Signs Of Problems Research Articles

Warning Signs of Problems in Schools

SUMMARY One need not look hard to find evidence of concern related to the nature of student behavior in our schools. School violence, aggression, bullying, and harassment (e.g., racial or sexual) are often cited as challenging behaviors confronting educators and community leaders. Unfortunately, most schools address these concerns with aversive consequences delivered to individual perpetrators in a hope of reducing the future probability of undesired behavior. A growing body of literature identifies the need to explore the social context of behavior. The community, school, classroom, family, and peer group interact with student characteristics to help prevent, support the development of, and even exacerbate the display of both desired and undesired behavior. This article applies the logic of warning signs and functional behavioral assessment to schools as it explores the social context of the school and the classroom. The school-wide and classroom-based factors that have been associated with or found to support problem behaviors are discussed. Information is provided that will allow educators to assess their own schools and classrooms in an effort to promote a climate that will aid in the prevention of violence and aggression.

Conflicted Gender

The author presents the case of a middle-aged woman who had a fantasy that she was half male and half female, which did not emerge until she was well into her analysis. Initially, the analytic work focused on issues of attachment and trust, as the patient was mute and despairing, and unable to verbalize affects or put together a coherent story of her life. Gradually over the course of her analysis, a history of severe emotional neglect and trauma was pieced together--she had been left at the hospital as a newborn because her mother had not wanted a girl. It was only after the establishment of more comfortable and stable connection to the analyst that the conflicts around gender and the boy/girl fantasy came into focus. Two masturbation fantasies, a primitive, non-visualized sensation of sexual insatiability with abdominal throbbing, and a more traditional beating fantasy were also analyzed. The fantasy of being both male and female, which was conscious since childhood, was both a result of and a solution to more basic issues. It was a sign of problems in integration of internal parental identifications, a shaky maternal attachment, and difficulties in dealing with affect. The fantasy reflected a profound sense of being unwanted and unloved and became a narcissistic solution for these troubling feelings. The author details the interplay of constitutional, familial, and psychological factors that contributed to this solution. Because issues of gender were highlighted in this case, their complex relationship with other underlying factors could be appreciated.

Manufacturing strategy: Its assessment and practice

AbstractIn recent years, the subject of manufacturing strategy has attracted much attention, yet it is still a relatively unresearched area. Among practitioners, unlike the term “marketing strategy,” the term “manufacturing strategy” does not have instant recognition as to its meaning, purpose, and utility.For continued progress in the research and practice of manufacturing strategy, there is a real need for practical methods of assessing the manufacturing strategy of businesses. For example, for practitioners, the assessment of manufacturing strategy is essential to the development, fine tuning, revision, and evaluation of manufacturing strategy.This study presents a method of assessing the manufacturing strategy of businesses. In the process of assessing the manufacturing strategy in thirty‐five manufacturing firms, this study found several problems with the practice of manufacturing strategy and recommends some solutions.It has been reported by researchers that the task of assessing manufacturing strategy is often hampered by a lack of understanding of the term manufacturing strategy and the absence of explicitly denned manufacturing strategies within most manufacturing firms. Consequently, this study assessed the implied manufacturing strategy in the participating firms using the responses of both chief executives or equivalents and manufacturing managers. To overcome nonuniform understanding of the term among executives, multiple respondents and multiple methods using several direct and indirect questions were employed to get as good a fix on the manufacturing strategies of the firms as possible.It was found that while chief executives stressed quality, technology, etc., which would contribute to a business level strategy based on product differentiation, manufacturing managers stressed cost, and the keeping of delivery promises. This mismatch of emphasis between the two executives could be a sign of problems in the effective use of the manufacturing function.A major conclusion of this study is that executives in manufacturing firms are not sufficiently “literate” in matters concerning manufacturing strategy. However, this deficiency could be easily corrected by appropriate training in assessing, formulating, and implementing manufacturing strategy.The method used in this study for assessing manufacturing strategy could be used by chief executives and manufacturing managers to identify their implied manufacturing strategy, and to detect agreements as well as disagreements between the two. Further, the method used here could be replicated by executives in developing or reviewing the formal manufacturing strategies of their businesses.

Black female high school students and the use of beverage alcohol.

This study deals with a population group which has been neglected in the research literature; namely, Black female high school students from rural backgrounds. Not surprisingly, the proscriptive and abstinence norms in the community resulted in drinking styles of a surreptitious nature in a setting of less restraint. Consequently, there were some signs of problems with alcohol such as experiencing complications, getting high, and drinking for utilitarian reasons. The factors which influenced the girls to drink, however, were similar to those of other studies.

Physico-Chemical and Bacteriological Investigation on the River Cauvery of Kollegal Stretch in Karnataka

Cauvery River is the major river system of south India was studied for 19 prime physicochemicaland 2 bacteriological parameters at six locations of the Kollegal stretch, for a periodof Two years (2006–2008) at monthly intervals. Over the years of time, river has beensubjected to human interference regularly and water quality was to be getting deterioratedprofoundly. Major anthropogenic activities practiced in and around the stretch: agriculture,abstraction of water for irrigation and drinking, washing cloths and utensils, discharging ofsewage waste, sand dredging, boating, fishing, open defecation and religious ritual activitiesalong the stretch were generating serious threat to the biota of the river by altering thephysicochemical and biological concentration of the river system. The seasonal and yearlytrends were discussed to comprehend anthropogenic interferences on the river stretch.Correlation analysis was also been tried in between physico-chemical parameters. The pH,Conductance, Alkalinity and Hardness levels indicate the moderate quality of water. Thevalues of DO, BOD and COD levels indicate the absence of major organic pollution sources.Seasonal and yearly averages of plant nutrients like phosphate, nitrates, potassium and alsosulphates at drain out falls and mixing zones, were not showing any significant variation intheir concentration indicate no sign of problems like eutrophication, which is generally raisedue to agricultural and sewage wastes. The other possibility is that since there are no majorindustries in the project area, the major source of organic pollutants is only the domesticsource. Population density spread over sparsely located villages like Dasanapura and Harlecertainly contributes towards total and fecal coliforms as excreta of the villagers due to lackof toilets in their houses. Thus present study concludes that river water was not polluted; allresults are within permissible limit when compared with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)and National River water quality standards.DOI: 10.3126/kuset.v6i1.3310Kathmandu University Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Vol.6(1) 2010, pp50-59