Social Sciences

The main thrust of the paper could be brought down to the thesis that the concept of middle class is an oxymoron. This is the case because there is a contradiction between the associations pertaining to the adjective part of the term in question and those pertinent to its noun part. "The middle" is a hierarchical term, which fits social stratification rather than class, as class relations generally have a more complex character. The said confusion matters because of some important weaknesses of stratification approaches.

Pluralism in health care practices needs the pragmatism to have strong roots in the cultural practices. Any community which has to have continuous confrontation with nature develops methods which are not disturbing the balance which is naturally established and existing. Further these communities opt for the methods which are easy to follow and easy to practice. Migrating communities have more opportunities to face different kinds of environment and certainly develop more methods to face the disturbances in health conditions. Lambani community is one such community with history of migrating life style. Lambani community is characterizd by the socio-cultural practices which are connected to nature, especially to forest and products of forests. Being a community with long history of nomadic life styles, is having greater chances to accommodate various health practices found in other communities while dealing with them during their migratory course of community development. Further, unique language and life style of this community prevented whatever information gathered in community to remain within the community for long time. Thus this community got more chances to collect knowledge them sharing health care practices which involve utilization of forest products are more easier to follow and practice few of these practices existed even today the community to maintain health under certain conditions. Information about their health care practices passes from generation to generation. However, certain resource persons who adopt the life style to serve community with their health care knowledge are also present in this community. These persons though some time collect nominal reward for having rendered their service as knowledge resource of the community. A study of these practices and those of knowledge resource persons have been made in Davanagere District of Karnataka state, India. Role of knowledge of health care practices and resource persons in community has been discussed. Pressure of modernization on these practices and reaction of the community have been observed and recorded for the discussion.

Education through educational institutions is at the center of the evolution of societies because it contributes to the development process of a country. It has been the subject of many international consultations, including the World Conference on Education for All (EFA) in Thailand in 1990 and the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, etc. This effectively explains why education is one of the indicators of human development.

Co-curricular activities are seen as the best medium to develop leadership skills which can be learned, trained and upgraded from time to time through the extensive involvement of students in co-curricular activities Through involvement in various activities, leadership skills can be applied and trained in the students whether realized or not. This article is about student involvement, co-curricular activities and leadership skills. The result of the study is from analysis of data from reading material like journals of previous researches and books.

The purpose of the study was to investigate teachers’ perception on the implementation of the competency-based curriculum in public pre-schools in Keiyo North Sub-County. The study objective was to establish teachers’ perceptions on the implementation of the competence-based curriculum in public pre-schools. The study adopted curriculum implementation theory and descriptive survey design. The target population was 38 public pre-schools, 38 head teachers and 320 pre-school teachers. Simple random sampling was used to select the sample which comprised 108 respondents, 96 pre-school teachers and 12 head teachers. Data was collected using questionnaires. The quantitative data was processed and analysed with the help of the SPSS software programme using Pearson product moment correlation. There was a positive influence of attitudes of the teachers (r = .406) on implementation of competency-based curriculum. This implies that as the attitudes of the teachers improved the on implementation of competency-based curriculum increased. The findings also indicated that majority of the teachers had a positive attitude towards the competency-based curriculum. The study recommended that the ministry of education and Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development to organize for more in-service training for teachers to equip them with subject content knowledge and positively change their perceptions about the competency-based curriculum.

Hexane, ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous extracts of Swertia chirata (Gentianaceae) were screened against economically important two lepidopteran pests viz, Helicoverpa armigera and Spodoptera litura. Insects were orally treated in the third instar larval stage by no choice leaf disc method. Among the tested extracts, methanol extract of S. chirata highly inhibited the feeding activity and the different developmental stages of H. armigera and S. litura. Toxicity of S. chirata was identified as dosage dependent in both species. In H. armigera and S. litura larvae, 68 and 56% antifeedant activity was recorded as maximum respectively at 5% concentration of methanol extract. Nearly 80% and 50% larvae of H. armigera and S. litura were killed respectively by methanol extract (5%) within 96 h duration of treatment. Pupal mortality was recorded after the adult emergence, and it was varied between the treatment concentrations in H. armigera and S. litura. Due to the toxic effect of methanol extract ultimate adult emergence was gradually reduced with increasing concentration of the treatments. More than 80% of adult emergence was suppressed in both the species.

The present study is based on an empirical survey of 150 self help groups in the 4 districts of north Karnataka region covering 400 members (100 members from each district) with a focus on two major aspects of the (SHG) covered by the study viz., motivational factors and purpose for joining the SHG and the financial assistance to members by the SHG and their utilization. The major purposes for which the selected members joined their respective SHGs included financial security, enhancing their social status, increasing self esteem, attaining power and increasing family business/trade. Responses of the members are almost indicative of all these socio-economic purposes. Major motivational sources for joining the SHG included own decision, friends, relatives, caste leaders, panchayat chairman / members, Anganwadi teachers, NGOs, bank officials and others. The study revealed that ‘own decision’ and ‘friends’ were the major sources of motivation for joining the SHGs. The area of assistance needed by SHG members have been wide ranging including using own and bank finances for loan advancing to members, providing raw materials, ensuring supply of electricity through Karnataka Electricity Board(KEB), arranging training, providing marketing information ,technical assistance etc. Large number of respondent members of SHGs have obtained bank loan through SHGs. Major Purposes of obtaining loan related to dairy business and agriculture. The overall results of the survey indicated a positive impact in membership of SHG on the respondents’ socio economic status as a result of their membership and involvement in SHGs.

IELTS, International English Language Testing System, is designed to assess the language ability of candidates who intend to study, work, or live where English is used as the language of communication. Highly significant growth in candidature particularly in South Asia and the Middle East clearly illustrates how globally IELTS is recognized currently. Statistics demonstrate that Iran was among the top 25 locations in which candidates took IELTS in 2003 (IELTS Annual Review, 2003). Surprisingly, there seems to be a deviation from the communicative into prestigious purposes. The aim of the present study is to investigate the underlying hidden factor motivating Iranian IELTS candidates to prepare for the test. The target population of this study consisted of 300 IELTS candidates and 20 IELTS teachers. They were given a questionnaire and subsequently 30 of the participants underwent a semi-structured interview to elicit more information on what motivated them to go for IELTS. After the qualitative analysis of the data, the findings indicated that the hidden factor underlying all the motivating factors for the majority of Iranian IELTS candidates is prestige.

Human Evolution is traced to a period of about two million years. The early evidence comes from East Africa. Gradually human occupation spread to other parts of the world. With the invention of making and controlling fire, man could adopt himself to cold environments. In. the course of his adaptations, many inventions made his life comfortable and enjoyable. Man's activities have considerable impact on the earth. It may be quite difficult to isolate the contribution made by man for the changing environment. The expansion of holes in the protective layer of Ozone in the atmosphere IS attributed to the release of certain chemicals produced by man for the purpose of cooling used in refrigerators, many observations regarding the temperature of the earth indicate that slowly the atmosphere is getting warmer which may lead to the melting of ice and rising of water levels in oceans and endangering a larger populations which lives in low¬-laying coastal areas of the world. Part of the warming is traced to the release of emission gases resulting in farm fuels. There are moves to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels so that the global warming can be checked to a great extent. An evolution of the state of environment and the measures taken to maintain the balance is presented in the paper.

This article presents the Marital Psycho-Spiritual Intervention (MP-SI), which provides the married couples and helping professionals with knowledge and skills for strengthening marriage relationships. MP-SI is an intervention that specifically developed to help Muslim married couples build a close relationship with Allah SWT, with themselves, and with their respective couples. This intervention is a structured format. In each session, the participants are exposed to the knowledge of Islamic marriage. The content of this intervention takes into account the content of the Holy Quran on man’s creation, which consisted of four important elements, nafs (soul), aql (intellect), qalb (heart), and ruh (spirit). The participants are exposed to effective communication skills, worked as teams to resolve problems, managed conflicts without decreasing closeness, preserved, and enhanced attachment through communication elements, conflict resolutions, forgiveness, sakinah (tranquility), mawaddah (love with passion), and rahmah (mercy). This intervention may be applied in counseling and coaching interventions, as well as relationship education, couples’ workshops and retreats.