ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Carlsen, P 2009, ‘Regulatory accounting, standard setting, market based incentives’. Electric Utility Week. Summary The article under consideration dwells upon regulatory accounting as this rule runs in the USA, but not spread. US utilities’ main wish was gratified by the AISB in the meaning that incurred costs should be recovered in future by these regulatory accounting. Existing IFRS have the limited provision so there is the necessity to provide the new rules to the Accounting Standards Codification. The ASC 980 is eager to provide the rate recoverability of regulatory assets, which are going to be based on the regulators, which will control the existence of the assets. Agree part While the question of the regulatory accounting practice was raised, so there is the necessity to provide some changes. The offered regulations in the article have the main advantage: the provisions are going to be controlled and the problem with the accounting will not appear in the conditions of constant regulations. The support will also come from financial statements, at he same time it may be also agreed that there is no structured implementation of the practice. Still, the regulatory accounting is going to be the profitable affair, which will make it easy to control accountings. Landy, H 2009, ‘Mark-to-Market: Fair in Theory, But of What Value?’ American Banker. Summary Fair-value accounting is the core question of the current publication, an the main focus is the H. David Sherman’s investigation of the issue. The fait-value theory is also known as market-to-market accounting, and the question is whether all loans and deposits should be covered by this fair-value accounting. Sherman tried to convince the public that fair-value is exactly what the banks need in the question of deposits. Moreover, fair value makes sense not only for banks, but also for the whole business sector, as it is considered to be more relevant that traditionally used historical costs. Agree part It is impossible to disagree with Sherman, as fair value system, which is offered is a good start for coming out f the crisis. Furthermore, the usage of the market-to-market system before the crisis start could allow avoiding some looses, which occurred as the result of the historical cost system. The fair value is feasible and the advantages of its usage are going to be seen soon in the case of the system adopting. Using fair value accounting the hedge accounting is of no necessity as is
The current exhibit includes an exhibit of sex in the animal kingdom on the first floor. The animals were shown doing all sorts of sexual activities. The animals are custom-made sculptures showing various sexual positions. The portrayals are so vivid and what greets one upon entry is the sculpture of a male bonobo who has a sugar cane in hand and putting it into good use. The museum has writings on the wall, and videos that show the animals in sexual acts. The thing that struck me most about the exhibit was seeing animals engage in a range of sexual acts. I mean for a long time I thought that only human beings engage in complex sex. It was interesting to see animals soliciting sex, for example, a male bonobo was trying to woo a female bonobo to have sex in exchange for sugar cane. One would be forgiven for thinking that only human beings solicit sex in exchange for things like a cigarette, money, jobs, etc. The animals also engage in sex for fun. They engage in foreplay and it was interesting to see animals kissing, stimulating their genitals like two female bonobos who were rubbing each other’s genitals. The bonobo’s sexual activity was very high. Almost every activity they did result in sexual contact where two adult bonobos ended up rubbing each other’s genitals. Oral sex is also practiced by the animals as exhibited by a group of apes. This was eye-opening to note that sex in animals is not restricted to reproduction. Another interesting thing to note was that same-sex exists among the animals. It would have been interesting to get information on why this behavior exists in animals. The exhibit led to the appreciation of animal diversity in sexual behavior. Same-sex sexual behavior in some of the animals led to a rethinking of same-sex sexual behavior in human beings. Does it mean that homosexuality is a natural phenomenon basing on the fact that even animals exhibit the same behavior? This is a controversial issue especially with the religious people who would see this as a justification of homosexuality in human beings. Can we use animal’s sexual orientation to justify human sexual behavior that is considered unnatural? The benefits of the exhibit on the sex lives of animals are many. It gives information about the sexual behaviors of animals in a way that is unique and in a comfortable environment. The exhibit gives one an insight into the natural history of sex among animals. Animals are seen engaging in non-reproductive sex and this could perhaps explain the same behavior in human beings. There is the full-size sculpture of deers engaged in a threesome. This shows that sexual partnerships exist even among animals as well as with human beings. Through watching the animals engage in different sexual acts one is left thinking about sexual behavior in human beings. Why do some human beings (sex maniacs) engage in sex all the time? Could they be likened to bonobos? The bonobos according to the videos engage in sexual acts very often. Why do they do this? Is it their way of socializing or is it in their genes? This exhibition enabled me to l
Health disparities research in the United States over the past 2 decades has yielded considerable progress and contributed to a developing evidence base for interventions that tackle disparities in health status and access to care. However, health disparity interventions have focused primarily on individual and interpersonal factors, which are often limited in their ability to yield sustained improvements. Health disparities emerge and persist through complex mechanisms that include socioeconomic, environmental, and system-level factors. To accelerate the reduction of health disparities and yield enduring health outcomes requires broader approaches that intervene upon these structural determinants. Although an increasing number of innovative programs and policies have been deployed to address structural determinants, few explicitly focused on their impact on minority health and health disparities. Structural interventions often evolve in response to emerging policy, funding, or political priorities, and thus may be implemented in an iterative, discontinuous manner. Another challenge is the long follow-up periods required to observe and measure health outcomes, and especially to document decreases in health disparities, thus necessitating prolonged, multilevel evaluations that extend far beyond typical funding cycles. Structural interventions may require years, sometimes decades, of follow up before improvements in health outcomes can be observed. Most research grants are between 3 and 5 years, a timeline too short to assess long-term impact on reducing health disparities. The examples of ParentCorps and the Earned Income Tax Credit illustrate the need in disparities research for long-term interventions to understand downstream effects of these structural interventions on minority health and health disparities. Many local communities recognize the role of structural determinants on health and social outcomes but face the challenge
Articlesbase. (2008). White collar and its effect on consumers. Articlesbase. Web. This article discusses the effects of white collar crime. It shows that white collar crimes have far-reaching effects to consumers. For instance, when crimes are committed by political and state officials, consumers are denied access to variety of quality goods. The article gives the effects of white collar crimes in different areas of the economy. For example, the article gives data of cost of white collar crime in health and overall cost of living. Finally, this article explains in detail challenges of political and government officials to adopt new strategies to fight white collar crimes. Brenner, C. (2009). What exactly is a white collar crime and how are they defended? HG.org. Web. This article discusses white collar crimes in the perspective of the court. The article starts by defining white collar crime in legal terms. The article further explains how white collar crime can be identified and how it can be represented in court. It also identifies white collar crime as crime committed by professions and individuals in influential positions. This article explains in depth the conspiracy of politicians and state officials in these crimes. Hochstetler, A. & Shover, N. (2006). Choosing white-collar crime. New York: Cambridge University Press. This book explains why white collar crime is on the growth while blue collar crimes are decreasing. The books make use of rational- choice theory to explain the growth in white collar crimes. It postulate that people choose to commit white collar crimes due to the low risk of being caught and high returns from this crime. The author proposes more severe punishment for those who commit white collar crimes. Israel, J. (2003). White collar crime: law and practice. New York: Thomson. The author relates white collar crimes to legal issues. The book expounds on the long procedure needed in order to prove white collar crime in a court of law. From the book one is able to see the importance of mitigation rather than proving occurrence of the crimes in court. Johnston, R. (2002). The battle against white-collar crime. BNET. Web. The author addresses the fight against white collar crimes in the country. From the article, one is able to see the struggle to control white collar crimes in the country. The article give conspiracy between white collar criminals with politicians and some state officials as one of hindrance to success in fighting white collar crimes. Reid, S. (2003). Crime Criminology. New York: McGraw. This book gives the nature and trend of crimes in our society. The author addresses the nature of crimes in the past and compares it to nature of crimes in the society today. The author emphasize on the need for change in strategies for fighting crimes as crime change from blue collar crimes to w
The article entitled “The house, from cellar to garret, the significance of the hut” tries to represent the meaning of a house from a phenomenological perspective. In my own point of view, I think the author of this article used the house as a symbol of human imagination. Albert Birot tries to explain how our vision supplements the values of reality. Depending on human beings’ imagination, we try to forge different meanings of how we perceive things through our imagination (“house”), yet we cannot run away from reality. From another point of view, “the house” is used in this article to represent the works of mind or rather the philosophy of mind. The author portrays that there is a direct relationship between phenomenology and the philosophy of mind. In this context, he has brought out the issue of solidarity of imagination and memory. Through this, he explains the house as the most incredible power of integration for memories, thoughts, and dream of humankind. Unconscious is portrayed as housed, meaning when a human being is unconscious, it is impossible to describe his/her imagination. The author has used complicated philosophical jargon in this document, thus complicating it. It is written poetically, therefore making it difficult to understand. The flow of the document’s ideas is put not well, making the article boring to read. The author has repeated different points complicating its meaning. It is only philosophers who can clearly understand the actual argument of the author. If you hate philosophy, you will not enjoy reading this article’s content due to the difficult philosophical jargon used in it.
The ultimate goal for any business enterprise is profit maximization. A business facing high demand for its products must increase its scale of production to meet the rising demand. To effectively expand its productivity, the firm must consider the cost of such increased production versus the returns expected from such undertaking. If the business increases its operation capacity to a certain level and the utility derived from such expansion is not proportional to the cost, then such an undertaking is not worthwhile. A good understanding of cost benefit analysis is very essential in decision making. The total cost includes acquisition costs, ownership costs, maintenance costs, operation costs and logistics costs. Life cycle costs in most cases are usually higher than acquisition costs. The management should take initiative of analyzing the ownership costs while purchasing products to determine the growth of the ownership costs after the purchase of the product. Bluejay Company was in the process of improving the quality image of its products. As a result the management decided to operate in-house in order to maintain control of its operations. Due to increased demand of its products, the need for outsourcing is a must. They can no longer maintain low level of production with the rising demand. The first step the management has to undertake is to carry out the life cycle cost analysis of the product (Ascott & Elizabeth, 2006. p. 156). The firm must establish the cost benefit of increasing their scale of production. Before outsourcing for suppliers, the management needs to understand, clearly analyze and manage probable risks that might result from long term partnership with suppliers. This is important for the company to ensure that the suppliers comply with the contractual terms and show commitments to the standards imposed by the company. Careful outsourcing will assist Bluejay Company to reduce its operation costs, improve product and service quality, reduce time to the market and increase the range of customer services as well as being able to focus on the most capable areas of the organization. The decision to establish the best cost effective system to adopt should be made in consideration of cost and the effectiveness of the system. This involves system characteristics such as product quality and production
Introduction Stress forms an integral part of our daily life despite negative notions people have developed against it. According to Wein (2000), stress ensures that the body functions optimally particularly when responding to adverse situations. He further explains that the flight or fight response guarantees individual’s safety since the body is able to react swiftly to the changes in environmental conditions. However, chronic exposure to stress may pose adverse effects to one’s physical health. To begin with, stress has been known to suppress immune system thereby increasing the body’s susceptibility to infections (Wein, 2000). Moreover, stress triggers the onset of heart diseases as well as high blood pressure thus subjecting an individual to health risks. Finally, stress is associated with a variety of health problems including backaches, stomachaches, pain, headaches, diarrhea, loss of sleep as well as weight gain (Wein, 2000). Chronic exposure to stress lowers the body’s immune system thereby reducing its ability to respond to invaders such as viruses or bacteria. It is therefore important for individuals to know their stress limits in an attempt to effectively manage stress. Health effects of stress Psychological stress triggers the physical symptoms as well as onset of various illnesses in the body. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about ninety percent of all diseases and illnesses are stress-related (Wein, 2000). Chronic stress interferes with the normal functioning of the body systems. At the outset, chronic stress suppresses the immune system, elevates blood pressure, and increases cardiac risk as well as stroke. Effects of stress on the immune system When the body is subjected to stressful conditions, stress hormones such as cortisol hormones are released by the pituitary and adrenal glands so as to initiate the stress response in the body. Such response is vital since both the brain and immune system can communicate to ensure effective stress management. However, such communication may be disrupted when one is exposed to chronic stress thereby suppressing the immune system. This would pave way for stress-related illnesses to attack the body. In such situations, stress hormones are persistently pumped into the blood thereby lowering the fighting ability of immune cells. According to Niess et al (2002), prolonged psychological stress suppresses immune system by reducing the macrophages, CD8+ lymphocytes as well as NK cells. This exposes the body to various infections. Effects of stress on the heart The heart functions best at certain levels of stress. However, chronic stress may lead to adverse effects on the heart performance thus posing cardiac risks. Stressors trigger cardiac events including pathophysiological changes such as myocardial infarction and ischemia, abnormalities associated with the wall motion, sudden death as well as changes in heart regulation (Soufer, 2004). Deepa, Pradeep, & Mohan (2001) argue that when an individual is exposed to psychological stress, there is a speedy incre
It cannot be denied that the internet brought a revolution in certain aspects of human social lives. It is no doubt that the internet has provided a certain degree of freedom, which if combined with sufficient anonymity, and lack of control, can turn the granted freedom into chaos. In that regard, the same can be applied to the freedom of speech in the internet. This paper provides an overview regarding freedom of speech, and freedom of expression, on the internet, stating that, the absence of censorship as well its dominance might lead to a misuse that compromises the idea of the freedom of speech. Freedom of speech or freedom of expression, in the internet, refers to the right to express an opinion or an idea, through any electronic means. The issues that might arise through practicing that right are twofold. On the one hand, the freedom of expression on the internet allowed the general public to be informed about the true nature of the certain events, regardless of geographical locations and restrictions. The successful examples can be seen through the coverage of the events in Tianmen in Chine, the Kuwait Invasion, Iran election and etc. (“Internet Freedom of Speech,” 2009) The ability to express one’s opinion freely creates a dialogue, and in the case of the internet, it is a global dialogue. On the other hand, the freedom of speech allows the widespread of pornography, personal attacks, falsified information, plagiarism and etc. One might argue that several of the aforementioned points might be regulated by the law. However, the nature of the internet makes it accessible for the general auditory, hard to control, and without boundaries. It can be concluded that control and censorship are issues that should be considered in parallel to freedom of speech and expression. Even with the laws incapable of controlling the flow of information in the internet, it is an ethical responsibility for every user to refer to common sense when expressing his/her freedom of speech on the internet. Before the Internet  1. The public access to such documents might have been possible through a library archive. In case of bills that were debated at the time, this might have been another issue where copies might be published before their hearing for public use. Other legislature documents also had the same fate, where for example accessing court records, required physically going into the courthouse. The disadvantages might be obvious, such as time consumption, search possibilities, and overall involvement. People tend to ignore political participation, if it does not concern them, or if it requires additional efforts.  2. In this case, the most obvious way is subscribing to medical journals, or using the library. The disadvantages include the li
Introduction The problem of people who lost their homes is acute in the US. Devastating hurricanes and state economic policy usually cause it. Therefore, many educated people used to a civilized lifestyle are left homeless. The lockdown caused by COVID-19 exacerbated this situation, leaving thousands of people without work and livelihoods. Therefore, I plan to participate as a volunteer in the distribution of hot meals, when the opportunity presents itself. This experience will help me understand what is happening in our society and enrich me emotionally, inspiring other actions not aimed at satisfying my ego. For example, I can also buy “hanging coffee” to brighten up the day for someone every day. Main body We live in a society where selfishness is not condemned and sometimes even encouraged. It is because, in this way, corporations stimulate our consumeristic behavior to gain more profits. However, Aristotle (2000) notes that the kindness shown to others is a virtue, proving that our mental state is in balance. Moreover, according to the philosopher, acts of kindness enrich a person and fill their life with meaning, and therefore are valuable (Aristotle, 2000). Here is a good example: a friend of mine once spontaneously began to take care of homeless pets. Initially, she wrote a report on this topic, in the preparation of which she visited the shelter and was upset to tears about how depressing the life of animals is. Therefore, she began to buy medicine for animals from the shelter and then took several kittens ‘to overexposure.’ She was happy to do so even though she needed to treat these cute animals from various diseases like tetter, fleas, or injuries. Then she gave them – clean and healthy – ‘to good hands.’ It seems to me that this example illustrates the person’s desire for good deeds, regardless of whether they bring immediate benefits. Conclusion According to John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarian theory, actions must be evaluated in the context of their consequences, with even the most brutal actions being justified. I’m afraid I have to disagree with this because some things cannot be changed after we learn about the consequences. For example, in most countries, the death penalty has long been abolished because death cannot be canceled after new circumstances of the case unexpectedly open, and the criminal is excused. Reference Aristotle. (2000). Nicomachean ethics. (Irwin, T., Trans., 2nd ed.). Hackett Publishing Company.