Views Of Groups Research Articles

Conflict-resolution in multi-ES cooperation system

In the so called “Group Problem”[4] (we would like to term it “Group-Consulting Type Cooperation”), ESs of the same cooperating group may have different views towards the same problem, and the differences may sometimes be very great. For the circumstance of those ESs with relatively closer views, we present in this paper three methods of consistency treatment and a method for calculating the maximal deviation of the confidence value about the cooperating group's common view based on the consistency degree of those different views. For the circumstance of those views being not very close to each other and also not very different from each other, we designed two synthesis functions for synthesizing multiple views. These two circumstances are formally defined in this paper. A comparison between these two functions and the combining function in [4] is also demonstrated. In the last section of this paper, we present a discussion about some further research topics of conflict-resolution in the group problem.

Antibiotics in the management of shigellosis in children: what role for the quinolones?

In the last 20 years, epidemic bacillary dysentery due to Shigella dysenteriae type 1 has become an important cause of serious morbidity and death in children less than 5 years of age in a number of developing countries; in many instances the infecting strains have been resistant to many or all of the usually recommended antibiotics. Moreover, an increasing proportion of Shigella strains of other serotypes isolated in all parts of the world are now resistant to the most commonly used antibiotics. The new fluoroquinolones have been shown to be active against Shigella in vitro and effective for the treatment of shigellosis in adults, but concern about the safety of quinolones has so far prevented the evaluation of these agents for the treatment of shigellosis in young children. Two observations, however, have led a Scientific Working Group of the World Health Organization to suggest that such studies would be appropriate for the following reasons: a one- or two-dose treatment is likely to be effective, and if so the amount of drug given would be far below the doses that have been determined to be toxic in animals; and nalidixic acid, which shares all the toxicity of the fluoroquinolones, is widely recommended--and in some areas routinely used--for the treatment of shigellosis in young children without reports of significant adverse effects. In the Group's view there is an urgent need to perform carefully conducted research to determine the safety and efficacy of fluoroquinolones for the treatment of shigellosis in children.

The Ottoman Government and the Sanusiyya: A Reappraisal

The historiography of the Sanusiyya, if one can apply such a term to the literary crop of roughly a century dealing with this North Africantarīqa(pl.turuq, Sufi brotherhood), falls into three distinct categories. The earliest writings appeared in the 1880s, thirty years after the tariqa had taken root in Cyrenaica (then the Ottoman province of Benghazi). The works of French authors such as Charmes, Rinn, Duveyrier, Le Chatelier, and co-authors Depont and Coppolani were all marked by the concerns of the French colonial and protectorate authorities in Algeria and Tunisia. According to Duveyrier, a Saharan explorer of repute and the crudest exponent of this group's views, not only were the Sanusis a band of fanatics given to murdering innocent missionaries and explorers, but they were also in the vanguard of the turuq inspired by the Pan-Islamic rhetoric of the Ottoman sultan and aligned against French colonialism in Muslim North Africa. Only this combination of factors could account for the pervasive and determined resistance to French policies in the region. Along with the Sanusiyya, Duveyrier singled out for attack a North African sheikh and confidant of the Ottoman sultan, Muhammad Zafir al-Madani. Charmes, Rinn, Le Chatelier, and Depont and Coppolani, while less vitriolic in their tone, certainly had the same general approach. The analysis of this “Algerian school” was dismissed at the turn of the century by two eminent Orientalists, Christiaan Snouck Hugronje and Carl Heinrich Becker.3A generation later, European fears of the turuq diminished in the wake of World War I, as new ideologies and forces came to dominate a transformed Pan-Islamism. This notwithstanding, some of the suppositions of the early French authors were adopted by later scholars and have since been quoted and requoted.

On the orgin of the Italian potassic magmas: 1. A discussion contribution

In their controversy about the origin of high and variable 18 O 16 O ratios in the Central Italian potassic volcanic rocks B. Turi, H.P. Taylor and coworkers as well as P.M. Holm and N.C. Munksgaard do not discuss pertinent evidence which clearly favours the latter group's view about a continental-crustal-derived component in the magma sources. However, neither Holm and Munksgaard nor others advocating a similar model have so far appreciated an important implication from this conclusion: Primitive magma compositions are not constrained to low silica, high Mg and Ca compositions. Volume relationships suggest that many voluminous high-silica ignimbrite eruptions may be primitive in the sense of non-evolved. The role of a subduction zone in the genesis of these potassic magmas is re-assessed. Results of a previously published new metasomatic model are discussed that can reconcile apparently conflicting evidence for subduction zone or rift environment for these alkaline magmas. The model suggests release of fluids from a hotspot in the astenosphere and their infiltrating and metasomatising a succession of subducted sediments and overlying mantle. Subsequent rifting causes partial melting of the metasomatised domains and alkaline volcanism. This model should not be uncritically generalised but neither must isotopic signatures of high-potassium rocks be considered as necessarily mantle-indigenous.

The Rôle of Coursework and its Assessment: The Southern Examining Group's View

The Rôle of Coursework and its Assessment: The Southern Examining Group's View

Within the Group's View

This article explores the use of metaphoric and symbolic imagery to clarify and work through group dynamics. With an eye toward tying imagery interventions to a therapeutic rationale, various levels of group intervention (individual, interpersonal, and group-as-a-whole) are discussed and therapeutic goals at each level specified. Clinical vignettes serve to explicate how imagery work might enhance these therapeutic goals, while being naturally worked into the ongoing flow of the group's process.

Survey of student opinion of the medical curriculum at Trinity College, Dublin, Republic of Ireland.

This description of a survey is not intended to give a blow-by-blow account of what was found or the significance of the result, since this would only be of any relevance to the medical school in which the survey was conducted. Rather it is intended to give a description of what was done and why it was done, for medical students in other schools who wish to conduct a similar inquiry. The initial indication that a survey was required was the establishment in the medical school of a curriculum review group. It was felt that rather than airing the group's own views, or impressions of what other students' views were, it would be advisable to find out exactly how students felt. To this end the survey was conducted.

The Lofland-Stark Conversion Model: A Critical Reassessment

The most refined and widely cited model within the sociological literature is the value-added scheme propounded by Lofland and Stark (1965) well over a decade ago. This paper is a critical examination of the Lofland-Stark model. Data derived from an extensive study of recruitment and to the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist movement in America provide little empirical support for the model in its entirety. Several components of the model are also theoretically questionable. The analysis suggests that and are not only essential for to Nichiren Shoshu, but that in general is highly improbable in the absence of these two factors. The proliferation of movements and mass therapies during the past decade has prompted some observers to suggest that America is currently gripped by an epidemic of sudden personality change (Conway and Siegelman, 1978:11; Zurcher, 1977) and that we are living in an age of conversion (Richardson and Stewart, 1978:24). Although one can quibble over the accuracy of such characterizations, there is little question that the phenomenon of has indeed captured the attention of a growing number of laymen and of social scientists (Colson, 1976; Conway and Siegelman, 1978; Enroth, 1977; Patrick, 1976; Richardson, 1978). Within sociology, has traditionally been explained as a sequential funnelingprocess, including psychological, and interactional factors (see Gerlach and Hine, 1970; Richardson et al., 1978; Seggar and Kunz, 1972; Shibutani, 1961; Toch, 1965; Zablocki, 1971). Of the various works representative of this approach to conversion, the most prominent is the model propounded well over a decade ago by Lofland and Stark (1965; see also Lofland, 1966). Based on a field study of the early American devotees of Sun Myung Moon (hereafter referred to as the Unification Church), the model suggests that conversion, involving behavioral as well as verbal commitment, is a function of the accumulation of seven necessary and constellationally-sufficient conditions (Lofland and Stark, 1965:874). Specifically, a person must (1) experience enduring and acutely-felt tensions, (2) within a religious problem-solving perspective, (3) which results in self-designation as a religious seeker. Additionally, the prospective convert must (4) encounter the movement or cult at a turning point in life, (5) form an affective bond with one or more believers, (6) neutralize or sever extracult attachments, and (7) be exposed to intensive interaction with other converts in order to become an active and dependable adherent. The first three factors are classified as predisposing. They hypothetically exist prior to contact with the group and function to render the individual susceptible to once contact is established. The remaining four factors are regarded as situational contingencies. They hypothetically lead to recruitment to one group rather than another, if any other, and to the adoption of the group's world view. In the absence of these factors, total will not occur, no matter how predisposed or susceptible the prospective convert may be. Accordingly, the process is conceptualized as a value-added process in which the addition of each new condition increases the probability that will occur. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of by critically examining the Lofland-Stark model and the extent to which it applies to our findings on to the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist movement in America. Two issues guide the inquiry. The first has to do with the model's empirical generalizability. Lofland initially suggested that the applica

Continuing education for librarians

The article presents the views of a group of 1966 Associates of the Library Association on incentives and deterrents to professional development, as expressed in replies to a postal questionnaire ( April 1976). Returns were received from 105 public libraries ( 72 per cent response rate) and from 42 academic libraries ( 71 per cent response rate). Methods of keeping up to date are discussed, and range from the most popular "informal discussion with colleagues" through inservice training ( for public librarians, but much less so for academic librarians) to the more formal short courses, and other kinds of personal study leading in many cases to further qualifications. The group's views on the respective importance of these continuing education activities to their professional development are presented, and also their recommendations to the Library Association, the library schools, senior management and training officers, on how they ought to be developing their roles in continuing education.

Education Via Radio Among Guatemalan Highland Maya

This study examines the preliminary results of almost four years experience with a literacy and mathematics program via a system of radio schools among a community of Maya Indians in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. Almost all the households of the community no longer have sufficient land to be self-sustaining in corn, the basic staple. This has forced the Atitecos to leave the isolation of their community and encounter Guatemalan national culture in search of economic survival. This experience has generated a felt need for literacy. A system of radio schools was established in which Maya teaches Maya. The educational and development philosophies make provision for this peasant group's view of the universe, their sense of inability with regard to the skills of the national culture, and Atiteco control over their own educational process. The acquiring of literacy by Atiteco peasants as well as the assumption of administrative duties and part of the financial responsibilities by the teacher group are the...

More Aid to Under-Developed Areas?

f I 'HE meeting of the Colombo plan prime ministers in Ottawa I and the recent conference on aid to under-developed •*■ countries organized by the United Nations Association in Canada have focussed attention on the problems of underdeveloped areas. The Canadian government announced after the Colombo plan meeting that it was increasing its contribution to the Colombo plan by another one million dollars. Many Canadians believe that our present contribution is pitifully inadequate; others may feel that it is already too large. Which of these two views is correct? The answer to this question can only be reached in the light of a careful analysis of the problems faced by these areas and the issues that are at stake. It was with this in mind that a study group of the Winnipeg Men's Branch of the C.I.I.A. recently gave their attention to this problem. This paper sums up the group's views on this important issue.1 An under-developed country may be defined as one where the present income level is low by western standards, but where the rise in income that could be brought about by applying better techniques and by increasing the supply of capital is comparatively large. Thus, by these standards, India or Peru would be considered under-developed countries for there is general agreement that the natural advantages of these countries are such that large gains in output are possible. But areas like the Sahara or Greenland, though their income level may be low, can scarcely be considered under-developed in the same sense since even with the application of the best known techniques no important gains in income could be achieved. Or again Canada might be considered undeveloped because there are still large potentialities for development here but she would not qualify under the above definition as an under-developed country because her income level is already very high.

An Ethnic Group's View of the American Middle Class

An Ethnic Group's View of the American Middle Class