Eastern Martial Arts and the Cultivation of Persuasive Power

Martial arts, which incorporate Eastern philosophical and cultural perspectives, enhance rhetorical skill along with self-defense mastery. Furthermore, Western styled rhetorical movements within workplaces can benefit from the integration of Eastern self-cultivation approaches, specifically Taoism and Zen. Eastern martial arts training grounded in Zen and Taoist precepts, such as the interdependence of seeming opposites, the persuasive power of restraint and humility, and the benefit of applying pathos as a primary rhetorical movement, increases self-knowledge. Through dedicated practice grounded in mutual respect and an openness to challenge physical and mental limitations, the life artist emerges by simultaneously obtaining self-defense ability and virtuous wisdom. Re-energized with persuasive energies that transcend conventional Western communicative means, the artist lessens their need to fight, argue, or dominate. Additionally, by cultivating traits such as patience, compassion, steadiness and self-control during group martial arts classes, the student continues to apply the lessons of the training studio to daily life, armed with a clear and focused mind and equipped to overcome communication challenges in the workplace peacefully

Vertical Violence and the Student Nurse: Is This Toxic for Professional Identity Development?

This narrative inquiry centers on student nurses’ stories of vertical violence perpetuated by clinical registered nursing staff and the meaning that students associate with this phenomenon. Student nurses are the very young and potentially impressionable members of our profession; therefore, a concern of this study was if vertical violence affects professional identity development for the student nurse. Additionally through stories revealed by these participants, this study attempted to explore whether perceptions of violence are believed to be a rite of passage into the profession. Students are the future of our profession, and it is important that this phenomenon be understood from the students’ perspectives. Nurse leaders must be aware of vertical violence for the very reason that it may be affecting the young of the profession. Students will become the future healthcare workers that care for patients, that become our employees, and that speak for our profession one day. It is important that leaders be aware of what affects them, which can in turn affect our healthcare organizations and the quality of care that patients receive. Through narrative inquiry, this research was intended to elicit stories as a way to construct meaning of vertical violence from the student nurses’ perspectives in order to better understand this phenomenon of interest. The participants in this study were in their final year of nursing education at a university located in the southeast United States and were subjected to vertical violence in the clinical setting by clinical staff registered nurses. The participant sample size included four registered nursing students from the generic class, and necessary information pertaining to the study was given to each. All four nursing student participants verbally agreed and signed the informed consent for inclusion in the study. Participants were instructed that they may withdraw from the study at any time. Through narrative inquiry, the researcher conducted two 1-hour interviews with each participant. This allowed for collection of data in the initial hour with a follow-up interview for participant check of original data and clarification. It was the aim of this study to attempt to convey the meaning of the students’ perspectives of vertical violence and how it affected their professional identity development as the future generation of the profession

(Be)coming home: the complexity of home as revealed in young adult novels of disaster

Inspired by the researcher’s work with five displaced New Orleans teenagers in the months after Hurricane Katrina, this research examined twelve young adult novels in which characters face a loss of or damage to home in the wake of a natural or humanly-caused disaster. The study sought ways in which home is represented in young adult literature of disaster by analyzing passages in which characters discuss, remember, imagine, and rebuild or reestablish home after its damage or loss. A phenomenological approach was used to examine these fictional experiences of home in order to discern their contribution to an understanding of the concept of home itself. Findings indicated that the novels represented home as a complex concept brought to light in its absence. Characters’ experiences of home included elements of the social (relationship with others in home places); the personal (identity and ownership); the physical/geographical (locations that are home); the instinctual (an innate drive to seek a place of safety and shelter); the emotional (emotional connections to home and the emotional upheaval of displacement); and the temporal/historical (time spent in home places). With disaster continuing to strike across the globe—earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornados—a deeper understanding of the nature of displacement and the ways in which home is conceptualized and rebuilt is of value for both the teens who read young adult literature and the adults who work with them. By attending to the ways in which characters grapple with notions of home in the face of disaster, teachers, librarians, and researchers can gain insight into the needs of those displaced from home. Readers, both teens and adults, can gain empathy regarding the experience of home’s loss, and those who find themselves struggling with recreating a sense of home can find comfort and insight in characters’ experiences

Making Peace: Next Steps in Colombia

After a brief history of the longest-running insurgency in the Western Hemisphere, this article contextualizes recent developments in the transition of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to legal politics in Colombia. The authors also provide policy recommendations for the US Department of Defense

Development of dry coal feeders

Design and fabrication of equipment of feed coal into pressurized environments were investigated. Concepts were selected based on feeder system performance and economic projections. These systems include: two approaches using rotating components, a gas or steam driven ejector, and a modified standpipe feeder concept. Results of development testing of critical components, design procedures, and performance prediction techniques are reviewed

Specific Adherence of Escherichia coli (Strain RDEC-1) to Membranous (M) Cells of the Peyer\u27s Patch in Escherichia coli Diarrhea in the Rabbit

The RDEC-1 strain Escherichia coli is an enteroadherent bacterium that produces diarrhea in the rabbit. A histopathologically similar disease has been described in humans. The RDEC-1 bacterium adheres to the epithelium of lymphoid follicles in rabbit ileal Peyer\u27s patches by 4 h postinoculation, 3-4 d before its adherence to absorptive epithelium. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the RDEC-1 bacterium adheres to a specific cell type in the lymphoid follicle epithelium. RDEC-1 bacteria were given in a dose of 2 X 10^6 by the orogastric route to postweanling rabbits. The distal ileal Peyer\u27s patch, taken from 5 control rabbits and 43 rabbits at intervals in the first 24 h postinoculation, was examined by routine and high-voltage electron microscopy. The RDEC-1 bacterium adhered specifically to M (membranous) rather than absorptive epithelial cells of the lymphoid follicle epithelium. Further understanding of how the bacterium attaches to M cells, which transport antigens to intraepithelial lymphocytes, could be useful in designing vaccines to protect mucosal surfaces

Educational Leadership and the Continued Need for Minority Academic and Professional Organizations in the Obama Age

Educator preparation and development is a major concern in our current school system. Educators are being challenged with higher demands and requirements in preparing our future generations for the 21st century. Becoming a highly qualified teacher in today’s educational system is dependent, in part, by how well teachers work together with their principal and colleagues. The ability to share with others and collaborate for the purpose of providing instruction that is conducive to enhance student development is critical given the many demands that are being put upon the system