Associative Study of Individual Characteristics, Information Accessibility and Media Literation with Agricultural Information through Whatsapp: Exploration on Mango Farmers in Pasuruan Regency

Information in agriculture has an important role for farmers in efforts to improve their farming activities. Some empirical research on the use of WhatsApp as a medium for disseminating information among farmers is still limited even though farmers have used it. This study explores the use of WhatsApp in strengthening agricultural information for mango farmers in Pasuruan Regency. The data analysis method used consists of two stages, the first is Crosstab, the second stage is measuring the association is Chi-Square using IBM SPSS Ver software. 23. The results of the analysis show that the age of the respondent is the only factor that is stated to have no relationship with agricultural information via WhatsApp. While other factors forming individual characteristics, namely education, length of time using HP, and length of farming have a relationship with agricultural information via WhatsApp. The four factors that make up the accessibility of information consist of completeness of features, icons/images that are easy to remember & find, ease of navigation and attractive appearance/interface, all of which are stated to have a relationship with agricultural information via WhatsApp. In addition, the research findings provide an interesting picture, namely sending and downloading agricultural info videos is the only media literacy factor that is stated to have no relationship with agricultural information via WhatsApp. Meanwhile, other factors forming Media Literacy, namely Sending messages/chats and calls, Time to find Information and Discussions on WA Group have a relationship with agricultural information via WhatsApp.

ATAC-STARR-seq v2

Massively parallel reporter assays test the capacity of putative cis-regulatory elements (CREs) to drive transcription on a genome-wide scale. In nearly all cases, chromatin accessibility is necessary to drive activity, so most CREs are inactive due to chromatin context rather than intrinsic DNA sequence properties. Here, we combined assay for transposase-accessible chromatin (ATAC-seq) with self-transcribing active regulatory region sequencing (STARR-seq) to selectively assay the regulatory potential of nucleosome-free DNA genome-wide. Our approach enabled high-resolution testing of ~50 million unique DNA fragments tiling ~101,000 accessible chromatin regions in human lymphoblastoid cells. To illustrate the application of our approach, we show that 30% of all accessible regions contain an activator, a silencer or both. Benchmarking against standard ATAC-seq, our approach faithfully captures chromatin accessibility and transcription factor (TF) footprints with high signal-to-noise. Integrating three layers of genomic information (accessibility, TF occupancy, and activity) provided by ATAC-STARR-seq, we stratified active and silent CREs by the presence of several TF footprints and show that CREs with specific TF combinations are associated with distinct gene regulatory pathways. Altogether, these data highlight the power of ATAC-STARR-seq to comprehensively investigate the regulatory landscape of the human genome from a single DNA source.

Effectiveness of Sms Advertising in Bangladesh: Drawing on Hierarchy of Effects Model

The study explored the effectiveness of Short Message Service (SMS) advertising on customers’ purchase decision focusing awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase attributes of Hierarchy of Effects Model. A total of 180 mobile phone subscribers were surveyed adopting non-probability convenience and judgmental sampling techniques through a structured questionnaire. It is found that none of the attributes have positive impact on the subscribers’ behavior. Purchase is found to be the most ineffective attribute followed by Conviction and Liking. Awareness, Knowledge, and Preference are least ineffective ones. However, SMS ad which explicitly mentions the company name and offers in the title, somewhat gets subscribers’ attention. It is noted that the SMS ads do not provide enough information, accessibility, and convenience. Brand loyalty and brand image of the products advertised have weak positive impact on consumer preference. The respondents view SMS ads mostly unconvincing and ineffective; but call rate packages, internet purchases and product discount purchases fared not so poorly. However, there are situations where SMS can be utilized effectively. As SMS advertising do not really incur much additional cost for the telecom companies, it can provide an avenue for information dissemination, as well as, to generate revenue from offers they promote.

Measurement of Accounting Information Accessibility and Understandability based on Distance of Information-state Transition Theory

With the advent of the era of big data, the problem of information selection and decision efficiency becomes more and more important under the network environment. Accounting information is an important economic information resource, but it has been facing the dilemma between the usefulness and useable. Based on the theory of Distance of Information-state Transition, this paper describes several concepts related to information distance, discusses key issues such as target state information, state chain, transition probability, measurement rules and determine standards, analyzes the influence of information retrieval, social tagging, recommendation system and information navigation on information distance. Based on the measurement of accounting information acquisition and knowledge acquisition, this paper studies the optimization of information distance in the network environment, which provides theoretical support and practical reference for the realization of effective accounting information utilization and information architecture

"Deaf is best": Exploring the sexuality experiences and knowledge of Deaf women in New Zealand

<p>This study has two primary purposes. Initially, it explores the accounts of sexuality-related experiences and knowledge of a group of Deaf women in New Zealand. The limited international literature available has primarily focused on Deaf sexuality in terms of deficits and vulnerabilities and no work has been carried out on the topic in New Zealand, so relatively little is known about an influential aspect of Deaf women’s lives. The second purpose for this study is to generate recommendations for improving the sexuality information and services available to the women. This study accomplished the two aims by using an action research framework in which Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand, the national organisation for the Deaf, was a collaborative research partner. The seven women who participated in the study were split into two focus groups, one for NZ European/ Pākeha women and one for Asian and Pacific women. The focus groups were conducted in August 2012 at a Deaf club. Also present during the focus groups were a professional New Zealand Sign Language interpreter, a Deaf woman who served as co-facilitator, and myself. In the focus groups, the women discussed their experiences and understanding of concepts with regard to intimate relationships, sexual experiences, and sexuality more generally. Their accounts revealed the potential impact their family’s cultural background, the ability of those around them to communicate through New Zealand Sign Language, and their personal English literacy levels had on their sexuality knowledge and development. Those who had greater access to information and support reported more positive experiences. As a result, recommendations are made for improving information accessibility across the lifespan, with a special emphasis on programming and services provided by Deaf Aotearoa. The recommendations conclude with a description of a programme developed alongside Deaf Aotearoa that addresses some of these areas and which will be implemented with regional groups of Deaf women. As a result, the contributions made by the Deaf women who participated in this project are already demonstrating an impact in programme development.</p>

"Deaf is best": Exploring the sexuality experiences and knowledge of Deaf women in New Zealand

<p>This study has two primary purposes. Initially, it explores the accounts of sexuality-related experiences and knowledge of a group of Deaf women in New Zealand. The limited international literature available has primarily focused on Deaf sexuality in terms of deficits and vulnerabilities and no work has been carried out on the topic in New Zealand, so relatively little is known about an influential aspect of Deaf women’s lives. The second purpose for this study is to generate recommendations for improving the sexuality information and services available to the women. This study accomplished the two aims by using an action research framework in which Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand, the national organisation for the Deaf, was a collaborative research partner. The seven women who participated in the study were split into two focus groups, one for NZ European/ Pākeha women and one for Asian and Pacific women. The focus groups were conducted in August 2012 at a Deaf club. Also present during the focus groups were a professional New Zealand Sign Language interpreter, a Deaf woman who served as co-facilitator, and myself. In the focus groups, the women discussed their experiences and understanding of concepts with regard to intimate relationships, sexual experiences, and sexuality more generally. Their accounts revealed the potential impact their family’s cultural background, the ability of those around them to communicate through New Zealand Sign Language, and their personal English literacy levels had on their sexuality knowledge and development. Those who had greater access to information and support reported more positive experiences. As a result, recommendations are made for improving information accessibility across the lifespan, with a special emphasis on programming and services provided by Deaf Aotearoa. The recommendations conclude with a description of a programme developed alongside Deaf Aotearoa that addresses some of these areas and which will be implemented with regional groups of Deaf women. As a result, the contributions made by the Deaf women who participated in this project are already demonstrating an impact in programme development.</p>

The Implications of Government Departmental Organisational Structures on Fulfilment of OIA Obligations

<p>A study was conducted into the implications of government departmental organisational structures on the fulfilment of Official Information Act (OIA) obligations. The aim of the study was to investigate the systems and processes used by New Zealand government organisations in relation to OIA requests; in particular, to identify any changes since 2001 and the rationale for such changes. The study used authority and responsibility mechanisms, as represented by the chain of command and autonomy, to examine the relationship between organisational structures and effective responses to OIA requests. The research was qualitative and used semi-structured interviews with nine people from three New Zealand government organisations to gather data. The study was not linked to individual OIA requests. Data was analysed using coding of concepts to identify seven main themes, which were: systems and processes; information accessibility; attitude to OIA requests; management of government information; levels of decision-making; timeliness of response, and; managing organisational and political risk. The study found that a range of systems and process are used for responding to OIA requests and that the rationale for these fall into two categories; those designed to support staff and managers to process requests, and those designed to manage organisational and political risks. Whilst most systems had been in place for some time, tracking systems were adopted more recently. The study also found there was an increasing use of pro-disclosure of information to reduce the administrative burden of responding to Official Information Act requests.</p>

The Implications of Government Departmental Organisational Structures on Fulfilment of OIA Obligations

<p>A study was conducted into the implications of government departmental organisational structures on the fulfilment of Official Information Act (OIA) obligations. The aim of the study was to investigate the systems and processes used by New Zealand government organisations in relation to OIA requests; in particular, to identify any changes since 2001 and the rationale for such changes. The study used authority and responsibility mechanisms, as represented by the chain of command and autonomy, to examine the relationship between organisational structures and effective responses to OIA requests. The research was qualitative and used semi-structured interviews with nine people from three New Zealand government organisations to gather data. The study was not linked to individual OIA requests. Data was analysed using coding of concepts to identify seven main themes, which were: systems and processes; information accessibility; attitude to OIA requests; management of government information; levels of decision-making; timeliness of response, and; managing organisational and political risk. The study found that a range of systems and process are used for responding to OIA requests and that the rationale for these fall into two categories; those designed to support staff and managers to process requests, and those designed to manage organisational and political risks. Whilst most systems had been in place for some time, tracking systems were adopted more recently. The study also found there was an increasing use of pro-disclosure of information to reduce the administrative burden of responding to Official Information Act requests.</p>

Measuring information accessibility and predicting response-effects: The validity of response-certainties and response-latencies

Respondents’ reports about the frequency of everyday behavior are often found to differ considerably when either low- or high-frequency response scales are used to record the answers. It has been hypothesized that the susceptibility to this type of response effect is determined by the cognitive accessibility of the respective target information in respondents’ memories. The first aim of the present paper is to test this hypothesis using two alternative, individual level indicators of the cognitive accessibility of information. These measures are the subjects’ self-reported response certainty and the time needed to answer the question under consideration. A second issue is how response certainties and response latencies should be transformed prior to data analysis in order to maximize their predictive power for response effects. Accordingly, the ability of untransformed measures to predict scale effects is compared with that of logarithmic, square-root and reciprocally transformed versions. The empirical results show that untransformed response certainties and response latencies are equally valid predictors of whether and to what extent subjects’ answers are affected by the presentation of response options. A square-root transformation is found to have no effect on both measures, whereas a logarithmic transformation slightly improves the validity of response certainties. In contrast, a reciprocal transformation proves to have a substantially positive effect on both measures and improves their ability to predict the reliability of respondents’ survey reports.