Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Hypoglycemic Activity of Gynura Procumbens in...

Background of the Study Diabetes mellitus is a serious metabolic disorder wherein the person has high blood glucose level either due to inadequate insulin production or the body’s cells do not respond properly to insulin (Nordqvist, 2010). There are three main types of diabetes namely Type I (insulin-dependent), Type II, and gestational diabetes. All these types are characterized by hyperglycemia or high blood glucose level. A person with diabetes may experience many symptoms such as high blood sugar, high glucose content in urine, weight loss, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, infections, blurred vision, and lethargy or coma (NDIC, 2013). Diabetes is continuing to be a major health problem in the world. The number of people with diabetes is†¦show more content†¦In the most recent study, the extract of G. procumbens was reported to produce significant elevation in the fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels of normal rats, but a decrease in diabetic rats (Hassan et al., 2010). Th us there is a need to further investigate the hypoglycemic activity of Gynura procumbens. Statement of the Problem What is the hypoglycemic activity of Gynura prcumbens leaf extract in alloxan-induced diabetic male mice? Objective of the Study The present study will be conducted to determine the hypoglycemic effect of Gynura procumbens (Lour.) Merr. in Alloxan-induced diabetic male mice. Significance of the Study Gynura procumbens grows extensively in Southeast Asia, where it is traditionally used for treatment of eruptive fevers, rash, kidney disease, migraines, constipation, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and cancer (Rosidah, 2009). The investigation of Gynura procumbens will allow the researchers to assess its hypoglycemic activity. The results of this study can contribute to the knowledge about herbal plants with antidiabetic properties. The information from this study may aid in developing Gynura procumbens into a drug that will effectively lower the blood sugar levels in diabetic patients. Scope and Limitations of the Study This study focuses on the effectivity of Gynura procumbens plant extract as an alternative agent for lowering the bloodShow MoreRelatedComplications and Prevalence of Diabetes1391 Words   |  6 Pagesthese studies and information, it is therefore important to search for alternative diabetic medications such as herbal plants, which are natural, safe, effective, and inexpensive. Herbal Plants Many herbal plants have been investigated for their hypoglycemic. The active principles in these medicinal plants have been reported to possess pancreatic beta cells regenerating, insulin releasing, and fighting the problem of insulin resistance. These plants also have the ability to restore the function of

Monday, December 16, 2019

The Return Midnight Chapter 31 Free Essays

Elena woke up feeling stiff and cramped. But that wasn’t surprising. Three other people seemed to be on top of her. We will write a custom essay sample on The Return: Midnight Chapter 31 or any similar topic only for you Order Now Elena? Can you hear me? Stefan? Yes! You’re awake? I’m all cramped†¦and hot. A different voice interrupted. Just give us a moment and you won’t be cramped anymore. Elena felt Damon move away. Bonnie rol ed into his place. But Stefan clung to her for a moment. Elena, I’m sorry. I never even realized what condition you were in. Thank God for Damon. Can you forgive me? Despite the heat, Elena cuddled closer to him. If you can forgive me for putting the whole party in danger. I did that, didn’t I? I don’t know. I don’t care. All I know is that I love you. It was several minutes before Bonnie woke up. Then she said feebly, â€Å"Hey! Whachoo doin’in my bed?† â€Å"Getting out of it,†Elena said, and tried to rol over and get up. The world was wobbly. She was wobbly – and bruised. But Stefan was never more than a few inches away, holding her, righting her when she started to fal . He helped her get dressed without making her feel like a baby. He examined her backpack, which fortunately hadn’t gone into the water, and then he took out anything heavy inside. He put the heavy things in his own pack. Elena felt much better after being given some food, and after seeing the thurgs – both of them – eating too; either stretching their great double trunks up to break off pieces of wood from the barren trees, or scooping away snow to find dry grass underneath. They clearly were not going to die after al . Elena knew everyone was watching her to gauge whether or not she was up to any more that day. She hurried to finish drinking the tea heated over a dung fire, trying to conceal the fact that her hands shook. After forcing some jerky down, she said in her most cheerful voice, â€Å"So what next?† How do you feel? Stefan asked her. â€Å"Little sore, but I’l be fine. I guess everyone expects me to have pneumonia, but I don’t even have any cough.† Damon, after one heavy-lidded glance at Stefan, took both her hands and stared at her. She couldn’t – she didn’t dare – meet his eyes, so she focused on Stefan, who was looking at her comfortingly. At last Damon dropped Elena’s hands abruptly. â€Å"I went in as far as I could. You should know how far that is,†he added to Stefan. â€Å"She’s sound, her nose is wet, and her coat is shiny.† Stefan looked as if he were going to smack him one, but Elena took his hand soothingly. â€Å"I’m healthy,†she said. â€Å"So that’s two votes for me going on to save Fel ‘s Church.† â€Å"I’ve always believed in you,†Stefan said. â€Å"If you think you can go on, you can go on.† Bonnie sniffled. â€Å"Just don’t take any more chances, okay?†she said. â€Å"You scared me.† â€Å"I’m real y sorry,†Elena said gently, feeling the void of Meredith’s absence. Meredith would be a great help to both of them now. â€Å"So, shal we continue? And where are we heading? I’m al turned around.† Damon stood. â€Å"I think we just keep in a straight line. The path is narrow after this – and who knows what the next trial is?† The path was narrow – and misty. Just as before, it started in filmy veils and ended up blinding them. Elena let Stefan, with his catlike reflexes, go first, and she held on to his pack. Behind her, Bonnie clung like a burr. Just when Elena thought she was going to scream if she had to keep traveling through the white blanket any farther, it cleared. They were near the top of some mountain. Elena took off after Bonnie, who had hurried ahead at the sight of transparent air. She was just fast enough to grab on to Bonnie’s pack and pul her backward as she reached the place where the land stopped. â€Å"No way!†Bonnie cried, setting up a clamoring echo from below. â€Å"There is no way I’m going across that!† That was a chasm with a very thin bridge spanning it. The chasm was frosty white on either side at the top, but when Elena gripped the bridge’s ice-cold metal poles and leaned a little forward she could see glacial blues and greens at the very bottom. A chil wind hit her face. The gap between this bit of the world and the next bit directly in front of them was about a hundred yards long. Elena looked from the shadowy depths to the slender bridge, which was made of wooden slats and just wide enough for one person to walk on. It was supported here and there by ropes which ran to the sides of the chasm and were sunk with metal posts into barren, icy rock. It also swooped magnificently down and then back up again. Even looking at it gave the eye a sort of mini?Cthril ride. The only problem was that it didn’t include a safety belt, a seat, two handrails, and a uniformed guide saying, â€Å"Hands and feet must be kept inside the attraction at alltimes!†It did have a single, thin, creeper-woven rope to hold on to on the left. â€Å"Look,†Stefan was saying, as quietly and intently as Elena had ever heard him speak, â€Å"we can hold onto each other. We can go go one by one, very slowly – â€Å" â€Å"NOOO!† Bonnie put into that one word a psychic shriek that almost defeaned Elena. â€Å"No, no, no, no, NO! You don’t understand! I can’t DO IT!† She flung her backpack down. Then she began laughing and crying at the same time in a ful -blown attack of hysterics. Elena had an impulse to dash water in her face. She had a stronger impulse to throw herself down beside Bonnie and shriek, â€Å"And neither can I! It’s insane!†But what good would that do? A few minutes later Damon was talking quietly to Bonnie, unaffected by the outburst. Stefan was pacing in circles. Elena was trying to think of Plan A, while a little voice chanted inside her head, You can’t do it, you can’t do it, you can’t do it, either. This was al just a phobia. They could probably train Bonnie out of it – if, say, they had a year or two. Stefan, on one of his circular trips near her, said, â€Å"And how are you about heights, love?† Elena decided to put a brave face on it. â€Å"I don’t know. I think I can do it.† Stefan looked pleased. â€Å"To save your hometown.† â€Å"Yes†¦but it’s too bad nothing works here. I could try to use my Wings for flying, but I can’t control them – â€Å" And that kind of magic is simply not available here, Stefan’s voice said in her mind. But telepathy is. You can hear me, too, can’t you? They thought of the answer simultaneously, and Elena saw the light of the idea breaking on Stefan’s face even as she began to speak. â€Å"Influence Bonnie! Make her think she’s a tightrope walker – a performer since she was a toddler. But don’t make her too playful so she doesn’t bounce the rest of us off!† With that light in his face, Stefan looked†¦too good. He seized both Elena’s hands, whirled her around once as if she weighed nothing, picked her up, and kissed her. And kissed her. And kissed her until Elena felt her soul dripping off her fingertips. They shouldn’t have done it in front of Damon. But Elena’s euphoria was clouding her judgment, and she couldn’t control herself. Neither of them had been trying for a deep mind probe. But telepathy was al they had left, and it was warm and wonderful and it left them for an instant in the circle of each other’s arms, laughing, panting – with electricity flashing between them. Elena’s whole body felt as if she’d just gotten a sizable jolt. Then she pul ed herself out of his arms, but it was too late. Their shared gaze had gone on much too long, and Elena felt her heart pounding in fear. She could feel Damon’s eyes on her. She barely managed to whisper, â€Å"Wil you tel them?† â€Å"Yes,†Stefan said softly. â€Å"I’l tel them.†But he didn’t move until she actual y turned her back on Bonnie and Damon. After that she peeked over her shoulder and listened. Stefan sat down by the sobbing girl and said, â€Å"Bonnie, can you look at me? That’s al I want. I promise you, you don’t have to go across that bridge if you don’t want to. You don’t even have to stop crying, but try to look me in the eye. Can you do that? Good. Now†¦Ã¢â‚¬ His voice and even his face changed subtly, becoming more forceful – mesmerizing. â€Å"You’re not afraid of heights at all, are you? You’re an acrobat who could walk a tightrope across the Grand Canyon and never turn a hair. You’re the very best of al your family, the flying McCul oughs, and they’re the best in the world. And right now, you’re going to choose whether to cross over that wooden bridge. If so, you’l lead us. You’l be our leader.† Slowly, while listening to Stefan, Bonnie’s face had changed. With swol en eyes fixed on Stefan’s, she seemed to be listening intently to something in her own head. And final y, as Stefan said the last sentence, she jumped up and looked at the bridge. â€Å"Okay, let’s go!†she cried, picking up her backpack, while Elena sat staring after her. â€Å"Can you make it?†Stefan asked, looking at Elena. â€Å"We’l let her go first – there’s real y no way she can fal off. I’l go after her. Elena can come after me and hold on to my belt, and I’m counting on you, Damon, to hold on to her. Especial y if she starts to faint.† â€Å"I’l hold her,†Damon said quietly. Elena wanted to ask Stefan to Influence her, too, but everything was happening so fast. Bonnie was already on the bridge, only pausing when cal ed back by Stefan. Stefan was looking behind him at Elena, saying, â€Å"Can you get a good grip?†Damon was behind Elena, putting a strong hand on her shoulder, and saying, â€Å"Look straight ahead, not down. Don’t worry about fainting; I’l catch you.† But it was such a frail wooden bridge, and Elena found that she was always looking down and her stomach floated up outside her body and above her head. She had a death-grip on Stefan’s belt with one hand, and on the woven creeper with the other. They came to a place where a slat had detached and the slats on either side looked as if they might go at any moment. â€Å"Careful with these!†Bonnie said, laughing and leaping over al three. Stefan stepped over the first chancy slat, over the missing one, and put his foot on the next. Crack! Elena didn’t scream – she was beyond screaming. She couldn’t look. The sound had shut her eyes. And she couldn’t move. Not a finger. Certainly not a foot. She felt Damon’s arms around her waist. Both of them. She wanted to let him support her weight as he had many times before. But Damon was whispering to her, words like spel s that allowed her legs to stop shaking and cramping and even let her stop breathing so fast that she might faint. And then he was lifting her and Stefan’s arms were going around her and for a moment they were both holding her firmly. Then Stefan took her weight and gently put her feet down on firm slats. Elena wanted to cling to him like a koala, but she knew that she mustn’t. She would make them both fal . So somewhere, from inner depths she didn’t know she had, she found the courage to take her own weight on her feet and fumbled for the creeper. Then she lifted her head and whispered as loudly as she could, â€Å"Go on. We need to give Damon room.† â€Å"Yes,†Stefan whispered back. But he kissed her on the forehead, a quick protective kiss, before he turned and stepped toward the impatient Bonnie. Behind her, Elena heard – and felt – Damon jumping catlike over the gap. Elena raised her eyes to stare at the back of Stefan’s head again. She couldn’t compass al the emotions she was feeling at that moment: love, terror, awe, excitement – and, of course, gratitude, al at once. She didn’t dare turn her head to look at Damon behind her, but she felt exactly the same things for him. â€Å"A few more steps,†he kept saying. â€Å"A few more steps.† A brief eternity later, they were on solid ground, facing a medium-sized cavern, and Elena fel to her knees. She was sick and faint, but she tried to thank Damon as he passed by her on the snowy mountain trail. â€Å"You were in my way,†he said shortly and as coldly as the wind. â€Å"If you had fal en you might have upset the entire bridge. And I don’t happen to feel like dying today.† â€Å"What are you saying to her? What did you just say?†Stefan, who had been out of earshot, came hurrying back. â€Å"What did he say to you?† Damon, examining his palm for creeper thorns, said without looking up, â€Å"I told her the truth, that’s al . So far she’s zero for two on this quest. Let’s hope that as long as you make it through they let you in the Gatehouse, because if they’re grading on performance we’ve flunked. Or should I say, one of us has flunked?† â€Å"Shut up or I’ll shut you up,† Stefan said in a different voice than Elena had ever heard him use before. She stared. It was as if he’d grown ten years in one second. â€Å"Don’t you ever talk to her or about her that way again, Damon!† Damon stared at him for a moment, pupils contracted. Then he said, â€Å"Whatever,†and strol ed away. Stefan bent down to hold Elena until her shaking stopped. And that’s that, Elena thought. An ice-cold rage gripped her. Damon had no respect for her at all; he had none for anyone but himself. She couldn’t protect Bonnie from Bonnie’s own feelings – or stop him from insulting her. She couldn’t stop Bonnie for forgiving. But she, Elena, was done with Damon. This last insult was the end. The fog came in again as they walked through the cavern. How to cite The Return: Midnight Chapter 31, Essay examples

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Business Process Project Management

Question: Discuss about the Business Process Project Management. Answer: Introduction The essay reflects on the significance of Business Process Management, which is defined as a systematic approach that helps in making the workflow of the organization effective, efficient as well as more capable of adapting to an ever-changing environment (Jeston and Nelis 2014). This paper illustrates the benefits of understanding business process and factors that make difficult for organisations to understand the business processes. The paper also helps in elaborating the difficulties, which an organization experiences when it does not understand its business process. Discussion: Benefits of understanding business processes It is very much important to understand the business procedure properly. Understanding the procedure of business helps in achieving number of benefits. It is identified that BPM is a combination of practices, which are centred for illustrating various unclear processes, continuously looking for improvements as well as changes in various complex areas (Van 2013). Understanding business process properly helps in improving the agility of the business. It is very much significant to make appropriate changes to an organizations best practices in order to stay abreast with the changing scenarios in the market. Proper knowledge, as well as understanding of BPM, helps in permitting the business owner to stop various processes of the business (Schulte et al. 2015). With this, the organizations achieve very much different ability of tracking as well as implementing changes. It is analysed that cost can be reduced by having proper understanding of the Business Processes. Various types of costs, which are associated with business process execution, can be reduced by having proper knowledge as well as understanding about business procedures. For reducing the cost of the organization, it is quite significant to employ right procedure of the business, which helps in executing significant result for the organization (Bradley 2016). The operational cost of the organization reduces which is very much helpful in minimizing the lead-time that has a positive impact on the sales of the organization. This also helps in enhancing the access of the consumers within very much less time (Goetsch and Davis 2014). It further helps in improving the efficiency as well as the profitability of the organization by minimizing waste. The efficiency of business procedures is enhanced by having a proper understanding of Business Process. The efficiency is increased by integrating various processes of the organizations. The owners of the processes achieve alert every time they allocate responsibilities to its team members, which further helps in monitoring of delays as well as relocating various tasks among different members of the organization (Van, Dijkman and Mendling 2013). Therefore, it assists in reducing lead-time in context to implementation as well as enhancement of business process. It also helps in optimizing different processes by removing any redundant task and by implementing automation for minimizing the chances of errors. Compliance, safety as well as the security of an organization increases by having a proper understanding of the business process. Reliable business process helps in guaranteeing that organizations generally comply with different standards in order to remain up to date with the laws (Zikmund et al. 2013). The understanding of the business process helps in increasing the ability for promoting security as well as safety measures. The organization can discover their capability of reducing cost as well as increasing productivity by knowing the business process properly. The employees of the organization are satisfied if it follows appropriate business procedure. In order to follow the proper business process, it is very much important to understand the business process properly (Davenport 2013). It is analysed that business process helps in allowing employees of the organization to focus properly on their work by cutting down numerous repetitive work and by making the access of the information much easier. This further helps in enhancing the productivity. Factors that make difficult for organisations to understand business processes If an organization does not understand the business process properly, then it will face a number of difficulties. Several times, it selects outdated processes due to improper understanding of the business process (Perera et al. 2014). The mistake of choosing outdated process will produce a negative impact on the progress as well as the success of the organization. Out dated process for business, costs both times as well as money of the company. Therefore, it is very much important to update the processes by taking the appropriate amount of time, as updated processes will be helpful for the staff of the organization in working efficiently. The organization selects overly complex process due to the inappropriate understanding of the business process (McCormack and Johnson 2016). Due to the selection of complex business process, they face difficulty in understanding the procedure appropriately. Problems associated with time also occur due to the complexity of the business process. Difficulty in understanding the procedure leads to errors, as staffs of the organizations always want to adopt easier processes in order to complete a task or a procedure. It is quite important for an organization to find out ways that will be helpful in simplifying the complex procedure (Sadgrove 2016). This is because complex procedure will produce a negative impact on the various operations of the organization and it generates problem for the staffs of the organization. Failure to comply with appropriate regulations makes difficult for organizations to understand business process. Organizations are generally facing numerous regulatory as well as statutory rules as well as regulations, which they require to comply with, not only for maintaining their understanding in the market but also for criminal charge (Laguna and Marklund 2013). If an organization is unable to illustrate proper rules as well as regulations to the employees then the organization, they will face difficulty in understanding the business process. Improper communication about rules along with different procedures, which is required to be followed in order to ensure compliance, will raise struggles when external as well as internal audits are carried out (Hatten 2015). The inability of introducing new processes, or inability of adapting to the existing processes for meeting the new requirements raises a number of difficulties in understanding the business process for organizations (Ward 2016). It is analysed that organizations that are generally operating in a fast, as well as changing market with mergers as well as acquisitions, will face difficulty in understanding the business procedure. This is because they often struggle for updating as well as publishing revised processes in order to meet the requirements of the organizations (Perera et al. 2014). Therefore, it is very much significant for the organization to adopt agile as well as an easy system for enabling the changes that are required to be made quickly for minimizing the negative impact on the business. The staff of the organization faces problem in finding out proper as well as appropriate information in order to complete a particular task. Absence of proper information to the staff increases their difficulties, as they do not understand the business procedure properly. There is no single repository for the information, which can be accessed by the staff at a single click (Zikmund et al. 2013). Overcoming the issue by making latest information would be helpful in resolving the problem associated with the understanding of the business process. Difficulties experience by an organization when it does not fully understand its business processes The organizations face numerous difficulties if they are unable to understand the business process quickly as well as appropriately. Business processes are generally meant to be simple, but they get complicated due to the structure, complexity in the system and due to inadequate process development with the organization. It is very much important for forward-thinking managers to understand the requirements as well as the need of streamlining the processes of business for staying relevant (Jeston and Nelis 2014). Efficient communication as well as collaboration is quite critical in order to co-ordinate and for delivering proper customer service. Unfortunately, there are numerous ways, which are followed by the companies for setting their employees up for failure. Profits of the organization are lost when inadequacies in implementation as well as poor business process optimization restrict the agility of the business (Van, Dijkman and Mendling 2013). The organizations are pressurized b y the changing requirement of the customers as well as competitive cost to adjust, redesign as well for adapting to the changing business capabilities as well as processes as they does not understand the business process properly. Improper understanding of the business process by the staff of the organization is visualized in various reactive organizations, which does not create business process for eliminating or minimizing the potential issues (Bradley 2016). Unmet expectations will have a negative impact on the organization that affects customer satisfaction as well as poorly implemented processes of the business due to lack of proper training as well as communication within the organization as it helps in creating a cycle of employees as well as clients for fulfilling the business as well as employment needs. A simple business procedure that is generally overlooked is spending appropriate time as well as money for properly training as well as cross-training employees (Goetsch and Davis 2014).The organization faces problems as if redundancy in the business process is mainly due to improper knowledge about the process. Therefore, it is very much important to provide proper training to the employees of the or ganization so that they can achieve proper understanding about business processes that helps in solving the problems that are related with the redundancy of business process. The capability of satisfying the needs of efficient communication as well as productivity can be balanced with investing in streamlining business process (McCormack and Johnson 2016). If an organization is dependent on weak communication as well as unsatisfactory performance due to poor understanding of the business process which has considerable amount of economic as well as productivity impact. Successful business process design, analysis as well as implementation helps in redirecting significant resources more strategically as well as efficiently and helps in re-focussing internal resources on various strategic capabilities that help in innovating as well as growing the business (Hatten 2015). The business agility gets affected due to integration and process optimization. Effective business processes like reviewing process for removing non-value added procedures, identifying as well as implementing cost savings, as well as proving process design methodologies in order to achieve consistent design as well as implementation across the organization (Sadgrove 2016). Various process improvement methodologies help in directing savings of business. Conclusion It can be concluded that proper understanding of the business process is quite important for achieving success with the organization. It is analysed that proper understanding of the business process helps in enhancing the agility, productivity, efficiency, transparency of the business. It also helps in increasing employee satisfaction as well as customer focus for achieving the goals as well as objectives of the organization. Improper understanding of business process leads to numerous problems, which include lower productivity, improper agility as well as transparency with the business. Number of factors that make difficult for organisations to understand business processes include a selection of complex process, failure to comply with appropriate regulations, Inability of introducing new processes as well as the absence of proper information. Therefore, it is quite important to understand the business properly in order to achieve the goals as well as objectives of the organization. References Bradley, G., 2016.Benefit Realisation Management: A practical guide to achieving benefits through change. CRC Press. Davenport, T.H., 2013.Process innovation: reengineering work through information technology. Harvard Business Press. Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014.Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson. Hatten, T.S., 2015.Small business management: Entrepreneurship and beyond. Nelson Education. Jeston, J. and Nelis, J., 2014.Business process management. Routledge. Laguna, M. and Marklund, J., 2013.Business process modeling, simulation and design. CRC Press. McCormack, K.P. and Johnson, W.C., 2016.Supply chain networks and business process orientation: advanced strategies and best practices. CRC Press. Perera, C., Zaslavsky, A., Christen, P. and Georgakopoulos, D., 2014. Sensing as a service model for smart cities supported by internet of things.Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies,25(1), pp.81-93. Rosemann, M. and vom Brocke, J., 2015. The six core elements of business process management. InHandbook on business process management 1(pp. 105-122). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Sadgrove, K., 2016.The complete guide to business risk management. Routledge. Schulte, S., Janiesch, C., Venugopal, S., Weber, I. and Hoenisch, P., 2015. Elastic business process management: state of the art and open challenges for BPM in the cloud.Future Generation Computer Systems,46, pp.36-50. Van Der Aalst, W.M., 2013. Business process management: a comprehensive survey.ISRN Software Engineering,2013. Van Dongen, B., Dijkman, R. and Mendling, J., 2013. Measuring similarity between business process models. InSeminal Contributions to Information Systems Engineering(pp. 405-419). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Ward, J., 2016.Keeping the family business healthy: How to plan for continuing growth, profitability, and family leadership. Springer. Zikmund, W.G., Babin, B.J., Carr, J.C. and Griffin, M., 2013.Business research methods. Cengage Learning.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

The Joy Luck Club Cutural Differences Between Daughters And Mothers E

The Joy Luck Club: Cutural Differences Between Daughters And Mothers There are numerous conditions in human life that mold people into who they presently are. A person's identity and way of thinking are influenced greatly due to their family's surroundings, and relationships they are involved in. In the novel, The Joy Luck Club, the characters are generic, in the sense that, although they are from different families, the problems and emotions experienced are similar. The daughters are in an on-going search to discover themselves, who they are and what they represent. With their precious mother-daughter bonds, four immigrants are bewildered at American culture as they struggle to instill in their daughters remnants of their Chinese heritage. Throughout the course of the novel, the mystery of the mother-daughter relationship is revealed to the reader by various means. First, such a strong connection can only be the product of an essential, timeless, emotion called love: She loved you very much, more than her own life (Tan 29). Unfortunately, in Chinese culture, mothers rarely say I love you and find little to no time at all to provide for their daughter's emotional needs. Such attitudes occasionally lead the children to sense that My mother did not treat me this way because she didn't love me. She just had a hard time showing her love for me (Tan 45). As well, the link is also nourished in other ways, such as the swift protection of a mother's young: She grabbed my hand back so fast that I knew at that instant how sorry she was that she had not protected me better (Tan 111). There are other ways in which the mystery of the mother-daughter relationship is uncovered. Because of a mother's enduring love, they often put up high expectations that are often hard to meet. As well, in the case of Waverly and June, a mother's love is expressed in the novel by proudly showing off: From the time we were babies, our mothers compared the creases in our belly buttons, how shapely our earlobes were, how fast we healed when we scraped our knees... (Tan 64). In any case, every small act or gesture done out of deep love for one another, strengthens the bond, that is enkindled at birth. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America. They see daughters who grow up impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English. They see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation. (Tan 31) Culture greatly influences the youth of today as American circumstances considerably influenced the daughters of the novel. In some instances, the Western culture dominates as the mothers strive on, in its shadow: ...and because I remained quiet for so long now my daughter does not hear me. She sits by her fancy swimming pool and hears her Sony Walkman, her cordless phone... (Tan 64). Ying-Ying ponders upon the fact that, She follows my Chinese ways until she learned how to walk out the door by herself and go to school (Tan 289). Because of heavy resentment on the mother's part, in some instances, the American culture is frowned upon and is stereotyped as having morbid thoughts (Tan 105). Many problems, especially embarrassment, surface when the younger generation attempts to become absorbed into a new culture, while the parents insist on clinging to their old ways. The daughters experience troubles while trying to cope with their immigrant parents. There is an obvious language barrier that may result in feelings, such as that of Jing-mei: These kinds of explanations made me feel my mother and I spoke two different languages, which we did. I talked to her in English, she answered back in Chinese (Tan 23). Often, the daughters feel ashamed. The people who embarrass them and whom they resent are their parents: I wish you wouldn't do that, telling everybody I'm your daughter (Tan 101). The young ladies later realize that it is childish to think that way, and they focus on the future, rather then on past mistakes. The children feel that their mothers nag constantly when