Siapakah Pemimpin yang Memberdayakan?

Seorang artis yang bernama Georgette Leblanc pernah menyatakan kalimat sederhana dan tajam berkenaan dengan pemberdayaan. Katanya “All the goodness, beauty, and perfection of a human being belong to the one who knows how to recognize these qualities”. Orang-orang yang berkualitas akan menjadi milik kita yang mampu memberdayakannya dengan baik juga setiap kualitas-kualitas yang mereka miliki. Pertanyaan selanjutnya bagi kita adalah bagaimana kita memberdayakan orang-orang disekitar kita (rumah, kantor, masyarakat) supaya kualitas-kualitas individu bisa bermunculan untuk mencapai tujuan spesifik yang telah ditentukan bersama

Daya Prediksi Laba dan Aliran Kas (Studi Empiris pada Perusahaan Manufaktur di Bursa Efek Indonesia Periode 2005-2009)

This study provides information on predictive ability of annual earnings and cash flow from op-eration numbers. We obtained a sample of 42 BEI (Bursa Efek Indonesia) listed companies and 168  observation,  year-end  firms  from  2005  to  2009.  We  find  that  both  cashflows  and  earnings numbers have substantially predictive  ability for  future cashflows. Furthermore, this study doc-uments that cashflows numbers have more predictive ability  for future cashflows than earnings and the result are robust.  &nbsp

On binary correlations of multiplicative functions

We study logarithmically averaged binary correlations of bounded multiplicative functions $g_1$ and $g_2$. A breakthrough on these correlations was made by Tao, who showed that the correlation average is negligibly small whenever $g_1$ or $g_2$ does not pretend to be any twisted Dirichlet character, in the sense of the pretentious distance for multiplicative functions. We consider a wider class of real-valued multiplicative functions $g_j$, namely those that are uniformly distributed in arithmetic progressions to fixed moduli. Under this assumption, we obtain a discorrelation estimate, showing that the correlation of $g_1$ and $g_2$ is asymptotic to the product of their mean values. We derive several applications, first showing that the number of large prime factors of $n$ and $n+1$ are independent of each other with respect to the logarithmic density. Secondly, we prove a logarithmic version of the conjecture of Erd\H{o}s and Pomerance on two consecutive smooth numbers. Thirdly, we show that if $Q$ is cube-free and belongs to the Burgess regime $Q\leq x^{4-\varepsilon}$, the logarithmic average around $x$ of the real character $\chi \pmod{Q}$ over the values of a reducible quadratic polynomial is small.Comment: 33 pages; Referee comments incorporated; To appear in Forum Math. Sigm

Lifelong Learning

Media  cetak  dan  elektronik  sering  memberitakan  mengenai  kerinduan  para  orang  tua  untuk memiliki  anak  yang  senang  belajar,  tidak  jarang  kita  menemukan  praktik  pemaksaan  proses pembelajaran bagi anak  karena keinginan orang tua. Pada sisi  yang lain,  anak juga merindukan praktik  nyata  para  orang  tua  dalam  menunjukkan  bukti  bahwa  belajar  merupakan  suatu kesenangan di sepanjang hidupnya. Kenyataan ini menunjukkan kepada kita mengenai paradoks dalam pembelajaran. Masyarakat pada umumnya merindukan proses pembelajaran di sepanjang hidup,  tetapi  tidak  banyak  yang  mempraktikannya.  Melalui  tulisan  ini,  Penulis  mengajak  para membaca  untuk  menemukan  arti  penting  proses  pembelajaran  di  sepanjang  hidup  dan mempraktikan  gaya  hidup  pembelajar  sehingga  mampu  membangun  budaya  belajar  seumur hidup di lingkungan keluarga, kampus, dan masyarakat

Quo Vadis PSAK 1 ?

Laporan keuangan merupakan salah satu alat komunikasi antara pihak manajemen Perusahaan dengan pihak luar, baik investor, kreditor, karyawan, dan lain-lainnya. Alat komunikasi ini akan menjadi efektif apabila dibaca dengan menggunakan standar yang sama antara pengirim informasi dan penerimanya. Standar yang kita gunakan sekarang di Indonesia untuk membuat laporan keuangan adalah PSAK (Pernyataan Standar Akuntansi Keuangan) yang dibuat oleh DSAK (Dewan Standar Akuntansi Keuangan). Harapannya dengan standar yang sama ini akan membuat laporan keuangan sebagai alat komunikasi menjadi efektif. Pembahasan tulisan ini akan memberikan perhatian pada PSAK No.1 (revisi 2009) mengenai dasar penyajian laporan keuangan dalam meningkatkan kemampuan banding laporan keuangan antar Perusahaan. PSAK 1 (revisi 2009) ini merupakan PSAK hasil revisi dari PSAK 1 (revisi 1998) dan merupakan hasil adopsi Internasional Financial Reporting Standar (IFRS) yang dibuat oleh International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) pada tahun 2009

Practical approaches to exploiting body dynamics in robot motor control

Motor control systems in the brain of humans and mammals are hierarchically organised, with each level controlling increasingly complex motor actions. Each level is controlled by the higher levels and also receives sensory and/or proprioceptive feedback. Through learning, this hierarchical structure adapts to its body, its sensors and the way these interact with the environment. An even more integrated view is taken in morphological or embodied computation. On the one hand, there is both biological and mechanical (robotics) evidence that a properly chosen body morphology can drastically facilitate control when the body dynamics naturally generate low level motion primitives. On the other hand, several papers have used robot bodies as reservoirs in a reservoir computing setup. In some cases, reservoir computing was used as an easy way to obtain robust linear feedback controllers for locomotion. In other cases, the body dynamics of soft robots were shown to perform general computations in response to some input stimulation. In general, very specific highly compliant bodies were used. At Ghent University’s Reservoir Lab, we have previously used reservoir computing to generate locomotion on quite different robot platforms: the highly compliant tensegrity robot Recter and the far less compliant quadruped robot Oncilla and a new low cost modular quadruped puppy robot. In all cases, we succeeded in generating stable gaits. However, not surprisingly, not all robot bodies are equally suitable to help generating their own motor actuations. As a result, the reservoir computing principle alone was not always sufficient. We present an overview of our experience with these different robot platforms and give practical guidelines for applying physical reservoir computing to new robots. We finally discuss some perspectives on a more systematic evaluation between body morphology, compliance and the complexity of generating stable gaits for locomotion

Partially embodied motor control: towards a natural collaboration between body and brain

Motor control systems in the brain humans and mammals are hierarchically organised, with each level controlling increasingly complex motor actions. Each level is controlled by the higher levels and also receives sensory and/or proprioceptive feedback. Through learning, this hierarchical structure adapts to its body, its sensors and the way these interact with the environment. An even more integrated view is taken in morphological or embodied computation. On the one hand, there is both biological and mechanical (robotics) evidence that a properly chosen body morphology can drastically facilitate control when the body dynamics naturally generate low level motion primitives. On the other hand, several papers have used physical bodies as reservoirs in a reservoir computing setup. In some cases, reservoir computing was used as an easy way to obtain robust linear feedback controllers for locomotion. In other cases, the body dynamics of soft robots were shown to perform general computations in response to some input stimulation. In general, very specific highly compliant bodies were used. We present recent results on two open questions regarding the way morphological computation could be exploited in biological motor control. Generally, when reservoir computing has been used to exploit body dynamics for computation, the desired output signals were known. Clearly, in biological locomotion, the learning does not enforce specific muscle actuation signals. Instead, it rewards desirable forms of motion and penalizes undesirable ones. We show how a biologically plausible learning rule, reward modulated Hebbian learning, can enable the incorporation of compliant body dynamics into the control hierarchy, resulting in robust motor control. Despite the many successes with using physical bodies as reservoirs, the relationship between compliance and computational power has hardly been investigated. Although biological bodies are partially compliant, they also have a very specific structure and many rigid parts. It therefore remains unclear to what extent this type of bodies can help in motor control. In our research, we use compliant four legged robots to address this issue. We present first results that indicate that for such robots, linear feedback of proprioceptive signals alone is often not sufficient to result in stable gait control. In addition, a first comparison of different levels of compliance indicate that a well chosen level of compliance can drastically simplify motor control, compared to both, too little and too much compliance, and that the body should therefore be considered as an integral part of the control

Investigation of rainfall data with regard to low-level wind flow regime for east central Florida

Previous research has been conducted to investigate the effect of the low-level wind region on summertime convective storms in the east central Florida area. These effects were described by analyzing the distribution of lightning flashes within classifications based on the low-level wind regime for the months June through September of 1987 to 1990. The present research utilizes the same classification strategy to study rainfall patterns for data gathered for the CaPE (Convection and Precipitation/Electrification Experiment) field program. The CaPE field program was conducted in east central Florida from July 8, 1991 to August 18, 1991

Immigrant experience: the relation between skin color and pay

There is considerable evidence of discriminatory treatment of immigrants in employment and access to housing, and the author’s research suggests that factors such as height and darkness of skin may influence how immigrants are treated.Immigrants ; Discrimination in employment ; Discrimination in housing