ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction The oil spill shook the U.S when it occurred on the twentieth of April 2010. Never had such a magnitude of oil spill witnessed. Oil prices have been affected, surging day by day with more spilling recorded in the gulf. Problems are also mounting with the weather condition in the gulf, storms have been witnessed and this is threatening to expand into a hurricane (Welch and Joyner 1). The gulf has been a production site for oil in the U.S and the effects are wide and large. Several environmental effects associated with the spill have been witnessed, and the company is trying all its mitigation measures as well as the federal government with little progress. This disaster has greatly affected the company and the country’s economy. BP rates as one of the largest multinational firms in the world; these effects are therefore deemed to affect the economy, for instance, the surge in oil prices and the fall in market capitalization. This paper will investigate problems associated with the spill, clients, and stakeholders in BP. Problem The problem of oil spill started in the Gulf of Mexico, which is also referred to as deep-water horizon, on the twentieth of April, 2010. This has continued since, causing a massive loss of oil in millions of Gallons. The rig at the station exploded and this killed 11 employees as well as injured another 17. It has since continued causing massive damages and losses (BP p.l.c. 1). This oil came from below the surface of the ocean and is continually raising fears over its potential impacts on the environment. Fishing industries, as well as tourism, wildlife, and marine habitats, have been critically affected, BP has been blamed by the federal government for the disaster and has been held up to cover the costs associated with cleanup being done. Other impacts that have risen include effects on the ecological system, litigation, health, ocean drilling policies, among others. Besides, its stock valuation has gone down tremendously to almost half its capitalization (Welch and Joyner 1). Clients of BP Clients of BP are feeling the heat as their customers continue to dwindle due to the massive effects brought about by the oil spill. Most people are now opting for other competitors because they are concerned about the rig disaster, its effects on the environment, and aquatic life. This has affected most of the clients as is explained by Haltenholf, a dealer who manages a BP station at Kirkwood in Manchester. This in turn lowers the profitability of the company and has resulted in the fall in the market share value (Corrigan 1). Stakeholders Stakeholders form an integral part of any company’s success. BP, like any other firm, has stakeholders and it must communicate effectively with them. This has not happened as was requi
Introduction The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) has commissioned a project for implementation at the King Abdallah Air Base (KAAB), whose main aim is the constructing a sports complex. RSAF has appointed a project committee to run the project professionally on its behalf. The committee’s function is to coordinate efforts between RSAF and the contractors, Alarrab Limited Construction Company, to ensure the timely delivery of the project within budget. It should also ensure that all stakeholders are involved, consulted and briefed on all matters that concern them. The contractor selected for the project is yet to move to the site, but is awaiting instructions from the committee. The design for the facility is complete. The Committee forms part of the Air Base’s command structure. It directly reports directly to the head of the Operations and Maintenance Directory. This report, prepared by the project manager, lays out a quality plan for consideration by the project committee. As a warning, EPconsult states, “During the early phases of projects, key issues and difficulties arise around a vast number of conflicting pressures regarding engineering, operations, cost, safety, schedule, reliability, environmental issues, etc”. The report explores various tools available for the purpose, and examines their suitability for the project. Project scenario The RSAF has commissioned the construction of an enclosed sport facility in one of its four air bases located in Jeddah city, dubbed, The King Abdullah Air Base Sports Complex. The air force headquarters, located in Riyadh owns the project. All major decisions regarding its development must pass through to the headquarters for approval. This is in keeping with the strict hierarchical command of the military system, where senior officers issue order to their juniors. Project Goal and Objectives The goal of the project is the construction of an enclosed sporting facility that covers a land area of 8000 m 2 with a parking area of sixty cars. The proposed facility comprises of indoor and outdoor playgrounds for all types of team and individual sports activities. The objectives of the project include:   *       1. Construction of multiple sports facilities as designed      2. Delivery of state of the art sporting equipment      3. Meeting of RSAF standards relating to construction projects      4. Delivery of all project deliverables, within the stipulated project duration of two years from date of commencement Project Cost and Duration The total budget for the project is eight million dollars. The contractor must be out of site within two years from the date of commencement of the work. Project Management Structures Since the project’s owner is a military establishment, the project management structure is strictly hierarchical. This promises the smoothest flow of information and
The United States of America today is one of the most multicultural countries of the world. The diversity of people living there, their cultures, backgrounds, self-identifications and roots is very intense. Many cultures neighboring on the territory of this country have assimilated, changed or adjusted to the new place and to the necessary cooperation with all the other cultures. The United States has a very complex and multi-layered cultural structure where all of the inhabitants of the country belong to one nation, yet they all have very rich and diverse ancestries and backgrounds. This creates a certain disorientation and confusion. The book called “Bone” by Fae Myenne Ng explores the cultural traditions of the Chinese immigrants and their descendants in the United States and their rituals of reburial of their deceased relatives. The ritual of reburial was crucial for the Chinese people because ever since the Bronze Age they believed in the continuity of kinship between the family and society members that are alive and the ones that are dead (Risse 56). To preserve the sacred connection between the living and the dead and their roots, the bones of the Chinese immigrants after their death were sent back home where they were to undergo a proper burial ceremony. The strength of the Chinese beliefs and traditions was so intense that the families would to anything just to arrange the shipment of the bodies of their relatives back to China for the appropriate burial ritual; this was done for the sake of the souls of the dead. The book by Fae Myenne Ng tells a fictional autobiography of a person, who lives in Chinatown in San Francisco, California. The narrator of the story happening in “Bone” follows a life of the Chinese family where the parents are immigrants and the daughters are immigrant descendents. One of the three daughters commits a suicide, and this becomes the reason of various conflicts in the story. Some of the conflicts develop around the family’s ancestry and culture. The author of the book arranges her writing in a multi-layered way, creating symbolic meanings to some of the phrases. This technique is designed to emphasize the complex mentality and cultural identity of immigrant descendents, who are bilingual and bicultural. The very title of the book, “Bone”, is associated with something that is in the very center of the body, the core part of it. The title shows that people and their roots and mentalities have many dimensions. his idea is symbolically described in the part of narration, where Leila remembers th
Introduction David Hume’s line of reasoning against Paley-style design arguments, in connection with the modern fine-tuning argument for God’s existence, is insightful. Design argument entails that the world is bordering on a finely tuned machine that is intricate but effective (Eshleman 23). This fine-tuning argument entails a machine that has a designer as the cause and the manufacturing of the machine as the effect (Eshleman 24). Therefore, it is possible to consider God as the designer of the world, as well. This paper focuses on Hume’s criticisms of the classical design argument which is, the designer needs not to be God. Hume’s Objection – the designer needs not to be God According to Swinburne’s paper on fine-tuning in the Eshleman text, Hume advances objections to the classical design argument. The subject of the cause in Paley’s fashion design arguments is vivid where Hume claims that the designer of the world needs not to be God (Eshleman 16). The subject of the cause elicits a number of questions. For instance, how can we acknowledge the cause of occurrence of an entity, founded on facts of distinctive effects, significantly when we are not familiar with these effects? “House” or “painting” is evidence for an intelligent designer only because we have in times past seen “house” and “builder” or “painting” and “artist” associated.” (Eshleman 18) In Hume’s argument, the question of whether the origin of the world is an outcome of nature or the creation of God is vivid. Hume argues that limited information about the cause of the world is available (Eshleman 19). This is clearly a significant reason why Hume criticizes the design argument on the subject of the cause of the world. William Paley’s argument of design considers that the world is comparable to the fine-tuning argument of a machine that serves its purpose resourcefully. It is owing to this claim that the existence of God as the designer or the cause of the world exists. Primarily, Hume reasons that it is possible to establish the fundamental connection flanked by a cause and the effects by a continuous harmony on the basis of the two actions (Eshleman 19). Therefore, Hume claims that it is not correct to conclude the cause of every effect except when familiar with the actions continuously combined. For example, it is evident that when planting seeds, the outcome is germination. This is given that there is apparent knowledge of seeds germinating after planting. In this regard, there exists a continuous relationship flanked by this distinctive feature of germination and the seeds right for planting. On the contrary, in the instance of the cause of the presence of the world, no one is familiar with the continuous relationship flanked by the cause (God) and the effect (making of the world). This is given that the creation of the world was one occasion. In particular, it is unlikely
The main point of the article is that the input-directed approach to raising schools’ teaching quality and educational outcomes of students is not working. Officials continuously allocate funds to schools and compare the financial input and output of schools often neglecting student performance. The researcher criticizes the fact that legislators oversee mostly the characteristics that are poorly related to personal achievements such as curricula, school spendings, equipment, and so on while families, student background, and cumulative educational input are often disregarded. In the studies the author cites, he identifies the problem that most of them are either statistically insignificant or use performance measures not related to educational outcomes. The article is mostly centered on reviewing other works related to educational institutions’ performance measurement. Hanushek reveals that one of the most popular indicators to examine is the teacher/student ratio, which as the author notes is not very reliable. Other measures typically include teacher education and experience levels, expenditures per pupil, and others. Presently, the production-function model measures the teaching expenditures and assumes that this factor explicitly states the level of education quality. The author argues that teachers’ salaries that the expenditures are mostly comprised of are calculated by the number of years of experience, which does not necessarily mean quality. The author assumes that performance-oriented strategies are needed to achieve better results. He states that quality of education that is directly related to concrete teaching and learning outcomes can and should be measured by a variety of techniques that would show how well students study collectively not individually. Consequently, Hanushek claims that teachers have the utmost importance to student performance and the new teacher quality tests and measures need to be implemented. Various studies cited by the author suggest that present ones are flawed because they do not directly reflect the quality of teaching. As a policy intervention, he suggests shifting from an input-oriented measuring paradigm to a performance-oriented one. However, Hanushek notes that for centuries now this problem remains unsolved. One of the positive contributions the researcher has made is the identification of several issues that persist in the current education quality measurement system. He also reviewed the issues that other researchers face in their aspiration to assess the impact of various performance indexes. By bringing up this problem, Hanushek raises awareness of the issue among the scientific community and, perhaps, legislators as well. However, the article also ha
Introduction Psychotic disorders are severe mental disorders that are characterized by extreme impairment of a person’s ability to think clearly, respond emotionally, communicate effectively, understand reality, and behave appropriately (AACAP, 2008). According to the DSM-IV-TR, there are nine formal psychotic disorders: schizophrenia; schizoaffective disorder; schizophreniform disorder; brief psychotic disorder; delusional; shared psychotic disorder (Folie a Deux); substance-induced psychosis; psychosis due to a general medical condition and psychosis due to other miscellaneous conditions. Psychotic symptoms accompany various mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder (manic-depression), schizophrenia, and some forms of alcohol and drug abuse. Psychotic symptoms interfere with a person’s daily functioning and can be quite debilitating. Psychotic symptoms include delusions and hallucinations. Delusion refers to a false, fixed, odd, or unusual belief firmly held by the patient that is not ordinarily accepted by other members of the person’s culture or subculture. There are delusions of paranoia (others are plotting against them), grandiose delusions (exaggerated ideas of one’s importance or identity), and somatic delusions (a healthy person believing that they have a terminal illness). The other psychotic symptom of hallucination can be described as a sensory perception (seeing, hearing, feeling, and smelling) in the absence of an outside stimulus. For example, with auditory hallucinations, the person hears voices when there is no one talking. Treatment for psychotic disorders varies by disorder. It might involve drugs to control symptoms and talk therapy. A hospitalization is an option for serious cases where a person might be dangerous to himself or others. The word psychosis was first used by Ernst von Feuchtersleben in 1845 to distinguish psychotic disorders from neurological ones. The word has its root in the green words as psyche (soul) and -osis (diseased or abnormal condition. It was used to distinguish disorders that were thought to be disorders of the mind, as opposed to neurosis, which was thought to stem from a disorder of the nervous system. Biological and Psychological Theories of Psychotic Disorders Psychiatry, the field of treating psychotic disorders, is based firmly within both the biological and social scie
At first sight, Much Ado About Nothing , a play written by Shakespeare, seems to be an ordinary tale about the life of high society with its intrigues, gossips, and love affairs. However, the writer would not have written this comedy unless he had wanted to disclose human vices and satirize the upper class’s passion for deceit and conspiracy. This paper will give a summary of the play and discuss the points that make this literary work outstanding and worth reading. The setting of the book is an Italian city of Messina in the days of Shakespeare, which is the 16 th -17 th century. Don Pedro, Claudio, and Benedick return from war and stay at the house of Leonato, a governor of the city. Claudio falls in love with Leonato’s daughter, and Benedick has verbal skirmishes with Beatrice, the governor’s niece. Don John, a brother of Don Pedro, learns about Claudio’s feelings for Hero and decides to convince him that she is unfaithful. Meanwhile, Don Pedro wants to arrange a marriage between Benedick and Beatrice as he thinks they secretly love each other. Thus, there are two men, each with his companions, who plot to decide the fate of the couples. After a while, Don John says to Claudio that Hero, his wife-to-be, has another man. He asks Margaret, Hero’s maid, to dress like her mistress and pretend to declare her love for someone. As Claudio sees it, he has no doubt it is accurate and rejects Hero the next day at their wedding. After this, Leonato is advised to fake his daughter’s death. In the meantime, Benedick overhears his friends’ conversation, during which they say that Beatrice loves him. Beatrice hears the same dialog between Ursula and Hero and learns that Benedick has affection for her. Both of them admit to themselves that they have feelings for each other. However, the plot against Hero is uncovered after the Watch arrests Don John’s companions, who confess to lying about the girl’s infidelity. Claudio is desperate and agrees to marry a woman who is supposed to look like Hero and is the daughter of Leonato’s brother. On their wedding day, Claudio is surprised to see his beloved bride whom he considered dead. The play has a happy conclusion: Benedick asks Beatrice to marry her, and she agrees, and a messenger reports that Don John has been arrested. Perhaps, the most remarkable characters of the book are Benedick and Beatrice. They behave as if they were proud and self-sufficient, but in fact, they are afraid of admitting their feelings not only to others but also to themselves. They exchange sarcastic remarks only to hide what they truly experience. Both of them seem to oppose marriage as it may be concluded from their conversations. While discussing Beatrice, Benedick says, “I would not marry her though she were endowed
Introduction This paper is based on the topic of servant leadership. It highlights the history of the concept, the various definitions of the concept by different authors and how the concept bridges with management. Servant leadership fits in management by helping managers fully understand the issues which affect their employees. Through servant leadership, managers are able to cultivate a cohesive organizational culture which holds the organization together as one people. Key scholars who have defined the concept include Robert Greenleaf, Larry Spears and John Schermerhorn. It will be argued that servant leadership is indispensable especially for those organizations which aspire to realize their mission and vision in an effective and efficient manner. Also discussed are the characteristics of servant leadership as well as its shortcomings. Definition of Leadership Leadership is defined as the ability of a person to influence other people to do things which they would not have done without the influence. People with this ability are referred to as leaders and can be found in different contexts. In the context of organizations, leading entails the leader consolidating the efforts and resources of the organization and focusing on the future by setting up a vision for the organization which it intends to achieve in a given period of time using the consolidated efforts and resources. Leading constitutes building and sustaining teamwork, strategic thinking, managing conflicts, coaching, inspiring a shared vision, problem solving, performance management and accountability, decision making, delegation, systems thinking, leading change, dealing with ambiguities, developing trust, employee development, customer service, innovation and creativity, emotional intelligence, servant leadership, quality and productivity improvement. Definitions of Servant Leadership According to Robert Greenleaf and Larry Spears, servant leadership involves a leadership derived from the passion to serve rather than to lead. With this definition, serving others precedes leading them (Greenleaf and Larry 123). On his part, Larry Spears defined servant leadership in terms of four elements namely power sharing in decision making, a holistic approach to work, service to others and cultivation of a sense of community (Spears 4). This definition portrays a servant leader as one who does not keep things to himself or herself but one who applies efforts to reach others so as
The Federal Reserve System has had an eventful spell since the late-2000s recession and it seems that the Fed is still a major force in influencing the shape of the USA economy. An article in the Wall Street Journal by Jon Hilsenrath; Fed Considers More Action Amid New Recovery Doubts bolsters the notion that the Fed is still playing a pivotal role in the country’s economy. The article is both an analysis and a prediction of possible decisions the Federal Reserve will make in response to the slower economic growth and unemployment. The Federal Reserve has within its powers the ability to make monetary and fiscal policies as well as legislation that affect the economy; normatively the policies and legislation should help the economy grow. Intervention of the Federal Reserve is deemed necessary when the economic projections are bleak and some intervention is required to boost the economic growth. However, this vindication of action is based on economic indicators’ results and projection and thus becomes a tough balancing act that could work or fail depending on the accuracy of the analysis of the situation. The Fed’s next meeting scheduled for June 19-20 does not afford the Fed enough time to monitor the situation of unemployment in the country thus unanimity on whether to act or not has been difficult to achieve. The writer of the article highlights the difficulty in reading unemployment figures especially due to seasonal hiring and statistical adjustment made to the reported figures and how this makes it difficult for the Fed to act based on the results. Also discussed in the article is Operation Twist and its impending end and how to move on from it; either continue with the bond-buying programs or to use other policies especially given the effect of low interest rates on the economy. It is a dilemma of boosting immediate economic growth versus long-term decrease in interest rates and eventual higher stock prices, increased public spending and more investment. The Fed is divided on the way forward and what the stakeholders and the country have to watch and wait for the Fed’s decisions. Highlighted in the article are some key aspects of the Fed chief among them its management of monetary and fiscal policy. The Fed is independent from the federal government and thus has no political inclinations and its running is free from political influence especially with its president Ben Bernanke not seeking another term in office. This fact supports the call for a more independent Fed free from political influence and control e.g. by congress as the Fed stays focused only on the economy of the country despite political changes and this ensures a steady economy despite regime changes. The crucial roles of the Fed of conducting economic research and using the results to design effective fiscal and monetary policy ar