ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Like any other kind of art, cinema never existed in a vacuum – on the contrary, it always displayed a clear and evident connection to social and economic issues of its time. The portrayal of urban landscapes in film noir is a notable example of this interrelation, as it reflects in the issues of control, surveillance, and policing in a big city. This connection has a long history: since even the first steps of cinematograph already coincided chronologically with the advent of surveillance innovations, such as fingerprinting or criminal typology (Dimendberg 2004, 26). As the cities grew in size and density of human traffic alike, surveillance technologies and procedures evolved as well. With this in mind, it should not come as a surprise that film noir of the 1940s continued to reflect on spatial organization, regulation, and policing of the urban spaces. In particular, The Naked City , directed by Jules Dassin in 1948, represents New York City as a tightly regulated space separated into smaller areas closely monitored with scientific precision and unyielding efficiency. While The Naked City focuses heavily on the representation of New York City, it is still a film noir and, as such, a story of a police investigation first and foremost. The plot follows two main characters, a veteran detective Dan Muldoon and his rookie partner Jimmy Halloran, solving a mysterious murder of the model Jean Dexter. The immense extent of a modern urban landscape is, perhaps, the central theme of the entire movie, and the creators never cease to emphasize it. The opening sequence demonstrates aerial shots of Manhattan, and the voiceover for the final shots points out that the film shown is one story out of the eight million there are in the naked city. This emphasis poses a question that permeates The Naked City from the beginning to the end. The viewer reasonably wonders how does one control, regulate, and survey the space where eight million stories are happening at the same time. The movie answers this inquiry with the idea of a strict spatial organization that separates urban landscape into small territorial units, each controlled and watched over by a designated officer of the law. There is a particularly telling scene near the end of the film where this answer manifests visibly and in a pronounced way. After a rigorous investigation, Halloran identifies Willie Garzah as a likely suspect and confronts him, but the latter knocks him unconscious for a short time and escapes. The flowing sequence depicts Garzah’s fervent attempts to disappear, as well as the obstacles he immediately encounters in the urban landscape. He traverses a backyard and thinks about entering a street, but then sees a police officer right outside the gate. Unwilling to be seen, Garzah takes another way, climbs over a brick wall, and crawls through a hole in a fence – only to see yet another officer on duty. Although Halloran does not catch his suspect just yet, the difficulties experienced by the latter are quit
Singapore Airlines (SIA) sees itself as an acknowledged company with high-quality services that strives for equality and rivalry through the open access to the transatlantic directions and exercises competitive advantages via technology, innovation, and efficiency enhancement of its human resources. Competitive strategies The application of an approach based on “organizational paradoxes” enables the SIA’s excellent performance in the rivalry. Heracleous and Wirtz focus on four puzzlements which have brought advantage to SIA. Among them are: “cost-effective service excellence, simultaneous decentralized and centralized innovation, being simultaneously a follower and a leader in service development, and accomplishment standardization as well as personalization in customer interactions” (150). To go farther than their rivals, SIA emphasizes on the inconsistencies that should not be fought, but accepted and explored as a powerful tool. For example, the cost-effectiveness and service excellence are two opposite poles, and struggle for the balance between them is the primary concern of the peer companies. SIA have decided not to choose between two devils but accept both as inevitable and necessary for the enterprise’s competitive advantage. To solve the problem SIA’s leaderships have established the acquisition of new fleet, investment in human resources and their training, high accountability on all levels, the straight correlation between performance and reward, and visible enhance the customer services (Johnson 4). Employment of Competitive Advantages to Satisfying SIA’s clients Lee and Worthington in their analysis of the effectiveness of low-cost carriers (LLC) and mainstream airlines conclude that the presence of LCCs in the market increases the rivalry among all players (19). Since the customers are sensitive to the prices and services, SIA has executed the dual strategy to solve the issue. As a client-oriented business, the company assesses the value of loyalty and has implemented steps to increase it through investment in the service superiority. Therefore, SIA’s view on the issue can be expressed in the interrelations between the customer and perfection in adjusting their needs (Heracleous & Wirtz 159). SIA is well known for its innovations in the industry. For example, the company was one of the firsts that introduced personalization in clients’ services providing customers with access to different entertainment facilities and broad food and beverages options. Moreover, SIA employed feedback policy which gives the insight on “satisfaction ratings with a product or class induce examining how to improve ratings again” (160) Management of Human Resources SIA’s management of human resources is based on the focus on the excellence in training and performance. According to Heracleous and Wirtz (2010), the employee
Introduction Fashion industry is closely related to the retail business that has specific rules that should be followed to ensure stable operation of the entire network. In this respect, ZARA is a chain of retail stores that sell clothes all over the world. The importance of information is very high for such chain of retail stores because they are supposed to operate on a similar basis. In addition, the POS terminals are of paramount importance for such stores as they contain the information about the goods and enable the stores to operate effectively. Scope of the research Business models . The definition of business model can be related to the process of maintenance of the company or to the receiving of revenue. However, all the business models reflect the general idea of how the company should operate and what should be the main strategies to reach the goals set by the board. In this respect, it is possible to revi
The origins of the modern world by Robert B. Marks is an attempt to redefine historical narratives that explain the current state of modernity. In his book Marks argues against Eurocentric historical narratives with substantial evidence. As such, It is possible to distinguish the defensible narratives from the unjustified ones. According to Marks, modernity followed a time of dominance by Asia in the production of agricultural goods. Marks postulates that the world economies could be broadly described and categorised into the material world and the trading world. The material world refers to the economic circumstances of increased agricultural activity that a large cross-section of the population undertook. The trading world refers to the interconnections that existed between nations because of trade. The interaction of the two worlds described resulted to increased levels of development into modernity for millions of the people residing in the Eurasian continent. The material world was dependant on agriculture and earned the title, “the biological old regime”. Energy was tapped from solar energy for use with all biological systems and industries. This was abetted by the take-over of the new world which had sufficient resources for agriculture. The trade world extended to the 1400s. The main economic activity of the new world was trade as it had limited agricultural resources. This pre-modern world had two striking aspects which were its extensive nature and the important role played by Asia. The main engines pushing the world of trade were China, India and the Muslim Middle East. Mainstream historians take a Eurocentric view of modernity. They reason that modernity came as a result of the prominence of Europe. It is on the basis of euro-centrism that most researchers focus on Europe’s history in trying to explain how modern nations developed. This analysis of narratives is strongly supported by evidences of historical facts and descriptions of how these facts affect the overall development of the world. Scholars from East Asia, India and the Middle East have raised doubts over these explanations and suggest a different perspective of development. Marks effectively portrays China and India as being economical dominant in the 1700s. The Indian Ocean is depicted as being the most important crossroad to trade. There is sufficienc
Ants and sap-sucking insects have been known to coexist in the presence of sap. The ant colony would provide a safe location for the insect, which would suck the tree sap and produce honeydew, which can constitute a significant part of the colony’s diet. However, researchers have discovered that one particular species, Melissotarsus emeryi , can coexist with armored scale insects that do not produce honeydew. The species in question, Morganella conspicua , can occur in large quantities within ant galleries. Members of the species that live within colonies tend to lack shields, but rare individuals would still grow them, feeding the ants with the proteins and wax used to construct the layer. Both the unique species of ants and the behavior of the M. conspicua are of interest, mainly due to the harmful influence of mutualism on plants. The Dependence of the Ants The Melissotarsus emeryi species represents an unusual mutation, as the ants are unable to survive without relying on other insects. According to Peeters et al. (2017), the workers cannot walk on flat surfaces and have to stay confined within the galleries they dig. To compensate for the weakness, members of the genus can chew through living wood as well as spin silk to seal gaps. As such, the species tends to construct galleries within trees and inhabit them. This tendency can create significant issues for the plants in question, as Melissotarsus emeryi do not provide their host trees with the benefits observed in other species (Peeters et al. 2017). Further research is necessary to identify the potential danger represented by the species. The Nature of the Mutualism M. conspicua can be found within Melissotarsus emeryi colonies in large numbers. Unusually for armored scale insects, most inhabitants of the tunnels do not possess the shields that characterize their free-living counterparts. However, the few individuals that display shields and were discovered by the researchers provided a clue as to the nature of the coexistence. The ants harvest and consume the materials that the M. conspicua secrete to construct their shells, as the latter mostly stop building efforts despite still producing wax and proteins. In return, they provide their partners with the safety of the galleries as well as easy access to plant tissue. Previous theories suggested that the reason the species stopped growing shields was solely the lack of necessity due to the safe environment provided by the tunnels. The ants do not attempt to concentrate their eggs and larvae, dispersing them throughout the colonies. Furthermore, Peeters et al. (2017) observe that they make no effort to protect the brood when disturbed. As ant larvae tend to be immobile, they would require food to be brought to them. Furthermore, they would be unable to consume an M. conspicua within a single feeding session. As such, the fact that the researchers never observed any larvae near a partially eaten crawler’s body indicates that the ants do not treat the bugs themselves as food. However, no dead specimens of M. conspicua have be
Abstract The fishing sector has great economic and social impacts in the US. This industry provides food for the population, employment opportunities, and contributes to the country’s economy. The ability of this industry to continue playing these important roles is threatened by overfishing. This paper describes the overfishing problem facing the US and highlights some of its consequences. It then proposes solutions that can help mitigate the problem. The paper starts by highlighting the enormous scale of the United States maritime resources. It then shows how overfishing has emerged as an important problem and the negative impacts it has had. The paper proposes some solutions which include imposing restrictions on fishing technologies, enforcing policies to eliminate by-catch issues, and enforcing a strict top-down state control of the fisheries resources. Implementing these solutions will effectively tackle the overfishing problem and result in the replenishing of many fish stocks that are facing a phenomenal decline. Introduction Oceans and other water bodies have been a source of food for humans for millenniums. Historically, the fish stocks in the water body have been able to adequately replenish themselves in spite of the exploitation by humans. However, the scale and pace of human exploitation of marine resources have reached an unsustainable level in the 21st century. One phenomenon that has emerged in countries that have fisheries industries is overfishing. The World Wildlife Fund (2015) defines overfishing as the situation where “more fish are caught than the population can replace through natural reproduction” (p.1). The fish
This paper is about choosing between five possible paper topics and the underlying factors which make this decision free from the point of view of theories of free will and abound choice that is predetermined by norms of morality and obligations from the point of view of determinism. Discussing the situation of deciding between several topics and completing an academic paper, these are the perspectives of a free will for completing or not completing the task, on the one hand, and the causality and prior states which predetermine the necessity of choosing between the topics, on the other hand. From the point of view of free will, a student is free to choose between writing a paper and not writing it at all. From the point of view of causal determinism, an individual should regard the assignment as one of the events in a chain within a paradigm of taking a particular course and receiving a particular degree, considering the preceding and following events instead of concentrating on a single event of doing the assignment. Causal determinism is the concept that all the events are predetermined or bound by some prior events. The theories of free will assume that individuals can make their choices without any constraints, ignoring the prior events and not taking into account the consequences of decisions. The philosophical problem of free will is eternal as every day we face numerous situations of decision-making. For instance, today I had a choice among 5 alternative topics for my philosophy paper. Taking into account my previous choice of taking this course, I am already obliged to write a term paper, meeting the deadline and considering the requirements. I understand the consequences of not delivering this work and viewing the assignment in a paradigm of prior and following events I am not free in my actions already. Therefore, I do not have free will in terms of the theory of David Hume, which has described liberty as “a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will: that is, if we choose to remain at rest, we may; if we choose to move, we also may“(Hume 88). Still, I believe that after evaluation of all the possible consequences and the impact of this choice on the chain of future events, every student is free to choose a topic or choose none, receive a poor mark for the paper and even drop out. David Hume noted that the idea of induction is predetermined by linking the causes and effects of particular actions. Viewing the necessity or no necessity to take a course and receive a degree as a part of his/her self concept, a student is free to make his/her decision. If determinism is true, we are free in such a way that we are morally responsible for our actions (Honderich 2). As the sense of responsibility and a certain amount of duties, which I have to carry out as a student, motivate me to accomplish this assignment in time and get a credit. Not every kind of moral obligation is sufficient for inducing individuals to take particular actions. A person se
Abstract Antisocial Personality Disorder has been on the spotlight. Clinicians have sought the basis of the condition. Various theories have attempted to demystify the causes of the APD, however, research developing around the root cause of the condition point out psychologically instigated problems as core causes of the disorder. Clinical and research has focused on establishing a specific parameter of the antisocial personality disorder. Early clinical accounts of what causes ‘antisocial personality disorder’ describe persons with the condition as people who cannot conform to social norms, especially morals and social values that form the disciplined civil society. Antisocial Personality Disorder is best described as antisocial proclivity. Present conceptualizations of antisocial proclivity are presented in etiological theories that explain the context. This paper attempts to provide insight with regard to this condition, often referred to as psychopathic behavior. We achieve this through providing a detailed case study findings and a comprehensive literature review. Introduction Social behaviors have become very crucial in determining the outcome of values and future of our social economics. Psychological nomenclatures of behavior show that various psychological conditions provoke interest in on habits and mental health of people who fail to conform to moral and legal expectations of the society. Clinical approaches to such social conflicts describe these habits and conditions as psychological problems that are looked at from a psychological impairment perspective. Clinical approach explain that the behaviors of people whose habits ‘behaviors’ offend normative social culture and values derange and quell syptomatology that classify them as psychotic problems. The actual diagnostic explanation depicts antisocial personality disorder as a behavior disorder denoting moral decadency. This does not suffice to provide comprehensive psych-medical explanation rather provide a societal view. However, a psychological approach provides a comprehensive rationale, describing antisocial personality disorder as aberrant, impulsiveness, and rage but not lacking reasoning capacity during when either of these psychosocial anomalies are triggered. As such, this can be best described as moral insanity from a literary perspective. Clinicians who investigated this moral insanity have offered a mode definite explanation, citing this condition as possessed by individuals who are constitutionally deficient in moral faculties. Similar research conducted in 19th century found out that antisocial behavior was caused by organic constitutional elements. Those suffering from this condition assume that the organic factors have no prognosis for change and their deviant behavior is their reaction to the lack of chance of change of the social values and laws. Literatu
Introduction This essay discusses the book ‘Dead man walking’. This is a non-fiction work that is written by Sister Helen Prejean. In her book she gives eyewitness accounts of the last days of several Louisiana death row convicts. These men are waiting for their day of execution. She shows the remorse and other range of emotions that the convicts exhibit. She argues against the death penalty. This essay will examine the characteristics of her narration and the appeals it gives to the audience. It will attempt to examine how she characterizes the people she meets. I will also examine the impact of her writing on my opinion. (Prejean, 14) Discussion Dead man walking has the ethos or ethical appeal. This is because the author is a respected figure in the Christian community. She was a nun for several years before she wrote the book. This contributes to her credibility. The ethical appeal is further strengthened by the fact that she considers several angles in her writing. She takes into account the angle of the bereaved families. She narrates the emotions that they hold concerning the impending execution. She realizes that they also have doubts about the morality of state executions. She talks to the prison guards and reveals the isolation that they feel. Prejean also speaks to the various authorities involved in the justice process. She learns that none of them feel that they hold any personal responsibility for a man’s execution. She quotes that D.A.’s often say that lawbreakers, “put themselves in the chair.”(Prejean, 101) Dead man walking exhibits a strong pathos or emotional appeal. Sister Helen Preajan refers to a man facing the death penalty as “a thing waiting to be handled.”(Prejean, 74) By doing so she evokes the human feeling in her audience. She portrays the people facing the death penalty as powerless. These are people who know that their fate has been sealed. She also reveals that these death row inmates are very terrified. Perhaps even more frightened than they were once regarded. (Prejean, 76) This book is rich in the logos appeal. The book is full of evidence and eye witness accounts that fight against the sanctity of the death conviction. The book’s message is also consistent. Preajan uses logic to show that the death penalty works against individual responsibility and remorse. One death row convict tells her that “when somebody’s after your hide, it kind of tends to occupy your mind.” (Prejean, 147) This makes it even harder for a convict to feel guilty for his crimes. It thus disorients the structure and purpose of justice. Justice is supposed to compensate all parties accordingly. This compensation should be both physical and psychological. Sister Helen Preajan gives vivid and touching characterizations of the people she meets. She shows how Patrick Sonnier, a death row convict, was a lonely person who never knew love. “I have never known real love….It’s a shame a man has to come to prison to find love.”(Prejean, 82) She shows that the families of crime victims go through “great loneliness”. (Prejean, 231) Conclusion Helen Prejean has made an outstanding contribution to the death penalty debate. Her book ha