ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction When speaking about international relations, one is to keep in mind that in this aspect the key notion is considered to be the idea of political realism. They say that political realism is mostly associated with liberalism. As far as national politics seems to be based on the authority of law, the characteristic feature of an international politics seems to be injustice, as different states have different views concerning the same ethical norms or standards. When speaking about the roots of the realist tradition, it becomes obvious that at different times the basic points of politics were interpreted differently. For instance, one of the most well-known political theorists Thucydides considered politics as a branch which main aim was to resolve certain moral issues. However, there is a need to point out that the ideas of famous classical political theorist impacted on general features of realism in international relations. Thus, human nature is recognized to be one of the most important points in realism. Nonrecognition of authority seems to be a determinant factor of the outcomes of international politics. So, ‘The lack of a common rule-making and enforcing authority means, they argue, that the international arena is essentially a self-help system. Each state is responsible for its own survival and is free to define its own interests’ 1 . Security as one of the basic issues and the relevance of morality are also recognized to be important elements of realism in international politics. International Relations: Conventions and Challenges When speaking about conventions and challenges in international relations, one is to keep in mind that it is conceptual introduction of global politics, which is to be considered. The most important events of the 20 th century are also to be touched on. Thus, it is necessary to remember World War I and World War II, Cold War between the USA and USSR, the appearance of the United Nations and global political economy formation. The above-mentioned events are the primary events the world experienced. Of course, these events impacted on the development of global economy as well as international relations. International relations consist of numerous spheres, including diplomatic, political and educational relations. When speaking about the effects of global communication, which seems to be an integral part of international relations, one is to keep in mind that broad challenges took place. For instance, cultural, economical and technological boundaries were expanded, ‘Economically, separate industries that had developed around each of these technologies are combining to service the new multimedia environment through a series of corporate mergers and alliances. Politically, global communication is undermining the traditional boundaries and sovereignties of nations’ 2 . Film industry, computer technologies, photography and many other fields appeared. Marxism, realism, liberalism, postmo
Chronic pain is still considered to be an extreme issue among at least 8% of the residents of progressive countries. The introduction of the study describes the apparent link between pain and demoralization. Chronic pain is always accompanied by negative emotional experiences and blocks a person’s ability to receive joy and satisfaction from life. The research investigates the development of depression and anxiety among patients receiving pharmaceutical opioids and medical marijuana (MM) as severe painkillers. It compares the efficacy of prescriptions and examines the possibility of post-treatment depression. There is currently a severe lack of information about the effects of opiates. They manage pain successfully, but the past few decades indicated the growing concern regarding opiate abuse in forms of overdose and addiction. A more manageable and safer alternative might be medical marijuana. However, the le
The top 10 businesses in the U.S The United States of America has one of the most vibrant business environments in the world. One of the top businesses in the country is Wal-Mart. This business deals with discount retailing of household goods and other services. It has more than 3500 discount department stores and warehouses across the country (Cameron 122). The business has more than 1.4 million employees and currently ranks as the biggest global business in terms of revenue (Neff 60). One of its biggest strengths is that it has a special advantage with suppliers, thus giving it a competitive edge when it comes to pricing its goods. An opportunity that the business can exploit to its advantage is having a bigger push into organic foods to target its large customer base. Its biggest threat is the emergence of dollar stores that have more competitive prices. The second top business in the country is Exxon Mobil, a publicly-traded multinational oil and gas company. Some of the products that the company founded in 1999 deals with include fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals, as well as refining services (Neff 73). The company has more than 75,000 employees and a number of subsidiaries across the world. Its biggest strength is high diversification, while the major threat comes from the fact that there is an oversupply of oil in the market, thus making it hard for the demand to stimulate equilibrium (Cameron 136). The third top business is Chevron, which is also engaged in the oil business with its major focus being petroleum refining. Despite the company experiencing lower profits over the last financial year, it has managed to maintain its market value share and its more than 64,000 employees (Neff 100). The fourth top business is Warren Buffet’s, Berkshire Hathaway. This is a conglomerate business that has diverse interests in casualty insurance, diversified investments, and properties. The business has a number of subsidiaries and a workforce of more than 300,000 employees. One of the notable strengths of this business is the consistent manner in which its revenue has been growing over the years. The fifth top business is Apple, a technology company with interests in computer hardware, software, consumer electronics, and digital distribution (Cameron 150). The business has several subsidiaries and a workforce of more than 100,000 employees. The sixth top business is general motors that deals with automobiles, automobile parts, and commercial vehicles. The business, which also offers vehicle financing, has four divisions and several subsidiaries (Neff 112). The seventh top business is Philips 66, a public traded multinational company that engages in the oil and gas business. Its major services are oil refining and service stations. Some of its pro
The Black Death is known as one of the most horrible and destructive pandemics that hit the medieval world. The demise was amongst the past unforgettable incidences reported in Europe. It struck in Europe between the years 1348 and 1351. The disease was believed to be a Bubonic plague brought by a lethal bacterium called Pestis Yersinia. Medical archivists and historians believed that the plague originated from China and moved to Crimea in 1346 via the Silk Road. The disease is also believed to have come to Europe from the black mice that were often seen on the merchants’ boats. Mice had parasites that transmitted and caused the sickness that led to deaths. It killed 40% of the European population thus reducing the world’s population to around 350 million from 450 million in the year 1400 (Alchin par. 1). The Black Death resulted in economic, political, social and religious problems in the European history. Historians think that Europe had to take about 150 years to recover from the Black Death’s severe impacts. The Black Death came when people were very vulnerable. The physicians could not treat infectious diseases. People were weak due to wars and crop failures. The busy trade routes spread the disease fast enough. The Black Death’s first outbreak was in China in 1328. In a period of fifty years, the disease reduced the number of Chinese to ninety million from the initial figure of 125.0 million. Approximately 7500 victims died each day (Byrne 52). It is believed to have its origin from the Gobi Desert and followed the trade routes to various countries. The disease appeared to be on the lowest part of Tributary Volga in the fiscal 1345, continued to Caucasus and Crimea in 1346, and Constantinople in 1347. However, the disease arrived at the Egyptians land (Alexandria) in the financial year 1347. The death invaded the Englishmen from the financial year 1348 to 1350 when Emperor Edward 3 was reigning. The disease was reported in June, and it killed Englishmen until the last case was reported in August. When death cases increased, Bristol city appeared to be essential as the only seaport that served Europe in that period. It is believed that this was the starting point for the Black Death in England (“The Black Death of 1348 to 1350” par. 2). In the United Kingdom, the disease was first reported in 1348 (November). It flourished in London due to the city’s filthy sanitation, congestion, and spread fast since mice loved dirt and had the disease. The Black Death arrived in the UK via water vessels that sailed through Thames Stream and invaded the whole UK. As a result, 20,000.0 demises were reported in the UK by churches (Alchin par. 4). Many people ended up being buried in communal pits. The most vulnerable were the elderly, poor and children. The disease was reported in the Norwegian land in 1349 (May) when a boat that transported angora from England arrived at the port. All travelers and boat crews were reported dead days later. The Sc
As of today, it became a commonplace practice among many political observers to refer to China, as the second most powerful country in the world, which continues to affect the world’s geopolitical and economic developments to an ever-increased extent. In its turn, this can be explained by the fact that the economic reforms, which began to be implemented by the Chinese government in the late seventies, proved thoroughly effective. As Wei-Wei pointed out, “China’s economic reform, with all its problems, is widely perceived as successful. China’s GDP has been growing at nearly 10 per cent and foreign trade at 15.5 per cent per annum over the past two decades. The majority of China’s population has seen significant improvements in their standards of living” (1999, p. 2). In my paper, I will explore the validity of this suggestion at length, while elaborating upon what I consider contributed the most towards ensuring China’s continual socio-economic progress, over the course of the last few decades, and upon what appears to be the scope of possible lessons that could be drawn, in this respect. The relevant empirical data, upon which I plan to rely mostly, while coming up with the intended line of argumentation, in regards to the discussed subject matter, are contained in the ‘China case study: analysis of national strategies for sustainable development’ by Simone Klawitter. In order to provide more up-to-date information, as to the specifics of the China’s ongoing socio-economic development, I will also refer to more recent academic publications. During the course of the late seventies, the Chinese Communist Party’s top officials, headed by Den Xiaoping, started to grow increasingly aware of the fact that the functioning of the country’s planned economy had to be reformed, as the realities of the late 20th century’s living were exposing Marxist economic paradigm utterly outdated. Nineteen seventy-eighth was the year that marked the initial phase of China starting to part away with the economic conventions of orthodox Marxism. The initial phase of China’s economic reforms was concerned with allowing citizens to indulge in a small-scaled commercial entrepreneurship, encouraging state-owned factories to provide workers with additional monetary incentives, as the way to increase the extent of their professional enthusiasm, and inviting foreign investors to acquire the ownership of economically stagnant Socialist enterprises. As White noted, “In 1980, 80% of enterprises were state-run. By 1992, the state’s share was less than 53%” (1993, p. 8). The deployed strategy, towards the revitalization of the country’s economy, proved utterly successful. According to Klawitter, “The result (of the undertaken reforms) has been a quadrupling of GDP since 1978. In 2003, with its 1.3 billion people… China stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US (measured on a purchasing power parity basis)” (2004, p. 2). This al
In the article, “Progress and recent trends in biofuels”, Demirbas (2007) explores the issues surrounding biofuels and why this topic is gaining popularity in both developing and developed countries. The issue of biofuels has been raising heated debates in the wake of the challenge of global warming, the ever-increasing energy consumption, and the rapid reduction of fossil fuels across the world. In addition, biofuels are environment-friendly and renewable sources of energy. Therefore, given the aforementioned challenges, the focus is now shifting to the generation of biofuels from readily available biomass sources, which explains the increased interest in the developed world to employ technology in making biofuels to supplement or substitute conventional fossil fuels. Across the world, the sources for biofuels are more equitably distributed as compared to other energy sources like fossils or nuclear materials. Therefore, the United States and the European Union are pushing for the adoption of biofuels in different sectors of the economy. Biofuels can be obtained in different ways and they can be available in disparate forms such as biohydrogen, biodiesel, bioethanol, biomethanol, and bio-oils. Biohydrogen can be extracted from biomass through steam reforming in a process known as biomass gasification or flash pyrolysis even though the latter is currently under development. The hydrogen gas obtained from this process can be used in power generation. The commonly produced gases include hydrogen and syngas (CO), which are then converted to bio-syngas. The bio-syngas are then converted to fuels using the Fisher-Tropsch synthesis (FTS). With the technology advancement, researchers have attempted to come up with synthetic hydrocarbons, which ease the conversion of biomass to biofuels. In making bioethanol, plant materials and especially carbohydrates can be changed to sugars through hydrolysis. In addition, through the anaerobic breakdown of bio-wastes, one can get biogas. Cellulose, which is found in plants, is used in the making of bioethanol, which can be used to supplement or substitute petrol. Methyl and ethyl derivatives of vegetable oil make biodiesel, which can be used instead of diesel fuels. Compared to the diesel from fossils, biodiesel is environmentally friendly coupled with being a renewable source of energy. The methyl and ethyl esters from vegetable oil are obtained via transesterification even in the absence of any catalyst, which makes the process an appealing alternative to diesel derived from fossil fuels. Bio methanol is also an important biofuel as it can be used instead of mainstream engine fuels. However, the process of making bioethanol is expensive and energy-consuming, which paints the process as an economically unviable venture. Therefore, instead of converting biomass to methanol, many industries prefer biomass conversion to hydrogen, which is then used as explained earlier in this paper. The last viable option of biofuels is bio-oils. Bio-oils are made from a wide array of biomass
Leadership is a complex and multifaceted process. Despite being a leader does bring many advantages, it still has a lot of challenges as well. In this paper, different challenges, both internal and external, are described. Internal Challenges Leadership can challenge both leader’s abilities and internal personal skills. And no matter how good or mature a person is, these challenges hardly can be avoided. For example, one of the most difficult challenges for a leader is to find a balance between a “stick” and a “carrot”. It is a great question how to be liked and respected at the same time. Most frequently, many people use “being respected” issue to justify themselves for not being liked. However, why do we have to choose only one? Another important balance to be established is between the people’s needs and requirements of the organization. This balance is hard to maintain but if people do not feel any support from their leader, they will not be willing to produce the expected results. For the same purpose, leaders should know about people in their teams as much as possible. No matter, if a leader is a team manager, a company boss or a member of the parliament. It is also essential for a leader to get used to setbacks and do not let them break everything down. External Challenges So, all of the challenges mentioned above are internal. However, there are also many external ones. For example, an ability of a leader to cope with the lack of resources or money a company he or she leads has at its disposal is an external issue. Besides, those can depend not only on the organization but even on the whole country or a part of the world. Here are three challenges an individual can face in Asia. The first one is the religion. According to the research made by Cann (2014), approximately 56% of 1200 experts “doubt religious leaders’ ability to play a constructive role in addressing global problems” (para. 3). The obvious way to get through this challenge, if it is present, is to leave the religion aside. Otherwise, such kind of a leader can be soon replaced by another one. The second possible challenge is cultural. As Bersin (2014) claims, nearly 40% of all Asian companies “believe that Asians should lead Asians” as far as leadership styles and tasks are local (para. 4). Therefore, leaders from other countries and parts of the world can face difficulties. However, the very same problem can be found nearly through the world. Besides, real leaders never give up. So, if there are difficulties with one company, it is worth trying another. The third challenge to overcome is the lack of talents. During the last decades, Asian countries have been developing faster that their Western neighbors. Numerous new organizations have appeared, and all of them need high-qualified and talented employees. So, naturally, there is a lack of them. Nevertheless, the one who seeks will always find. Surely, it is difficult to draw general conclusions about Asia, since economies of most of its countries are growing fast, nationalities and religions vary widely. Nevertheles
The sheer pace of scientific progress in the twentieth century had created a situation when people often find themselves in the position of taking immediate advantage of purely theoretical scientific concepts. The discovery of DNA and its role in predetermining the physical and mental subtleties of one’s existence, allowed us to realize that it is now only a matter of time before we are going to be able to talk about genetic engineering, as the method of improving biological quality of the human population. Even today, the practice of genetic cloning of living organisms, which became possible due to recent revolutionary breakthroughs in the field of biology, yields absolutely real benefits – it allows people to extend their lifespan. In his article “The Benefits of Human Cloning” Simon Smith says: “Human cloning technology could be used to reverse heart attacks, it can “fix” defective genes, it will help people dealing with infertility and it might even lead scientists to the discovery of a cure for cancer” (Smith 2007). However, as it has always been the case, within the historical context of religion vs. science, those who think that it is solemnly up to them to set the moral standards in Western societies, try their best to prevent scientific progress from remaining on its natural course, and even to reverse it back, if possible, simply because their narrow-mindedness prompts self-proclaimed “experts on morality” to think of empirical scientific research as “evil” in its very essence. After having “benefited” humanity by organizing Crusades, burning heretics at the stake, and prompting people to indulge in “witch-hunt”, Bible thumpers now want us to think of scientists, who insist on the legalization of human cloning, as “evil-doers”. However, we need to understand that, within the context of discussing the effects of human cloning, religious moralists’ argumentation holds absolutely no value, simply because it is always religion that resorts to science, in order to substantiate the validity of its theological notions (“scientific creationism”) and not vice versa. Science, and especially medicinal science, might not have answers to all questions (yet), but the answers it has are undisputable, whereas religion does not provide people with even a single answer of any practical value, in regards to the existential challenges, these people have to deal with on daily basis. Yet, “holy fathers” often prove themselves ignorant enough to suggest that doubting the conceptual validity of religious dogmas represents a major “sin”. In their book “Philosophy Made Simple”, Richard H. Popkin and Avrum Stroll talk about the concept of scientific inquiry, which lays at the foundation of Western rationalistic civilization, as being often morally disturbing by definition, because it is namely their willingness to