Archives-December 

There has been an increasing level of interest, among government and industry constituents, in the growth of the SME sector in India. There is today a recognized need felt for the transformation of firms in this sector from a hitherto ‘family-owned-and-run’ orientation to a more ‘professionally managed’ one. This transformational process unfolds several challenges to the organizations in the SME sector. This exploratory study, on a sample of auto-components firms in the SME sector, located in the Tamilnadu Capital Region of Chennai, has the objective of furthering our understanding of the specific challenges faced by these organizations. The case-study method has been used to carry out this study. Areas in this sector that need immediate attention have been identified. A couple of propositions based on this study, related to the source of organizational transformation and to the major challenge to firms in this industry, have also been put forth.

The study was designed to investigate the perceptions of university teachers for feasibility of problem based learning at university level. Being a descriptive study a questionnaire was used as a tool to acquire perceptions of university teachers regarding feasibility of problem based learning at university level. A purposive sample of 23 university teachers from two departments i.e. Education & Mass communication at university was selected including some senior faculty members. Participants were with different qualifications which ranged from masters to MS/PhDs. Data was analyzed through descriptive statistics and by calculating a t-test to determine the difference of perceptions among university teachers in view of their gender. Results indicated a strong perception of university teachers about effectiveness of problem based learning on student. It was also found that university teachers were having strong perceptions about initiation of problem based learning at university level. There was no significant difference about perceptions of teachers in view of their gender. Necessary changes in curriculum, assessment procedures, training of staff, administrative needs and raising of financial resources were recommended for initiation of problem based learning at university campus.

Identifying Points of Difference (POD) is a challenging task for any brand manager. Though Points of Parity (POP) can be easily identified, research needs to be undertaken to identify distinguishing points of difference. In order to get a view of how customers perceive different brands on various parameters perceptual mapping can be used. This paper studies the use of attribute based perceptual mapping for major mobile service provider brands. Three major attributes were identified namely; Service quickness, Service friendliness and Service fairness and these attributes were used to create a perceptual map and to identify which mobile service provider brand fares better in a multidimensional space.

Pooled confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for wellness perception (PK) emotional intelligence (KE) spiritual intelligence (KS) counseling self-efficacy (EKK) and self-development (PD) of the public university’s counselor trainees were done using IBM_AMOS Version 21.0. A total of 208 respondents, who are trained counselors from Bachelor Degree in Counseling, was involved in the research which currently undergoing internship training. needs to validate all the latent construct measurement model for unidimensionality, validity and reliability.

The employability skills are regarded as valuable in employment success. The application of employability skills in the present and future workplaces also facilitates employees’ job performance. Explanatory correlational research design was used in the study which was aimed at determining the relationship between the practice of employability skills and contextual performance of employees. Drawn from The Conference Board of Canada’s Employability Skills 2000+ and Borman and Motowidlo’s Taxonomy of Contextual Performance, two sets of survey questionnaires were adopted to collect data from 220 sampled respondents representing employers and employees of 25 government institutions in Central Mindanao region of the Philippines. Results showed that government employees practiced fundamental, personal management and teamwork skills to some extent. Also, these employees demonstrated satisfactory contextual performance as perceived by the two groups of respondents. Moreover, inferential analysis revealed that practice of employability skills had significant moderate positive relationship to contextual performance. The use of employability skills, therefore, needs to be sustained to pave way to improved extra-role behaviors that help meet the requirements and demands of public institutions

The obesity, factor of morbidity and mortality, is considered as a real health public problem. In gynecology, its consequences on the fertility and the contraception are severe and the obesity is at the origin of important obstetric complications that must make consider these pregnancies as at risk. Our practices have to take into account these complications by assuring an adapted and premature care to improve the maternal and neonatal outcomes.

This paper presents a study on the works of Derek J. De Solla Price who is reputed to be the founding father of the field of scientometric. A brief overview of the scientific exploits of de Solla Price was made with a focus on his advanced study on bibliometric and information science. The error introduced by the trivial modification of the contagion success model was identified and discussed with elucidatory expositions. The implication of resulting prizing system which is a derivative of De Solla Price’s works are also identified and discussed. This study provides the rationale for gathering knowledge to learn and improve future designs and implementation in citation analytics.

Project management is not a new management trend; it is a professional practice that has reached wide acceptance in many facets of industries. The purpose of project management is to foresee as many of the dangers and problems as possible and to plan, organize and control activities so that projects are completed successfully in spite of all the risks. This process should start well before any resource is committed, and must continue until all work is finished. Organizations that have adopted project management as a key competency have benefited from improved project outcomes to significant competitive advantage. There are many aspects involved in successful project management: Solid processes, tools & techniques, experience, hard work, good teamwork and good work practices. This paper focuses on two important aspects of project management – the processes and the tools & techniques we use for the successful completion of a project.

Wilm’s tumor is the most common retroperitoneal tumor extending into the Inferior vena cava (IVC) in a child. In 1% of cases right atrial (RA) extension may be encountered. Anesthesia for intracardiac resection of tumor thrombus remains a challenge. We report 2 cases of Wilm’s tumor, one extending upto IVC-RA junction and the other with RA involvement managed successfully with resection on cardiopulmonary bypass. In both patients epidural catheters were inserted for perioperative analgesia. Considerable controversy exists regarding insertion of epidural catheters in the face of systemic heparinization. However we report good outcomes in terms of analgesic efficacy, shorter perioperative course and no complications. A short discussion on the various methods of bypass employed for the removal of these tumors is included. We also discuss the utility of newer equipment like Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and ultrasound for perioperative anesthetic management. 

The authors report the case of a 25-years-old officer, a victim of an anti-tank mine explosion. The initial lesional assessment revealed an open fracture of the left foot associated with a complex closed fracture at the middle third level of the ipsilateral tibia and fibula. The treatment was conservative, combining, at a first stage, a surgical act with connection of the talar, tibiotalar and subtalar joints with exo-fixation of the tibia. Followed, at the second stage, by a latissimus dorsi flap coverage of the loss of cutaneous substance secondary to infection. The evolution was marked by the skin healing and malunited unkle fractures. However, the patient had some residual pain in the ankle accompanied by disorders of walking was settled by the use of retrograde intramedullary nail. The evolution was marked by bone healing and resumption of walking. The functional score was at 72 at the last check. This result was highly satisfactory with 25 points of functional score improvement.