ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Individuals go through different developmental phases as they negotiate diverse experiences from childhood to adulthood, otherwise known as lifespan. The experiences are mainly determined by both nature and nurture influences, and plays a central role in determining an individual’s personality (Grogorenko & Sternberg, 2003). It is imperative to note at this early stage that consecutive studies on developmental phases through the lifespan has yielded many theories that attempt to explain the mental, emotional, cognitive, and social development experienced by individuals. This paper purposes to critically analyze what forces have impacted the life of U.S. President Barrack Obama from the perspective of developmental psychology by applying two theories of personality in the analyses of the influences throughout the lifespan. Heredity and Environmental Influences Psychologists largely believe that both heredity and environmental factors play a fundamental role in the development of a multiplicity of personality traits (Knafo & Plomin, 2006). Personality can be exclusively described as the continuing or long-term patterns of thought, values, world views, and behavior that an individual projects or expresses in diverse circumstances (Shaffer, 2009; Polak et al, 2010). By any standards, Obama is charismatic, ambitious, and goal-directed (Jittan & Immelman, 2008). He is confident, analytical, thoughtful, sensitive, and energetic, not mentioning the fact that he is independent and open in both thought and action. The above personality traits, though not conclusive, can be used to describe the person of the 44 th president of the U.S. President Obama’s cognitive and intellectual aptitudes largely demonstrated through his sharp thinking and leadership approach can be attributed to heredity influences, especially with the realization that his father was an astute civil servant in post-independence Kenya. Heredity influences occur when genetic characteristics are transmitted from the parents to the offspring. His skin color and hair type are genetic factors that must have influenced his social and emotional development especially in socialization processes. Obama’s resilient and goal-directed nature can be attributed to the experiences he underwent as a child and youth due to the heredity influences described above. Environmental influences are thought to have the biggest role in determining personality traits of individuals (Shaffer, 2009). According to the author, personality characteristics are not only determined in part by environmental influences, but they influence how individuals adjust to the immediate environment and how they respond to particular situations. Obama cuts across a figure of a person who is emotionally stable, morally straight, and cognitively superior as demonstrated by his accomplished oratory skills, leadership qualities, confident, sensitive, thoughtful, and attentive nature. These characteristics can be attributed to environmental influences that the president experienced while growing up in a single-family setup and in school. According to Myers (2009), Obama’s “…black African father, w
Introduction Medicare-severity diagnosis-related group is a Medicare refinement to the diagnosis-related group (DRG) classification system. MS-DRG allows payment to be more closely aligned with resource intensity. In other words, this system classifies patients in different health facilities according to their ailments and an average cost of each ailment is determined. Examples of categories used in most cases include the age of the patients, the respective diagnosis, surgical processes and other such information. According to Ferec (2011) “MS-DRG is linked to a fixed payment amount based on the average cost of patients in the group” (p.32). The DRG information is normally provided with the bill as a rule in Medicare. This information, on the other hand, is helpful to Medicare since they use it to determine the group of cases being handled by a specific health facility; hence can know the types and amounts of resources to avail in the health facilities. This is an important subject since it creates awareness of the billing systems used in medical facilities. The main ideas to be covered in this discussion include first, the issue of reimbursement referring to the classification used when provided funds and other resources to the health care facilities. The second issue is the relevance of this discu
Introduction Background For a long time, Britain has welcomed immigrants from different parts of the world. In the past, many of them came from Commonwealth nations. However, recent trends show that most of them hail from East European countries and third world nations (Cooke 2010). The rising number of immigrants in Britain has garnered the attention of some observers who say that this phenomenon could partly contribute to the current debate surrounding whether the UK should exit the European Union, or not (Burrell 2012). In this regard, the surge in the number of immigrants in Britain is of political, social, and economic concern. For example, according to a 2014 documentary by the BBC on immigration (cited in The Truth about Immigration in the UK 2014), politicians are increasingly trying to portray a strong political stance against immigration to please the public (The Truth about Immigration in the UK 2014). Such intrigues show that immigration is a dominant political issue in Britain. However, it is also a social concern for many Britons. Problem Statement The rising rate of immigration in Britain has elicited concerns that ethnic and racial diversity could have a negative effect on social cohesion in the country (Burrell 2012). However, such sentiments remain unsubstantiated, based on the premise that social cohesion is a contextual issue. For example, the effects of immigration in America may not necessarily be true for Britain. The opposite is also true because Britain has its unique social, political, and economic dynamics that warrant an independent analysis of the effects of immigration on the country’s social cohesion. Researchers and observers also have contradictory views regarding the effects of immigration on social cohesion in Britain, as some say many Britons exaggerate the effects of immigration on the society, while others believe such effects are often misunderstood (Saggar et al. 2012). Literature review What is Social Cohesion? Many researchers understand the concept of social cohesion as an intermediary between separation and unity (Adesina & Adesina 2013; Saggar et al. 2012). This understanding differs from the conceptualization of social cohesion as a total consensus on values and priorities. The social conflicts witnessed in England, in 2011, show that social cohesion is the new framework that Britain uses to assess immigration issues. Coined by Putnam (2007), social cohesion was a term used by researchers to explain the declining political participation of differ
Session A: Cultural studies The cultural studies approach to the effects of media and media related aspects suggests that there can be three main hypothesis and explanations. The first of such hypothesis uses capitalism as the basis of segregation of the society into subgroups and alienated groupings. These groupings are based on social economic ethical and physical characteristics such as race, nationality sexual orientation education as well as political opinion. In every such division there exists a further subdivision between the majority and subordinate groups of individuals (Deakin University (DU). 2009). The subordinates are therefore assimilated by the majority opinion that is advertised and marketed by the media. The assimilation occurs through constant aggressive and determined media coverage of a series of events. For instance as suggested by the key note address, the media due to the motivation and funding of the majority who were for pro war ideology was able to bring the war to the living room. Those against the war were left with little option but to sympathize with the sites of suffering pain and agony of the victims (Hall 1996). In effect, they became slowly naturalized to the idea that there had to be a war. The naturalization is achieved through a hegemony process. This is a process that involves the calculated and planned winning of the consent of the subordinate groups to an ideology of the dominant groups. The ideology of the dominant need not be the actual feasible and beneficial ideology but rather that which appeals to those who matter. The majority therefore need not be in numbers but in influence. The subordinates are easily swayed by a clever advertisement that sways their loyalty. This therefore means that there is a certain category of persons who are really influenced due to either lack of knowledge or insufficient knowledge. The media was manipulated strategically positioned and stage-managed into a smooth selling narrative with a pro war agenda (Sparks 2006, p89). Session B: The Toronto school Technology and by extension the media as a whole has a great bearing on the rate and direction of social change (Fitzgerald 2001). Technologies are readily available to for the use and manipulation of society depending on the nature and use of such technology. The direction and bearing of technology as a driver of social change however relies and depends on several factors such as economic social and political values. The undeniably significant role of the media in directing and guiding opinion and ideas in the Iraq war is evident in the key note address where the war is marketed and sold in the form of a smooth selli
Introduction The 2005 movie “V for Vendetta” stands out as an example of a recent cinematographic work that was allowed for release in theatres, despite the fact that it actually mocks state-sponsored ideological oppressiveness, which is now being strongly associated with promoters’ of neo-Liberal agenda tendency to shove up the doctrine of “multiculturalism” down citizens’ throats. Therefore, even though that formally speaking, “V for Vendetta” portrays the hypothetical future of Britain being under the yoke of far-right dictatorship, it is quite impossible not to notice the fact that the hypothetical realities of a particular political ideology completely domineering Britain’s socio-political life, as shown in the movie, actually correspond to the fact that nowadays, many citizens in Western countries are simply afraid to openly express their political opinions, while knowing perfectly well that their intellectual honesty might actually cost them their jobs and even freedom, simply because it can easily qualify these people for being charged with “racism”, “sexism”, “male chauvinism” etc. Main part In his article “Former Soviet Dissident Warns for EU Dictatorship”, Paul Belien quotes a former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovksy, who had suggested that slowly but surely, EU (European Union) transforms itself into an equivalent of Soviet Union: “The Soviet Union used to be a state run by ideology. Today’s ideology of the European Union is social-democratic, statist, and a big part of it is also political correctness. Look at this persecution of people like the Swedish pastor who was persecuted for several months because he said that the Bible does not approve homosexuality. France passed the same law of hate speech concerning gays. Britain is passing hate speech laws concerning race relations and now religious speech, and so on and so forth. (Belien 2006). The careful watching of “V for Vendetta” reveals the fact that the high-ranking officials from Norsefire Party, thought of the prospect of citizens being told the truth about what is going on in the country, as such that represents the foremost danger to “stability”. Therefore, only a very lazy individual would not be willing to run parallels between how movie depicts people being ideologically brainwashed and how today’s Western Medias misinform citizens on the practical effects of “celebration of diversity” policy being given an offic
The immigration stations of Ellis Island and Angel Island are sites with great historical significance. Until this day, these places keep stories of millions of immigrants that passed through the doors of the stations between 1880 and 1930. In this period, Ellis Island was the largest and the busiest immigration station for people coming to the USA, mostly from Europe. It was interesting for me to learn that many women were detained by the Ellis Island officials, as before World War II, women were not allowed to enter the country without men. It was also interesting to learn that since 1907 children under 16 were not allowed to enter the country without a parent. Those who arrived at Ellis Island alone were sent back to their home countries. People who did not pass medical inspection were also sent back home from the station. It seems astonishing to me that the station officials managed to inspect so many immigrants daily. The photos and video footages that have been preserved in the archives of the station show that the number of people passing through was incredibly high. Another fact that seemed interesting to me is that the station officials could separate children from their parents if they did not believe that they were, in fact, related. For example, when Lucy Attarian recalls the day she and her family were passing the inspection at Ellis Island, the official did not believe that she was related to her parents. 1 Her hair and general appearance were different from theirs, and the official told them to leave without Lucy. However, when she started crying after them, he believed that she was their daughter. The officials were cautious because there were many orphans coming to the country with other people’s families. Although the Angel Island Immigration Station was often referred to as the “Ellis Island” of the West, the conditions in these sites were very different, and so was the treatment of the arriving immigrants. This was due to the fact that people passing through the Angel Island station were mainly from China, and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 had introduced strict regulations for immigrants of Asian origin. Many of them had to face “detention, quarantine, interrogation, and even deportation”. 2 Detention barracks for men and women were overcrowded and unsanitary, which often caused diseases to spread. The walls of the barracks are full of cravings, which are mostly Chinese poems. People expressed their fears, dreams, and hopes for the future in those poems, and this seems to me an extraordinary example of how art can raise a person’s hopes even in the darkest of times. For most people in the barracks, those were the darkest times: they lived in uncertainty and fear of deportation, separated from their families, not knowing when they were going to see their loved ones again. The Angel Island officials could only allow individual
The first chapter of Leonard’s “Innovation in the Schoolhouse” is devoted to the issue of entrepreneurial innovation that is believed to be capable of saving the American school system. The central problem indicated by the author is that these two concepts are contradictory as perceived by the majority of people. School is rather seen as an obstacle, standing on the way of prominent entrepreneurs and hindering fulfilment of their dreams (Leonard, 2013). According to the chapter, the key concern of the modern American school system is that the majority of students are unable to compete with other nations, which creates a wide educational gap (Leonard, 2013). The same is also true about the United Arab Emirates since the curriculum does not currently meet the international standards. That is why innovation is viewed as the only solution to the problem. However, it is typically driven by sources outside the system such as private businesses. This arouses heated debate since the competitive nature and commercial motives of business go against initial purposes of schooling. Still, the author supports the idea that entrepreneurial leadership is indispensible to innovation (Leonard, 2013). Entrepreneurial leader is a person who is able to turn innovative ideas into enterprises, policies or programs that bring about considerable improvements, having economic, social, and intellectual value. The most important leadership traits that they should possess include: creativity, imagination, outside-the-box thinking, passion for exploration and development, the ability to collect existing ideas and generate new ones, willingness to experiment, high tolerance for ambiguity, relentlessness in pursuit of their vision, self-confidence, high internal locus of control, risk tolerance, and independence (Leonard, 2013). As far as their behaviors are concerned, leaders are usually gap-fillers since they are able to identify the need and provide a solution. Moreover, they are alert to opportunities and do not waste their chances to make improvements. They are observant, attentive, and always ready to listen to other people’s ideas since it allows them to practice associational thinking. Effective leaders are able to gather resources, spot potential obstacles, and take risks (Leonard, 2013). However, the school system is not yet ready to accept entrepreneurial innovation either in the US or in the UAE. The problems is that opportunistic behavior of leaders is fraught with deplorable consequences in many real-life situations (job loss, lawsuits, bankruptcy, etc.). At the same time, the author still concludes that this approach, although being risky, is the only way to foster innovation in schools (Leonard, 2013). Reference Leonard, J. (2013). Innovation in the schoolhouse: Entrepreneurial leadership in education . Lanham, MD: R&L Education.
Background Suzuki began operations 105 years ago by producing weaving looms to the silk industry in Japan. Twenty years later, Michio Suzuki had to patent his products to prevent replication. During this period, he managed to protect over 120 machineries and exported most of his inventions to other countries. Since the 1900’s Suzuki has improved its innovations through a careful study of the market. The company came up with the first trail car in 1937 (Global Suzuki, n.d.). Suzuki made huge sales until the beginning of WWI when the Japanese government deterred citizens from owning personal cars following the heavy traffic they caused. By 1951, the company embarked on full production of weaving looms, but one year later, the cotton industry collapsed causing major losses for Suzuki. It forced the company to develop products that would ease traffic in Japan. Most companies began producing bicycles, and Suzuki took the opportunity to develop motorcycles. Suzuki brand positioned itself through originality. It ensured development of unrivaled products while improving their innovations annually. Suzuki mostly targeted the middle-income civilians who needed small, comfortable, and cost effective locomotives. In 2011, Suzuki assumed the 10 th position among multinationa
Introduction Chinese people are highly influenced by Taoist thinking. They do not place man at the centre of the world; they instead think of him as a minor element in the grand scheme of things. This explains why living and non living things are the central figures in most artistic works from China. Some representations focus on real creatures while others dwell on mythical ones. One particular object that is hard to miss is the dragon. It is essential to find out why this creature is so common in paintings, sculptures, vases and other functional objects such as lanterns. Some of the explanations are historic while others are religious; all of them bring out man’s attunement with nature as taught in Taoism. How the dragon is represented in Chinese art The dragon in most Chinese works of art is depicted in a positive manner. It is often located in the sky and can be interlaced with flames of fire or other similar natural elements. Unlike western understandings of the creature, the dragon is crucial to the well being of its people as it usually provides them with appropriate supernatural interventions. These depictions may be found in vases, clothing as well as other functional forms. In certain circumstances, dragons are represented in items of clothing. Here, it is represented as a symbol of authority. Starting from 1759, emperors symbolized their authority through the use of various items such as stars and dragons. The emperor wore a robe that had nine dragons on it. This was meant to demonstrate power and authority. In fact, the emperors themselves were called dragons. Normally, this type of dragon has a yellow color. In ancient China, yellow was a color that only the emperor could wear. Even roof tiles outside the palace could not be colored yellow. Therefore, the dragon in historic times captured this sentiment (Sullivan 55). In most paintings and illustrations of the dragon, one can find a series of characteristics that resemble other conventional animals on the dragon. These traits are subdivided into nine elements that can be easily studied. For instance, the head is likened to that of a camel. It is stated that this part reflects wisdom. It also possesses scales that are one hundred and seventeen in number. The scales are likened to a fish which is regarded as flexible. A fixed number of scales is attached to the yin and yang (the bad and good respectively) in order to manage
Two exhibitions “Roman Vishniac Rediscovered” and “We Went Back: Photographs from Europe 1933–1956 by Chim” are presented at the International Center of Photography. The pictures made by two photographers who worked during the period of the 1920s-1950s impress the audience with the extreme honesty and realism. Observing the works by Roman Vishniac, a person can feel as prying about the moments of the Jewish people’s life. Focusing on the photographs by Chim (David Seymour), it is possible to feel as the part of the European society between the 1930s and 1950s. The exhibition “Roman Vishniac Rediscovered” represents the imprinted moments of the Jewish people’s life in the Eastern Europe. The photographs seem to be the caught moments of the everyday life and routine. The photographer is distancing himself from those people depicted in the pictures. As a result, the feeling of prying about the audience is created. The composition of many pictures is complex because several elements work to attract the audience’s attention. Many photographs represent children whose face expressions and reactions to realities are rather exemplary and frank (“Roman Vishniac Rediscovered”). The black-and-white photographs create the effect of minimalism, but they also help accentuate definite important details balancing the light and shadow in the picture. In his works, Vishniac combines the aspects of the Jewish people’s life in communities and ghettos with the depiction of Nazi elements. Thus, the portrayals of Jewish schoolchildren are presented next to the pictures with swastika and Nazi Storm Troopers to accentuate the contrast (“Roman Vishniac Rediscovered”). As a result, the photographs depicting the moments of the ordinary life of people during the period between the two World Wars, which can be discussed as documentary ones, are perceived as the real pieces of art. The whole life in its deepness is illustrated by Roman Vishniac with the help of the caught face expressions and body movements in their combination with presenting complex surroundings. David Seymour worked as a photographer using pseudonym Chim. The photographer is unique in his ability to provide effective portraits as well as photographs demonstrating a lot of people or even crowds of people. The works by Chim should be discussed and interpreted with references to the large political and social context. The crowds of people at the square, people l