Taking a Bite out of the Harmful Effects of Mercury in Dental Fillings: Advocating for National Legislation for Mercury Amalgams

Mary Stephenson, a fifty-nine-year-old grandmother, visited dozens of counselors and experienced with an array of antidepressants but nothing worked to curb her suicidal feelings. Janie McDowell, a fifty-six-year-old housewife, suffered from hand tremors, leg-muscle spasms, recurring nausea, chronic bladder and kidney infections, severe depression, short-term memory loss, and slurred speech. Freya Koss, a former event planner, experienced dizziness and double vision. Physicians misdiagnosed Koss with lupus, multiple sclerosis, and, finally myasthenia gravis. The common theme among these medical tragedies is that the above victims all returned to being healthy, active adults after the removal of their mercury amalgam dental fillings. . . . This paper begins with a historical look at the use of mercury in dental fillings. Part III discusses the forms of mercury, while Part IV discusses the composition of mercury amalgams. Part V focuses on the mercury amalgam controversy and highlights the major arguments made by pro-amalgam and anti-amalgam activists. Parts VI and VII, respectively, explain why litigation and removal of fillings are insufficient remedies for the mercury amalgam problem. Part VIII addresses the environmental impact of mercury amalgams. Part IX examines legislation enacted in other countries that prohibit, limit, or discourage the use of mercury amalgams. Part X addresses the inadequacies of state-level legislation as a solution. Part XI proposes national legislation as the best solution to the mercury amalgam problem. Additionally, the final part recommends changes to the currently proposed national legislation

Grand Strategy of Cooperative Development in Indonesia

The cooperative is one of the oldest socio-economic movement and has spread to many countries around the globe. In Indonesia, the beginning of the cooperative movement can be traced back to the 1800s. In July 1947, a congress in cooperatives was held at the national level and it was considered as a milestone of cooperative movement. The development of cooperatives, unfortunately, was not satisfied. Up to this writing, there is a lack of successful cooperative presence in the national level. This study aims to portray the development of cooperatives in Indonesia and to develop national level cooperative development strategies. This study was conducted from June 2013 until February 2014. Data was collected through several approaches, including desk study, in-depth interview and focus group discussion (FGD) involving the cooperative leaders and policy makers at both the local and national level. Collected data then was analyzed using content analysis, fishbone and mind mapping, and SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunity, and threats) analysis, followed by architecture strategic. This study found that in macro level the development of cooperative grows as much as 3% per year; however 30% of it was not active. At the micro level, the economic performance of cooperatives was less profitable, and organizationally, was biased from the cooperative’s identity. In order to enhance the development of cooperatives, we formulated 13 strategies which were divided into two phases: the consolidation stage and expansion stage. The 13 strategies, however, will not be successful unless it is fully supported by the government, both at the local and national level

Penghimpunan Dana Zakat Infak Sedekah Berdasarkan Intensi Perilaku Muslim Gen Y dalam Penggunaan Teknologi Digital Payment

The development of lifestyle generation Y is inseparable from technological development. That changes the behavior of gen Y Muslims in making zakat, infaq, shodaqoh (ZIS) payments from conventional to digital. The purpose of this study is to describe the characteristics of Muslim gen Y related to digital ZIS payments, then to analyze what influences the behavior intention of gen Y Muslims in the use of digital payment technology for ZIS payments. The results of this study qualitatively indicate that the characteristics of digital payment technology users for ZIS payments are dominated by female gen Y Muslims. The most commonly used digital payment method is transfer via mobile banking and via e-wallet. Digital service partners that are widely used to channel digital ZIS payments to OPZ are banking institutions. The quantitative research results show that the overall variables studied, namely performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating conditions (FC), hedonic motivation (HM), price value (PV), habit (HT), and perceived security (PS) have a significant influence on the behavioral intention (BI) of gen Y Muslims in the use of digital payment technology for ZIS payments, where the greatest factor influences the intention of gen Y Muslims behavior is perceived security

Efektivitas Struktur Organisasi Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Terorisme Republik Indonesia

The purpose of this research is to analyze the effectiveness of organizationalstructure. Based on the results of the analysis of the range of criteria for 62 respondents, it shows that the organizational structure of NCTA at the time of the study was quite effective. Three components of organizational structure, complexity, formalization, and centralization have a significant relationship with the effectiveness of the organizational structure. These results were obtained from the Spearman Rank correlation test. The results of the AHP showed that among the criteria, thecomplexity criterion was of the highest important and the alternative strategy that becomes the main priority is competency measurement.Keywords: Effectiveness of Organizational Structure; National Counter Agency AbstrakTujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis efektivitas struktur organisasi. Berdasarkan hasil analisis rentang kriteria 62 responden menunjukkan bahwa struktur organisasi KNKT pada saat penelitian cukup efektif. Tiga komponen struktur organisasi, kompleksitas, formalisasi, dan sentralisasi memiliki hubungan yang signifikan dengan efektivitas struktur organisasi. Hasil ini diperoleh dari uji korelasi Rank Spearman. Hasil AHP menunjukkan bahwa diantara kriteria tersebut, kriteria kompleksitas merupakan yang paling penting dan alternatif strategi yang menjadi prioritas utama adalah pengukuran kompetensi.Kata Kunci: Efektifitas Struktur Organisasi; Badan Kontra Nasiona

Strategies to Enhance The Resilience and Service Performance of Frontline Employees of PT Bank XYZ Makassar Regional Office

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought many changes to the business world and the Indonesian economy. Corporate resilience is essential for business continuity and recovery amid such a crisis. This study aims to analyze the effect of a high-performance work system (HPWS) on employee resilience and service performance at Bank XYZ Makassar Regional Office and determine the right strategy to improve employee resilience and service performance. An online survey was conducted among 336 frontline employees of Bank XYZ Makassar Regional Office, and the data were processed using the SEM-PLS method to determine the effect between variables. The results showed that the HPWS variable had a positive and significant effect on Employee Resilience. Employee Resilience has a positive and significant effect on Employee Service Performance. HPWS directly or indirectly has a positive and significant effect on the variables of Employee Resilience and Employee Service Performance. To improve Employee resilience and Service Performance, the company's employees must re-planning the HR planning system and re-designing the workflow of frontline employees. Keywords: bank, employee resilience, employee service performance, frontliner, high-performance work system (HPWS

STRATEGY TO IMPROVE LABOR PRODUCTIVITY IN PT FREEPOT INDONESIA'S UNDERGROUND MINING PROJECT

Poor productivity of labor construction causes project cost to increase and project completion schedule behind target. Underground mining company such as PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) struggle to overcome problem with productivity. It is critical for mining underground company to keep up labor productivity due to importance of mining production. Therefore, the purpose of this research are: (1) to identify the factors that influence labor productivity; (2) to formulate alternative strategies to increase the productivity; and (3) to formulate recommendations carried out by PTFI in order to increase the productivity. This research use literature review and expert discussion to identify factors affecting labor productivity in the construction industry. The analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method used to find the best strategies to increase labor productivity. The result of this research showed that the factors that has the most influence is labor management, the most influencing actor is construction management, the most important goal is to improve project management implementation and the best strategy to increase labor productivity is to create a Project Management Office (PMO) system. The recommendation that can be given is that PTFI needs to develop guidelines and programs for PMO system development and apply PMO to all PTFI mining activity. Keywords: Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Labor productivity, Project Management Office (PMO), Strategies, Underground minin

FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMENGARUHI KEPUTUSAN PERUSAHAAN MANUFAKTUR DALAM MELAKUKAN INOVASI PRODUK DI INDONESIA

Innovation is an important factor for the survival and growth of firms. Based on the value of Competitive Industrial Performance (CPI), the innovation performance of Indonesian manufacturing companies shows a fluctuating trend, lags behind other neighboring countries and have a low level of innovation awareness. This study aims to analyze the factors that influence Indonesian manufacturing firms on product innovation. The article uses logit regression method and secondary data focusing on 1,069 Indonesian manufacturing companies in 2015. The results showed that product innovation was positively and significantly influenced by the manager's work experience, total sales, exports and R&D. From these results, it can be concluded that to improve the innovation performance of Indonesian manufacturing firms, policies should be aimed at the factors which influence product innovation significantly.Inovasi merupakan faktor penting untuk kelangsungan hidup dan pertumbuhan perusahaan.. Berdasarkan nilai Competitive Industrial Performance (CPI), kinerja Inovasi perusahaan manufaktur Indonesia menunjukkan tren fluktuatif, tertinggal dari negara tetangga dan memiliki tingkat kesadaran inovasi yang rendah. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis faktor-faktor yang memengaruhi keputusan perusahaan manufaktur dalam melakukan inovasi produk. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode analisis regresi logit dan data sekunder yang berfokus pada 1.069 perusahaan manufaktur Indonesia tahun 2015. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa inovasi produk dipengaruhi secara positif dan signifikan oleh pengalaman kerja manajer, total penjualan, ekspor dan R&D. Dari hasil tersebut, dapat disimpulkan bahwa untuk meningkatkan kinerja inovasi perusahaan manufaktur Indonesia, kebijakan harus ditujukan pada faktor-faktor yang memengaruhi inovasi produk secara positif

FORMULASI STRATEGI UNIT BISNIS LAUNDRY SEPATU (STUDI KASUS DARMAWAN WASH SHOE BOGOR)

Shoes are not only used for daily needs now, but people rather consider that shoes are an important fashion item for their appereance. Despite the growing culture of Indonesian sneakerhead, Darmawan Wash Shoe had recently experiencing decreased sales from 2017 untiI 2019. This research aimed to 1) identifying internal and external factors which are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that influences the sales of Darmawan Wash Shoe; 2) formulate alternative strategies that can be implemented to increase sales based on the influences of each internal and external factors on Darmawan Wash Shoe; 3) determine the priority from those alternative strategies to be implemented to achieve sales targets in Darmawan Wash Shoe. The methods used in this study are: 1) identification of Darmawan Wash Shoe internal factors using the Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) method and identification of Darmawan Wash Shoe external factors using the External Factor Evaluation (EFE) method, positioning Darmawan Wash Shoe business using the Internal External (IE) matrix; 2) aIternative strategy formulations using the SWOT matrix method; 4) formulating priority strategies with the Quantitative Stratategy Planning Matrix (QSPM) method. The results of internal and external analysis found that the position of Darmawan Wash Shoe is in quadrant V, the strategy that must be done is market penetration and development product in the QSPM analysis, the main priority strategy is to conduct onIine discount promotions. Keywords: EFE, IFE, QSPM, Startegy Formulation, SWO

The Strategy of PT Bank Riau Kepri Capem Flamboyan in Preparation of Oil Palm Replanting

Rejuvenation of oil palm has decreasedcredit growth and savings of PT Bank Riau Kepri Capem Flamboyan which may reduce the income. The paper aims to (1) identify constraints and opportunities of farmers related to the rejuvenation of oil palm plantations, (2) analyze external and internal factors, and (3) manage a development strategy of PT Bank Riau Kepri Capem Flamboyan on the rejuvenation of oil palm plantations. Qualitative analysis was used to identify constraints and opportunities related to replanting oil palm plantations. Furthermore, identification external and internal factors was used to conduct quantitative analysis using IFE and EFE matrix. The result shows that scores of IFE and EFE are 2.652 and 3.100, respectively. A a result the position of PT Bank Riau Kepri Capem Flamboyan in the IE matrix is at the second quadrant namely growth and development strategy. The IE matrix were use to formulate SWOT analysis, and resulted 16 alternative strategies. Strategic design to implement employed strategy architecture approach. the study concluded that the routine strategy of PT Bank Riau Kepri Capem Flamboyan is socialization with KUD, mediation between KUD and the government, appoinment KUD counterparts and improvement services to customers . The strategy was divided into three phases. The first is that the bank compete to get cooperation. The second is that rejuvenation begins, and the third period indicates that the oil palm start harvesting. Keywords: EFE, IFE, replanting, strategy architecture, SWO

Strategi Pengembangan Bisnis Makanan Olahan Pada Pesantren Peserta Program OPOP di Kabupaten Bogor

Islamic boarding school in Indonesia have enormous potentials and roles in terms of numbers, students and resources. This reality is the background for the implementation of the One Islamic Boarding School One Product (OPOP) program for the West Java Provincial Government. This study aims to formulate a strategy for the development of the food industry in Islamic boarding schools participating in the OPOP program in Bogor Regency. The data source for this study comes from primary and secondary data. Primary data were obtained through interviews and filling out questionnaires by Islamic boarding school business managers, similar business actors, OPOP program assistants and expert respondents. Secondary data was obtained from BPS, related agencies and other related literature. The data obtained was then analyzed using SWOT analysis and blue ocean strategy. The results of the research show that the pesantren business has many weaknesses but has various opportunities to be developed. The blue ocean analysis illustrates that the pesantren business is still in tight business competition (red ocean). Therefore, pesantren are recommended to make strategic changes through market penetration and product development strategies. Market penetration strategy through increasing product branding, Islamic boarding school business networks and utilizing e-commerce technology. The product development strategy is carried out through product innovations typical of Islamic boarding schools. Keywords: blue ocean strategy, economic independence, OPOP, pesantre