The orbital periods of subdwarf B binaries produced by the first stable Roche overflow channel

Long-orbital-period subdwarf B (sdB) stars with main-sequence companions are believed to be the product of stable Roche Lobe overflow (RLOF), a scenario challenged by recent observations. Here we represent the results of a systematic study of the orbital-period distribution of sdB binaries in this channel using detailed binary evolution calculations. We show that the observed orbital-period distribution of long-period sdB binaries can be well explained by this scenario. Furthermore, we find that, if the progenitors of the sdB stars have initial masses below the helium flash mass, the sdB binaries produced from stable RLOF follow a unique mass -- orbital period relation for a given metallicity $Z$; increasing the orbital period from $\sim 400$ to $\sim 1100$\,d corresponds to increasing the mass of the sdB star from $\sim 0.40$ to $\sim 0.49\,M_\odot$ for $Z=0.02$. We suggest that the longest sdB binaries (with orbital period $> 1100$\,d) could be the result of atmospheric RLOF. The mass -- orbital period relation can be tested observationally if the mass of the sdB star can be determined precisely, e.g.\ from asteroseismology. Using this relation, we revise the orbital period distribution of sdB binaries produced by the first stable RLOF channel for the best fitting model of Han et al (2003), and show that the orbital period has a peak around 830\,d.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Analisis Swot Dalam Menentukan Strategi Kualitas Pembinaan Kepada Narapidana

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi strategi pelayanan pembinaan yang baik di dalam lapas serta untuk mengetahui faktor yang menjadi kendala dan masalah dalam melakukan kerjasama dari pihak luar dalam melakukan pembinaan dan juga merumuskan strategi peningkatan kualitas pelayanan pembinaan yang tepat melalui analisis SWOT (Strengths,Weaknesses, Opportunities dan Threats) di lembaga pemasyarakatan Kelas IIA Samarinda. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah pendekatan deskriptif dengan teknik pengumpulan data melalui observasi, wawancara, kuisioner dan studi kepustakaan Teknik analisis data yang digunakan adalah teknik analisis deskriptif kualitatif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan adalah dengan menggunakan alat analisis SWOT, maka dapat menggunakan alternatif strategi-strategi berikut : Strategi SO: Memanfaatkan kualitas pegawai, Memanfaatkan sumber daya manusia, Mengembangkan inovasi-inovasi terkait pelayan pembinaan. Strategi WO: Pengembanagan Sumber daya Manusia, Penambahan anggaran, Penambahan sarana dan prasarana. Strategi ST: Mempertahankan kualitas pembinaan, Menjamin kualitas pelayanan dalam pembinaan. Strategi WT: Mengembangkan kualitas pelayanan pembinaan, Mengembangkan sumber daya manusia

An analysis of the service-learning projects undertaken by Biology preservice teachers at a tertiary education institution: 2007-2011.

Service-Learning (SL) is an extension of an academic course, which does not only provide tangible and meaningful service to the community but is also connected to a course curriculum and gives students an opportunity for reflection during the duration of the course. Most SL programmes consist of SL projects. While some SL projects involve experiential learning that provides students with the opportunity to work directly with off-campus community groups, others are non-experiential SL projects which provide the opportunity for students to serve community groups without direct student/community contact. As a pedagogy, SL combines student learning with a commitment to addressing problems in partnership with communities. The principles of SL study: reciprocity, and reflections are intended to bolster student learning and civic responsibility which can yield positively in addressing community identified needs and support long-term mutually beneficial communityuniversity partnerships. Though the benefits of SL in various contexts are well documented in literature, there are gaps which indicate a need for further qualitative research on the experiences of students while implementing SL projects. The policy framework of South Africa has a number of documents that addresses community engagement in higher education. This study is a qualitative analysis of purposefully selected written reflective and project reports of a Service-Learning project in a Biology for Educators module at a South African university. The study provides insight into the SL aspect of the SL project, as well as a means of analysing the pre-service teachers’ experiences for their growth and change. The study used an interpretive paradigm and generated data from three sources which are reflection diaries, project reports and module outline to understand the pre-service teachers’ experiences while implementing the SL project. Five themes were used for the analysis; four were derived from the conceptual framework and one emerged from the data: Structure, Reciprocity, Relationship, Reflection and sustainability were the themes. Drawing from the theory of David Kolb’s experiential learning and using content analysis, these themes where used in analysing the data generated from this study. The findings support the influence of SL in the communities, and the benefits of reciprocal relationships and reflection during SL projects. The complexity of SL forces students out of their comfort zones and compels them to confront their ‘other side’, and thereafter integrate it vi | P a g e into their knowledge and experiences. While this experience was hard for some students, it was easy for others who found it easier to grasp the idea and running with it. This SL project although not without challenges has proven to be rewarding for all the parties involved. The findings add to the growing popularity of SL in Higher education and foster the community-university relationship. From the results of this analysis/study, SL projects provided students with knowledge and skills to gain opportunities. They were able to apply theory to practice, have a direct experience of reciprocal community engagement that fostered their personal growth, which would not have been possible in a traditional classroom context. Based on the findings, recommendations were made for future research on SL, and for higher education institutions and educators

Meta-CLI configuration model for network device management

The astounding Internet revolution brings more and more new and sophisticated technologies and services, like: MPLS, VPN, QoS, RSVP, DiffServ, VLANs, bandwidth-on-demand, VoIP, etc. Moreover, the sheer number of elements in a net work is skyrocketing. For instance, an ISP may have to deal with hundreds of routers and thousands of interfaces. The diversity and heterogeneity of the network elements, domains, hierarchies, routing technologies, services and management policies gives yet another dimension to the problem. This manifold complexity poses new challenges to the network engineers and specialists. The error-prone and slow manual device configuration process involves risks like bringing the elements or the systems into undefined states or rendering them unreachable from the rest of the network and is ineffective when faced with the network's fast-growing size and heterogeneity. In this context, an integrated fabric of high- and low-level, complementary approaches is demanded, involving global- and domain-level, business policies, automated configuration, combined with outsourced policies, filtering techniques, fine-grained instance- or device-specific configuration approaches and policy error and conflict avoidance and resolution mechanisms. The report presents a configuration model which translates the manual command line information into meta-CLI constructs and allows the manipulation and composition of configurations, features, services and parameters, in order to facilitate service activation, support, invoking and monitoring, policy integration at different abstraction levels, allow better control, validation and verification, optimisation, operational efficiency and a more reliable, scalable, flexible and cost-effective configuration of the network resources and traffi

Understanding the internationalization of higher education as a policy process. The case of Romania

This doctoral thesis analyzes internationalization of higher education in Romania as a both an international norm diffusion process and as a discrete policy process, in a wider context of post-communist transition. It is conceived as a study of policy for policy, with the explicit aim of contributing to better decision-making at the national and institutional levels. As such, it is intended to facilitate a strategic pursuit of internationalization strategies in Romania, which may further inform our understanding of other similar (post-communist transition) national cases. The research objective is to understand the internationalization of higher education as a distinct policy process at the national and university level, by using a five-point star model of the policy field, which highlights the multiplicity of actors involved and acts as a ‘cat’s cradle’. A multi-theory approach for higher education governance is used for unpacking the complexity of this policy field. Stakeholder and resource dependency theories are employed for understanding the articulation of the interests, capacities and interactions between the actors, while discursive institutionalism is used to look at the role of ideas (norms) mobilized by actors to influence policy change and to construct policy frames. In terms of scope, the thesis addresses the rationales, drivers and impacts of internationalization of higher education, as well as its strategic use by relevant actors. The conclusion yields that internationalization in Romania, especially at the national level, is more a fruit of the existing context – the overall globalization trends, the Bologna Process and the EU pre- and post-accession policy processes – than a deliberate strategic pursuit based on either foresight or long term planning. Political and economic rationales are predominant, to the detriment of those linked to social and cultural considerations, given the competing pressures linked to the demographic downturn, reduced public funding to universities, the perceived need to ‘catch-up with Europe’ and the global competitiveness imperative. Another finding is that internationalization of higher education has never reached the stage of policy formulation at the national level and in most Romanian universities; it was used as a legitimating discourse within higher education reform, but a genuine commitment to comprehensive internationalization policies was lacking, leading to an over-reliance on European programs and a narrow focus on mobility and research partnerships. When looking at the agents of change, it can be inferred that success in pursuing internationalization activities was mostly influenced by policy entrepreneurs and leadership commitment and continuity, regardless of the institutional profile. At the same time, Romania has proven to be an exceptional laboratory for understanding internationalization as a distinctive public policy process within the higher education sector. This is due to the double centralization legacy of the higher education system (caused by its Napoleonic model of higher education system and the communist influence) and the over-sized influence of international actors in policy reform (e.g. UNESCO CEPES and the World Bank). A number of the overall conclusions, mainly aimed at improving decision-making at the national level, are also potentially relevant for a wider regional audience: the need to minimize the over-reliance on international funds and technical assistance of international organizations; limiting over-regulation based on international norms; and improving the national role in the global discussions on internationalization and fighting double discourse. This latter aspect points to the difficulties of replicating policy concepts across borders in a non-contextualized form, especially when domestic contexts differ significantly from the pioneering setting of a given policy

Conservative surgical treatment in cervical dysplastic lesions associated with cystorectocele

The treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia aims at removing the squamocolumnar junction area, including abnormal tissues, up to the healthy tissue. Old postpartum perineal tears associated with cystorectocele, hypertrophic cervical elongation, and first and second degree uterine prolapse are pelvic static disorders. Particular aspects of pelvic-genital static disorder are related to the vulnerability of the pelvic-perineal floor during birth. On the occasion of birth, especially when there are different forms of dystocia during labor, the degradation of soft pelvic, genital, and vaginal-perineal tissues can occur. The objective of this study was to re-evaluate the conservative treatment of cervical dysplasia, depending on the degree of cervical lesions, the surface extension, the age of the patients, and the pathology associated with cervical lesions – colpocele, cystorectocele, and urinary incontinence in the old postpartum perineal tears. In order to solve the three types of concomitant lesions, we used the Manchester operation: the anterior colporrhaphy with the recalibration of the urethra and the suspension of the cystocele, the minimal colpectomy, the lesional cervical amputation with the anterior fixation of the parameters, and the posterior colpoperineorrhaphy with high myorrhaphy of the levator ani muscles. The decision on the management of cervical dysplasia has taken into account the degree of cervical lesions, the extension on the surface, the patients’ age and the pregnancy planning, and the pathology associated with cervical lesions. The Manchester operation is a conservative surgical procedure, effective in women under 45 years old, multiparous, with present genital activity, with dysplastic cervical lesions and cystorectocele. It also solves cystorectocele, cervical dysplasia, hypertrophic cervical elongation, and first and second degree uterine prolapse

Solar wind interaction with a comet: evolution, variability, and implication

Once a cometary plasma cloud has been created through ionisation of the cometary neutrals, it presents an obstacle to the solar wind and the magnetic field within it. The acceleration and incorporation of the cometary plasma by the solar wind is a complex process that shapes the cometary plasma environment and is responsible for the creation of boundaries such as a bow shock and diamagnetic cavity boundary. It also gives rise to waves and electric fields which in turn contribute to the acceleration of the plasma. This chapter aims to provide an overview of how the solar wind is modified by the presence of the cometary plasma, and how the cometary plasma is incorporated into the solar wind. We will also discuss models and techniques widely used in the investigation of the plasma environment in the context of recent findings by Rosetta. In particular, this chapter highlights the richness of the processes and regions within this environment and how processes on small scales can shape boundaries on large scales. It has been fifteen years since the last book on Comets was published and since then we have made great advances in the field of cometary research. But many open questions remain which are listed and discussed with particular emphasis on how to advance the field of cometary plasma science through future space missions.Comment: Chapter 17 as part of book: Comets II

Making students active partners in the internationalisation efforts of higher education institutions

The institutional capacity to attain an international profile seems to be the standard by which con-temporary institutional leaders are judged. This article aims at capturing the student view on the internationalisation of higher education, stressing the opportunities, threats and challenges, while making a case for student involvement as a key element in designing and implementing successful internationalisation strategies at institutional level. The article’s viewpoint is based on the author’s two years of experience as Chairperson of the European Students’ Union, a one-year mandate as President of the National Alliance of Students Organisations in Romania and as a student in a uni-versity with a clear internationalisation commitment – the Constanta Maritime University. Some of the views presented in the article were voiced at the 2009 European University Association Autumn Conference in Giessen