An impact evaluation framework: Local government community festivals

This article brings together the author's previous research and consultancy along with a review of literature from several disciplines to develop a framework that summarizes the concepts, methods, and processes required to successfully evaluate the impacts of local government community festivals. Events and festivals are a relatively underresearched area but have experienced a growing amount of public sector expenditure. The framework developed and presented here is in response to the need to encourage greater evaluation of this activity and in doing so recognize the complexity of the process. The impacts of many such festivals are diverse (economic, social, environmental), far reaching (local, national, international), and long term. The evaluation of these impacts, therefore, requires an understanding of the concepts involved and the development of a range of tools and methods. The proposed framework is informed by the empirical research, theory, and practice in the areas of information systems, marketing communications, event studies, and public sector evaluation. Bringing together these distinct but related fields of study has enabled the development of a comprehensive and novel approach to event impact evaluation. Copyright © 2009 Cognizant Comm. Corp

Chinese Religious Syncretism in Macau

In this paper I address the phenomenon of syncretism with respect to Chinese religions. An analysis of the syncretism that takes place between the three major Chinese religious traditions is first done in its personal and social dimensions. The social structure of Chinese religion is then used as a framework to understand how Buddhism and Daoism were made compatible with Confucianism. All this will serve as a background for the case study of Macau, where Chinese religious syncretism is very much alive. Three popular religious festivals are celebrated annually and simultaneously on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, namely, zuilongjie (醉龍節) Feast of the Drunken Dragon, tangongdan (譚公誕) Tam Kung Festival and fodanjie (佛誕節) Feast of the Buddha

A Confucian Perspective on Tertiary Education for the Common Good

Confucian education is best captured by the programme described in the Great Learning. Education is presented first as the process of self-cultivation for the sake of developing virtuous character. Self-cultivation then allows for virtue to be cultivated in the familial, social and international dimensions. My central thesis is that Confucianism can serve as a universal framework of educating people for the common good in its promotion of personal cultivation for the sake of human progress. On this account the common good specifically refers to the social order accomplished by the virtuous behaviour found in the members of society. In this paper I argue that the Confucian notion of “lesser learning” sheds light on the concept of general education and the notion of “greater learning” improves our understanding of liberal education. Under this analysis the necessity of general education is assured although its importance should not be overly exaggerated. Furthermore, the objectives of liberal education deserve greater emphasis due to their historical importance and enduring relevance to promoting the common good of universal humanity

Kinetic formulation of irreversible evolution of the two-nucleus spin systems

The time irreversible evolution of the two-nucleus spin systems interacting with a magnetic field is analyzed in the framework of the subdynamics theory. The spin systems are determined by the H(1) and C(13) nuclei. The investigation is based on the complex spectral representation of the Liouvillian which gives a rigorous description of irreversibility. The evolution of the density matrix is analyzed for the short and long time region. Quantum Zeno effect is discussed.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figure

Lo - stable methods for parabolic partial differential equations

In recent years much attention has been devoted in the literature to the development, analysis and implementation of extrapolation methods for the numerical solution of partial differential equations with mixed initial and boundary values specified, see, for example, Lawson and Morris [5], Lawson and Swayne [6] and Gourlay and Morris [3]. The essential theme of these papers was to develop Lo-stable methods for the solution of parabolic partial differential equations in which splitting methods, such as the Crank-Nicolson method, are less than satisfactory when a time discretization is used with time steps which are too large relative to the spatial discretization. In the present paper a family of new Lo-stable methods based on Padé approximants to the exponential function is developed, and. higher accuracy is achieved. The methods are tested on heat equations in one and two space dimensions in which discontinuities exist between the initial and boundary conditions

Global extrapolation procedures for special and general initial value problems

Two- and three- grid global extrapolation procedures are considered fohe special and general initial value problems of arbitrary order r tq. Extrapolation formulas are developed for consistent numerical methods of arbitrary order p . The global extrapolations of a number of existing numerical methods are considered and tested on three problems from the literature

A family of difference schemes for fourth order parabolic partial differential equations

A family of methods is developed for the numerical solution of fourth order parabolic partial differential equations in one- and two-space variables. The methods are seen to evolve from multiderivative methods for second order ordinary differential equations. The methods are tested on three model problems, with constant coefficients and variable coefficients, which have appeared in the literature

Critical constraints on chiral hierarchies.

Critical dynamics constrains models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking in which the scale of high-energy physics is far above 1 TeV. A big hierarchy requires the high-energy theory to have a second-order chiral phase transition, near which the theory is described by a low-energy effective Lagrangian with composite Higgs scalars. As scalar theories with more than one 4 coupling can have a Coleman-Weinberg instability and a first-order transition, such dynamical EWSB models cannot always support a large hierarchy. If the large-Nc Nambu Jona-Lasinio model is a good approximation to the top-condensate and strong extended technicolor models, they will not produce acceptable EWSB. © 1993 The American Physical Society

Novel Circuit Fabrication Techniques for Reduced Environmental Impact

This paper proposes a novel technique for low cost circuit manufacture which it is hoped will offer significant reduction in environmental impact, both in terms of production process, and end of life. The technique is to use a pattern printed on paper by conventional offset lithographic techniques to form interconnection circuitry. Initial research is concentrating on the selection of appropriate conductive inks, and substrate materials. At present, components are attached using conductive adhesives, but the feasibility of placing components during the final printing pass, and using a form of conductive ink to provide the bond, is investigated