Increasing Teacher’s Competencies through Empowerment of Madrasah Teachers Forum

It is a School Action Research with two cycles where each cycle consists of four stages; they are Planning, Implementing corrective actions, Observing, and Reflecting. It aims to find out the improvement of teachers’ competencies through Madrasah Teachers Forum known as MGMP. This research was conducted in Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 1 Pamekasan – East Java, Indonesia. It involved six Mathematic teachers, four Physics teachers and three Biology teachers as research subjects. The results showed that there was an increase in the competencies of the member of teachers forum at Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 1 Pamekasan. This can be seen from the results of observations in two cycles, as well as on the results of the tests carried out. It can be seen that the results of the posttest significantly increased. In the distribution of the questionnaire conducted to find out teachers' perceptions and opinions on the Madrasah Teachers Forum, the results of the questionnaire were at a value of 85%; thus, teachers felt the direct benefits of the Madrasah Teachers Forum to increase their competencies. Based on the results of the study, the researcher recommends to teachers participating in the Madrasah Teachers Forum to: (1) Utilize Madrasah Teachers Forum activities as an empowerment forum to update and upgrade their professional competencies and (2) Utilize Madrasah Teachers Forum to establish strong solidarity among teachers.

The significant role of post-pairing male behavior on the evolution of male preferences and female traits

Existing sexual selection theory postulates that a sufficiently large variation in female fecundity or other direct benefits are fundamental for generating male mate choice. In this study, we suggest that, in addition to pre-pairing preferences, choosy males can also have different post-pairing behaviors, a factor which has been comparatively overlooked by previous studies. We found that both male preferences and female traits could evolve much more easily than previously expected when the choosy males that paired with unpreferred females would allocate more efforts to seeking additional post-pairing mating opportunities. Furthermore, a costly female trait could evolve when there was a trade-off between seeking additional mating and paternal care investment within social pair for choosy males. Finally, a costly male preference and a costly female trait might still evolve and reach a stable polymorphic state in the population, which might give rise to a high variability in male choice and female traits in nature. We suggest that male mate choice may be even more common than expected, which needs to be verified empirically.

Community Empowerment to Improve the Village Economy through the Utilization of Tea Leaves in Bahbutong Village, Simalungun Regency

The community empowerment program is an activity that aims to increase the understanding and knowledge of the community in utilizing the existing potential. The level of understanding and knowledge of the community in Bahbutong Village is still limited in carrying out activities to utilize the potential of the village, this is related to the not optimal community empowerment efforts carried out. One of the potentials that can be pursued and reprocessed so as to get direct benefits that can be felt by the village community is tea leaves. So far, people only know that tea leaves are only for food and drink, so they have not been able to make a big contribution to the village economy. Utilization of tea leaves in Bahbutong Village can be an effort to improve the village economy through community empowerment activities carried out by the village government. The tea leaves in question are unused leaves or leftovers from tea plantations in Bahbutong Village. The method used in this research is the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) method. The results obtained in this study are new innovations in the use of tea leaves, namely the manufacture of tea aromatherapy candles that can provide relaxation for breathing and can also optimize community empowerment programs so that the village economy can increase

Digitalization as a driver for supporting PV deployment and cost reduction

Digitalization is providing advantages to all sectors around the world and it can be of relevance also for the photovoltaic (PV) sector. As an example, the current value chain of the European PV sector is often characterized by analogue and fragmented processes that should be overcame to support greater PV deployment. The adoption of a more open and collaborative digital-based approach characterized by data-sharing among different stakeholders and more integrated information thread from the design till O&M can provide direct benefits in optimizing the PV process, increasing performances, and reducing of costs. Therefore, a novel PV Information Management (PIM) approach has been drawn within the European H2020 project “SuperPV”. In accordance with PIM objectives, a workflow for seamlessly transferring data along main PV work-stages has been developed, as well as new digital features to specifically address collaborative approach in the PV sector such as: (i) advanced functionalities introduced in the existing BIMSolar® software for improving the simultaneous design, performance simulation and cost assessment of medium and large PV systems, (ii) a proof-of-concept for aggregating all relevant information into a Digital Twin platform aimed at setting the ground for post-construction management and lifecycle assessment of the whole PV system.

Tinjauan Filosofis Egoisme dalam Komunikasi Politik di Era Pandemi Covid-19: Tantangan Kampanye Daring Pilkada Serentak Tahun 2020 di Indonesia

Indonesia has held simultaneous regional elections on 9th December 2020. In contrast to previous years, when the campaign became a moment for citizens to gather with their prospective leaders, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the limitation of face-to-face meetings in order to implement Covid-19 health protocols. The government through the General Elections Commission (KPU) has issued General Election Commission Regulation (PKPU) 13/2020 which has explicitly encouraged candidate to use digital media in political campaigns. This is an effort to encourage candidates to take advantage of the digital space in campaigning. Currently, the candidates already have social media, but its use has not become the main information channel in political communication. During this campaign period, the candidates have used social media as a channel of political communication, but the social media used is limited to conveying invitations or information that the candidate has attended an activity, so social media has not become the main information channel in campaigning. The lack of organizing an online campaign by this candidate viewed from a philosophical perspective of egoism, based on the idea that the public or prospective voters are more focused on themselves. Participating in a online campaign for prospective voters requires extra sacrifices such as paying for internet quota fees, it is more troublesome because prospective voters have to learn to operate a online video application, and there are no direct benefits. The challenges faced in implementing an online campaign include, firstly, because it is preferred by the community, it is believed that the community prefers to meet face-to-face with the prospective leader directly because it provides direct benefits to the community, secondly, it is right on target because an online election campaign will not attract people, new voters because it will only be followed by voters who firmly support the candidate. Thirdly, because of the lack of creativity from the campaign team due to the lack of innovation from the candidates for not building a team that campaigns boldly, in addition to innovation, infrastructure problems that the evaluation of signal interference and the uneven distribution of digital infrastructure in the regions have hampered the implementation of bold campaigns.

Utilization of Lean & Six Sigma quality initiatives in Indian healthcare sector

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the utilization of Lean & Six Sigma quality initiatives in healthcare sector in India. Methodology The survey questionnaires were sent to 454 hospitals through registered postal in all the states of India. The survey questionnaire was designed to assess different quality initiatives; currently implemented in Indian hospitals, factors align with organization’s objectives, reasons for not implementing Lean & Six Sigma and contribution of Lean & Six Sigma projects in healthcare improvement projects etc. A separate section in the questionnaire provides the feedback on implementation of Lean & Six Sigma in various hospitals. The relationships between Lean & Six Sigma and healthcare performance have also been established in this paper. Findings It is found that 15 Nos. of hospitals have implemented the Lean tools while 14 Nos. have implemented the Six Sigma tools out of 109 collected responses. This shows the utilization of Lean & Six Sigma in Indian healthcare sector. The ‘Lack of knowledge’ and ‘Availability of resources’ are the major reasons for not implementing Lean & Six Sigma. It is also observed that 22% running projects were related to Lean & Six Sigma out of various improvement projects running in various hospitals. Originality There is lack of evidences of similar studies that determines the utilization of Lean & Six Sigma in Indian healthcare sector at the national level. This paper will provide important breakthrough to academicians and healthcare practitioners, who are involved in Lean & Six Sigma research. Social implications The present study will create awareness among healthcare practitioners across India for utilization of quality tools that will provide direct benefits to the society.

Green Aid Tax Relief Participation Scheme – A Study about a Creative Environmental Tax Towards Carbon Reduction in the Post – Covid 19 Era

Environmental tax is the climate policy that offers, in theory, the easiest way for carbon reduction. But in practice, implementation has proven complicated despite public demand for policy action on climate change. This research investigates to reframe environmental taxes in ways more personally engaging to create a moral foundation, and massive participation. As people show rising demand, we aimed to design a tool that responds to public expectations and operates directly at source on emission reducers, viz the trees. Drawing on research from environmental taxes and the evidence of measures taken, we reasoned that an environmental fiscal policy may not intend necessarily to punish the “bads”, but rather might reward the positive attitude and direct it to act. Consequently, we focused on tax reliefs and designed Green Aid, that can address people’s attitude to take active participation into account by incorporating virtuous behaviours into tax relief. Green Aid Tax relief works embedded in the Green Aid Participation Scheme that bears directly on a source of environmental recovery and organizes the global call to public action in a sustained, structured, and collective participation to forestation. Green Aid bridges the action of contributing to carbon reduction with immediate, tangible, and direct benefits. It can be an alternative environmental tax, able to address and operate directly at source on emission reducers and secure effectiveness in carbon reduction and efficiency in terms of public acceptance and viability at a global level.

Who Gets to Adopt? Contested Values Constrain Just Transitions to Agroforestry

Agroforestry is often promoted as a multi-benefit solution to increasing the resilience of agricultural landscapes. Yet, there are many obstacles to transitioning agricultural production systems to agroforestry. Research on agroforestry transitions often focuses on why farmers and land managers chose to adopt this type of stewardship, with less focus on the political context of practitioner decisions. We use the case study of agroforestry in Hawai‘i to explore how agroforestry transitions occur with particular attention to politics and power dynamics. Specifically, we ask, what factors drive and/or restrain transitions to agroforestry and who is able to participate. We interviewed 38 agroforestry practitioners in Hawai‘i and analyzed the data using constructivist grounded theory. We then held a focus group discussion with interview participants to share results and discuss solutions. Practitioners primarily chose agroforestry intentionally for non-economic and values-based reasons, rather than as a means to production or economic goals. Agroforestry practitioners face a similar suite of structural obstacles as other agricultural producers, including access to land, labor, and capital and ecological obstacles like invasive species and climate change. However, the conflict in values between practitioners and dominant institutions manifests as four additional dimensions of obstacles constraining agroforestry transitions: systems for accessing land, capital, and markets favor short-term production and economic value; Indigenous and local knowledge is not adequately valued; regulatory, funding, and other support institutions are siloed; and not enough appropriate information is accessible. Who is able to practice despite these obstacles is tightly linked with people's ability to access off-site resources that are inequitably distributed. Our case study highlights three key points with important implications for realizing just agroforestry transitions: (1) practitioners transition to agroforestry to restore ecosystems and reclaim sovereignty, not just for the direct benefits; (2) a major constraint to agroforestry transitions is that the term agroforestry is both unifying and exclusionary; (3) structural change is needed for agroforestry transitions to be just. We discuss potential solutions in the context of Hawai‘i and provide transferrable principles and actionable strategies for achieving equity in agroforestry transitions. We also demonstrate a transferrable approach for action-oriented, interdisciplinary research in support of just agroforestry transitions.

Service Exchange or Major Overhaul. Which Philosophy to Implement for Gas Turbine

Maintenance costs and machine availability are two of the most important concerns to gas turbine equipment owner. Therefore, a well thought out maintenance program that reduces costs while increasing equipment availability should be instituted. The correct implementation of planned maintenance relying on preventive maintenance optimization through perfect inspection frequency and scope provides direct benefits in the avoidance of forced outages, unscheduled repairs, and downtime. Major overhaul is carried out for each gas turbine every 48,000 firing hours which costs around 1 M USD for each engine and with more than 8 months unavailability for the unit. To increase equipment availability and enhance cost and time efficiency, alternatives approaches were evaluated including Service Exchange of gas turbines. It is found that service exchange is the best option for optimizing time and cost of overhaul of such engines. This paper is written to improve Major Overhaul practice for existing Gas Turbines from ongoing practice of routine major overhaul including engine strip down, inspection and repair to Service Exchange of Gas Generator and Power Turbine every 48,000 firing hours.

Management Community of Communal Lands in the Andean Rural Community of San Roque de Huarmitá, Concepción, Junín, Peru

In this research, the influence of community management of the rural Andean community of San Roque de Huarmitá on the condition of communal lands was analyzed: usufructuated lands (family management) and communal farm (collective management), through an evaluation of the institutional level (design principles) as an indicator of community self-management capacity and analysis of physical-chemical characteristics of soils. Research methods such as: ethnoknowledge and similarity analysis were also used. The results showed that the design principles were well implemented in relation to land use and that the physical-chemical properties differ significantly between the two types of communal lands, showing better fertility results in the usufruct lands. It was concluded that the Andean rural community has a robust level of self-management, that is, it has sustainable community management. Since the usufruct lands provide direct benefits to the families (good soil fertility and pasture production), while the communal farmlands, having extensive management, do not generate direct benefits. In other words, there is a prioritization for the care of the family resources before the community resources.