraction) between arriving godwits lured to land 60 km short of the stopover site and godwits during subsequent refueling. The Hct and Hb of arriving godwits was low when compared to that of refueling birds. On the stopover site, Hct and Hb correlated positively with size-corrected body mass. In addition, Hb and MCHb reached peak levels in the last days of stopover. We explored the possibility of regenerative anemia in arriving godwits by comparing the fraction of reticulocytes (young red blood cells) between arriving and refueling birds. No differences were found. Therefore, we suggest that the increase in Hct, Hb, and MCHb during refueling is not in response to a severe anemic state at arrival. Rather, we suggest that the increase in blood parameters may anticipate the increased aerobic requirements of impending migratory flight and possibly satisfy heightened oxygen demands of the larger body mass of fattened birds. The Hct increase on the stopover site may also serve to buffer the red blood cell population against possible red blood cell breakdown during long-distance flight.

Automated Spacecraft Communications Service Demonstration Using NASA's SCaN Testbed

The traditional paradigm for space mission operations relies on inefficient, highly scripted pre-planned activities between space communications and navigation service providers and user ground mission operations centers. Typically there is limited or non-existent automation capabilities on the user spacecraft for requesting space communications services, and on the provider network for request dispositioning and service provisioning. In the past, using these processes for space networks was sufficient with the relatively small number of user spacecraft requesting services. However, with an ever increasing number of satellites being launched to orbit, more complex event-driven science objectives, exploration missions involving collaborative platforms, and more distant missions, approaches that improve automation, flexibility and efficiency are needed. This paper describes NASA's recently completed on-orbit demonstration results of a new space communications service concept called User Initiated Service, and a discussion for infusing this innovation into operations

Financial Data Transparency, International Institutions, and Sovereign Borrowing Costs

Recent events in international finance illustrate the close connection between the viability of a country's major private financial institutions and the sustainability of its sovereign debt. We explore the precise nature of this connection and the ways in which it shapes investors’ expectations of sovereign creditworthiness. We consider how investors use the overall level of information available about the private financial sector—and the potential risks it poses to government finances—when making decisions about investing in sovereign debt. We expect that governments providing more information about the private financial sector will have lower, and less volatile, borrowing costs. In order to test this argument, we create a new Financial Data Transparency (FDT) Index measuring governments’ willingness to release credible financial system data. Using the FDT and a sample of high-income OECD countries, we find that such transparency reduces sovereign borrowing costs. The effects are conditional on the level of public indebtedness. Transparent countries with low debt enjoy lower and less volatile borrowing costs

Development of an anatomically correct mouse phantom for dosimetry measurement in small animal radiotherapy research

Significant improvements in radiotherapy are likely to come from biological rather than technical optimization, for example increasing tumour radiosensitivity via combination with targeted therapies. Such paradigms must first be evaluated in preclinical models for efficacy, and recent advances in small animal radiotherapy research platforms allow advanced irradiation protocols, similar to those used clinically, to be carried out in orthotopic models. Dose assessment in such systems is complex however, and a lack of established tools and methodologies for traceable and accurate dosimetry is currently limiting the capabilities of such platforms and slowing the clinical uptake of new approaches. Here we report the creation of an anatomically correct phantom, fabricated from materials with tissue-equivalent electron density, into which dosimetry detectors can be incorporated for measurement as part of quality control (QC). The phantom also allows training in preclinical radiotherapy planning and cross-institution validation of dose delivery protocols for small animal radiotherapy platforms without the need to sacrifice animals, with high reproducibility.Mouse CT data was acquired and segmented into soft tissue, bone and lung. The skeleton was fabricated using 3D printing, whilst lung was created using computer numerical control (CNC) milling. Skeleton and lung were then set into a surface-rendered mould and soft tissue material added to create a whole-body phantom. Materials for fabrication were characterized for atomic composition and attenuation for x-ray energies typically found in small animal irradiators. Finally cores were CNC milled to allow intracranial incorporation of bespoke detectors (alanine pellets) for dosimetry measurement

If You’re Going Through Hell, Keep Going: Nonlinear Effects of Financial Liberalization in Transition Economies

Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Did increasing the level and pace of financial liberalization during transition expose countries to crises? And if a crisis did strike, did liberalization do more harm or good? Using a database of 28 transition economies over 22 years, this article examines these questions across a host of economic outcomes, including savings and the size of the private sector. The results provide evidence that, while liberalization may initially increase the probability of a crisis, the prospect of a crisis drops dramatically at higher levels of financial openness. Moreover, the benefits of liberalization across several metrics outweigh the risks of these intermediate stages