On-Farm Benchmarking: How to Do It and How to Do It Better

Benchmarking is the practice of establishing the relative performance of a business or enterprise against an appropriate standard, generally industry standards derived from a survey of farms. The Policy Commission into the Future of Farming and Food (2002) highlighted a need to spread and improve benchmarking on farms. The requirements of effective benchmarking are illustrated in a ten step framework. The ten steps illustrate the range of expertise and resources a manager requires before being able to justify allocating resources to benchmarking. A comparison of alternative farm surveys and methodologies used to collect, analyse and report industry standards illustrates the difficulties farmers can have in identifying appropriate, robust and accurate industry standards. It is concluded that there needs to be a thorough rationalisation of farm surveys and agreement on methodologies to make benchmarking more effective and more efficient.benchmarking, comparative analysis, processes, industry standards, methodology, techniques, Farm Management,

Reverberation: models, estimation and application

The use of reverberation models is required in many applications such as acoustic measurements, speech dereverberation and robust automatic speech recognition. The aim of this thesis is to investigate different models and propose a perceptually-relevant reverberation model with suitable parameter estimation techniques for different applications. Reverberation can be modelled in both the time and frequency domain. The model parameters give direct information of both physical and perceptual characteristics. These characteristics create a multidimensional parameter space of reverberation, which can be to a large extent captured by a time-frequency domain model. In this thesis, the relationship between physical and perceptual model parameters will be discussed. In the first application, an intrusive technique is proposed to measure the reverberation or reverberance, perception of reverberation and the colouration. The room decay rate parameter is of particular interest. In practical applications, a blind estimate of the decay rate of acoustic energy in a room is required. A statistical model for the distribution of the decay rate of the reverberant signal named the eagleMax distribution is proposed. The eagleMax distribution describes the reverberant speech decay rates as a random variable that is the maximum of the room decay rates and anechoic speech decay rates. Three methods were developed to estimate the mean room decay rate from the eagleMax distributions alone. The estimated room decay rates form a reverberation model that will be discussed in the context of room acoustic measurements, speech dereverberation and robust automatic speech recognition individually

The Malawi Religion Project:

Scholars have recently become increasingly interested in the role religion plays in the responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Here, we present the Malawi Religion Project (MRP), which provides data to examine the relationship between religion and HIV/AIDS through surveys and in-depth interviews with denominational leaders, congregational leaders and congregation members in three districts of rural Malawi. In the paper, we outline existing perspectives on the religion-HIV/AIDS link describe the MRP’s design, implementation and subsequent data; provide initial evidence for a series of general research hypotheses; and describe how these data can be used both to extend explorations of these relationships further and as a model for gathering similar data in other contexts. In particular we highlight the unique possibilities this project provides for analyses that link MRP data to the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project. These linked data produce a multi-level data set covering individuals, congregations and their communities allowing empirical research on religion, HIV/AIDS risk, related behaviors, attitudes and norms.AIDS/HIV, data collection, Malawi, religion

Pengaruh Model Pembelajaran Aktif dengan Metode Question Students Have terhadap Hasil Belajar Ekonomi Siswa Kelas XI IPS di SMA Negeri 7 dan SMA Negeri 8 Padang

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkap perbedaan siswa yang diajarkan dengan metode Question Students Have memiliki hasil belajar lebih tinggi dibandingkan siswa yang diajarkan dengan metode konvensional, terhadap hasil belajar ekonomi siswa. Jenis penelitian adalah quasi eksperimen. Populasi penelitian adalah siswa kelas XI IPS SMA Negeri 7 dan SMA Negeri 8 Padang. Teknik pengambilan sampel adalah Purposive Sampling. Sampel adalah siswa kelas XI IPS 1 SMA Negeri 7 Padang sebagai kelas kontrol dan siswa kelas XI IPS 1 SMA Negeri 8 Padang sebagai kelas eksperimen. Jenis data terdiri dari data primer dan data sekunder, sedangkan teknik analisis data adalah deskriptif dan analisis induktif. Analisis induktif menggunakan ANOVA.Hasil penelitian adalah siswa yang diajarkan dengan metode Question Students Have secara signifikan memiliki hasil belajar lebih tinggi dibandingkan dengan siswa yang diajarkan melalui Metode Konvensional dengan Sig. = 0,000, lebih kecil dari nilai α = 0,05 (Sig. < α). Berdasarkan hasil penelitian tersebut, maka disarankan agar guru menggunakan metode pembelajaran Question Students Have pada proses pembelajaran di SMA N 7 dan SMA N 8 Padang terutama pada mata pelajaran ekonomi, guru mendorong siswa untuk memiliki motivasi yang tinggi dalam belajar dengan cara memberikan pujian/ hadiah dan meberikan nilai tambah ketika siswa dapat menjawab pertanyaan yang diberikan guru, serta memberikan hukuman ketika siswa tidak mau memperhatikan guru ketika menjelaskan pelajaran

Peningkatan Aktivitas Siswa dalam Pembelajaran Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan dengan Type Jigsaw Sdn 19 Bengkayang

This study aimed to describe the improvement of students' learning activities through cooperative learning Type Jigsaw on subjects Civics class IV SDN 19 Melabo Bengkayang.The method used in this research is descriptive, form research is classroom action research, the nature of the research is a collaborative research subject is the teacher who taught in the fourth grade SDN 19 Melabo, Bengkayang, and students who totaled 15 people consisting of seven schoolgirls girls and 8 boys. Research procedure includes four stages: Planning, Implementing, Observations and Reflections.This study was conducted by two cycles. The results of the research are: 1) The ability of teachers plan learning in the first cycle by an average of 1.83 and the second cycle an average of 3.36 an increase of 1.53. 2) The ability of teachers to implement learning with an average of the first cycle of 1.63 and averaged 3.64 second cycle there is an average increase of 2.01. 3) Nilaiaktivitas students' average score on the first cycle of 51.44% and the average value of the second cycle of 76.77% No 25.33% increase

Pengaruh Luas Pengungkapan Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Terhadap Kinerja Keuangan Pada Perusahaan Manufaktur

The purpose of this study is to make a broad impact on corporate social responsibility (CSDI) on corporate financial performance (ROA). The population in this study is manufacturing companies listed on the BEI in 2014 to 2016. The sample used in the study were 18 companies determined by purposive sampling method. This research uses the help of IBM SPSS 24 version program to propose hypothesis. The test results show the first hypothesis against CSA significant to ROA

Fenomena Konstruksi Identitas Pada Foto Pre-Wedding

Artikel ini merupakan hasil penelitian yang dilatarbelakangi oleh permasalahan konstruksi identitas yang saat ini banyak ditampilkan pada foto pre-wedding. Pada mulanya foto pre-wedding hanyalah foto yang menampilkan sepasang laki-laki dan perempuan dengan tujuan untuk dipajang dalam resepsi pernikahan. Dalam perkembangannya foto pre-wedding menjadi ajang dalam menampilkan identitas dari pasangan tersebut. Dalam menampilkan identitas-identitas tersebut, setiap pasangan memiliki alasan-alasan (motif atau account), bentuk-bentuk dan batasan identitas apa saja yang ditampilkan, serta dampaknya terhadap foto pre-wedding yang ditampilkan. Peneliti mengintegrasikan teori fenomenologi, teori interaksionisme simbolik, dan teori konstruksi sosial, serta menggunakan pendekatan subjektif-konstruktivis dengan metode penelitian kualitatif dalam tradisi penelitian fenomenologi, atau paradigma interpretif (interpretive paradigm). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kontruksi identitas pada foto pre-wedding menjadi fenomena bukan semata karena kepentingan pasangan tetapi juga pihak-pihak lain yang berkepentingan dengannya seperti fotografer. Dampaknya, disadari atau tidak oleh pasangan, identitas yang ditampilkan dapat mempengaruhi psikologi pasangan tersebut. Dalam penelitian ini disarankan kepada pihak-pihak terkait untuk dapat memberikan perhatian khusus pada foto pre-wedding dengan menampilkan identitas tertentu yang dapat lebih menggambarkan diri dari pasangan