ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Article One Summary There are a lot of emotions involved in consumer behavior. However, progress in its application has largely been hindered by uncertainty about two interconnected subjects namely, the content and structure of emotions. There has been a lot of confusion regarding the content and structure of emotions and this has hindered plans to apply and interpret emotions in empirical research, especially, the consumer behavior theory. The purpose of the article by Westbrook and Oliver was to extend the knowledge on the link between satisfaction and consumption emotion of consumers (84). The study targeted owners of newly purchased cars as its target population. The study wished to determine the discrete, discernible patterns of emotional response and how emotional content varies from one consumer to the next. Also, the researchers endeavored to examine the extent to which optimal satisfaction instruments reflected the respondents’ emotional content as regards to their consumption experiences. The study was designed in the form of a field questionnaire. The study questionnaire was administered to respondents and the DES-II measure instrument used to assess the respondents’ emotional reactions to their purchases. A correlation analysis of the study’s variables was conducted using the same tool. Westbrook and Oliver undertook a content analysis of a total of 10 decisive studies on emotional words and emotions (1440). They categorized emotion words as either negative or positive emotion. The authors also differentiated negative affect from positive affect using their hierarchy of consumer emotions. The study revealed contentment/happiness patterns among the respondents, and this was linked to high satisfaction levels with their purchases. The study unearthed five discriminable characteristics of affective experience that were linked to three elements, namely, pleasant surprise, interests and hostility. The research findings indicated that the measure of satisfaction differs in terms of signifying consumes purchase patterns and experiences. It also differs with a variation in the associated affective content. Article Two Summary The purpose of the article by Laros and Steenkamp was to first combine the ostensibly opposing research perspective in consumer behavior and psychology by creating a hierarchical approach to consumer emotions. The second purpose of the article was to carry out a preliminary test on both the negative and positive affect of emotions for four various food types. Considering that not much is known about the link between satisfaction and consumption emotion, the paper was written with a view to exploring the connection between the aforementioned two constructs (Lans and Steenkamp 84). Emotions measures parameters that the researchers sought to address included joy, interest, guilt, anger, surprise, disgust, fear, sadness, joy, contempt, and shame. By and large, the respondents experienced such positive affects as joy and interest, more frequently in comparison with the negative effect (Laros and Steennkamp 87). Data collection was carried out nationally and included the study sample consisted
Introduction Claiming to be a leader in the networking industry, Cisco Systems, Inc. is an outstanding company that manufactures networking and communications products and provides services associated with that equipment and its use. Presently, Cisco has optimally prioritized its networking prowess as this has become an essential part of business, education, government and home communications. Cisco’s Internet Protocol-based (IP) networking solutions are the foundation of these networks (Cisco Corporate Overview). As its headquarters is located in San Jose, California, Cisco provides a line of products for transporting data, voice and video within buildings and companies, across campuses and around the world. Main text According to Euromonitor International (1 October 2005), the networking hardware market in the United States is quite concentrated, with the top five players accounted for over 68% of market share. In 2004, Cisco Systems was the leader among this group, with 21% market share. Dell came in second with 18% market share, and IBM and Hewlett-Packard (HP) was head to head with almost 15% market share each. In the servers sector, IBM leads the pack with almost 30% market share, although it recently lost share to both HP and Dell. Meanwhile, in the router sector, Cisco slipped during the third quarter of 2004, but still remained the leader with market share above 50%. As a widely global company, Cisco employs 63,050 employees worldwide (distributed in manufacturing and service, engineering, sales and marketing, and finance and administration). Cisco went public in 1990 and is listed on the NASDAQ. The company currently owns over 200 offices in more than 60 countries across the globe (Cisco Fact Sheet). Cisco reported net sales worth $34.9 billion in the fiscal year 2007 (ending July 29, 2006). Last year, it earned $28.5 billion for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2006. The increase in net sales was primarily due to the recovery in the global economic environment and increase in IT spending by Cisco’s enterprise and consumer customers. Cisco primarily operates in five business segments categorized by products. These include switches, routers, advanced technologies, services and other products. In 2005, switches accounted for 40.7% ($10,104 million) of Cisco’s net sales. Sale of routers contributed 22.2% ($5.5 billion), followed by advanced technologies (17.8%), while other products and services contributed for the remaining 3.4% and 15.9%, respectively. As part of their strategy, Cisco has segmented its operations geographically into five regions, namely the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia-Pacific and Japan. The Americas region (North, South and Central America) accounted for a major share of Cisco’s net sales. In 2005, the company derived nearly 56% ($13.9 billion) of its net sales from this region. EMEA accounted for around 28% ($6.8 billion), Asia-Pacific accounted for 10% ($2.5 billion), and Japan accounted for the remaining 6% ($1.5 billion). In 2005, the Americas region also witnessed the maximum increase in
Debra Sherman’s article Trade Groups Identifies Medical Device Makers Passing on Federal Tax provides the report that manufacturers of medical devices have resorted to imposing federal tax on hospital medical devices, patients, and taxpayers. The US Congress imposed a tax of 2.3% on manufacturers of medical devices. This tax is a constituent element of the Affordable Care Act (Sherman, 2013, Para.1). The aim of taxing sales for organizations that engage in manufacturing and importation of medical devices is availing about $30billion that is required for providing health care insurance cover to the Americans over the next one decade. This plan implies that the main concern of the US government is to ensure that even the people who cannot afford healthcare insurance can access it through cost-sharing strategies. However, manufacturing organizations have set certain profit margins, which are necessary for them to conduct business normally. The policy for taxing all manufacturers of medical devices whenever they make sales beyond $5 million became a law at the dawn of 2013. The law requires importers of medical devices worth $5 or more to pay a tax that is equal in amount to the US-based manufacturers of such devices. The government insists that organizations should not pass on this cost to hospitals, which would then pass the expenses to patients. However, every indication makes it clear that many organizations have no option other than passing the cost to the hospitals if they have to maintain their current number of employees. For instance, Sherman (2013, Para. 6) reports that Invacare “expects the impact of the tax to be less than $1.5 million since it intends to pass the cost on to the market.” From an economic perspective, such a decision is reasonable. Increased taxation results in increased costs. Organizations must recover these costs through higher pricing of their commodities. If higher pricing is illegal in the context of the new taxation policy for all organizations and importers of medical devices, it implies that they need to look for alternative ways of recovering the costs. For instance, medical device manufacturing organizations may opt to lay off some employees. The wages and salaries of layoffs will go into financing the 2.3 % taxation policy. While this alternative sounds satisfactorily important for the organizations, they must achieve their p
In the USA, the UK as well as several other European countries, HIV/AIDS has affected homosexuals more than any other demographic. In 2007 for example, it was estimated that about 255,000 gay men in the US were living with HIV/AIDS and around 5,400 had died (5). In the UK, about 48% of all those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS during the same period had been exposed to the virus through homosexuality (11). The results presented by Thailand Ministry of Health shows that there was a 100% increase in HIV prevalence among MSM across Western Europe (2). Thus, HIV/AIDS prevention programs have often targeted men who have sex with men (MSM). Despite the decrease in HIV-associated mortality rates that has been witnessed in developed and developing countries due to increased access to combination antiretroviral treat (cART) (7), this group still remains at risk. cART lowers the plasma viral load which determines the rate of HIV transmission from already infected people (9). de Wolf, Garnett, Hallett and Smit believe that even though starting early treatment is necessary to improve clinical outcomes, this group receiving t
The play Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy that is written by Sophocles and was performed for the first time in 429 BC circa. The play has been regarded by the public as the Greek’s best tragedy play (Ibsen, Henrik 1998). The director attempts to portray in this film, some of the peoples’ positive characteristics as the sources of their downfall. In this case, Oedipus is a very determined and proud individual. Throughout he was determined to achieve whatever he set out to achieve. In his quest, he showed exemplary pride as he could not accept what he came across and this has been his undoing. The play starts at a time when Oedipus has been king for a while and also having fulfilled the dreaded prophecy, his doomed fate which he had been trying to avoid. In the first scene, he undergoes suffering from his subjects as he states his vow to bring the king’s murderers to justice. The director aims at portraying Oedipus as a confident person and this is very evident in Oedipus’ opening speech in the play as it exudes the authority of a father to his people and brings out his strong characteristics of pride and confidence in the way he is accustomed to facing everyday issues. The director chose the plot that influences the main aspects of the whole story to be brought into focus. He has used artificial devices of the Greek theatre to artistically render this plot, and it’s the plot he used unlike the story itself that has enabled the play to come across to the audience as tragic. This is evident in the fact that we don’t concentrate on the main story as it was originally written covering an expansive period, but the director has used his plot to collect the essentials of the story and repackage them in a confined period on a stage without necessarily changing the storyline. Thus he maintains its logical composition. Oedipus’ past is reverted to via his acquired consciousness, without relaying the story as a disjointed record of events over time. He has thus employed swift conflicts leading Oedipus to rediscover himself and his origin as the culprit he is so determined to bring to justice for slaying Laios, his predecessor. With this plot, the play is portrayed as a tragedy not due to what Oedipus had already done, but due to his reawakened conscious recollections, he realizes the appalling and bizarre nature of his past actions. By the swift recall of these mental agonies, they are made passionate realism in the present only by the plot due to Oedipus awareness. It was tragic for Oedipus’ parents to plan to kill their son. Later on, Oedipus gets to marry his mother and they have a son and a daughter who are his brother and sister. This is tragic since, in all societies, incest is not viewed favorably. This misfortune befell Oedipus because of deception in the play. When Oedipus came
In the western culture, work and labor are generally viewed as a necessity for humankind to quench his needs. It is due to this obligatory nature of work that working then becomes undesirable—if man had a choice; he would opt not to work. However, this has been disputed by economists and utilitarianists who are of the opinion that efficiency and conflict are directly related to each—hence paid labor can longer be expected to offer man genuine satisfaction. Islam on the other hand, considers idleness or misuse of quality time, in doing other unproductive activities, as lack of faith. Every able person, both physically and mentally, has a mandate to seek a livelihood. In fact, Islam considers work as a way of praising God. In Islam, it is the right of every individual to choose whatever work he wants to do however, the selection of work should be done as per the needs of his society. The Shariah law requires that people choose their work based on their talents, skills and the level of knowledge in technology. This helps in eliminating class distinctions as all types of work are considered equal. Furthermore, the law demands that everyone should perform to the best of his ability at work. In Islam, all the physically or mentally challenged people have a right to partake in what the society produces— as God is deemed the owner of all resources. Again, the source of one’s ability to work, in which some people are able to produce more than others, comes from God. This justifies the obligation on each able person to help the disabled. Furthermore, Gods rights of ownership to resources can therefore not be changed once man converts resources into wealth. All resources are given by God for his glorification and should therefore be utilized to the fullest by man and the society. It is through wealth that man is supposed to achieve gratification. Islam refers to wealth as a good thing that brings gratification to
Although the world is on it path to full cultural-globalisation, it is still dragging with racisms which can be traced since the colonial and slave trade era (Winant 14). The United States, which is the world largest economy, encourages people of different races to interact and conduct business together, it is in the forefront advocating for equality and development of a global-culture, but it has elements of racism in different sectors of the economy. Many have interpolated election of President Barrack Obama as a breakthrough from racism; however, the vice is far from over. South Africa is the largest African country by economy; however it is still trailing with the fight for racism among its different races. This paper discusses the historical sociology of race and compares racism in the United States and South Africa. United States either with the Union of South Africa In the United States of America, the county ‘s population can be categorised into six main categories: Natives, Asian-Americans, African-Americans, and Mexican-Americans; in some parts there are some European Americans, all the above categories of people receive different treatment from the people and sometime the system has been blamed to favour some section of the tribe. In the 1970 and early 1980’s, elements of xenophobic exclusion were observed in Jews, Irish people, and Eastern-European-Americans and Southern European- Americans, the system was disregarding their rights and considered them inferior through not directly. Currently racism is observed in, housing, education, and government, employment, and lending; it is also obvious in social joints were some are meant for particular class of people. The major forms of racism that are evident in the country are discrimination, and marginalization, with the African-American, Latin- American and the Muslims being the victims: the dominant people are the Native American who was the slave traders. They consider America as their country and regard other people as slaves, they are discriminated when offering government posts, employments, education system and in social joints. South Africa is a multicultural country with many tribes that adopt their own culture and keep practicing it. Each tribe’s culture is protected by the constitution. Generally there are three categories of tribes; whites, Asians and blacks. In the black side the tribes can further be disintegrated into eleven tribes. The country also has eleven official languages. The blacks have started to slowly adopt the life style of the white and the Asians. Past political regime can be blamed for inequality distribution in the country. Resources are centred in the minority where they own capital and dominate in major businesses. The past regime (Apartheid) facilitated the whites to accumulate wealth at the expense of the locals. The
I once met an absolutely low-level service in a hospital. The dissatisfaction started with the time of entering the hospital, as the personnel on the reception could not find my record, and instead of asking me to wait and figure out the situation on their own, the hospital employee suggested leaving the premises and making an appointment for another day. At the same moment, I asked what alternatives they could offer for today, since I was ready to wait. However, the front desk employee did not even look into her computer, where the schedule was supposedly located, and began to insist that they did not accept any visitors without an appointment. Further, after my indignation increased, the manager was called. They found my record in the system, the error was on the part of the system itself, which incorrectly recorded the scheduled visit. After that, I was offered an alternative with another doctor after 10 minutes, which was a perfect fit for my plans. What upset me the most in this situation was the relationship on the part of the personnel at the reception, who did not even try to understand the situation, but immediately brought the blame for the non-existent appointment to the clinic’s client. The front desk staff are the first people a client or a potential client meets. Any of these employees should be friendly, customer-oriented, and help resolve any issues. The customer focus of employees can be reached by any clinic or hospital through high-quality recruitment and selection. In addition, training can be provided on how to work with clients, how to serve them and behave in certain situations, especially those that can cause a conflict.
Homicide is an act of killing a human or the killing of a person by another one (Homicide, n.d.b.). Criminal homicide includes murder along with voluntary and involuntary manslaughter (“Homicide,” n.d.a.). Murder is the deliberate killing of another person or accidental killing of a human while committing a separate crime. Voluntary manslaughter refers to a person killing another one intentionally but having no prior intent to do so; involuntary manslaughter is the killing of someone unintentionally. Homicides can also be negligent, justifiable, state-sanctioned, and vehicular (“Homicide,” n.d.a.). The difference between these types is determined by the presence of criminal intent or consent. Assault is an action during which a person has an intent to harm another person physically. The types of this crime include aggravated, sexual, and simple assault (“Assault and battery,” n.d.). An example of an assault is a man trying to touch a woman’s hips in a bar while she is dancing, which happens against her will. Burglary is associated with entering a person’s property without permission and has distinct elements. Besides the presence of a building, there is usually no victim in this type of crime; burglary implies that a person has a plan to commit an unlawful act.
Authoritarianism in Egypt has been witnessed through the state control of resources which are crucial in decision making and economic emancipation. This is left in the hands of few elites with little regard of the ideologies they hold leading to poverty and corrupt politics. Authoritarian rule in Egypt has nurtured a perception that a small number of experts is capable of using a central approach in carrying out economic planning and making correct choices on behalf of an entire country’s population (Egypt, 2006). According to the authoritarian leaders of Egypt, central control is important in ensuring equal distribution of economic resources. However, the authoritarian rule benefits the political class since they are capable of evading poverty associated with the system. They have the ability to secure favor from the government for their own gains. This has greatly contributed towards the revolution and uprising that has been witnessed in Egypt (Egypt, 2006). Mubarak and his authoritarian government have come up with many strategies to suppress Egyptians. For instance, social welfare organizations have been barred from offering service to the citizens who have been adversely affected by poverty and political marginalization. Among the repressive laws constituted is the emergency law which makes the 1971 constitution useless. Authoritarian rule has also been accused of imprisoning politicians and making use of military courts in convicting civilians . Conclusion Although the type of rule in Egypt is not explicit military dictatorship, it could be termed as an authoritarian system backed by the military. Mubarak has served as an air force officer in the past thus he has full backing of the military and other security organs. He is always assured of the support of these organs whenever he requires them. Such support is used by the government in the wrong way to continue ruling the country in an authoritarian manner. Reference Egypt. (2006). In S. Tatic & C. Walker (Eds.), Countries at the Crossroads: A Survey of Democratic Governance. Plymouth, UK: Freedom House. Web.