Analisis Kesediaan Membayar Wtp (Willingness To Pay) dalam Upaya Pengelolaan Obyek Wisata Taman Alun Kapuas Pontianak, Kalimantan Barat

Berbagai fungsi yang terkait dengan sumber daya alam (fungsi ekologis, sosial, ekonomi, dan arsitektural) dannilai estetika yang dimilikinya (obyek dan lingkungan) dapat meningkatkan kualitas lingkungan dan untukkelangsungan kehidupan perkotaan juga dapat menjadi nilai kebanggaan dan identitas kota. Sebagai obyekwisata alam, Taman Alunalun Kapuas belum tertata dengan baik, pelaksanaan upaya pengelolaan objek wisataTaman Alun Kapuas membutuhkan biaya yang tidak sedikit. Untuk itu diharapkan bagi pengunjung untukmembayar dalam pengelolaan Taman Alun Kapuas. Penelitian ini menggunakan analisis regresi logistik dalammenganalisis faktor-faktor kesediaan pengunjung untuk membayar. Sedangkan metode CVM (ContingenValuation Method) digunakan untuk mengestimasi biaya yang akan dikeluarkan oleh pengunjung, dan metoderegresi berganda digunakan untuk menganalisis faktor-faktor apa yang mempengaruhi besar kesediaanmembayar pengunjung. Program yang dapat membantu dalam penelitian ini yaitu Microsoft Excel 2007 danMinitab For Windows Realise 16. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa sebanyak 84% responden bersediamembayar dalam upaya pengelolaan lingkungan obyek wisata Taman Alun Kapuas. Faktor-faktor yangmempengaruhi kesediaan membayar responden pengunjung dalam upaya pengelolaan lingkungan obyekwisata Taman Alun Kapuas antara lain pendapatan (PNDPTN3) dan pengetahuan (PNGTHUAN). Nilai rata-rataWTP responden pengunjung adalah sebesar Rp 3360,00/orang. Faktor yang mempengaruhi nilai WTPresponden yaitu usia (U)

Climate is changing: are we changing too?

Many problems in the urban landscape can be reduced or eliminated by proper plant selection and by maintaining trees healthy so that they can fully provide their benefits. In a climate change scenario possible adaptation measures include changes to establishment practices and tree management, better matching of species to site, both under current and future climates, and the planting of non-native species and provenances in anticipation of climate change. Current opinion is to encourage the planting of local provenances of native species, citing adaptation of provenances to local conditions, and the requirement to maintain biodiversity and a native genetic base. However, local provenances may not be able to adapt to a changing climate, particularly given the rate of change predicted. Sourcing planting stock from regions with a current climate similar to that predicted for the future may provide one option, although care must be taken to ensure that suitable provenances are selected which are not at risk from, for example, spring frost damage as a result of early flushing. In this paper we'll focused on the technical and practical solutions for the selection of trees that might be the best choice in urban environments for the next future, given differences in urban sites (infrastructures, climate, soils etc), species attributes, management requirements and climate

The Extension Workers' Competency in Developing Small Agribusiness Capital in the District of Bogor, West Java

Extension agents had to develop their competencies in promoting small agribusiness capital. They needed this new skill so they could assist small farmers to develop their agribusinesses. Every enterprise – what ever its scale -- needed capital. In conjunction with this, the objectives of this research were: (1) to describe the distribution of extension agents on selected characteristics, (2) to identify the agents' competencies in promoting small agribusiness capital, as well as (3) to analyze the relationship of the agents' characteristics and their competencies in promoting small agribusiness capital. Data were collected through interviews with the agents. The obtained data were analyzed by using qualitative as well as quantitative procedures. The research results demonstrated that: firstly, the Extension agents mostly indicated their generic competencies in Agricultural Extension, and lack in specific competencies in farm management, especially in small agribusiness capital formation. Secondly, agents considered promoting the small farmers self-help capability, facilitating the promotion of village financial institution, and evaluating extension program as the three most important competencies, and thirdly, regardless of their characteristics, most of the agents interviewed agreed to the rank order of nine competency areas

Neural Networks Approach for Characterization of Non-Isothermal Thermoplastic Membrane

Recent developments in computer-aided polymer processing have brought with them the need for an accurate description of the behaviour of industrial thermoplastic membranes under the combined effect of applied stress and temperature. In order to serve this purpose, we consider a non-isothermal approach to characterize the ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene) membrane under biaxial deformation using the bubble inflation technique. Thereafter, Rivlin's theory of hyper-elasticity is employed to define the constitutive model of flat circular membranes. The nonlinear equilibrium equations of the inflation process are solved using finite difference method with deferred corrections. For the final step, a neuronal algorithm (ANN model) is employed to minimize the difference between calculated and measured parameters to determine material constants. The effect of experimental temperature (between -30 and 80 oC) on behaviour is considered in this work

Quality of Working Life of Nurses and its Related Factors

Background: Nurses as the largest group of health care providers should enjoy a satisfactory quality of working life to be able to provide quality care to their patients. Therefore, attention should be paid to the nurses’ working life. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the quality of nurses' working life in Kashans' hospitals during 2012. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 nurses during 2012. The data-gathering instrument consisted of two parts. The first part consisted of questions on demographic information and the second part was the Walton’s quality of work life questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software. For statistical analysis T test and one way ANOVA were used. Results: The results of the study showed that 60% of nurses reported that they had moderate level of quality of working life while 37.1% and 2% had undesirable and good quality of working life, respectively. Nurses with associate degrees reported a better quality of working life than others. A significant relationship was found between variables such as education level, work experience, and type of hospital with quality of working life score (P 0.05). Conclusions: Nurses' quality of work life was at the moderate level. As quality of work life has an important impact on attracting and retaining employees, it is necessary to pay more attention to the nurses’ quality of work life and its affecting factors

The n-acetyl phenylalanine glucosamine derivative attenuates the inflammatory/catabolic environment in a chondrocyte-synoviocyte co-culture system

Osteoarthritis (OA), the most prevalent degenerative joint disease, still lacks a true disease-modifying therapy. The involvement of the NF-κB pathway and its upstream activating kinases in OA pathogenesis has been recognized for many years. The ability of the N-acetyl phenylalanine glucosamine derivative (NAPA) to increase anabolism and reduce catabolism via inhibition of IKKα kinase has been previously observed in vitro and in vivo. The present study aims to confirm the chondroprotective effects of NAPA in an in vitro model of joint OA established with primary cells, respecting both the crosstalk between chondrocytes and synoviocytes and their phenotypes. This model satisfactorily reproduces some features of the previously investigated DMM model, such as the prominent induction of ADAMTS-5 upon inflammatory stimulation. Both gene and protein expression analysis indicated the ability of NAPA to counteract key cartilage catabolic enzymes (ADAMTS-5) and effectors (MCP-1). Molecular analysis showed the ability of NAPA to reduce IKKα nuclear translocation and H3Ser10 phosphorylation, thus inhibiting IKKα transactivation of NF-κB signalling, a pivotal step in the NF-κB-dependent gene expression of some of its targets. In conclusion, our data confirm that NAPA could truly act as a disease-modifying drug in OA

Direct Measurement of the Reduced Scattering Coefficient by a Calibrated Random Laser Sensor

The research in optical sensors has been largely encouraged by the demand for low-cost and less or non-invasive new detection strategies. The invention of the random laser has opened a new frontier in optics, providing also the opportunity to explore new possibilities in the field of sensing, besides several different and peculiar phenomena. The main advantage in exploiting the physical principle of the random laser in optical sensors is due to the presence of the stimulated emission mechanism, which allows amplification and spectral modification of the signal. Here, we present a step forward in the exploitation of this optical phenomenon by a revisitation of a previous experimental setup, as well as the measurement method, in particular to mitigate the instability of the results due to shot-to-shot pump energy fluctuations. In particular, the main novelties of the setup are the use of optical fibers, a reference sensor, and a peristaltic pump. These improvements are devoted to: eliminating optical beam alignment issues; improving portability; mitigating the variation in pump energy and gain medium performances over time; realizing an easy and rapid change of the sensed medium. The results showed that such a setup can be considered a prototype for a portable device for directly measuring the scattering of liquid samples, without resorting to complicated numerical or analytic inversion procedures of the measured data, once the suitable calibration of the system is performed