Explaining the conversion to particularly animal-friendly stabling system of farmers of the Obwalden Canton, Switzerland - Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior within a Structural Equation Modeling Approach.

Farmers' intentions about conversion to particularly animal-friendly stabling system (PAFS) are analyzed with a structural equation model. The Theory of Planned Behavior (ToPB, Ajzen 1985) is used as the theoretical basis of this study. Though ToPB is a well-defined theory, it is static rather than procedural and cannot model the individual decision-making as a process. Therefore, we first examine the general applicability of ToPB in an agricultural context and explain the variance in intentions of farmers to convert to PAFS. Second, we extend the ToPB to make it more procedural. For this purpose, research findings from the Diffusion Theory are included as part of the behavioral model. The empirical results indicate that the model has a good fit to the data. The effects of the additional variables "Goal" and "Communication" are highly significant. This illustrates the importance of forming personal goals in the behavior domain and that people act in a goal-directed, rational way. Moreover, it gives empirical evidence that communication through personal channels has a great impact on individual decision-making. Altogether, this study shows that the extended ToPB provides an appropriate approach to investigate individual decision-making processes in agriculture.Farm Management,

Explaining the Conversion to Organic Farming of Farmers of the Obwalden Canton, Switzerland - Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior within a Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Farmers' decisions about conversion to organic farming are analyzed with a structural equation model. The Theory of Planned Behavior (ToPB), one of the prominent theories in the social psychology, is used as the theoretical basis of this study. Though ToPB is a well-defined theory, it is static rather than procedural and cannot model the individual decision-making as a process. Therefore, we first examine the general applicability of ToPB in an agricultural context and explain the variance in intentions of farmers to convert to organic farming. Second, we extend the ToPB to make it more procedural. For this purpose, research findings from the Diffusion Theory are included as part of the behavioral model. The empirical results indicate that, overall, the model has an acceptable fit to the data. The effects of the additional variables "Goal" and "Communication" are highly significant. This illustrates the importance of forming personal goals in the behavior domain and that people act in a goal-directed, rational way. Moreover, it gives empirical evidence that communication through personal channels has a great impact on individual decision-making. Altogether, this study shows that the extended ToPB provides an appropriate approach to investigate individual decision-making processes in agriculture.behavior research, conversion to particularly animal friendly stabling system, theory of planned behavior, diffusion theory, structural equation modelling, Farm Management, C8, D1, Q12, Z13,

PRECISION DAIRY FARMING

Precision Dairy Farming generally refers to excessive use of technologies on individual animals to measure physiological, behavioral, and production indicators to improve management and farm performance. Many Precision Dairy Farming technologies, including Electronic (radio frequency) identification systems and associated management software Automatic recording devices (rumen temperature, pressure, pH) by electronic rumen bolus, Robotic milking systems daily milk yield recording, Automatic body condition scoring milk component monitoring (e.g. fat, protein, and SCC), pedometers, automatic temperature recording devices, milk conductivity indicators, automatic estrus detection monitors, and daily body weight measurements are already being utilized by dairy producers. This review provides preliminary information on the advances in PDF for dairy management

Pediatric Uveitis

Uveitis is less common in children than in adults, and its diagnosis and management can be particularly challenging. Young children are often asymptomatic either because of inability to express complaints or because of the truly asymptomatic nature of their disease. Even in advanced cases, parents may not be aware of severe visual impairment until the development of externally visible changes such as band keratopathy, strabismus, or leukocoria. Therefore, the diagnosis is often delayed and severe complications may be seen at the time of initial visit. Young children may not be cooperative for a complete ocular examination and subtle findings of intraocular inflammation such as trace cells may be easily missed in the early stages of the disease. Children, in general, tend to have more severe and chronic intraocular inflammation that frequently results in ocular complications and visual loss. In children who present with amblyopia or strabismus, a careful examination is required to rule out uveitis as an underlying cause. Delayed and variable presentations cause a distinct challenge in the diagnosis of uveitis in children, furthermore differential diagnosis also requires awareness of etiologies which are different from adults. There are unique forms of uveitis and masquerade syndromes in this age group, while some entities commonly encountered in adults are rare in children

Low Cost and Reliable Energy Management in Smart Residential Homes Using the GA Based Constrained Optimization

Recently smart grids have given chance to residential customers to schedule operation times of smart home appliances to reduce electricity bills and the peak-to-average ratio through the demand side management. This is apparently a multi-objective combinatorial optimization problem including the constraints and consumer preferences that can be solved for optimized operation times under reasonable conditions. Although there are a limited number of techniques used to achieve this goal, it seems that the binary-coded genetic algorithm (BCGA) is the most suitable approach to do so due to on/off controls of smart home appliances. This paper proposes a BCGA method to solve the above-mentioned problem by developing a new crossover algorithm and the simulation results show that daily energy cost and peak to average ratio can be managed to reduce to acceptable levels by contributing significantly to residential customers and utility companies

Attitudes of Junior National Team Athletes towards Opponents: Ideology/Morals

Competitions between countries occur in every field, from science to industry. This competition is inevitable in the field of sports, which is the greatest feature of publicity in countries, one of the tools of getting political advantage and the greatest focus of global capital. This competition, which is seen in the fields of sport, sometimes becomes extreme and situations arise which are far from reflecting the nature of sports. Especially the efforts of athletes to represent their countries in the best way sometimes cause them to behave inappropriately to their opponents. Thus, the purpose of this study is to find out whether athletes’ being on the national team has any effects on their moral structure and to find out whether the attitudes they show to their opponent during competition are ideological or moral. Phenomenologic design was used in the study which was prepared with qualitative research method. The sample group of the study consists of 10 athletes in the junior national team who were determined with maximum variation sampling method. Individual interviews of an average of 10-12 minutes were conducted with the athletes within the context of semi-structured interview technique. The participants were informed that the interviews would be voice recorded and their expressions would later be converted into text to avoid data loss; the interviews were recorded after the necessary permissions were taken. Descriptive and content analysis method were used to analyze the expressions converted into text. Analysis results showed that the athletes stated that being on the national team had positive effects on moral structure due to motivating factors such as representing one’s country and being role models and that they were led by their moral structure while competing with their opponents

Landwirtschaft in den Medien - Themen und Darstellungsperspektiven

Im Zentrum der vorliegenden Inhaltsanalyse steht die Frage, über welche landwirtschaft-lichen Themen Schweizer Medien berichten und wie diese Themen dargestellt werden. 1588 Artikel aus sechs Deutschschweizer Zeitungen und 215 TV Beiträge aus drei Informationssendungen des Schweizer Fernsehens werden dazu inhaltsanalytisch ausgewertet. Der Untersuchungszeitraum umfasst die Stichjahre 1996, 2000, 2004 und 2006. Zahl und Umfang der Medienbeiträge mit landwirtschaftlichen Inhalten bleiben zwischen 1996 und 2006 auf tiefem Niveau stabil. Über 50 % aller Print-Beiträge und 70 % aller TV-Beiträge fallen unter die beiden Themenkategorien «Produktion» und «Gesellschaft». Beiträge aus diesen Themenbereichen weisen im Durchschnitt mehr Nachrichtenfaktoren auf als die übrigen Themenbereiche «Agrarpolitik», «Agrarmärkte» und «Kommunikation». Mit dem so genannten Framing-Ansatz wurde die Darstellungsperspektive der Themen ermittelt. Dabei zeigt sich, dass in den vergangenen zehn Jahren positive Darstellungsperspektiven zu und negative abnehmen. Wir führen dies auf die Veränderungen in der Medienbranche als Folge von Internet und Gratiszeitungen zurück, welche vor allem bei den Regionalzeitungen eine stärkere Regionalisierung der Berichterstattung zur Folge hat. Beiträge über Landwirtschaft im regionalen Kontext werden generell positiver dargestellt als solche in nationalem und internationalem Kontext

Case about Orientation of Primary School Students to Out-of-School Time Activities

AbstractPurpose of this study is to determine primary school students are mainly orientated out-of-school time activities by whom. Sample of the research consists of 42 schools and 1530 students. Findings of research: 1- Students generally are not orientated out-of-school time activities. They participate in activities which they have selected. 2- There is no significant relationship between gender and orientation of students to out-of-school time activities. 3- There is a significant relationship between school, friend and self orientation of students to out-of school time activities and number of siblings. However there is no significant relationship with family orientation. 4- There is no significant relationship between school, friend and self orientation of students to out-of-school activities and residential area of students. But there is a significant relationship between family orientation and residential area. 5- School orientation to out-of-school activities and economic condition of family has no significant relationship. There is a significant relationship between friend, family orientation, self-orientation and economic condition of family. 6- In orientation of students to out-of-school time activities, there is a significant relationship between educational status of family and school, friend orientation and self-orientation

Die Landwirtschaft als Medienthema – Inhaltsanalyse Schweizer Zeitungen und Fernsehsendungen zwischen 1996 und 2006

Mit dem anhaltenden Strukturwandel nehmen persönliche Kontakte zwischen landwirtschaftlicher und nicht-landwirtschaftlicher Bevölkerung ab. Damit steigt die Bedeutung der Medien bei der Meinungsbildung zu landwirtschaftlichen Themen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird deshalb die Berichterstattung über die Landwirtschaft in ausgewählten Schweizer Print- und TV-Medien inhaltsanalytisch untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass produktionsorientierte Themen überwiegend positiv, agrarpolitische Themen hingegen deutlich kritischer dargestellt werden. Im Untersuchungszeitraum werden landwirtschaftliche Themen vermehrt im regionalen Kontext präsentiert, stärker personalisiert und zunehmend positiv dargestellt. Insgesamt kann von einer zunehmend positiven Berichterstattung gesprochen werden. Ausgehend von der Agenda-Setting-Theorie wird jedoch abgeleitet, dass die vorwiegend positiven Befunde aus dem Themenbereich Produktion eine schwächere Wirkung auf die Rezipienten haben als die kritischere Berichterstattung über agrarpolitische Themen