ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
The allegation that Burger King has been supplying consumers with burgers and whoppers contaminated with horsemeat is one of the most discussed issues in various media outlets. When the scandal erupted, Burger King remained adamant that its products were safe for consumption. However, the analysis of the content of burgers and whoppers in various outlets of the fast-food chain in the United Kingdom revealed the Company’s unethical conduct. Also, police investigations exposed a slaughterhouse owner at the center of the horsemeat scandal who slaughtered animals that horse owners considered unfit to race. Investigations confirmed that the slaughterhouse provided the meat Silvercrest used to produce Burger King’s products (Poulter, 2013). The horse DNA in Burger King’s products raised doubts on the ability to verify the safety of the Company’s products considering that a different company, Silvercrest, processed the burgers and whoppers. The fact that Silvercrest processed contaminated burgers for other fast food chains such as Tesco and Co-op clearly illustrates that the problem at Burger King began in the processing stage of its products. The lack of Burger King’s engagement in the processing of its products made the Company vulnerable to the impacts of unorthodox practices by Silvercrest. In this regard, Burger King had limited control over the quality of products obtained from the company responsible for processing its products. Burger King overlooked the fact that Silvercrest had the independence to operate within a scope outside Burger king’s policies. Thus, the Company altered the recommended ingredients to increase its profits without considering the impact the unethical practices would have on fast food chains. The protests regarding the horsemeat contamination had significant effects on Burger King’s reputation since consumers had entrusted the fast-food chain with the responsibility of ensuring the safety of customers who bought the Company’s burgers and whoppers. As soon as the Company learned that its products contained horse DNA, it withdrew the remarks that Burger King’s products did not contain portions of horsemeat. The Company’s decision to accept the flaw in its products depicts the truthfulness in its vision to maintain customers’ trust in Burger King’s products. The Burger King management provided customers with details regarding the horsemeat scandal and thus mitigated the impacts on its reputation and future endeavors. Although Burger King was keen on protecting its reputation, Silvercrest sought to maximize profits by compromising on the quality of the products it processed. The fact that unethical conduct by one company can have multiple effects on other companies raises concerns on the need for enterprises such as Burger King to adopt systems, procedures, and policies that grant them control over the activities of all parties involved in the production. Burger King decided to transfer the proc
Introduction Electricity is one the most important sources of energy in the world. Almost every electronic device in every household depends on electricity. As such, mobile phones, computers, refrigerators, heaters, and bulbs and other major house appliances rely on electricity (Bloomfield 399). Electricity is a secondary source of energy. This source of energy has several primary sources, which includes water, oil, geothermal, nuclear, coal, and wind. The principle of electricity depends on the flow of electric charges (Bloomfield 362). Flowing electric charges are referred to as electric current. Magnetism can be generated from electricity application (Bloomfield 351). The source of magnetism is current and magnetic moments. When electric current flows in a conductor, it creates a magnetic field. The relationship between the two is called electromagnetism. This term refers to the generation of magnetism due to electric current. Similarly, magnetic field leads to the generation of electric current when a conductor cuts the magnetic field. To date, several individuals have assisted in the discovery and usage of electricity and magnetism. These include Maxwell, Ampere, and Faraday (Parker 56). Thomas Edison made a major contribution when he invented light bulbs. AC generators and motors Most of the machines operate with the aid of motors and generators (Bloomfield 374). Their roles can be interchanged, a motor can be used as a generator, and a generator can work as a motor. Motors are devices that convert electrical energy to mechanical energy, while the generator converts kinetic energy into electrical energy. This is the case in industrial applications. Conveyor belts, rollers, and grinding machines utilize the rotating power from a motor. Generators are used in areas where there is no electricity (Bloomfield 388). Generators use sources of fuel such as diesel and oil to produce electricity. The generated electricity can be used as a source of energy or used as a backup source. During generation of electricity, magnetism plays a great role in generators. With respect to AC motors, current is supplied to the windings leading to a production of a torque on the windings. Torque is simply a rotating force, which is required to drive various shafts in machines for their operation. Given that AC current is used, the motor spins at the same rate of recurrence with the sine wave. The term is referred to as synchronous motors. However, these motors are not commonly used and this leaves room for the use of induction motors. Induction motor coils are supplied with current indirectly as opposed to the case of synchronous motors. The c
The book by Vergilius Ferm, Pictorial History of Protestantism, a Panoramic View of Western Europe and the US, was published in 1957. Since that time the book became highly popular not only among people who profess Protestantism, but also among historians, and other people who deal with such spheres of knowledge as religion, history, culture, art, etc. During his life, Professor Vergilius Ferm dedicated many books to the questions of philosophy, culture, and religion. That s why, it is natural that the Pictorial History of Protestantism, a Panoramic View of Western Europe and the US contains information that refers to all these spheres. The author of the book was not only a lecturer and ahead of the department of Philosophy, but also an editor, which is seen in the style of the book. The author demonstrates profound knowledge in all spheres which are uncovered in the book. Although it is obvious from the text that Vergilius Ferm was a religious person: “When a creed was drawn up, he reinforced it by setting a penalty of political banishment upon any dissenter a new chapter in the history of the Church. This served to set off anew many pathetic civil wars within the Church” (Ferm 234), the author presents different viewpoints to make readers realize the context in which different events took place. The author’s style is highly pretentious. For example, when Vergilius Ferm describes Marco Polo and his role in the destiny of Christianity, he says: “helped fire of the European hunger for trade with the East” (Ferm 117). Such style does not suggest any difficulty in the process of reading and comprehension. All facts are represented clearly, and the author’s position is not imposed on a reader. What is the most attractive in the book is, of course, the way information is presented. Ferm provides readers with object lessons by the means of attractive and impressive illustrations which cannot but draw viewers’ and readers’ attention. The book is prolifically illustrated and the main spice in this design is that photographs which are included in the book are amazing. It is presented in the title of the book, but one will not understand the efficiency of illustrated narration until he/she takes the book and reads it. Moreover, pictures in the book represe
Currently many retailers from the United States and Europe attempt to enter Asian countries, which have recently become open to free trade. This paper aims to discuss the strategies they employ in order to gain competitive advantage and the peculiarities of consumer behavior in this region. At first, it should be pointed out that Asian market is extremely heterogeneous, which means that these states differ in terms of population density, purchasing power of the citizens and intensity of competition (Krafft & Mantrala,101). These are the factors that should be taken into account by the management. Many international retailers like Wal-Mart, or Carrefour gravitate to the regions where the level of financial welfare has risen over recent years: namely Taiwan and China (Dawson, 41). Furthermore, there are no barriers to entry such as presence of domestic firms. In contrast, they are less successful in Japan, due there are many local retailers, which can enter into price war with foreign companies (Krafft & Mantrala, 101). It should be noted that buyers in this region are not concentrated, and there are not large-volume clients in Asian market. On the one hand, this means that customers cannot dictate terms to the foreign companies, which operate in their country. Actually, large-volume customers are rather unlikely to appear in retail industry. Still, one should not presume that the bargaining power of clients is small. The thing is that products, offered by Carrefour or Wal-Mart are not differentiated or unique in any way, and the clients can find alternative suppliers (Alexander, 116). This goes for food, drinks, clothes etc. So, consumer can choose the firm that offers the best price-quality ratio. Additionally, we should not forget that consumers in Asia face virtually no switching costs, in other words they can go from one supplier to another, and they would incur no expenses. This situation can be observed in Japan (Dawson & Lee, 153). This is one of the reasons why international retailers have to fit their prices toward their needs. As far as profitability of the customers is concerned we cannot make any generalizations. In Taiwan or Malaysia, the population is more price-sensitive, as their income level is not very high, whereas in Japan, buyers are more well-to-do; therefore, they attach importance to the quality of the products, rather than the price. On the whole, we can argue that Asian buyers do not pose a threat of credible integration because it is more typical of wholesale trade rather than retailing. Finally, we need to say that that the quality of the buyers products is not affected by the industrys product. This means that foreign retailers do not sell good and services superior in quality to those ones of domestic shops. Yet, it should be borne in mind that this situation is not characteristic of all Asian markets. In Indonesia or Cambodia, the quality of commodities is at a low level, while in Japan or China it
Having worked in a privately-owned equity firm for five years before joining my family business recently, the global economic crisis has changed my perception in various matters relating to business, economics, and investment. The financial crisis started being felt in the year 2007. It has been commonly known as the credit crunch, the most significant recession since the 1930s, and other names. The most considerable trigger factor for it was the liquidity shortfall in the banking system of the United States of America. Many negative ramifications have been felt at the onset of the global financial crisis. The collapse of large institutions has been experienced, and the bailout of some of them was imminent. Stock markets experienced a nose-diving in their prices and their performance index hitting the lowest low. This could be attributed to the fact the focus was drawn from investment expenditure to consumption expenditure. Even as all these have come to pass, for me, and how I wish others to, vital lessons have been imprinted on my financial intellect. Initially, I was of the opinion that it would call for low policies and a long period of time to bring down a critical business. Since then, though, my thinking has been changed. Failure of essential companies was witnessed as economic activity slackened. This included mostly those in the financial services sector as central banks had to be bailed out of the financial quagmires haunting them. The American dream called for people to stay in good houses, have good cars, have happy families, and live wealthily. In the quest to achieve this, mortgage companies went on a rave to sell-out houses with repayment due in awhile. As a business, I have learned that not every mortgage could be beneficial. In fact, several of them have significant shortcomings. As a firm, a proper evaluation of the mortgages and the terms thereof is essential to measure the actual long term effect on the sustainability of the business. My attitude towards the capitalization of firms was also influenced. I have now got to a point where I do not necessarily look at firms’ success in terms of their capitalization but by the activity of the capital that is in place. Growing up for me was interesting as I would much desire to work with firms that had the highest equity standings in the market. However, the happenings of the global economic crisis have made me focus more on the return on equity as opposed to the level of equity as such. In our business, for example, we have got to a point where we have given much emphasis not on the level of our equity but on how much return our equity is able to offer. On a grand scale, I had placed over-reliance on the financial institutions in terms of them providing me with financial advice. At the onset of the global economic crisi
Introduction As adult schooling programs are certified and drawn into the instructive mainstream they become assembled as strategic components within wide nationwide policies. The standards and values underpinning such policies may be different to the teachers’ own instructive and community beliefs. Tutors themselves tend to have a diminishing amount of power over, or input into, the educational principles that arrange what and how they educate. The emergence of economic rationalism heralded a shift in focus whereby the education sector was obliged to comply with the needs of industry and productivity by skilling job seekers and providing a support for industry training. The standards and values underpinning these government policies may differ to those standards and beliefs held by the teacher. Whereas once teachers relied to a great extent upon their skills, experience and expertise, now they are very much governed in what and how they educate as dictated by competency-based assessment/regulated curriculum. The purposes of the CGEA program The CGEA (Certificate of General Education for Adults), is a set of certified courses to advance the literacy, numeracy and general education proficiencies of adults aged 15 and above. Participants in this program are able to make use of it in various ways, such as advancing their skills in the workplace, furthering their education and training, increase their role in community or perhaps in regard to their own personal learning needs. The uniqueness of the curriculum of this program is that it has been created with the account of the competency opportunities; in order the students had the possibility to compete while studying language, thus striving to be the best. In competency grounded study, students enhance knowledge, abilities and approaches required to achieve a competency standard. But the fact is that they are pitted against competencies and criteria, not against each other. Students have to express their competence. They may do this at any time – a week after starting a class, 20 weeks or even a year later. (Adult Literacy Basic Education Program, 2007). The Certificate of General Education for Adults (CGEA) is created to certify non-school training passageways up to tertiary entrance standard. It was adjusted from an earlier adult literacy curriculum program by the Adult Community and
Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, speaks about a person with a split personality. It tells of a person leading two parallel ways of life. At one time, he is a being but at other times, he has a different personality all together. At one time, he is a human, exhibiting human nature and character but at another moment, he is an ogre trampling on children and killing innocent people. Robert Louis’s novel presents a misanthropic view and a general disregard for human nature. His work leans towards a general disliking of human nature, which is shared by a few other misanthropists who have expressed this through their satirical writings. A good example is Moliere’s Character, Alceste, in a 1666 play. Alceste states that his hate is general. He hates all men because some are evil and filled with wicked deeds, and hates others because of their permissiveness towards the wicked. This is a story that is perceived from varying angles and perspectives. The novel tells a story about one doctor with split personality. The story dissects the existence of duality within the life of a person or basically the duality of human nature. Robert Louis suggests that within every human, there exists the evil and the perfectly human and good side. As a consequence, the bad nature is occasionally cast upon the human side. Dr. Jekyll is one person who has continuously veiled a life featuring wicked and evil acts and he feels like he is always fighting within himself. He was wondering what side of him to expose and at what time 1 (Stevenson 132). He happens to scientifically create a concoction that has the supernatural ability of transforming him from one side of his dual nature to the other. However, after taking it for a longer time, he realizes that he does not need the portion in order to transform. This is a fact that eventually brings him down. The Victorian norms dictated that things had to happen with due consideration to class, and no class was to overlap the other in its areas of operation. The class system demanded that issues leadership, governance and politics be left to the upper class. To the upper class, Mr. Hyde represents the working class. To them, the working class does not consist of gentlemen but rather people of no status. This relation shows how the story challenges the Victorians’ ideas on a political platform. This novel, as most philosophers and literary persons argue, was meant or rather the events in the novel were a forecast on what was to be the situation in Victorian England, which is the setting place for the novel. One very outstanding modern world challenge as manifested in the novel is scientific research. Some scientific researches are carried out by unscrupulous scientists who have ill intentions with their discoveries just like Mr. Hyde in the novel. The modern world is faced with the challenge of regulating the work of scientists. Recently the world has had to deal with the controversial issue of human cloning. We as humans
The article by Kendzor et al. (2014) aims at establishing the relationship of anxiety and depression to behavior management and glycemic control among Mexican Americans residing close to the U. S.-Mexico border. The study adopted a cross-sectional approach, and certain confounding covariates were included to supplement the findings (p. 176). The results showed that depression and anxiety had a negative influence on the behavioral management of diabetes due to higher BMI and waist circumference, in addition to lower activity levels (p. 176). There were positive correlations between anxiety and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and between depression and fasting glucose. The second article by Khattab, Khader, Al-Khawaldeh & Ajlouni (2010) is related to that by Kendzor et al.; it adopts a cross-sectional approach and seeks to identify factors associated with poor glycemic control among Jordanian type 2 diabetes patients. The study showed “poor adherence to self-care management practices and prolonged diabetes” were associated with poor glycemic controls” (Khattab, Khader, Al-Khawaldeh & Ajlouni, 2010, p. 84). I checked for the accuracy and reliability of the articles by comparing tools used and preselected variables, to the objectives of the study. The variables are commensurate with what the study seeks to achieve, and the indicators are well defined. According to Kendzor et al. (2014, p. 176), “BMI, waist circumference and physical activity” are ideal indicators of behavioral management, while “fasting glucose and glycated hemoglobin” indicate glycemic control. The tools used to assess the pre-selected variables were used correctly. For example, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) questionnaire was used to assess depressive symptoms while the Zung Self-rating Anxiety Scale was used to assess anxiety (Kendzor et al., 2014, p. 176). Also, well-trained nurses used standardized Sphygmomanometers EN 1060 to measure blood pressure (Khattab, Khader, Al-Khawaldeh & Ajlouni, 2010, p. 85). Besides, sampling affects the reliability and accuracy of results. The samples used in both articles were heterogeneous about socioeconomic status and demographic characteristics. Also, the sample sizes used were large enough; hence, the chances of reproducibility are also high. I checked the manner of recruiting the samples, and these are scientifically accepted. However, there is a flaw in the second article by Khattab, Khader, Al-Khawaldeh & Ajlouni (2010); the sampling interval was three, not ten. Therefore, systematic random sampling should have involved numbers one to three, and not one to ten. Also, the study by Kendzor et al. (2014) did not specify the type of diabetes, and this could affect the reliability of results. To ensure that the articles I downlo
Paganism is the term that describes various spiritual practices and religious acts, which are not connected to Christianity. Pre-Christian Europe with Paganism, Judaism, and Islam still spread nowadays; and lots of people want to join these beliefs again. Pagans had their own ides as for significance of their lives and the things, which happened to people after their deaths. In this paper, we are going analyze the points of view of the pagans of the second century AD. In fact, the word “pagan” meant any aspect “of the world focusing on connection with the land, tradition, and the old spiritual ways.” (DiZerega 2005, 5) [1] This is why Paganism started its development and referred to any person, who was not interested in Christianity; if a person did not want to follow Christianity and all its rules, it was possible to become a pagan and dictate own rules and preferences. What the peculiarities of their ideas are, why they chose such styles of life, and what made them prefer certain ideology and prove it during a long period of time – all this will be examined within this essay, and reliable sources will be used to prove or disprove the facts concerning the history of the pagans of the 2 nd century AD and their preferences in religion. It is known that “Christians spread and increased: no other cult in the Empire grew at anything like the same speed, and even as a minority, the Christians’ success raises serious questions about the blind spots in pagan cult and society.” (Fox, 272) So, Christians and pagans were always in certain conflict, this is why their relations turn out to be rather interesting issues to consider. Pagans wanted to develop more and more on the spiritual level and comprehend the responsibility of their own lives. In order to be really knowledgeable in all spheres of this life, pagans tried to practice different skills like meditation or change of energy among the people of one group. The point is that pagans wanted to make their lives better, and truly believed that their extraordinary skills could help to heal other people or have a kind of insight look at the problems of people and help them solve any of the problems. Pagans also did not want to believe in such things like original sin, atonement of vicarious sins, and even bodily resurrections. Due to such simple lack of faith, pagans’ attitude to religion, their evaluation of life itself and the l