Assessment of Profile Characteristics and Factors Determining the Membership of Farmers in Tamil Nadu Banana Producer Company (TNBPC) a Study in Trichy district of Tamil Nadu

The majority of Indian farmers face issues such as decreased agricultural production, lower resource use efficiency, and lower farm revenue. Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) which are based on the concepts of economies of scale and collective action, have arisen as a golden ray of hope for alleviating these challenges. In light of these facts, the present study was carried out to examine socio-personal, socio-economic, socio-psychological characteristics and the factors determining their membership with the sample respondents of 132. The sample was selected through proportionate random sampling from five villages of Thottiyam block in Trichy district of Tamil Nadu. The findings revealed that majority of the farmers were middle aged with most of the members having been educated and medium level of annual income. Farming was the primary occupation for majority of the members with big farm size and medium level of annual income, farmer groups experience, training, institutional support and extension agency contact. There also exists medium level of market perception, group interaction, group leadership, self -confidence, attitude towards group activity, participation in group activities, achievement motivation and group cohesiveness. The findings also revealed that getting better price for their produce was the major economic factor determining their membership followed by participatory decision making as the major social factor, to make use of government schemes as major organizational factor and providing market linkages as the major marketing factor determining their membership. FPO operations must be promoted and supported in order to instill competition among farmers and raise their share and profit in agricultural enterprises.

Understanding Risk Perception toward Food Safety in Street Food: The Relationships among Service Quality, Values, and Repurchase Intention

This paper aims to identify service quality dimensions of street food that have an impact on utilitarian and hedonic values and to determine the effect of utilitarian and hedonic values on repurchase intention. It also examines the moderating effect of risk perception toward street food safety on the relationship between service quality and perceived value. An Internet survey was performed in Korea with 285 respondents. The results confirmed that the five dimensions of street food’s service quality—food quality, employee service, physical environment, price, and rapidity of service—had positive impacts on utilitarian and hedonic values. All perceived value (utilitarian, hedonic) has an impact on repurchase intention. Finally, the food quality of street food showed a stronger influence on utilitarian value among the low-risk perception group than the high-risk perception group depending on the consumers’ level of awareness of food safety. This provides new insights for marketing strategies to attract domestic/foreign consumers to street food vendors and for creating a new food culture by emphasizing important domains of service quality, the relation of quality to consumer values, and risk perception toward food safety in street food.

The facial feedback hypothesis and automatic mimicry in perception of sung emotion

Facial mimicry in response to emotional and neutral singing was tested in the context of an emotion judgment task. Participants were tested in two conditions, Perception (n=16) and Imagery (n=21). Participants were presented with video clips showing a singer expressing happy, neutral and sad emotions, and were asked to identify the expressed emotions, as well as rate their intensity. Participants in the Perception group were asked to simply watch the video clips, while participants in the Imagery group were also asked to imagine imitating the song fragment after watching the model singer. Facial electromyography was used to monitor acitivity in the corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major muscles. Results showed more corrugator muscle activity for sad than happy trials, and more zygomaticus activity for happy than sad trials. No differences were found between conditions, suggesting that mimicry is an automatic process, not requiring encouragement prompted by imagery.

The facial feedback hypothesis and automatic mimicry in perception of sung emotion

Facial mimicry in response to emotional and neutral singing was tested in the context of an emotion judgment task. Participants were tested in two conditions, Perception (n=16) and Imagery (n=21). Participants were presented with video clips showing a singer expressing happy, neutral and sad emotions, and were asked to identify the expressed emotions, as well as rate their intensity. Participants in the Perception group were asked to simply watch the video clips, while participants in the Imagery group were also asked to imagine imitating the song fragment after watching the model singer. Facial electromyography was used to monitor acitivity in the corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major muscles. Results showed more corrugator muscle activity for sad than happy trials, and more zygomaticus activity for happy than sad trials. No differences were found between conditions, suggesting that mimicry is an automatic process, not requiring encouragement prompted by imagery.

KONSTRUKSI DAN ANALISIS MODEL MATEMATIKA RADIKALISME

An increase in the number of cases related to radicalism in Indonesia is an early warning for the government and is very dangerous for the lives of Indonesian people including the Bima community. Therefore, an anticipated strategy is required to determine the best control of the radicalism. This study aims: (1) to determine the attitude of university student radicalism in the City of Bima, (2) build a mathematical model that is in line with the problem of radicalism in the City of Bima, and (3) to construct the reproduction number from the mathematical model of radicalism, and use the to explain the dynamics of the spread of radicalism in the city of Bima. The following results have been obtained: (1) STKIP Bima students' perceptions of radicalism are categorized into three groups, namely the healthy group of 295 people (12%), the neutral group of 1,768 people (72%), and the radicalism (in perception) group of 393 people ( 16%), (2) The mathematical model has been validated against the real data obtained from the STKIP Bima student population in 2019. It shows that if the chance of moving individuals from neutral groups to radical groups is greater or equal with the opportunity of individuals from neutral groups to healthy groups, one person who believes in radicalism can produce four to five new individuals who understand radicalism.

Uma avaliação da percepção dos professores de ciências frente às políticas de avaliação e de responsabilização no brasil

Resumo: As concepções neoliberais das últimas décadas trouxeram reorganizações na gestão de políticas sociais, em geral, e de educação, em particular. Neste contexto surgiram políticas de privatização, de municipalização, de qualidade total, de avaliação em larga escala (ALE) e de responsabilização, entre outras. Essas duas últimas já estão bem difundidas no Brasil, causando limitações e consequências, mesmo que não intencionais, para o Ensino de Ciências, à medida que o foco dessas ALE está centrado nas áreas de Português e Matemática. Este estudo identifica e analisa a percepção de um grupo de professores de Ciências do Ensino Fundamental, ciclo final, sobre essas políticas de ALE na região do grande ABC Paulista, uma das áreas do Brasil que apresenta altos índices sociais e econômicos. Entrevistas e análise documental foram utilizadas para coletar dados em um estudo de caso com a participação de 49 professores, que expressaram suas percepções frente a esta situação posta. Os dados revelaram que a busca por melhores posições nos indicadores de desempenho em nível nacional, (IDEB), ou estadual (IDESP) têm induzido os sistemas educacionais e os gestores escolares a valorizarem mais as disciplinas de Português e Matemática, endereçando mais recursos a essas áreas, pois uma colocação adequada nesses indicadores significa que a escola será mais valorizada e reconhecida perante à comunidade. Esses resultados podem possibilitar reflexões entre as autoridades políticas e educacionais e entre os gestores escolares. Esses dados também podem ser utilizados no contexto da universidade, na formação inicial e continuada de docente.Palavras-chave: Políticas educacionais; Avaliação; Responsabilização; Professores de ciências. An evaluation of science teacher’s perception before the evaluation and responsibility policies in brazilAbstract: The neoliberal conceptions of the last decades have brought about reorganizations in the management of social policies, in general, and of education, in particular. In this context, privatization, municipalization, total quality, large-scale evaluation (LSA) and accountability policies emerged. These last two are already well-known in Brazil, causing limitations, and even unintentional consequences, for Science Teaching, as the focus of these LSA is centered in the areas of Portuguese and Mathematics. This study identifies and analyzes science teachers’ perception (group from Elementary School, final cycle), on these LSA policies in the region of the great ABC Paulista, one of the Brazilian areas that presents high social and economic indexes. Interviews and documentary analysis were used to collect data in a case study with Science teachers (N=49), who expressed their perceptions regarding this situation. The data revealed that the search for better positions in national (IDEB) or state (IDESP) performance indicators has induced educational systems and school managements to value much more Portuguese and Mathematics subjects, using (sending) more resources to these areas, since an adequate placement in these indicators means that school will be much more valued and recognized by its community. These results can enable reflections among political and educational authorities and school managers. These data can also be used in the context of the university, in pre and in-service teacher education.Keywords: Educational policies; Evaluation; Accountability; Science teachers.

Cognitive and Organizational Complexity and Behavior

Historical findings concerning the nature of the higher-order structural personality dimension of cognitive complexity and related conceptual systems and the sociotechnical model of organizational complexity are summarized, including the relationship of the two. The author’s own research findings on early trainer and traumatic event effects on one’s complexity level are described. The relation of complexity level to creativity, leader behavior and influence, interpersonal and self-perception, group task performance, and matching individual and organizational position complexity, are reviewed. Implications of complexity level for organizational design and the design of information and training systems are noted.