The Future of Confucian Political Philosophy

On February 14, 2017, Joseph Chan and Stephen Angle convened a Roundtable on the Future of Confucian Political Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong. Eight invited speakers each offered thoughts on the main topic, followed by discussion among the panelists and responses to questions from the audience. This transcript has been reviewed and edited by the main participants. Much of the discussion revolves around the relations and tensions between Confucian political philosophy as academic theory-construction and the lived realities of citizens in the modern world, especially in East Asia. How is Confucian theorizing connected to Confucian activism? Another central concern is democracy—as value or as institution, as necessary in pluralistic societies or as problematic monopolizer of political discourse. We also discuss translation, republicanism, meritocracy, the proposals of Jiang Qing and Daniel Bell, and the role of Confucianism in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea

THE MINIMAL DEFINITION AND METHODOLOGY OF COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY: A REPORT FROM A CONFERENCE [abstract]

In June of 2008, the International Society for Comparative Studies of Chinese and Western Philosophy (ISCWP) convened its third Constructive Engagement conference, on the theme of Comparative Philosophy Methodology. During the opening speeches, Prof. Dunhua ZHAO, Chair of the Philosophy Department at Peking University, challenged the conferences participants to put forward a minimal definition of comparative philosophy and a statement of its methods. Based on the papers from the conference and the extensive discussion that ensued, during my closing reflections at the end of the conference I offered a tentative synthesis of the conferences conclusions. That summary has already been published on-line as part of the bi-annual ISCWP newsletter (Angle 2008). In this brief essay, I recapitulate the themes of my earlier summary and expand, in my own voice, on some of the key points

A New Analysis Method for WIMP searches with Dual-Phase Liquid Xe TPCs

A new data analysis method based on physical observables for WIMP dark matter searches with noble liquid Xe dual-phase TPCs is presented. Traditionally, the nuclear recoil energy from a scatter in the liquid target has been estimated by means of the initial prompt scintillation light (S1) produced at the interaction vertex. The ionization charge (C2), or its secondary scintillation (S2), is combined with the primary scintillation in Log(S2/S1) vs. S1 only as a discrimination parameter against electron recoil background. Arguments in favor of C2 as the more reliable nuclear recoil energy estimator than S1 are presented. The new phase space of Log(S1/C2) vs. C2 is introduced as more efficient for nuclear recoil acceptance and exhibiting superior energy resolution. This is achieved without compromising the discrimination power of the LXe TPC, nor its 3D event reconstruction and fiducialization capability, as is the case for analyses that exploit only the ionization channel. Finally, the concept of two independent energy estimators for background rejection is presented: E2 as the primary (based on C2) and E1 as the secondary (based on S1). Log(E1/E2) vs. E2 is shown to be the most appropriate phase space in which to evaluate WIMP signal candidates

NAME ORG. SIGNATURE DATE

Small changes in the pointing direction of NGST will be required as part of target acquisition and dithering. Some portion of these changes may be accomplished by moving the entire observatory, other portions might be accomplished by moving a mirror. The purpose of this document is to outline the expected scientific drivers for different kinds of motions, estimate their scale and frequency, and assess their importance to the overall science goals of the observatory. Such information is an important input to deciding how efficient and accurate to make the small-angle maneuvers, and in deciding how they should be accomplished.

Deteksi Plasmodium Falciparum Dengan Menggunakan Metode Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction Di Daerah Likupang Dan Bitung

: Malaria is one of the most important parasitic disease which is caused by Plasmodium spp. There are approximately 1,2 billion people in the world with high risk of getting malaria. Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) is the cause of tropical malaria or falciparum malaria, and is responsible for most of the mortality rate. Currently, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is being studied as an alterative of conventional malarian examination. Mangold et al reported that RT-PCR have 94.1% sensitivity and 100% specificity compared to microscopic examination in detecting P. falciparum. The aim of this research is to detect the presence of P. falciparum using RT-PCR in Likupang and Bitung region. This research were using descriptive design to find out the capability of real-time PCR method to detect P. falciparum in Likupang dan Bitung region. The researcher have examined 71 samples which are fulfill the research sample's criteria. Postive results of P. falciparum found in 18 samples (25,3%) and negative results in 53 samples (74,6%) of total 71 samples with using RT-PCR. No positive results were found in samples from Likupang. There are positive result of P. falciparum in samples from Bitung. It is concluded that RT-PCR method can detect the presence of P. falciparum from the samples obtained from Likupang and Bitung based on the presence of its DNA. This detection efford is done by using 18S rRNA as target gene and ajust specific temperature on the RT-PCR instrument

Operation of a 1-Liter-Volume Gaseous Argon Scintillation Counter

We have built a gas-phase argon ionization detector to measure small nuclear recoil energies (< 10 keVee). In this paper, we describe the detector response to X-ray and gamma calibration sources, including analysis of pulse shapes, software triggers, optimization of gas content, and energy- and position-dependence of the signal. We compare our experimental results against simulation using a 5.9-keV X-ray source, as well as higher-energy gamma sources up to 1332 keV. We conclude with a description of the detector, DAQ, and software settings optimized for a measurement of the low-energy nuclear quenching factor in gaseous argon. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in part under Contract W-7405-Eng-48 and in part under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. Funded by Lab-wide LDRD. LLNL-JRNL-415990-DRAFT.Comment: 29 pages, single-column, double-spaced, 21 figure

Critical slowing down in polynomial time algorithms

Combinatorial optimization algorithms which compute exact ground state configurations in disordered magnets are seen to exhibit critical slowing down at zero temperature phase transitions. Using arguments based on the physical picture of the model, including vanishing stiffness on scales beyond the correlation length and the ground state degeneracy, the number of operations carried out by one such algorithm, the push-relabel algorithm for the random field Ising model, can be estimated. Some scaling can also be predicted for the 2D spin glass.Comment: 4 pp., 3 fig

A Xenon Condenser with a Remote Liquid Storage Vessel

We describe the design and operation of a system for xenon liquefaction in which the condenser is separated from the liquid storage vessel. The condenser is cooled by a pulse tube cryocooler, while the vessel is cooled only by the liquid xenon itself. This arrangement facilitates liquid particle detector research by allowing easy access to the upper and lower flanges of the vessel. We find that an external xenon gas pump is useful for increasing the rate at which cooling power is delivered to the vessel, and we present measurements of the power and efficiency of the apparatus.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures Corrected typos in authors lis

Computational Complexity of Determining the Barriers to Interface Motion in Random Systems

The low-temperature driven or thermally activated motion of several condensed matter systems is often modeled by the dynamics of interfaces (co-dimension-1 elastic manifolds) subject to a random potential. Two characteristic quantitative features of the energy landscape of such a many-degree-of-freedom system are the ground-state energy and the magnitude of the energy barriers between given configurations. While the numerical determination of the former can be accomplished in time polynomial in the system size, it is shown here that the problem of determining the latter quantity is NP-complete. Exact computation of barriers is therefore (almost certainly) much more difficult than determining the exact ground states of interfaces.Comment: 8 pages, figures included, to appear in Phys. Rev.