Acceptance of technological change: Do age, expertise and self-efficacy matter?

This study was designed to examine the acceptance of change by employees of different ages, in different contexts. This study challenged the stereotypes held against older individuals by proposing that factors other than age contribute to the acceptance of changes. It examined two context-specific variables, self-efficacy and expertise which contribute to acceptance of technological changes. The findings indicated that older individuals with computer experience had higher self-efficacy. On the other hand, younger individuals had higher self-efficacy, regardless of computer experience. Also, individuals who felt younger than they actually were had higher self-efficacy when they had experience with computers, compared to those who felt older than they were

Production of Chitinase by Trichoderma Virens Ukm1 from Colloidal Chitin and Shrimp Waste

Shrimp waste being the main waste from marine industry is a source of surface pollution in coastal areas consisting of mainly protein, calcium carbonate and chitin. Chitin, the second most abundant biopolymer is a -(1,4)-linked N-acetyl-Dglucosamine (GluNac) heterogeneous polymer that has versatile biological and agrochemical applications. Chitinase a glycosyl hydrolase is produced constitutively as isozymes in fungus for de novo chitin metabolism. Chitin chains are converted into chitooligosaccharides and GluNac reducing sugars by chitinase with specific modes of action at the reducing ends. In this study, shrimp waste was pretreated with chemical and physicochemical methods to determine the best pretreatment before fermentation with a locally isolated fungus, Trichoderma virens UKM1. Experiments in shake flasks and 2 L stirred tank reactor (STR) demonstrated sun dried ground shrimp waste as the best pretreatment, 1 x 106 spores/mL as the best total spore concentration and fermentation pH control at pH 6.0 as the most effective for chitinase production. Subsequent optimisation in 2 L STR showed that fermentation at 200 rpm and 0.33 vvm gave the highest chitinase productivity of 4.1 U/L/h and 5.97 U/L/h, respectively. Microbial chitin bioconversion employing optimal conditions in medium with colloidal chitin and medium with sun dried ground shrimp waste as the sole carbon source showed an increase of 7.25 fold and 1.57 fold in chitinase activity, respectively from shake flasks culture to 2 L STR. The respiration rate (Qo2X) during the highest chitinase productivity was 3.864 mg of DO g-1 of fungal biomass h-1 while the specific respiration rate (Qo2) was 20.337 mg of DO g-1 of fungal biomass h-1 and the maximum specific growth rate, μmax was 0.0078 h-1 with the corresponding doubling time, td of 88.85 hours. Concentration and partial purification of crude chitinase showed that ammonium sulphate precipitation at 80% saturation gave highest chitinase activity in line with the results of enzymatic chitin bioconversion from DNS chitinase assay and HPLC analysis

Coastal Urban Centers and Disaster Management in Iloilo, Philippines

Coastal areas play an important role in sustainable development. Subsistence and commercial fishing of marine resources have provided vital source of food, employment, and social stability in coastal communities. However, the fisheries sector is vulnerable to various development activities that dynamically interact with other sectors such as agriculture, forestry, and tourism. It is not yet clear if local governments in disaster risk-vulnerable countries incorporate environmental security components in their disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) plans and recognize vulnerable groups, such as fishermen and farmers. This paper presents the case of a coastal municipality in Iloilo, Philippines. We examine its DRRM plans using a coastal resource management framework. A combination of household survey and secondary information were used to identify the gaps and examine municipality spending to address disasters, estimated household flood damages, and legislation relating to disasters. Results showed that the local government was not using the required disaster spending (i.e., 5% of the internal revenue allotment) despite high and continued flood damages (estimated at PhP 1903 per household per year) in their municipality. General plans relating to environmental integrity were integrated but limited toward business expansion and solid waste management, with little emphasis on coastal sustainability. There are also evidences of well-structured and updated legislation relating to disaster, but they lack focus on marine environment and capacity building of fishing and farming households. Thus, the study recommends reassessing the DRRM plans of the municipality in order to improve the well-being of its residents

Social Media Usage Behavior: An Application of a Modified Technology Acceptance Model

Spending on social media marketing has become increasingly important in today’s competitive and dynamic business environment. The use of social media (SM) has enhanced brand visibility and facilitated social engagement opportunities for various industries, such as agriculture and education. In the Philippines, however, research on SM usage has been generally descriptive, wherein inter-relationship between determinants of SM use are under-examined. This study recognizes this important gap and applies a modified technology acceptance model (TAM) to investigate the effects of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, subjective norm, and perceived playfulness on users’ intention to use SM. Since these motivation variables are perceived to be endogenous in the literature and are significantly correlated based on initial statistical tests, we used principal component analysis (PCA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) to control for endogeneity. Findings from a survey of 500 millennials reveal that all hypothesized determinants have significant influence on intention to use, with perceived ease of use as the strongest factor. These results provide significant insights to social media marketers and developers on how to maximize the potentials of SM as an effective marketing tool. A natural progression of this work is to analyze the usage of SM in agri-based industries. Possible areas of application include the use of SM platforms to establish a community of agri-entrepreneurs and other stakeholders from the agriculture industry, wherein they can share best practices, collaborate with (potential) farmer-entrepreneurs, and interact with diverse consumers

Kontento nga pangabuhi kag panimalay: Local Notions of Well-being for Natural Resource Management

Social and cultural dimensions in natural resource management have been overlooked in assessing the potential for economic development for agricultural and coastal resources. Following this, sustainable management of resources requires better information on how people value these resources and whether these values reflect in their ‘well-being.’ This paper examines key aspects of the concept of ‘well-being’ that were self-reported by residents working in either agriculture and/or fisheries as well as by those working in non-agriculture/fisheries sectors. We were interested in a sample of participants who represent the variety of residents in terms of occupation, level of exposure/experience with regards to the environment, and socio-demographic characteristics. Snowball sampling was used to recruit participants in six focus group discussions (FGDs). Results from FGDs show that key aspects of ‘well-being’ include five general categories. These are natural capital (e.g., land), financial capital (e.g., work/employment), manufactured capital (e.g., marketplace), social capital (e.g., security in the community), and others (e.g., education). Respondents also rated the importance of these aspects, and resource-dependent households value the environment and bequest values as the most important aspects of their well-being. As expected, these factors reflect and coincide with the various types of capitals listed in the initial review of literature. The results present empirical evidence based on the voices and experiences of both fisheries and agriculture workers and their non-fisheries and non-agriculture counterparts. From these self-reported understanding of ‘well-being,’ policy makers and other key stakeholders like nongovernmental organizations working with fishing and agricultural communities could potentially base their conservation and development priorities in the Metro Iloilo-Guimaras region

Chemoreception studies in relation to feeding responses in the marine shrimps Penaeus indicus H. Milne Edwards and Metapenaeus dobsoni Miers.

Chemoreception in relation to feeding and the various factors involved in the same in Penaeus indicus and Metapenaeus dobsoni were investigated under laboratory and field conditions by behavioural and ongrowing studies . The entire sequence of feeding behaviour in shrimps from appetitive behavioural pattern to the consumatory act of feeding can be released by chemical stimuli alone. The chemotactic indices, Db and Rb, developed were used to classify the feeding stimuli as attractant and repellent based on their chemotactic property. Analysis of extracts of natural food materials for both species showed that they are attractive to !.indicus and ~ . dobsoni, whereas the squid ink acted as a feeding repellent for shrimps. The feeding response increased with increase in extract concentration and decreased with squid ink concentrations. The major attractant and stimulant substances present in the extracts were free amino acids with 78.2% of the extract activity in !.indicus and 50 . 28% in ~ . dobsoni, and nucleotides. Soluble proteins and peptides, lipids and carbohydrates also evoke feeding response but at lower level . Among the various groups of aminoacid; neutral followed by basic amino acids and among nucleotides; Inosine Mono Phosphate (IMP) produced maximum feeding response. At the same concentration L-Amino acids were found more stimulatory than the corresponding DL-amino acid. The threshold concentration of L-amino acids ranged between 4 x 10-2M and 1 x 10-10M for P. indicus and 1.5 to 1 -10 x 10 M for ~. dobsoni, and in the case of DL-forms it is between 1 x 10-2M and 1 x 10-5 M for both species. Amino acids like lysine, methionine, glycine, alanine and proline in P. indicus and lysine, methionine, alanine, ii phenylalanine and leucine in M. dobsoni produced maximum feeding response and feed ingestion. Most of the amino acids have anyone of the feeding activity, but those like glycine and lysine acted differently as attractants, incitant and stimulant at progressively increasing concentrations. Environmental parameters like pH and salinity have pronounced influence on the chemoreception and feeding response in the shrimps, being chemotactically more active at pH between 7.0 and 9.0 and salinity between 15 and 25%. • The feed intake reduced by 50% at pH 6.0 and 10.0. The alertness towards feeding stimuli increased with the degree of starvation upto certain levels and thereafter decreased due to the physical weakness of the animal. The agar matrix bioassay served as a cheap and efficient method to screen a wide variety of attractants and stimulants . Flavouring the diets with potential natural and synthetic chemo attractants and stimulants reduced the time required' to attract the shrimps to the feed and to initiate ingestion activity . It also improved the palatability and acceptability and subsequently improved food intake, growth, survival, food assimilation efficiency, specific growth rate and food conversion. This marked increase in the food intake and growth could be due to the increased digestive activity of the pancreatic secretion and the resultant increase in appetite, The attractants and stimulants produced more or less the same pattern for ingestion activity as that elicited during behavioural trial. It also indicated that the ongrowing performance of various feeding stimuli could be predicted directly from the behavioural trial. iii The chemoreceptors most concerned with feeding seemed to be on the antennules, on the pereopods and on the mouth parts. Antennu1e chemoreceptors were involved in distance chemoreception and to mediate arousal and search for potential food . The mouth and leg receptors functioned mainly as contact chemoreceptors; involved in the seizure and ingestion activity and to some extent they are also involved in distance chemoreception. Morphologically distinct chemosensory sensi11a present on these appendages were the primary sites for chemoreception in these species . Both P.indicus and M.dobsoni differed significantly in their chemotactic response to different stimuli. Among the various stages of animals studied juveniles were chemotactically more active than the post-larvae and juveniles

Marine Protected Areas: A Case Study in Northerneastern Iloilo, Philippines

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can be considered as one of powerful conservation tools of fishery resource management in the literature. However, due to continuing environmental awareness and mismanagement, the Philippine government has decentralized the power of legislation and management of its MPAs since the early 2000. This encouraged participation of various sectors such as the Local Government Units, Non-government Organizations, the academes, business enterprises, and multinational corporations though; it has very low success rate statistics. This paper presents an overview of MPA management in Northeastern Iloilo, Philippines and examines its several management strategies. It examines the interaction between the civil society and market forces of institutional arrangements in Northeastern Iloilo, Philippines. It further aims to determine the main conflict that causes trade off outcomes in terms of analyzing strategic interactions among economic agents of the different regimes. Several scenarios that resemble conflict between various national, local and international sectors are discussed. It also shows that conflict is one of the reasons why the country has very low success rate statistics - thus a proper evaluation current scenario is imminent

Ultralow-threshold, continuous-wave upconverting lasing from subwavelength plasmons.

Miniaturized lasers are an emerging platform for generating coherent light for quantum photonics, in vivo cellular imaging, solid-state lighting and fast three-dimensional sensing in smartphones1-3. Continuous-wave lasing at room temperature is critical for integration with opto-electronic devices and optimal modulation of optical interactions4,5. Plasmonic nanocavities integrated with gain can generate coherent light at subwavelength scales6-9, beyond the diffraction limit that constrains mode volumes in dielectric cavities such as semiconducting nanowires10,11. However, insufficient gain with respect to losses and thermal instabilities in nanocavities has limited all nanoscale lasers to pulsed pump sources and/or low-temperature operation6-9,12-15. Here, we show continuous-wave upconverting lasing at room temperature with record-low thresholds and high photostability from subwavelength plasmons. We achieve selective, single-mode lasing from Yb3+/Er3+-co-doped upconverting nanoparticles conformally coated on Ag nanopillar arrays that support a single, sharp lattice plasmon cavity mode and greater than wavelength λ/20 field confinement in the vertical dimension. The intense electromagnetic near-fields localized in the vicinity of the nanopillars result in a threshold of 70 W cm-2, orders of magnitude lower than other small lasers. Our plasmon-nanoarray upconverting lasers provide directional, ultra-stable output at visible frequencies under near-infrared pumping, even after six hours of constant operation, which offers prospects in previously unrealizable applications of coherent nanoscale light