African Short Story Writers and Intrapersonal Conflicts: A Critical Perspective on a Selected Short Story

The article examines the concept of intrapersonal conflict,the ravaging wars within oneself,that which is truly deeper than indecisiveness,what is responsible for inner conflict,its origin,the consequences,and how to avoid it.It employs Dul Johnsons’“In the Jaws of Love”in his Why Women Won’t Make It to Heaven.The theory for the investigation is sociological theory which articulates the inevitable relationship between literature and society.The inquiry unearths that an individuals’attempt to satisfy the needs of one’s environment at the expense of sound reasoning,the individual’s inability to find a balance between the individual’s head and heart,and being religious are detrimental to one’s wellbeing.It creates intrapersonal conflict which is indeed destructive.The paper resolves that people should be able to tell themselves the truth,recognise and accept same,even if it comes from one with whom they disagree.It also explicates that people should not depend on religious and secular leader or people to take decisions for them,and that living in fear is devastating among other things.

MODELING INTRAPERSONAL DEFORMATION SUBSPACE USING GMM FOR PALMPRINT IDENTIFICATION

In this paper, an efficient model of palmprint identification is presented based on subspace density estimation using Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). While a few training samples are available for each person, we use intrapersonal palmprint deformations to train the global GMM instead of modeling GMMs for every class. To reduce the dimension of such variations while preserving density function of sample space, Principle Component Analysis (PCA) is used to find the principle differences and form the Intrapersonal Deformation Subspace (IDS). After training GMM using Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm in IDS, a maximum likelihood strategy is carried out to identify a person. Experimental results demonstrate the advantage of our method compared with traditional PCA method and single Gaussian strategy.

Defining soft skills in nursing:a concept analysis

Objective:To define soft skills in nursing.Methods:This is a concept analysis using the Walker and Avant approach.Multiple electronic databases in the English language including CINAHL,Science Direct,MEDLINE on EBSCOhost,and Scopus were consulted.Results:Soft skills in nursing include the intrapersonal attributes,interpersonal skills,and creativity of the nurse,which,when combined with professionalism,teamwork,and effective communication skills,improve the quality of nursing care and client satisfaction.Conclusions:Although hard and soft skills are compatible and synergetic,soft skills are to be prioritized for the success of nursing care in the healthcare industry.This concept analysis adds to the body of knowledge by identifying the attributes of soft skills in nursing and revealing that a good nurse needs more than just good grades to be successful.

Associations between individual and environmental factors and habitual physical activity among older Chinese adults:A social–ecological perspective

Purpose: To examine, within a social–ecological framework, associations between multifaceted individual and environmental factors and habitual physical activity(HPA) among older Chinese adults.Methods: Through a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, a survey instrument assessing various factors underlying 3 social–ecological dimensions of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and community and environmental resources was developed. Using a cross-sectional design, older adults(n = 1580, aged 67 ± 7 years) recruited from 10 communities in Shandong province completed the social–ecological survey of HPA. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Path Modeling.Results: Factors related to intrapersonal(medical knowledge, motivation, physical function, sport skills, socioeconomic status, and education),interpersonal(social support, social activity, and social norms), and community and physical environmental resources(safety, capacity, availability of and access to physical activity facilities) were found to be significantly associated with older adults' participation in HPA.Conclusion: The findings provide an initial validation of a social–ecological approach to the study of HPA in China, suggesting that strategies aimed at promoting physical activity in older adults should address multiple levels of factors that may contribute to the likelihood of older Chinese adults being physically active.

Vygotskian Approaches to Interlanguage Fossilization

During the process of language acquisition, interlanguage fossilization is a common phenomenon among second language learners. Based on Vygotskian approaches, this paper looks at the causes of interlanguage fossilization, including social identity, learners' motivation, the influence of one's mother tongue and learning styles. By vividly incorporating my own language learning experience, this paper intends to explain how theory can be applied to practice; thereby attempting to shed light on second language learning and teaching. In conclusion, this paper suggests that teachers should get to know their students by paying attention to the most influential factors and encourage interpersonal interaction.