1,720,954 research outputs found
Evaluation of Small-scale Farmers' use of Information Communication Technology for Farm Management in Mahikeng Local Municipality
Get PDFMSc (Agricultural Extension), North-West University, Mafikeng CampusThe effectiveness and efficiency of small-scale farmers' agricultural production as a means of improving rural livelihood hinges on their access to timely and adequate agricultural information. The study focused on the evaluation of small-scale farmers' use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) for farm management in Mahikeng Local Municipality. Simple random sampling technique was adopted for the study and 320 respondents were randomly selected out of the selected respondents, 121 respondents volunteered to participate and data were collected with a structured questionnaire. The result revealed that farming was male dominated in the study area 63% and the educational level of most respondents were primary education 33%, the majority of respondents were married 51% and their age distribution was mostly 50 years and above 49% and 41 to 50 years 40%. House hold size was mostly 4 to 6 members 59.5%. The farming experience was found to be majorly 11 to 20 years 39.67% and 2-10 years 33.06%. Their farm sizes were mostly 0-2 hectares 47% and 3-6 hectares 39%. In the study, the annual income of respondents was mostly 10,000 to 30,000 Rands 46.3% and 31,000 to 50,000 Rands 32.2%. The majority of respondents were into both crop and animal production 72%, and their major information sources were fellow farmers 35% and extension agents 36%.The majority of respondents 92% in the study were aware of the use of ICT for extension service delivery and 86% of the respondents used ICT in accessing extension services, however, the most available and accessible ICT tools used by respondents were majorly conventional ICT tools such as television 30.87%, radio 27.7% and mobile phone 27.18% Most respondents in the study had a high perception of the use of ICT for farm management this is because none of the mean value was less than 3. Majority of respondents were knowledgeable about the conventional ICT tools such as television 97%, radio 98% and mobile phone 87% but were not knowledgeable on contemporary ICT tools such as the internet 64.5% and video conferencing 90%. Major constraints identified by respondents were poor infrastructures in rural areas 85%, lack of ICT related facilities 79%, data bundles are expensive to purchase 73%, lack of internet connectivity 71%, ICT tools are expensive to purchase 71.1%, The result further showed that educational level was positively significant at P≤0.01, awareness on the use of ICT for extension and ease of use were both positively significant at P≤0.10. Gender had a negative significance at P≤0.10 this implies that the more increase of female farmers in the study area the lesser the use of ICT as most women have little access to ICT devices as compared to men. Information sources also had a negative significance of P≤0.05. Furthermore, farm size had positive significance P≤0.10 which implies that an increase in farm sizes results in an increase in annual income which makes ICT devices purchasable for respondents with large farm sizes. ICT tools were expensive and had a negative effect at P≤0.10 on respondents' use of ICT. This implies that an increase in the cost of ICT tools will result in small-scale farmers' inability to purchase or use ICT. Lack of internet connectivity had a negative significance at P≤0.10, data bundles are expenses to purchase and lack of ICT related facilities both had a positive significance at P≤0.05. Based on findings it is apparent that small-scale farmers have a high perception on the use of ICT for farm management as it is perceived to enhance their agricultural productivity as well as creating a broader network that helps them make good decisions during transactions. Therefore, it is important for the government and other voluntary organisation to assist small-scale farmers to build ICT infrastructure in the study area.Master
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Extension officers’ perception towards accreditation and regulation of extension services in North West Province, South Africa
Get PDFThis paper examines extension officers’ perception towards accreditation and regulation of extension services. This is based on the premise that a pluralistic extension service delivery currently prevails in South Africa where public and private service providers exist with differentials in quality of services to clients; which can be overcome through accreditation of providers from end-users’ perspectives. Using a random sampling technique, 69 extension officers were sampled and a questionnaire was used to collect data, which was analysed with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) using frequency counts, percentages and probit regression. Extension officers have high knowledge that accreditation aids periodic quality review (̅ = 1.81, SD = 0.49); improving quality of services (̅ = 3.91, SD = 1.26) and promotes accountability (̅ = 2.49, SD = 0.79). Significant determinants of the perception on accreditation are gender (t = 3.08; p < 0.05); marital status (t = -2.42; p < 0.05); number of children (t = 1.73; p < 0.05); household size (t =-2.03; p < 0.05); residence status (t = 1.78; p < 0.05); distance to clients (t =2.06; p < 0.05); and attitude to accreditation (t = 1.86; p < 0.05).Keywords: accreditation, agricultural extension service, information sources, farmers, service delivery, service provider
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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