ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Plot Summary Mean Streets happens in New York’s Little Italy neighborhood, a location renowned for mafia activity. The protagonist, Charlie, is a Catholic who only works for the mafia because it is his family’s business. The deuteragonist, Johnny Boy, is his counterpart, violent, aggressive, and unstable. Charlie is in a relationship with Johnny Boy’s cousin Teresa, which he is forced to hide because she is epileptic and his uncle would disapprove. This link is part of the reason that drives him to take care of the other man. Despite Teresa’s insistence that they leave the mafia life behind, Charlie’s misadventures with Johnny Boy tangle him deeper in criminal life. The film ends with a shootout that results from Johnny Boy’s outburst at a loan shark to whom he owed money, which leads to him coming after the three with an assassin. Why the Movie is Important Mean Streets is a film that incorporates many of Scorsese’s own experiences from growing up in Little Italy. Following 1968 Who’s That Knocking at My Door (which shared the same actor playing the protagonist), it was his first chance to design and direct a feature film. He took it and chose to follow up on the prior piece’s themes while incorporating parts of his life story. This focus on small-stage realism has made the film immensely successful and popular, comparable in popularity and influence to The Godfather series while approaching the topic of the mafia from a different angle. Robert de Niro’s casting as Johnny Boy has also started a lasting collaboration that made the pair into some of the most renowned film celebrities in the world. Facts About the Movie Despite its emphasis on Little Italy, most of Mean Streets was shot in Los Angeles. The film’s budget was too low to afford to move away from Hollywood for the shoots, and only a small fraction of the scenes, such as the beach scene, were captured in New York. Another interesting fact is that Mean Streets was the first film where Martin Scorsese and Robert de Niro worked together. The two would continue doing so in the future, becoming names renowned worldwide in large part due to the combination of their talent. Lastly, Scorsese himself participated in the film’s shooting, notably narrating the opening narration and playing the assassin that attacks the protagonists at the film’s end. Why I Liked It My favorite aspect of the film is its gritty realism and display of the everyday realities of the mafia. Unlike The Godfather, which is an epic story of high-level politics, Mean Streets shows two failed street-level people. Charlie’s superior, his uncle, is bigoted and small-minded, showing contempt for disabled people such as Teresa and forbidding the protagonist from dating her. With that said, even though no large-scale events happen, there is an established narrative that reveals the characters’ stories organically. Lastly, Scorsese’s choice of the soundtrack was excellent, appropriate to both the times and the scenes depicted in the movie. Overall, Scorsese was able to create a lifelike picture that showed Little Italy life with all of its attractions and ugliness. Gene
The Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award The Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award was established way back in 1987 by the US Congress. The main rationale for starting this award program was to create a platform through which US organizations could be recognized based on their achievements in the corporate sector and service delivery (Brown 89). In addition, the award was also meant to improve the awareness on the significance of maintaining high performance. This was found to be the best way through organizations would strive to have a competitive advantage over other market rivals. Specific products are not awarded in this program. Besides, the award may be conducted on an annual basis. As already mentioned, the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award was established by the Congress as an honor to Malcolm Baldrige who was the one time Secretary in charge of Commerce for six consecutive years until his death in mid 1987 through a tragic road accident. He was known as a very strong proponent of high quality practices in organizations. The legislation on quality improvement received a major support from his personal initiative. Eventually after his death, the Congress recognized his contribution by establishing the award (Brown 75). After the establishment of the Malcolm B
Introduction Campus is not only the university area, the place where students live during their studies, but it is also a place where students’ personality and character is formed. Every campus has its own cultures, traditions and customs. People of one and the same campus try to draw together as in most cases they have common interests and goals (as they have entered one University). And as any big gathering of people, the campuses have some problems in organization and structure. There are a lot of problems faced on every campus. The problems in campuses are common, drinking, what to do with free time, how to work the technical equipment on campus and lots of others. People search for ways to solve these problems, and they think about some decisions to improve the students’ life on the campus. Discussion After investigating the problems on different campuses and analyzing them I made the conclusion that one problem occurs in every campus: this is the problem of parking. You may consider this problem to be not so serious, and I would have agreed with you several days ago, but not now. After the research we conducted, we can make a conclusion that this is a real problem. The problem requires some solutions as soon as possible. The problem is parking and the number of places in it. We used to consider this problem not so serious at first. But it is a problem. Students do not want to spend their free time and physical abilities on bicycle riding or walking to the University. It is also not very convenient for them to use a bus and they take their cars. The problem appears when they try to park near the University. Finding a free spot is always a problem. Students have to spend much time looking for a free spot in the rows of cars or wait when somebody will free one for them. The parking places are usually occupied by the faculty and staff already, who come earlier. Parking in the other place, it also cannot be the solution to the problem. The cause is understood: it takes too much time to walk to the University even if the street is not far from it. Students spend too much time on this procedure and are often late for their classes. If they still make up their minds to enter the class, they are very irritated and angry about the incident. They take their places and are ready to kick anyone who dares to say them some extra word. Such students can think about nothing but their morning adventure and cannot concentrate their thoughts on the subject they study. They are unable to get the necessary information. Being in the class, they are absent in fact. Later, they to study this missed information by themselves what turns to be
In the research conducted to determine the way in which people evaluate themselves, the two models represented two types of body constitution, a thin and a heavy one. By dressing the You_thin and You_curvy models in the same clothes and offering the participants to evaluate the looks of the models, as well as imagine what they would look in these clothes like, one could observe the change in people’s perception of their selves. According to the research hypothesis, the participants will supposedly evaluate the look of the You_curvy model lower, since they will project their selves on the models, which will result in envisioning their selves as a heavy and a thin person correspondingly (Maner et al ., 2005). The research results partially supported the hypothesis. According to the research findings, most of the participants rated the You_thin model positively, therefore, displaying their vision of self on the looks of the model. As the hypothesis assumed, the participants projected their selves on the models; therefore, their idea of beauty predisposed their judgment of the clothes. It is worth noting, however, that some of the participants still voted for the curvy/heavy model; in fact, the difference between the votes is not that big. However, since the majority voted the curvy/heavy model down, the assumption that their vision of self would drop when relating to a less attractive model (Darlow & Lobel, 2011) has been proven. It is important to note that the survey presupposed answering three questions, i.e., evaluating the model, the clothes and the look of the participant in the given clothes. Therefore, it is necessary to add that, when considering the participants’ evaluation of the model attractiveness, the author of the research found out that the p in the given case was more than 0.5 (p>0.5), which meant that the appeal of the clothes actually remained just as high. However, when considering the model’s attractiveness, most of the participants responded negatively, as well as answering the question concerning whether they would look good in the clothes. The given results show graphically that the participants’ image of self was not destroyed completely – they still found the model attractive; the clothes, however, lost their charm, proving absolutely useless to mask the “chubbiness” (Vos Strache, Strong & Peterson, 2004). It is important to mention that the study was limited by the number of participants. It was practically impossible to embrace the entire variety of opinions. The ethics of the study, however, corresponds to the existing standards. Each case of participation was voluntary and unbiased. Reference List Darlow, S. & Lobel, D. (2011). Who is beholding my beauty? Thinness ideals, weight, and women’s responses to appearance evaluation. Sex Roles, 63 (11/12), 833–843. Maner, Jon K. et al
Introduction Before reading this research, it is strongly recommended to read the individual memo to the team since it provides key ideas about the history of China Southern Airlines (CSA). This research will dwell upon the more profound analysis of the company’s history. In the following sections, I will investigate the questions related to (1) the origins of CSA; (2) the company’s rapid growth associated with foreign investments; and (3) the review of air deregulation and competition between Chinese airlines. The Company’s Origins and Ways to Independence First of all, it is essential to consider the path which the company had to take to become one of the most successful airlines in the Asian region and, later, throughout the whole world. The history of Chinese civi
Introduction Public corruption involves the violation of public trust that occurs when government officials participate in illegal activities such as collecting bribes, which influence the execution of their official duties. Main text As far as it is concerned, I would like to disagree with the assertion that corruption is a “Western concept and; therefore, not applicable to local societies where corruption is assumed to have lesser negative meaning than in western countries. Corruption is in itself a very negative aspect that impedes the economic growth of the affected country, or organization irrespective of the status of development. Several studies have been conducted on the influence of corruption among various nations, and the results have indicated that the negative aspects of corruption outweigh the purported benefits that are associated with the vice. Myint asserts that in most scenarios, corruption is rampant in the developing and third world countries where their current development has not reached a level that can help them fight the vice. High levels of corruption in such societies are linked to the fact that employee salaries are remarkably low; hence, people tend to accept rewards so as to undertake or speed up tasks that are indeed legal. On one side, this may seem like a benefit of corruption because it helps to speed up economic development, while on the other, it leads to unfairness and inequitable distribution of resources. In fact, wealth remains in the hands of the rich and well-connected, while ordinary people survive in poverty. Hence, it becomes impossible to realize significant economic growth levels that would improve the country’s per capita income, as well as the ability to fight corruption. Based on such effect, I would mention that corruption is not acceptable in any economy as it hinders the smooth economic development of the society. In several undeveloped countries, however, corruption has taken another dimension where it is considered a cultural tradition. Corruption as a cultural tradition is assumed to be part of their virtues and is not seen as a negative practice. Countries like China and Malaysia have been in a similar situation, but have since managed to fight corruption to minimal levels. As a result, their economies are now flourishing due to the high levels of growth and development. According to the readings, corruption is considered unethical regardless of an individual’s tradition. Myint for instance asserts that high levels of corruption slow down the economic growth of a country. Hence, creating a cultural tradition that supports corruption is insensitive because there is no actual evidence that corruption is needed, or at least beneficial in any tradition. India and other societies have a common tradition that calls for gifts and rewards before someone can offer otherwise legal service. T
Introduction Abnormal behavior is defined as a behavior which deviates from norms of society. The deviations may range from mild cases of mood fluctuation to serious cases of people committing suicide or walking naked in public places. The definition of abnormal behavior is surrounded by many disagreements on what constitutes abnormal behavior and what does not. What may be abnormal in society X may be completely normal in society Y (Beidel, Bulik, & Stanley, 2010). That aside, abnormal behavior is found everywhere, and many psychologists do agree that everybody displays an abnormal behavior at some point in his or her life. Abnormality therefore is not something for a particular group or category of people, but rather something which is universal, and may happen at any time during the life of an individual. In this assignment, I will discuss abnormal behavior and some cases of abnormality. Discussion Criteria for defining abnormal behavior There are various criteria for defining abnormal behavior. One such criterion is statistical infrequency. This criterion is based on the frequency of occurrence of some behaviors. If many people do not portray a certain behavior frequently, then it may be considered as being abnormal when portrayed by an individual. The other common criterion is that of deviation from societies’ norms, which in most cases, are usually not written anywhere, but are known and agreed upon by the members of a particular society. For example, if a grown up person walks naked in a public place, then the person may be considered as being abnormal (Beidel, et al, 2010). Some people may be considered as being abnormal if they exhibit some behaviors which may be explained in terms of deviation from an ideal mental health status. Clinical psychologists explain a good mental health status as the one which enables a person think aptly, have the right attitudes and perceptions regarding a particular stimulus, which may be internal or external. For example, it is common knowledge that if a person loses a loved one, he or she may have distress, which may cause changes in his or her mood. But if the distress continues for a period of more than six months, then the person may be said to be in poor mental health status (Beidel, et al, 2010). Other people may exhibit some behaviors which cause distress to them. For example, they may have extreme depression, unhappiness or anxiety. These behaviors cause distress to the people, making them to be considered as being abnormal. The funny thing about the same is that the people may not be aware that their mental states are causing distress to them. Psychologists and psychiatrists have a standard criterion for defining abnormal behavior. This is the criterion of mental disorders or mental illness. The determination of abnormal behavior under this criterion is based on medical diagnosis. Psychiatrists believe that mental illness has a cause, and can therefore be treated. They appear to down play the role of spirits,
The recent needs analysis performed in response to the observed decline in the academic performance among students identified several gaps in needs that must be closed or narrowed down to meet the education standards. In order to systematize the remediation efforts, the gaps in needs were placed in two categories: planning of the studying process and choice of studying techniques. While neither category is directly related to the academic performance of the group, it would be reasonable to expect that the improvements in both would indirectly influence the efficiency of education – in other words, the remediation will have an indirect effect on results demonstrated by the learners (Woo, 2016). The remediation plan utilizes the e-learning delivery method and incorporates an evaluation system intended to ensure the consistency of results, detect the possible shortcomings, and allow for timely adjustments (Rothwell & Kazanas, 2008). Overall Structure Evaluation The planned time frame of the remediation activity is six weeks. The teacher responsible for the implementation of the remediation event also acts as an evaluator. The evaluation will be performed once a week and will be concluded with a final evaluation in five days after the end of the remediation period. The results of the final evaluation will be used to determine the effectiveness of the activity. Depending on the obtained results, the students will be considered as “meeting the designated expectations,” in which case the program will be deemed successful, or “failing to meet the expectations,” in which case another needs assessment would be issued to review the conclusions and identify the causes. The remediation effort will be considered successful only in the case when the evaluation of all identified categories will yield satisfactory results in the final evaluation (Piskurich, 2015). Delivery Method The remediation plan will be delivered through a series of lectures and exercises published online and made available to the audience through shared access. The evaluation will be performed by collecting data from the forms submitted by the learners using an interactive testing tool and, on one occasion, a short essay sent directly to an evaluator. The e-learning delivery method is suitable both for the current scenario and the identified gap in performance for several reasons. First, since the identified gaps do not influence academic performance directly, it is logical to choose a method that does not require significant resource investment. E-learning is considered among the most cost-effective delivery methods and is, therefore, a suitable option. Next, neither of the categories fits within the academic disciplines that are formally evaluated at the e
Introduction Court system is very complicated. Maintaining justice is one of the most difficult affairs. Court has to consider lots of aspects before providing a decision. Whatever decision is made there will always be people who consider it fair and those who consider it unfair. Justice is a notion which is very difficult to achieve. It is impossible to create a decision where everyone is satisfied. People perceive different situations differently. There are cases when settlements become the results of the court trial. Whether to consider this decision as justice prevails or not is people’s right. Discussion The court decision is influenced by lots of aspects. Different evidences, witnesses, people’s biases and other issues are the aspects which are usually taken into consideration while court procedure. People’s biases have very strong influence on justice provided. People have the base which was given them from their childhood and according to which they make decisions whether case is fair or not. These biases are very difficult to avoid as they stay in people’s subconsciousness and people often even do not notice how these biases influence their decisions. Settlements became one of the most frequent case conclusions. Many cases end with settlements. Is it so easy to finish the case by settlement? No. People finish cases by means of settlements in the cases when they can come to the agreement. It is too difficult to come to the agreement as the court trial means that people could not come to the common decision. But still people manage to come to agreement in the
Introduction Modernity refers to the era after medieval times and is distinguished by the shift from agrarianism to free enterprise, industrialization and related constituent establishments. It may as well relate to the trends in intellectual mores, especially the trends entwined with secularization like Communism and the formal founding of social science. A number of researchers have written a lot on this subject and Anthony Giddens is among them. He is a British social scientist who is famous for his theory of structuration and his holistic scrutiny of contemporary civilizations. He is regarded to be among the most high up present-day contributors in social science (Gauntlett, 2011). He has at any rate 34 books to his name, writing at least a book each year. As recent as of 2007, Giddens was ranked as the fifth most referenced writer of books touching on social matters. The most up to date works of Giddens touch a lot on modernity, globalization and political views, particularly the effect of modernity on social and individual life. This author’s aim is both to remodel societal hypothesis and to re-look at our take of the progress and path of modernity. How modernity radically changes structurations and time-space distanciation The presumption of structuration by Giddens dwells on issue of if it is human beings or societal dynamics that form our social realism. He steers clears of extreme positions, saying that even though humans are not totally open to decide their own deeds, and their understanding is inadequate, they nevertheless are the outfit which replicates the societal set up that leads to communal transformation (Allan, 2011, p. 131). He asserts that the link involving structure and act is a vital building block of social theory, structure and agency are a twofold that cannot be thought of away from each other and his major line of reasoning is in his famed phrase duality of structure. At a basic stage, it implies that individuals make society, and are at the same instant held back by it. Modernity The latest work(s) by Giddens centers on what is typical of societal establishments in different spots of history. He is of the same opinion that there exist very particular alterations that mark our present times, but states that it is not an era after modernity. It is basically a radicalized modernity stage which is has been brought about by the expansion of the same social dynamics that formed the preceding era. He however, makes distinctions between pre-modern, modern and late modern civilizations and agrees with the significant changes that have taken place and takes an impartial position in regards to those changes (Gauntlett, 2011). He notes that this presents both unparalleled chances and unmatched risks. He as well emphasizes that humanity has actually not gone further than modernity. The most significant factor that produces the dynamism of modernity according to Giddens is that humanity is disembedded from time and space. In pre-modern civilizations, space referred to the vicinity in which an individual moved, and time was the feel one ha