Factors Determining Organic Farming Adoption: International Research Results and Lessons Learned for Indonesia

Indonesia is potential to develop organic farming as it has suitable land and supporting technology. Demand for organic product is supposed to increase in the future due to people's awareness about safety and healthy food. It implies that organic farming has a good prospect to develop as agriculture-base business. However, it seems that farmers' response to adopt organic farming technology is very low indicated by low rate of adoption. Actually, many countries have experiences in term of organic farming. This paper aims to assess determinant factors of organic farming adoption based on International research experiences and to withdraw lessons learned to raise adoption rate in Indonesia. The results showed that the determinant factors of organic farming adoption consisted of various aspects, i.e. (1) information and knowledge availability, (2) economic and financial motives, (3) technical and management skills, (4) social consideration, (5) environmental concern, (6) institutional environment, and (7) farmers' socio-economic and demographic background. Accordingly, those aspects should be taken into account in policy formulation to encourage organic farming adoption. Indeed, government's role is very crucial, mainly to convince farmers about organic farming benefit and to provide information as well as technical assistance

Effect of Global Warming Scenarios on Carotenoid Pigments Gracilaria changii

The phenomenon of global warming is an increase in the earth's temperature due to the greenhouse effect where 50% of the main contributors to the greenhouse effect are carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon dioxide is one of the ingredients needed for photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is carried out by plants that have chloroplasts. Plants in the waters are Seaweed. Gracilaria changii is a type of red seaweed (Rhodophyceae). The dominant pigment from Gracilaria changii is carotenoids. Carotenoid serves as a light energy absorbent for photosynthesis and serves to protect chlorophyll from light damage. Seeing the important role of carotenoids in Gracilaria changii so that this study aims to determine the effect of increasing temperature and carbon dioxide on carotenoid pigments. Research on the scenario of global warming in this region was first carried out on a laboratory scale, many previous studies were carried out in the cultivation area. This study was conducted for 40 days, seaweed that has been cleaned is put into an aquarium and given an injection of CO2. We were exposed to present-day control seawater (400 ppm pCO2 ) and seawater treated with CO2 to simulate ocean conditions predicted for the next 50–100 years (700 ppm, 1000 ppm, and 1300 ppm) and temperature treatment (30 oC, 32 oC, 34 oC). The research design applied in this study is a Completely Randomized Design consisting of nine treatments with three replications. Data analysis used is Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) continued by Post hoc Test. The results obtained from this study there were significant differences (

A cross-sectional study of hypertensive outpatients to determine the necessity of asking about erectile dysfunction symptoms.

Background: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is common amongst hypertensive men. Hypertensive patients often attribute it to antihypertensive drugs, although conflicting evidence linking ED with antihypertensive medication exists. The objectives were to determine the prevalence and severity of ED, the type of treatment sought, and the risk factors for ED among hypertensive men. Method: A cross-sectional survey conducted over six months from June to November 2008 at University Kebangsaan, Malaysia Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur. Inclusion criteria included hypertensive men above 30 years old, with essential hypertension for at least three months. We excluded diabetics, a history of pelvic surgery and known psychiatric illnesses. The International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) assessment was used with a standardised checklist. We analysed data using SPSS, to assess the prevalence and association of ED with selected variables. Results: Of the 200 participants screened, 35.5% perceived that they had ED. However, prevalence increased to 69% after screening using an IIEF-5 questionnaire. Forty-eight per cent were reported to have moderate-tosevere ED. ED was significantly associated with age (p-value = 0.0001). No significant associations were found between ED and the duration of the hypertension (p-value = 0.505), hypertension control (p-value > 0.05), smoking status (p-value = 0.858) or number of antihypertensive medication taken (p-value > 0.05). Among perceived and proven ED patients, traditional medicines were mainly used for treatment (18.3% and 17.2% respectively). Conclusion: ED is a problem among hypertensive patients. It was associated with age but not with hypertension duration, control, number of antihypertensive drugs or smoking. Physicians should enquire about ED symptoms in hypertensive patients, as most of them resorted to self-treatment with traditional medicines

A multi-stakeholder strategy to identify conservation priorities in Peninsular Malaysia

Malaysia, with its rapidly growing economy, exemplifies the tensions between conservation and development faced by many tropical nations. Here we present the results of a multi-stakeholder engagement exercise conducted to (1) define conservation priorities in Peninsular Malaysia and (2) explore differences in perceptions among and within stakeholder groups (i.e. government, academia, NGOs and the private sector). Our data collection involved two workshops and two online surveys where participants identified seven general conservation themes and ranked the top five priority issues within each theme. The themes were: (1) policy and management, (2) legislation and enforcement, (3) finance and resource allocation, (4) knowledge, research and development, (5) socio-economic issues, (6) public awareness and participation and (7) rights of nature. In spite of their very different backgrounds and agendas, the four stakeholder groups showed general agreement in their priority preferences except for two issues. Respondents from government and private sector differed the most from each other in their priority choices while academia and NGO showed the highest degree of similarity. This ranked list of 35 conservation priorities is expected to influence the work of policy-makers and others in Peninsular Malaysia and can be used as a model to identify conservation priorities elsewhere

A spill over effect of entrepreneurial orientation on technological innovativeness:an outlook of universities and research based spin offs

partially_open5siBy shifting towards Romer’s (Am Econ Rev 94:1002–1037, 1986) economy and so the spread of knowledge economy, universities started to adopt a collaborative approach with their entrepreneurial ecosystem. They turn out to be risk taker, autonomous, proactive, competitive, and innovative. In a nutshell, they are entrepreneurial oriented with the aim to generate new innovative ventures, known as research-based spin offs. Doubly, this has induced an improvement of technology transfer and the degree of entrepreneurship in the current knowledge economy. However there still is a paucity of studies on the spill over effect of entrepreneurial orientated universities and research-based spin off on technology transfer need to be more explored. Therefore, the article investigates the link between entrepreneurial orientation and such spill overs by offering an outlook of two universities and two research-based spin offs in the United Kingdom. The scope is to provide a deep view of technological innovativeness in a research context, entrepreneurial oriented. Our research suggests that entrepreneurial attitude has become an imperative to succeed in the context where British institutions currently operate. Entrepreneurship brings the necessary technological innovation to the university and its students, which results in better positioning of the university at national and international levels, with the subsequent impact on their ability to attract not only new students and academics but also funding to conduct their research.openScuotto, Veronica; Del Giudice, Manlio; Garcia-Perez, Alexeis; Orlando, Beatrice; Ciampi, FrancescoScuotto, Veronica; Del Giudice, Manlio; Garcia-Perez, Alexeis; Orlando, Beatrice; Ciampi, Francesc

An Integrated Trust Model Enhancing Generic Nodal Abstraction for Modeling Human-Agent Collaboration

In most dynamic environment where human and agents are coexisting, agents overwhelming demands to cooperate with inner and outer services to achieve their goals. Along with line, agents are potentially being attracted by deceptive agents. Such situation is definitely not mitigated that risks the entire model and threaten its long-term performances. Due to the uncertainty of an agent and its potential behavior especially in human-agent collaboration systems, an agent might behave fraudulently to its partners (humans or agents). Therefore, trust and reputation merits are essentially determined to be applied in multi-agent systems. Consequently, an agent has to be qualified and constrained with certain criteria that render it trustworthy and reliable. During this process, these criteria are strictly formulated based on the number of tasks and interactions among agents. Over the past decade, many researchers propose various trust models with outstanding features. However, balancing between the enormous features of the proposed trust models, but still there is a lack of research effort in many security aspects which considered a critical challenge. In this paper, we present a trust model for a Generic Nodal Abstraction (GNA) approach that considers the reliability of agents and introduce their adaptation abilities to improve their preferences in systems. This paper gives an overview of some existing trust models in MASs

Reprocessing of polypropylene/cellulose composites: effects on thermal properties

The reprocessing and maleic-anhydride grafted polypropylene (MAPP) coupling agent effects on the thermal properties of recycled polypropylene (rPP)/microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) composites was investigated. rPP composites with MCC loading of 5wt% and 20wt% were prepared by injection molding up to five cycles. The change in the chemical composition in the composites was monitor with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric (TGA) tests were performed to compare thermal behavior of the rPP/MCC composites at different processing cycles. Analysis of thermal behavior showed a slight increase in the melting temperature of reprocessing composites with increasing number of cycles; associated to the higher percentage of crystallinity. The thermal stability of composites is affected by the number of reprocessing cycle, temperature and MCC loadings. It is noticed that the reprocessing did not disrupt the interaction between MAPP, MCC fibers and rPP matri

An insight to the cleavage of Β-carotene to vitamin A: a molecular mechanics study

The conversion mechanism of β-carotene to vitamin A has been a topic of much discussion for many years since the first proposal of central cleavage mechanism, which was soon challenged by arguments supporting the eccentric cleavage mechanism. Inconclusive evidences have led to the proposal that the conversion of β-carotene does take place through both these mechanisms, possibly by different oxygenase enzymes at different locations in the body. In order to have further insight and better understanding of the cleavage mechanism, molecular mechanics calculations were performed on several cis- and trans-conformations of β-carotene at different polyene portion. The results indicated a series of relatively low energy cis-conformers in addition to the all trans-conformer with lowest energy conformation being the cis-C9′-C10′ double bond (E = 46.46 kcal/mol in water) which could act as the possible starting conformer for the reaction. The molecular mechanics (MM) energy of various cyclic peroxide structures was also carried out and the results seem to support the formation of vitamin A via a systematic degradation of β-carotene. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V

Green Revolution's Role and Impact: Organic Farming Potential for Indonesian Sustainable Agriculture

Pada 1960-an, Indonesia mengalami kekurangan beras dan termasuk salah satu pengimpor beras terbesar di dunia. Pemerintah saat itu memprioritaskan pemenuhan beras dengan target swasembada dengan berbagai upaya, seperti penerapan teknologi revolusi hijau (RH) melalui penggunaan input pertanian modern. RH terbukti membuat Indonesia mencapai swasembada beras pada tahun 1984. Namun, teknologi tersebut juga telah menyebabkan dampak negatif, terutama kerusakan lingkungan dan petani sangat bergantung pada industri agro- kimia. Beberapa kalangan menganggap sistem pertanian organik adalah solusi untuk mengatasi masalah ini. Pertanian organik menawarkan cara terbaik untuk produksi pangan dan penggunaan sumber daya secara berkelanjutan dan ramah lingkungan. Permintaan beras organik diperkirakan akan meningkat di masa mendatang seiring dengan pertumbuhan penduduk dan pendapatan. Adopsi pertanian organik masih sangat lambat. Tantangan utama pertanian padi organik adalah kekhawatiran anjloknya hasil panen ketika melakukan konversi. Permasalahan lainnya adalah kurangnya pengetahuan teknis dan dukungan pemerintah, mahalnya biaya konversi dan kontaminasi bahan kimia dari pertanian konvensional. Diperlukan penelitian yang lebih mendalam tentang faktor-faktor yang memengaruhi petani untuk mengadopsi pertanian organik. Dengan demikian pemerintah dapat merancang strategi dan kebijakan yang tepat untuk mempercepat adopsi pertanian padi organik