ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Content Summary The book by Nathaniel Hawthorne titled The Scarlet Letter is considered the best work of his not in vain – the contents and the topics touched upon in it raise much profound thinking and reveal the true nature of human beings under the pressure of the Puritan community that does not accept any sins and weaknesses and struggles only for integrity and honor. Hawthorne managed to reveal the whole scope of inner qualities, the torments that people experience when their sins do not let them go, and the transformations that occur in people when they are possessed by evil thoughts and intentions. The narrative begins from the preamble in which the narrator justifies the contents by the manuscript he occasionally found and then proceeds to tell the story itself. The narrative takes place two centuries earlier in the newly settled USA, in the Puritan colony where the woman called Hester Prynne leaves the prison with her daughter Pearl – she is urged to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest that signals her adultery. She kept the name of the man with who she committed it secret, which causes even more accus
Introduction Felon disenfranchisement cases have characterized the history of the United States since 1965. By noting that America advocates for universal human rights including voting rights, several states have been concerned about the continued growth of the number of felon convicts and ex-convicts. According to the US Department of Justice, by 2003, there were about 4.7 million felon ex-convicts in the United States who had been disenfranchised (2003, p.10). In the societies whose democracies are rights-based, punishment for crimes committed by convicts is enhanced through curtailing some fundamental rights of people including rights of association and travelling. When felony convicts’ rights including voting rights are eroded, their rehabilitation process is impaired since they may perceive themselves as having lesser equal rights in comparison with other people who have not committed felony crimes. This position is held by Siegel (2011) who argues that, after the passing of 1965(PL.89-110) voting rights act, the denial of voting rights “undermines the democratic process and impedes rehabilitation thus debilitating both communities and individuals” (p.89). In this context, felony convicts may develop psychological challenges that may impede their capacity to fit well in the society by the mere perception of denial of voting rights. It is hypothesized in the proposal that guaranteeing suffrage rights to felon convicts may help in improving their psychological health. The research focuses on evaluation of this hypothesis to establish the link between the perceptions of felony on their human rights and their rehabilitation process. Literature Review Through the provisions of 14 th amendment of the US constitution, states are mandated to make laws that deny both inmates and felons their voting rights. In California, disenfranchisement laws stipulate that all adults who are convicted for felony crimes and or held in both paroles and prisons lose suffrage rights until their jail terms lapses (Siegel, 2011). Such persons consist of more than 4.7 million people who do not enjoy their voting rights in the US (U.S Department of Justice, 2003). This case is not simplistic since it does not just amount to saying that robbers, murderers, and rapists do not have suffrage rights. Acts of felony extend beyond these crimes to include other crimes whose penalties are serving a jail term of more than one year (US Department of Justice, 2003). This issue raises the question of the impacts of felony convictions on people and or how the convictions make people alter the manner they perceive their citizenship rights. When America was founded, legal frameworks only gave people who owned land a privilege of participating in political processes through voting (Siegel, 2011). Since then, the electorate has been expanded to encompass people who do not own property, women, blacks, and even Hispanics among other people who constitute the American diversity. Only felons and persons under the age of 18 years are not permitted to vote (Grady, 2012, p. 445). Does it then imply that voting is a privilege as opp
Nationalism can be perceived in many ways. On one hand, it may connote the historical process of establishing nationalities as political units, or the construction of modern national states while on the other hand, it may indicate the theory, principle, or ideal implicit in the historical process or ‘nationalism’ may be used to express a condition of mind among the members of nationality, an attitude in which loyalty and devotion to one’s nationality are considered to be of prime importance. If we perceive ‘nationalism’ in context with the problem that Europe has encountered between 1815 and 1850, we would analyze that Nationalism, during this era of kings and tyranny rejected the cosmopolitan aspects of liberalism, its rational spirit, its emphasis upon natural rights, its preference for the individual, and its aversion to state authority. From the nationalist point of view, freedom was not considered the right of the individual, and so the individual was not supposed to live according to his own will, but he was subjugated by his sense of freedom to that conferred upon him by group authority. Nationalism, in contrast to liberalism, often discards humanitarianism in favor of national interests, advocates a system of national economic protection, regards imperialistic expansion as desirable, and looks favorably upon war as a means of promoting national prestige. While talking about European nationalism, German nationalism elucidates that it was not accompanied by the beneficial results that had been expected at the time. Germany remained beyond the periphery of European civilization, acquiring a unique character of her own and playing a unique role in the European history of nation-making. The synthesis of nationalism and liberalism was especially pronounced in England, with its parliamentary monarchy and its strong middle class. A similar development may be noted in France, although the timing and character were different. In both countries, nationalism and liberalism were allies in the struggle against absolutism and caste. In Germany, however, where the appearance of the nation-state and national sentiment was delayed for more than three centuries beyond that of England and France, the synthesis was never effectively achieved. The result was therefore a politico-cultural lag with the building of German nationalism as artificial as the construction of the Panama Canal. German nationalism was created under the tyranny of Napoleonic despotism where it experienced means of forgetting their degradation, while Germans turning their eyes back to a great legendary past when the old imperial Germany had been the cockpit of Europe. German nationalism while busy seeking their salvation in romanticism, attempted to draw strength from German antiquity, from the German landscape, and the German language, customs, and art. Later the German nation in its youth the ‘eternally striving’ was indeed far from being aggressive, intolerant, and imperialistically-minded, all features which
Introduction A contract is an agreement that outlines specifics details of an issue between different parties regarding a certain matter; it is usually a written document, although it can also be verbal and is enforceable in a court of law[1]. For a contract to be considered valid, it must contain seven elements but only five of which are important: consideration, form, intention to create legal relations, agreement, genuine consent, and capacity to implement the contact[2]. When a contract has been broken, a breach is said to have occurred, breach of contract in legal terms is used to describe actions that have been undertaken by one of the parties in contravention to the binding agreement as originally agreed between the parties. It is also used to describe cases where the terms of an agreement as entered between various parties are not honored according to the articles of the agreement. In general, all forms of contracts reached upon between various parties are governed by the principle of pacta sunt servanda[3]. The principle of pacta sunt served requires parties to an agreement to act and undertake obligations in good faith in accordance with the intention of the contract as originally written down. In writing contracts for real estate, these are some of the most basic factors to consider, which must be observed when drafting the contract document. In the preceding section, we shall discuss in more detail the specific elements of each aspect of these factors that must be considered in the writing of contract agreements in the context of real estate. Elements of a Contract Ideally, all forms of contracts should be legally enforceable as long as such contracts are not illegal, trifling, indeterminate, or impossible to implement. A contract is an agreement that is intended to be enforceable in a court of law; as
It has always been widely discussed in the media about the way certain issues currently present in our culture should be approached by the church. One of the most delicate questions is how to deal with the awareness of the church and its followers of the complex biological and psychological nature of human sexuality. It is clearly stated in The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, 2012 that “God’s grace is available to all, that nothing can separate us from the love of God.” Besides, Methodists claim to be “in respectful dialogue with those with whom we disagree, to explore the sources of our differences, to honor the sacred worth of all persons.” 1 Despite such tolerant, promising doctrines, a huge amount of the discussions on the topic of LGBT come down to accusations and black-and-white judgments having nothing to do with Christian dialogue. The 53% Problem in the United Methodist Church – the article written by Rev. Jeremy Smith – proves that controversial issues are still unresolved among Methodists, which causes deterioration of the general attitude towards them each year. The paper at hand attempts to analyze the article in order to find out whether it reflects John Wesley’s ideas and applies them to the modern interpretation of the issue. The purpose of the analysis is to demonstrate that despite the tendency of the Methodist Church to maintain Christian standards of behavior , Wesley’s ideas of equality in the face of God reflected in his doctrine of prevenient grace are perceived with latent disapproval when the church has to deal with people having divergent views on sexuality as one of the vaguest issues from the religious perspective. The Overview of the Article Rev. Jeremy Smith speculates upon the reasons the new doctrine is only supported by 53% of the Methodist clergy though it directly refers to John Wesley’s pivotal beliefs. The low percentage first emerged in 2012 when the doctrine was passed. Moreover, this surprisingly small number reappeared in 2015 when a survey of United Methodist pastors, leaders, and lay membership was conducted to estimate current attitudes to the statement. As compared to 2014, the number of those who supported the idea of prevenient grace dropped by 38%. The author explains this phenomenon by the fact that marriage equality granted to LBGT created a reverse-halo affect – the attitude to God’s grace became negative as it got connected with the debatable problem of LGBT inclusion. The author concludes the discussion by expressing his hope that the shame of prejudice will be eliminated and the Methodist Church will welcome everyone who is striving to live out his/her call to lead a righteous life by serving God. Surprisingly, he contradicts himself by stating at the end of the article that John Wesley did not consider that all the minorities were equal and we should go beyond his beliefs showing a more open-minded attitude. Thus, the key reason for attitude deterioration Rev. Jeremy Smith names is
Discussion War periods present a trying time for humankind. War is known to highlight the worst qualities of humankind. During wars, people turn against each other as their moral integrity is compromised. In his book “A Darkling Plain”, Dr. Kristen Monroe investigates how conflict affects humanity. Monroe is a philosophy and political science professor at the University of California at Irvine. Monroe’s book uses stories from people who lived through wars and later witnessed flourishing happiness. These narratives form the basis of the book “A Darkling Plain” and they include interviews with people who survived international and civil conflicts. The interviewed people include soldiers, victims of dictatorial regimes, and refugees. According to the author’s narrative, it is hard for anyone to survive the war with his/her personality intact. Monroe presents the argument that war has profound effects on psychological processes. Moreover, the book is subdivided into six psychological dimensions for easier analysis. This paper explains how Monroe uses narrative analysis to evaluate the issues of humanity and war. “A Darkling Plain” is made up of a series of analyses that span over different periods and continents. These narratives reflect peoples’ attempts at making sense of their reality. Normally, narratives are used to present shared beliefs, similar identities, and common origins. In Monroe’s case, narratives are used to present similar experiences. Most of the interviewed persons have either survived a war or experienced the effects of the war firsthand. For instance, some of the narratives cover wars that happened in the early 1920s while the others cover conflicts that happened in this century. However, all these narratives reveal similarities in inexperience. For example, the story of Frank the South Pacific soldier details war-related experiences in the early 1920s. Nevertheless, Frank’s experiences bear striking similarities with those of displaced African refugees. Therefore, the author is able to create a network of ideas that help to highlight how war affects humanity. Monroe’s style of narrative analysis is quite wholesome as compared to other narrative styles. Most narratives tend to omit the details that are considered to be of less importance. However, Monroe’s narratives are inclusive of all the details that the narrators consider important to them. In some instances, the narratives used in “A Darkling Plain” tend to contain ‘irrelevant’ information. Nevertheless, the wholesome nature of Mo
Introduction Internet is a system of network that connects computers or computerized devices across the world. It only requires a connection device in order to reach and connect people or parties that could be very far from each other. International business is, on the other hand, a reference to commercial undertakings between two or more individuals or parties that are located in different regions or countries. Technological developments over time have led to global revolutions, which have made it possible for the witnessed developments in communications from the initial usage of messengers to the current sophisticated use of internet for communication. This communication technique has been adapted to an extent of acculturation in commercial transactions, especially in cases where parties are far apart as in cases of international trade. This paper seeks to discuss the effects that internet has had on international business. The paper will look into the history and development of internet usage in international business, factors that led to the development of internet usage in international business as well as the effects that this internet usage has had on international business. History of Internet Usage in International Business Internet usage in international business is a form of general online transactions in which parties to a business conduct transactions through the internet. These transactions involve parties exchanging information by the use of internet as opposed to the previous modes of communications such as written forms and use of phones. The development of internet mode of business transactions can be claimed to have been driven by desire for efficiencies and ease in transactions such as “direct marketing, selling and services, online banking and billing and secure distribution of information” (Rehman, n.d., p. 13). With desires for efficiencies, better and more secure transactions, other means of communications in the business arena, such as use of posted letters proved to be time-consuming with chances of information being lost or intercepted on the way being high. Steps to ensure safety of business information, which is in most cases comprises business transactions and secrets which have to be kept away from business competitors, must have facilitated the shift to the internet usage which is relatively considered to be safer than the previously used methods of communications in the business world. Development of internet usage in business, in general, started with the establishment of “electronic data interchange” (EDI) in the year 1960 (Rehman, n.d., p. 15). The establishment then set standards for business communications in electronic media, which were then enhanced by the standardization of formats that were earlier used under electronic infor
The Overview Ihr Platz GmbH is one of the leading drug stores in Germany. Founded in 1895, the company has 689 company- owned stores, 150 franchisee-owned stores, two distribution centers or warehouses and employs over 8800 people. Today (2004) the company is in great crises struggling with declining sales, mounting losses, and seemingly ineffective management. The situation seems to be moving out of hand and hope of the giant company’s survival appears faint. In fact, the company is being faced with insolvency and liquidation is very likely. In this paper therefore, we review the case on Ihr Platz and the predicaments that befalls it before the unlikely savior comes in and engineers a restructuring to take Ihr Platz back to healthy; a move that brings lots of hope to the German industry Possible causes of Ihr Platz insolvency crises From the case study several reasons could have led to the company’s insolvency. First, current management of Ihr Platz seemed to have been incompetent leading to ineffective management of the company. As a result, this had led to shrinking of the company’s sales by 40 percent in 2004. Also, the company is reported to have been operating at a loss since the year 2000 thus putting the company at the edge of collapse. It is reported in the case that successive management of the company since then were unable to reverse the track and return the company to profitability definitely put their competence in question. Furthermore, inflexibility and failure by management to make strategic decisions to salvage the company from the looming crisis contributed greatly to the unfavorable crises. This is evidenced by continued holding of stores and branches with the full knowledge of them running at a loss, what they could have slacked right away. In addition, poor debt management had seen the company incur more debts than the company could service. As a result, the company’s sales were declining at an alarming rate, losses had mounted, debts had soared beyond recoverable heights and the company was virtually insolvent. When a company is faced with insolvency, it is assumed to be in a very awkward position and its chances of survival seem impossible. When Ihr Platz was faced with insolvency a number of barriers and challenges could have been anticipated which made its salvaging look like a very difficult endeavor. First, the law governing insolvency in Germany was expected to be a major challenge for the Ihr Platz. In most cases, a company which has been declared insolvent is expected to be put under court management, put via receivership and ultimately become liquidated. Honestly, I and most of you would have expected the same to happen to Ihr Platz. In addition, how to deal with creditors presented a big huddle for the company during this hard financial period. I could have anticipated creditors filing cases against the company in order to put it under receivership in an attempt to recover their debts. At insolvency, creditors and suppliers were expected to abscond from giving Ihr Platz more credit and supplies and this could have seen the company sink f
A CT scan works in such a way that the patient or the person being scanned sets themselves on a table facing upwards. The table on which the person lies is then passed through the middle region of the x-ray machine. The process may also require the patient to hold his/her breadth to ensure minimal blurring of pictures. Often, a contrast agent may be added into the blood veins either by injection or ingestion, some minutes before the CT scan. The purpose of the contrast die is to cause specific tissues of the body to become more visible to the operator. It must be noted here that the CT scans do not cause any form of pain to the patient apart from some discomfort caused by lying in one position during the entire process. CT scan information can be used to make models in three ways. The approaches include the use of CAD system, the use of STL-interfacing and direct interfacing. It is worth noting that CT scans have a good advantage over other forms of scans. This is because the data sourced from a CT scan can be used to produce human body structures by the rapid prototyping systems. The way in which the scans enable tissue separations is also advantageous in that it becomes useful for assessing soft tissue lesions around the pelvis. CT studies can also be combined with contrast materials for special evaluation such as CT myelography. Images can therefore be obtained in the transverse plane and thereafter reconstructed by computer with the frontal and suggital planes or presented as 3-D images for a more graphic display (Staheli, L. 31). However, this technology also has its own shortcomings. For instance, infants and the young children need sedation. This is to prevent them from absorbing the negative effects of the scans. CT scans also have a greater radiation exposure (Meercola 4). It is also worth noting that the scans expensive in comparison with the conventional studies. The other disadvantage is that the data sourced from CT scans is much difficult to deal with. The interpretation of the images and the data is also very difficult. This means that a special interpreter is needed to perform a complete CT scan. This is one of the reasons why the operation is pretty expensive. There is also the risk of allergic reactions or contrast nephropathy. Other situations can also occur whereby the patient who has undergone a complete CT scan experiences short breadth. Worse still, other people who have undergone this scan may experience throat swellings. CT refers to computerized topography scan. The scans show structures within the body created by a computer. The computer takes data from multiple x-ray images and presents them on a screen as pictures. The scan generates data as a grid of three dimensional points, where each point has a varying shade of grey that indicate the density of the body tissue which are found in that particular place. It is important to note that the technology has helped in the collection of data which have been used to build