Results for CDKN1A

General Information

Gene ID 1026
Gene Symbol CDKN1A
Gene Name cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (p21, Cip1)
Gene Type protein-coding
Cytoband 6p21.2
Ensembl ID ENSG00000124762
#miR regulators 10
Omim ID 116899
Gene ontology GO:0000079: regulation of cyclin-dependent protein serine/threonine kinase activity
GO:0000082: G1/S transition of mitotic cell cycle
GO:0000086: G2/M transition of mitotic cell cycle
GO:0000278: mitotic cell cycle
GO:0006974: response to DNA damage stimulus
GO:0006977: DNA damage response, signal transduction by p53 class mediator resulting in cell cycle arrest
GO:0007050: cell cycle arrest
GO:0007173: epidermal growth factor receptor signaling pathway
GO:0007265: Ras protein signal transduction
GO:0043066: negative regulation of apoptotic process
GO:0008285: negative regulation of cell proliferation
GO:0008543: fibroblast growth factor receptor signaling pathway
GO:0042493: response to drug
GO:0009636: response to toxic substance
GO:0009411: response to UV
GO:0010243: response to organonitrogen compound
GO:0010629: negative regulation of gene expression
GO:2000379: positive regulation of reactive oxygen species metabolic process
GO:0046685: response to arsenic-containing substance
GO:0048015: phosphatidylinositol-mediated signaling
GO:0030308: negative regulation of cell growth
GO:0030890: positive regulation of B cell proliferation
GO:0031100: organ regeneration
GO:0031668: cellular response to extracellular stimulus
GO:0033158: regulation of protein import into nucleus, translocation
GO:0038095: Fc-epsilon receptor signaling pathway
GO:0042326: negative regulation of phosphorylation
GO:0043068: positive regulation of programmed cell death
GO:0045087: innate immune response
GO:0045736: negative regulation of cyclin-dependent protein serine/threonine kinase activity
GO:0048011: neurotrophin TRK receptor signaling pathway
GO:0048146: positive regulation of fibroblast proliferation
GO:0051412: response to corticosterone stimulus
GO:0055093: response to hyperoxia
GO:0071479: cellular response to ionizing radiation
GO:0071850: mitotic cell cycle arrest
GO:0090398: cellular senescence
GO:0090400: stress-induced premature senescence
GO:0097193: intrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway
GO:2000278: regulation of DNA biosynthetic process
GO:0000307: cyclin-dependent protein kinase holoenzyme complex
GO:0005829: cytosol
GO:0005634: nucleus
GO:0005654: nucleoplasm
GO:0070557: PCNA-p21 complex
GO:0005515: protein binding
GO:0004861: cyclin-dependent protein serine/threonine kinase inhibitor activity
GO:0046872: metal ion binding
GO:0019912: cyclin-dependent protein kinase activating kinase activity
GO:0030332: cyclin binding
GO:0032403: protein complex binding
KEGG pathways 4012: ErbB signaling pathway
4110: Cell cycle
4115: p53 signaling pathway
5160: Hepatitis C
5200: Pathways in cancer
5214: Glioma
5215: Prostate cancer
5218: Melanoma
5219: Bladder cancer
5220: Chronic myeloid leukemia

PubMed abstracts associated with CDKN1A

PMID Title Tumor Value
7585620 Retroviral vector-mediated gene transfer of antisense cyclin G1 (CYCG1) inhibits proliferation of human osteogenic sarcoma cells. no no
8616838 Apoptotic response to oncogenic stimuli: cooperative and antagonistic interactions between c-myb and the growth suppressor p53. no no
9154817 Glucocorticoid receptor-mediated cell cycle arrest is achieved through distinct cell-specific transcriptional regulatory mechanisms. no no
10339667 Expression of G1 phase regulators in MG-63 osteosarcoma cell line. no no
10498894 p53-dependent apoptosis or growth arrest induced by different forms of radiation in U2OS cells: p21WAF1/CIP1 repression in UV induced apoptosis. no no
10942797 Analysis of the p16INK4, p14ARF, p15, TP53, and MDM2 genes and their prognostic implications in osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma. yes yes
11331958 Transcriptional activation of p21 by vitamin D(3) or vitamin K(2) leads to differentiation of p53-deficient MG-63 osteosarcoma cells. no no
11695244 Over-expression of CDKIs p15INK4b, p16INK4a and p21CIP1/WAF1 genes mediate growth arrest in human osteosarcoma cell lines. no no
12759621 Genetic and epigenetic alterations of the cell cycle regulators and tumor suppressor genes in pediatric osteosarcomas. yes yes
15198903 p21WAF1/CIP1 gene DNA sequencing and its expression in human osteosarcoma. yes no
15207713 Apoptosis induced by adenovirus-mediated p14ARF expression in U2OS osteosarcoma cells is associated with increased Fas expression. no no
15670817 Differentiative pathway activated by 3-aminobenzamide, an inhibitor of PARP, in human osteosarcoma MG-63 cells. no no
17412493 1alpha,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D(3) antiproliferative actions involve vitamin D receptor-mediated activation of MAPK pathways and AP-1/p21(waf1) upregulation in human osteosarcoma. no no
17569615 IFI16 inhibits tumorigenicity and cell proliferation of bone and cartilage tumor cells. no no
17611411 P14ARF sensitizes human osteosarcoma cells to cisplatin-induced apoptosis in a p53-independent manner. no no
17786325 The plant alkaloid cryptolepine induces p21WAF1/CIP1 and cell cycle arrest in a human osteosarcoma cell line. no no
18384113 2-methoxyestradiol-induced cell death in osteosarcoma cells is preceded by cell cycle arrest. no no
18931939 Elevated expression of Runx2 as a key parameter in the etiology of osteosarcoma. no no
19159633 Berberine induces p53-dependent cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of human osteosarcoma cells by inflicting DNA damage. no no
19455146 Inhibition of Notch pathway prevents osteosarcoma growth by cell cycle regulation. no no
19734943 Mechanism of chemoresistance mediated by miR-140 in human osteosarcoma and colon cancer cells. no no
19778378 U2OS cells lacking Chk1 undergo aberrant mitosis and fail to activate the spindle checkpoint. no no
20350217 Expression of Smad and its signalling cascade in osteosarcoma. yes no
20433742 Molecular mechanism of chemoresistance by miR-215 in osteosarcoma and colon cancer cells. no no
20465837 Expression analysis of genes associated with human osteosarcoma tumors shows correlation of RUNX2 overexpression with poor response to chemotherapy. yes yes
20664979 N-myc downstream-regulated gene 1/Cap43 expression promotes cell differentiation of human osteosarcoma cells. no no
21266106 Depletion of Neuroguidin/CANu1 sensitizes human osteosarcoma U2OS cells to doxorubicin. no no
21506130 Role of GLI2 in the growth of human osteosarcoma. yes yes
21720717 Induction of G?/M arrest and apoptosis by sulforaphane in human osteosarcoma U2-OS cells. no no
22068640 Targeting GSTP1-1 induces JNK activation and leads to apoptosis in cisplatin-sensitive and -resistant human osteosarcoma cell lines. no no
22916108 Cell cycle regulation by the PRMT6 arginine methyltransferase through repression of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors. no no
23313376 Pterostilbene exerts antitumor activity against human osteosarcoma cells by inhibiting the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway. no no
title all all


p3 http://ptimes3.com The official site of p3 Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:03:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.6 From the Horse’s Mouth http://ptimes3.com/2010/06/from-the-horses-mouth/ http://ptimes3.com/2010/06/from-the-horses-mouth/#respond Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:03:28 +0000 http://ptimes3.com/?p=526 The other night I was watching the movie Hidalgo. Yes, the movie produced by Disney that is now being claimed as an “untrue” story. However, I don’t watch it because I am writing a book report for history class, I watch it for the story itself. Having said that, if you have never seen it I highly recommend you rent it, down load it, or Netflix it because the story is one worth remembering. It’s a story about dedication, perseverance, courage and an amazing partnership.  The story is about a horse, Hidalgo and his rider Frank Hopkins who decide to cross the Ocean of Fire, an endurance horse race that crosses thousands of miles across the Arabian Desert. As with all action movies, the story is about overcoming seemingly insurmountable and in some cases unbelievable obstacles testing fate to achieve the unachievable… success.

However what the story of Hidalgo is really trying to tell its audience is that having certain advantages (training, background, strong teams) does not necessarily make you a winner.  True success comes from hard work, making difficult decisions, overcoming obstacles and in some cases sacrifice. Even those with an Ivy League education, or having a family lineage rooted in success, or just good breeding does not guarantee a winning outcome. Basically, there is no easy or guaranteed path to being successful. However what Hidalgo teaches us is that there are certain things we can do to help facilitate success.  I call them success factors. I have outlined a few here for reference:

Dedication: Anything worth achieving takes dedication, no ifs, ands or buts about it. Unfortunately many of us throw around the word “dedication” as if it is a personal descriptor of who we are and what we are about. In reality dedication is generally a life-long approach to anything we do if we are going to do it right. For example, marriage, being a parent, being a role model, being a friend, these are all things that are not ad hoc focuses in our lives. They require continuous dedication in order to do well. The same goes for doing anything we haven’t done before but want to be successful at it. Only through dedication are we able to have the right focus and attention in order to pave the road to success.

Perseverance: Perseverance is a trait that is often confused with dedication.  However perseverance is the act of undertaking any task DESPITE counterinfluences, opposition or discouragement. Different then dedication, which as noted is generally a life-long approach to anything, perseverance is typically something we engage in when the moment calls for it. Moments that are a single act of accomplishment demand the need for perseverance. As an example training for a marathon takes dedication. Perseverance is what we tap into to actually do and complete the race.  In the movie version of Hidalgo, there was a moment when Frank was about to give up and shoot Hidalgo assuming the horse was dying. However just at the crucial moment Hidalgo stands up and nudges Frank to let him know there was still a race to be won. A pure act of perseverance! The road to success generally requires both dedication AND perseverance. Dedication allows us to keep our eyes on what we want to accomplish in the end while perseverance helps us find the energy to get through the obstacles along the way.

Courage: Out of all the possible success factors, courage is my favorite. It’s my favorite because it’s where the energy of perseverance comes from. It’s mustering the mental and moral strength to venture and withstand danger, fear or difficulty in order to achieve something. Essentially it’s the nuclei of perseverance. Once we decide we are going to do something that may be difficult with both our heart and our head, then what follows is usually perseverance. If the task is something that requires learning something new, then it will also require dedication. Essentially nothing daunting can begin without courage. It’s the impetus of all things outside our comfort zone. From courage come all things amazing. With courage comes glory.

Partnership: Unfortunately partnership is severely overlooked as a way to achieve success. For some, partnership implies “sharing the success or failure”. This mentally does not feed the ego and therefore is dismissed as an option. However a partnership can greatly increase the odds for success. This is something the movie version of Frank Hopkins embraced. He knew that a large part of his power came from his partner, Hidalgo. Basically without Hidalgo there would be no race. And what you find is that the two help each other through obstacles, danger and even during times of weakness to accomplish their dream. Glorified success. Never overlook the value of a partnership because as humans we are not all encompassing to accomplish all things. Engaging in a partnership provides depth in not only what we need but ensures a better chance at achieving success.

In the end, success factors can only get us so far in achieving our ultimate goal. To be successful we must be willing to have dedication, act with perseverance, engage with courage, and be open to valuable partnerships. While these factors are what pave the road to success, our willingness to draw upon them is what outlines the road to be paved.

In the movie, the unthinkable happens. A cowboy from another country and his painted pony win the race much to the awe and dismay of many. Through dedication, perseverance, courage and the heroism of an amazing partnership history was made. Ok well maybe not factual history but still a story that movies are made of…

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Surviving Today’s Workforce http://ptimes3.com/2010/06/surviving-todays-workforce/ http://ptimes3.com/2010/06/surviving-todays-workforce/#respond Mon, 14 Jun 2010 01:33:49 +0000 http://ptimes3.com/?p=523 Recently I was working with a client who had decided to re-enter the workforce after years of being a stay at home mom. She had trepidations about making this move and so my focuses with her was on what the job market looked like today and then provide her tips to be successful with re-entry. After going over my seemingly brilliant information, my client looked up at me and said, “That’s great Melissa but I am not particularly concerned at the moment on how to be successful in today’s job market. I am however very interested in knowing how to survive it.”

To say I was speechless by this comment is an understatement.  I was completely mute by her request for tips on how to survive. Giving it some thought I began to conduct an all out research effort on survival and how it would apply to today’s workforce. Here are the top five tips I have come up with:

  1. Always Be Aware of Your Environment: Although this seems obvious enough you would be surprised how many people are oblivious to what’s going on around them. Every work environment has a culture, which is defined by key people in the organization. Be aware of whether the cultural environment you work in feels positive or negative. Learn who are the key people that are defining the culture and their work philosophies. And most importantly determine how your presence in the environment will impact the overall social architecture. Your work environment is a place you will be “living” in several hours a day and you need to determine if its an environment you can exist in long term.  Many people take a job without making this important assessment and end up hating their work life because it’s contradictory to how they think or act. Be aware of your environment and know your place in it.
  2. Know Your Subjective Value and Its Importance: Each person’s subjective value  (SV) is determined by how each of us is perceived by those around us. This is not only important to understand but its also important to know as it does not always align with how we see ourselves. This is not to say that we don’t contribute to how we are perceived by others. Our actions and words play an important role in defining our subjective value. However the reality is we don’t have complete control over how our subjective value is assessed, hence why it’s considered “subjective”. Understanding our SV is key as it determines our place not only in our environment but it essentially lets us know how others see us in their environment. For example, does our subjective value define us as a leader, a friend, a mentor, an expert, or a valuable asset? Or are we seen as difficult, unproductive, lost, lacking or unnecessary? Idealistically the desired subjective value for anyone looking to survive in business is to be considered indispensible. Knowing where we are on the SV scale allows us to work on gaps and increase our value quotient. Understanding the importance of SV is what will give us the power and influence we need in order to help us leverage those for continued survival.
  3. Emotional Intelligence is the Key to Long Term Survival: It is human nature to have emotions and to ignore the power of emotions and the role it plays in our lives can be a tragic error. Emotions guide us in facing predicaments and tasks too important to leave to intellect alone. It is a vital part in shaping our decisions and our actions as much as reason and thought. Succinctly put, emotions can lead to impulses, which then can lead to action. Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand what we are feeling and why but not necessarily allowing it to dominate our actions. People with skilled emotional intelligence or EI incorporate what they are feeling with other data or variables in there decision making process. EI is taking the power of the “gut feeling” and supporting it through knowledge, information, and other important factors to drive appropriate action. This is important because with all things, gaining support and maintaining a sense of control is through finding a balance. Deciding to act purely on emotions oftentimes compromises a sense of reality. It inhibits our ability to see the forest from the trees. Conversely to act purely on data removes a sense of self-awareness obtained through past experiences or those things that have helped define who we are and why we feel the way we do. Essentially reason without feeling is a form of blindness. The key to increasing your emotional intelligent IQ is to continually work on your emotional literacy, which in today’s market is important to survival.
  4. Always Have a Teachable Point of View on the Important Things: Noel Tichey, who wrote The Leadership Engine, describes a “teachable point of view” (TPOV) as having clear ideas and values based on knowledge and experience and the ability to articulate those lessons to others. Today’s workforce is a community of people that come from different backgrounds and have different experiences. Through our experiences we are exposed to lessons that through time help develop our perspective, our point of view, and if channeled correctly develop our strengths and can even open the door to opportunities. Having a teachable point of view is a way of relating to others because its sharing things you have learned through the experiences you have had.  Your experiences are specific to you and therefore become part of your perceived edge. Successful people figure out early that having a TPOV on key experiences or lessons provide them with an edge that no one else has and they use that edge strategically. So if you want to survive as well as thrive in today’s market then you need to have a perceived edge. I recommend sharing a teachable point of view on something you feel has been a valuable lesson to you. In the end honing your ability to have a TPOV will help you become an important member of your workforce community.
  5. Know Your Strengths but Also Your Weaknesses: Concentrating on your strengths is the act of applying those that are specific to you toward a strategy or tactic in an area you want to be successful. It’s not about knowing how much strength you have but essentially where you should concentrate your power. By following this process, you also address weaknesses simply by applying energy to the right efforts. This is the key to not only surviving in today’s market but also being successful long-term. The ability to apply strength in areas of weakness is an important strategy toward achieving a level of superiority or expertise.  The other key component is to know WHEN to us your strengths because generally the opportune time is during a key decisive point. Essentially the ability to know your strengths and when best to use them comes from self- awareness. The best way to survive in today’s competitive ever changing market is knowing what assets you have that you can leverage and when to leverage those assets. It’s the ability to standout in a crowd by exemplifying certain things while minimizing others.

In the end, despite the fact I started this article to provide a few key survival tips to my client, I realized that they could also apply to anyone wanting a few tips on how to thrive in business. Essentially they are basic rules of engagement that are just good business practices to follow. So whether you are looking to survive in today’s work place or looking to thrive, following the above tips will help you achieve your desired goal. Because in the end surviving can lead to success and determining which is more important in today’s market is essentially just a matter of perspective.

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Running: A Success Story http://ptimes3.com/2010/06/running-a-success-story/ http://ptimes3.com/2010/06/running-a-success-story/#respond Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:31:22 +0000 http://ptimes3.com/?p=520 For those of you who have known me awhile, you know that I enjoy running. Its something I have always done even as a child. Unfortunately, it’s not something that I have ever been spectacular at, as in setting or breaking records, but it is something I do well and continue to enjoy.

Today as I was rounding the corner of mile five of the eight I decided to run, I suddenly realized that running has provided me with knowledge and tools that can lead to personal success. I smiled to myself wondering how I could have been running most of my life and not recognized this important information before. Getting in the groove I began to think through the tactics I have used to help me build endurance, speed, and efficiency as a runner and how those same tactics can apply to build success.

Tip One: Having the proper tools is important so just plan to pay for them. Anyone who has ran in cheap running shoes knows the aches and pains of getting what you paid for. The same goes for personal success. Today’s job market is filled with talented people but today’s business leaders are looking for more then just talent. They want proven performers. In some cases, depending on the job, this may mean having a great education. In other cases this may mean gaining work experience outside what you already know which may include taking a more challenging position. On the other hand, it could mean just having a killer resume that truly helps you stand out of the crowd. No matter what the tool is, in most cases there is a cost associated with having that tool in order to achieve success. The bottom line is you must know the tool your missing and never skimp on acquiring it. Otherwise plan on always carrying band-aides because skimping on what you need to be successful is like running in cheap tennis shoes.

Tip Two: No true success is ever gained without the right training.
Even the natural born athlete, think Lance Armstrong, knows that in order to have continued success they must focus on continued training. Each race is different and has different challenges. Sometimes it’s a difference of terrain. Sometimes the difference is altitude. In other cases its competition. Despite the challenges, the only true way to overcome it is through training. Facing the challenges of success are the same. Training provides knowledge and understanding that comes from going through a particular process be it educational or experiential. When a business leader faces a new challenge, they may draw on old experiences to determine a best course of action. However in the end when they come across an obstacle not faced before most will rely on training to get them through. It’s a proven practice so expect for much of life to always be in training. Remember, even Lance Armstrong trains every day and he IS a proven performer.

Tip Three: Know the rules of engagement and follow them.
Many runners at some point in time have come across a road hog. Other people who feel they are entitled to more of the road then you thereby taking it over forcing you to move out of their way.  These people not only do not follow the rules of engagement but also don’t care about them either. They are going to do what they want to do despite whom it impacts along the way. This way of thinking not only ticks people off but in some cases facilitates a similar reaction. Not a good way to achieve success long term. I understand that sometimes you have to break the rules to be successful, however when part of your success is dependent on interacting with other people, following rules of engagement is not only necessary, it’s imperative. Most leaders understand that they are not successful without the hard work and effort of their staff and give credit accordingly. This is a good practice to follow because it builds relationships, which is the key to everyone’s success.  The important thing to remember is NO ONE likes a road hog and eventually someone else bigger and faster will come along and knock a road hog out of the way.

Tip Four: Understand your limits and plan accordingly.
When I was younger I use to run under any circumstances. It could be raining, no socks, shoelaces torn and not able to tie, no sunscreen and definitely never ran with a heart rate monitor. Today I not only check the weather conditions before I run, but I spend about fifteen to twenty minutes before each run to go through my gear and ensure I not only have everything I need but am fully prepared. And I go through this process for every run whether it’s a three-mile run or a thirteen-mile run. Over the years I have become acutely aware of my limits when it comes to running. One misstep in the process and the perceived success of my run will be greatly compromised. It’s the same with personal success. There is only so much we can do before we become acutely aware of our limitations. Knowing what we are good at is part of our success but so is knowing what we are not so good at and planning for those limitations. Whenever I run five miles or less, I can do so with minimal gear. However once I decide to run over five miles, my gear increases exponentially. I need a strap to keep my knees from aching; I need electrolytes to keep my energy; I need sun block that has a longer wear time; I need to wear a heart rate monitor to track my beats. Without these things, not only would it be difficult for me to run longer distances, I would likely over time incur some physical damage. Truly successful people never assume they can do all things. They know their limitations and they find the right “gear” to help them through the long haul.  The reality is that success is never something gained individually. There is always assistance along the way. Learn to embrace your limitations and plan accordingly.

As I sprint toward the finish of an eight mile run, I am suddenly grateful that my accomplishment today was in part due to the fact that I had the right tools, I have properly trained, I followed the rules of engagement and my knee strap addressed my limitation of distance. Essentially, I had a successful run. And as I let out a long wind of air and a smile I am reminded that the rush that comes from doing something well vaguely feels a little like success.

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Great Leaders Must Be Great Conversationalists http://ptimes3.com/2010/06/great-leaders-must-be-great-conversationalists/ http://ptimes3.com/2010/06/great-leaders-must-be-great-conversationalists/#respond Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:06:38 +0000 http://ptimes3.com/?p=513 Early in my career, someone once told me that to be a great leader, you must be a great conversationalist. I thought to myself, that’s easy enough, I love to talk therefore I must be a great leader. To my dismay, nothing could be further from the truth. I should have known that greatness in anything is not that easily attained.

Yes there are those who have always been natural leaders, but for most of us, to be a great leader is a long journey often speckled with the occasional failure. It’s a learning process where experience coupled with intuition can develop into great insight. Interestingly enough these are also the exact traits required to be a great conversationalist.

Allow me to elaborate, Merriam-Webster defines a conversationalist as “one who converses a great deal; someone skilled in conversation”. So essentially if you consider yourself a conversationalist then you would by virtue of definition be someone who excels in the art of conversation. Many of us can say we not only excel in the art of conversation but through experience some of us would be considered savants, myself included. So having mastered the art of talking through a lifetime of experience, the next step is to evaluate our level of intuition.

Intuition by definition means “immediate apprehension or cognition; the power or faculty of attaining direct knowledge without evident rational thought and inference”. Unfortunately this trait is much harder to obtain because it requires continuous study in order to achieve a sense of knowing that is outside usual intellectual thinking. For example an intuitive leader by definition will attain knowledge not readily evident under normal cognitive processes. This ability to gain knowledge through a sense of understanding is called awareness. Awareness IS the key to intuition and in today’s general mindset of “to each his own” or “look out for number one” awareness has become compromised therefore hindering our intuition.

Fortunately for women we tend to be better at intuition. Granted this is an overly broad statement and there are certainly exceptions, but statistically and organically it rings true. Maybe it’s because women in general are more nurturing and nurturing is a form of gaining and developing knowledge through awareness.

This is not to say that men don’t possess intuition because many men have a sense of knowing that is not readily evident through usual cognitive processes. Each of us possesses some level of intuition. The clincher is in order to be a great leader you must achieve a sense of knowing through awareness of those around you. For business leaders this would be your employees, and the more employees you have the more clouded your intuition can become.

The good news gentlemen, is that you are better conversationalists. Yes, ladies its true, men generally excel in the act of conversing much better then we do. Again, allow me to elaborate, Merriam-Webster defines a conversation as “communication that allows people with different points of views to learn from each other; oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions or ideas”. When men converse, its more results-oriented even in social conversations. It’s about sharing information and gaining information. The process is linear. Women on the other hand rarely talk in a linear fashion. Women tend to think spherically and therefore express themselves in the same way. And as much as we hate to admit it, women are never truly married to a particular topic and often change topics mid-sentence and carry-on as if not missing a beat. Some women also tend to engage in conversations from a “wanting to be liked” perspective which can become the driving motivation behind the conversation thereby directing the correspondence into a specific direction. This act of spherical speaking and hidden motivators does create an important problem, the lack of listening. Great conversationalists must also be excellent listeners, a common void for many of us.

Which brings me back to the most important trait found in great leaders – insight. To be truly insightful requires listening. Only through careful listening can we comprehend the inner nature of things. To put it succinctly, listening leads to better awareness, therefore better intuition, developing our insight and ultimately our leadership. This is why the pregnant pause is a popular practice. It allows for that exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions and ideas through engaged listening. Listening my friends is where all the power lies. If you are not practiced at listening then you will miss key information, thoughts, ideas that could help you in being a better leader and frankly a better person.

So knowing what we know, how do we become better conversationalist in order to sharpen our leadership traits? Here are a few tips I recommend:

1. Focus on Listening to Gain Insight. Practice conversing, not just talking, with anyone and everyone. Practice conversing with no distractions and be in the moment. Engage the pregnant pause. Respond with more then a word or two to incite others to share information or thoughts.
2. Hone your Awareness to Develop Intuition. When engaging in a conversation write down or pay attention to two or three things you learned in the conversation you didn’t know before. Ask questions to glean more information about the person your speaking with. Jot down noises/sounds or if face to face expressions or gestures you hear or see during the conversation (you may want to let your conversation partner know you’re taking notes or jot them down later.)
3. Focus on a Topic to Stay in the Moment. Focus on one topic to its completion. If talking with a friend or relative and the subject goes off track, bring it back around and close the topic before starting a new one. Speaking linearly will aid in better listening.
4. Have an Objective in Mind and State it. Being a good conversationalist means getting to the point. Say more with less. This is especially important in business. Have an objective in mind and state it up front even in social conversations (exp: “I wanted to ask your opinion about …”)

In the end some will argue that being a good conversationalist doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with being a good leader. In some cases this is true. However, if you want to be a GREAT leader, being a great conversationalist will create more inroads to accomplish stronger leadership skills. People react more positively to leaders that are approachable, open, friendly, and attuned. Being a great conversationalist allows for the “people side” of every leader to shine through and gives others something to relate to and connect with. This kind of power is known as charisma and having charisma, my friends, is never a bad thing!

Created by: Melissa Grandchamp

[Melissa Grandchamp is the President of P3 offering expertise in the area of HR, Organizational Development and Leadership Coaching]

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Acing the Behavioral Interview http://ptimes3.com/2010/05/acing-the-behavioral-interview/ http://ptimes3.com/2010/05/acing-the-behavioral-interview/#respond Mon, 03 May 2010 16:49:23 +0000 http://ptimes3.com/?p=510 Acing the Behavioral Interview
Have a story for every skill the hiring company demands.

Traditional interviewing calls upon the candidate to state opinions: “Tell me about yourself.” “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” “Why do you want to work for this company?” By contrast, behavioral interviewing requires job candidates to relate stories about how they handled challenges related to the skill sets the company requires for the position.
For example, if a job requires strong communication and team-building skills, an interviewer might ask candidates to recount past experiences where they explained new plans that brought a team together. Behavioral interview questions often start with phrases like, “Tell me about a time when …” or “Describe a situation in which … ” or, “Give me an example of …”
While your skills and experiences could be a perfect match for the position, you could lose out if you can’t validate them with relevant anecdotes.
So how do you prepare for a behavioral interview?
First, you’ll want to put yourself in the shoes of the employer and imagine what the ideal candidate for the position would answer from the interviewer’s perspective.
Decision-making and problem-solving
• Describe the most challenging group from which you’ve had to gain cooperation.
Interpersonal skills
• Give me examples of what you’ve done in the past to nurture teamwork.
• Give an example of an unpopular decision you’ve made, what the result was, and how you managed it.
Planning and organization

• When scheduling your time, what method do you use to decide which items are priorities?
• Describe how you’ve handled a sudden interruption to your schedule.
Once you’ve determined which behavioral-based questions you might be asked during an interview, look back on your past experiences and develop stories to answer those questions. Your stories should be detailed yet succinct, and they should always include the following three elements:
. A description of a specific, real-life situation or challenge you encountered.
. A description of the specific tasks and actions you took to overcome that challenge.
. A summary of the results of those actions. (Try to quantify these results whenever possible.)
Here is a sample answer to a behavioral interview question that incorporates each of these elements.
Question: Give an example of a goal you reached, and tell me how you achieved it.
Familiarizing yourself with the behavioral interview style, crafting and practicing your stories, and doing some homework on the position you seek will ensure that you won’t be caught off guard should you encounter a behavioral interview.

By Jeanne Knight
Jeanne Knight is a certified career coach/resume expert who helps people navigate career transitions.

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Unemployment Rate Amongst Recent Graduates http://ptimes3.com/2010/03/unemployment-rare-amongst-recent-graduates/ http://ptimes3.com/2010/03/unemployment-rare-amongst-recent-graduates/#respond Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:29:40 +0000 http://ptimes3.com/?p=501 Attached is an interesting article about grads who get their diploma but can’t find a job. Considering unemployment among the young is higher then previous years (5.0% in 2009 for those with a Bachelor’s and 9.0% for those with an Associates Degree), having resources in place to help them secure that first job is important. Note what Robert Pagliarini considers as crucial post-graduate focuses in helping grads market themselves better.

P3 not only suggests appropriate educational recommendations prior to your student graduating, therefore maximizing their marketability and your investment, but we also ensure they have the necessary resources (resume, references, work experience, volunteer experience) to be attractive to employers and stand out in a crowd of graduates.

Currently P3 is seeking students for summer internships in the field of: technology, software development, engineering, business administration, physical fitness, coaching & training, finance & accounting and web development. If you have a student or know a student who would like to get hands on experience in any one of these fields for summer 2010 please contact me for more information.

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FREE Download: Performance Criteria http://ptimes3.com/2010/03/free-download-performance-criteria/ http://ptimes3.com/2010/03/free-download-performance-criteria/#respond Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:26:19 +0000 http://ptimes3.com/?p=498 Performance Criteria

Communications Skills

Communicates clearly and concisely

Improves the effectiveness of communications and interactions with others

Excels in interpersonal communications

Avoids communication breakdowns

Encourages open communications to achieve mutual understandings

Communicates effectively with all levels of management

Effectively communicates upward, downward an laterally

Develops and maintains two-way communications

Excels in relating well with others

Decision Making

Can be relied on to make sound decisions

Is skilled in formulating solutions to difficult issues

Is willing to make difficult and unpopular decisions

Assembles all available facts before making a decision

Considers all alternatives before making commitments

Carefully evaluates alternative risks

Foresees the consequences of decisions

Communicates decisions with confidence

Strives to improve decisiveness

Delegates to improve organizational effectiveness

Delegates to maximize organizational strengths

Demonstrates effective delegation techniques

Empowers employees with the authority and resources to achieve results

Provides subordinates with the resources needed to accomplish results

Knows when and what to delegate

Delegates routine tasks to subordinates

Matches assignments with employee talents/strengths

Encourages subordinates to solve their own problems

Creates a high degree of trust with subordinates

Interpersonal Skills

Identifies and understands personal values of superiors, subordinates, peers and others

Recognizes the importance of first impression

Well accepted by others under difficult circumstances

Develops mutual support

Builds trust and rapport

Understands and knows how to get along with co-workers

Establishes effective working relationships

Builds positive relationships with superiors

Works effectively with multiple superiors

Displays genuineness in dealing with others

Generates synergy

Promotes participative approaches

Respects the opinions of others

Is successfully meeting the position’s leadership challenges

Demonstrates natural leadership ability

Displays leadership stature

Excels in training, leading and motivating people

Knows when to retrain and when to exercise power

Is able to assert authority when challenged

Demonstrates decisive leadership ability

Faces problems with confidence and assurance

Is an inspirational leader

Is a catalyst for success

Leads by example

Inspires others to do their best

Displays a strong ability to build credibility

Is quick to gain and maintain the trust of others

Shows appreciation for contributions and achievements

Promotes a high degree of morale

Promotes teamwork

Promotes  common purpose

Management Ability

Demonstrates productive management techniques

Stimulates management efficiency and effectiveness

Identifies major management problems and develop solutions

Consistently prepares appropriate recommendations

Effectively resolves conflicts between individual needs and requirements of the company

Demonstrates an ability to overcome internal barriers

Excels in resolving interdepartmental conflicts

Obtains the full support of other departments

Pulls the organization together

Holds subordinates accountable for results

Is a polished and effective professional

Shows strong self management

Recognizes the difference between managing and doing

Avoids managing by crisis

Builds organizational harmony

Encourages efforts toward common goals

Effectively enforces policies, rules and regulations

Avoids overstepping authority

Problem Solving

Displays an ability to solve problems, think, reason and learn

Is skilled in identifying and solving bottlenecks

Is skilled in proposing optional solutions

Develops creative and cost effective solutions

Makes a strong effort to be part of the solution

Effectively solves problems rather then the symptoms

Is quick to identify problems

Focuses on core problems

Solves problems before they become critical

Works well with others in solving problems

Supervisory skills

Maintains consistency of operations

Takes prompt action to minimize down time

Expects and demands superior performance

Places emphasis on results

Brings out the best in employees

Maximizes the value of recognition and rewards for others

Promotes and effective climate

Develops a productive work environment

Is readily accessible to subordinates

Receives full support for staff

Properly asserts authority

Is effective in giving direction and orders

Avoids over-supervising

Understands different personality and traits

Capably manages diverse personalities

Supervises firmly and fairly

Shows genuine respect for others

Encourages constructive feedback

Maintains order and discipline

Promptly disciplines inappropriate behavior

Disciplines without compromising authority

Takes steps to avoid recurrence of errors

Tact and Diplomacy

Handles complaints with tact

Is very confident in handling awkward situations

Accomplishes results without creating conflict

Handles confrontations constructively

In tactful in conflict situations

Displays trust and mutual understanding

Tactfully admits mistakes and errors

Follows proper protocol

Is polite in all situations

Team Skills

Excels in building teams for success

Makes effective use of team resources

Builds strong teams to meet performance goals

Is a strong team builder

Makes a valuable contribution to team objectives

Excels in task-oriented team development

Effectively resolve team conflicts

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Eight Phrases to Avoid in Resumes http://ptimes3.com/2009/10/eight-phrases-to-avoid-in-resumes/ http://ptimes3.com/2009/10/eight-phrases-to-avoid-in-resumes/#respond Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:07:16 +0000 http://ptimes3.com/wordpress/?p=221 “Just Do It.” “Think Different.” “So easy, a caveman can do it.” Powerful advertising slogans choose the right words to differentiate their brands; the message is the product.

A job seeker’s resume is a flagship advertisement in his personal-branding campaign, and weak,  hackneyed terms can sink it in seconds. (Remember that even if it passes muster with applicant tracking software, your resume will get about 15 seconds of attention when an HR professional makes her first pass through the stack.)

In “Examples of Resume Words to Avoid,” Lisa Vaas looks at overused terms that obscure the message of achievement recruiters want to read.

“Words like ‘successfully’ are pretty lame and overused. … [Such wording] doesn’t tell the reader what he wants to know,” according to Tina Brasher, a certified professional resume writer who works with TheLadders. “What they want to get out of a resume is 1) How can you make the company money? and 2) How can you save the company money?”

Brasher provided a list of “fluffy” language that “resume readers have seen 10 million times.” Use these only if you want to lose your audience:

  • Highly qualified
  • Results focused
  • Effectual leader
  • Has talent for
  • Energetic
  • Confident
  • Professional
  • Successfully

Other words to avoid include “competent,” and it’s a good idea to stay away from its synonyms: able, capable, fit, good, qualified or suitable, Brasher said.

By Matthew Rothenberg, The Ladders

Matthew Rothenberg is editorial director for The Ladders, the world’s leading online service catering exclusively to the $100k+ job market.

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Discipline and Termination http://ptimes3.com/2009/10/discipline_termination/ http://ptimes3.com/2009/10/discipline_termination/#respond Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:03:19 +0000 http://ptimes3.com/wordpress/?p=122 By far, most employee claims and lawsuits arise from incidents of employment discipline and termination. Discipline attacks an individual’s judgment or character and, at the very least, “rubs away” at an employee’s self-esteem. When self-esteem is bruised, people react defensively. As such, an employer must approach the issues of employee discipline and termination very carefully. This chapter provides some suggestions on how employers might minimize legal exposure in the discipline and termination process.

Premium content for subscribers onlyPlease Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

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EuroBasket 2017, Day 15 roundup: Slovenia captures the crown!

Sep 17, 2017 by (Photos: FIBA) Print
EuroBasket 2017, Day 15 roundup: Slovenia captures the crown!

EuroBasket 2017 came to a close Sunday night with a historic night for Slovenian basketball. Slovenia outlasted Serbia 93-85 at Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul, Turkey, to become the champion of Europe for the first time. It concluded a wonderful event that saw Spain defeat Russia for the bronze medal earlier Sunday.

Slovenia 93-85 Serbia

Slovenia became the EuroBasket champion for the first time after holding off Serbia 93-85. Slovenia outscored Serbia 13-3 over the final 3:30 despite the fact that its two biggest stars, Goran Dragic and Real Madrid sensation Luka Doncic were on the bench with injuries. Dragic scored all of his 35 points in the first three quarters before Levallois Metropolitans swingman Klemen Prepelic and Real Madrid big man Anthony Randolph led Slovenia down the stretch. Prepelic finished with 21 points and Randolph tallied 11 points and blocked 3 shots. Bogdan Bogdanovic, who helped Fenerbahce Dogus Istanbul win the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague crown on the same floor back in May, led Serbia with 22 points and FC Bayern Munich big man Milan Macvan added 18. The game was close from the start and Serbia led 20-22 after 10 minutes. Slovenia made its move when Dragic scored the last 6 points in an 11-0 run to make it 38-28. Serbia wiped away half of its deficit through a three-point play by FC Bayern Munich forward Vladimir Lucic and a triple by Fenerbahce’s Marko Guduric. Back-to-back threes by Dragic restored a double-digit Slovenia lead, but Bogdanovic cut the margin to 56-47 at halftime. Dragic opened the second half with a three that gave Slovenia its largest lead, 12. Doncic left with an apparent ankle injury midway through the third quarter as Bogdanovic helped power Serbia back. Anadolu Efes Istanbul center Vladimir Stimac finished inside to make it 63-61. Slovenia scored the next 6 points and managed to keep a 71-67 edge entering the fourth quarter. MoraBanc Andorra guard Jaka Blazic extended the Slovenia lead to 75-67, but Serbia would not be denied. Macvan capped a 0-8 Serbia charge for his team’s first lead of the second half, 77-78. Prepelic put Slovenia back on top with a triple as a tense finish started to brew. The game was tied at 80-80 and 82-82 before Prepelic came through with another big shot and Randolph scored in the paint. Prepelic, who was fouled attempting a three-pointer with 1:05 remaining, made 2 of the resulting shots and Brose Bamberg guard Aleksej Nikolic all but iced the game with 2 free throws with 35 seconds left that capped a 10-0 surge.

Spain 93-85 Russia

Spain finished its sixth consecutive EuroBasket tournament on the podium after defeating Russia 93-85 for the bronze medal. Spain led from start to finish, but had to hold off a late Russia charge that cut an 18-point difference down to 2. Pau Gasol starred for Spain with 26 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks, his younger brother Marc netted 25 points and CSKA Moscow guard Sergio Rodriguez tallied 16 points, 9 assists and 3 steals for the winners. Khimki Moscow Region guard Alexey Shved paced Russia with 18 points, Timofey Mozgov posted 14 point and 10 rebounds and CSKA forward Andrey Vorontsevich and Dmitry Kulagin added 10 points apiece. Valencia Basket swingman Fernando San Emeterio scored 5 early points as Spain raced out to an 11-3 lead. Although Shved tried to keep Russia close, his team had no answer for Marc Gasol and Spain cruised to a 21-13 lead after 10 minutes. Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar guard Dmitriy Khvostov drew Russia with 4 early in the second quarter, but Pau Gasol scored 6 of Spain’s points in an 11-0 run that broke the game open. A layup by Rodriguez lifted Spain to a 45-28 halftime advantage. Russia rallied in the third behind Vorontsevich and eventually cut the margin to 62-52 on Dmitry Kulagin free throws, however Spain managed to stop the bleeding and the scoreboard showed 66-55 through three quarters. Russia kept the pressure on threes by Kulagin and Andrey Zubkov made it 78-76 with three minutes to go. Spain was able to turn to the Gasol brothers down the stretch to preserve the victory and a medal.


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D WaechterM Young10___0-0Michael Young flied out to second (Fly).0.870.5552.3 %-.023-0.2600
D WaechterH Blalock11___0-0Hank Blalock struck out swinging.0.630.2953.9 %-.016-0.1800
D WaechterA Soriano12___0-0Alfonso Soriano flied out to second (Fly).0.410.1255.0 %-.011-0.1200
R DreseC Crawford10___0-0Carl Crawford flied out to center (Liner).0.870.5552.7 %-.023-0.2601
R DreseR Baldelli11___0-0Rocco Baldelli grounded out to second (Grounder).0.630.2951.1 %-.016-0.1801
R DreseA Huff12___0-0Aubrey Huff singled to left (Grounder).0.410.1252.3 %.0120.1301
R DreseT Martinez121__0-0Tino Martinez struck out looking.0.790.2550.0 %-.023-0.2501
D WaechterB Fullmer20___0-0Brad Fullmer flied out to left (Liner).0.930.5552.4 %-.024-0.2600
D WaechterM Teixeira21___0-0Mark Teixeira flied out to left (Fly).0.670.2954.2 %-.017-0.1800
D WaechterD Dellucci22___0-0David Dellucci walked.0.430.1252.9 %.0130.1300
D WaechterD Dellucci221__0-0David Dellucci was caught stealing.0.840.2555.3 %-.025-0.2500
R DreseJ Cruz20___0-0Jose Cruz grounded out to pitcher (Grounder).0.920.5552.9 %-.024-0.2601
R DreseJ Lugo21___0-0Julio Lugo grounded out to shortstop (Grounder).0.680.2951.2 %-.017-0.1801
R DreseR Fick22___0-0Robert Fick grounded out to second (Grounder).0.440.1250.0 %-.012-0.1201
D WaechterK Mench30___0-0Kevin Mench singled to right (Grounder).0.990.5546.1 %.0390.3900
D WaechterL Nix301__0-2Laynce Nix homered (Fly). Kevin Mench scored.1.570.9529.7 %.1641.6010
D WaechterG Laird30___0-2Gerald Laird struck out swinging.0.720.5531.5 %-.019-0.2600
D WaechterM Young31___0-2Michael Young struck out swinging.0.540.2932.9 %-.014-0.1800
D WaechterH Blalock32___0-2Hank Blalock flied out to shortstop (Fly).0.360.1233.9 %-.010-0.1200
R DreseT Hall30___0-2Toby Hall singled to left (Liner).1.050.5538.1 %.0430.3901
R DreseR Sanchez301__0-2Rey Sanchez grounded into a double play to shortstop (Grounder). Toby Hall out at second.1.710.9529.2 %-.090-0.8301
R DreseC Crawford32___0-2Carl Crawford grounded out to pitcher (Bunt Grounder).0.470.1228.0 %-.012-0.1201
D WaechterA Soriano40___0-2Alfonso Soriano doubled to center (Fly).0.730.5523.1 %.0490.6300
D WaechterB Fullmer40_2_0-2Brad Fullmer flied out to left (Fly).0.921.1826.5 %-.034-0.4600
D WaechterM Teixeira41_2_0-2Mark Teixeira flied out to center (Fly).0.990.7229.4 %-.029-0.3800
D WaechterA Soriano42_2_0-2Alfonso Soriano advanced on a passed ball to 3B. Passed ball by Toby Hall.0.980.3429.0 %.0040.0400
D WaechterD Dellucci42__30-2David Dellucci was hit by a pitch.1.150.3928.1 %.0090.1500
D WaechterK Mench421_30-2Kevin Mench grounded out to second (Grounder).1.470.5332.3 %-.042-0.5300
R DreseR Baldelli40___0-2Rocco Baldelli grounded out to second (Grounder).1.140.5529.3 %-.030-0.2601
R DreseA Huff41___0-2Aubrey Huff struck out looking.0.820.2927.2 %-.021-0.1801
R DreseT Martinez42___0-2Tino Martinez grounded out to second (Grounder).0.510.1225.8 %-.013-0.1201
D WaechterL Nix50___0-2Laynce Nix flied out to left (Fly).0.730.5527.7 %-.019-0.2600
D WaechterG Laird51___0-2Gerald Laird struck out looking.0.550.2929.2 %-.014-0.1800
D WaechterM Young52___0-2Michael Young flied out to right (Fly).0.370.1230.1 %-.010-0.1200
R DreseJ Cruz50___0-2Jose Cruz flied out to left (Fly).1.260.5526.8 %-.033-0.2601
R DreseJ Lugo51___0-2Julio Lugo grounded out to shortstop (Grounder).0.900.2924.5 %-.023-0.1801
R DreseR Fick52___0-2Robert Fick walked.0.550.1226.3 %.0180.1301
R DreseT Hall521__0-2Toby Hall flied out to left (Fly).1.110.2523.1 %-.033-0.2501
D WaechterH Blalock60___0-3Hank Blalock homered (Fly).0.710.5514.6 %.0841.0010
D WaechterA Soriano60___0-3Alfonso Soriano fouled out to catcher (Fly).0.480.5515.9 %-.012-0.2600
D WaechterB Fullmer61___0-3Brad Fullmer walked.0.360.2914.6 %.0130.2700
D WaechterM Teixeira611__0-3Mark Teixeira struck out swinging.0.630.5716.1 %-.016-0.3200
D WaechterD Dellucci621__0-3David Dellucci singled to right (Grounder). Brad Fullmer advanced to 2B.0.460.2515.1 %.0100.2200
D WaechterK Mench6212_0-3Kevin Mench fouled out to catcher (Fly).0.890.4617.5 %-.024-0.4600
R DreseR Sanchez60___0-3Rey Sanchez grounded out to third (Grounder).1.110.5514.5 %-.029-0.2601
R DreseC Crawford61___0-3Carl Crawford walked.0.760.2917.8 %.0320.2701
R DreseC Crawford611__0-3Carl Crawford advanced on a stolen base to 2B.1.460.5719.2 %.0140.1501
R DreseR Baldelli61_2_0-3Rocco Baldelli was hit by a pitch.1.480.7222.7 %.0350.2401
R DreseA Huff6112_1-3Aubrey Huff reached on error to shortstop (Grounder). Carl Crawford scored on error. Rocco Baldelli advanced to 3B on error. Error by Michael Young.2.560.9637.0 %.1441.2711
R DreseT Martinez611_32-3Tino Martinez singled to right (Grounder). Rocco Baldelli scored. Aubrey Huff advanced to 2B.2.801.2447.1 %.1010.7311
R DreseJ Cruz6112_2-3Jose Cruz struck out looking.3.300.9639.4 %-.077-0.5001
R DreseJ Lugo6212_2-3Julio Lugo grounded out to second (Grounder).2.900.4631.7 %-.077-0.4601
D WaechterL Nix70___2-3Laynce Nix flied out to left (Fly).1.030.5534.4 %-.027-0.2600
D WaechterG Laird71___2-3Gerald Laird flied out to right (Fly).0.780.2936.4 %-.020-0.1800
D WaechterM Young72___2-3Michael Young struck out swinging.0.540.1237.8 %-.014-0.1200
R DreseR Fick70___2-3Robert Fick walked.1.910.5545.2 %.0750.3901
R DreseT Hall701__2-3Toby Hall singled to right (Grounder). Robert Fick advanced to 2B.2.980.9556.0 %.1070.6201
R DreseR Sanchez7012_2-3Rey Sanchez sacrificed to third (Bunt Grounder). Robert Fick advanced to 3B. Toby Hall advanced to 2B.3.521.5755.8 %-.002-0.1001
R DreseC Crawford71_233-3Carl Crawford hit a sacrifice fly to left (Fly). Robert Fick scored.3.051.4656.4 %.006-0.1211
R DreseR Baldelli72_2_3-3Rocco Baldelli walked.2.200.3457.6 %.0110.1201
E RamirezA Huff7212_4-3Aubrey Huff singled to center (Grounder). Toby Hall scored. Rocco Baldelli advanced to 3B.2.860.4678.2 %.2061.0711
E RamirezT Martinez721_34-3Tino Martinez struck out swinging.1.640.5373.5 %-.047-0.5301
D WaechterH Blalock80___4-4Hank Blalock homered (Fly).2.170.5550.0 %.2351.0010
D WaechterA Soriano80___4-4Alfonso Soriano reached on error to shortstop (Grounder). Error by Julio Lugo.1.870.5543.2 %.0680.4000
D WaechterB Fullmer801__4-4Brad Fullmer walked. Alfonso Soriano advanced to 2B.2.770.9533.5 %.0970.6200
L CarterM Teixeira8012_4-4Mark Teixeira grounded out to first (Grounder). Alfonso Soriano advanced to 3B. Brad Fullmer advanced to 2B.3.111.5732.9 %.006-0.1000
L CarterD Dellucci81_234-4David Dellucci was intentionally walked.3.021.4632.5 %.0040.1700
D BaezK Mench811234-5Kevin Mench reached on fielder's choice to shortstop (Grounder). Alfonso Soriano scored. Brad Fullmer out at third. David Dellucci advanced to 2B.4.611.6327.5 %.050-0.1710
D BaezL Nix8212_4-5Laynce Nix fouled out to third (Fly).1.820.4632.3 %-.048-0.4600
C AlmanzarJ Cruz80___4-5Jose Cruz flied out to third (Fly).2.510.5525.7 %-.066-0.2601
C AlmanzarJ Lugo81___4-5Julio Lugo struck out swinging.1.920.2920.8 %-.049-0.1801
C AlmanzarR Fick82___4-5Robert Fick flied out to shortstop (Fly).1.300.1217.4 %-.035-0.1201
T HarperG Laird90___4-5Gerald Laird grounded out to second (Grounder).0.730.5519.3 %-.019-0.2600
T HarperM Young91___4-5Michael Young singled to center (Grounder).0.570.2917.4 %.0190.2700
T HarperH Blalock911__4-5Hank Blalock reached on fielder's choice to pitcher (Grounder). Michael Young out at second.0.940.5719.7 %-.023-0.3200
T HarperA Soriano921__4-5Alfonso Soriano struck out swinging.0.720.2521.8 %-.021-0.2500
F CorderoT Hall90___4-5Toby Hall fouled out to third (Fly).3.590.5512.3 %-.095-0.2601
F CorderoM Cummings91___4-5Midre Cummings struck out looking.2.790.295.2 %-.071-0.1801
F CorderoC Crawford92___4-5Carl Crawford grounded out to third (Grounder).1.940.120.0 %-.052-0.1201


market rental rates

The rental income that a landlord could most likely ask for a property in the open market, indicated by the current rents for comparable spaces.
renewal probability rental growth rate


Organic Farm, Baclayan

As the farmhouse is the gathering space for 25-40 scholars every weekend and during school breaks, organic farming is an integrated part of their extracurricular education. We hope that we eventually will be able to inspire and capacitate the young people and their families to grow their own organic kitchen garden, anticipating an outcome of increased nutrition and wellness within each family unit. However, the Baclayan Mountain, with its steep slopes and an elevation of nearly 500 meters above sea level, is not exactly an ideal area for farming. There are several conditions to contend with, like the rough terrain, the depletion of top soil, and the strong winds coming with the monsoon season and the many typhoons passing through the Philippine Archipelago.


Eh Say, Hser Ku and Eh Moo came over for dinner tonight. We made a simple meal that Paula found in the March 2016 issue of Rachel Ray’s magazine. The recipe was called Barley and Brussels Sprouts Risotto. It was quite tasty and was a good dish to cook for our Burmese girls. It was also easy to make.

In a large saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add 3 minced shallots and 5 cloves of minced garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in 1 cup of pearled barley and 3/4 teaspoon of ground sage. Add 3 1/2 cups of vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the barley is tender, about 40 minutes. Uncover and cook until the liquid is almost absorbed and the sauce is creamy, another 3 to 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add 3/4 pound of Brussels sprouts (halved), season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and tender, about 6 to 8 minutes. Stir 1/2 teaspoon of white wine vinegar, half the Brussels sprouts and 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese into the risotto. Season with salt and pepper. Divide among plates. Drizzle with oil and top with the remaining Brussels sprouts and Parmesan cheese.

This was an easy meal to make and it was pretty tasty as well!


We are blessed to have an amazing team and consider it a privilege to serve as part-time or full-time staff. If you have a heart for ministry and believe God has called you to serve, please review the available positions. If there are no open or relevant positions, there is an option to submit an application and resume for future openings. However, due to the large number of applications that we receive, we are only able to contact candidates selected for interviews. All applications are kept and reviewed for future positions.

Applications should be submitted to Human Resources at

Video Producer (Creative Arts)*

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter, resume and link to your online portfolio. Please include brief essay responses to the following questions with your application:

  • Why do you create?
  • Describe your view on the usage of Creative Arts in the church.
  • In what unique way(s) does the medium of video help communicate the Gospel message?

* This position resides at the Akron Campus and the person who fills this position must attend there as well.


Word Vomit Musings: Baby Birds

Beautiful Silence of Voices

Beauty born out of grief

tears shed from a somber melody

soft violins with steady progressions

eloquently caressing the tender heart strings

The Messages That We Send

Two common responses to Kaepernick are as followed:

Search For Beauty

We all find beauty in different areas in life. Some may find beauty in music, art, poetry, literature, or in another person. For some of us, however, beauty may be a very ephemeral thing that we rarely experience in life. This post is for these people.

I believe lasting beauty comes from an active pursuit of it. All of us are endowed with a mind, but not all of our minds are programmed to see the beauty in all things. For example, a song can invoke joyous emotions for one, but may be seen as noise to another. A book can stimulate profound thoughts for one, but bore the hell out of another. Appreciation of something comes from the psychological and emotional understanding of that thing. But this appreciation of beauty corresponds to the amount of effort and investment one puts to it. A person may find a video game to be very uninteresting and pointless,  but to a gamer who invests time into it, they are able to see its beauty through the complex strategies, artwork, and extraordinary skill it takes to become proficient in it.

From these things, I come to the idea that if a person does not actively pursue something of beauty or meaning, then they will be left void of it. This is why I find stagnation in life such an ugly experience. One of the most common responses I give when someone asks me “what I’m doing” or “what did you do this week”  is “nothing”. “Nothing” is such an unfulfilling response to give for anything because it represents a lack of beauty, of meaning, of having something worthy of sharing with others.

I believe this is a very common attitude today. We live in a society always surrounded by “something”. We are always doing “something”, whether its gaming, texting, Facebooking, or working, but inside we are always filled with nothing. I think we feel this way because we are passively, rather than actively seeking beauty. I don’t blame us for doing this because this is what society teaches us. It tells us what is and what isn’t fun, exciting, sexy,  and beautiful.We don’t need to actively search for these things because we are told that they’re literally at our fingertips.

We are all products of this environment. This is one reason why I think people are so depressed. We are bombarded with quick fixes of beauty that we can never fully obtain. Images of half naked bodies, fancy cars, mouth-watering foods, and Pokemon mastery  have become our lives. Perfection has replaced beauty. But these are facades, mere shadows of reality! We are given a strip-tease of these things that we desire, but can never have. Is this really the life we want? To live entranced and controlled by shadows? To always be in a passive pursuit of a shadow that we’re taught to see as meaningful?

If we want to escape these shadows, we must be willing to escape our dark caves and enter into the bright and huge world of reality. This is not an easy task. Our eyes will sting as we adjust to the light, our skin will get sunburned as the rays warm our bodies, and our hearts will fear as we peer into the unknown. We will have a desire to go back to the safety of the cave, but for those who can endure the light and continue to venture out into reality,  beauty starts to show her lovely face.

So my advice to you and to myself is to put down our phones, close our laptops, and go pursue beauty. Not the kind of beauty that is a quick fix, but the lasting, meaningful beauty that takes active effort, practice, dedication and pain. If you don’t know what that is, then look for it. Take a walk in the park, watch a sunset, have a meal with a friend, pick up a guitar, read a book, do something new.

I write because I find beauty in it. Writing is the way I express the beauty I see through the things I read, think about, and experience in life. I believe it is profound, meaningful, and beautiful, and I want to share it with others. However, writing isn’t easy for me. It takes an active pursuit of words and sentences that constantly escape my thoughts, but I endure the long hours because I see beauty in the process and the end product. Likewise everything that I find beautiful takes work.

A brilliant art piece takes hours of work to complete, the ability to create complex melodic riffs on a guitar takes hours of practice, a breath taking view takes miles of hiking up a mountain. This pain and effort is required and adds substance to the things we find beautiful. I leave you with these questions:

What are things, experiences, and people in your life that you find beautiful? Did you have to suffer or work hard in order to appreciate or understand it as beautiful? Does the active and continual pursuit of these things bring meaning back into life?

In-Between Faith and Reason: Part 2- Bridging the Gap

This is my attempt to bridge the gap between the faithful church goer and the frustrated  skeptic of religion who is able to see past its illusions and dogmatism.  This is my attempt to acknowledge both sides of the spectrum as intelligible and reasonable, while holding both to the standard of human limitations and ignorance.

But first, a bit of information about myself. I grew up in church and was taught all of the stories at a young age. My beliefs were firm throughout my middle school years even though I constantly sinned and rarely read the bible. Nothing else was able to penetrate the fortresses of religious information and belief that was put in me at a young age. In reality, these fortresses were mere sand castles built with a shaky foundation reinforced with water and seaweed. But as a child, I was proud of my mound of sand. I was quite an architect. My castle stood higher and withheld the gentle waves of the ocean better than the others. I would create buttresses and dig deep moats to show how impregnable my castle was.

As I grew up, I realized how far away I built my religious castle from the waters. I was ignorant of the great ocean of information that scoffs at my creation. When I realized how little water actually touched my castle, I was humbled and wanted to see if it could withstand more water. So I gently scooped up the castle I made as a child and moved it closer to the waves. This time, the waters filled my moat and flooded my kingdom. But surprisingly my castle didn’t collapse.  The buttresses kept it stable, but not for long. A few more invasions of water and it would have surely collapsed.

This happened in high school where my faith was challenged. The challenge wasn’t from people who questioned my faith,  rather it was through an introspection of the things I’ve experienced and saw in life. I stopped feeling “spiritual or retreat highs”, God seemed absent in my prayers, and the veil of ignorance was lifted as I was able to see good and evil in the world. In college, I started asking questions that demanded more than “Jesus” as the answer. I read books by Dawkins and Hitchen’s, but also balanced it out with books by C.S Lewis and Tim Keller. In my fifth year of college I was drowning in an ocean of information that I really didn’t know what to do with. I had replaced my sand castle with refined brick and mortar, but it still broke under the interminable crashes of the waves.

I was tired. The cloud of depression that followed me ever since middle school started to grow and darken my vision of my castle and the waters. I could hear the waves and feel the castle, but the darkness left me cold to both of them. I wanted to give up and just live a life of ignorance. Ignorance of the frailty of my castle. Ignorance of the unfathomable depths of the ocean. But life wouldn’t allow such a thing! It pushed me full force into the waters and I had to learn how to swim. In my 5th-6th year in college, I got involved in a campus Christian fellowship, eventually becoming President. During that time, due to unforeseen circumstances, I was forced to change my major. So for some reason I decided to change my major from psychology to philosophy.

In this moment of my life, I was in-between faith and reason. I was involved in a club that relied heavily on faith and trust that God would provide. As a leader I had to promote the teachings of Christ and faith in a God that we cannot physically see. In this club, I was able to see people come to Christ and devote their time and energy for the sake of love and community. I was able to see faith come into fruition, but also see the frailty of my own faith in God.

On the other side, I fell in love with my new major. Philosophy taught me to reason through arguments, to think more deeply, and allowed me to see past fallacies that I held onto in the past. I entered a whole new world of thinking that seemed to align with my life’s desires. Within it, I was able to delve deep into philosophers who have been refining and building up their intellectual and religious castles far longer than I have. I would enter into these brilliant mansions and be in awe of the beauty of its architecture and vastness of its interior. However, there are times when other philosophers revealed to me the water damage, the cracks in the wall, and that under the facade of the grandiose architecture are shaky grounds.

At this moment in life philosophy and faith did not contradict. Even though a lot of my deeply held arguments for Christianity were being challenged such as Aquinas’ Watchmaker example, C.S Lewis’ Liar, Lunatic, and Lord argument, and the much less convincing proof of the existence of God by Descartes, I used this to refine and strengthen my knowledge of reason and faith.

So I write this blog from my two points of view. The faithful church goer and the frustrated intellectual skeptic of Christianity. To Christians, having doubts, questions, concerns, confusions and frustrations about your faith is not a bad thing. It does not make you a bad Christian. Addressing these things makes you an informed, wise, humble, and reasonable Christian. It allows you to see into the problems that atheists and non-Christians clearly see about the church. It removes the plank from our eyes about the world we live in.

To skeptics and atheists, I acknowledge and feel your frustrations with religion. Religion has been used to brainwash, manipulate, control, and kill people all across the world. It has stifled thinking, justice and humanity in so many ways. History and current events related to religion cannot be ignored. But know that religion isn’t void of reason and validity. Some of the greatest thinkers have found merit and truth within their beliefs in God.

One of the goals I have for these blogs is to widen our understanding of two different points of view. To acknowledge each others beliefs and concerns rather than automatically dismissing it. It’s one thing to disagree with someone, but it’s another to disagree with them without understanding their reasons and concerns. I think this is an extremely important thing that needs to be done, especially in a world downing in opinions, emotions, closed mindedness, and fallacious information constantly shoved down our throats by the media. We take in information without discussing or analyzing it. I think it’s about time for a change.

In-Between Faith and Reason: Part 1- Who Am I?

There is a topic in my heart and mind that compels me to get up out of my bed at 2:00 AM and stay up until 4:00 AM in order to write this post. This topic or should I say topics are faith and reason. This dichotomy in my soul of two seemingly contradictory topics forces me to lose sleep even though I don’t have insomnia because it is in such combat with each other that I will not allow my mind to coax it away with sleep. So to understand why I choose to contemplate and lose sleep over this, you must first understand the who.

I am first and foremost human. As a human, I am given this biological brain that allows me the ability to think and reason through the complexities of life.  This brain that makes us sentient, self-aware creatures, who are capable of love and compassion, but also vicious atrocities and genocides. This brain that has the capacity to comprehend volumes of literature, but can also be limited periods of vegetation.

Second of all, I am a Philosopher. I don’t say this to put myself high on the ivory tower or claim that I know more that anyone else. This just means that I put in very high esteem the virtues of reason, logic, wisdom, critical thinking and an examined life. I long and seek after truth and understanding underneath the muck of fallacies and lies.

Thirdly, I am a Christian. I believe in the Bible and the validity and soundness of its contents. I believe in Jesus and his death and resurrection and I also believe in faith.

These three aspects consume my world and dictate what I do and say and pray to. I am all three, but neither one should take precedent over the other because they are illiterate of the contents of the other two when apart from them. Only when they are together can I intelligibly  communicate.

In times of war, they unceasingly battle with each other for superiority, leaving a trail of suffering behind. In times of peace, they are able to collaborate, compromise, and agree with each other which attributes to my understanding. War and peace are not mutually exclusive to each other. Rather they are woven and intertwined in a torn yet beautiful tapestry which I call life.

The glue that holds this tapestry together and allows the synthesis and cooperation of conflicting ideas is the admittance of my ignorance of each independent thread. I admit my ignorance since I am only human and not God, a philosopher but limited in wisdom, and a believer in faith, yet still a doubter.

No wiser is a man who “knows nothing” like Jon Snow

Or a philosopher who claims to know only one thing: that he know nothing, like Socrates

Or a believer who admits that we are nothing in the midst of the infinity of God.

This blog series is intended for me to express these thoughts that I have to the public so that they can examine my arguments and agree, but most importantly disagree with them, so I can refine where I’m wrong and reinforce where I’m right. Moreover, its hope is that you can also glean from what I have to say, and for myself, what you have to say to me. Hopefully my next post will be less flowery and more content driven… my mind tends to wander at 4:00 AM

Escaping Absurdity by Entering The Stranger

I’ve read The Stranger by Albert Camus a while ago. It didn’t shake me the way I though a Nobel Prize winning book would. I read the book inside a Chick-Fil-A out of sheer boredom and anxiety. I needed something to do that day that didn’t involve hours of mindless and emotionless gaming so I decided to escape this torpid lifestyle by reading a book in hopes that it would immerse me into a different world. It so happened that out of all the unread books in my shelf, I decided to pick up The Stranger ignorant of its content…. So with Christian instrumental music playing in the background and a chicken sandwich on the side, I began my journey into Meursault’s world. After the first couple of chapters, I realized that I wasn’t entering a new world. Rather I was continuing on my own listless and absurd reality.

This absurd world was what I was trying to escape in my trek outside the warm glow of my computer screen. How unrelentingly absurd is life inside a video game! And how even more absurd and frustrating is reading about a person who is so detached to the world that it makes me more detached.  Unlike Camus’ advice, I cannot accept absurd-ism! I cannot yield to the idea that life is meaningless. I believe life is full of meaning, but I just haven’t found it yet. This is the hope I have, albeit a waning hope in the midst of life’s circumstances.

Maybe someone more well versed in Camus work could show me a more thorough understanding of this book. From my reading, this book is just a reflection of a detached man who is either incapable or refuses to conform to the emotional and rational patterns of society. In a way all of these patterns are created by man to invoke meaning into life, when in reality these are just illusions and lies we tell ourselves give meaning. Merusault recognizes this and thus is labeled as “The Stranger” by Camus.


On Vaccines and Snacks

When I’m President, I’ll appoint a Surgeon General who promotes funding for research to develop a vaccine against bigotry, violence, and the inability to resist eating candy in bowls on your co-workers’ desks and baked goods someone left in the office break room.

On Science

When I’m President, I’ll allocate funding to the NSF to study spontaneous generation. I know it’s an old concept from the 1600s, but honestly, where DO fruit flies hibernate in your house while they wait for you to have ripe bananas? This is pretty important, because fruit flies are used in genetic research and college classes, and you know how much  money our government spends buying those things? Probably hundreds of dollars a year!

On Feeding the Hungry and Education

When I’m President, I’ll abolish glum by making sure there’s a num-num in every tum-tum. Even if you’re dumb or a bum in a slum, you still deserve some. I’ll also put pressure on my Secretary of Education to allocate funding to provide a rhyming dictionary for each K-12 classroom. Our future is at stake, and we can’t take a chance; it’s crucial for our nation to advance.


Take 5: The Best Movie Trailers Of The Week (August 28)

movie trailers

La La Land (December 16)

Damien Chazelle’s first film since Whiplash may be my most anticipated film of Awards Season. This looks magical, and the quick tease of the original music leaves me wanting more. If only December were not so far away…

Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (October 11/November 1)

The Killing Joke wasn’t the animated Batman movie the world thought it would be, but maybe this will mend the wound.

Kidnap (December 2)

Halle Berry is going full Liam Neeson, and I don’t know what to think. This film has been shelved for two years due to Relativity’s recent financial troubles, but maybe it’ll be worth the wait we didn’t know we were enduring.

Max Steel (November 24)

Another toy gets its own movie. I don’t know that an audience exists for Max Steel, but this is another film that has spent years in development/production hell. The first trailer looks fine, but the incredibly long synopsis you’re about to read doesn’t exactly leave me hungry for more. The phrase ‘in-depth origin story’ does not belong in the adaptation of a toy.

Synopsis: Max Steel is an in-depth “origin” story packed with captivating characters and fast-paced action. The plot chronicles the adventures of Max McGrath and his mother who have just moved back to Copper Canyon, the town in which Max’s scientist father died in a mysterious accident shortly after Max was born. As Max adjusts to his new school, things get complicated when his body starts to generate strange energy flare-ups that he can’t control. At first a confusing mix of inconvenient and exhilarating, this unpredictable power eventually grows too intense for Max to handle, causing him to distance himself from those around him including the girl he likes, Sofia. Eventually the energy pushes him to the verge of fatal combustion. In the nick of time, a techno-organic extraterrestrial named Steel, who has been secretly monitoring Max’s progress, saves him just before he loses consciousness. The two discover that when joined together they can control the energy and harness it into superhuman strength—and that when apart, neither can survive for long. As these two unlikely friends learn to accept their connected fates, they begin to uncover secrets surrounding the death of Max’s father. As they dig deeper, they soon find themselves hunted by an unforeseen enemy bent on capturing Max and Steel for a sinister agenda of destruction. Uncertain who to trust, they will have to work together to find the truth, and fight the mysterious forces threatening our world.

Zoom (September 2)

This is the real must-see trailer of the week. Do not miss it.


How do one-point, two point, and three point perspectives differ?

Expert Answers
booboosmoosh eNotes educator| Certified Educator

In graphic art, drawings are often constructed from a perspective, and there are one-point, two-point and three-point perspectives. Perspectives allow the "artist" to draw in three dimensions. The stationary point is where the "observer" stands to view the picture. The horizon line is the line that creates the sense of a horizon on the page, moving horizontally or side-to-side, and the vanishing point is the place where the lines that do converge seem to "disappear" into the horizon.

A one-point perspective in a drawing has a single vanishing point. A vanishing point is when two lines that are not parallel to the subject of the drawing (or "image"), run together or "converge," no longer separate lines—often moving in a direction opposite from the viewer's perspective.

To be better able to visualize it, the lines look like railroad tracks running away from you that seem to meet—like lines at the bottom of a "V," and disappear, usually at the horizon line.

The drawing with a two-point perspective is slightly more complicated. Here there are lines placed parallel to "two different angles." The image's lines come from two different points, and this type of drawing has two vanishing points. a result the sides look as if they are slowly fading away into the distance.

If you change the location of the vanishing points, you can make the image or object larger or smaller.

The three-point perspective is similar in several ways to the two-point perspective. It, too, has a horizon line and a stationary point. Looking at a building that is drawn with three-point perspective, it may seem that as you are looking, the lines that define the sides of the building draw your gaze upward, moving ever closer to each other, as if they would eventually meet, once again like lines at the bottom of a "V." Sometimes this kind of drawing is presents a 3/4 view. This perspective does not necessarily give the viewer the sense of looking at the image straight on, but the observer may feel as if he/she is looking from an angel. This drawing has three vanishing points. Two fall on either side of the object, but the third rises above the object and may or may not be seen to converge depending on how tall the picture is.

Additional Sources:


Go Figure!

  • Wed Mar 22nd, 2017 1:47pm
  • Life

Doreen Minard,

First-Grade Teacher

Carrie Echeita,

Math Intervention Specialist

We will focus on building math vocabulary and skills for 6- 7-year-olds this week. Shapes are everywhere around us. When your child plays, he uses sorting and classifying skills as he observes similarities/differences and makes comparisons. These simple tasks prepare our children for daily activities such as sorting the laundry, searching for a book at the library or finding items in the grocery store. These are foundational skills needed for math, reading and writing.

Getting in Shape

Skills: Identify, create, name and take apart shapes, comparing shapes, classifying, sorting, text features (labeling)

You will need:

Objects from around the house in a variety of shapes

Pencil and paper

2D (flat) shapes: half/quarter circle, square, triangle, rectangle, trapezoid, hexagon

3D (solid) shapes: cube, rectangular prism, cone, cylinder, sphere

Trace an object on paper to see what shape one side makes.

Repeat with different sides of the same object.

Put two or more objects together to build a new shape.

Try stacking or rolling some of your objects and observe what happens.

Sort all your objects into 2-4 piles using the characteristics of each shape.

Draw a picture using only shapes and label each shape.

Possible questions to stimulate conversation and build vocabulary!

• How are the shapes in your piles the same/different?

• Why did you choose to sort the shapes the way you did?

• What makes an object stackable or able to roll?

• What’s the difference between a cube and a rectangular prism/a circle and a sphere?

Be sure to visit Forks Elementary School’s Parent Zone for more math activities!

Next Week: Ideas for 7 -8-year-olds


Babies' brains rehearse months before first words spoken

Babies practice speaking in their minds long before they talk, according to US researchers who conducted scans on infants to see which brain areas light up when they are spoken to.

Researchers have long suspected this was the case, but new brain imaging technology has enabled them to prove that speech sounds stimulate the parts of the brain that coordinate and plan motor movements for speech.

University of Washington researchers recruited almost 60 babies who were seven months old and 11 months old then put them in a brain scanner to look at the activity in the brain region called the temporal gyrus, as well as in Broca's area and the cerebellum — regions responsible for making speech.

"Most babies babble by seven months, but don't utter their first words until after their first birthdays," said lead author Patricia Kuhl.

Researchers found that using "baby talk" to communicate with babies helps them learn words.

"'Parentese' is very exaggerated and when infants hear it, their brains may find it easier to model the motor movements necessary to speak," Kuhl said.

They listened to sounds in English and Spanish with the researchers finding the seven-month-olds' brains responded to all stimuli in a similar way, suggesting they respond to all sounds whether they have heard them before or not.

The 11-month-olds had more brain activation for the non-native language (Spanish) than their native language (English), which the researchers believe is because it takes more brain effort for them to predict the motor movements required to speak the foreign language.

Dr Karen Mattock, a lecturer in Lifespan Development at the University of Western Sydney, told ninemsn the study proves that babies' brains start getting ready to speak well before they utter their first words.

"This is important because it shows how important the caregiver's speech is to the infant," she said.

"They're learning about the sounds and how you make those sounds."

Dr Mattock said infant-directed speech or "baby-talk", with a sing-song intonation and stretching out words, is often how we automatically talk to babies and that it actually teaches them a lot about how to speak.

"That exaggerated speech holds their attention for learning about the sound," she said.

Author: Kimberly Gillan. Approving editor: Wade O'Leary.


Posts Tagged ‘good essay’

Why essays are sent back for revision?

Most recently, you’ve passed an essay to the teacher. Perhaps you are confident that the work is good, but after a time you’re getting that essay for revision. Of course, the teacher would explain your weak points, but just in case, we decided to put most of the comments together. All of them are collected by the stories of real teachers that regularly check student’s essays.

Here are the comments.

  1. The essay lacks specificity. Suppose you’re writing about Third World countries and the economic opportunities that they have. However, students often forget to point out the example of what kind of country and what kind of sectors of the economy they use as a base to make their conclusions. Incidentally, in the economic essays figures are very important, not well-oiled sentences. The more specific evidence base for the essay is used, the better it is. In the end, you have to understand what materials you use. Otherwise what is the difference of your research and notes on the scandal sheet?
  2. Inappropriate style. Essays may have a good idea and proper evidentiary basis, but to be written with too formal language. Remember that you do not write an accounting note. Essays are closest relatives of journalism, so employ rich phrases and aphorisms. Use words that help build a logical chain, for example, “to begin with,” “next, “”after all.”
  3. Uncertainty. The main objective of the essay is to argue a particular point of view. However, the expression “it seems to me,”” I believe, “” I guess “do not create a feeling of confidence. It turns out that the student himself is not sure what he is talking about. Why, then, he takes up this theme?
  4. The volume of a good essay is 400 words. Of course, the job may have more stringent limits, but if you can do this, then write. Do not stretch the philosophizing; employ the “free space” for specific examples.

We hope that you have got this list in your hands before you are going to write an essay. Please note these items and, most likely, your essay will not come back for revision. At the very least, teachers say it is the main thing in the style of work.

Search terms:
  • beautiful phrases for essays

Criteria of good essay

What are the characteristics of the essay and why we can call it successful? What do you need to rely while writing to have not only packed pages, but quality work as a result? Let’s try to define the basic criteria of the good essay.

  1. Form compliance. We have already written about how the structure an essay should look like. Just in case, remember: an introduction, detailed body and conclusion. If it is a scientific essay, in the end an essay should also contain a list of information sources that you have used. Generally, all academic works are more difficult; in case of form discrepancy scrutineer may even refuse to accept the written material. So remember that form is first and foremost thing.
  2. Essence. The semantic load of the essay is equally important. Try to develop a theme from several perspectives. Thus the composition will acquire volume and significance. Remember that the meaning of the work is as important as its form.
  3. Volume of the essay. Even if you have a broad theme and you think it needs a detailed description, be careful not to violate the specified volumes. While describing the broad topic one can focus on one particular aspect and disclose it. Do not underestimate the volume of essay, because then it seems that you have nothing to say on a given topic. To increase the volume of essays, use a simple scheme – find ideas of prominent person in this industry on this topic.
  4. Connectedness of speech. Always remember that the conclusion follows from the entry. If these two have little in common in meaning, your job can’t be called good. Greater coherence of speech writing is provided by the detailed plan before you sit down for substantive work.
  5. The presence of logic. In each essay, even art, there certain logic exists. Most often, this transition is done from general to specific. Try to observe this logic in each section. Sometimes, in creative arts assume the reverse order parts, but it is more the exception than the rule.

Use these criteria while estimating draft of you future work. Is it good or needs some additional re-working?

Search terms:
  • essay criteria
  • criteria for essay writing
  • criteria for a good essay
  • criteria for an eassy
  • what does criteria meann ina an essay

How to Make a Good Essay – 10 Tips

  1. Pick a subject.
  2. Spend a couple of hours reading up on it.
  3. Take a break for a couple hours while your brain processes the information.
  4. You’re only dealing with 500 words, so choose only 1 main idea you want to express.
  5. Choose two or three reasons you believe this idea to be true, OR like it, OR why it’s important. Prepare yourself mentally to describe those reasons in words.
  6. Begin your essay with a familiar example that illustrates your idea. You’ve only got 500 words, so you need to pick something you won’t have to spend a lot of time describing for the reader.
  7. Write a rough draft of at least 250 words.
  8. Take another break. A full day if possible. During this time your brain will come up with more ideas.
  9. Reread your essay, Proofread it. Edit the hell out of it. Add to it and take away from it. Be merciless.
  10. By the time you’re done, you will have 500 words.


mardi 25 mars 2014

L'épidémie de grippe de 1918 aux Etats-Unis

The Flu Epidemic of 1918: America's Experience in the Global Health Crisis

Sandra Opdycke

Series: Critical Moments in American History
Paperback: 234 pages
Publisher: Routledge (March 21, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 041563685X

In 1918, a devastating world-wide influenza epidemic hit the United States. Killing over 600,000 Americans and causing the national death rate to jump 30% in a single year, the outbreak obstructed the country's participation in World War I and imposed terrible challenges on communities across the United States.

This epidemic provides an ideal lens for understanding the history of infectious disease in the United States. The Flu Epidemic of 1918 examines the impact of the outbreak on health, medicine, government, and individual people's lives, and also explores the puzzle of Americans' decades-long silence about the experience once it was over. In a concise narrative bolstered by primary sources including newspaper articles, eye-witness accounts, and government reports, Sandra Opdycke provides undergraduates with an unforgettable introduction to the 1918 epidemic and its after-effects.

Critical Moments in American History is a series of short texts designed to familiarize students with events or issues critical to the American experience. Through the use of narrative and primary documents, these books help instructors deconstruct an important moment in American history with the help of timelines, glossaries, textboxes, and a robust companion website.

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