Navigating global-local tensions in accountability/autonomy policies: Comparative case studies in 'Asian' universities

The twin policy domains of accountability and autonomy have featured in recent education reforms in many countries, signalling new relationships between governments and educational institutions. Despite different national and localised contexts, a number of common 'global' trends have been identified. However, simultaneously context-specific differences are also evident. For us, the concept of 'globalisation', when it implies policy homogenisation, is too blunt an instrument to critically analyse these major reforms. We would argue that there are still too few studies on globalisation processes grounded in detailed examinations of particular historical times and geographical spaces. Our research is located within the tensions between global commonalities and localised differences. This paper reports research on changing accountability and autonomy in higher education in three 'Asian' countries. Empirical data has been collected in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong and Singapore in an attempt to begin to redress a 'Western' hegemony in such research. Within each national context two different types of universities became case study sites for the analysis of both commonalities and differences in accountability and autonomy policies and practices. The current paper focuses in particular on the conceptual and methodological framings of the research and presents some preliminary findings

Iterative Equalization and Source Decoding for Vector Quantized Sources

In this contribution an iterative (turbo) channel equalization and source decoding scheme is considered. In our investigations the source is modelled as a Gaussian-Markov source, which is compressed with the aid of vector quantization. The communications channel is modelled as a time-invariant channel contaminated by intersymbol interference (ISI). Since the ISI channel can be viewed as a rate-1 encoder and since the redundancy of the source cannot be perfectly removed by source encoding, a joint channel equalization and source decoding scheme may be employed for enhancing the achievable performance. In our study the channel equalization and the source decoding are operated iteratively on a bit-by-bit basis under the maximum aposteriori (MAP) criterion. The channel equalizer accepts the a priori information provided by the source decoding and also extracts extrinsic information, which in turn acts as a priori information for improving the source decoding performance. Simulation results are presented for characterizing the achievable performance of the iterative channel equalization and source decoding scheme. Our results show that iterative channel equalization and source decoding is capable of achieving an improved performance by efficiently exploiting the residual redundancy of the vector quantization assisted source coding

Iterative Detection of Three-Stage Concatenated FFH-MFSK

Serially concatenated and iteratively decoded Irregular Variable Length Coding (IrVLC) combined with precoded Fast Frequency Hopping (FFH) M-ary Frequency Shift Keying (MFSK) is considered. We employ EXtrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) charts to investigate the 3-stage concatenation of the FFH-MFSK demodulator, the rate-1 decoder and the outer IrVLC decoder. The proposed joint source and channel coding scheme is capable of operating at low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) in Rayleigh fading channels contaminated by Partial Band Noise Jamming (PBNJ). The IrVLC scheme is comprised of a number of component Variable Length Coding (VLC) codebooks employing different coding rates for encoding particular fractions of the input source symbol stream. These fractions may be chosen with the aid of EXIT charts in order to shape the inverted EXIT curve of the IrVLC codec so that it can be matched with the EXIT curve of the inner decoder. We demonstrate that using the proposed scheme an infinitesimally low bit error ratio may be achieved at low SNR values

Diffusion and electron emission properties of duplex refractory metal thermionic emitters

Diffusion and electron emission properties of duplex refractory metal thermionic emitter

Entanglement Entropy and Mutual Information in Bose-Einstein Condensates

In this paper we study the entanglement properties of free {\em non-relativistic} Bose gases. At zero temperature, we calculate the bipartite block entanglement entropy of the system, and find it diverges logarithmically with the particle number in the subsystem. For finite temperatures, we study the mutual information between the two blocks. We first analytically study an infinite-range hopping model, then numerically study a set of long-range hopping models in one-deimension that exhibit Bose-Einstein condensation. In both cases we find that a Bose-Einstein condensate, if present, makes a divergent contribution to the mutual information which is proportional to the logarithm of the number of particles in the condensate in the subsystem. The prefactor of the logarithmic divergent term is model dependent.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Fuel and fission product transport through chemically vapor-deposited fluoride tungsten

Fuel and fission product transport through chemically vapor-deposited fluoride tungste

Degenerate states of narrow semiconductor rings in the presence of spin orbit coupling: Role of time-reversal and large gauge transformations

The electron Hamiltonian of narrow semiconductor rings with the Rashba and Dresselhaus spin orbit terms is invariant under time-reversal operation followed by a large gauge transformation. We find that all the eigenstates are doubly degenerate when integer or half-integer quantum fluxes thread the quantum ring. The wavefunctions of a degenerate pair are related to each other by the symmetry operation. These results are valid even in the presence of a disorder potential. When the Zeeman term is present only some of these degenerate levels anticross

Development of chemically vapor deposited rhenium emitters of (0001) preferred crystal orientation

Rhenium thermionic emitters were prepared by the pyrolysis of rhenium chlorides formed by the chlorination of rhenium pellets. The impurity contents, microstructures, degrees of (0001) preferred crystal orientation, and vacuum electron work functions of these emitters were determined as a function of deposition parameters, such as substrate temperature, rhenium pellet temperature and chlorine flow rate. A correlation between vacuum electron work function and degree of (0001) preferred crystal orientation was established. Conditions for depositing porosity-free rhenium emitters of high vacuum electron work functions were defined. Finally, three cylindrical rhenium emitters were prepared under the optimum deposition conditions

Downlink Steered Space-Time Spreading Assisted Generalised Multicarrier DS-CDMA Using Sphere-Packing-Aided Multilevel Coding

This paper presents a novel generalised Multi-Carrier Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (MC DS-CDMA) system invoking smart antennas for improving the achievable performance in the downlink, as well as employing multi-dimensional Sphere Packing (SP) modulation for increasing the achievable diversity product. In this contribution, the MC DS-CDMA transmitter considered employs multiple Antenna Arrays (AA) and each of the AAs consists of several antenna elements. Furthermore, the proposed system employs both time- and frequency- (TF) domain spreading for extending the achievable capacity, when combined with a novel user-grouping technique for reducing the effects of Multiuser Interference (MUI). Moreover, in order to further enhance the system’s performance, we invoke a MultiLevel Coding (MLC) scheme, whose component codes are determined using the so-called equivalent capacity based constituent-code rate-calculation procedure invoking a 4-dimensional bit-to-SP-symbol mapping scheme. Our results demonstrate an approximately 3.8 dB Eb/N0 gain over an identical throughput scheme dispensing with SP modulation at a BER of 10?5