Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Local and Imported Citrus

Indonesia horticultural product has experienced major implication from global free trade. Quantity of imported fruits was increased rapidly during the last ten years under implication of free trade. In spite implies market positively by boosting consumption and market growth, imports also implies increasing competition between imported and local fruit. Increase of imports has significantly affect production by decreasing number of certain scale of farm whose growth local product. It is important measuring whether the market and costumer response due the competition between locally grown and imported fruits.  The study intended to (1) examined the difference of demands between local citrus and imported one. (2) measured demographic factors that influence costumer choice to buy local or imported citrus,  and (3) examined product attributes that influence consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for local and imported citrus. The study was conducted in Malang district, East Java, Indonesia.  Respondents were determined by purposive quota sampling method. WTP data was collected refer to modified “Vickrey Auction” principles. Binary Logit Regression and Ordinary Least Square analysis have been employed respectively to measure demographic factor that influenced costumer decision and examine the product attributes related to costumer WTP.   The study has revealed that there were a different demand curve pattern and different own price elasticity between locally grown and imported citrus.  Higher Income, higher number of dependant and younger costumer has driven higher probability on consuming imported citrus. This research also shown that color, safety, healthy and packaging significantly affect costumer willingness to pay for imported citrus, while taste and safety was significant for local citrus. The findings indicated that in certain market, consumer would pay higher price to afford imported citrus, which placed locally grown citrus in the high competition. Higher incomes will increase imported citrus consumption. Meanwhile, color and packaging are factors that must be considered by citrus local grower to win the competition. Keywords: import; demand; locally grown; competition; willingness to pay; citrus

IMPACTS OF RISING STRATEGIC FOOD PRICES ON POVERTY IN INDONESIA

Poverty has existed for many years, and will always exist in a large number of countries, so poverty alleviation targets are a challenge for most countries. The main objective of this research is to analyze the impact of strategic food price increases on poverty with a systematic measure. The study uses SUSENAS (Indonesian National Socioeconomic Survey) raw data. The total data used is 287,830 households. consisting of 166,019 rural households and 121,811 urban households. The impact of price changes on poverty can be seen by using The HeadCount Ratio, The Poverty Gap Ratio, The Sen Index, and The Foster-Greer and Thorbecke Index. The analysis showed rice is a strategic food whose price increase has the biggest impact on increasing poverty, so it needs government efforts to reduce the rate of increase in rice prices if it wants to reduce poverty

Qualitative study of Chinese widows in Hong Kong: Insights for psycho-social care in hospice settings

In an exploratory, phenomenological study of seven Chinese widows in Hong Kong, five major themes are identified: relationship with the deceased, relationship with others, grief reactions, coping and emotional expression. This paper focuses on the first theme: the widows' relationship with the deceased husband along a timeline from the time of diagnosis to after death. The experiences in the final days with the deceased were frequently referred to when the informants talked about this theme. This paper aims to give added voice, based on the experience of Chinese widows, to the possible role of hospice and palliative care on influencing the bereavement experience. Issues of awareness and acceptance of death, the supportive environment and support for family carers, the moment of death, creation of legacies, and sensitivity towards cultural embedded practices, are discussed. It is hoped that the experiences of these bereaved widows will stimulate new research to elucidate and verify the findings reported in this paper. © 2006 Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd.postprin

PREFERENSI KONSUMEN LAYANAN SAYUR ONLINE UNTUK MENINGKATKAN PENJUALAN KONSUMEN RUMAHAN DAY DAY FRESH

Day Day Fresh (DDF) is an online vegetable and fruit supply company that serves business consumers (B2B) and household consumers (B2C). Their sales growth to business consumers (B2B) has increased, but sales to household consumers (B2C) are still small and stagnant due to the difficulty of entering the home market segment. Therefore, it is important to know the preferences of online vegetable service consumers to increase sales of Day Day Fresh home consumers. Data collection uses a questionnaire and is given online via WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Telegram. This research used non-probability sampling techniques with 300 respondents. Data analysis uses descriptive analysis methods using Microsoft Excel. Based on the research result, it can be concluded Product variety is a very important factor for vegetable consumers in making purchases, where the freshness aspect is the most important in product quality. Price information is also a very important factor for consumers in purchasing decisions. The promotional aspect that most influences consumer purchasing decisions is ease of ordering and complaint service. In the location aspect, WhatsApp is the most preferred medium for consumers to purchase vegetables online. Key words:  costumer preference, place, price, product, promotionINTISARIDay Day Fresh (DDF) adalah perusahaan penyediaan sayur dan buah online yang melayani konsumen bisnis (B2B) dan konsumen rumah tangga (B2C). Pertumbuhan penjualan Day Day Fresh pada konsumen bisnis (B2B) mengalami peningkatan, namun penjualan pada konsumen rumah tangga (B2C) masih sedikit dan stagnan karena sulitnya memasuki segmen pasar rumahan. Sehingga penting untuk diketahui preferensi konsumen layanan sayur online untuk meningkatkan penjualan konsumen rumahan Day Day Fresh agar produk yang dihasilkan sesuai dengan keinginan konsumen.  Penelitian dilakukan di Kota Medan pada Agustus hingga Oktober 2022. Jenis penelitian adalah marketing research. Pengumpulan data menggunakan kuesioner dan diberikan secara online dengan bantuan aplikasi whatsapp, instagram, facebook dan telegram. Penelitian ini menggunakan teknik non probability sampling dengan responden sebanyak 300 orang. Analisis data dilakukan dengan metode analisis deskriptif menggunakan Microsoft Excel.  Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa variasi produk merupakan faktor yang sangat penting bagi konsumen sayuran dalam melakukan pembelian, dimana aspek kesegaran paling penting dalam kualitas produk. Informasi harga juga menjadi faktor yang sangat penting bagi konsumen dalam memutuskan pembelian. Aspek promosi yang paling mempengaruhi keputusan pembelian bagi konsumen adalah kemudahan dalam pemesanan dan layanan komplain. Pada aspek tempat, whatsapp menjadi media yang paling disukai konsumen untuk melakukan pembelian sayur online. Key words: harga, preferensi konsumen, produk, promosi, tempa

PELAKSANAAN SISTEM LONCAT 2 LANTAI UNTUK GEDUNG BERTINGKAT RANGKA BAJA

The construction of the 2-story jump system is an alternative to the construction of steel frame buildings. In this study an analysis was carried out on a 10-story steel frame building using a comparative method between 2 systems namely the 2-story jump system and Conventional Systems. The research method used is to compare between 2 systems, where in the initial stages a modeling of a 10-story steel building to get a steel frame building design, followed by an analysis of completion time for each system, and control of buckling in the column for a 2-story jump system. In accordance with the analysis, it was found that the implementation of the construction of a 10-story steel frame building with the 2-story jump system takes 62.97 days, whereas with the conventional system takes 74.68 days or the 2-story jump system is 11.71 days faster or 84.32% of the time of the implementation of conventional systems. Pelaksanaan pembangunan dengan Sistem Loncat 2 Lantai merupakan alternatif untuk pelaksanaan pembangunan gedung rangka baja. Pada penelitian ini dilakukan analisis pada gedung rangka baja 10 lantai dengan menggunakan metode komparasi antara 2 sistem yaitu sistem loncat 2 lantai dan sistem konvensional. Metode penelitian yang dilakukan adalah membandingkan antara 2 sistem, dimana pada tahap awal dilakukan pemodelan gedung rangka baja 10 lantai untuk mendapatkan desain gedung rangka baja, dilanjutkan dengan analisis waktu penyelesaian untuk masing masing sistem, dan kontrol terhadap bahaya tekuk pada kolom untuk sistem loncat 2 lantai. Sesuai dengan analisis, didapatkan bahwa dengan sistem pelaksanaan pembangunan gedung rangka baja 10 lantai dengan sistem loncat 2 lantai memerlukan waktu 62.97 hari, sedangkan dengan sistem konvensional memerlukan waktu 74.68 hari atau sistem loncat 2 lantai lebih cepat 11.71 hari atau 84.32% dari waktu pelakasanaan sistem konvensional

Seizures and disturbed brain potassium dynamics in the leukodystrophy megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts

OBJECTIVE: Loss of function of the astrocyte-specific protein MLC1 leads to the childhood-onset leukodystrophy "megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts" (MLC). Studies on isolated cells show a role for MLC1 in astrocyte volume regulation and suggest that disturbed brain ion and water homeostasis is central to the disease. Excitability of neuronal networks is particularly sensitive to ion and water homeostasis. In line with this, reports of seizures and epilepsy in MLC patients exist. However, systematic assessment and mechanistic understanding of seizures in MLC are lacking. METHODS: We analyzed an MLC patient inventory to study occurrence of seizures in MLC. We used two distinct genetic mouse models of MLC to further study epileptiform activity and seizure threshold through wireless extracellular field potential recordings. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings and K+-sensitive electrode recordings in mouse brain slices were used to explore the underlying mechanisms of epilepsy in MLC. RESULTS: An early onset of seizures is common in MLC. Similarly, in MLC mice, we uncovered spontaneous epileptiform brain activity and a lowered threshold for induced seizures. At the cellular level, we found that although passive and active properties of individual pyramidal neurons are unchanged, extracellular K+dynamics and neuronal network activity are abnormal in MLC mice. INTERPRETATION: Disturbed astrocyte regulation of ion and water homeostasis in MLC causes hyperexcitability of neuronal networks and seizures. These findings suggest a role for defective astrocyte volume regulation in epilepsy. Ann Neurol 2018;83:636-649