Confucius Institute at Universitas Al Azhar, Jakarta the Unseen Power of China

China's soft power is a difficult concept to measure if the Confucius Institute is the only source relied on. Joseph Nye's concept of soft power puts a strong emphasis on “the power of attraction” as a tool to persuade or “to shape the preferences of others” in the worlds of business and politics. To understand how this soft power - or the Confucius Institute - works, we have to determine the “observable” power of the “intangible” attraction embedded in it. This observable but intangible attraction is assumed to be “embedded”in the language and culture offered by the Institute, namely so-called “shared values”. However, without having attended its classes, it is difficult to see which values are being shared with the local students. Despite this handicap, it is very apparent that the image of China itself has acted as an attraction. An attraction to China was visible already, even before the Confucius Institute was established. For Indonesians, China is a big country which has exerted its power there for a long time through its diaspora and/or exports. Therefore, the Confucius Institute is just one of the many forms of Chinese-ness within their purview. Certainly, the Confucius Institute might have assisted in adjusting negative impressions and expelling some of the reservations the Indonesians have about China. Nevertheless, its influence extends to only a limited number of people who are closely engaged with the Institute

Heterogeneity, Politics of Ethnicity, and Multiculturalism What is a Viable Framework for Indonesia?

Indonesia is a plural society that consists of several hundred ethnic and sub-ethnic groups. One of its generic characteristics is heterogeneity. In the last ten years after the implementation of regional autonomy, we have witnessed the emergence of strong ethnic and religiously flavoured local identity politics in various places in Indonesia that created open and vicious conflicts. This periodical violence exploded especially during the election of district and provincial heads. The intimate relation multiculturalism, with the actual political praxis of everyday life as an alternative to the existing paradigm of the “homogenization” of nationhood, has not been discussed. I believe it is time to discuss the strategic junctures between heterogeneity, politics of ethnicity (and religion) and multiculturalism as well as their possible realization at the local and national levels in order to find a viable framework for a future Indonesia

The cytoplasmic adaptor protein Caskin mediates Lar signal transduction during Drosophila motor axon guidance

The multiprotein complexes that receive and transmit axon pathfinding cues during development are essential to circuit generation. Here, we identify and characterize the Drosophila sterile α-motif (SAM) domain-containing protein Caskin, which shares homology with vertebrate Caskin, a CASK [calcium/calmodulin-(CaM)-activated serine-threonine kinase]-interacting protein. Drosophila caskin (ckn) is necessary for embryonic motor axon pathfinding and interacts genetically and physically with the leukocyte common antigen-related (Lar) receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase. In vivo and in vitro analyses of a panel of ckn loss-of-function alleles indicate that the N-terminal SAM domain of Ckn mediates its interaction with Lar. Like Caskin, Liprin-α is a neuronal adaptor protein that interacts with Lar via a SAM domain-mediated interaction. We present evidence that Lar does not bind Caskin and Liprin-α concurrently, suggesting they may assemble functionally distinct signaling complexes on Lar. Furthermore, a vertebrate Caskin homolog interacts with LAR family members, arguing that the role of ckn in Lar signal transduction is evolutionarily conserved. Last, we characterize several ckn mutants that retain Lar binding yet display guidance defects, implying the existence of additional Ckn binding partners. Indeed, we identify the SH2/SH3 adaptor protein Dock as a second Caskin-binding protein and find that Caskin binds Lar and Dock through distinct domains. Furthermore, whereas ckn has a nonredundant function in Lar-dependent signaling during motor axon targeting, ckn and dock have overlapping roles in axon outgrowth in the CNS. Together, these studies identify caskin as a neuronal adaptor protein required for axon growth and guidance

Tip-up and stabilization of an autonomous four-wheeled vehicle

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 31).An instrumented four-wheeled robot was constructed to investigate steering-induced tip-up and rollover of four-wheeled vehicles, and the possibility of stabilizing and driving while balanced on two wheels. Using an analogy to a cart-pole controller, an energy shaping controller was developed to drive the vehicle's roll energy to a fixed value and stabilize the vehicle in a tipped-up position. The controller was implemented on experimental hardware, which included an ARM7-based FEZ Domino microcontroller and a MicroStrain 3DM-GX2 inertial measurement unit. Data logged during experimental trials were analyzed in MATLAB to assess the stability and effectiveness of the controller. Experimental results indicate the controller is capable of driving the vehicle to the tipped-up balancing position. The addition of a steering angle sensor and tachometer are suggested to improve the effectiveness of the controller.by Justin T. Lan.S.B

Spatially resolved characterization of InGaAs/GaAs quantum dot structures by scanning spreading resistance microscopy

Cross-sectional scanning spreading resistance microscopy (SSRM) is used to investigate stacked InGaAs/GaAs quantum dot(QD)structures with different doping schemes. Spatially resolved imaging of the QDs by SSRM is demonstrated. The SSRM contrast obtained for the QD layers is found to depend on doping in the structure. In the undoped structures both QD-layers and QDs within the layers could be resolved, while in the dopedstructures the QD layers appear more or less uniformly broadened. The origin of the SSRM contrast in the QD layer in the different samples is discussed and correlated with doping schemes.T. Hakkarainen, O. Douhéret, and S. Anand would like to acknowledge the Swedish Research Council VR for fi- nancial support and the Kurt-Alice Wallenberg KAW foundation for financing the microscope. L. Fu, H. H. Tan, and C. Jagadish would like to acknowledge the Australian Research Council ARC for financial support and Australian National Fabrication Facility ANFF for access to the facilities