Archives-January 2013

Nowadays regarding to increasing complexity of organizations and differences in thoughts, attitudes and beliefs of individuals, there has been some conflicts in organizations as inevitable part of organizational life which should be properly identified and managed. But now what is important to resolve organizational conflicts is awareness of the five conflict management strategies and their appropriate contexts and applications in order to select the appropriate strategy for each position; not only to prevent damage to the organization, but leading them to the realization of organizational goals. Emotional intelligence is an ability of managing organizational conflict. The process and outcomes of Emotional Intelligence includes many results such as reduction of stress, enhancing understanding and communication, increasing stability, continuity and empathy. Conflict management is to resolve disputes, teamwork, cooperation, working with people through shared goals, etc. This is a descriptive survey which sought to identify the impact of emotional intelligence on conflict solving strategies. In this regard, this survey achieves some results in conflict solving strategies and its impressionability based on the components of emotional intelligence.

This study aims to determine the relationships between perceived maternal parenting styles, self-esteem and depression with self-esteem as a mediator among adolescents. Baumrind’s typology parenting theory serves as the foundation concept in the model of the present study. Sample for the study consists of 202 secondary school students from Batu Pahat, Johor. Three instruments were used to measure the key variables in this study: Parental Authority Questionnaire (Buri, 1991), Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), and Beck Depression Inventory-Malay (Mukhtar, 2008). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to determine the model fit, and also determine the direct and indirect effect of the mediator. Correlation analyses showed that adolescents who perceived their mothers parenting styles as: 1) authoritarian is positively correlated with depression and negative correlated with self-esteem; 2) authoritative negative correlated with depression, and positively correlated with self-esteem; and 3) permissive positively correlated with depression and negative correlated with self-esteem. Additional analyses revealed that adolescents’ with higher levels of self-esteem showed low depression. Using SEM, the study model was found to have an acceptable fit (RMSEA = .059; CFI = .994 & p=.181). Implication, limitations and recommendations of the study were discussed.

Issues related to inequality in access to land, compensation and land use administration often become difficult to tackle especially in post conflict situations where settlers and the indigenes live in disharmony breeding further grievances that eventually lead to more conflict. This study examined issues related to settled land for resettlement scheme and compensation to native of a community in Bauchi State of Northern Nigeria. The study used descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse 350 questionnaires administered. The findings of the study revealed that 65.7% of the displaced persons settled on land not officially allocated to them while over 70% of the natives indicted that they were not satisfied with the compensation exercise. The study recommended among other things that land belonging to a community should not be allocated to settlers from other communities for resettlement purposes as this breeds further conflict and where land is compulsorily acquired for overriding public interest it should be adequately compensated.

The present study investigated the relationship between attachment to school and Creativity. Study population of research is of all primary school students in Harsin city in iran that those were enrolled in the academic year from 2011 to 2012. And a sample of 120 subjects was selected by multistage random sampling. The tools used in this study include: Scale of attachment to school that measures dimensions of school attachment, peer attachment, and attachment to the teacher. For data analysis, software spss18, Pearson correlation and multiple regression techniques were used. The results showed there are significant positive correlation between the independent and dependent variables.

Image cryptography and Steganography has attracted extensive research on the security of message that is to be transmitted in the open insecure medium. This is due to the fact that huge amounts of data can be hidden without perceptible impact to the carriers and possibly because of the popularity of electronic images and medical images that have become widely available. The chaotic based secret writing has its own advantage and it is mainly based on the initial condition which is the secret key for the secret writing. The chaotic based encryption serves as the robust mechanism against all sorts of attacks. In this paper, a novel image encryption and decryption scheme is proposed. Due to sensitivity to initial conditions, chaotic maps have a good potential for designing dynamic permutation map. Here a chaotic Henon map is used to generate permutation signal. Simulation results illustrate that the scheme is highly key sensitive and shows a good resistance against brute-force and statistical attacks.

This study was undertaken to determine the anthelmintic activity of some of the selected plants like Eleusine coracana, Cephalandra indica and Colocasia esculenta commonly consumed by different tribals of Ganjam, Odisha-India for nutritional purposes using in vitro biological models like tapeworms (Raillietina spiralis), roundworms (Ascardia galli) and earthworms (Pheretima posthuma) where Albendazole and Piperazine citrate were used as reference standards. It was revealed that the ethyl acetate extract of Eleusine coracana was most potent which was well comparable with both standard drugs followed by ethyl acetate extract of other two plants, but at little higher doses. Methanolic and petroleum extracts of all these plants were endowed with minute anthelmintic property, which were not up to the standards. The present study enlightens the potential usefulness of those selected plants as good anthelmintic agents.

This study identified specific sexual behaviors and practices of the youth with regard to HIV/AIDS among secondary school students in Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western provinces of Kenya. The provinces were selected because of their high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates. A cross-sectional survey design was used. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while qualitative information was thematically summarized. Of the 3,650 students sampled from a population of 9,000, 3,645 participated in the survey. Boys accounted for 56.2%, while girls represented 43.8%. Their ages ranged between 12 and 22 years, with a mean of 16.4 years. Nearly all the students (98.9%) had heard of HIV/AIDS and were aware of how it is transmitted. Mass media was the most widely reported first source of information. Forty percent of the students had had sexual intercourse before the survey, with more boys (55.7%) than girls (21.6%) reporting ever having sex. The first sexual encounter took place mainly at home. Only 37.2% had used a condom. Peer pressure (43.0%) was reported to be the main reason for having the first sexual encounter. In conclusion, the results indicate high levels of knowledge on HIV and AIDS among the youth. However, this knowledge seems not to translate effectively into behavior change. It is recommended that appropriate communication programs be developed with precise messages on HIV and AIDS.

Streptococcus mutans (s. mutans) and Streptococcus sanguis(S.sanguis) are two important bacteria of the oral microflora. S. mutans is the most important cause of dental caries and S. sanguis is one of the major bacteria that play an important role in formation of microbial plaque. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of cigar and cigarette smoke on the growth of streptococcus mutans and streptococcus sanguis. The standard strains of s.mutans (ATCC25175) and sanguis(ATCC10550) were cultured on blood agar and incubated for 48h in different environments: atmospheric air, microaerophillic, carbon dioxide, cigar and three type of cigarette smoke (Winston ,ultralight Winston and kent). Then digital photographs of the colonies were taken and the diameter of the colonies was measured. Data were analyzed using post hoc and general linear model statistical tests. Both cigar and cigarette smoke significantly increased the growth of s.mutans and s.snguis (p=0/000). In almost all environments except cigar smoke, the growth of s.mutans was more than s.sanguis. The diameter of s.mutans colonies in dioxide ,microaerophilic, cigar and cigarette smoke (Winston,ultra light wniston and kent) showed in order: 82%, 65%, 69%, 106%, 92% increase and the diameter of s.sanguis showed in order: 45%, 53%, 137%, 89%, 40%, 55% increase. These findings indicate that cigarette smoke increases the s.mutans/s.sanguis ratio but cigar smoke decreases this ratio.

Oral health care as a part of primary health care system, is incorporated in health system in 1995. Based on this program, pregnant women and children of 0-12 years old are considered as target groups. The purpose of this study is the evaluation of benefit rate among target groups from governmental oral health care services in 2010 and the comparison of those services with that of 2011 namely, one year after the beginning of health sector reform in Southern Provinces of Iran. In this cross-sectional study, 268 urban and rural health care centers in southern provinces have been evaluated based on related statistical sheets in 2010 and 2011. Data entered in data sheet and analyzed by excel software. The effect of health sector reform in dental health care section in southern provinces has been successful so that this program has shown positive beneficial rate in dental services such as restorations and fissure sealant therapy in 2011 with respect to 2010. Improvements of oral health care programs such as better delivery of dental services and increase in awareness of target group in southern provinces, has caused an increase in benefit rate from dental services among them. The data obtained in this study, showed an increase in this rate in 2011 in comparison to 2010.

Oral mucositis is one of the most common complaints of patients who had chemotherapy. Different of mouthwashes have been used to alleviate the symptoms but none of these agents help in wound healing. This study evaluates the effectiveness of phenytoin mouthwash on these ulcers. In this cross sectional study oral mucosa of 40 patients undergoing chemotherapy due to blood malignancy, was examined. All patient with oral mucositis grade 2 and 3(NCI scale) during 2 weeks after chemotherapy were assessed for severity and duration of lesions at three intervals (0, 3, 14 days) by using serial photographs and clinical observation. Oral pain severity was recorded daily by a visual analogue scale (VAS). Patient rinsed 10 ml of PHT syrup in their mouth for one minute, three or four times a day and then expectorated. To describe the qualitative data, simple frequency, means, standard deviations was used. The study population consisted of 17 female (42.5%). and 23 male (57.5%) with mean age of 29 years old .The most common affected area was buccal mucosa. During two weeks after treatment, oral ulcers disappeared totally and pain relief was seen in all subjects gradually. There is no any side effect after using of topical phenytoin in this period. Phenytoin mouthwash accelerated healing of oral ulcers due to mucositis and decreased pain.