The Path to Prosperity in Afghanistan and Central Asia: Obstacles at the Crossroads

Despite America’s lengthy nation-building project in Afghanistan, many Afghans still lack the basic resources and security necessary for a viable nation. Furthermore, the insecurity in Afghanistan is increasingly spilling over into their neighbors, stressing an already fragile region. While we in the West have largely forgotten Afghanistan, its neighbors look on with trepidation as they prepare for potential unrest. With vast amounts of natural resources and increased competition between the Russians and Chinese over the region, Afghanistan and its insecurity could lead to continued Central Asian economic and political stagnation. Despite the dangers in failure, inconsistent action and a destabilizing mission have plagued the U.S. Afghanistan mission for ten years. If the U.S. is going to continue to be involved in state building operations, a holistic plan that integrates cultural, political, military and economic policies must be implemented and dynamically updated to suit the prevailing conditions. While the road to a stable Afghanistan will be difficult, it is possible. Admitting defeat now will only create a more costly and chaotic future for Afghanistan and its neighbors that we may not be able to afford

Anion-Tuning of Supramolecular Gel Properties

Low molecular weight gelators (LMWGs) are a class of compounds that has garnered great interest from material, synthetic, supramolecular and biological chemists. Anion tuning of these supramolecular gels is a burgeoning field of study. Two classes of compounds, chiral bisureas and urea derivatised pyrazoles are studied. The synthesized chiral bisurea compounds act as gelators in a variety of solvents. Addition of anions in the form of tetrabutyl ammonium salts was found to afford break up of the gels. Studies reveal that the rheological characteristics of these materials can be tuned using the simple addition of sub-stoichiometric amounts of anion. Variation in the length of the alkyl chain of the spacer separating the chiral and bisurea moieties affects the gel formation of a series of related compounds. Compounds with even numbered spaced alkyl chains were found to gel, whereas the odd numbered spaced alkyl chain compounds did not. Crystal growth within the gel matrix influences the crystallization processes and the use of anion induced break down of the LMWGs allows for easy recovery of the grown crystals. Drug compounds, bound upon gelation of a solution containing the drugs, were found to be released in a controlled manner from the gel matrix. Urea functionalised pyrazoles were synthesized. Crystallographic determination of the hydrogen bonding of the compounds as well as the coordination chemistry of these compounds was obtained. Anion binding studies, in addition to the crystallographic results, reveal that the urea or thiourea groups form an intramolecular hydrogen bond with the pyrazole group resulting in an anti conformation. This prevents formation of gels except in one case. The gelation of 1-(3-methyl-1H-pyrazol-5-yl)-3-(3-nitrophenyl)urea in acidic water overcomes this problem by protonation of the pyrazole group resulting in a syn conformation of the urea group. Anion tuning of the gel properties is revealed where nitrate and chloride result in precipitation of gels and the rheological characteristics can be tuned by changing the anion’s identity

AUTOMATED DIESEL ENGINE CONDITION & PERFORMANCE MONITORING & THE APPLICATION OF NEURAL NETWORKS TO FAULT DIAGNOSIS

The overall aim of this research was to design, configure and validate a system which was capable of on-line performance monitoring and fault diagnosis of a diesel engine. This thesis details the development and evaluation of a comprehensive engine test facility and automated engine performance monitoring package. Results of a diesel engine fault study were used to ascertain commonly occurring faults and their realistic severities are discussed. The research shows how computer simulation and rig testing can be applied to validate the effects of faults on engine performance and quantify fault severities. A substantial amount of engine test work has been conducted to investigate the effects of various faults on high speed diesel engine performance. A detailed analysis of the engine test data has led to the development of explicit fault-symptom relationships and the identification of key sensors that may be fitted to a diesel engine for diagnostic purposes. The application of a neural network based approach to diesel engine fault diagnosis has been investigated. This work has included an assessment of neural network performance at engine torques and speeds where it was not trained, noisy engine data, faulty sensor data, varying fault severities and novel faults which were similar to those which the network had been trained on. The work has shown that diagnosis using raw neural network outputs under operational conditions would be inadequate. To overcome these inadequacies a new technique using an on-line diagnostic database incorporating 'weight adjusting' and 'confidence factor' algorithms has been developed and validated. The results show a neural network combined with an on-line diagnostic database can be successfully used for practical diesel engine fault diagnosis to offer a realistic alternative to current fault diagnosis techniques.The Ministry Of Defenc

Parallel-propagating Fluctuations at Proton-kinetic Scales in the Solar Wind are Dominated by Kinetic Instabilities

We use magnetic helicity to characterise solar wind fluctuations at proton-kinetic scales from Wind observations. For the first time, we separate the contributions to helicity from fluctuations propagating at angles quasi-parallel and oblique to the local mean magnetic field, $\mathbf{B}_0$. We find that the helicity of quasi-parallel fluctuations is consistent with Alfv\'en-ion cyclotron and fast magnetosonic-whistler modes driven by proton temperature anisotropy instabilities and the presence of a relative drift between $\alpha$-particles and protons. We also find that the helicity of oblique fluctuations has little dependence on proton temperature anisotropy and is consistent with fluctuations from the anisotropic turbulent cascade. Our results show that parallel-propagating fluctuations at proton-kinetic scales in the solar wind are dominated by proton temperature anisotropy instabilities and not the turbulent cascade. We also provide evidence that the behaviour of fluctuations at these scales is independent of the origin and macroscopic properties of the solar wind.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL. 6 Pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Cultural democracy at the frontiers of patronage:public-interest art versus promotional culture

In Brave New World Revisited Aldous Huxley observed that ‘genius has been the servant of tyranny and art has advertised the merits of the local cult’ (Huxley 1958). Regarding the complex relationship between art and society, Huxley argued that democracies need to identify good art in the making rather than retrospectively. Drawing also on Raymond Williams’ analysis of the limits imposed on dialogue by representative democracy (Williams 1980), this article considers the data from our pilot ethnography on the prospects for cultural democracy in the arts. Private patronage and largely unaccountable interests presently influence the use of public money; spending is guided towards the logic of individual or organisational self-promotion and an overwhelmingly promotional culture which serves different types of governance, whether authoritarian or democratic. By incorporating private patronage and non-western gift-economics many critical dialogues springing from the arts are contoured by their origins in elite social and political courtship (Bourdieu 1977; Burke [1790] 1997; Schiller [1794] 1994). Here we show how aesthetics remain a key to twenty-first century statecraft. Noting the effects of top-down patronage, whether in the direct manipulation of dialogue or in the more indirect tailoring of critique, the premise of our research is that if widening participation in the arts matters, it matters first and foremost in decision making about spending. Our study tests the deliberative capacities of randomised citizen juries as patrons financially empowered to commission public-interest arts projects on controversial themes and across contested frontiers of sovereignty or cultural identity. We consider our initial findings from the comparison of deliberation in non-randomised control groups and in randomised juries. We discuss the potentially positive role of randomised citizen juries as ‘jolts’ of equality and pluralism at the level of cultural governance (Connolly 2017). We also outline the main political, institutional, and professional blockages and impediments to the democratic integration of such empowered dialogical encounters

Cultural democracy at the frontiers of patronage:public-interest art versus promotional culture

In Brave New World Revisited Aldous Huxley observed that ‘genius has been the servant of tyranny and art has advertised the merits of the local cult’ (Huxley 1958). Regarding the complex relationship between art and society, Huxley argued that democracies need to identify good art in the making rather than retrospectively. Drawing also on Raymond Williams’ analysis of the limits imposed on dialogue by representative democracy (Williams 1980), this article considers the data from our pilot ethnography on the prospects for cultural democracy in the arts. Private patronage and largely unaccountable interests presently influence the use of public money; spending is guided towards the logic of individual or organisational self-promotion and an overwhelmingly promotional culture which serves different types of governance, whether authoritarian or democratic. By incorporating private patronage and non-western gift-economics many critical dialogues springing from the arts are contoured by their origins in elite social and political courtship (Bourdieu 1977; Burke [1790] 1997; Schiller [1794] 1994). Here we show how aesthetics remain a key to twenty-first century statecraft. Noting the effects of top-down patronage, whether in the direct manipulation of dialogue or in the more indirect tailoring of critique, the premise of our research is that if widening participation in the arts matters, it matters first and foremost in decision making about spending. Our study tests the deliberative capacities of randomised citizen juries as patrons financially empowered to commission public-interest arts projects on controversial themes and across contested frontiers of sovereignty or cultural identity. We consider our initial findings from the comparison of deliberation in non-randomised control groups and in randomised juries. We discuss the potentially positive role of randomised citizen juries as ‘jolts’ of equality and pluralism at the level of cultural governance (Connolly 2017). We also outline the main political, institutional, and professional blockages and impediments to the democratic integration of such empowered dialogical encounters

Early education pilot for two year old children : evaluation

This report provides the findings of the evaluation of the early education pilot for disadvantaged two year old children (the pilot). This study aimed to assess the impact of the pilot by looking at: how well the pilot was targeted, parents’ experiences of taking up a pilot place, the quality of the pilot settings, the impact on the children’s behaviour, and parents’ views and experiences of using a pilot place. The pilot provided free early years education to over 13,500 disadvantaged two year olds between 2006 and 2008. The main purpose of the pilot was to improve children’s social and cognitive outcomes, e.g. their social confidence and independence, and their verbal skills and reasoning ability. Additional aims were to have a positive impact on children’s parents and wider family e.g. on the relationship between parents and their children, or on parent’s emotional wellbeing. The funding offered these children 7.5 or in a small number of local authorities 12.5 hours of early years education per week for 38 weeks of the year. The pilot places were available in a variety of early years settings e.g. nurseries, play groups and with childminders, but all were required to operate the Birth to Three Matters curriculum.© National Centre for Social Research 2009. The full text of this report is not available in ORA. You may be able to access the report at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-education-pilot-for-2-year-old-children-evaluation (URL checked 26 March 2014) or via the publication website link above

Assessing and addressing domestic abuse by Ex-armed service personnel

In the context that separate peer-led services are increasingly being developed to meet the needs of Ex-armed service personnel (Ex-asp) in the criminal justice system, we explore whether such services should also be developed to address any tendencies towards domestic abuse. Based on interviews with 12 imprisoned Ex-asp and 10 service affiliated informants working with them, we found domestic abuse is not always recognised as a potential problem for Ex-asp. Nonetheless, respondents suggested that interventions to address the potential for domestic abuse by some Ex-asp would be useful and legitimate if they are provided by those with service affiliations. Considering our findings, however, we strike a note of caution about separate and peer-led approaches becoming the default option for working with Ex-asp in the criminal justice system. We suggest the gendered nature of military culture may be associated with concerns about the implications of re-engaging Ex-asp with their military identities. Moreover, being steeped in military culture, we suggest that without training some service affiliated staff may be unsighted on important aspects that the role gender expectancies play in domestic abuse and poorly placed to respond appropriately to this type of offending

An independent audit of the Australian food industry\u27s voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labelling scheme for energy-dense nutrition-poor foods

Background/Objective: Since 2006, the Australian food industry has promoted its front-of-pack (FOP) food labelling system-the Daily Intake Guide (DIG)-as a success story of industry self-regulation. With over 4000 products already voluntary featuring the DIG, the industry argues that government regulation of FOP nutrition labelling is simply unnecessary. However, no independent audit of the industry\u27s self-regulation has ever been undertaken and we present the first such Australian data. Subjects/Methods: Energy-dense nutrient-poor (EDNP) snacks were audited at nine Australian supermarkets, including biscuits, candy, ice creams, chocolates, crisps, sports drinks, energy drinks, flavoured milks, sweetened juices and soft drinks. In these categories nutrition labels were recorded for 728 EDNP products in various packaging sizes. Results: The DIG was displayed on 66% of audited EDNP products but most of these (75%) did not report saturated fat and sugar content. Only generic supermarket EDNP products were likely to display saturated fat and sugar content, compared with very few branded products (48% vs 4%, P\u3c0.001). Branded products not displaying fat and sugar content contained on average 10-times more saturated fat than those displaying such (10% vs 1% DI, P\u3c0.001) and nearly twice as much sugar (21 vs 13% DI, P\u3c0.05). Conclusions: Most Australian manufacturers of EDNP products have adopted the DIG; consistent with industry claims of widespread adoption, but almost all still avoid displaying the high saturated fat and sugar content of their products by opting for the \u27energy alone\u27 option, violating the industry\u27s own voluntarily guidelines and highlighting serious weaknesses with the industry\u27s self-regulation