Attitude of Panchayat Leaders towards Panchayati Raj Institutions as Influenced by their Socio Personal Characteristics

Attitude is “a mental and neural state of readiness, organised through experience, and exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related”. While attitudes are basically learned over the years, some inherited characteristics do affect such attitudes. Our personal experiences with people and situations develop our attitude towards such persons and situations. During the implementation of the panchayati raj system Chhattisgarh has faced several opportunities and difficulties. The institutionalising panchayati raj. What, then, are the circumstances under which panchayat can improve the work effectiveness of their members through influences on individual choices about the level of effort and about strategy? The interview schedule was used as a tool for collecting the raw information from the panchayat leaders. In all 263 respondents from 9 janpads were interviewed personally to obtain the requisite data. It was found that majority of the janpad and jila panchayat leaders (58.73%) had moderately favourable attitude towards panchayati raj institutions. Majority of the janpad and jila panchayat leaders were middle-aged, belonged to other backward classes, most of them were educated up to higher secondary, they belonged to large size families with more than five members each and most of them had membership in one or more social organizations signifying high social participation.

An exploration of hydration care for nursing home residents living with dementia

Background/aims Older adults residing in nursing homes are vulnerable to dehydration. Residents living with dementia can experience additional challenges, making it difficult to independently consume sufficient fluids. The aim of this study was to describe the experience of hydration care for nursing home residents living with dementia. Methods Observations of hydration care were conducted between 06:00 and 22:45 on one care home unit. Twenty-two residents with dementia were eligible for observation. Conversations with staff and relatives provided further insights. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings Hydration care provision was highly routinised with little flexibility. Residents received limited support to express individual choices, and staff missed opportunities to provide drinks. More fluid was consumed when care staff developed strategies to encourage fluid intake. Conclusions Key factors to optimise hydration care include providing individual support to encourage fluid intake and expression of choice, flexible care routines, and focus on communication and teamworking.

Peningkatan jiwa entrepreneurship bagi siswa SMK

The productive unemployment rate in Central Java is quite high, of which 13.5% are vocational graduates. Entrepreneurship can be a solution to reduce productive unemployment. However, to run entrepreneurship requires strong interest and motivation. This community service is carried out to increase the entrepreneurial spirit of students at SMK Muhammadiyah 4 Surakarta. The implementation stages include analysis of partner problems, data collection, presentation and training, filling out post-socialization questionnaires, and evaluating the results of the implementation. Tips and tricks, challenges and obstacles, the importance of motivation in entrepreneurship are the main material presented in the presentation. In the training, students make business plans based on their individual choices. The percentage of consideration in the business field choosing is dominated by the suitability of majors in SMK (about 40%) and the trend that is developing (20%). While, the reasons for the suitability of hobbies, family background and others are 18%, 14%, and 8%, respectively. The students' understanding and interest in entrepreneurship increased significantly. This increase can be seen from the change in the percentage of students' plans after graduation. The number of students who wish to work in agencies or companies is around 70% (before socialization) and about 30% (after socialization). The number of students interested in entrepreneurship increased from 15% to 68%. These results show that the students' interest has shifted from "becoming an employee" to "becoming an entrepreneur".

Change, Choice and Difference: the Case of RN to BN Degree Programmes for Registered Nurses

<p>Bachelor of Nursing (BN) programmes for Registered Nurses (RNs) were developed in New Zealand in the 1990s. With the introduction of pre-registration degree programmes, transition arrangements that recognised the prior learning of RNs were established allowing existing RNs to obtain an undergraduate nursing degree through a shortened course. Many RNs entered these programmes, despite there being no requirement to obtain a degree qualification and with other education options available to them. Professional debate exists regarding the need or value of RNs undertaking such study and whether these programmes should continue. A case study approach utilising mixed methods was used to examine the personal meaning and the national professional significance of RN to BN programmes. While ultimately the outcome of earlier professional efforts, these programmes occurred as a result of change, change within the socio-political and economic context of New Zealand and nursing education. Change at this macro level affected the individual choices of RNs. These choices were further complicated by a lack of professional consensus and a landscape of difference, with programme requirements and availability differing between institutions, while employers varied in the amount of support and recognition they gave those who chose this option. There were personal and financial costs to completing a RN to BN programme, yet the RNs in this study all believed it was worth it, reporting positive personal and professional outcomes. The professional and educational environment has changed since the introduction of RN to BN programmes and the numbers of individuals and institutions involved with them have greatly reduced. Currently decisions regarding the continuation or demise of these programmes are made by individual educational institutions based mainly on economic rationale. Consensus and direction is required nationally and professionally regarding the place of these programmes within post-registration education. While these programmes have provided benefits for individual RNs, their time in nursing education may be coming to an end.</p>

Change, Choice and Difference: the Case of RN to BN Degree Programmes for Registered Nurses

<p>Bachelor of Nursing (BN) programmes for Registered Nurses (RNs) were developed in New Zealand in the 1990s. With the introduction of pre-registration degree programmes, transition arrangements that recognised the prior learning of RNs were established allowing existing RNs to obtain an undergraduate nursing degree through a shortened course. Many RNs entered these programmes, despite there being no requirement to obtain a degree qualification and with other education options available to them. Professional debate exists regarding the need or value of RNs undertaking such study and whether these programmes should continue. A case study approach utilising mixed methods was used to examine the personal meaning and the national professional significance of RN to BN programmes. While ultimately the outcome of earlier professional efforts, these programmes occurred as a result of change, change within the socio-political and economic context of New Zealand and nursing education. Change at this macro level affected the individual choices of RNs. These choices were further complicated by a lack of professional consensus and a landscape of difference, with programme requirements and availability differing between institutions, while employers varied in the amount of support and recognition they gave those who chose this option. There were personal and financial costs to completing a RN to BN programme, yet the RNs in this study all believed it was worth it, reporting positive personal and professional outcomes. The professional and educational environment has changed since the introduction of RN to BN programmes and the numbers of individuals and institutions involved with them have greatly reduced. Currently decisions regarding the continuation or demise of these programmes are made by individual educational institutions based mainly on economic rationale. Consensus and direction is required nationally and professionally regarding the place of these programmes within post-registration education. While these programmes have provided benefits for individual RNs, their time in nursing education may be coming to an end.</p>

Kantian Perspectives on the Rational Basis of Human Dignity

Kant made the dignity of humanity central in his moral philosophy. This essay sketches a broadly Kantian understanding of his position, noting occasionally alternative interpretations. The main questions are these: (1) What is human dignity? (2) By virtue of what do human beings have dignity? (3) Why believe in human dignity? (4) What are the practical implications? The Kantian view is that human dignity is an innate worth or status that we did not earn and cannot forfeit, which we have by virtue of our rational autonomy. A Kantian argument for this belief turns on how we must understand ourselves from practical standpoint. We must strive to make our individual choices worthy of this moral standing, which elevates us above animals and mere things, by never treating persons as mere means and by honouring and promoting humanity positively.

Individual choices and universal rights for drinking water in rural Africa

More than 500 million rural Africans lack safe drinking water. The human right to water and United Nations Sustainable Development Goal SDG6.1 promote a policy shift from building water infrastructure to sustaining water services. However, the financial calculus is bleak with the costs of “safely managed”’ or “basic” water services in rural Africa beyond current government budgets and donor funds. The funding shortfall is compounded by the disappointing results of earlier policy initiatives in Africa. This is partly because of a failure to understand which attributes of water services rural people value. We model more than 11,000 choice observations in rural Kenya by attributes of drinking water quality, price, reliability, and proximity. Aggregate analysis disguises alternative user priorities in three choice classes. The two larger choice classes tolerate lower service levels with higher payments. A higher water service level reflects the smallest choice class favored by women and the lower wealth group. For the lower wealth group, slower repair times are accepted in preference to a lower payment. Some people discount potable water and proximity, and most people choose faster repair times and lower payments. We argue policy progress needs to chart common ground between individual choices and universal rights. Guaranteeing repair times may provide a policy lever to unlock individual payments to complement public investment in water quality and waterpoint proximity to support progressive realization of a universal right.

Does Music Affect Visitors’ Choices for the Management and Conservation of Ecosystem Services?

Psychological research has long demonstrated that preferences can be influenced by stimuli coming from the environment. Music, as an external stimulus influencing people behaviours, purchasing processes and spending, has been widely analysed in consumer behaviour and marketing literature. Here, we focus on the effect of music genres on preferences and willingness to pay for selected ecosystem services of a Nature Park when they are elicited with a Discrete Choice Experiment. This aspect is important in non-market valuation because music can represent an element of context-dependence for the assessment of individual choices, so that the assumption of preference stability does not hold, and welfare estimates may be biased. The results of a generalized mixed logit model evidenced a significant effect of music on preferences. If elicited preferences depend on the context on which the survey is implemented, wrong information to decision makers is provided when the choice context is altered by an uncontrolled external stimulus. This result is particularly important for applied researchers and policy makers. First, the use of protocols and guidelines that instruct respondents about the ambient background when answering a questionnaire is highly recommended, particularly for online surveys. Second, specific genres of music should be used in educational and ecosystem services conservation campaigns and also piped in visitor centres and virtual tours to encourage nature conservation and improve visitors’ sensitiveness for the environment.

‘Come on, man!’ On errors, choice, and Hayekian behavioral economics

With respect to the views of dead thinkers, answers to many particular questions are often interpretive in Ronald Dworkin's sense. Such answers must attempt (1) to fit the materials to be interpreted and (2) to justify them, that is, to put them in the best constructive light. What looks like (1), or what purports to be (1), is often (2). That is, when a follower of Kant urges that ‘Kant would say x’, or that ‘Kantianism entails y’, the goal is to make the best constructive sense of Kant and Kantianism, not merely to adhere to something that Kant actually said. An approach to behavioral economics cannot claim to be Hayekian if it is rooted in enthusiasm for the abilities of planners to set prices and quantities, or if it sees the price system as a jumble of mistakes and errors. But within a not-so-narrow range, a variety of freedom-preserving approaches, alert to the epistemic limits of planners, can fairly claim to be Hayekian. Hayekian behavioral economics, I suggest, is an approach that (1) recognizes the importance and pervasiveness of individual errors, (2) emphasizes the epistemic limits of planners, (3) builds on individual choices rather than planner preferences, and (4) gives authority to choices made under epistemically favorable conditions, in which informational deficits and behavioral biases are least likely to be at work. The key step, of course, is (4). If it is properly elaborated, the resulting approach deserves respect. It is worthy of serious consideration, even if some of us, including the present author, would not entirely embrace it. In defending that proposition, the present essay responds to some critical remarks on behaviorally informed policy, including the resort to ‘explainawaytions’ (Matthew Rabin's term) for behavioral findings.