The free Aceh movement : Islam and democratisation

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has been characterised by some observers and the Indonesian government as being a radical Islamic organisation intent on establishing an Islamic state in northern Sumatra. This article explores GAM's relationship with Islam and shows that while GAM members are devout Muslims and that Islam pervades their political thinking, the organisation and its members are explicitly opposed to the creation of an Islamic state or the imposition of Islamic law. The article reports how senior members of GAM's hierarchy discuss their personal relationship with Islam, noting consistencies and differences in their approaches. A common theme is that Islam provides a motive for the struggle, based on notions of justice and equality, and that these and related aspects of Acehnese political organisation provide the groundwork for a functional form of democracy in Aceh's post-peace settlement environment.

Sudden drawdown and drainage of a horizontal aquifer

Drainage of a saturated horizontal aquifer following a sudden drawdown is reanalyzed using the Boussinesq equation. The effect of the finite length of the aquifer is considered in detail. An analytical approximation based on a superposition principle yields a very good estimate of the outflow when compared to accurate numerical solutions. An illustration of the new analytical approach to analyze basin-scale field data is used to demonstrate possible field applications of the new solution.

Modelling the diffuse fraction of global solar radiation on a horizontal surface

For various applications it is necessary to know not only global solar radiation values, but also the diffuse and beam components. Because often only global values are available, there have been several models developed to establish correlations between the diffuse fraction and various predictors. These typically include the clearness index, but also may include the solar angle, temperature and humidity. The clearness index is the proportion of extraterrestrial radiation reaching a location, where the extraterrestrial value used in the calculation varies with latitude and time of year. These correlations have been developed using data principally from latitudes greater than 40°, often using only data from a few locations and with few exceptions have not used solar altitude as a predictor. Generally the data consist of hourly integrated values. A model has been developed using hourly data from a weather station set up at Deakin University, Geelong. Another model has also been developed for 15 minute data values in order to ascertain if the smoothing generated by using hourly data makes a significant difference to overall results. The construction of such models has been investigated, enabling an extension to the research, inclusive of other stations, to be performed systematically. A final investigation was carried out, using data from other Australian locations, to explain some of the considerable scatter by adding apparent solar time as a predictor, which proved to be significantly better than solar altitude.

The Movement of the Gastrop Littorina Littorea in the Intertidal Zone during the Onset of Winter

The movement of the snail Littorina littoreaon the North Atlantic coast is poorly understood. Most research has concentrated on the vertical distribution of the snail, and suggests that it prefers the low intertidal zone where its food source is most plentiful. In the winter, this distribution is reinforced by a documented seaward migration of snails from the high intertidal zone in response to falling temperatures. From October 14, 2006 to January 22, 2007, I examined the individual movements and recovery of snails in response to the onset of winter. I proposed that falling water and air temperatures drive the majority of snail movement within the intertidal zone, and that water temperature had the greater effect. I also examined the possibility that, in addition to a seaward migration, winter weather patterns in the Gulf of Maine and their effect on the ocean may encourage the wintertime vertical distribution of snails. Finally, I examined the possibility that populations of snails in the comparatively inhospitable high intertidal zone may endure the winter if given access to proper resources.

A simplified stroke rehabilitation assessment of movement instrument

Background and Purpose. An efficient, reliable, and valid instrument for assessing motor function in patients with stroke is needed by both clinicians and researchers. To improve administration efficiency, we applied the multidimensional Rasch model to the 30-item, 3-subscale Stroke Rehabilitation Assessment of Movement (STREAM) instrument to produce a concise, reliable, and valid instrument (simplified STREAM [S-STREAM]) for measuring motor function in patients with stroke. Subjects and Methods. The STREAM (consisting of 3 subscales: upper-limb movements, lower-limb movements, and mobility) was administered to 351 subjects with first stroke occurrence and a median time after stroke of 19.5 months. The unidimensionality of each subscale of the STREAM first was verified with unidimensional Rasch analysis. Each subscale of the STREAM then was simplified by deleting redundant items on the basis of expert opinion and the results of the Rasch analysis. The Rasch reliability of the S-STREAM and the concurrent validity of the S-STREAM with the STREAM were examined with multidimensional Rasch analysis and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), respectively. Results. After deleting the items that did not fit the Rasch model, we found that the 8-item upper-limb movement subscale, the 9-item lower-limb movement subscale, and the 10-item mobility subscale assessed single, unidimensional upper-limb movements, lower-limb movements, and mobility, respectively. We selected 5 items from each subscale to construct the S-STREAM and found that the reliability of each subscale of the resulting simplified instrument was high (Rasch reliability coefficients of [greater than or equal to] .91). The agreement between the subscale scores (Rasch estimates) of the S-STREAM and those of the STREAM was excellent (ICC of [greater than or equal to] .99, with a lower limit for the 95% confidence interval of [greater than or equal to] .985), indicating good concurrent validity of the S-STREAM with the STREAM. Discussion and Conclusion. The S-STREAM demonstrates high Rasch reliability, unidimensionality, and concurrent validity with the STREAM in patients with stroke. Furthermore, the S-STREAM is efficient to administer, as it consists of only half the number of items in the original STREAM. Additional studies to examine other psychometric properties (eg, predictive validity and responsiveness) of the S-STREAM or its psychometric properties in various recovery stages after stroke are needed to further establish its utility in both clinical and research settings.

The movement ABC: a cross-cultural comparison of preschool children from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the USA

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the suitability of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC) for use in Greater China. Chinese children numbering 255 between the ages of 4 and 6 from Hong Kong and 544 from Taiwan were tested individually on the standardized test contained within the M-ABC. Data from these 799 children were compared to that presented in the test manual for the 493 children of the same age comprising the United States standardization sample. Both within-culture and cross-cultural differences were statistically significant when all items of the M-ABC were examined simultaneously, but effect sizes were too low to be considered meaningful. However, descriptive analysis of the cut-off scores used for impairment detection on the test suggested that adjustments to some items would be desirable for these particular Chinese populations.

Oxford movement: its themes and their significance

In retrospective, the Oxford movement of nineteenth century England provides one with an interesting study of the struggles between the spiritual and secular worlds. However, repeated abstraction in an interpretation of its significance has tended to distort accurate understanding of its historical development. Often this also has resulted n a misinterpretation of the nature of its major themes and their significance to the world. For these reasons, this study has attempted to describe the origin, maturity, and dissolution of the series of events which strictly speaking may be considered to be the Oxford movement. In conclusion, liberty has been taken to comment on the nature of the Movement's themes and their significance in their own age and to man today.

Exhausting dance : performance and the politics of movement, by Andre Lepecki

The article reviews the book "Exhausting Dance: Performance and the Politics of Movement," by Andre Lepecki.

The key learning area movement : A force for pedagogical change or a facade for continued conservatism?

Throughout the early 1990s the formal curriculum across all Australian States and Territories was re-organised to accommodate a Key Learning Area (KLA) focus.  The KLA approach to schooling marked a departure from an historical reliance on individualised school subjects as the organisers of disciplinary knowledge.  Indeed a KLA structure has the potential to promote interdisciplinary teaching and learning, a focus on the skills, values, attitudes and knowledge students are to learn and to break away from the sometimes divisive subject subcultures that permiate schools.  In short the potential for a KLA 'movement' of positive benefit to teaching and learning exists.

Over the last decade however, the impact of the 'KLA movement' on teacher practice has become more apparent.  Far from being a force for pedagogical change, some KLAs are merely re-badged versions of traditionalist conceptions of school subject and knowledge.  This paper draws on data from a study of New South Wales (NSW) history and Human Society and Its Environment (HSIE) teachers and provides an evidenced argument about the use and misuse of Key Learning Areas.

Interactive dance performance : movement data and the 'materiality' of the system

This paper describes a recent performance work I made using dance and live feed video
processing, 1 + x: mid-range projections, commissioned by the Seoul Contemporary Dance
Company and first performed in Melbourne in July 2005. This work forms a basis for discussing
my interest in creating performance images that reveal 'interiority'. I am interested in how you
embed the 'feel' of the human systematically in an interactive structure, and how that process
can produce a poetic that arises from the detailed and nuanced play between real and virtual
images on the same screen. How do you abstract and play with a performer's movement, play
with it in real and virtual time, so that it gives the work an emotional charge? Its like playing with
the process of 'becoming virtual' - and I'm being deliberately Deleuzian about that - how do you
'become virtual' in the sense of melding performer and image so that the meaning exists
between - in the connection between the two?

This quest to get the energy, the 'lived', 'felt' quality of the movement into the imagery gives rise
to research questions about how 'presence' is perceived in movement. What elements of the
raw movement data do you need to keep and what can you throwaway, and still keep the
personality, the emotion, the 'life' of that movement? How do you make a virtual, interactive
performance system that has its own 'materiality'?