2015: Pakistan’s year of mixed fortunes

S. Mahmud Ali looks back on what proved to be a turbulent and often difficult year for Pakistan. Renewed Islamist violence shook the civilian government’s authority, tensions with India rumbled on, and Islamabad’s Afghan policy was coloured by profound insecurity. The year was not without its positives, most notably Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit which was coupled with promises of substantial investment. However, as 2016 gets under way it remains to be seen whether Pakistan can prevent the multiple threats it faces from escalating

Coherently controlled entanglement generation in a binary Bose-Einstein condensate

Considering a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well potential, a method to generate a Bell state consisting of two spatially separated condensates is suggested. For repulsive interactions, the required tunnelling control is achieved numerically by varying the amplitude of a sinusoidal potential difference between the wells. Both numerical and analytical calculations reveal the emergence of a highly entangled mesoscopic state.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, epl2.cl

Penilaian Status Daerah Aliran Sungai (Studi Kasus Sub DAS Serang)

Pemanfaatan sumberdaya alam yang tidak memperhatikan konservasi sumberdaya alam DAS akan meningkatkan bencana alam seperti: tanah longsor, erosi dan sedimentasi, banjir, dan kekeringan. Untuk mencegahnya pemerin­ tah dan masyarakat perlu mengelola kawasan DAS sehingga sumberdaya alam bisa lestari. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui kondisi pengelolaan DAS dari parameter hidrologi, lahan dan sosial ekonomi dan menentukan status DAS sub DAS Serang. Data yang dikumpulkan adalah data hidrologi (koefesien regim sungai, koefesien variasi debit, kandungan sedimen, kualitas air permukaan dan air tanah), lahan (erosi dan tata guna lahan) serta sosial ekonomi (kelembagaan dan sosial ekonomi). Berdasarkan hasil penelitian dari parameter hidrologi, lahan dan sosial ekonomi bahwa sub DAS Serang memiliki koefisien regim sungai (69) termasuk kategori sedang dan koefisien variasi debit air (0,48) termasuk kategori buruk, indeks penggunaan air (0,07) termasuk kategori baik, laju sedimentasi (0,03 mm/th) termasuk kategori baik, kualitas air dari segi fisik termasuk kategori sedang sampai baik, kualitas air dari segi kimia dan biologi termasuk kategori baik serta fluktuasi muka air termasuk kategori sedang. Erosi dengan memperhatikan kelas lereng, solum tanah, morfoerosi dan kualitas konservasi tanah termasuk kategori normal. Sedangkan faktor so­ sial ekonomi dengan indikator ketergantungan lahan termasuk kategori sedang, status pemilikan lahan, kelembagaan DAS, norma dan adopsi konservasi termasuk kategori baik serta pendapatan penduduk termasuk kategori buruk. Dengan memperhatikan faktor hidrologi, lahan dan sosial ekonomi maka status Sub DAS Serang dengan nilai 2,705 adalah masuk kategori baik

Fungsi Kawasan dan Strategi Pengelolaan Hutan Lindung Wosi Rendani Kabupaten Manokwari

The results of the research showed that the forest of Wosi Rendani protection has slope 21.9% (score 60), soil type podsolic/ ultisol (Score 60) and 12.86 rain intensity (score 10), altitude 210 m asl, with a total score of 130 as a buffer zone. Perceptions of respondents unanimously positive 64.17% and 75% attitude towards local community-based management. This is due to the location of protected areas that are near human settlements and local immigrant who feared if the protected forest next to landslides and people lack of clean water. Inside the forest, there is an object HLWR areas and attractions such as waterfalls, caves, springs, pools that can be used as the establishment of protected forest. Protected forest of Rendani Wosi area has considerable potential to support regional management efforts such as the potential for flora and fauna, water, waterfalls and springs and caves as well as the support of the community around the area, but the legality of the area there has been no major obstacles in the management of this protected fores

Analisiskebijakanwalikotadalam Program Bantuanpendidikanmasyarakat Kota Surakarta (Bpkms) di Kota Surakarta

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji kebijakan walikota dalam program bantuan pendidikan masyarakat kota Surakarta (BPKMS) Di kota Surakarta. Dari hasil penelitian di dapatkan bahwa implementasi kebijakan BPMKS mulaidari proses penetapan penerima dana BPMKS, pengalokasian dana, laporan pertanggungjawaban dana, dan monitoring penggunaan dana BPMKS sudah berjalan dengan baik dan sesuai demgan PERWALI Surakarta Nomor 11A Tahun 2012. Dari hasil penelitian di dapatkan bahwa implementasi kebijakan BPMKS mulaidari proses penetapan penerima dana BPMKS, pengalokasian dana, laporan pertanggungjawaban dana, dan monitoring penggunaan dana BPMKS sudah berjalan dengan baik dan sesuai demgan PERWALI Surakarta Nomor 11A Tahun 2012. Pelaksanaan BPMKS sudah memberikan hasil yang berdampak positif terhadap obyek kebijakan yaitu masyarakat Kota Surakarta selaku penerima dana BPMKS. Faktor yang mendukung implementasi kebijakan BPMKS antara lain: kondisi sumber daya manusia yang kompeten, saranadan prasarana yang lengkap, teknis pelaksanaan yang baik, dan tingginya motivasi dari lembaga pelaksana BPMKS. Pelaksanaan BPMKS sudah memberikan hasil yang berdampak positif terhadap obyek kebijakan yaitu masyarakat Kota Surakarta selaku penerima dana BPMKS. Faktor yang mendukung implementasi kebijakan BPMKS antara lain: kondisi sumber daya manusia yang kompeten, saranadan prasarana yang lengkap, teknis pelaksanaan yang baik, dan tingginya motivasi dari lembaga pelaksana BPMKS. Factor penghambatnya antara lain: komunikasi antar semua lembaga terkait yang kurang harmonis, kurangnya alokasi waktu dalam pembuatan laporan pertanggungjawaban BPMKS, pencairan dana BPMKS yang terlambat, dan belum adanya Unit khusus yang menangani BPMKS Factor penghambatnya antara lain: komunikasi antar semua lembaga terkait yang kurang harmonis, kurangnya alokasi waktu dalam pembuatan laporan pertanggungjawaban BPMKS, pencairan dana BPMKS yang terlambat, dan belum adanya Unit khusus yang menangani BPMKS Kata Kunci : kebijakan walikota, program BPKMS kota Surakarta Kata Kunci : kebijakan walikota, program BPKMS kota Surakart

Environment Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions: A cointegration analysis for China

Cataloged from PDF version of article.This study examines the long-run relationship between carbon emissions and energy consumption, income and foreign trade in the case of China by employing time series data of 1975–2005. In particular the study aims at testing whether environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) relationship between CO2 emissions and per capita real GDP holds in the long run or not. Auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) methodology is employed for empirical analysis. A quadratic relationship between income and CO2 emission has been found for the sample period, supporting EKC relationship. The results of Granger causality tests indicate one way causality runs through economic growth to CO2 emissions. The results of this study also indicate that the carbon emissions are mainly determined by income and energy consumption in the long run. Trade has a positive but statistically insignificant impact on CO2 emissions. & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Trends and challenges in neuroengineering: toward "Intelligent" neuroprostheses through brain-"brain inspired systems" communication

Future technologies aiming at restoring and enhancing organs function will intimately rely on near-physiological and energy-efficient communication between living and artificial biomimetic systems. Interfacing brain-inspired devices with the real brain is at the forefront of such emerging field, with the term "neurobiohybrids" indicating all those systems where such interaction is established. We argue that achieving a "high-level" communication and functional synergy between natural and artificial neuronal networks in vivo, will allow the development of a heterogeneous world of neurobiohybrids, which will include "living robots" but will also embrace “intelligent” neuroprostheses for augmentation of brain function. The societal and economical impact of intelligent neuroprostheses is likely to be potentially strong, as they will offer novel therapeutic perspectives for a number of diseases, and going beyond classical pharmaceutical schemes. However, they will unavoidably raise fundamental ethical questions on the intermingling between man and machine and more specifically, on how deeply it should be allowed that brain processing is affected by implanted "intelligent" artificial systems. Following this perspective, we provide the reader with insights on ongoing developments and trends in the field of neurobiohybrids. We address the topic also from a "community building" perspective, showing through a quantitative bibliographic analysis, how scientists working on the engineering of brain-inspired devices and brain-machine interfaces are increasing their interactions. We foresee that such trend preludes to a formidable technological and scientific revolution in brain-machine communication and to the opening of new avenues for restoring or even augmenting brain function for therapeutic purposes

Processing and analysis of multichannel extracellular neuronal signals: state-of-the-art and challenges

In recent years multichannel neuronal signal acquisition systems have allowed scientists to focus on research questions which were otherwise impossible. They act as a powerful means to study brain (dys)functions in in-vivo and in in-vitro animal models. Typically, each session of electrophysiological experiments with multichannel data acquisition systems generate large amount of raw data. For example, a 128 channel signal acquisition system with 16 bits A/D conversion and 20 kHz sampling rate will generate approximately 17 GB data per hour (uncompressed). This poses an important and challenging problem of inferring conclusions from the large amounts of acquired data. Thus, automated signal processing and analysis tools are becoming a key component in neuroscience research, facilitating extraction of relevant information from neuronal recordings in a reasonable time. The purpose of this review is to introduce the reader to the current state-of-the-art of open-source packages for (semi)automated processing and analysis of multichannel extracellular neuronal signals (i.e., neuronal spikes, local field potentials, electroencephalogram, etc.), and the existing Neuroinformatics infrastructure for tool and data sharing. The review is concluded by pinpointing some major challenges that are being faced, which include the development of novel benchmarking techniques, cloud-based distributed processing and analysis tools, as well as defining novel means to share and standardize data

Adsorpsi Bahan Organik Alami (Boa) Air Gambut Pada Tanah Lempung Gambut Alami Dan Teraktivasi: Studi Kesetimbangan Isoterm Dan Kinetika Adsorpsi

Tanah lempung gambut (TLG) merupakan tanah lempung yang berada di bawah lapisan tanah gambut. Keberadaannya di Indonesia sangat berlimpah dan potensial digunakan sebagai adsorben murah. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menentukan model isoterm dan model kinetika yang sesuai pada adsorpsi bahan organik alami (BOA)terhadap TLG, sehingga dapat membantu mempelajari mekanisme penyisihan yang terjadi. Fraksi BOA yang hidrofobik dan BOA dengan BM besar memberikan kontribusi yang paling besar terhadap warna air gambut. Pada pH asam, komponen BOA air gambut dengan SUVA rendah (fraksi hidrofilik dan BM rendah) lebih baik disisihkan oleh adsorben TLG, dan sebaliknya pada pH yang lebih tinggi komponen BOA dengan SUVA tinggi yaitu BOA dengan karakter hidrofobik, aromatik dan BM tinggi dapat disisihkan dengan lebih baik. Pada tahap-tahap awal adsorpsi sampai waktu kontak 10 menit, fraksi BOA dengan SUVA besar merupakan fraksi BOA yang paling mudah diadsorp oleh TLG, dan pada tahap selanjutnya yaitu waktu kontak >10menit, TLG dapat mengadsorp fraksi BOA dengan SUVA kecil. Model isoterm Langmuir merupakan model isoterm yang sesuai untuk adsorpsi BOA air gambut terhadap TLG alami, sedangkan model isoterm Freundlich sesuai untuk adsorpsi BOA terhadap TLG teraktivasi dan PAC. Model kinetika pseudo-second-order adalah model kinetika yang cocok digunakan untuk adsorpsi BOA air gambut terhadap ketiga jenis adsorben: TLG alami, TLG teraktivasi dan PAC