Night World : Soulmate Chapter 2

Hannah found herself on her feet. Her awareness was fragmented and understanding came to her in pieces because she simply couldn't take in the whole situation at once. It was too bizarre. At first she simply thought of a bomb. The explosion was that loud. Then she realized that something had come in the window, that it had come flying through the glass. And that it was in the room with her now, crouching among the broken shards of windowpane. Even then, she couldn't identify it. It was too incongruous; her mind refused to recognize the shape immediately. Something pretty big-something dark, it offered. A body like a dog's but set higher, with longer legs. Yellow eyes. And then, as if the right lens had suddenly clicked in front of her eyes, she saw it clearly. A wolf. There was a big black wolf in the room with her. It was a gorgeous animal, rangy and muscular, with ebony-colored fur and a white streak on its throat like a bolt of lightning. It was looking at her fixedly, with an almost human expression. Escaped fromYellowstone , Hannah thought dazedly. The naturalists were reintroducing wolves to the park, weren't they? It couldn't be wild; Ryan Harden's great-grandpa had bragged for years about killing the last wolf in Amador county when he was a boy. Anyway, she told herself, wolves don't attack people. They never attack people. A single wolf would never attack a full-grown teenager. And all the time her conscious mind was thinking this, something deeper was making her move. It made her back up slowly, never taking her eyes off the wolf, until she felt the bookcase behind her. There's something you need to get, a voice in her mind was whispering to her. It wasn't like the voice of another person, but it wasn't exactly like her own mental voice, either. It was a voice like a dark cool wind: competent and rather bleak. Something you saw on a shelf earlier, it said. In an impossibly graceful motion, from eight feet away, the wolf leaped. There was no time to be scared. Hannah saw a bushy, flowing black arc coming at her and then she was slammed into the bookcase. For a while after that, everything was simply chaos. Books and knick-knacks were falling around her. She was trying to get her balance, trying to push the heaviness of a furry body away from her. The wolf was falling back, then jumping again as she twisted sideways to get away. And the strangest thing was that she actually was getting away. Or at least evading the worst of the wolf's lunges, which seemed to be aimed at knocking her to the floor. Her body was moving as if this were, somehow instinctive to her, as if she knew how to do this. But I don't know this. I never fight†¦ and I've certainly never played dodge ball with a wolf before†¦. As she thought it, her movements slowed. She didn't feel sure and instinctive any longer. She felt confused. And the wolf seemed to know it. Its eyes glowed eerily yellow in the light of a lamp that was lying on its side. They were such strange eyes, more intense and more savage than any animal's she'd ever seen. She saw it draw its legs beneath it. Move-now, the mysterious new part of her mind snapped. Hannah moved. The wolf hit the bookcase with incredible force, and then the bookcase itself was falling. Hannah flung herself sideways in time to avoid being crushed-but the case fell with an unholy noise directly in front of the door. Trapped, the dark cool voice in Hannah's mind noted analytically. No exit anymore, except the window. â€Å"Hannah? Hannah?† It was Paul's voice just outside the room. The door flew open-all of four inches. It jammed against the fallen bookcase. â€Å"God-what's going on in there? Hannah? Hannah!† He sounded panicked now, banging the door uselessly against the blockage. Don't think about him, the new part of Hannah's mind said sharply, but Hannah couldn't help it. He sounded so desperate. She opened her mouth to shout back to him, her concentration broken. And the wolf lunged. This time Hannah didn't move fast enough. A terrible weight smashed into her and she was falling, flying. She landed hard, her head smacking into the floorboards. It hurt. Even as she felt it, everything grayed out. Her vision went sparkling, her mind soared away from the pain, and a strange thought flickered through her head. I'm dead now. It's over again. Oh, Isis, Goddess of Life, guide me to the other world†¦. â€Å"Hannah! Hannah! What's going on in there?† Paul's frantic voice came to her dimly. Hannah's vision cleared and the bizarre thoughts vanished. She wasn't soaring in sparkling emptiness and she wasn't dead. She was lying on the floor with a book's sharp corner in the small of her back and a wolf on her chest. Even in the midst of her terror, she felt a strange appalled fascination. She had never seen a wild animal this close. She could see the white-tipped guard hairs standing erect on its face and neck; she could see saliva glistening on its lolling red tongue. She could smell its breath-humid and hot, vaguely dog-like but much wilder. And she couldn't move, she realized. The wolf was as long as she was tall, and it weighed more than she did. Pinned underneath it, she was utterly helpless. All she could do was lie there shivering as the narrow, almost delicate muzzle got closer and closer to her face. Her eyes closed involuntarily as she felt the cold wetness of its nose on her cheek. It wasn't an affectionate gesture. The wolf was nudging at strands of her hair that had fallen across her face. Using its muzzle like a hand to push the hair away. Oh, God, please make it stop, Hannah thought. But she was the only one who could stop this-and she didn't know how. Now the cold nose was moving across her cheekbone. Its sniffing was loud in her ear. The wolf seemed to be smelling her, tasting her, and looking at her all at once. No. Not looking at me. Looking at my birthmark. It was another one of those ridiculous, impossible thoughts-and it snapped into place like the last piece in a puzzle deep inside her. Irrational as it was, Hannah felt absolutely certain it was true. And it set off the cool wind voice in her mind again. Reach out, the voice whispered, quiet and businesslike. Feel around you. The weapon has to be there somewhere. You saw it on the bookcase. Find it. The wolf stopped its explorations, seeming satisfied. It lifted its head†¦ and laughed. Really laughed. It was the eeriest and most frightening thing Hannah had ever seen. The big mouth opened, panting, showing teeth, and the yellow eyes blazed with hot bestial triumph. Hurry, hurry. Hannah's eyes were helplessly fixed on the sharp white teeth ten inches away from her face, but her hand was creeping out, feeling along the smooth pine floorboards around her. Her fingers glided over books, over the feathery texture of a fern-and then over something square and cold and faced with glass. The wolf didn't seem to notice. Its lips were pulling back farther and farther. Not laughing anymore. Hannah could see its short front teeth and its long curving canines. She could see its forehead wrinkling. And she could feel its body vibrate in a low and vicious growl. The sound of absolute savagery. The cool wind voice had taken over Hannah's mind completely. It was telling her what would happen next. The wolf would sink his teeth into her throat and then shake her, tearing skin and ripping muscles away. Her blood would spray like a fountain. It would fill her severed windpipe and her lungs and her mouth. She would die gasping and choking, maybe drowning before she bled out. Except. . . that she had silver in her hand. A silver picture frame. Kill it, the cool voice whispered. You've got the right weapon. Hit it dead in the eye with a corner. Drive silver into its brain. Hannah's ordinary mind didn't even try to figure out how a picture frame could possibly be the right weapon. It didn't object, either. But faint and faraway, there came another voice in her head. Like the cool wind voice, it wasn't hers, but it wasn't someone else's, either. It was a clear crystal voice that seemed to sparkle in jeweled colors as it spoke. You are not a killer. You don't kill. You have never killed, no matter what happened to you. You do not kill. I don't kill, Hannah thought slowly, in agreement. Then you're going to die, the cool wind voice said brutally, much louder than the crystal voice. Because this animal won't stop until either it's dead or you are. There's no other way to deal with these creatures. Then it happened. The wolf's mouth opened. In a lightning-fast move, it darted for her throat. Hannah didn't think. She brought the picture frame up †¦ and slammed it into the side of the wolf's head. Not into the eye. Into the ear. She felt the impact-hard metal against sensitive flesh. The wolf gave a yelping squeal and staggered sideways, shaking its head and hitting at its face with a forepaw. Its weight was off her for an instant, and an instant was all Hannah needed. Her body moved without her conscious direction, sliding out from under the wolf, twisting and jumping to her feet. She kept her grasp on the picture frame. Now. Look around! The bookcase-no, you can't move it. The window! Go for the window. But the wolf had stopped shaking its head. Even as Hannah started across the room, it turned and saw her. In one flowing, bushy leap it put itself between her and the window. Then it stood looking at her, every hair on its body bristling. Its teeth were bared, its ears upright, and its eyes glared with pure hatred and menace. It's going to spring, Hannah realized. I am not a killer. I can't kill. You don't have any choice- The wolf sprang. But it never reached her. Something else came soaring through the window and knocked it off course. This time, Hannah's eyes and brain identified the creature at once. Another wolf. My God, what is going on? The new animal was gray-brown, smaller than the black wolf and not as striking. Its legs were amazingly delicate, twined with veins and sinews like a racehorse's. A female, something faraway in Hannah's mind said with dreamlike certainty. Both wolves had recovered their balance now. They were on their feet, bristling. The room smelled like a zoo. And now I'm really going to die, Hannah thought. I'm going to be torn to pieces by two wolves. She was still clutching the picture frame, but she knew there was no chance of fighting them both off at once. They were going to rip her to bits, quarreling over who got more of her. Her heart was pounding so hard that it shook her body, and her ears were ringing. The female wolf was staring at her with eyes more amber than yellow, and Hannah stared back, mesmerized, waiting for it to make its move. The wolf held the gaze for another moment, as if studying Hannah's face-in particular the left side of her face. Her cheek. Then she turned her back to Hannah and faced the black wolf. And snarled. Protecting me, Hannah thought, stunned. It was unbelievable-but she was beyond disbelief at this point. She had stepped out of her ordinary life and into a fairy tale full of almost-human wolves. The entire world had gone crazy and all she could do was try to deal with each moment as it came. They're going to fight, the cool wind voice in her mind told her. As soon as they're into it, run for the window. At that moment everything erupted into bedlam. The gray wolf had launched herself at the black. The room echoed with the sound of snarling-and of teeth clicking together as both wolves snapped again and again. Hannah couldn't make out what was going on in the fight. It was just a blurred chaos as the wolves circled and darted and leaped and ducked. But it was by far the most terrifying thing she had ever witnessed. Like the worst dog fight imaginable, like the feeding frenzy of sharks. Both animals seemed to have gone berserk. Suddenly there was a yelp of pain. Blood welled up on the gray female's flank. She's too small, Hannah thought. Too light. She doesn't have a chance. Help her, the crystal voice whispered. It was an insane suggestion. Hannah couldn't even imagine trying to get in the middle of that snarling whirlwind. But somehow she found herself moving anyway. Placing herself behind the gray wolf. It didn't matter that she didn't believe she was doing it, or that she had no idea how to team up with a wolf in fighting another wolf. She was there and she was holding her silver picture frame high. The black wolf pulled away from the fight to stare at her. And there they stood, all three of them panting, Hannah with fear and the wolves with exertion. They were frozen like a tableau in the middle of the wrecked office, all looking at each other tensely. The black wolf on one side, his eyes shining with single-minded menace. The gray wolf on the other, blood matting her coat, bits of fur floating away from her. And Hannah right behind her, holding up the picture frame in a shaking hand. Hannah's ears were filled with the deep reverberating sound of growling. And then a deafening report that cut through the room like a knife. A gunshot. The black wolf yelped and staggered. Hannah's senses had been focused on what was going on inside the room for so long that it was a shock to realize there was anything, outside it. She was dimly aware that Paul's yells had stopped some time ago, but she hadn't stopped to consider what that meant. Now, with adrenaline washing over her, she heard his voice. â€Å"Hannah! Get out of the way!† The shout was tense, edged with fear and anger- and determination. It came from the opposite side of the room, from the darkness outside the window. Paul was there at the broken window with a gun. His face was pale and his hand was shaking. He was aiming in the general direction of the wolves. If he fired again he might hit either of them. â€Å"Get into a corner!† The gun bobbed nervously. Hannah heard herself say, â€Å"Don't shoot!† Her voice came out hoarse and unused-sounding. She moved to get in between the gun and the wolves. â€Å"Don't shoot,† she said again. â€Å"Don't hit the gray one.† â€Å"Hit the gray one?† Paul's voice rose in something like hysterical laughter. â€Å"I don't even know if I can hit the wall! This is the first time I've ever shot a gun. So just-just try to get out of the way!† â€Å"No!† Hannah moved toward him, holding out her hand. â€Å"I can shoot. Just give it to me-â€Å" â€Å"Just move out of the way-â€Å" The gun went off. For an instant Hannah couldn't see where the bullet had gone and she wondered wildly if she had been shot. Then she saw that the black wolf was lurching backward. Blood dripped from its neck. Steel won't kill it, the wind voice hissed. You're only making it more angry. . But the black wolf was swinging its head to look with blazing eyes from Hannah with her picture frame to Paul with his gun, to the gray wolf with her teeth. The gray wolf snarled just then and Hannah had never seen an animal look closer to being smug. â€Å"One more shot†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Paul breathed. â€Å"While it's cornered†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Ears flat, the black wolf turned toward the only other window in the room. It launched into a vaulting leap straight toward the unbroken glass. There was a shattering crash as it went through. Glass fragments flew everywhere, tinkling. Hannah stared dizzily at the curtains swirling first outside, then inside the room, and then her head snapped around to look at the gray wolf. Amber eyes met hers directly. It was such a human stare†¦ and definitely the look of an equal. Almost the look of a friend. Then the gray wolf twisted and loped for the newly broken window. Two steps and a leap-she was through. From somewhere outside there came a long drawn-out howl of anger and defiance. It was fading, as if the wolf was moving away. Then silence. Hannah shut her eyes. Her knees literally felt as if they wanted to buckle. But she made herself move to the window, glass grating under her boots as she stared into the night. The moon was bright, one day past full. She thought she could just see a dark shape loping toward the open prairie, but it might have been her imagination. She let out her breath and sagged against the window. The silver picture frame fell to the floor. â€Å"Are you hurt? Are you okay?† Paul was climbing through the other window. He tripped on a waste-basket getting across the room, then he was beside her, grabbing for her shoulders, trying to look her over. â€Å"I think I'm all right.† She was numb, was what she was. She felt dazed and fragmented. He blinked at her. â€Å"Um .. . you have some particular fondness for gray wolves or something?† Hannah shook her head. How could she ever explain? They stared at each other for a moment, and then, simultaneously, they both sank to the floor, squatting among the shards of glass, breathing hard. Paul's face was white, his red hair disheveled, his eyes large and stunned. He ran a shaky hand over his forehead, then put the gun down and patted it. He twisted his neck to stare at the wreck of his office, the overturned bookcase, the scattered books and knickknacks, the two broken windows, the glass fragments, the bullet hole, the flecks of blood, and the tufts of wolf hair that still drifted across the pine floorboards. Hannah said faintly, â€Å"So who was at the door?† Paul blinked twice. â€Å"Nobody. Nobody was at the door.† He added almost dreamily, â€Å"I wonder if wolves can ring doorbells?† â€Å"What?† Paul turned to look straight at her. â€Å"Has it ever occurred to you,† he blurted, â€Å"that you may not be paranoid after all? I mean, that something weird and uncanny really is out to get you?† â€Å"Very funny,† Hannah whispered â€Å"I mean-† Paul gestured around the room, half-laughing. He looked punch-drunk. â€Å"I mean, you said something was going to happen-and something did.† He stopped laughing and looked at her with wondering speculation. â€Å"You really did know, didn't you?† Hannah glared at the man who was supposed to guide her back to sanity. â€Å"Are you crazy?† Paul blinked. He looked shocked and embarrassed, then he glanced away and shook his head. â€Å"God, I don't know. Sorry; that wasn't very professional, was it? But†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He stared out the window. â€Å"Well, for a moment it just seemed possible that you've got some kind of secret locked up there in your brain. Something†¦ extraordinary.† Hannah said nothing. She was trying to forget about too many things at once: the new part of her that whispered strategies, the wolves with human eyes, the silver picture frame. She had no idea what all these things added up to, and she didn't want to know. She wanted to force them away from her and go back to the safe ordinary world ofSacajaweaHigh School . Paul cleared his throat, still looking out the window. His voice was uncertain and almost apologetic. â€Å"It can't be true, of course. There's got to be a rational explanation. But-well, if it were true, it occurs to me that somebody had better unlock that secret. Before something worse happens.†

Analysis of Capitalism: A Love Story Essay

Michael Moore is the writer and director of the highly relevant documentary film, Capitalism: A Love Story, which is a film explicating on the financial crisis during 2007-2010 as well as the other aspects such as the economic stimulus package with the government committed in resolving the economic order of the United States and capitalism. The approach used in the documentary film is the dialectic approach. This type of approach was best utilized in the documentary wherein it uses two contradicting ideas that try to overpower each other. The film narrates and explains on the financial crisis as well as of other topics that are encompassed in the film. However, a devil’s advocate that serves as an adverse critic emerges to challenge or question the points raised by the other. Thus, this causes a healthy discussion and arouses the critical thinking of the audience. The documentary film although appeals to the general public; however, the satirical sense of the documentary focuses on the personalities in the government as well as the people mainly involved in the fruition of the ideas discussed in the documentary film. Overall, the documentary film is an eye-opener for the public that leaves room for the audience to critic and think of. The fallacy in the documentary film is the contradicting definition of capitalism expressed in the film. The creator, Michael Moore, expressed the Marxists definition of capitalism and that it needs the state, which is the very opposite of the real definition of capitalism. However, as the film shows how the government dips its control through the different courses of actions in attempt to resolve the problem. The arguments presented by Michael Moore are quite convincing, especially through his dialectic approach that make the viewers critically think of the ideas presented and conduct their own deductions. Although the ideas are more abstract, the viewers make up of the gap through their logical and critical thinking. Reference Moore, M. (Producer & Director). (2009). Capitalism: A Love Story [Motion Picture]. USA.

Ethics and brand Essay

Branding is defined in various ways. In the case of engineering, technological and high value products the brand name plays an important role. Customers are ready to pay premium for a brand due to the intrinsic value and trustworthiness attached to it. They trust particular brand that’s the reason they buy it. In business-to-business buying consumers or professional buyers rely on the strong and positive image of the brand. The products or services these consumers buy have impact on their business and operations. Ethical branding enhances corporate reputation over a period of time, it helps them retaining their consumers and creating long term and strong relationship with consumers in the present competitive market place. There are several ways companies are operating in the global market. Company like Toyota has different strategies for developed countries and developing countries depending upon consumer group and market. Consumers in country like Europe are more concerned about environmental friendly and fuel efficient products whereas consumers in developing countries are concerned about mileage and affordability. Toyota is one of the most reputed global brands for its ethical practices in every area from recruitment to branding. Consumers pay premium for the preferred brands. Positive brand image like ethical branding will definitely encourage consumers to buy the product over competitors. It depends on the target consumers and market place where a company is operating whether or not, consumer will be ready to pay more for ethical brands. Different technological products and services like software, Operating Systems and E-commerce activities like banking and finance, high Technology products like pharmacy, biotechnology products consumers rely on the reputation and brand image for their buying decisions. The products where the consumer has low level of knowledge and high level of requirements consumer will probably take decision in favor of ethical and more reputed brand over the other. A strong and positive brand image helps organisations to not only be on the top of the mind of consumers but also contribute to the long-term success of the product. This is the reason companies like Cola and Pepsi use advertising strategies to gain maximum of market share. Some companies adopt practice like they communicate themselves to be an ethical brand rather than adopting ethical practices. This limits realty of ethical branding. However, regulatory bodies, active consumer groups and other organizations keep an eye on such companies and their practices and investigate the matters. Active consumer groups put pressure on the corporate to adopt ethical practices. Companies become more accountable for their acts with their ethical branding efforts. Consumers worldwide are being more sensitive about ethical practices adopted by companies and the numbers of consumers ready to pay premium for the ethical brands are growing. This phenomenon is encouraging professionals and engineers to adopt ethical practices and comply with the ethical branding campaign of their companies. Ethical branding is more acceptable in the social groups where price sensitivity of the consumers is low. Professional engineers have many opportunities with ethical branding. The intellectual property rights will help them protecting their copyrights and patients, trade marks and trade secrets. They will have better protection for their innovations and will be encouraged to adopt ethical practices that can add value to the branding efforts.

Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 2

Proposal - Essay Example een remained at high levels in UK and this is an issue that should be taken into consideration by the country’s politicians when designing and applied relevant schemes on the particular regions; the needs of the specific areas for further development should be also highlighted and sufficient funds would be released by the governmental and non-governmental organizations; in any case, such an investment would have the prospects to achieve a significant performance – in accordance with the growth of shipping and tourism industry in Britain and the performance of ports (even of the minor ones) across the country. Current research focuses on the potential of growing of minor ports in the UK and the examination of the current and future situation of ports in the above country. Apart from the above issues, a series of additional themes will be also developed in current research (in accordance with their relevance with the main issue under examination): a) role of ports in the development of Britain through the years, b) industrial areas that are depended on the operation of ports, c) cost of maintenance of ports across the country (at an average level), d) evaluation of the importance of ports in UK for the local economy, e) position of Britain in the international market (regarding the performance of its ports) – a comparison with other countries that are also heavily based on ports is also possible. The research methodology employed in this research will be mainly a secondary one. In other words, no interviews or surveys will be conducted; rather all necessary data and info will be gathered from relevant databases (referring to books, journals and websites). In any case statistical data published by governmental and non-governmental organizations will be used and analysed in this study trying to emphasizing on the importance of ports for the development of local and national economy. The reference to similar studies conducted by other researchers would be also

Meaning of Innovations and Traditions in Chartres Cathedral Essay

Meaning of Innovations and Traditions in Chartres Cathedral - Essay Example The cathedral you see today dates principally from the 13th century, when it was rebuilt with the efforts and contributions of kings, princes, churchmen, and pilgrims from all over Europe. One of the world's greatest high Gothic cathedrals, it was the first to use flying buttresses to support the soaring dimensions within. French sculpture in the 12th century broke into full bloom when the Royal Portal was added. A landmark in Romanesque art, the sculptured bodies is elongated, often stylized, in their long, flowing robes. But the faces are amazingly lifelike, occasionally winking or smiling. In the central tympanum, Christ is shown at the Second Coming, with his descent depicted on the right and his ascent on the left. Before entering, walk around to both the North Portal and the South Portal, each from the 13th century. They depict such biblical scenes as the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Inside is a celebrated choir screen; work on it began in the 16th century and lasted until 1714. The niches, 40 in all, contain statues illustrating scenes from the life of the Madonna and Christ: everything from the Massacre of the Innocents to the Coronation of the Virgin. The light from the stained glass covers an expanse of more than 2,500 sq. m. (9,000 sq. ft.), the glass is unlike anything else in the world. The stained glass, most of which dates from the 12th and 13th centuries, was spared in both world wars by painstakingly removing it piece by piece. It's difficult to single out one panel or window above the others, but an exceptional one is the 12th-century Vierge de la Belle Verrire (Our Lady of the Beautiful Window) on the south side. Of course, there are three fiery rose windows. The glass has gemlike richness, with the famous deep Chartres blue predominating. The oldest window is arguably the most beautiful: Notre-Dame de la Belle Verrire (Our Lady of the Lovely Window), in the south choir. The nave, the widest in France, still contains its ancient floor labyrinth, which formed a mobile channel of contemplation for monks. The wooden Notre-Dame du Piller (Virgin of the Pillar), to the left of the choir, dates from the 14th century. The crypt was built over 2 centuries, beginning in the 9th. Enshrined within is Our Lady of the Crypt, a 1976 Madonna that replaced one destroyed during the Revolution. Everywhere vivid color splashes on to the floor from the superb stained glass windows that glow like jewels. Dating from the early 13th century, the glass largely escaped harm during the religious wars of the 16th century; it is said to constitute one of the most complete collections of medieval stained glass in the world. Of the original 186 stained-glass windows, 152 have survived. A very notable window is the Blue Virgin Window (Notre Dame de la Belle Verrire), created in the early 1200s. (James, John, The Master Masons of Chartres) The Royal Portal: The west portal, known as the Royal Portal (Porte Royale), was carved in the 1140s. It has a revolutionary funnel shape that later became widspread. The sculptures and reliefs were modeled on those in the triple west portal at St. Denis, which were mostly destroyed at the Reformation. Decorating the recesses of the Royal Portal are very tall, thin

Video Games to use to teach children with Autism Essay

Video Games to use to teach children with Autism - Essay Example Some parents use video games with their children to teach emotion sharing and to connect with their autistic children, playing games like The Sims or Pokemon and gaining a rare shared glimpse into the world. Researchers have found that games like The Sims that have online mingling allow autistics to interact and learn social skills that are among the hardest to teach autistics. Research has also found, in this vein, that autistics approach video games very similarly to non-autistic children and get the same benefits. Because of this, video games become one of the ways for autistic children to share experiences with peers: An autistic child and a non-autistic child may have many obvious differences, but they both catch Pokemon the same way. Research into the Wii in particular indicates that the Wii can help people with Parkinson's rebuild their skills and memory, and help children with exercise. Motion control systems like the Wii and the Move and Kinect controllers can help autistics and other children interact, get physical activity, and learn elements like hand-eye coordination and intuitive knowledge of physics. Research conducted by Rosas et al (2002) into educational video games find that they help to improve math, spelling and comprehension skills in first-and-second graders.

Employee Training in Saudi Arabian SME Firms Essay

Employee Training in Saudi Arabian SME Firms - Essay Example This study is predicated on improved outcomes for employee training when executive or senior management show leadership through attendance at in-house training sessions. In Saudi Arabia, Bjerke and Al-Meer (1993) note that 'Arab employees' expectations, as seen by the managers, include "kind and human treatment", "care", "respect", "control", and "guidance"' (ibid. p.31). Further, Ali (2008) considers that this form of practical management is useful in motivating employees. Nevertheless, executive absence from other tasks may compromise the organisation's overall efficiency, although this stance is difficult to resolve, given the large number of variables involved and availability of hand-held communication devices. As this research examines the effectiveness of training programs with or without senior management participation, the objectives are therefore to consider subsequent employee attitudes and behaviours within these parameters. Further research could consider the cost of man agement attendance at in-house employee training courses against improved workplace environment. This research concerns employee training in selected small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia, defined as firms providing manufacturing-related services with annual sales revenue not greater than Saudi Arabian Riyal (SAR) 25 million and not exceeding 150 full-time employees.. Saudi Arabian SMEs comprise some 55 per cent of all national industry. A preliminary survey of the literature shows that researchers have not to date focussed on the needs of this group, in particular the capacity of this sector to absorb and retain significant numbers of school leavers and graduates coming into the Saudi job market. Therefore, more attention is needed to investigate management and employee training for this group. For the purposes of this research, management training comprises the transfer of skills to plan, organise and lead staff to attain organisational goals. Whilst organisational resources, systems and goals are in place, the purpose of the firm is to successfully direct its human resources towards sustainability and profit. Further, the firm must conform to Saudisation regulations which to some extent direct the employment, remuneration and working conditions of Saudis. It should be noted that there are significant numbers of guest workers in the Saudi labour force, and as their remuneration and conditions are not as controlled by the authorities, they represent a significant competitive challenge to Saudi in the workplace/ Whilst there is significant attention placed in this study toward the training of employees, only those aspects that relate to performance enhancement, and career-building are enclosed, and operational factors related to tasks and use of technology are omitted. 3. Contribution to Knowledge This study adds to the body

East Asia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

East Asia - Essay Example Based on such a perspective, this paper makes a comparison of the Neo- Confucianism in China and Korea by establishing discussions on the different perspectives and circumstances that both nations experienced during the different eras. Indeed, the main area of discussion for this paper involves the benefits of Neo-Confucianism to both China and Korea and the various ways through which Neo-Confucianism influenced the lives of citizens in the two nations. Ideally, in the study of the numerous dynasties that played roles in China, the Song dynasty made a significant impact, despite the fact that it was less known for its power and stability, during a period in which Tang had previously imposed great suffering among the people. The Song dynasty, therefore, developed mechanisms for ensuring that the oppressive nature of the Tang came to an end and that all the oppressive activities reversed. Indeed, during the period, the Chinese society showed significant improvements in the various aspects including economy and cities’ expansions, contrary to the occurrences during the Tang regime in which oppression was high, resulting in the fall of the economy with success of few individuals and great suffering for the majority. The Song dynasty indeed influenced a state of significant development in all the different sectors of the economy. Such a perspective has an accurate view that through Neo-Confucianism a rationalist and worldlier Con fucianisms form was established, which involved the rejection of the previous superstitious and mystical elements of Daoism and Buddhism, which had substantive influence on Confucianism, most especially during and after the Han Dynasty (De Bary 314). Neo-Confucianism that had its origins in the Tang Dynasty, ideally, sort to create the existence of a peaceful coexistence between an individual and the universe. As such, in the Korean perspective through its scholars, classics were

Think Tanks what are they and the task of policy analyasis Essay

Think Tanks what are they and the task of policy analyasis - Essay Example The think tanks also provide information to journalists who act as a good channel to promote the needs of the policy users. This means that the think tanks have the capacity of creating a chain of networks that help in mediation of the role of the government and that of the public in building trust in the public officials (McGann, 2011). The think tanks have also been indicated to transform the ideas and issues presented in policy issues through facilitating debates on the issues at hand (McGann, 2011). This means that a forum for the exchange of thoughts is provided with the help of think tanks and ultimately an implementation of the policies proposed especially after consultation with all the concerned parties. The think tanks can then be indicated to play the role of voicing policy related issues in debates on policy issues. McGann, J. (2011).  Think Tanks: The Global, Regional and National Dimensions. In Think Tanks in Policy Making: Do They Matter, ed Andrew Rich et al., 8-15.  Shanghai: Friedrich  Ebert Stiftung, Briefing Paper Special

Network Risk Assestment and recommended actions Research Paper

Network Risk Assestment and recommended actions - Research Paper Example Application attacks are gaining popularity. Networked based fire walls will not be able to effectively keep the system secure from this kind of attack. Though some firewalls in networks have application firewall capabilities, most are considered to be underpowered by experts, providing less protection than the available firewalls that are single purpose. Actually, network firewalls have no capacity what so ever to protect against custom web applications (Eschenauer and Gligor, 1). This nature of a network security infrastructure leaves the organizations web resources at risk with dire consequences on the organization Quantitative risk analysis regarding the network architecture Asses Value Asset Value Cost of maintenances Profits to the company Worth in competition Recovering cost Acquisition cost Firewalls 4,000 100 per month 10,000 per month 2,000 1,000 5,000 Web server 5,000 100 per month 10,000 per month 2,000 1,000 7,000 Database Server 5,000 100 per month 10,000 per month 2,000 1,000 7,000 Table: 1 Estimate of potential Loss per Threat The table below shows the estimate potential loss per threat Asset Cost of physical damage Cost of loss in productivity Cost if information is disclosed Cost if critical devices fail Firewalls 4,000 10,000 120,000 10,000 Web server 5,000 15,000 1,000 15,000 Database Server 5,000 30,000 200,000 10,000 Table: 2 Application attacks can also be used to gain access into various departments in an organization, For instance gaining access into a database administrator, financial controller, or system administrator can provide an attacker access to information to these departments which may be having information that may contain passwords for credit card numbers which can be used to steal identity, or have dire financial implications to an organization or a company. Risk factor two Another issue is that the basic implementation has its default use of well-known UDP and TCP and ports for communication. Unfortunately for this organiz ation’s Web applications are packaged-solutions, hence the organization is unable to makes change to the prescribed ports. Therefore, systems in the demilitarized zones (DMZ) will be compromised; it is easy for the attacker to compromise the systems because of the default TCP/UDP portals. In addition, systems in the demilitarized zones experience little to no monitoring or security-controls. Only one server that will be compromised before an intruder to access the Web applications Because of these shortfalls, the basic architectural technique no longer gives the kind or level of security currently being required by online cash transfer companies like VISA Cardholder-Information-Security- Program (CISP) and Payment-Card-Industry (PCI) security standards, Federal-Information-System-Management-Act (FISMA), GLBA, SOX and more other regulatory and industry-security standards engaged in this compliance effort. Risk Factor 3 Physical factors like act of nature, earth quakes, floods and fires often cause irreversible damage on networking hardware. Some of these calamities are unpredictable, and can cause extensive damage in an organization’s network system with great loses, damaged equipments can result to loss of sensitive data and information, negatively affecting productivity with end effect being heavy losses on an organization. Another physical factor that poses security threats to the network system is unauthorized access to where the various devices and

Non verbal communication Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Non verbal communication - Term Paper Example appearance. In this technique, I would just wear the clothes of cultures different from my own and see how this affects my experience of communication in a multicultural setting. In this paper, I have shared the results and have discussed in which experiments, this technique enhanced my ability to communicate across cultures and why. Rationale Today, we live in an increasingly multicultural and globalized world. Every day, we get to meet and socialize with people from backgrounds of many cultural varieties. Lack of foreign languages certainly hinders our ability to communicate across cultures. But at the same time, the importance of social networking across cultures in the contemporary age cannot be overstated. Be it school, office, or a restaurant, we have to encounter and communicate with people from other cultures and retreating from this is simply not an option. While verbal communication in the inter-cultural setting has been a much studied subject, the non-verbal communication in an inter-cultural setting remains a passive subject of research although it is no less important than the verbal communication. ... The researchers found that the research participants were more likely to identify the pictures of smiling people who were of their own ethnicity as compared to the pictures of people from other ethnicities. â€Å"People tend to favor a member of the in-group over an out-group member when distributing positive outcomes such as rewards to others†. 1 It so happens because of the fact that â€Å"[c]ulture strongly influences, and in many cases determines, our interpretations†.2 The famous Indian political leader Jawaharlal Nehru also emphasized upon developing an understanding of different cultures to be able to communicate better across cultures. â€Å"If we seek to understand a people, we have to try to put ourselves, as far as we can, in that particular historical and cultural background†¦If we wish to convince them, we have to use their language as far as we can, not language in the narrow sense of the word, but the language of the mind. That is one necessity† (Nehru cited in3). Adler states that there are certain non-verbal behaviors that can facilitate the conveyance of meaning between two or more people from different cultural backgrounds that include visual restatements, gestures, demonstration, pauses, and summaries. Description of my experiments For this research, I conducted three experiments in total in three different settings, one of which was a school, the other was a clothes’ shop, and the third was a wedding ceremony. One thing that was common between them was that all three were multicultural settings. Experiment 1 I conducted this experiment in my school on an event when students were allowed to dress up in the outfits of their

Gun Control Essay Example for Free

Gun Control Essay Ultius is the trusted provider of academic content solutions for college students around the world. Our online platform connects qualified freelance writers with customers who are looking for rich, custom-written content. We provide essays, research papers, term papers, dissertations and other writing assignments. HomeSearch Research Paper on Gun Control Posted byUltius onSaturday, 16 March 2013 in Sample WorkBuying a Research Paper on Gun Control from UltiusRecently, President Obama and other Democratic members of Congress have strongly pushed for a critical discussion on gun control. Around the country, many teachers and professors are pushing their students to think about this subject and write at length about ways to limit gun violence. By no means are these papers easy to write; due to the emotional ramifications of this issue, writing a paper on gun control must be done in a very professional manner. So buy a research paper on gun control with Ultius and feel at ease knowing your work will be completed by a professional. Before doing that, though, feel free to check out this sample research paper on gun control. It was written in support of President Obama’s policy suggestions, and may be helpful to those of you interested in learning more about this increasingly important subject. Ultius writers are familiar with a wide variety of writing styles and have written argumentative papers for years, so keep in mind that we offer custom written research papers on both sides of every ideological spectrum. Don’t hesitate to contact our sales department to buy a research paper on gun control today! The Second Amendment: A Threat to Civilized People? Gun control has recently created a massive uproar throughout the United States because of the recent, and sincerely unfortunate, Sandy Hook school shooting that occurred last December. In response to this tragedy, Democratic leaders have been attempting to capitalize on the incident and push forward their respective agenda of limiting gun rights. As one can imagine, there are a surfeit of opinions on the subject, but despite this fact, I have come to affirm that I am strong believer in strengthening gun control. Although the right to bear arms should continue to be guaranteed by the Second Amendment, our nation’s need for heightened security in school classrooms and other public places is something that should no longer be ignored. The Gun Problem: Why an Unlimited Right to Bear Arms is Bad Since becoming a staple of American society, guns have been instrumental in altering contemporary warfare. The dangers of these weapons are not a secret; it is simply their mere nature. Some argue that guns were created to protect, while others suggest that they were built to destroy and cause the death of one’s intended target. Frank Zimring, a University of Chicago Law scholar, stated in his piece The University of Chicago Law Review, â€Å"The rate of knife deaths per 100 reported knife attacks was less than 1/5 the rate of gun deaths per 100 reported gun attacks† (Zimring 722). This statistic expresses the sincere lethality of guns compared to other forms of weaponry. One of the main reasons for this data stems from the misuse of guns, which unlike other weapons, can cause death to the user and those around him or her even on accident. If this unfortunate probability can be decreased, how can we stand around as the leader of the free world and let nothing be done? In the American political system, gun control has been a debate for many years; however, recent shootings have forced it into a large spotlight. The problem that splits gun control proponents from their opposition is the language of the second amendment of the constitution. The founding fathers of this nation believed that, â€Å"A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed† (U. S. Constitution). This multifaceted sentence from the Bill of Rights brings many quarrels to life with its simple diction. It is very open to interpretation, which is what causes both sides of the debate to have â€Å"legal stances† on the matter. The National Rifle Association (NRA), which is the nation’s largest gun advocacy organization, is led by the philosophy that it, â€Å"[hosts] a wide range of firearms-related public interest activities of the National Rifle Association of America and other organizations that defend and foster the Second Amendment rights of all law-abiding Americans. † What gun advocates in the NRA often fail to understand, however, is the conscionable limits to the Second Amendment. As 27-year serving Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia stated in the majority opinion of the District of Columbia V.  Heller decision, â€Å"like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited† (Scalia). This lead Scalia to also state that, â€Å"it is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. † These sanctions are legal proof that the second amendment allows for the government to regulate the distribution , ownership, and use of weapons. On top of that, Scalia, regarded as the most conservative justice, clearly highlights that gun control is useful and at times necessary.

Hepatoprotective Effect of Unani Formulation in Rats

Hepatoprotective Effect of Unani Formulation in Rats A study of hepatoprotective effect of unani formulation (Qurs Rewand) in rats. ABSTRACT Aim of study: To evaluate hepatoprotective effect of Unani formulation (Qurs Rewand). Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on adult Wistar albino rats of either sex weighing 150-200 g. Animals were divided into five groups of 6 animals each – I (Plain control), II (Negative control–CCl4 treated group), III (Sylimarin treated group), IV and V (UPF treated groups). Hepatotoxicity was induced by single administration of CCl4 (2ml/ kg I.P., 1:1 in liquid paraffin) in group II, III, IV V on 7th day of treatment. The UPF was administered in a dose of 50 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg, once daily, orally for 7 days in group IV and V respectively. Silymarin was administered orally in the dose of 100 mg/kg body weight, once daily for 7 days in III group and served as standard control. On the 8th day all the animals were sacrificed and the blood was collected. Serum was separated for biochemical estimations. The serum was estimated for ALT, AST, bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, total protein and TBARS. Histological study of liver was done. Results: The mean serum ALT, AST, bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, and TBARS were decreased significantly as compared to CCl4 treated group.While total protein was increased significantly as compound with CCl4 treated group. The histological study showed signs of recovery and regeneration in damaged liver cells as compared to CCl4 treated group. Conclusion: The study demonstrated significant hepatoprotective activity of Qurs Rewand (Unani Polyherbal formulation). Key words: Unani Polyherbal formulation, carbon tetrachloride, hepatoprotective activity and Silymarin Introduction Qurs-e-Rewand is a Unani polyherbal preparation (Table-1)[1] frequently prescribed by the physicians of Unani medicine in the management of liver diseases such as infective and other hepatitis.[2,3,4] Rubia cordifolia Linn (Rubiaceae) and Agrimonia eupatoria Linn. (Rosaceae) have been scientifically evaluated for their hepatoprotective effect[5], but the compound as a whole has not been studied for its described properties. Therefore present study has been undertaken to investigate its hepatoprotective effect against CCl4 induced hepatotoxicity in albino rats. The damage produced by CCl4 is described to be similar to the pathological changes seen in infective hepatitis and in many other liver diseases.[6] The liver function test was used to assess the extent of liver damage and the protection induced by the test drug. Since CCl ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­4 is reported to damage the hepatocytes mainly by inducing lipid peroxidation, therefore thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) test wa s employed to study the antioxidant property of the test drug with a view to underline its mechanism of action.[7] Silymarin (100 mg / kg) was used as the standard hepatoprotective agent to confirm the integrity of the test system and also to compare the efficacy of the test drug as, it has been used in the treatment of chronic or acute liver disease, as well as protecting the liver against toxicity.8] The hepatoprotective properties of Silymarin have been related to the inhibition of lipid peroxides formation or scavenging of free radicals.[9] Histological study was conducted to observe the structural status of cell matrix liver. Materials and Methods The study was conducted in the Department of Ilmul Advia, Ajmal Khan Tibbiya College, AMU in collaboration with the Departments of Pharmacology and Pathology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU, Aligarh, after obtaining permission from Institutional Ethics Committee. Test drug procurement and identification: All the ingredients of UPF were procured from Dawakhana, Tibbiya College, AMU, Aligarh and were identified by comparison for its macroscopic and microscopic characters with authentic specimens of above mentioned at Department of Ilmul Advia, Ajmal Khan Tibya College, A.M.U. Aligarh, U.P. India.(Voucher specimen No. are given below). Botanical NameVoucher specimen No. Rheum emodi Wall Sc-0098/09 Rubia cordifolia Linn Sc-0097/09 Creteria lacca Sc-0096/09 Apium graveolens Linn Sc-0095/09 Feoniculum vulgare Mill Sc-0094/09 Agrimonia eupatoria Linn Sc-0093/09 Preparation of extract: All the ingredients (Table 1) were coarsely powdered before subjection to extraction. The hydro-alcoholic extract of all the ingredients was prepared using by Soxhlet apparatus, in which they were continuously extracted for 6 hours. The extract was filtered by Whatman No. 1 filter paper and evaporated on water bath at 40 600C until it dried completely. The prepared extract was stored in the refrigerator for further use. The dose of the test compound formulation for albino rats were calculated by multiplying its clinical doses described in Unani literature with conversion factor 7.[10] Drugs and Chemicals CCl4, n-butanol, acetic acid (Thomas Baker Pvt. Limtd. Mumbai), sodium dodecyle sulphate, thiobarbituric acid (Otto Kemi Mumbai), 1, 1, 3, 3-tetraethoxypropane (Sigma USA), Silymarin (Sigma-Aldrich, Germany), Folin’s reagent (CDH, Mumbai), AST, ALT, Billirubin, Alk.Phos. and Total Protein estimation kits (Span Diagnostic Ltd, Surat). Animals Thirty Wistar albino rats of either sex, weighing 150-200 g were divided into five groups of 6 animals each. The animals were kept under standard laboratory conditions. Commercial diet pellets and water were given ad libitum. The room temperature was maintained at 25  ± 10 C. Treatments Group I (Plain Control): Distilled water orally in the dose of 1ml /kg, daily for 8 days. Group II (Negative Control): Distilled water orally in the dose of 1ml /kg, daily for 7 days. Group III (Standard): Silymarin in dose of 100 mg / kg daily for 7 days. Group IV V (Test Groups): Extract of Qurs-e-Rewand in the dose of 50 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg respectively suspended in distilled water daily for 7 days. On the 7th day the animals of all groups except those in group I were administered carbon tetrachloride i.p. along with their routine treatment and 24 hours later (on 8th day) all the animals including in group I were sacrificed.[11] Collection of Samples The blood was collected and was kept for 30 minutes without disturbing. The serum was separated by centrifugation for 15-20 minutes at 5000 rpm. The sera of each animal of all groups were estimated for, ALT AST [12], bilirubin[13], alkaline phosphatase[14], total protein[15] and TBARS[16], which are index of lipid peroxides.[17] Histological Examination The liver of rats of all groups was removed immediately and fixed in 10% formalin.[18] The tissue was processed and sections were cut. The slides were prepared and stained with haematoxyline and eosin stain and the histological changes were observed by photomicroscope under high power magnification. Statistical analysis The results are presented as means  ± S.E.M. The data were statistically compared for determining significance of difference by one-way ANOVA test, followed by pair-wise comparison of various groups by LSD. The analysis was carried out by using the software of the website, www. analyseit.com. P Results Biochemical Parameters A highly significant increase in levels of serum ALT, AST, bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase was observed in CCl4 treated rats while total protein was found significantly decreased as compared to control group. There was significant reduction in all biochemical parameters and significant increase in total protein after oral administration of test drug at two different doses (P4 treated group (P Histological Examination Group I: There were central blood vessels and radiating cords of hepatocytes as well as the vascular sinusoids with no evidence of fatty changes, necrosis or inflammation. (Fig.1) Group II: There was centri-lobular (acidophilic) necrosis and vascular congestion. (Fig.2) Group III: There was mild vascular congestion and peri-vascular infiltrate of mono nuclear cells and fibroblast. No fatty degeneration was observed. (Fig.3) Group IV (50 mg/kg): There was vascular congestion and peri-lobular hydropic degeneration of hepatocytes (In high magnification only vascular congestion). (Fig.4) Group V (100mg/kg): The slides showed well preserved hepatic architecture. There was no fatty degeneration, only mild vascular congestion and peri-vascular infiltrate of mono nuclear cells and fibroblast and regenerating hepatocytes were observed. The hepatic architecture was found similar to that observed in group III. (Fig.5) Discussion The findings of the present study demonstrated that the test drug (Unani formulation) lowered the biochemical markers of liver function as well as the lipid peroxide towards normal. The histological findings also indicated protective response by bringing the derangement of liver cell matrix to very near to normalcy. Thus the remarkable reduction in CCl4 intoxicated biochemical markers by test drug extract, supplemented by commensurate histopathological findings of rat liver sections indicated hepatoprotective effect of this herbal formulation. The likely mechanism of hepatoprotective response appears to be the anti-oxidant property. Carbonterachloride has been widely used for inducing hepatic damage due to free radical formation during its metabolism by hepatic microsomes.[19] The clinical features of carbontetrachloride induced hepatic damage resemble that of acute viral hepatitis.[20] The mechanism of producing hepatic damage by CCl4 depends on reductive dehalogenation of CCl4 catalyzed by cytochrome P450 in the liver cell endoplasmic reticulum leading to the generation of unstable complex of CCl4 radical. This trichloromethyl radical reacts rapidly with O2 to yield trichloromethyl peroxy radical which is reported as a highly reactive species. Qurs-e-Rewand appers to exert its hepatoprotective effect by inhibiting lipid peroxidation mediated by CCl4, due to its antioxidant activity as it decreased the lipid peroxide significantly in TBARS test. The test drug further appears to exert hepatoprotective effect due to its effect against cellular leakage and loss of functional integrity of the cell membrane in hepat ocytes i.e. they possess membrane stabilizing property, indicated by significant decrease in AST, ALT, Alk. phosphatase and lipid peroxidation. The biochemical as well as histological observations demonstrated dose dependent protective action of the extract against the liver damage. The extract in dose of 100mg/kg caused greater response. The biochemical markers were found significantly lower and retention of hepatic architecture, reduction in fatty degeneration and necrosis were more marked in this group than the group treated with 50mg/kg. The overall hepatoprotective effect produced by the 100mg/kg was sientifically equal to standard drug Silymarin. Further, quite interestingly the animals treated with Qurs-e-Rewand showed regeneration of hepatocytes, which provide an indication of high clinical and therapeutic value. The protective effect demonstrated with regard to liver function (Biochemical markers), lipid peroxidation and structure (Histological study) provides conclusive proof that the test drug possesses hepatoprotective activity. The present study provides scientific support and validation to the Unani claim regarding the hepatoprotective activity of the test drug. The study also provides the interesting information that Qurs-e-Rewand promotes hepatocellular regeneration, so it may be useful in diseases where liver damage is extensive such as chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis. Conclusion: it can be concluded that both the doses of test drug (Qurs Rewand) possess significant hepatoprotective activity against acute hepatic damage induced by CCl4. Further, the mechanisms and activities of compound drug require more study to understand the hepatoprotective mechanism. REFERENCES Table 1: Ingredients of Qurs-e- Rewand Botanical Name (Family) English Name Quantity (in gm) Rheum emodi Wall (Polygonaceae) Rhubarb 17.5 gm Rubia cordifolia Linn (Rubiaceae) Indian Madder 10.5 gm Creteria lacca (Coccoidea) Lac 10.5 gm Apium graveolens Linn (Apiaceae) Celery 3.5 gm Feoniculum vulgare Mill (Umbelliferae) Fennel 3.5 gm Agrimonia eupatoria Linn (Rosaceae) Agrimony 3.5 gm Table 2: Effect of test drug (Q.R) and Silymarin on biochemical parameters of liver function in CCl4 induced toxicity. Values are Mean à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ± SE; n = 6; x = against plain control, y = against CCl4 (2 ml/kg), z = against standard (Silymarin) (100 mg/kg); a = against Q.R. single dose (50 mg/kg), b = against Q.R. double dose (100 mg/kg); 1 = P Group I Fig. 1: Section of rat liver showing central blood vessels and radiating cords of hepatocytes as well as the vascular sinusoids (H E stain High power) Group II Fig. 2: Section of liver showing centrilobular (Acidophilic) necrosis, and vascular congestion and marked congestion of portal vessels (H E stain, High power) Group III Fig. 3: Section of liver showing mild vascular congestion and peri-vascular Infiltrate of mono nuclear cells and fibroblast (H E stain, High power) Group IV Fig. 4: Section of liver showing vascular congestion (H E stain, High power) Group V Fig. 5: Section of liver showing mild vascular congestion and peri-vascular infiltrate of mono nuclear cells and fibroblast and regenerating hepatocytes (H E stain, High power)

Benefits and Strategies of Performance Management

Benefits and Strategies of Performance Management Armstrong and Baron define performance management as a process which contributes to the effective management of individuals and teams in order to achieve high levels of organisational performance. As such, it establishes shared understanding about what is to be achieved and an approach to leading and developing people which will ensure that it is achieved. They go on to stress that it is a strategy which relates to every activity of the organisation set in the context of its human resource policies, culture, style and communications systems. The nature of the strategy depends on the organisational context and can vary from organisation to organisation. In other words performance management should be: Strategic it is about broader issues and longer-term goals Integrated it should link various aspects of the business, people management, and individuals and teams. It should incorporate: Performance improvement throughout the organisation, for individual, team and organisational effectiveness Development unless there is continuous development of individuals and teams, performance will not improve Managing behaviour ensuring that individuals are encouraged to behave in a way that allows and fosters better working relationships. Armstrong and Baronstress that at its best performance management is a tool to ensure that managers manage effectively; that they ensure the people or teams they manage: know and understand what is expected of them have the skills and ability to deliver on these expectations are supported by the organisation to develop the capacity to meet these expectations are given feedback on their performance have the opportunity to discuss and contribute to individual and team aims and objectives. It is also about ensuring that managers themselves are aware of the impact of their own behaviour on the people they manage and are encouraged to identify and exhibit positive behaviours. So performance management is about establishing a culture in which individuals and groups take responsibility for the continuous improvement of business processes and of their own skills, behaviour and contributions. It is about sharing expectations. Managers can clarify what they expect individual and teams to do; likewise individuals and teams can communicate their expectations of how they should be managed and what they need to do their jobs. It follows that performance management is about interrelationships and about improving the quality of relationships between managers and individuals, between managers and teams, between members of teams and so on, and is therefore a joint process. It is also about planning defining expectations expressed as objectives and in business plans and about measurement; the old dictum is If you cant measure it, you cant manage it. It should apply to all employees, not just managers, and to teams as much as individuals. It is a continuous process, not a one-off event. Last but not least, it is holistic and should pervade every aspect of running an organisation. How does performance management work? Because performance management is (or should be) so all-pervasive, it needs structures to support it. These should provide a framework to help people operate, and to help them to help others to operate. But it should not be a rigid system; there needs to be a reasonable degree of flexibility to allow people freedom to operate. Performance management is a process, not an event. It operates as a continuous cycle. Corporate strategic goals provide the starting point for business and departmental goals, followed by agreement on performance and development, leading to the drawing up of plans between individuals and managers, with continuous monitoring and feedback supported by formal reviews. Tools of performance management It is impossible to go into details of each of the tools used by performance management, so the following paragraphs simply provide an outline. Performance and development reviews Many organisations without performance management systems operate appraisals in which an individuals manager regularly (usually annually) records performance, potential and development needs in a top-down process see our factsheet on performance appraisal for more information on this topic. Go to our Performance appraisal factsheet It can be argued that the perceived defects of appraisal systems (that line managers regarded them as irrelevant, involving form-filling to keep the personnel department happy, and not as a normal process of management) led to the development of more rounded concepts of performance management. Nevertheless, organisations with performance management systems need to provide those involved with the opportunity to reflect on past performance as a basis for making development and improvement plans, and the performance and development review meeting (note the terminology; it is not appraisal) provides this chance. The meeting must be constructive, and various techniques can be used to conduct the sort of open, free-flowing and honest meeting needed, with the reviewee doing most of the talking. Learning and development Employee development is the main route followed by most organisations to improved organisational performance, which in turn requires an understanding of the processes and techniques of organisational, team and individual learning. Performance reviews can be regarded as learning events, in which individuals can be encouraged to think about how and in which ways they want to develop. This can lead to the drawing up of a personal development plan (PDP) setting out the actions they propose to take (with the help of others, not least their managers) to develop themselves. To keep development separate from performance and salary discussions, development reviews may be held at other times, for example, on theanniversary of joining an organisation. Increasing emphasis on talent management also means that many organisations are re-defining performance management to align it to the need to identify, nurture and retain talent. Development programmes are reflecting the needs of succession plans and seeking to foster leadership skills. However, too much of an emphasis on talent management may be damaging to overall development needs and every effort needs to be made to ensure that development is inclusive, accessible and focused on developing organisational capability. Coaching Coaching is an important tool in learning and development. Coaching is developing a persons skills and knowledge so that their job performance improves, leading to the achievement of organisational objectives. Coaching is increasingly recognised as a significant responsibility of line managers, and can play an important part in a PDP. They will take place during the review meetings, but also and more importantly should be carried out throughout the year. For some managers coaching comes naturally, but for many they may not and training may be needed to improve their skills. See our factsheet oncoaching for more information. Go to our Coaching factsheet Objectives and performance standards Objectives (some organisations prefer to use goals) describe something to be accomplished by individuals, departments and organisations over a period of time. They can be expressed as targets to be met (such as sales) and tasks to be completed by specified dates. They can be work-related, referring to the results to be attained, or personal, taking the form of developmental objectives for individuals. Objectives need to be defined and agreed. They will relate to the overall purpose of the job and define performance areas all the aspects of the job that contribute to achieving its overall purpose. Targets then need to be set for each performance area, for example, increase sales by x per cent, reduce wastage by y per cent Alongside objectives are performance standards. They are used when it is not possible to set time-based targets, or when there is a continuing objective which does not change significantly from one review period to the next and is a standing feature of the job. These should be spelled out in quantitative terms if possible, for example, speed of response to requests or meeting defined standards of accuracy. Competences and competencies Some organisations, but by no means all, use competences and competencies as components of performance management. Competences describe what people need to be able to do to perform a job well (the descriptions in National Vocational Qualifications are examples of competences). Competencies (more helpfully, behavioural competencies) are defined as the dimensions of behaviour that lie behind competent performance. Though the language used does not help in making the distinction, to perform well it is necessary both to be able to do a job at a technically competent level and to have behaviours that reinforce those technical skills; an obvious example of behaviour is the surgeon who needs a good bedside manner and to be able to communicate with colleagues, in addition to surgical skills. There are various techniques for measuring competence (some organisations prefer to use capability) and once an analysis has been made, it provides a tool for measuring performance and, of course, for pr oviding development activities to help people meet the required standards. For more information, see our competencies factsheet. Go to our factsheet on Competency and competency frameworks Measurement To improve performance, you need to know what current performance is. Measurement provides the basis for providing and generating feedback, and thus can build the platform for further success or identify where things are going less well so that corrective action can be taken. But what gets measured? Measure the wrong things, perhaps simply because they are easy to measure, and an entire performance management system can fall into disrepute. Use too many measures and you cant see the wood for the trees. For measuring performance, the achievement of objectives, levels of competency, standards of performance, and work outputs are used but the emphasis varies according to categories of staff for example, a senior manager would be mainly measured by meeting objectives, but a production worker mainly by achieving outputs. Increasingly organisations are using more sophisticated measuring techniques such as balanced scorecards or ROI (return on investment). Individual and team performance needs to be capable of being linked in an understandable manner to organisational performance, and there are various approaches to this. They include the balanced scorecard, a set of measures that looks at the business from customer, internal, learning and financial perspectives; the European Foundation for Quality Management, which indicates that customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and impact on society are achieved through leadership; and other economic measures, including traditional financial measures. Measures used will depend on the organisation; for example, public service organisations are likely to use different measures from private companies. Pay Performance management is often linked with performance-related pay (PRP), although by no means all organisations claiming to use performance management have PRP. Nevertheless, PRP is an important element in many performance management schemes because it is believed to motivate; it is said to deliver the message that performance and competence are important, and it is thought to be fair to reward people according to their performance, contribution or competence. Others, though, believe that other factors are more important than PRP in motivation; that it is usually based on subjective assessments of performance, that it inhibits teamwork because of its individualistic nature, and that it leads to short-termism. See our factsheet for more information on performance pay. Go to our performance-related pay factsheet An alternative to PRP is competence-related pay, which provides for pay progression to be linked to levels of competence that people have achieved, using a competence profile or framework. The difficulty here is measuring competence, and some organisations use a mix of PRP and competence-related pay. Further possible pay systems are team-based pay, a kind of PRP for teams; and contribution-related pay which means paying for results plus competence, and for past performance and future success. Performance may be used to determine all or some aspects of pay. In many instances only non-consolidated bonus payments are linked to performance which tend to reflect organisational, team and individual performance whilst salary progression is linked to service, market rates and pay scales. Many organisations believe that when performance management is linked to pay the quality of performance discussions will inevitably deteriorate. Teams Team working has become an important part of life in many organisations, and where teams are permanent or for longstanding projects, measures can be based on team performance. They will mainly be concerned with output, activity levels (eg speed of servicing), customer service and satisfaction, and financial results. Indeed, team measures are not very different from those for individuals, and of course team members need to agree their objectives and receive feedback in the same way as if they were not part of a team. Other team members can contribute towards this, in a process of peer review. See our factsheet on wrking in teams. Go to our factsheet on teamworking 360 degree feedback 360 degree feedback became increasingly talked about in the 1990s, if not widely used. It consists of performance data generated from a number of sources, who can include the person to whom the individual being assessed reports, people who report to them, peers (team colleagues or others in the organisation), and internal and external customers. It can also include self-assessment. 360 degree feedback is used mainly as part of a self-development or management development programme, and is felt to provide a more rounded view of people, with less bias than if an assessment is conducted by one individual. See our factsheet on 360 feedback for more information. Go to our factsheet on 360 feedback Performance problem solving Performance management is a positive process, and good systems will create a culture in which success is applauded. Nevertheless, poor performance will exist. It may be a result of inadequate leadership, bad management or defective systems of work, and if so, remedies (often involving learning and development) can be put in place. But individuals may under-perform and improvements can be achieved through continuing feedback and joint discussion between them and their managers, involving analysing and identifying the problem, establishing the reasons for the shortfall, and deciding and agreeing the action to be taken. If all this fails, disciplinary action may need to be taken, as in any organisation. CIPD viewpoint Performance management is not easy to implement. It should be owned by everyone in the organisation, and especially line managers it is emphatically not about guardianship by personnel departments. Surveys suggest that individuals and managers in organisations with performance management systems quite like it, and especially its emphasis on personal development, although performance-rating (often linked to PRP) often provokes hostility. Schemes can be over-detailed and require too much form-filling, and there can be a lack of definition in terms of what is meant by performance and how to achieve it. Schemes can be less successful than they might be because of lack of training, especially at the beginning. In its most positive form, performance management will help individuals not only to understand what is expected of them but also how they contribute to achieving organisational goals. The keys to the successful introduction and application of performance management are: being clear about what is meant by performance understanding what the organisation is and needs to be in its performance culture being very focused on how individual employees will benefit and play their part in the process understanding that it is a tool for line managers and its success will depend on their ability to use it effectively. References ARMSTRONG, M. and BARON, A. (2004) Managing performance: performance management in action. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Hardball :: movie essays

Bio: 16 year old high school student Essay: Gambling addict Connor O’Neil ends up deep in debt after he borrows money from almost every loan shop in town to fuel his addiction. In order to pay the mounds of money that he owes, he is requested to coach a little-league baseball team, the Kekambas. At first, Connor doesn’t start off right with the kids and doesn’t see the point of him being there. Even though Connor paid the kids no attention, they were somehow inspired by his presence. Later, He realizes that he must come to grips at what he wants in his life, and ultimately forms a special bond with the kids on the team.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At the beginning of the movie, we see Connor O’Neil at his worst. The personality traits he has are reflective of an orange. One of the more positive traits is being able to take decisive action. This can been seen in beginning of the movie, where he is in James’ office, and he immediately decides to coach the Kekambas, after the promise of a steady income. Connor shows that he likes sports, by always watching or betting on basketball games, and baseball games. Another good trait is his ability to solve problems, as he did when there was a shortage in jerseys. He solved this problem by telling G-baby of the shortage, but still letting him stay on the team. He is very much a risk-taker, and loves to live for the moment. This can be proven, as he is constantly gambling in the beginning, even if he needs to borrow money to pay off his huge debts. Connor possesses many typical behaviours of an out-of-esteem orange, as well. First, he uses stimulants, suc h as drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and etc., when things don’t go his way, as seen in first couple of scenes. Second, he is physically aggressive, as shown in the quote, â€Å"no one can kick my ass better than I can†. Third he showed that he wanted to drop out of coaching the Kekambas by saying, â€Å"I’m bailing out†, when he found it uninteresting. Finally, he lied to Ms. Wilks, by saying he was a businessman, who just finished an errand in Canada.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even though Connor is wary of coaching at first, he begins to see the harsh reality of the kids’ lives and the nature of being brought up in such a tough neighborhood.

My Best Friend is Dead Essay -- Friendship Essay Personal Narrative

My Best Friend is Dead I first met Chipper Gleason when I was 5 or 6, when my mother was working with Chipper's mother Sue teaching music lessons in town. The He- Man connection must have been what initially tipped our parents off that we would be good friends. I remember my mom asking me if I wanted to play with this kid who had Castle Greyskull, a large green molded castle that He- Man lived inside of with the other Masters of the Universe. The answer was, of course, "Yes!" and we met one afternoon while both my mom and Sue taught lessons at the Church. We played that first afternoon on the sloping hill in front of the church, on the opposite side of Main Street from the library. Chipper was a small, wirey boy with bright blue eyes and light brown hair cut in a kind of bowl. Later we figured out that even though we were the same height, Chipper's skinny legs were longer than mine, and that my birthday was before his (so I was older). There was not much to play with in the common in front of the church. There were a few swings and things, but mostly we played along the rail fences that bordered the common, climbing up on them and using them as platforms for our action figures. We both had a great time that day, and before long we met every time that our moms were teaching. One day my dad asked me if I wanted to invite Chipper over to play. A book I made in school in the fall of first grade laid it all out: "I like to read at school. I don't like butterscotch. I like Chipper, my best friend." Looking back on our relationship, my parents often wondered what exactly it was that we spent so much time talking about. Chipper was pretty shy around most adults except his mother, so they only really caught glimpses of us ... ... toys as I wanted, which I kept carefully organized and out of the hands of my five year old brother, the terror. She even gave me the games for the Commodore 64 (which technically now belonged to Dara), to play on my own computer that I got for my tenth birthday that November. That spring, as I sat playing Kung Fu on the computer in my parent's room, I had a revelation. I raced outside to our big, wandering back yard and started talking. I had to tell Chipper somethingÉ he had to know! I was sure that he could hear me. "Chipper," I said, half under my breath because I was afraid the neighbors would see me talking to myself and think that I was crazy, "I figured it out! I figured out how to beat the forth- floor boss in Kung Fu! All you have to do is squat and punch... it's so easy! It's so easy." Somehow, of all the things to say, that was the most important.

Two Halves of the Same Song

Two Halves of the Same Song â€Å"My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America† (526). This is the first sentence in â€Å"Two Kinds† by Amy Tan spoken by the narrator’s point of view, Jing-mei, the daughter. The story was a direct reflection of love vs. rebellion with the mother and the daughter, presented in a humorous almost sounding sarcastic tone to show the two kinds of people in the story; the one the mother thought the daughter should be and the one the daughter thought she should be, and in the end they realized that that was the same person. The story begins by giving humor to some of the mothers beliefs as if they were silly; such as in America a person is unlimited to what they could be even if that is to be famous or simply a homeowner, To understand what the mother meant you would have to know a little about her background and where she came from. She was from China where women didn’t have very many options on what their role in life could be, so for her daughter she felt that there were endless possibilities. Her mother in my eyes was more of what we like to call â€Å"stage moms†. She hoped for her daughter to be the best at something, anything instead of nothing at all, so she came across pushy verses loving. One would think that these were the mothers dreams trying to be fulfilled through the daughter. Jing-mei started to feel like she had to be someone she wasn’t in order to make her mother proud. She said â€Å"I was filled with a sense that I would soon be perfect. My mother and father would adore me† (527). Apparently she felt like if she wasn’t great at something they wouldn’t love her. The narrator makes it seem like it was the mother all along who wanted the daughter to be something she wasn’t, but at one point the daughter wanted to succeed just as much as much as her mother did, but the fear of failure and rejection stopped her. Next came the piano lessons. The idea of Jing-mei playing the piano was odd, because her mother was watching an American TV show and saw a young Chinese girl playing. â€Å"Ni-Kan† her mother would say which meant, you watch, and then made her practice the piano day after day to become better than the Chinese girl on TV. After this point the daughter rebels against the mother trying to fail to prove that this is who she was, â€Å"ordinary†. If she didn’t try at anything she couldn’t fail. The daughter didn’t realize how proud her mother was of her just for trying. In the earlier days when you were born you were born into a certain class, and that class defined who you could become in life whether it be a king, farmer, merchant, or a blacksmith. In this story the situation seems very similar. Why would Jing-mei want to be famous or talented when her mother was merely a house cleaner? Maybe she was content with the life she was born into and didn’t feel as if she needed to be talented to be happy. Her mother put her in a recital bragging to her friends how Jing-mei loved to play the piano. This was her opportunity to show her mother who she was and it wasn’t the person she wanted her to be, so Jing-mei went up and played horribly. However, through all of the disobedience trying to stay true to who she was, which seemed to be a slacker, the mother still pushed her to try and not give up. Years later the mother dies and Jing-mei realizes that her mother truly did love her and was proud of her. She only pushed her because she wanted her to be the best at who she wanted to be and let her know that just because you are born into a certain lifestyle that doesn’t define who you are, you define who you are. The tone of the story begins to sound happy verses the angry, sarcastic, and once comical tone making fun of the mother. Jing-mei actually starts to get the point her mother tried so hard to install in her. One of the last sentences of the story caught my eye. It seemed to sum up everything in the story and why the conflicts of interests occurred. â€Å"And after I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song†(534). Two halves of the same song could have been the title for Any Tan’s short story. The mother and the daughter both wanted the same things: for the daughter to be happy, and be the best at what made her happy but looking at it from only one way you would not have figured that out. In this story it was told solely from the daughters point of view. If the mother were to narrate this story it would have been completely different. Maybe she would have not seemed as so unhappy with her life that she had to live it through her daughters, but the daughter would have seemed as someone who didn’t care for there mothers affection and just wanted to be disobedient. There is always two sides to a story but in this case they seemed to be arguing the same story. â€Å" Two halves of the same song†(534).

Mutual interest discovery

Social skills and social interaction need not be taught explicitly to young students. Instead of discussing social skills theoretically or through an academic discourse headed by the teacher, the mutual interest discovery model introduces a process of structured activities for students. This process aims to increase peer acceptance by having students discover similarities they have with others. The prevalent presumption is that attraction between people increases as known shared similar attributes increases. It is further postulated that the higher level of self-disclosure between two people, the deeper liking there is for one another (Burger, 1981). This model was applied to students with learning disabilities; however, it has been applied to classes where students need not necessarily have such disabilities. To introduce this social skills activity to a class of elementary school students, the procedure was outlined and I shared some of my own interests with the group. The students were then asked to pair up with one other. I thought this activity to be a timely remedy since in this particular group several of the students did not get along well with the others. The activity proved fruitful as I observed that those who had strained or distant relationships prior to the activity were observed to have become more sociable to each another. I consider this activity a greater success with the marked change between one 2nd grade boy and a 4th grade girl. They had been talking and discovered that they both had scars in their chest area from surgeries they had undergone. They were so pleased that they even came up to me saying â€Å"So and so is the same as me! We both have a line.† Now, every time that they see each other in school they hug each other. The older girl has become like an older sister to the smaller boy. I regard not just the activity as a success, but I myself feel fulfilled. Such change effected into the life of pupils was more than I could have hoped for from this interaction activity. It brings a renewed drive to teach and a deeper significance to this most dignified profession. Reference: Burger, Jerry M. Self-Disclosure and Liking During Initial Encounters: An Attributional Approach. Social Behavior and Personality, 1981, 9 (2), 179-183.

Demonstrative Communication Essay

Provide examples showing how demonstrative communication can be effective and ineffective, positive and negative, for the sender and receiver.   Demonstrative Communication is the process of people’s thoughts and messages of communicating by actively listening in verbal and nonverbal communication. Depending on how a message is communicated, â€Å"can be effective and ineffective, either positive or negative† (Juancho24, 2012). Communication is used everywhere for instance all over the world. There are many forms of communication by applying communication process model for example; â€Å"sender/receiver, encoding, decoding, message, channel, and feedback† (Cheesbro, O’Connor, and Rios, 2010). Learning to develop communication skills can help individuals to carry appropriate conversations and to interpret the connection with one another. There are many ways to communicate verbal and nonverbal for example, a parent tells his child how proud he is to be his parent and then gives him a hug, the parent expresses verbal communication by using positive words and applies nonverbal communication with a hug, body language. Individuals express verbal communication through oral or written skills. Verbal communication is the tone of voice that indicates how engaged the topic is and the ability to realize the emotions perceived. A person’s tempo in a conversation can be understood with the ideas being communicated. When sending a message in verbal communication the words accustomed to, can convey differently then how the receiver defines the context. Nonverbal communication is unstoppable and significantly valuable as much as speaking with a loud tone of voice and communicating verbally. In nonverbal communication, â€Å"All types of communication do not involve the exchange of words,† is defined as nonverbal communication† (Rogers & Steinfatt, 1999, p. 67). A facial expression is the most common skill used in nonverbal communication for example; a smile or frown, eye contact, body language, and gestures. Overall, nonverbal communication can be effective positively and can be negatively ineffective in two different points of views. First example, husbands and wives communicate with each other by observing each other’s body language. This is a positive way of communication by effectively knowing each others thoughts. Second example, Children know as soon as their parents turn to look at them, the meaning is to stop misbehaving and could mean they are in trouble. The second example used is both effective and ineffective. Third example, a smile or frown can interpret a person to be happy or angry. The person could also be interpreted as approachable or would rather be left alone. This is positively effective and negatively ineffective. Fourth example, an individual waving or a hand shake in America, can be interrupted as a friendly sign or a strong individual but can also be interrupted as insulting and rude in other countries. This example is both effective and ineffective with positive and negative communication. However, verbal communication consequently has similar negatively ineffective as positively effective. First example, the lack of listening leads to misconception and when listening carefully the outcome becomes essential to the receiver. Both examples are ineffective and effective. Second example, is the choice of vocabulary and taking into consideration who will be receiving the information. This is used by effectively positive. Third example, the lack of verbal speech and failing to interpret the proper speech causes misunderstanding. In another way the proper use of speech can help the receiver to understand what is being interpreted. Example is used by ineffective with negative outcome but if used correctly can be effective with positive outcomes. Explain how demonstrative communication involves listening and responding. Listening and responding is used in demonstrative communication to engage the active communication skill from sender to receiver. This process is very important to both sender and receiver, by actively listening and ready to respond. One example is a sender and receiver must be willing to communicate properly. â€Å"Accurate listening efficiency promotes retention of important information, resulting in fewer misunderstandings and on-the-job errors† (Wilson, n.d., p. 1). Once a sender is ready to send out a message it is important for the receiver to receive the correct information by evaluating the message sent, this way the receiver can respond back with feedback and a solution. Applying the steps in the communication process model, mentioned in the first paragraph of this essay will go hand in hand with the practice of listening and responding which will help by demonstrating communication through the steps being practice. An example of listening and responding with children is, â€Å"monkey see monkey do† (Uebergang, 2006, Dec.20). Listening and responding is a process to be learned as individuals who continues to repeat the process with a good attitude. Conclusion Communicating can never be avoided no matter how hard we try and cannot solve every issue. Demonstrative communicate is an ongoing process of how we interact within one another every day, in different settings of environment such as professional, at home, work, and community. Verbal and nonverbal communication is deceiving if misunderstood. Therefore, communicating can be a lifelong advancement. References Cheesebro, T., O’Connor, L., & Rios, F. (2010). Communicating in the workplace. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Juancho24 (2012, 02). Demonstrative Communication. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 02, 2012, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Demonstrative-Communication-914632.html Rogers, E. M., & Steinfatt, T. M. (1999). Intercultural communication. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Uebergang, J. (2006, December 20). Teaching your child listening skills. Improving our â€Å"signals† and â€Å"beings.† Retrieved January 9, 2008, from http://www.earthlingcommunication.com/blog/teachingyour-child-listening-skills.php Wilson, B. (n.d.). Practical benefits of better listening forleaders and teams. Retrieved April 6, 2007, from www.businesslistening.com/leadership_listening-skills.php

Women’s Studies

Major Essay Women across the world face challenges and experiences such as gender class inequality, oppression, struggle with identity, sexual awakening, women's objectification, personal resistance, reliving women's history, female empowerment and etc. These are some of the themes that will be addressed In this essay. These themes will be supported by feminist short stories from books such as â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper and other stories† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian and â€Å"The Bloody Chamber and other stories† by Angela Carter.Through the use of aesthetic texts, women's challenges and experiences will be interpreted using the themes in these stories. In the story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian, focuses on women living In the 19th century where men have a high standing In the social hierarchy that oppressed women, Gender plays a big role In social hierarchy. Even a rich woman cannot exercise the same rights and privileges as men would . Women were not given the same equality as men. Gillian focuses on the themes such as personal resistance and women's history.As the narrator in this story battles with err own psychological mind and the outside world, she slowly falls into deep madness as her obsession grows with the yellow wallpaper. To relief herself from going Insane, she keeps a Journal that exercises her creative mind as her husband prohibits It. This act of writing In her Journal Is also similar to the movie, The Hours where the character Virginia Wolf wrote everyday to keep herself sane in her confinement. The wallpaper represented her sanity and freedom.As a show of resistance from her husband she tore the wallpaper, which made her feel free and powerful. â€Å"l wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did? (Gillian 34) shows her longing of freedom and resistance. Women during this time period did not have much value as they were expected to be only wives and mothers and cannot carry on other r esponsibilities. â€Å"It Is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work† (Gillian 24) as her husband instructed her to stay in confinement and away from writing.She has spent her days confined in a room where there is only a window to look at which eventually made her insane. As a woman living In the 19th century, the narrator had no control over her own life and had let her husband dominate her. Women did not have the same opportunities as men did. The author's use of these themes gave the story a powerful message of women longing for freedom and equality in their society. In the story, â€Å"If I Were A Man† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian, focuses on a woman who fought social boundaries and â€Å"take risk to improve themselves and their material condition† (Hoofers 36).As in this story, women were not ready for business but Gillian challenged that. Gillian focuses on the themes such as gender Identity and empowerment, During this tim e period, women's roles were to stay confined In their preference in gender role was examined in this story, â€Å"Gerald had already about that bill, over which she- as Mollie- was still crying at home† (Gillian 39) shows how different the roles of men and women were. Women were the only subdue to be emotional who stayed at home while the men were the ones who held themselves together with pride and dignity.Mollie Matheson finds herself to be happy when she becomes her husband Gerald â€Å"walking down the path so erect and square- shouldered† (Gillian 35) as manly as she can ever be. The thought of being a man gave Mollie a sense of pride and dignity compared to when she was a woman. In Mollies sense to have equality amongst men, she â€Å"felt such freedom and comfort† (Gillian 36) in becoming Gerald as she has all these privileges a woman would not have. Empowerment became a big symbol once Mollie started to earn money and privileges only men would have had. She never had dreamed of how it felt to have pockets† (Perkins 36) shows how she realizes that she is powerful having money and being able to support herself without the need of having a man to rely on. The themes used in this story became an awakening for women to reach higher and climb the social hierarchy to have equal opportunities as men do. In the story, â€Å"The Cottage† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian, focuses closely on how traditional male and female roles are slowly evolving. In this story, despite of the old believe in women serving as wives and housekeepers was challenged.Gillian focuses on themes such as gender identity and status. Malta is expected to be nothing but a wife and housekeeper as â€Å"what they care for most, after all, is domesticity†¦ What they want to marry is a homemaker† (Gillian 55) according to her friend. This shows how inequality and lack of freedom plays along in traditional roles f women. Also, Mammal's lack of independe nce and longing for Ford's approval shows how she follows the traditional role of a woman. â€Å"l could cook. I could cook excellently†¦ But if it was a question of pleasing Ford Mathews- † (Gillian 56) as her goal was to please Ford and nothing but Ford.Women were expected to act polite and demure, as they do not want their status to be devalued. â€Å"†¦ She thought it would look better if we had an older person with us†¦ † (Gillian 57) shows how women are confined to act a certain way and are not able to show who they truly are. Women are also seen as trophies or objects a man can have whenever he wishes, â€Å"And woman? He will hold her, he will have her when he pleases† (Gillian 100). Women were treated nothing equally as men but in this story, this concept was challenged.The themes in this story reminds us that women do have traditional roles but can always do something more than being a wife or housekeeper. In the story, â€Å"The Bloody Chambers† by Angela Carter focuses on sexual awakening and women's objectification through fairytale storytelling. This challenges the typical fairytale story in which is structured as pleasant and happy into gory and violent. The heroine was blossoming into adulthood as she experiences her sexual awakening upon to losing her virginity. â€Å"†¦ Away from Paris, away from girlhood, away from the white, enclosed quietude of my mother's apartment†¦ (Carter 7) shows her freedom from childhood and practice her sexual curiosity. She also compares the act of â€Å"†¦ A tender, delicious ecstasy of excitement†¦ † (Carter 7) leading up to intercourse as meet her husband. She longs and waits the moment when her husband deflowers women â€Å"have been major targets of sexual stereotypical and detrimental orphaned† (Adams and Fuller 7) and seen as sexual objects. Marquis viewed the heroine as a sexual object that he can torture and violate. The heroine felt violated as Marquis in a way forced her to undress and deflower her like â€Å"disrobing of the bride, a ritual from the brothel† (Carter 15).The heroine is comparing the lost of her virginity as a ritual from a brothel depicts how disrespected and disgusted she felt while doing this act. Marquis was a power hungry who showed no respect to her brides. The heroine did not feel that losing her virginity was a special act but rather a aromatizing experiences as â€Å"watched a dozen husbands approach me in a dozen mirrors†¦ â€Å"(Carter 15). Although the story ended with a happy tone, the story still degrades women as the heroin was relieved that she was able to cover her red mark as the blind piano tuner â€Å"cannot see it†¦ T spares me shame† (Carter 41). The themes portrayed in this story shows that fairytale stories objectify women and given women a lesser value then they should have. In the story, â€Å"Puss in Boots† by Angela Carter exami nes the role of violence in sex and woman' objectification. The young woman was predicted as a poor girl who was arced to marry a rich man. In this case, gender and class play a role in social status in this story. As Signor Pantone symbolizes violence and sex for the young woman, as she wishes for sexual gratification she must submit to violence. L gave her the customary tribute of a few firms thrusts of my striped loins† (Carter 70). As Signor Pantone was murdered and passed away, the young woman and Puss' master proceeded with the act of intercourse despite having a dead corpse next to them. â€Å". They're at it, hammer and tongs, down on the carpet since the bed is occupy† (Carter 04) shows the young woman's absurd attraction of violence towards sex. It seems like the young woman is aroused by the acts of violence around her. Women were called unpleasant names and were treated as property by their masters or husbands.One of Signor Pantheon's servants was being call ed a â€Å"hag† and described as someone who is very ugly and useless. Also, Signor Pantaloon sees the young woman as property and a sense of please giver. She is also a prisoner of her own where she can only â€Å"sit in a window for one hour and one hour only' (Carter 101) shows how she doesn't have freedom and is being held captive by her own husband. The themes of violence in sex and women's objectification helped shaped the story poor outlook on women's value. In the story, â€Å"The Tiger's Bride† by Angela Carter focuses on women's objectification and sexual awakening.The heroine is a beauty whose father had a gambling addiction in which he had lost to the Beast. The heroine then was used as a wager for her father' gambling addiction. â€Å"My father lost me to The Beast at cards. † (Carter 60) shows how devalued the heroine is. There is also patriarchy played in this story. As the father and the beast holds the heroine in captivity and she has o voice i n her own life. â€Å"My father said he loved me yet he staked his daughter on a hand of cards. † (Carter 62) shows how helpless and out of control the heroine's life is.She is being used as an object and nothing more but a value of money and not life itself. The heroine's sexual awakening is measured when she transforms into a beast. This also signifies sex and birth as a way of her transformation. Losing her virginity lick the skin off me! † (Carter 69) she describes herself being reborn into a tigress. This act of rebirth signifies a man's reclaim in sex, as a man controls a woman during intercourse. This also ties in with violence in sex as she sheds blood during intercourse and sheds her own skin to become awaken.The themes delivered a powerful message of the pain and relief in finding one's awakening. Through the use of feminist themes and ideas, writers Charlotte Perkins Gillian and Angela Carter sent powerful messages in their short stories. Charlotte Perkins Gi llian mostly used the feminist themes such as personal resistance and gender identity to explain the underlying meanings in her stories. Characters in Sailing's writings were rebellious and did not conform to social norms. As they, freely expressed themselves in their own way with a positive ending.Contrary in Angel Carter's writings, focused on themes such as women's objectification and sexual awakening. The male characters usually portrayed having some essence of evil controlling the female character. The stories in Carter's books are very dark and sexual. Some descriptions in her writing almost have a sense of pornographic image. Both writers gave us a grasp on how themes powerfully send messages throughout the stories. Adams, Terrier M. , and Douglas B. Fuller. â€Å"The Words Have Changed But the Ideology Remains the Same: Misogynistic Lyrics in Rap Music. Women’s Studies Black Feminist Thought in the Matrix of Domination From Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990), pp. 221–238 Black feminist thought demonstrates Black women's emerging power as agents of knowledge. By portraying African-American women as self-defined, self-reliant individuals confronting race, gender, and class oppression, Afrocentric feminist thought speaks to the importance that oppression, Afrocentric feminist thought speaks to the importance that knowledge plays in empowering oppressed people.One distinguishing feature of Black feminist thought is its insistence that both the changed consciousness of individuals and the social transformation of political and economic institutions constitute essential ingredients for social change. New knowledge is important for both dimensions of change. Knowledge is a vitally important part of the social relations of domination and resistance. By objectifying African-American women and recasting our experiences to serve the interests of elite white men, much of the Eurocentric masculinist worldview fosters Black women's subordination.But placing Black women's experiences at the center of analysis offers fresh insights on the prevailing concepts, paradigms, and epistemologies of this worldview and on its feminist and Afrocentric critiques. Viewing the world through a both/and conceptual lens of the simultaneity of race, class, and gender oppression and of the need for a humanist vision of community creates new possibilities for an empowering Afrocentric feminist knowledge. Many Black feminist intellectuals have long thought about the world in this way because this is the way we experience the world.Afrocentric feminist thought offers two significant contributions toward furthering our understanding of the important connections among knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. First, Black feminist thought foste rs a fundamental paradigmatic shift in how we think about oppression. By embracing a paradigm of race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression, Black feminist thought reconceptualizes the social relations of domination and resistance.Second, Black feminist thought addresses ongoing epistemological debates in feminist theory and in the sociology of knowledge concerning ways of assessing â€Å"truth. † Offering subordinate groups new knowledge about their own experiences can be empowering. But revealing new ways of knowing that allow subordinate groups to define their own reality has far greater implications. Reconceptualizing Race, Class, and Gender as Interlocking Systems of Oppression â€Å"What I really feel is radical is trying to make coalitions with people who are different from you,† maintains Barbara Smith. I feel it is radical to be dealing with race and sex and class and sexual identity all at one time. I think that is really radical because it has never been done before. † Black feminist thought fosters a fundamental paradigmatic shift that rejects additive approaches to oppression. Instead of starting with gender and then adding in other variables such as age, sexual orientation, race, social class, and religion, Black feminist thought sees these distinctive systems of oppression as being part of one overarching structure of domination.Viewing relations of domination for Black women for any given sociohistorical context as being structured via a system of interlocking race, class, and gender oppression expands the focus of analysis from merely describing the similarities and differences distinguishing these systems of oppression and focuses greater attention on how they interconnect. Assuming that each system needs the others in order to function creates a distinct theoretical stance that stimulates the rethinking of basic social science concepts.Afrocentric feminist notions of family reflect this reconceptualizat ion process. Black women's experiences as blood mothers, other mothers, and community other mothers reveal that the mythical norm of a heterosexual, married couple, nuclear family with a nonworking spouse and a husband earning a â€Å"family wage† is far from being natural, universal and preferred but instead is deeply embedded in specific race and class formations.Placing African-American women in the center of analysis not only reveals much-needed information about Black women's experiences but also questions Eurocentric masculinist perspectives on family Black women's experiences and the Afrocentric feminist thought rearticulating them also challenge prevailing definitions of community. Black women's actions in the struggle or group survival suggest a vision of community that stands in opposition to that extant in the dominant culture.The definition of community implicit in the market model sees community as arbitrary and fragile, structured fundamentally by competition an d domination. In contrast, Afrocentric models of community stress connections, caring, and personal accountability. As cultural workers African-American women have rejected the generalized ideology of domination advanced by the dominant group in order to conserve Afrocentric conceptualizations of community.Denied access to the podium, Black women have been unable to spend time theorizing about alternative conceptualizations of community. Instead, through daily actions African-American women have created alternative communities that empower. This vision of community sustained by African-American women in conjunction with African-American men addresses the larger issue of reconceptualizing power. The type of Black women's power discussed here does resemble feminist theories of power which emphasize energy and community.However, in contrast to this body of literature whose celebration of women's power is often accompanied by a lack of attention to the importance of power as domination, Black women's experiences as mothers, community other mothers, educators, church leaders, labor union center-women, and community leaders seem to suggest that power as energy can be fostered by creative acts of resistance. The spheres of influence created and sustained by African-American women are not meant solely to provide a respite from oppressive situations or a retreat from their effects.Rather, these Black female spheres of influence constitute potential sanctuaries where individual Black women and men are nurtured in order to confront oppressive social institutions. Power from this perspective is a creative power used for the good of the community, whether that community is conceptualized as one's family, church community, or the next generation of the community's children. By making the community stronger, African-American women become empowered, and that same community can serve as a source of support when Black women encounter race, gender, and class oppression. . . Appr oaches that assume that race, gender, and class are interconnected have immediate practical applications. For example, African-American women continue to be inadequately protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The primary purpose of the statute is to eradicate all aspects of discrimination. But judicial treatment of Black women's employment discrimination claims has encouraged Black women to identify race or sex as the so-called primary discrimination. To resolve the inequities that confront Black women,† counsels Scarborough, the courts must first correctly conceptualize them as ‘Black women,' a distinct class protected by Title VII. † Such a shift, from protected categories to protected classes of people whose Title VII claims might be based on more than two discriminations, would work to alter the entire basis of current antidiscrimination efforts. Reconceptualizing phenomena such as the rapid growth of female-headed households in African-America n communities would also benefit from a race-, class-, and gender-inclusive analysis.Case studies of Black women heading households must be attentive to racially segmented local labor markets and community patterns, to changes in local political economies specific to a given city or region, and to established racial and gender ideology for a given location. This approach would go far to deconstruct Eurocentric, masculinist analyses that implicitly rely on controlling images of the matriarch or the welfare mother as guiding conceptual premises. . . Black feminist thought that rearticulates experiences such as these fosters an enhanced theoretical understanding of how race, gender, and class oppression are part of a single, historically created system. The Matrix of Domination Additive models of oppression are firmly rooted in the either/or dichotomous thinking of Eurocentric, masculinist thought. One must be either Black or white in such thought systems–persons of ambiguous ra cial and ethnic identity constantly battle with questions such as â€Å"what are your, anyway? This emphasis on quantification and categorization occurs in conjunction with the belief that either/or categories must be ranked. The search for certainty of this sort requires that one side of a dichotomy be privileged while its other is denigrated. Privilege becomes defined in relation to its other. Replacing additive models of oppression with interlocking ones creates possibilities for new paradigms.The significance of seeing race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression is that such an approach fosters a paradigmatic shift of thinking inclusively about other oppressions, such as age, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity. Race, class, and gender represent the three systems of oppression that most heavily affect African-American women. But these systems and the economic, political, and ideological conditions that support them may not be the most fundamental oppre ssions, and they certainly affect many more groups than Black women.Other people of color, Jews, the poor white women, and gays and lesbians have all had similar ideological justifications offered for their subordination. All categories of humans labeled Others have been equated to one another, to animals, and to nature. Placing African-American women and other excluded groups in the center of analysis opens up possibilities for a both/and conceptual stance, one in which all groups possess varying amounts of penalty and privilege in one historically created system. In this system, for example, white women are penalized by their gender but privileged by their race.Depending on the context, an individual may be an oppressor, a member of an oppressed group, or simultaneously oppressor and oppressed. Adhering to a both/and conceptual stance does not mean that race, class, and gender oppression are interchangeable. For example, whereas race, class, and gender oppression operate on the so cial structural level of institutions, gender oppression seems better able to annex the basic power of the erotic and intrude in personal relationships via family dynamics and within individual consciousness.This may be because racial oppression has fostered historically concrete communities among African-Americans and other racial/ethnic groups. These communities have stimulated cultures of resistance. While these communities segregate Blacks from whites, they simultaneously provide counter-institutional buffers that subordinate groups such as African-Americans use to resist the ideas and institutions of dominant groups. Social class may be similarly structured.Traditionally conceptualized as a relationship of individual employees to their employers, social class might be better viewed as a relationship of communities to capitalist political economies. Moreover, significant overlap exists between racial and social class oppression when viewing them through the collective lens of fa mily and community. Existing community structures provide a primary line of resistance against racial and class oppression. But because gender cross-cuts these structures, it finds fewer comparable institutional bases to foster resistance.Embracing a both/and conceptual stance moves us from additive, separate systems approaches to oppression and toward what I now see as the more fundamental issue of the social relations of domination. Race, class, and gender constitute axes of oppression that characterize Black women's experiences within a more generalized matrix of domination. Other groups may encounter different dimensions of the matrix, such as sexual orientation, religion, and age, but the overarching relationship is one of domination and the types of activism it generates.Bell Hooks labels this matrix a â€Å"politic of domination† and describes how it operates along interlocking axes of race, class, and gender oppression. This politic of domination refers to the ideolog ical ground that they share, which is a belief in domination, and a belief in the notions of superior and inferior, which are components of all of those systems. For me it's like a house, they share the foundation, but the foundation is the ideological beliefs around which notions of domination are constructed.Johnella Butler claims that new methodologies growing from this new paradigm would be â€Å"non-hierarchical† and would â€Å"refuse primacy to either race, class, gender, or ethnicity, demanding instead a recognition of their matrix-like interaction. † Race, class, and gender may not be the most fundamental or important systems of oppression, but they have most profoundly affected African-American women. One significant dimension of Black feminist thought is its potential to reveal insights about the social relations of domination organized along other axes such as religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and age.Investigating Black women's particular experience s thus promises to reveal much about the more universal process of domination. Multiple Levels of Domination In addition to being structured along axes such as race, gender, and social class, the matrix of domination is structured on several levels. People experience and resist oppression on three levels: the level of personal biography; the group or community level of the cultural context created by race, class, and gender; and the systemic level of social institutions.Black feminist thought emphasizes all three levels as sites of domination and as potential sites of resistance. Each individual has a unique personal biography made up of concrete experiences, values, motivations, and emotions. No two individuals occupy the same social space; thus no two biographies are identical. Human ties can be freeing and empowering, as is the case with Black women's heterosexual love relationships or in the power of motherhood in African-American families and communities. Human ties can also be confining and oppressive.Situations of domestic violence and abuse or cases in which controlling images foster Black women's internalized oppression represent domination on the personal level. The same situation can look quite different depending on the consciousness one brings to interpret it. This level of individual consciousness is a fundamental area where new knowledge can generate change. Traditional accounts assume that power as domination operates from the top down by forcing and controlling unwilling victims to bend to the will of more powerful superiors.But these accounts fail to account for questions concerning why, for example, women stay with abusive men even with ample opportunity to leave or why slaves did not kill their owners more often. The willingness of the victim to collude in her or his own victimization becomes lost. They also fail to account for sustained resistance by victims, even when chances for victory appear remote. By emphasizing the power of self-def inition and the necessity of a free mind, Black feminist thought speaks to the importance African-American women thinkers place on consciousness as a sphere of freedom.Black women intellectuals realize that domination operates not only by structuring power from the top down but by simultaneously annexing the power as energy of those on the bottom for its own ends. In their efforts to rearticulate the standpoint of African-American women as a group, Black feminist thinkers offer individual African-American women the conceptual tools to resist oppression. The cultural context formed by those experiences and ideas that are shared with other members of a group or community which give meaning to individual biographies constitutes a second level at which domination is experienced and resisted.Each individual biography is rooted in several overlapping cultural contexts–for example, groups defined by race, social class, age, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. The cultural comp onent contributes, among other things, the concepts used in thinking and acting, group validation of an individual's interpretation of concepts, the â€Å"thought models† used in the acquisition of knowledge, and standards used to evaluate individual thought and behavior. The most cohesive cultural contexts are those with identifiable histories, geographic locations, and social institutions.For Black women African-American communities have provided the location for an Afrocentric group perspective to endure. Subjugated knowledges, such as a Black women's culture of resistance, develop in cultural contexts controlled by oppressed groups. Dominant groups aim to replace subjugated knowledge with their own specialized thought because they realize that gaining control over this dimension of subordinate groups' lives simplifies control. While efforts to nfluence this dimension of an oppressed group's experiences can be partially successful, this level is more difficult to control t han dominant groups would have us believe. For example, adhering to externally derived standards of beauty leads many African-American women to dislike their skin color or hair texture. Similarly, internalizing Eurocentric gender ideology leads some Black men to abuse Black women. These are cases of the successful infusion of the dominant group's specialized thought into the everyday cultural context of African-Americans.But the long-standing existence of a Black women's culture of resistance as expressed through Black women's relationships with one another, the Black women's blues tradition, and the voices of contemporary African-American women writers all attest to the difficulty of eliminating the cultural context as a fundamental site of resistance. Domination is also experienced and resisted on the third level of social institutions controlled by the dominant group: namely, schools, churches, the media, and other formal organizations.These institutions expose individuals to the specialized thought representing the dominant group's standpoint and interests. While such institutions offer the promise of both literacy and other skills that can be used for individual empowerment and social transformation, they simultaneously require docility and passivity. Such institutions would have us believe that the theorizing of elites constitutes the whole of theory.The existence of African-American women thinkers such as Maria Stewart, Sojourner Truth, Zora Neale Hurston, and Fannie Lou Hamer who, though excluded from and/or marginalized within such institutions, continued to produce theory effectively opposes this hegemonic view. Moreover, the more recent resurgence of Black feminist thought within these institutions, the case of the outpouring of contemporary Black feminist thought in history and literature, directly challenges the Eurocentric masculinist thought pervading these institutions.Resisting the Matrix of Domination Domination operates by seducing, pressuri ng, or forcing African-American women and members of subordinated groups to replace individual and cultural ways of knowing with the dominant group's specialized thought. As a result, suggests Audre Lorde, â€Å"the true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us. † Or as Toni Cade Bambara succinctly states, â€Å"revolution begins with the self, in the self. Lorde and Bambara's suppositions raise an important issue for Black feminist intellectuals and for all scholars and activists working for social change. Although most individuals have little difficulty identifying their own victimization within some major system of oppression–whether it be by race, social class, religion, physical ability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age or gender–they typically fail to see how their thoughts and actions uphold someone else's subordination. Thus white feminists routinely point with confidence to their oppression as women but resist seeing how much their white skin privileges them.African-Americans who possess eloquent analyses of racism often persist in viewing poor white women as symbols of white power. The radical left fares little better. â€Å"If only people of color and women could see their true class interests,† they argue, â€Å"class solidarity would eliminate racism and sexism. † In essence, each group identifies the oppression with which it feels most comfortable as being fundamental and classifies all others as being of lesser importance. Oppression is filled with such contradictions because these approaches fail to recognize that a matrix of domination contains few pure victims or oppressors.Each individual derives varying amounts of penalty and privilege from the multiple systems of oppression which frame everyone's lives. A broader focus stresses the interlocking nature of oppressions that are s tructured on multiple levels, from the individual to the social structural, and which are part of a larger matrix of domination. Adhering to this inclusive model provides the conceptual space needed for each individual to see that she or he is both a member of multiple dominant groups and a member of multiple subordinate groups.Shifting the analysis to investigating how the matrix of domination is structured along certain axes–race, gender, and class being the axes of investigation for AfricanAmerican women–reveals that different systems of oppression may rely in varying degrees on systemic versus interpersonal mechanisms of domination. Empowerment involves rejecting the dimensions of knowledge, whether personal, cultural, or institutional, that perpetuate objectification and dehumanization.African-American women and other individuals in subordinate groups become empowered when we understand and use those dimensions of our individual, group, and disciplinary ways of kn owing that foster our humanity as fully human subjects. This is the case when Black women value our self-definitions, participate in a Black women's activist tradition, invoke an Afrocentric feminist epistemology as central to our worldview, and view the skills gained in schools as part of a focused education for Black community development. C.Wright Mills identifies this holistic epistemology as the â€Å"sociological imagination† and identifies its task and its promise as a way of knowing that enables individuals to grasp the relations between history and biography within society. Using one's standpoint to engage the sociological imagination can empower the individual. â€Å"My fullest concentration of energy is available to me,† Audre Lorde maintains, â€Å"only when I integrate all the parts of who I am, openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves, without the restriction of externally i mposed definition. Black Women as Agents of Knowledge Living life as an African-American woman is a necessary prerequisite for producing Black feminist thought because within Black women's communities thought is validated and produced with reference to a particular set of historical, material, and epistemological conditions. African-American women who adhere to the idea that claims about Black women must be substantiated by Black women's sense of our own experiences and who anchor our knowledge claims in an Afrocentric feminist epistemology have produced a rich tradition of Black feminist thought.Traditionally such women were blues singers, poets, autobiographers, storytellers, and orators validated by everyday Black women as experts on a Black women's standpoint. Only a few unusual African-American feminist scholars have been able to defy Eurocentric masculinist epistemologies and explicitly embrace an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. Consider Alice Walker's description of Zora N eal Hurston: In my mind, Zora Neale Hurston, Billie Holiday, and Bessie Smith form a sort of unholy trinity.Zora belongs in the tradition of black women singers, rather than among â€Å"the literati. † . . . Like Billie and Jessie she followed her own road, believed in her own gods pursued her own dreams, and refused to separate herself from â€Å"common† people. Zora Neal Hurston is an exception for prior to 1950, few African-American women earned advanced degrees and most of those who did complied with Eurocentric masculinist epistemologies.Although these women worked on behalf of Black women, they did so within the confines of pervasive race and gender oppression. Black women scholars were in a position to see the exclusion of African-American women from scholarly discourse, and the thematic content of their work often reflected their interest in examining a Black women's standpoint. However, their tenuous status in academic institutions led them to adhere to Euroce ntric masculinist epistemologies so that their work would be accepted as scholarly.As a result, while they produced Black feminist thought, those African-American women most likely to gain academic credentials were often least likely to produce Black feminist thought that used an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. An ongoing tension exists for Black women as agents of knowledge, a tension rooted in the sometimes conflicting demands of Afrocentricity and feminism. Those Black women who are feminists are critical of how Black culture and many of its traditions oppress women.For example, the strong pronatal beliefs in African-American communities that foster early motherhood among adolescent girls, the lack of self-actualization that can accompany the double-day of paid employment and work in the home, and the emotional and physical abuse that many Black women experience from their fathers, lovers, and husbands all reflect practices opposed by African-American women who are feminists. But these same women may have a parallel desire as members of an oppressed racial group to affirm the value of that same culture and traditions.Thus strong Black mothers appear in Black women's literature, Black women's economic contributions to families is lauded, and a curious silence exists concerning domestic abuse. As more African-American women earn advanced degrees, the range of Black feminist scholarship is expanding. Increasing numbers of African-American women scholars are explicitly choosing to ground their work in Black women's experiences, and, by doing so, they implicitly adhere to an Afrocentric feminist epistemology.Rather than being restrained by their both/and status of marginality, these women make creative use of their outsider-within status and produce innovative Afrocentric feminist thought. The difficulties these women face lie less in demonstrating that they have mastered white male epistemologies than in resisting the hegemonic nature of these patterns of th ought in order to see, value, and use existing alternative Afrocentric feminist ways of knowing. In establishing the legitimacy of their knowledge claims, Black women scholars who want to develop Afrocentric feminist thought may encounter the often conflicting standards of three key groups.First, Black feminist thought must be validated by ordinary Atrican-American women who, in the words of Hannah Nelson, grow to womanhood â€Å"in a world where the saner you are, the madder you are made to appear. † To be credible in the eyes of this group, scholars must be personal advocates for their material, be accountable for the consequences of their work, have lived or experienced their material in some fashion, and be willing to engage in dialogues about their findings with ordinary, everyday people. Second, Black feminist thought also must be accepted by the community of Black women scholars.These scholars place varying amounts of importance on rearticulating a Black women's standp oint using an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. Third, Afrocentric feminist thought within academia must be prepared to confront Eurocentric masculinist political and epistemological requirements. The dilemma facing Black women scholars engaged in creating Black feminist thought is that a knowledge claim that meets the criteria of adequacy for one group and thus is judged to be an acceptable knowledge claim may not be translatable into the terms of a different group.Using the example of Black English, June Jordan illustrates the difficulty of moving among epistemologies: You cannot â€Å"translate† instances of Standard English preoccupied with abstraction or with nothing/nobody evidently alive into Black English. That would warp the language into uses antithetical to the guiding perspective of its community of users. Rather you must first change those Standard English sentences, themselves, into ideas consistent with the person-centered assumptions of Black English.Although both worldviews share a common vocabulary, the ideas themselves defy direct translation. For Black women who are agents of knowledge, the marginality that accompanies outsider-within status can be the source of both frustration and creativity. In an attempt to minimize the differences between the cultural context of African-American communities and the expectations of social institutions, some women dichotomize their behavior and become two different people. Over time, the strain of doing this can be enormous.Others reject their cultural context and work against their own best interests by enforcing the dominant group's specialized thought. Still others manage to inhabit both contexts but do so critically, using their outsider-within perspectives as a source of insights and ideas. But while outsiders within can make substantial personal cost. â€Å"Eventually it comes to you,† observes Lorraine Hansberry, â€Å"the thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is ine vitably that which must also make you lonely. Once Black feminist scholars face the notion that, on certain dimensions of a Black women's standpoint, it may be fruitless to try and translate ideas from an Afrocentric feminist epistemology into a Eurocentric masculinist framework, then other choices emerge. Rather than trying to uncover universal knowledge claims that can withstand the translation from one epistemology to another (initially, at least), Black women intellectuals might find efforts to rearticulate a Black women's standpoint especially fruitful.Rearticulating a Black women's standpoint refashions the concrete and reveals the more universal human dimensions of Black women's everyday lives. â€Å"I date all my work,† notes Nikki Giovanni, â€Å"because I think poetry, or any writing, is but a reflection of the moment. The universal comes from the particular. † Bell Hooks maintains, â€Å"my goal as a feminist thinker and theorist is to take that abstraction and articulate it in a language that renders it accessible–not less complex or rigorous–but simply more accessible. † The complexity exists; interpreting it remains the unfulfilled challenge for Black women intellectuals.Situated Knowledge, Subjugated Knowledge, and Partial Perspectives â€Å"My life seems to be an increasing revelation of the intimate trace of universal struggle,† claims June Jordan: You begin with your family and the kids on the block, and next you open your eyes to what you call your people and that leads you into land reform into Black English into Angola leads you back to your own bed where you lie by yourself; wondering if you deserve to be peaceful, or trusted or desired or left to the freedom of your own unfaltering heart. And the scale shrinks to the use of a skull: your own interior cage.Lorraine Hansberry expresses a similar idea: â€Å"I believe that one of the most sound ideas in dramatic writing is that in order to create t he universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific. Universality, I think, emerges from the truthful identity of what is. † Jordan and Hansberry's insights that universal struggle and truth may wear a particularistic, intimate face suggest a new epistemological stance concerning how we negotiate competing knowledge claims and identify â€Å"truth. † The context in which African-American women's ideas are nurtured or suppressed matters.Understanding the content and epistemology of Black women's ideas as specialized knowledge requires attending to the context from which those ideas emerge. While produced by individuals, Black feminist thought as situated knowledge is embedded in the communities in which African-American women find ourselves. A Black women's standpoint and those of other oppressed groups is not only embedded in a context but exists in a situation characterized by domination. Because Black women's ideas have been suppressed, this suppression ha s stimulated African-American women to create knowledge that empowers people to resist domination.Thus Afrocentric feminist thought represents a subjugated knowledge. A Black women's standpoint may provide a preferred stance from which to view the matrix of domination because, in principle, Black feminist thought as specialized thought is less likely than the specialized knowledge produced by dominant groups to deny the connection between ideas and the vested interests of their creators. However, Black feminist thought as subjugated knowledge is not exempt from critical analysis, because subjugation is not grounds for an epistemology.Despite African-American women's potential power to reveal new insights about the matrix of domination, a Black women's standpoint is only one angle of vision. Thus Black feminist thought represents a partial perspective. The overarching matrix of domination houses multiple groups, each with varying experiences with penalty and privilege that produce co rresponding partial perspectives, situated knowledges, and, for clearly identifiable subordinate groups, subjugated knowledges. No one group has a clear angle of vision.No one group possesses the theory or methodology that allows it to discover the absolute â€Å"truth† or, worse yet, proclaim its theories and methodologies as the universal norm evaluating other groups' experiences. Given that groups are unequal in power in making themselves heard, dominant groups have a vested interest in suppressing the knowledge produced by subordinate groups. Given the existence of multiple and competing knowledge claims to â€Å"truth† produced by groups with partial perspectives, what epistemological approach offers the most promise? Dialogue and EmpathyWestern social and political thought contains two alternative approaches to ascertaining â€Å"truth. † The first, reflected in positivist science, has long claimed that absolute truths exist and that the task of scholarshi p is to develop objective, unbiased tools of science to measure these truths. . . . Relativism, the second approach, has been forwarded as the antithesis of and inevitable outcome of rejecting a positivist science. From a relativist perspective all groups produce specialized thought and each group's thought is equally valid. No group can claim to have a better interpretation of the â€Å"truth† than another.In a sense, relativism represents the opposite of scientific ideologies of objectivity. As epistemological stances, both positivist science and relativism minimize the importance of specific location in influencing a group's knowledge claims, the power inequities among groups that produce subjugated knowledges, and the strengths and limitations of partial perspective. The existence of Black feminist thought suggests another alternative to the ostensibly objective norms of science and to relativism's claims that groups with competing knowledge claims are equal. . . This app roach to Afrocentric feminist thought allows African-American women to bring a Black women's standpoint to larger epistemological dialogues concerning the nature of the matrix of domination. Eventually such dialogues may get us to a point at which, claims Elsa Barkley Brown, â€Å"all people can learn to center in another experience, validate it, and judge it by its own standards without need of comparison or need to adopt that framework as their own. In such dialogues, â€Å"one has no need to ‘decenter' anyone in order to center someone else; one has only to constantly, appropriately, ‘pivot the center. ‘ † Those ideas that are validated as true by African-American women, African-American men, Latina lesbians, Asian-American women, Puerto Rican men, and other groups with distinctive standpoints, with each group using the epistemological approaches growing from its unique standpoint, thus become the most â€Å"objective† truths. Each group speaks fr om its own standpoint and shares its own partial, situated knowledge.But because each group perceives its own truth as partial, its knowledge is unfinished. Each group becomes better able to consider other groups' standpoints without relinquishing the uniqueness of its own standpoint or suppressing other groups' partial perspectives. â€Å"What is always needed in the appreciation of art, or life,† maintains Alice Walker, â€Å"is the larger perspective. Connections made, or at least attempted, where none existed before, the straining to encompass in one's glance at the varied world the common thread, the unifying theme through immense diversity. Partiality and not universality is the condition of being heard; individuals and groups forwarding knowledge claims without owning their position are deemed less credible than those who do. Dialogue is critical to the success of this epistemological approach, the type of dialogue long extant in the Afrocentric call-and-response trad ition whereby power dynamics are fluid, everyone has a voice, but everyone must listen and respond to other voices in order to be allowed to remain in the community.Sharing a common cause fosters dialogue and encourages groups to transcend their differences. . . . African-American women have been victimized by race, gender, and class oppression. But portraying Black women solely as passive, unfortunate recipients of racial and sexual abuse stifles notions that Black women can actively work to change our circumstances and bring about changes in our lives.Similarly, presenting African-American women solely as heroic figures who easily engage in resisting oppression on all fronts minimizes the very real costs of oppression and can foster the perception that Black women need no help because we can â€Å"take it. † Black feminist thought's emphasis on the ongoing interplay between Black women's oppression and Black women's activism presents the matrix of domination as responsive t o human agency.Such thought views the world as a dynamic place where the goal is not merely to survive or to fit in or to cope; rather, it becomes a place where we feel ownership and accountability. The existence of Afrocentric feminist thought suggests that there is always choice, and power to act, no matter how bleak the situation may appear to be. Viewing the world as one in the making raises the issue of individual responsibility for bringing about change. It also shows that while individual empowerment is key, only collective action can effectively generate lasting social transformation of political and economic institutions.