Integrated Transport System Toward Sustainable Travel Behavior for Work Commuting Travel From Bekasi to Jakarta

Due to the inadequacy of public transport and high critical level of congestion in Jakarta Metropolitan Area, implementing sustainable transport for urban future transport improvement is necessary. Critical transport situation in Jakarta Metropolitan Area has pointed the importance of implementation integrated transport system to increase people accessibility. This study is conducted to identify strategic issues in integrated transport system at operational and policy levels toward sustainable mobility, transport equity, and door to door service. According to research aim, explanatory case study is used to build an understanding the current situation. The results indicate that integrated transport system is not fully implemented yet and it found a lot of missing links and barriers in integrated transport system attributes. Moreover, transportation planning at national to local levels is not synchronous which have impacted to the implementation of integrated transport

Comparison of ibuprofen release from minitablets and capsules containing ibuprofen: β-Cyclodextrin complex

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Eur J Pharm Biopharm. 2011 May;78(1):58-66. Epub 2010 Dec 30.Mixtures containing ibuprofen (IB) complexed with b-cyclodextrin (bCD) obtained by two complexation methods [suspension/solution (with water removed by air stream, spray- and freeze-drying) and kneading technique] were processed into pharmaceutical dosage forms (minitablets and capsules). Powders (IB, bCD and IBbCD) were characterized for moisture content, densities (true and bulk), angle of repose and Carr’s index, X-ray and NMR. From physical mixtures and IBbCD complexes without other excipients were prepared 2.5-mm-diameter minitablets and capsules. Minitablets were characterized for the energy of compaction, tensile strength, friability, density and IB release (at pH 1.0 and 7.2), whereby capsules were characterized for IB release. The results from the release of IB were analyzed using different parameters, namely, the similarity factor (f2), the dissolution efficiency (DE) and the amounts released at a certain time (30, 60 and 180 min) and compared statistically (a = 0.05). The release of IB from the minitablets showed no dependency on the amount of water used in the formation of the complexes. Differences were due to the compaction force used or the presence of a shell for the capsules. The differences observed were mostly due to the characteristics of the particles (dependent on the method considered on the formation of the complexes) and neither to the dosage form nor to the complex of the IB

Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Politics of Balance

The purpose of this thesis is to show that Rousseau’s political theory is coherent as he claimed in his Social Contract, and not contradictory as some think. By making a distinction between a doctrinal or principle level and an empirical or practical level, we will try to demonstrate Rousseau’s consistency by analyzing his concepts of sovereignty, general will, representation and natural law in detail. Rousseau was strongly democrat at principle level in the sense that sovereignty always belongs to people, and flexible, even liberal, at the system of realization or empirical level in which reality is rich in detail and complexity, so the political compromise becomes necessary at this level, even when it is difficult at times. Political principles must be applied empirically into the concrete world in order to serve civil society, otherwise if they are zealously kept intact in their purity, they remain ideal and impractical, even obstacles instead of becoming beneficial to political and social organizations as Rousseau tried to do by maintaining a just balance between distinct, yet interconnected levels of analysis in his political thought

Management of Savings and Credit Cooperatives from the Perspective of Outreach and Sustainability: Evidence from Southern Tigrai of Ethiopia

The rural economy and the urban economy in Ethiopia are largely disconnected .While urban banks have excess liquidity, which costs them money to manage, and some rural people have opportunities requiring credit to be profitable that are low risk, there is no mechanism to bring this liquidity from urban banks to rural businesses. Saving and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) can be the link that will give urban banks low risk loan opportunities in rural areas and give rural businesses access to credit at costs for lower than interest rates currently charged by moneylenders. So, this paper is concerned with management of SACCOs from the perspective of outreach and sustainability of Rural SACCOs to reach large number of members. The required data were obtained from members and SACCO documentation and analyzed using tables and percentages, financial ratios, and correlation analysis with the help of MINITAB, a statistical package. The descriptive findings show that membership and financial performance of the SACCOs under study showed an improving trend over the study period. The result of correlation analysis between independent variables and dependent variable showed that existence of strong positive correlation between financial performance (ROA) and the asset utilization. A moderate positive correlation relationship exists between operational efficiency and size of SACCOs (assets size). Conversely, there is a significant negative correlation between financial performance (ROA) and the operational efficiency with correlation coefficients. The study also came out with a range of perspectives on the factors affecting the outreach and sustainability of SACCOs under study. Lack of awareness and poor saving culture, weak organizational arrangement and governance, policy and regulatory environment, weak institutional capacity, low capital base, lack of differentiated products, inappropriate loan security requirements, and threats from other financial institutions (MFIs) were among the factors affecting the outreach and sustainability of SACCOs. Keywords: outreach, sustainability, savings and Credit Cooperatives, correlation analysis, Southern Tigrai, Ethiopi

Determinants of Women Empowerment in Cooperative Societies A Survey in South Eastern Zone Tigray Region of Ethiopia

Empowerment has always been fundamental to the cooperative idea where weaker section of the people get together to achieve goals that they would not be able to achieve on their own. The members themselves decide the goals and, since cooperatives are organized on the principle of one person - one vote, the cooperative form of enterprise provides women with the opportunity of participating on equal terms with men. Cooperative enterprises can take on different forms: they can be set up by a group of enterprises or by individual entrepreneurs wishing to benefit from shared services, cheaper goods, and easier access to markets or higher prices for their products(Mayoux, C.L. (2003). However, what they all have in common is that, as a group, members are able to create economies of scale and increase their influence and bargaining power. In many developing countries women work individually, often isolated, in the informal economy, operating at a low level of activity and reaping marginal income. Joining forces in small-scale cooperatives can provide them with the economic and social leverage they need(Kishor, S & Gupta, K. (2004). Various literatures also state that cooperatives are one of the means to empowerment women. There are few cooperative organizations in Ethiopia operate in the area of women empowerment using cooperatives and; Saving and Credit Cooperatives found in D/Tembien is one among them. This research has made an ideal attempt to deal with the role of cooperative in promoting women empowerment, taking member households of this particular organization in focus. Empowerment of women is crucial for their emancipation and meaningful participation in the decision making process at every level. Hence, to bring about this change women’s socially and economical empowerment is crucial. Ethiopian women are no exception from the existing deprivation of rights of decision-making and therefore, need empowerment at every level. Besides, it is believed that increasing women’s access to financial products will in itself increase household income, which will then translate into improved well-being for women and enable women to bring about wider changes in gender inequality. In economic empowerment, women’s access to savings and credit through saving and credit programs gives them a greater economic role in decision making through participation in terms of optimize their own and the households welfare. Therefore, taking this gloomy picture of women’s situation into account, this paper aims at to identify the determinants women empowerment in of cooperative society taking SACCO found in Degua- Tembien Wereda, Tigray region of Ethiopia is a acase study for this particular research. As the research was based mainly up on primary data from the sample SACCO members and documentation from Wereda the Cooperative. The next section offers a review of the basic concepts employed in the paper concerning women empowerment. The following section describes the survey and the methods applied to analyse the data collected, while the results of the analysis are illustrated in the subsequent section. The last section concludes and recommendation for further investigation and action

Saving behaviour and determinants of saving mobilization by rural financial co-operators in Tigrai region, Ethiopia

This paper identified and examined saving behaviour and determinants of saving mobilization by the rural co-operators in Southern Tigrai Ethiopia. The input for the study was obtained from randomly selected 120 rural household savers from six purposively selected rural savings and credit cooperatives. The result of the study using least squares method showed that savings mobilized is determined by household annual income, amount of loan borrowed and year of member stay in the cooperative. These factors therefore have to be considered in designing strategies aimed at improving the saving mobilization of cooperative members in the study area. Besides, economically feasible cooperative societies in the region should be encouraged among the rural households by supporting them with revolving funds as they are more effective and efficient in mobilizing rural savings and provide collateral plus guarantor-based loans with low default rate. This will enable them to boost up their production output and increase their savings thereby stimulating the rural economy