ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
The movie Stagecoach directed by John Ford belongs to the Western genre. The director puts the main characters in an existential situation in which each of them reveals his or her true personal potential. In this movie, the events unfold rather quickly, which keeps the viewer in constant suspense. The purpose of this paper is to review this film directed by John Ford. General Description and Plot The action takes place at the end of the 19th century. Buck prepares for a trip to Lordsburg and receives news that the leader of Apaches has raised a riot. Buck asks Marshal Curly Wilcox to accompany him on this hard road and warns his fellow travelers that they might get hurt if they come with him. However, they decide to travel altogether, and Lucy (the officer’s pregnant wife), Hatfield (a gambler), Boone (a doctor who suffers from alcoholism), Samuel (a liquor dealer), and Dallas (who used to work as a prostitute) join the trip (“Stagecoach”). Another traveler is Ringo whom Curley must put in prison. Their journey is difficult because the life of each hero is endangered by the attack of Apaches; however, the way each character behaves in a stressful situation most clearly reveals their identity. Characters The plot exhibits clear masculine and feminine images of the characters. Some heroes personify the pillars of society and the generally accepted values such as Puri
Introduction As time goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that there is a strongly defined discursive sounding to just about every gerontological concept/model. That is, the way in which social scientists go about defining the significance of one or another aspect of aging reflects the measure of these people’s affiliation with the currently dominant (hegemonic) socio-cultural discourse. Nowadays, this discourse happened to be associated with the political ideology of Liberalism, which glorifies the values of individualism, self-autonomy, and hedonistic egoism. These values, however, are inconsistent with the fact that it is namely the systemic subtleties of the society’s functioning (as a whole) that define its overall quality, and not merely the sum of the society members’ individual qualities. In its turn, this explains why, even though many articles concerned with the issues of gerontology do offer a number of valuable insights into the discussed phenomena, they are rather sporadic and somewhat incidental. In my paper, I will explore the validity of this suggestion at length, with respect to four chosen articles from weeks 2-5, while arguing that just about each of them confirms the validity of the systemic (societal) outlook on the process of aging – even despite some of the authors’ initial intention. Review The main idea promoted throughout Lamb’s (2014) article is that, for elderly people to be able to lead a socially-productive and enjoyable lifestyle, they need to be encouraged to practice the model of ‘successful aging’, which according to the author reflects the earlier mentioned values. Hence, the model’s foremost principles, “Fight for your independence, maintain physical independence, maintain financial independence, know what you can do to avoid dependency” (p. 45). According to Lamb, senior citizens must be discouraged from giving too much thought to the socially constructed implications of one’s advanced age. The reason for this is that the author believes this would help older people to strengthen the integrity of their sense of self-identity. As she noted, “Successful aging discourse may be termed ‘permanent personhood’—a vision of the ideal person as not really aging at all in late life, but rather maintaining the self of one’s earlier years” (Lamb, 2014, p. 45). In its turn, this should help the model’s practitioners to remain the society’s productive members well into senility. Nevertheless, a closer analysis of the concerned suggestion will reveal that it is misleading to an extent. This simply could not otherwise – an older person’s ability to enjoy autonomy/impendence does not necessarily equal to his or her ability to contribute to the society’s well-being, in the factual sense of this word. Yet, as practice indicates, it is specifical
Introduction International Business Machines (IBM) and Dell Inc. are American multinational information technology corporations which deal with electronic goods and services laptops, software, and electronic accessories; changes in contemporary business environments have seen the companies enact different strategic management policies. This paper discusses changes on research and development expenditure, earning per share, and net income. Research and development IBM has consistently showed a decrease in the amount of expenses spent on research and development; the reason behind the move was that the company has concentrated more on consultancy services than developing new hardware and software. When a business reduces its research budget marginally over a period of time, it means its taking advantage of the innovations and inventions it had made in the past. IBM has been a leader in the electronics world thus the decision to conduct minimal research with time can be interpolated as a move to first fully benefit from previous research and development programs or there are some reports that the company is working on. Dell showed increases from year 1 to 2, 2-3, and then from year 3-4 there was the most amount spent on the research and development; during this time, the world economic situation was not favorable for business (the world was suffering from global financial crisis). Other than the situation, there was high competition of other electronics companies like Apple Inc and Lenovo, Dell needed to beef-up its research and development programs to compete effectively. The increase in research and development expenditure is likely to be on marketing and products development. Net Income IBM shown continuous increase in its net income over the five years under review; the increase can be attributed to increased sales and high gross profit margin. The business strategy adopted by IBM is one that maintains current sales level and aims at increasing its sales steadily. On the other hand, the net income of Dell shown a decline overall with a big drop-off in year four but recovered in year 5; the decrease can also be traced in its sales revenue and gross profit margin. The probable fall of the company’s net profit can be attributed to high competition in the industry; its recovery in year five can be attributed to the results of its aggressive research and development strategies. Earnings per share IBM showed a 187% increase from year 1-5 in basic earnings per share and a 189% increase in diluted during that same time; the performance can be attributed to its growth in profit over the period of time and net income available to common shareholders. The increase is an indication of good performance by the company where it has embarked on using o
Cultural diversity is, in its essence, a driving force that brings together the differences that make people who they are and tries to establish peace between many variables of human nature. In an ever-going globalization of the world, a person is constantly at the border of many cultures, be it because of their birth and growing up circumstances, traveling, or family setting. A human’s identity is shaped by the cultural experiences they have had, and each individual can represent many different cultures at once. The business possibilities are changing as the boundaries of everyday experience are shifting, and in turn, social mobility accelerates. Specific Considerations of Working on a Multicultural Team The process of organizing and successfully running a business in a culturally diverse setting – especially carrying out serious projects – is not only laborious and painstaking, but also quite complex in terms of cross-cultural management. Dover et al. (2019) suggest that “diversity initiatives have the potential to negatively affect performance of the employees from underrepresented groups” (p. 177). Firstly, diverse initiatives in business, when applied, often create stereotypes that people targeted by these initiatives are less competent and need help to get a job, and that, in turn, might greatly impact their abilities. The multinational workforce combines different professional skills and values, worldviews and work attitudes, which has a great impact on the functioning of the company in general and the communication process in particular. Jain and Pareek (2019) suggest that “people might think that organizations from the country where they originate operates with the same scope of responsibilities as the international businesses that they are engaging in” (p. 26). This also needs to be taken into consideration, as the experiences from people’s native business practices often clash with the expectations they face in a foreign multicultural environment. The problem needs to be resolved as soon as possible, for it might lead to a significant delay in the completion of the project due to the employee’s misunderstanding of their responsibilities. Addressing the Differences between In-Person and Virtual Communication Vehicles The diversity of communication means that the team members interact with each other in a multitasking manner, using a combination of several communication channels at the same time. It becomes obvious that teams that know how to use both in-person and virtual communication tools and integrate them into their work show better performance. The main difference between the two communication vehicles is their trustworthiness levels. It is obvious that in-person communication is more reliable in terms of quality, however, virtual communication remains a quicker way to discuss an issue or offer an opinion. Still, if any of the communication channels are of poor quality, an atmosphere of misunderstanding and mistrust may ripen. For interpersonal relations in a team, a typical situation is when t
The criminal justice system includes policies that the government puts in place within the various institutions in order to maintain social order, prevent and alleviate crime within the society. The justice system also ensures that those who break the law receive due punishment and rehabilitation efforts as deserved. The criminal justice programs provide a set of activities that are carried out in various institutions to help the law offenders come to terms with their various crimes. These programs are geared towards accomplishing particular set objectives to the concerned individuals. These programs are evaluated to ensure that they are effective to perform the required duties. There are a number of programs in the criminal justice system that include rehabilitation centre for mentally handicapped, substance abuse prevention programs as well as juvenile delinquency programs. (Drug Courts Program Office, 1999) The juvenile delinquency program gives the young person a chance to receive assistance from the state. The program is considered successful in the way it prepares the young people to go back to their communities without engaging in criminal behavior any longer. Most of this young people are tried in adult courts for engaging in violent criminal activities. Every inmate in these facilities is supposed to participate in the various educational facilities provided. They are also supposed to meet certain standards put in place by the facility on a one-on-one basis. The program is geared towards providing young adults with an opportunity to prove that they can change and go back to their communities and live normal lives. (Behind Bars, 1998) The Juvenile program offers an opportunity for the community to prevent the young people stay away from criminal behavior and efficiently rehabilitate the young wrongdoers. It is aimed at helping the community teach the young offenders that their obligations are to their victims more than to the state. The young people are given an opportunity to learn meaningful methods of making a living once they leave the program. The program helps the young offenders’ with appropriate ways of spending their free time through sports and other activities such as community groups and individuals are selected to monitor their behavior. They are able to spend time with adults and other young people in the society thus allowing them connect with other people. The re
Introduction The problem of sexual harassment and the violation of personal boundaries remains a problem in the U.S. military setting. Therefore, revisiting the existing ethical standards should be deemed as the first step toward managing the problem of sexual violence in the target setting. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to examine the issue of sexual harassment in the U.S. military by analyzing the existing ethical provisions and locating the possible sources of the problem. The situation with sexual violence in the U.S. military has aggravated significantly over the past few years. While sexual violence toward men has remained quite low, the cases of sexual violence toward women in the army have increased drastically, as the recent statistical data shows (Philipps). Due to the lack of efficacy of the current system and the resulting reluctance among women serving in the army to report about the threats of sexual harassment, the existing code of ethics (SHARP) and the approach toward promoting standards of behavior in the U.S. military have to be reconsidered. Sexual Harassment in the Army Among the key factors that lead to sexual harassment in the U.S. Army, one should mention the lack of ethical values and principles that would set tangible boundaries. Although the issue in question is addressed in the Army Regulation guide, direct guidelines for preventing the problem from taking place and meeting the needs of vulnerable groups and victims are not clear. Thus, establishing clear guidelines should be seen as a priority. In addition, one should mention the current approach toward training the troops as the possible source of the problem. With the reinforcement of gender roles and the enhancement of gender stereotypes, the foundation for the development of attitudes and behaviors attributed to the phenomenon of toxic masculinity is laid (Stander and Thompson 22). As a result, the notion of respect toward personal boundaries of women in the military is eroded, which leads to cases of sexual harassment and violence toward women in the army. While eradicating sexual violence and harassment from the context of the U.S. Army may currently seem barely possible, there are several tools that could reduce the risks of the phenomenon to a considerable degree. Revisiting SHARP to educate U.S. troops is the first step to be taken toward the intended improvement. Specifically, the role of a commander in addressing a case of sexual harassment has to be increased to reduce the risks. Currently, the role of a commander is restricted mostly to the func
Introduction To begin with, there is strong necessity to mention that the concept of business cycles is the concept aimed at analyzing the trends and processes in business sphere of a single company or the whole State. Originally, the analysis of GDP growth, inflation, and unemployment, as well as labor costs requires complex analysis, based on the various economic approaches. One of such approaches is the Real Business Cycle Theory, which is regarded as the macroeconomic model in which all the fluctuations in the numbers may be accounted in accordance with the real shocks. Analysis The fact is that, all the economic indicators, which may be analyzed with the help of Real Business Cycle concept, are regarded to be cyclic on default. It should be stated that the RBC theory presupposes several types of fluctuations: these are secular (trend), business cycle, seasonal, and random. Barlevy (2005) in his research states the following fact: “ Unlike other leading theories of the business cycle, it sees recessions and periods of economic growth as the efficient response to exogenous changes in the real economic environment. That is, the level of national output necessarily maximizes expected utility, and government should therefore concentrate on the long-run structural policy changes and not intervene through discretionary fiscal or monetary policy designed to actively smooth economic short-term fluctuations ”. In the light of this fact there is strong necessity to emphasize that the rates of unemployment, labor costs, GDP and other economic factors and indicators are so dependent on various factors that fluctuations often seem random, independently on the expected utility. As for the real numbers of unemployment, Economic News Release (2009) states that in July 2009 the payroll employment rates continued to decline. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate of 9.4 percent. It is stated that the average monthly job loss during May – July period accounted half the average decline for November through April (-331,000 in comparison with -645,000). The job losses continued in July in numerous industrial sectors and in total up to 15 million people stayed unemployed. As for the numbers, Economic News Release (2009) gives the following image of the unemployment rates: “ Among the major worker groups, unemployment rates for adult men (9.8 percent), adult women (7.5 percent), teenagers (23.8 percent), whites (8.6 percent), blacks (14.5 percent), and Hispanics (12.3 percent) were little changed in July. The unemployment rate for Asians was 8.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted. Retail trade employment declined by 44,000. Job losses in the industry had averaged 27,000 per month over the prior 3 months. Employment in wholesale trade fe
Time and space belong to the most important notions that allow us to describe the way that humanity develops. The problems connected to the relationship between these two categories present certain interest for the researchers working in many fields of science such as physics, philosophy, and geography. As for the latter, it studies these categories in connection with humanity and certain changes in its activity on the planet. Speaking about these categories and the way that they influence each other, it is important to mention the concept of time-space convergence. The latter studies interconnection between these categories and other things related to humanity. To be more precise, an increased focus is put on the growth of technology that is quite rapid in the modern world and the certain impact that it has on the relationship between time and space. This idea is related to the notion of speed that defines a certain distance that can be covered in a certain period. Speaking about time-space convergence, it is important to understand that this process is strongly connected to people and their activity. To begin with, the fact that in the modern world one needs less time to cover a certain distance than it was a hundred years ago is caused by a lot of effort made by people who wanted to extend the opportunities for the entire humanity and address challenges connected to transportation and communication. What is more, time-space convergence is not an abstract notion; instead, it may be presented as a clear physical measurement. To measure this factor, it is necessary to consider the information concerning the time that has to be spent to travel from one point in space to another one. Then, the information that is relevant to different historical periods should be compared. Nowadays, we use various time-saving technologies all the time, and it seems to have become essential for us. It is possible to list a lot of devices and technologies that cause time-space convergence but their importance and impact that they produce on people should be estimated about a particular historical period. Although the term seems to refer to distance, the devices supporting time-space convergence are not necessarily connected to physical movement. For example, there is a great number of devices and inventions that people need for more effective communication. They include mobile phones, the Internet, social networks, telegraph, and so on. Speaking about the influence that they produce on people and space, it is possible to regard it as rather positive because these devices and technologies help to unite friends and relatives from different countries and provide more people with access to information helping them to develop themselves. Furthermore, they do not seem to hurt the environment (excluding the cases when devices’ parts are improperly utilized). As fo
Ergonomics outlines how the health of a product can be enhanced to suit human comfort (Bergoffen 2005, p. 25). Since the release of the Toyota Allion by Toyota Japan, the model has stood out as the best-selling compact and sedan car that has gained market worldwide ( Toyota Allion/Premio 2000 2013). The car has got a youthful, fashionable and fantastic look. Its sporty look and the appealing headlamps have acted as its marketing advantage. Allion’s user-friendliness and undisputable driving performance are some of the other merits that the new vehicle has earned from its users. However, it is important to assess the display and design of the dashboard and to present the impacts of the systems on the driver. This new model has been improved from the second generation to accommodate the automation system, gauges, modernized indicators, and automotive navigation systems ( Toyota Allion/Premio 2000 2013). The new improvements have been built to embrace the automation of the new model and to provide comfort that was not provided comfort. The most prominent dashboard systems fitted in the Toyota Allion include the speedometer, steering wheel, odometer, tachometer, the gauges, and indicators ( Toyota Allion/Premio 2000 2013). The indicators include gearshift position, the seat belt warning light indicator, engine malfunctioning light, and the parking light indicator that has been fitted in the dashboard (Abut, Hansen, and Kazuya, 2007). Considering all these systems fitted in this new model, there are many effects that the driver will experience when using it. The Dashboard. The speedometer is the gauge that measures and indicates the speed of the car when in motion (Kohli, 1983). The fitted gauge in this new model can allow an error of up to 5 mph whenever the car is driven at 50 mph ( Toyota Allion/Premio 2000 2013). This feature protects the safety of the passengers and the driver (Wickens et al, 2004). The tachometer enhances the driver’s knowledge of how the engine’s crankshaft rotates (Parker, 2003). This new model, it enhances the driver’s selection of the gears for safe driving on the roads. The car has also been modified to have ventilated disc front brakes all at the driver’s disposal. The odometer normally indicates the distance that has been covered with the car (Parker, 2003). The Toyota Allion has been designed to have an electronic odometer. The fuel gauge has