Power politics and the Indonesian military

This book, based on extensive original research, examines the role of the military in Indonesian politics. It looks at the role of the military historically, examines the different ways it is involved in politics, and considers how the role of the military might develop in what is still an uncertain future.

"Roll Up and Spend Your Last Dime". The Merry-go-round of Children`s Extra-curricular Activities in Modern Society.

"Step up and play" begins the famous hit song 'Penny Arcade'. And so it
was for thousands of Australian families, as their eldest child began school
this year, and the associated endless merry-go-round of extra-curricular
activities also began. But how many of those families realise that the song ends "Roll up and spend your last dime!"? While the perceived benefits of
children's involvement in extracurricular activities are many and are widely accepted, there are also costs, not only in terms of money but also in terms
of time. Evidence from a study conducted in Melbourne highlights the fact that, for many families such as those on low incomes and those headed by a single parent, both the time and the money costs may be prohibitive. This article highlights parents' perceptions of the benefits·and costs of children's extra-curricular activities, and explores the implications of changing family and household structures for families' capacity to sustain such activities.

The role of personality in leadership: an application of the five-factor model in the Australian military

This study investigated the relation between the five-factor model (FFM) of personality trait domains and leadership effectiveness. Ninety-nine Australian Army commissioned officers completed the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992) and were rated by their superior officer on the Australian Army annual leadership effectiveness evaluation schedule. Participants indicated whether they had been selected to attend a leadership promotion course at the Army Command and Staff College, widely regarded within the Army as indicative of an officer's effectiveness. It was hypothesized that leadership effectiveness would be predicted by the personality trait domains of high Conscientiousness, Openness, Agreeableness, and Extraversion and by low Neuroticism. High Conscientiousness and low Extraversion scores predicted high leadership effectiveness and the likelihood of attending the leadership promotion course. High Openness scores also predicted the likelihood of attending the promotion course. The results support the utility of the FFM in exploring the role of personality in leadership effectiveness among military leaders.

Politicised pagodas and veiled resistance : contested urban space in Burma.

The urban landscapes of Yangon and Mandalay in Burma (Myanmar) exhibit a rich cultural layering and complex blending of urban forms and architectural styles. But while both cities today are shaped by contemporary economic and political realities, they also clearly reflect
their historical origins—Yangon as the British colonial capital and Mandalay as the last seat of the monarchy. Burma’s ancient religious monuments, monarchical and colonial heritage on the one hand, and new religious edifices, international standard hotels, commercial enterprises, new public buildings and satellite towns on the other hand, represent the two poles of the dialectic of tradition and modernity. The landscapes, as symbolic representations, have been appropriated by
the authoritarian military regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) for nation building purposes. But the urban landscapes are also contested and appropriated in symbolic ways and invested with meanings as sites of resistance and struggle by those in opposition, and
are thus contested sites where the power relations of domination and resistance intersect. The paper illustrates these themes with examples drawn from Yangon and Mandalay.

Protection for sale in a developing country : democracy vs. dictatorship

For a "genuine" small open economy that has experienced both dictatorship and democracy, we find support for the predictions of the Grossman-Helpman (1994) "Protection for Sale" model. In contrast to previous studies, we use various protection measures (including tariffs, the direct measure of the theoretical model) and perform both single-year and panel regressions. Using Turkish industry-level data, the government's weight on welfare is estimated to be much larger than that on contributions. More importantly, we find that this weight is generally higher for the democratic regime than for dictatorship.

The last 10 amino acid residues beyond the hydrophobic motif are critical for the catalytic competence and function of protein kinase Cá*

The segment C-terminal to the hydrophobic motif at the V5 domain of protein kinase C (PKC) is the least conserved both in length and in amino acid identity among all PKC isozymes. By generating serial truncation mutants followed by biochemical and functional analyses, we show here that the very C terminus of PKCα is critical in conferring the full catalytic competence to the kinase and for transducing signals in cells. Deletion of one C-terminal amino acid residue caused the loss of ~60% of the catalytic activity of the mutant PKCα, whereas deletion of 10 C-terminal amino acid residues abrogated the catalytic activity of PKCα in immune complex kinase assays. The PKCα C-terminal truncation mutants were found to lose their ability to activate mitogen-activated protein kinase, to rescue apoptosis induced by the inhibition of endogenous PKC in COS cells, and to augment melatonin-stimulated neurite outgrowth. Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulations revealed that the deletion of 1 or 10 C-terminal residues results in the deformation of the V5 domain and the ATP-binding pocket, respectively. Finally, PKCα immunoprecipitated using an antibody against its C terminus had only marginal catalytic activity compared with that of the PKCα immunoprecipitated by an antibody against its N terminus. Therefore, the very C-terminal tail of PKCα is a novel determinant of the catalytic activity of PKC and a promising target for selective modulation of PKCα function. Molecules that bind preferentially to the very C terminus of distinct PKC isozymes and suppress their catalytic activity may constitute a new class of selective inhibitors of PKC.

Smart cluster bombs - control of multi-agent systems for military applications

This paper introduces an aggregation algorithm for airborne swarming guided weapon systems, which can aggregate munitions into a given shape while reaching the surface. The algorithm uses an artificial force based controller to navigate the members of the swarm into the desired geographical position and evenly distribute them inside the shape. Inter-member repulsion forces are used to avoid collisions among members, which is crucial for a weapon deployment system. Moreover, a lower bound for the release height was obtained which guarantee convergence of the complete weapon system into the target area. The proposed swarming guided weapon system was tested using computer simulations.

The last five amino acid residues at the C-terminus of PRK1 /KKN is essential for full lipid responsiveness

PRK1/PKN is a member of the protein kinase C (PKC) superfamily of serine/threonine protein kinases. Despite its important role as a RhoA effector, limited information is available regarding how this kinase is regulated. We show here that the last seven amino acid residues at the C-terminus is dispensable for the catalytic activity of PRK1 but is critical for the in vivo stability of this kinase. Surprisingly, the intact hydrophobic motif in PRK1 is dispensable for 3-phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 (PDK-1) binding and phosphorylation of the activation loop, as the PRK1-Δ940 mutant lacking the last two residues of the hydrophobic motif and the last 5 residues at the C-terminus interacts with PDK-1 in vivo and has a similar specific activity as the wild-type protein. We also found that the last four amino acid residues at the C-terminus of PRK1 is critical for the full lipid responsiveness as the PRK1-Δ942 deletion mutant is no longer activated by arachidonic acid. Our data suggest that the very C-terminus in PRK1 is critically involved in the control of the catalytic activity and activation by lipids. Since this very C-terminal segment is the least conserved among members of the PKC superfamily, it would be a promising target for isozyme-specific pharmaceutical interventions.