ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Depression is a prolonged slowdown in the economic activities of one or more world economies. It is characterized by mass unemployment, reduction in per-capita GDP, decrease in consumer demand, and reduction in general supply of commodities. Price deflation coupled with rampant bankruptcies reduces the return to production and limits capital available for investment. Though mostly as a result of a crush in one sector of the economy, depression adversely affects close to all other economic organs. The movie industry also finds itself hit by this economic typhoon, as it mostly depends on extra spending from citizens, who must meet their basic needs first. From the early 1920s, the movie industry was gaining strength, and there was a mass capital injection into the industry. There was a division of labor as direction, production, and distribution were assigned to different individuals who specialized in these areas. The number of films produced per year steadily increased, as new ideas were being incorporated into the movie industry (Antonowicz par.1). Profits on the other hand were substantial and most of the firms in this line of business were breaking even with huge margins. Generally, the going was smooth and the industry was flourishing as demand increased beyond expectation. The depression hit hard on the whole economy and Hollywood found itself in this economic crunch (Dirks par. 2). There was a decrease in demand for films, as most people cut short on their luxurious spending to ensure they took care of their pressing requirements. The cinema halls were for a better part of the day, either empty or had half their capacity, given that many people chose to work overtime or take part-time jobs to augment their income. People were also not sure of job security, they, therefore, chose to save in case they lost their jobs, as there were job cuts in every section of the economy in a move to reduce costs. Profits started shrinking while income was declining, yet production was taking place, prompting the need to re-arrange the industry to save it from adverse repercussions of the market crash. Production of the films was able, however, to go on without much disturbance during this period. Incidentally, the industry had set up systems that were strong enough, to at least cushion it against dire consequences of the depression. The contracts with the actors of the movies were signed in the early 1920s and were to run for very long periods, this helped in the removal of the necessity of contracting during the depression, a move that would have necessitated increases in payments. Additionally, the industry integrated direction, production, and distribution of films to reduce costs incurred in production, hence increasing their profits. To increase the number of collections from theaters, it was important for customer incentive methods to be implemented. Hollywood introduced ruffle tickets, where clients won cash prices or other presents if they went to the movies. The plan worked perfectly for them as customers came streaming to cinema halls. To moviegoers, it was a way of making extra cash to alleviate the economic predi
The ghetto consists of segregated housing units which lack strong institutions (Black 206). Formal organizations like churches, businesses, and schools make it more difficult for antisocial activities to thrive. Once such entities are uprooted, the sense of connectedness that makes other American neighborhoods effective is eliminated. Poor social networks in these communities place responsibility for the care of children on lone parents, who are too preoccupied to carry out this role effectively. Unlike other effective communities, where responsibility for the care of children is shared in the network, this pattern is missing in black ghettos. Nas represents one of the lone voices in such a community. He tries to school this boy on the realities of life. He advises him to ‘rise above the madness,’ among other things. In a society that lacks external controls, even a marijuana-smoking mentor like Nas is a welcome intervention. In the song “One Love” as well as the movie “Belly,” twelve-year-old Shorty complements Nas on his style. Nas responds by giving him some gold chains that he could sell if he wanted. When one analyses how these two individuals are dressed, one notes the distinctive style of the black urban poor. Even how the two speakers is synonymous to this culture, they are both slow and deliberate in their speech. The two greet each other in an unusual manner and have a cool demeanor about them. Majors and Billson (6) explain that the cool pose is a coping mechanism for several poor African Americans. They tend to appear fearless, emotionless, and in control. This is an attempt to mask the insecurities of their life. Many of them have to contend with the realities of marginalization. Not only is their self-worth damaged, but they are also engaged by their hopeless circumstances. Maintaining a cool façade allows them to cover these inner struggles and thus cope with their environment. Shorty found inspiration from Nas and other rappers like him whose sense of style is cool. In th
Introduction The newsroom is full of employees that possess different abilities and talents and it is a place that needs management just like any other organization. It takes a manager who is effective and competent to run the media since is it open to the public and the world. The basic fundamental principles that any manager can apply in such a setting is his ability to give people the energy to embark on their activities, encourage teamwork, bring about the organization, drive the organization towards achieving the set goals and objectives, and most importantly, present be able to present and maintain a good image to the public. However, the image of a media house may sometimes be tainted due to the publications or advertisements that it projects to the public. The effect of this may damage the media house and most definitely, ruin the management dismissing them as incompetent. A media manager should thus be able to determine the kind of information that is presented in the news and have the ability to predict what its effect will be. Such a manager should be a “symbolic head who is required to perform many routine social and legal duties” (Williams 2) both within and outside the newsroom. By definition, proprietary information is the information that the public is not aware of but is availed by a manufacturer to a journalist or media figure. The journalist is bound by his or her duties not to make the information available to the public unless allowed by the journalist’s authority and probably the giver of the proprietary information. The reason such information is held is that if it reaches the public there may be a negative perception by the recipients of the news, on the media company. This essay will be based on the proprietary information of Toyota Company that was issued by the lawyer of the company, Dimitrios Biller to a CNN journalist and unfortunately, the news spilled to the public. The lawyer moved out of the company with a good number of documents that he stated were damaging to the company and that these documents could be used against Toyota in the determination of its liability. This proprietary information was made public to the public by the CNN media company. This whole scenario raises two crucial issues in the area of media management. Was it right for CNN to release proprietary information to the public? Was there any negativity raised on the media company after the release of such information? Since the image of Toyota seems to have been tainted, what necessary steps should the manager of Toyota do to get back its former good image? Therefore, this essay will answer these questions based on several factors such as damage to a brand, message to alter public opinion, organizational behavior, the effect of structure on leadership, and the employees’ motiv
Introduction While many recall the age before the invention of the jet engine, the golden era for aviation, however, flying aboard a piston-powered propeller aircraft was often arduous. Flights were long, and the relentless noise and vibration from the piston engines were exhausting. Furthermore, most aircraft could not fly high enough to avoid bad weather, subjecting passengers to torturous conditions, and airsickness. The de Havilland Comet was developed as a response to these misgivings of the propeller engine and would become the world’s first commercial jetliner prototype in 1949. It was quieter, faster, and with a cruising altitude of 40000 feet, could avoid bad weather (Pushkar, 2002). However, the de Havilland Comet would later be known as much by the issues that plagued it, as with the pioneering the jet-age. The Circumstances of the de Havilland Comet Failures The de Havilland Comet was always hailed and recognized as technological advancement. It was, after all, the first aircraft to bring pressurized jet service to the public, and well ahead of the United States, which had a more robust aviation industry following the Second World War. There was little on-hand experience at the time of the Comet’s development in the manufacture of pressurized craft. Consequently, de Havilland decided to place particular emphasis on structural testing, with the fuselage being subjected to rigorous testing under very strenuous conditions. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as well as the British Aviation Authorities at the time also required that any British-manufactured aircraft pass a fuselage proof test at 1.33P, and a structural pressure test of 2P, where P is the pressure expected during a
Video game playing has consequences on motor and perception skills of gamers. The consequences ultimately alter their visual attention abilities in terms of attention with regard to space, objects, or time compared to non-gamers. The article, “Action video game modifies visual selective attention” by Green and Bavelier demonstrates that perceptual learning results to improvement in given performance. Specifically, the article considers the consequences of action video game playing on visual attention skills. Using a set of four experiments, the authors sought to test the hypothesis that video game playing enhances the visual attention abilities of players. Additionally, in their fifth experiment, non-gamers trained on action video game showed a significant improvement in visual attention abilities (Green, & Bavelier, 2003, p. 534). The first experiment involved a flanker compatibility effects tests that encompassed the use of enumeration tasks. In the experiments, Video game players (VGPs) were able to identify more items than the non-video game players (NVGPs) did. This indicates that VGPs have a higher capacity to attend to more items at once compared to NVGPs. Additionally, in experiment two, the compatibility effects among VGPs was high compared to NVGPs even at high levels of task difficulty, which is an indication of greater visual attention skills among VGPs (p< 0.01) (Green, & Bavelier, 2003, p. 536). From these results, the authors conclude that habitual video game playing increases visual attention within the scope of video game playing. The VGPs also showed a consistent overall distracter effect at all levels of task difficulty, which indicate the high attention capacity among VGPs compared to NVGPs. The third experiment involved comparing the spatial attention abilities in VGPs with NVGPs with regard to three different locations. Overall, the VGPs performed better in the three different locations compared to the NVGPs. This implies that the VGPs have a higher ability to locate items even in cases of many distracters (Green, & Bavelier, 2003, p. 536). The results indicate a high spatial attention, even at a high number of distracters, for VGPs. Furthermore, the authors, in their fourth experiment, examined the VGPs’ attention over time compared to NVGPs. Overall, in all tasks such attention blink tests, the VGPs performed better than the NVGPs. The fifth experiment involved comparing pre and post training performance with regard to visual acuity or field of view, attention-blink and enumeration tasks for all subjects (Green, & Bavelier, 2003, p. 537). Overall, improved performance was seen for all subjects after training. From these findings, the authors conclude that video game playing, which allows players to juggle multiple tasks,
More than a century ago, a beneficial property of microbes to convert simple sugars into alcohols (such as butanol, ethanol, and acetone) was discovered. Recently, based on these findings, scientists developed novel strategies to produce fuels, using microbes and renewable non-organic biomass. However, notwithstanding the rapid advancement of technologies in the industry, metabolic modeling through microbial processes remains scarce. The most notable role of microbes in the method lies in the newly developed construction of genome-scale, genetic, and genomic models used for their metabolic engineering, with several clear examples mentioned. For instance, to produce succinic acid, scientists successfully perform the metabolic engineering of Mannheimia succiniproducens, whereas E. coli is used to biosynthesize a variety of chemicals. Despite the current achievements in microbial biotechnology, eradicating technical difficulties associated with the auspicious commercialization of the microbial cell factories is essential for executing the project on the way to an energy sustainable society. Microbiology and Its Pharmaceutical Impact Microbes have a vital role in the pharmaceutical industry, being used in the production of antibiotics, probiotics, vaccines, and quality tests to prevent microbial contamination of the medicine developed. Despite a widely used bio and chemical synthesis for the development of antibacterial drugs today, the production of some types of antibiotics (such as aminoglycosides) still requires living organisms. Specific microbes, bifidobacteria, and LAB, in particular, are also utilized for the composition of probiotics, beneficial for digestive health. The creation of vaccines requires the usage of microorganisms, as well. However, unlike antibiotics or probiotics, vaccines need weakened or dead forms of the microbes. In addition to drug production, microorganisms play an essential role in the development of control tests in the pharmaceutical industry. Specific examples on the matter include sterility testing, used for the examination of antibiotics and ophthalmic preparations, water testing, primarily designed for the detection of E. coli, and LAL testing for the eduction of endotoxins.
Contemporary ethical relativism can be traced to Edward Westermarck’s work in the book, “Ethical relativity and the development of Ethical ideas” (MacKinnon 230). Relativism defines the variations in levels of truth or principles. This is a philosophical concept that acknowledges varied levels of human rights, depending on the situation or circumstance. Proponents of subjectivism have voiced several arguments against ethical relativism because relativism is associated with the denial of objectivity (Frederick 187). Human right arguments against relativism are supported by the fact that human rights are normally perceived to be universal. From this understanding, people who voice the opinion that different degrees of human rights should be acknowledged often support the ethical relativism concept. The ethical relativism debate is revolutionary because most of our global principles and ideas about human rights keep changing by the day. For instance, modern-day human rights principles are more sophisticated than conventional human rights principles. For instance, sexuality has consistently changed across human generations. Currently, there are gay rights, homosexual rights and such like issues, which were never present before. Our ideas and values as a society have therefore changed over the years. The fragmentation of the society is also another important issue to be understood in the study of ethical relativism. In fact, the fragmentation of the society is at the center of this debate because our beliefs, values and ideals are different. For instance, what may be perceived to be normal in Asia may not be normal in America. Similarly, what may be perceived to be normal in Africa may not be normal in Europe. For example, certain cultural practices in Africa and Asia (such as female genital mutilation) is perceived to be a normal cultural practice in some parts of Africa and Asia but the same practice may be termed a violation of human rights in Europe or America. The ethical relativism debate is therefore a dicey issue in today’s society and the entire controversy is getting more complicated with the evolution of human ideals. Based on this understanding, this paper argues against the fact that contemporary ethical relativism should be included in modern-day human right movements. To support this point of view, the nature of human society, the standardization of human rights and the progress of human rights will be analyzed. Nature of the Human Society Proponents of contemporary ethical relativism argue that the human society is inherently divided and independent. In this regard, they propose that human rights should acknowledge these distinctions and apply a fragmented application of human rights principles. This argument is flawed because when studying the human society, the society is not perceived to be dotted with racial, gender, cultural and
Introduction Vitamin D is one of the vital diet requirements which is absorbed through the skin and prevents the formation of rickets among human beings. Therefore, exposure to the sun is always very healthy. However, lately people have discovered that due to the depletion of the Ozone layer (due to addition of greenhouse gases), human beings are now exposed to harmful ultraviolet rays known to cause sun burns, premature wrinkling of the skin and also the dreadful skin cancer. To prevent the skin cancer and other side effects, there have been campaigns of using waterproof sunscreen lotions such as the Sunblock which is a product that provides a coating on the skin which prevents sun burns and sun damages (Cooper 121). To prevent early exposure of their children to the harmful Ultraviolet rays, parents have been applying sunscreen lotions to their bodies but despite the good functions that these lotions serve at protecting people skins, if used carelessly it can lead to disaster. For example if a waterproof sunscreen lotion enters into a child or anyone eyes, it is hard to remove them using water since they are water proof and if there is reluctance in contacting the doctors, it can cause permanent blindness. Summary Description Waterproof sunscreen lotions are good at protecting your child against skin cancer which can be caused by the exposure to the sunlight, but while many people use the lotions in their day to day life, it is important to note that there are negative repercussions if the lotio
Introduction Waitrose is a high-class chain of stores in the United Kingdom and mainly deals in food products and grocery. Earlier this year, it announced plans to cut its prices to match those of its competitor, Tesco. Waitrose is the 6 th largest retail store in the United Kingdom with more than 228 stores across the region, giving it a market share of 4.3%. Before the price-cut announcements, Waitrose had differentiated itself from other stores by offering high quality food products to its clients, earning the status of one of the most expensive retail stores in the UK. The recent price cuts on 1,000 brand lines by Waitrose to match those of Tesco, the 4 th largest retailer in the world by revenue and second by profit,s has increased its customer base from the low to the middle- class individuals. The reduction of prices increased its competitive advantage and led to an increase in sales, the Daily Mail reports that the company reported almost 9.5 % sales growth [1] a week after the plan was executed while total sales came to £92.9million, representing a 23.5% increase in sales from the same week in 2007. The price cuts in Waitrose will cover 1,000 well-known brands such as Heinz, Baked Beans, Bisto, Lurpak, and Hovis [2] . These are products that are used on a daily basis and this outlines the company’s strategy of fighting it out with the industry players such as Tesco and Wal-Mart. Previously, the company engaged in price wars with other similar premium stores and the move to match Tesco’s prices is a clear change of strategy aimed at attracting low-end customers to its retail stores. Waitrose has always targeted customers on the high end and are willing to pay more for their purchases while Tesco has appealed to all market segments, this marketing strategy has led to a remarkable performance of the latter. Waitrose stores in Oxford Street, London realized an increase in sales by up to 17% in the first week of the announcement, the strongest performance was realized on the company’s online stores. All the three departments in the store (home, fashion and electricals) had an increase of more than 10% during this period. A market analyst at Seymour Pierce, Freddie George, says that the sales volume realized after the cuts illustrated that the price-match scheme had not had a similar impact as the introduction of the store’s Essentials basics series of products implemented 18 months ago [3] . Despite the sales growth that marked the price cut, analysts are divided on whether