Analysis Of Kamala Das s Projection Of Self Essay

Tension and Moral Dilemma occupies an important place, position and appears to be the kernel of Kamala Das’s poetry. Kamala Das’s projection of self is the projection of tension and dilemma in her life. Her projection is biological, psychological, philosophical, confessional, self-expressive, self-recordative, self-explorative and self-realised. Her autobiography â€Å"My Story† is clearly projected in her poems and she is exception to others. Her tension of life and symbioses of opposites form the nucleus, forte and fulcrum of her autobiography. DISCUSSION A mental state, tension is a psychic affair. It is a kind of duality (double-consciousness), uncertainty, schism and split in mind. Similarly, dilemma is a psychological concept of one’s mind. It is a state of indecisiveness what to do and what not to do a Hamletian to be or not to be. It is a sort of qualm, query, monotony, inner agitation and ambivalent attitude. In other words, Kamala Das’s tension and moral dilemma is not only found in her poetry but also in her novels, prose pieces and autobiography in different stages of her life. The real source of creative tension and dilemma in her poetry is between her pervasive philosophic preoccupation and an insistent awareness of the ties stemming from the surrounding milieu. Her problem of tension and dilemma is due to the dissonance and discrepancies of her present background and her own personal life or private self. Apart from this, her tension and dilemma lies in quest

Essay Disabilities in The Short Bus by Jonathan Mooney

In the book, The Short Bus, Jonathan Mooney’s thesis is that there is more to people than their disabilities, it is not restricting nor is it shameful but infact it is beautiful in its own way. With a plan to travel the United States, Mooney decides to travel in a Short bus with intentions of collecting experiences from people who have overcome--or not overcome--being labeled disabled or abnormal. In this Mooney reinvents this concept that normal people suck; that a simple small message of â€Å"you’re not normal† could have a destructive and deteriorating effect. With an idea of what disabilities are, Mooney’s trip gives light to disabilities even he was not prepared to face, that he feared. Mooney embarks on this trip, starting in LA to his†¦show more content†¦What is important is that most of these individuals, who have been labeled disabled are fully able people that if under different circumstances would have more opportunity to advance. However, due to their labels they must fight society in order to fight for themselves. Throughout the book, Mooney not only focused on mental disabilities but physical ones because as they are labeled together, they are very different Mooney then meets a deaf and blind child named, Ashley who is the first person Mooney admits is abnormal. It was due to, two out of five senses not working properly that even Mooney labeled Ashley as broken. During this Mooney discovered the extent of disabilities but also the extent of limitations placed on people with physical limitations. He recounts philosopher, Aristotles views on the able body and the limitations of those who are not given able bodies. Mooney describes that when physical disabilities such as Ashleys, the level of intelligence possible for these people are viewed almost nonexistent. How can one learn if they cannot see or hear? It is Ashleys determination, it is the fact that her disability make it difficult for her to learn but do not stop her from learning that opens a new light is resilience in Mooney. It is one o f the instances in which Mooney, himself learns a valuable lesson. Later on Mooney meets Chad, who has cerebral palsy, and who loves riding roller coasters. During their encounter Chad pointed down to hisShow MoreRelatedReaction Paper1523 Words   |  7 PagesReaction Paper The Short Bus CON 712 Counseling Children and Adolescent Adrianne Green October 19, 2010 Before I began reading this book, I took a moment to think about the title: The Short Bus a Journey beyond Normal and what this book might entail. The term short bus brought back memories to me as a kid, people who were not smart enough to ride the long bus; or people who attended a special school because they were mentally retarded or mentally challenged. I felt connected to some of theRead MoreKent Roberts Is One Of The Character In The Book By Jonathan1160 Words   |  5 PagesRoberts is one of the character in the book by Jonathan Mooney, who was diagnosed with ADHD. ADHD stands for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It is a condition which causes symptoms such as inattentiveness, impulsivity and hyperactivity within individuals. Kent struggles with his ability to conform to the ques of society. As a result, Kent has trouble managing time, being organized, achieving and maintaining goals and keeping a job. Despite his short comings, Kent is extremely gifted and comes

Proceedings of Healthy Buildings 2000, Vol 1 Free Essays

Proceedings of Healthy Buildings 2000, Vol 1 629 PRODUCTIVITY AND INDOOR ENVIRONMENT Derek Clements-Croome1 and Li Baizhan2 University of Reading, Department of Construction Management and Engineering, UK Jukes Associates, UK ABSTRACT Surveys in several office buildings have shown that crowded work places, job dissatisfaction and physical environment are the main factors affecting productivity. the data was produced and analyzed using occupational stress indicator in conjunction with the analytical hierarchical process. hermal problems, stuffiness, sick building syndrome factors and crowded work places were most frequent complaints. We will write a custom essay sample on Proceedings of Healthy Buildings 2000, Vol 1 or any similar topic only for you Order Now the results suggest that the productivity could be improved by 4 to 10% by improving the office environmental conditions. KEYWORDS: SBS, productivity, thermal comfort, perceived air quality, stress INTRODUCTION It is much higher cost to employ people then it is to maintain and operate a building, hence spending money on improving the work environment is the most cost effective way of improving productivity because of small percentage increase in productivity of 0. % to 2% can have dramatic effects on the profitability of the company. The current state of knowledge on this subject is described by Clements-Croome [1]. Practical applications of some of this knowledge is described by Oseland and Barlett [2] METHODS This research focuses on the relationship between productivity and the indoor environment in the offices and takes into account the fact that productivity depends on other factors by using an Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI) which has been developed to include an environme ntal dimension [3,4]. OSI is a job satisfaction scale involving question or statements, asking respondent to state what they think or feel about their job as whole or specific aspects of it. Likeret scaling using five, seven or nine point scales is usually used. The OSI has been demonstrated by Arnold [5]. The occupational stress indicator is designed to gather information about groups as well as individuals and it attempts to measure the major sources of occupational pressure; occupational stress; coping mechanisms and individual differences which may moderate the impact of stress. An environmental dimension has been built into this indicator covering temperature, ventilation, humidity, indoor air quality, lighting, noise, crowded work space and is referred to as EPOSI which has been used to gather information about the occupants in the buildings that have been surveyed. This method of self assessment provides valuable information on individual as well as group responses. The data from the questionnaire is analyzed using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) originated by Saaty[6]. AHP uses nine point judgement scales for use with detailed questionnaires aided by semi-structured interviews. The method is based on the theory of 630 Exposure, human responses and building investigations hierarchies and is a way of structuring complex multi-dimensional systems, by analyzing the interaction between elements in each stratum of the hierarchy in terms of their impact on elements in the stratum immediately above. It is possible to have several levels of hierarchies, but in this case five have been selected beginning with productivity followed by human factors; system factors; health factors; environmental factors. The questionnaires were answered by occupants across various work grades and tasks and were designed to elicit: background information about the organization and the workplace †¢ how much the environment and the job cause dissatisfaction †¢ the feelings of the subject about their current working situation †¢ the principle causal factors influencing health symptoms of occupants †¢ which factors influence job satisfaction and productivity Semi-structu red interviews were carried out to establish more details about attitudes and reasons behind responses. Office survey A detailed environmental survey was carried out at an office in Reading in 1996. he questionnaire was in five sections: Section A The Questionnaire asks the occupants to judge the physical factors in the environment covering temperature, stuffiness and draughts, dryness, indoor air quality, sunlight, lightning, noise and vibration, and crowded workplaces. Questions were also asked about personal health; job stress; job satisfaction; an overall opinion about the indoor environment; including questions about five categories of sick building syndrome covering sensory irritation; skin irritations; nervous problems; nasal and odor complaints. Section B The questionnaire concerned subjects views on how they liked the office layout and decoration as well as questions about their job in relation to productivity. They are also asked to rate how much personal control they felt had over temperature and lighting. Four questions were asked to determine self assessed productivity covering the amount of work accomplished; quality of work; feeling of creativity; and degree of responsibility. Section C The questionnaire was concerning information which describes the characteristics of the organization, workplace and some personal information. Occupants were then asked about human factors such as well-being; ability to perform; motivation; job satisfaction and technical competence. Finally there was a group of questions concerned with indoor environment; weather; outdoor view; organizational factors; occupational factors; facilities and service; and personal factors. Proceedings of Healthy Buildings 2000, Vol 1 631 Section D The questionnaire was based on information gathered using EPOSI and five major human factors were identified which influence productivity ( well-being, ability to perform, motivation, job satisfaction, technical competence). Six system factors ( indoor environment, weather and outdoor views, organizational aspects, occupational issues, facilities and services, personal aspects) were examined to see how they influenced the human factors. Section E The questionnaire covered interactions between sick building sickness symptoms and an array of personal, occupational and environmental factors. RESULTS Analysis of the data shows that the level of productivity by self assessment reduces as the workspace becomes more crowded, as job dissatisfaction increases and as overall dissatisfaction of the indoor environment increases. he results lead to the overall conclusion that an average the self assessed productivity could be improved by about 10% by improving the office environmental conditions. The Spearman rank-correlation coefficient, rs, was used to assess measure of association between any two variables. The statistical analyzes of the results is given in detail by Li [7]. It was shown that a significant rank-c orrelation exists between self-assessed productivity and environment, job dissatisfaction and job stress, as shown in Table 1. Table 1. The association between self assessed productivity, environment and job factors. Factor Associated Factor Spearman RankCorrelation Coefficient Self-assessed productivity Unsatisfactory indoor -0. 49 environment Job dissatisfaction -0. 36 Job stress -0. 21 Unsatisfactory indoor Job stress +0. 31 environment Job dissatisfaction +0. 43 Job stress Job dissatisfaction +0. 36 There is unique relationship between the individual, the environment and the building they inhabit. Satisfaction with the environment. satisfaction with the environment arises from a number of issues apart from personal health (r=0. 34), sick building syndrome symptoms (r=0. 5), visual and aural problems (r=0. 36), thermal problems (r=0. 49), and crowded work space (r=0. 50). The correlation coefficients were statistically significant for p F? = 0,01 [3, 152] = 3. 92 ) (1) This indicates that subjects who suffer from physical environmental factors will suffer an increase in overall unsatisfactory environment which is positively related to thermal problems, crowded workspace and sick building syndr ome symptoms. The multiple regression equation for job satisfaction was found to be: JD = 1. 2055 + 0. 3157* JS + 0. 2572 * En + 0. 1023 * CS r = 0. 5367, F=19. 56 F? = 0,01 [3,149] = 3. 92 ) (2) This shows that high job dissatisfaction results from job stress, crowded workspace and an overall unsatisfactory environment. For self assessed productivity, the regression equation was developed using a step wise regression procedure: P=6. 8510-0. 3625*En-0. 1542*JD-0. 1329*CS (r = 0. 5083, F= 14. 86 F? = 0,01 [3, 132] = 3. 94 (3) The principal factors which affect self assessed productivity in the offices surveyed were an overall unsatisfactory environment, crowded workspace and job dissatisfaction. A distinction was made between direct effects (i. e. those effects that do not result from any other variable in the model) and – secondary or indirect effects which arise from the interaction between one or more variables in the model. (Cohen 1983). For example an overall unsatisfactory environment has a direct effect on self assessed productivity, but there is also an indirect effect because it also affects job satisfaction which in turn also affects self assessed productivity. The total indirect effect is estimated by the product of the effects of an overall unsatisfactory environment on job satisfaction, and job satisfaction on self assessed productivity. The total effect of environment on self assessed productivity is then the result of combining the direct and indirect effects. Further analyzes showed that the most common complaints about unsatisfactory environments were those connected with high or low temperature variations; stale and stuffy air; dry or humid air. Proceedings of Healthy Buildings 2000, Vol 1 633 CONCLUSIONS The principal conclusions were: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Individual responses illustrate that the majority of respondents believed that the office environment had a direct influence on their well-being and self assessed productivity. When dissatisfaction with the environment and job were high there was a low level of self assessed productivity. Results showed that there were more occupants suffering from an overall unsatisfactory environment than from job stress and job dissatisfaction. People may be wholly satisfied with their job, but could also be quite unhappy about their work environment. In general however people reporting negative attitudes towards the environment were also the people with high job stress and job dissatisfaction. Crowded workspaces, thermal problems, and sick building symptoms due to whatever cause were the principal complaints about unsatisfactory environments. Nearly two thirds of the occupants thought that a 10% or more increase in their productivity was possible by improving the office environment. Results of the analysis also indicated that self assessed productivity could be improved by about 10%. Further analysis using the AHP model illustrated that the ability to perform, and wellbeing, were the two most important human factors that influenced the productivity of occupants in the offices surveyed. These factors together with job satisfaction and indoor environment form a virtuous cluster which is highly important in designing creative workplaces. In this study there was a small effect of the outdoor environment on productivity but this was insignificant compared to the effect of the indoor environment. Indoor air quality and pollution were the most important environmental factors influencing sick building syndrome. Compared with other personal factors (e. g. gender and type A behavior) and occupational factors, job stress was the next most significant factor which gave rise to sick building syndrome symptoms.. Results showed that the primary factors influencing productivity varied between organizations, and also between buildings or offices within the same building. This research has established a reliable methodology for evaluating self assessed productivity. Symbols CS En F JD JS p P r rs SBS Th ———— Crowded working space (7 score) An overall unsatisfactory indoor environment (7 score) For statistical F-test Job dissatisfaction (7 score) Job stress (7 score) The level of statistical significance Self assessed productivity (9 score) The correlation coefficient Spearman rank-correlation coefficient Suffer from SBS symptoms (7 score) Suffer from thermal conditions (7 score) 634 Exposure, human responses and building investigations REFERENCES: 1. Clements-Croome, D. J. , 2000, Creating the Productive Workplace, Spon Routledge. 2. Oseland, N. , Bartlett, P. , 1999, Improving Office Productivity, Longman. 3. Cooper, C. L. , 1998, Occupational Stress Indicator Management Guide, NFERNelson, Windsor. 4. Clements-Croome, D. J. , Li B. , 1995, Impact of Indoor Environment on Productivity, Workplace Comfort Forum, Royal Institute of British Architects, London. 5. Arnold, J. , Cooper, C. L. , Robertson, I. , (1998), Work Psychology: Understanding Human Behaviour in the Workplace, 3ra Edition, Financial Times-Pitman Publishing. 6. Saaty, T. L. , 1972, Analytic Hierarchy Process, McGraw-Hill, New York. 7. Li, B. 1998, Assessing the Influence of Indoor Environment on Self Reported Productivity in Offices, Doctor of Philosophy Thesis, Department of Construction Management and Engineering, University of Reading. 8. Raw, G. J. , et al. , 1989, Further Findings From the Office Environment Survey, Part I: Productivity, Building Research Establishment, Note No. N79/89. 9. Anderson, D. , et al. , 1990, Statistics for Business a nd Economics, 4th Edition, West Publishing Company, USA. 10. Cohen, J. , Cohen, P. , 1983, Applied Multiple Regression – Correlation Analysis for Behaviourial Sciences, 2†³d Edition, Lawrence Earle Baum Associates, New Jersey/London. How to cite Proceedings of Healthy Buildings 2000, Vol 1, Essay examples

Dot

Dot-com Bubble and Boo.com Essay Chapter case: the Failure of Boo. com MBA 612- International Management Submitted to Charls Habis Submitted by Bijaya shrestha Date: April 7, 2009 Chapter case: the failure of Boo. com Question 1: was Boo. com doomed more by its faulty strategy or by its poor implementation? Boo. com was a European company founded in 1998 and operating out of a London head office, which was founded by three Swedish entrepreneurs. Boo. com is the first European global e-commerce entity. The company is launching in the US and Europe at the same time. With offices in London, New York, Stockholm and Munich, they have a desire to permit each national site to be driven by their local developers. The issues Timing Boo. com launched several months of delays after dropping two launched dates and problems with the user experience when Boo. com first launched. Indeed sales had grown rapidly and were around $500,000 for the fortnight prior to the site being shut down. The fundamental problem was that the company was following an extremely aggressive growth plan, launching simultaneously in multiple European countries. This plan was founded on the assumption of the ready availability of venture capital money to see the company through the first few years of trading until sales caught up with operating expenses. Such capital ceased to be available for all practical purposes in the second quarter of 2000 following dramatic falls in the dot crash following the  Dot-com bubble. Boo would probably have failed for this reason even if the user experience had been excellent and the launch on schedule. Problems with the user experience The presentation of products and content on their site were both imaginative and offer an experience. The Boo. com website was widely criticized as poorly designed for its target audience, going against many  usability  conventions. The site relied heavily on  JavaScript  and  Flash  technology to display  3D  views of wares as well as Miss Boo, a sales-assistant-style  avatar. The first publicly released version of the site was fairly hefty—the home page alone was several hundred kilobytes which meant that the vast majority of users had to wait minutes for the site to load though it was assured by those at boo. com that they will keep to a limit of 8 seconds for a page to download. Its interface was also complex with a hierarchical system that required the user to answer four or five different questions before revealing that there were no products in stock in a particular sub-section. Discussion Boo. com has been criticized for poor management quality. The firm had few management controls and many of the personnel were consultants with little relevant business experience. As well as Boo. com failed to create an immersive retailing experience online. The badly designed advertising campaign was another problem faced by Boo. om. They over spent on advertising early on which created a great deal of consumer interest, but then the web site lunch was delayed by about five months by the time consumer got fed up. Boo. com was a victim of internet time, e-commerce move faster in internet time where as e-tailing system takes much longer to develop. In the case of Boo. com web site was not fully designed when it was lunched and changes made later on reducing consumer conf idence. Therefore, going through the case I found that Boo. com was doomed by its poor implementation.