Structural Characteristics of the Semanggol Formation Along the East-West Highway Route 67 Baling Area, Kedah, Malaysia

The amounts of structural data available from the East-West Highway Route 67 of Baling Area have been used to unravel the structural characteristics of the Semanggol Formation, which comprises black mudstone, sandstone, tuffaceous sandstone, tuff, paraconglomerate, siliceous shale and chert. The area was cut by two sets of faults trending NW-SE and NE-SW. The main fault in this area is known as Bok Bak fault that is trending NW-SE and have moderately to steeply dips (40o-88o) as compared to the conjugate faults. Two sets of folds trending NE-SW and NW-SE were also identified in this area, where most of them are symmetrical fold with gentle to open fold varies from non-plunging to nearly moderately plunging folds. Most of the faults have parallel orientation to the fold axis, indicated this pattern probably originated at the same period of deformation due to warping and uplifting. Sejumlah data struktur geologi yang terdapat di sepanjang jalur tol Timur-Barat rute 67 daerah Baling telah digunakan untuk menguraikan karakteristik struktur dari Formasi Semanggol yang terdiri atas batu lempung hitam, batu pasir, batu pasir tufaan, tuf, para-konglomerat, batu serpih yang mengandungi silika dan batu rijang. Daerah ini dipotong oleh dua pasang patahan utama yang berarah NW-SE dan NE-SW. Sesar utama di kawasan ini dikenal sebagai Sesar Bok Bak dengan arah NW-SE dan kemiringan sedang hingga curam (40o-88o) sebanding dengan sesar konjugasinya. Dua pasang lipatan berarah NE-SW dan NW-SE juga dapat diidentifikasi di kawasan ini dimana sebagian besar dari lipatan tersebut merupakan lipatan simetri yang landai hingga terbuka dan bervariasi dari sudut penunjamannya dari tidak menunjam sama sekali hingga menunjam sedang. Kebanyakan dari sesar ini berorientasi sejajar dengan sumbu lipatan, mengindikasikan bahwa model ini kemungkinan terbentuk pada periode yang sama dengan proses terjadinya deformasi disebabkan oleh proses pelengkungan dan pengangkatan

Anisotropic Dirac fermions in a Bi square net of SrMnBi2

We report the highly anisotropic Dirac fermions in a Bi square net of SrMnBi2, based on a first principle calculation, angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy, and quantum oscillations for high-quality single crystals. We found that the Dirac dispersion is generally induced in the (SrBi)+ layer containing a double-sized Bi square net. In contrast to the commonly observed isotropic Dirac cone, the Dirac cone in SrMnBi2 is highly anisotropic with a large momentum-dependent disparity of Fermi velocities of ~ 8. These findings demonstrate that a Bi square net, a common building block of various layered pnictides, provide a new platform that hosts highly anisotropic Dirac fermions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

A Year of Hijacking of Budgets by the Elite, Bypassing Public Welfare: End of Year Notes and Reflections by SEKNAS FITRA on Budget Year 2011

2011 was a year of budget hijacking by Indonesia's political and bureaucratic elite to the detriment of public welfare. An important factor at play in this situation was increasing “budget mafia” activity, evident in corruption cases within the Ministries of Youth & Sport and Labor & Transmigration; and in confirmation of charges against members of the Budget Committee (Banggar) of the House of Representatives (DPR) as accomplices in those cases. This turn of events confirms that Banggar has become a springboard for budget mafia activity. And, this year, hijacking of budgets has taken place in broad daylight with funds from the public purse being openly squandered on activities of benefit to political and bureaucratic leaders. Proposed construction of a new DPR building has a bad smell about it; purchase of a Presidential aircraft makes no sense; burdens of debt weigh more heavily on citizens; and official travel votes have become like feeding troughs for bureaucrats. All of this has amounted to nothing less than a hijacking of the State budget acted out in full public view. Hijacking of Indonesia's budgets continues because of Indonesia's weak law enforcement regime and because budget processes remain closed. Thus, in comparison to the amount spent on corruption eradication, the value of embezzled assets returned to the public purse is modest. The overall situation was made worse by the predilection of public institutions—especially ministries, agencies and political parties—not to be open about budgetary information. This derailing of budgetary funds has had implications for expenditure on education and health—both of which continued to be ineffective. Although government has managed to spend 20% of budgetary resources on education, education budgets have, at the same time, become a dumping ground for all sorts of activities. Moreover, at the central level, education funding is dispersed across 19 ministries and agencies and almost half of it is being appropriated for payment of salaries. Government is also not meeting its legal obligation to spend 5% of budgetary resources on health. It is no surprise, therefore, that Indonesia's Human Development Index (HDI)—which encompasses education and health—declined in 2011. The elite's hijacking of budgets has also led to neglect of public welfare in regions. A principal cause of this has been distortions of the system for fiscal transfers from the central government to regions (known as dana perimbangan). Those distortions have impacted badly on regional budgetary processes. Indeed, it is the fiscal transfers system itself that is acting as a catalyst for increased civil service spending in regions and for promotion of even more fiscal imbalance among regions. Around half of Indonesia's sub-national (regional) governments are appropriating more than 50% of their budgets to fund civil service costs. This situation was made worse by increased levels of misappropriation of regional funds—evident from national Audit Board reports. FITRA's projections and recommendations for 2012 reflect the assessment that budgets for 2012 are unlikely to be very different to those of 2011. Budget processes are still on a business-as-usual footing. Hijacking of budgets by the elite and neglect of public welfare will continue unless government completely revamps current pro-“rent-seeking” budgetary processes. And, as the next general election approaches, budget mafias will peddle their wares even more actively as they become players in political contests. According to FITRA's projections, State budget funding of civil service costs will continue to blow out in 2012 without any improvement of service provided or any diminution in the level of misappropriated funds. 2012 State funding for education will continue to resemble a dumping ground for sundry activities. The legal requirement to spend 5% of budgetary resources on health will, yet again, not be met. And national Audit Board reporting will continue to be little more than an annual ritual that cannot be counted on to improve the quality of budgetary spending. To put a stop to budget mafia operations, budget processes need to be totally revamped. Above all else, budgetary processes need to be open. To achieve that, the Law on State Finances needs to be revised to ensure in particular that it contains specific provisions fleshing out the Constitutional mandate that State budgets “shall be implemented in an open and accountable manner in order to best attain the prosperity of the people”. In addition, corruption eradication efforts should focus on the return of State assets to the public purse by those found guilty of embezzling them. Both the President and the DPR should become agents for change—to make budgets more efficient—and should refrain from deriving personal benefit from State-financed facilities. Revision of the regional fiscal transfers system must also be a priority. That system should squarely focus on realizing fundamental civic rights by reducing per capita fiscal inequalities among regions. The system's policy framework should therefore facilitate more efficient spending on regional civil services and promote greater prosperity for the people

Behind the Glitz of the 2010 Budget

At the end of every year, it is important to reflect upon and evaluate the quality of national budget policies. The National Secretariat of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Seknas FITRA), together with its network of budget advocacy units across Indonesia, has consistently provided annual reports on budget performance. Such reports are an important part of its budget transparency work program and its effort to realize popular sovereignty over national budgets 2010 was the first year of President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY)'s second term of office following his re-election in 2009. In this second term, SBY should be able to be more resolute in his espousal of good budget policies and should not accord any priority to maintaining his political image. The principal emphases in the 2010 State budget (APBN 2010) were that it should promote “national economic recovery and boost community welfare”. But all that turned out to be mere rhetoric. The reality was that the budget was further removed than ever from the mandate of Article 23 of the Consititution that national budgets “shall be implemented in an open and accountable manner in order to best attain the prosperity of the people”. Instead of being used to promote the public interest, 40.7% of the 2010 APBN was consumed by routine expenditure on the bureaucracy and top echelons of the civil service. Furthermore, Rp 162.6 trillion of that 40.7% was spent on civil service costs, Rp 19.5 trillion on official travel and Rp 153.6 trillion on payment of interest on loans or loan repayments

ASSESSMENT OF ALPHA RADIOACTIVITY IN SOME ANIMAL BONES SAMPLES WITH TWO SSNTDS (CR-39 AND CN-85)

Solid State nuclear track detectors (SSNTDs) are extensively applied in diverse disci-plines of technical charged particle detection implementation

Emergent dynamic chirality in a thermally driven artificial spin ratchet

Modern nanofabrication techniques have opened the possibility to create novel functional materials, whose properties transcend those of their constituent elements. In particular, tuning the magnetostatic interactions in geometrically frustrated arrangements of nanoelements called artificial spin ice1, 2 can lead to specific collective behaviour3, including emergent magnetic monopoles4, 5, charge screening6, 7 and transport8, 9, as well as magnonic response10, 11, 12. Here, we demonstrate a spin-ice-based active material in which energy is converted into unidirectional dynamics. Using X-ray photoemission electron microscopy we show that the collective rotation of the average magnetization proceeds in a unique sense during thermal relaxation. Our simulations demonstrate that this emergent chiral behaviour is driven by the topology of the magnetostatic field at the edges of the nanomagnet array, resulting in an asymmetric energy landscape. In addition, a bias field can be used to modify the sense of rotation of the average magnetization. This opens the possibility of implementing a magnetic Brownian ratchet13, 14, which may find applications in novel nanoscale devices, such as magnetic nanomotors, actuators, sensors or memory cells

Carbon Isotopes Near Drip Lines in the Relativistic Mean-Field Theory

We have investigated the ground-state properties of carbon isotopes in the framework of the relativistic mean-field (RMF) theory. RMF calculations have been performed with the non-linear scalar self-coupling of the $\sigma$ meson using an axially symmetric deformed configuration. We have also introduced the vector self-coupling of the $\omega$ meson for the deformed mean-field calculations. The results show that the RMF predictions on radii and deformations are in good agreement with the available experimental data. It is shown that several carbon isotopes possess a highly deformed shape akin to a superdeformation. The single-particle structure of nuclei away from the stability line has been discussed with a view to understand the properties near the neutron drip line. Predictions of properties of carbon isotopes away from the stability line are made.Comment: Revtex, 29 pages, 11 postscript figures include