The Pattern Recognition of Small-Scale Privately-Owned Forest in Ciamis Regency, West Java, Indonesia

Small-scale Privately-owned Forest (SSPF) has various patterns identification, based on the stand structure and species composition. The recognition and classification of the SSPF cropping patterns are required for further planning and policy development. Therefore, this study aims to classify the cropping pattern of SSPF in Ciamis Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia. The data were collected by observing the stand structure and species composition of 150 plots of land, encompassing three Sub-districts representing the central, northern, and southern regions of Ciamis Regency. The four categorical variables include tree species composition, age, spatial distribution, and intercropping pattern. While the two continuous variables were stand density and basal area. The patterns obtained were classified based on a Two-Step Cluster algorithm with log-likelihood distance measure, and auto clustering using Schwarz's Bayesian Information Criterion, validated by silhouette index. In addition, a multicollinearity test was conducted to reduce redundancy in using variable sets. The results showed that, the improvement of the cluster quality based on the silhouette index value, was achievable by excluding the tree spatial distribution variable, which exhibits multicollinearity. The cropping patterns were classified into three categories, namely tree crops, mixed-tree lots, and agrisilviculture for group-1, group-2, and group-3, respectively. Group-1 consisted of stands with one or two commercial tree species, and in several cases, were intercropped. Group-2 contained uneven-aged mixed-tree stands without any crops. While Group-3 consisted of an intercropping system of uneven-aged mixed-tree stands and crops. The results suggest further analysis, in order to relate the cropping patterns with the socio-economic characteristics of the landowners, as well as the strategies for the development of a sustainable SSPF.

Photoromance, she read: Fandom and the politics of Italian media

This article examines Italian non-fiction media productions of the late 1950s and 1960s that represent the photoromance industry and its female fans. I argue that state-controlled and/or privately owned media outlets and their contributors (among them, Cesare Zavattini and Mario Soldati) scapegoated photoromances in defence of moral, social and cultural respectability, but also on the basis of anxieties towards the increasing role played by female audiences in the making of culture. Furthermore, I show that politically engaged documentaries similarly chastised the photoromance industry without necessarily serving the cause of women’s emancipation. Blaming photoromances for the degeneration of Catholic values, for the debasement of working-class culture and for the degradation of consumerist society, all films serve the same purpose of maintaining a patriarchal society’s status quo, of diverging attention from ‘higher’ cultural products and their exploitation of women’s bodies and of minimizing the important role that female fans played in the success of a global market.

Unsustainability of Debt-Based Money

In addition to the problems caused by money being fiat, most modern money is moreover created not by governments but by the privately-owned banking systems as debt to themselves. This is not only grossly contrary to all traditions of natural justice, it is also unconstitutional. This problem has been understood and publicised by many politicians and writers over centuries, but it is still not widely known due to the financial and political power of the perpetrators. Since it is also the main cause of the continuing increase in inequality in all the rich countries, the “great reset” being advocated by those in charge of the present system is clearly not fit to become the new basis of the economic system.

Media Framing of COVID-19: A Content Analysis of Nepali Newspapers

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the globe, posing a major and alarming public health concern. This has been due, in part, to the increasing number of infected population day by day. Also, media coverage appeared to be one of the influencing factors to the opinion formation of COVID-19 issues. Since the whole world is still reeling under the effect of COVID-19 pandemic. At this juncture, the content and tone of the newspaper is still unknown. Therefore, the paper tries to assess critically about the media effect in reporting of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study has a significant practical relevance during this period. Furthermore, the study contributes to scientific knowledge about the use of frames and tones in media coverage with regard to pandemic. For this purpose and use of a content analysis, two popular Nepalese English language newspapers; The Kathmandu Post (privately owned media) and The Rising Nepal (state-owned media) has been selected purposively. The content and tone of the media coverage with regard to the pandemic from May 2020 until the end of July 2020 was investigated. The results showed that the media coverage was most frequently done in terms of economic crisis rather than covering the pandemic as a health crisis. Furthermore, the tone of the media coverage of the pandemic is more negative in the privately owned media than the state-owned media. However, both the newspapers have covered the majority of articles through the economic framing rather than health.

Traffic Congestion and Efficient Ways to Deal with It in Tbilisi, Georgia

Traffic Congestion has become a new version of plague for urbanized areas. Massive breakthroughs in technology, increasing in production of motorized cars, global reduction in prices for automobiles and the rapid population growth in Tbilisi, Georgia has led to the urgence of complete rearrangement of transportation system in the city. As a post-Soviet Union country, Georgia has had rudiments like “Marshrutkas” (privately owned minibuses) as a primary mode of transportation. Serious research and actions started in 2019 when sustainable urban mobility plan was introduced in Tbilisi; which favors public transport and pedestrians. In the course of this project one of the main avenues was converted into complete street model and hourly parking was introduced in the city centers. However, the problem regarding traffic jams still stands. This paper contributes to analyzing current situation in Tbilisi and suggesting suitable solutions. It will cover how reversible lanes, road pricing, signalized Intersections, reserved bus lanes and parking can be adapted to Tbilisi in order to reduce traffic jams.

About Air Meal and Revival of the Black Market

Everyone is anxious that the form of eating and drinking will change drastically due to the pandemic. The immediate challenge is how to overcome the harsh reality of the rush of restaurant closures, but the chance of survival may be found unexpectedly in the black market. Large-capital sushi chains, izakaya chains, family restaurants, and First Foods are also shrinking. Privately owned restaurants have been forced to withdraw before the epidemic spread, but large capital has also been hit hard. Which is faster, to regenerate or restart? Private restaurants with weak capital will soon collapse, but the selling point is the lightness of the footwork that can be rebuilt immediately. It seems that minimalism is likely to become the standard in the post-Corona era

Study of Forest Land Function Transfer and its Role in Labour Absorption, Economic Growth and Increase in Human Development Index in West Kalimantan

Timber forests have many functions and play an essential role in human life. This means that the existence of timber forests provides many benefits for human life. Economic development activities actively implemented throughout the province of West Kalimantan have resulted in more and more areas of timber forest and rubber plantation areas being converted into oil palm plantations. The rampant development of oil palm plantations carried out by investors and those carried out independently by each resident, in essence, provides a significant enough job opportunity for the population in each area that continues to grow. Job opportunities created through economic development offer opportunities to every working population to earn income, fulfilling various life needs is mainly directed to fulfilling family nutritional consumption. If the family's nutrition is guaranteed, then the average life span of the population can be longer. In addition to meeting his family's needs, this income can also be used to finance children's education belonging to the school-age group. If the income earned by each family is large enough, then the family should be able to live in prosperity. This means that timber forest and rubber plantation areas privately owned by the community have been converted into oil palm plantations, significantly contributing to the economic growth of districts/cities in West Kalimantan province and improving the community's welfare.

A Case Study: Mada Masr—A Progressive Voice in Egypt and Beyond

This article questions the role of the media in times of political transformation. In doing so, it draws on theories on the interconnectedness of the different fields of society to explain the sets of roles that media outlets and journalists adopt during phases of transition. Before 2011, the Egyptian media mostly acted as collaborators of the ruling regime and rarely as an agent of change. Journalists took over the latter role more often following the advent of privately-owned media outlets, thus helping to pave the way for the events of the so-called Arab Spring. This case study focuses on the development of the online news portal <em>Mada Masr</em> and therefore traces the development of two newsrooms. Starting as the English edition of a privately-owned Arabic newspaper in 2009 and changing its status to an independent news outlet in 2013, <em>Mada Masr</em> is one of the few voices which still openly criticise the Egyptian government. Founded in a time of political turmoil and struggling against an increasingly authoritarian environment, the outlet implements innovative ways of producing content, securing funding, and reaching out to its readers. A group of young Egyptian and international journalists make use of new spaces for expression that have opened through the global changes in communication infrastructure while struggling with frequent attacks by representatives of the ruling regime. As such, <em>Mada Masr</em> is a role model for small and regime-critical media outlets.