ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
During the late nineteenth century, political parties were very dominant in the political process of the day. Americans had the idea that politics meant being aligned to a particular political party, and they therefore chose which party to support by looking at how it was organized and structured. Men were expected to have strong attachments to the party they supported, and women were not allowed to vote. Organization The two major political parties were democrats and republicans. The democrats were considered to have been the faction that had not defended the United States during the cold war; thus they were regarded as cowards, while the republicans consisted of those who were the patriotic citizens, who fought to defend their country (Katz & Crotty 67). Democrats sought to have a reduction of the government’s involvement in how the economy was run and also called for white domination, meaning that they were against the fight for equal rights for all. Their major supporters were the Catholics, and immigrants of German and Irish descent. Republicans on the other hand fought for the minorities’ rights and for the provisions of pensions for those who fought in the war. Thus their main supporters were the poor, African Americans and veterans of the war (Berkin et al. 55). Conclusion Comparing the understanding gained about the two political parties, to the current government in power in the United States, it is a clear indication that it is not who has the most influential or the richest members, but it is the one who has the interest of the many at heart, who finally comes out victorious. The progressive movement This was not really a single movement, but it was the first of many reformist movements, aimed at bringing change to the devastating conditions, such as poor working conditions and poor wages, that people faced at work. It came with the introduction of urban centers and industries in the United States, at the beginning of the twentieth century (Boyer et al 77). How it started The movement was started by the more influential middle class men and women. These were lawyers, teachers, managers and teachers. They were viewed as ambitious and well- informed people who could generate new ideas on dealing with the issues, which workers faced. The idea of reform came from private groups of the middle class citizens, women’s organizations, and the workers themselves. Some managers also worked with their employees in trying to figure out ways of improving the working conditions in their places of work. Main reforms Some reformists wanted stricter rules enforced on how business deals were conducted, in such ways as introducing heavier taxes, so as to regulate business. Others sought to protect the working population, and the poor, while others wanted the government restructured especially at the municipal level, so as to decrease such vi
Visiting concerts of classical music is always something unbelievable and captivating. People suppose to find themselves in some other world, but are not sure in what exactly. Classical music provides people with an opportunity to dream, think, love, and even exist. For those, who cannot differentiate what major or minor is, it may be rather troublesome to analyze the works by such great composers as Gabriel Faure, Martin Bresnick, Astor Piazzolla, and Johannes Brahms. Ballade for cello and piano, created by Martin Bresnick in 2004, was firstly introduced by Andre Emelianoff at Merkin Hall in New York. In spite of the fact that this work presents dark colors and trembling melody, it captivates from the very first seconds. This masterpiece proves once again Bresnick’s unbelievable style, his formal characteristics, and rigor. This Ballade was created as an homage to Johannes Brahms. Bresnick puts this work in minor, a bit cantabile. He provides the listeners with an attempt to imagine gloomy surroundings and be taken up by rather dolce style. Cello Sonata No. 2 Op. 117 is another work that deserves our attention. It is created by a French composer, Gabriel Faure, in 1921, however, the date of its first publication is around 1922. It is a work of 3 movements in G minor: allegro, andante, and allegro vivo. In spite of the previous work, this sonata is characterized by more romantic style. To my mind, it is a story of lost love, when people are in confusion of what to do further. It seems like the world does not change, but everything around is different. Cello Sonata No.2 is one of the most remarkable stories in the world of classical music. Piano and cello find each other and create a magnificent story that may be inherent to any person. Astor Piazzolla is one more composer, who tried to present life emotions, losses, and happiness through classical music. He was a kind of tango boy, who observed the world through “tango” glasses. Le Grand Tango for violin and piano is one of the most beautiful masterpieces in classical music. It is episodic in structure: energy, passion, calmness, and languor. The end of this composition is fascinating and in a real Italian style – glissando, a kind of sliding from one pitch to anot
Every artistic work is the brainchild of its historic period. What is more important is that art can make our emotions and feelings come out. Each period of time and each culture aimed to produce their own forms of art that would remain unique for ages. Despite temporary and cultural differences, works of art can be subjected to the similarity of spiritual and moral atmosphere and connection between inner feelings and external forms. As each human is unique in his/her attitude to the artistic world, it is possible to find a particular work that will speak to your spirituality and your unique perception of nature and the real world. In this regard, Kandinsky’s work called Improvisation 7 is the closest fit for my spiritual and emotional world because colors, hues, forms, and shadows perfectly disclose the needs of my soul (see Appendix 1). One cannot deny the fact that “expressive arts offer use tools to move into the depth of our experience and be awakened to the vitality of dynamic expression” (Beckman and Painter 15). Indeed, the work that appeals to my spirituality and my soul also reveals my inner emotions and attitude to the real world. The work fully discovers the notes of my spiritual word. It also discloses my experiences and future prospects and goals. Interpreting the work of art, Kandinsky’s Improvisation 7 provides a unique language of form and colors. According to the artist, “[t]he artist is the hand, which playing, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the souls” (Kandinsky 32). Viewing the painting, hence, it is that a harmony in colors corresponds to vibrations in the human souls. This is why this work of art satisfies my spiritual needs and keeps my mind and soul in harmony. Improvisation 7 helps me connect my inner feelings with another reality which is far from a material perception. At the same time, the work manages to convey my external experiences related to the real world. The point is that the emergence of inner life at present is only a slight spark of our consciousness. Living in the time of materialism, abstractionism is only a desperate attempt to find another purpose and beliefs in life. Therefore, this paining also helps me escape from the material world and fill in my soul with spirituality. Certainly, Kandinsky has many other works revealing abstract world, but I have chosen this one because the combination of green and yellow and blue fits my vibrations of soul. Hence, green symbolizes life and nature, which appeals to me much, various warm yellow and cold blue render the sun rays in a blue sky. As it can be seen, artistic works skillfully combine color, forms, and spirit in a harmonic unit where one component depends on another (Kandinsky 33). It reminds of the human soul that tries to combine mate
Factors that contribute to the probation violation Most offenders have repeatedly cycled through the criminal justice system. Their names and faces are all too familiar to the police, probation officers, jail booking staff, judges, public defenders, and prosecutors. These individuals are extremely likely to be rearrested following release from incarceration, both because untreated offenders have a high rate of relapse to crime and because their replacement tends to the level of criminal activity among this population. Key factors that contribute to the risk of probation violation include; A chronic history of crime, low socioeconomic status and or unemployment, various stressors related to criminal justice supervision, inadequate skills for handling social pressures to commit a crime, and returning to inner-city crime areas that provide exposure to the high-risk situation (e.g., active criminals) associated with their previous criminal activity. The graduated sanctions component seeks to reduce delinquency by linking behavior and consequences. It does this through the detailed assessment of factors that contribute to delinquent behavior. It also utilizes interventions found in the neighborhood of the offender to monitor and address these factors. Compliance causes sanctions to be reduced and increases of interventions for non-compliance. When the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) began its first series of technical assistance projects addressing violation practices for probation and parole in the late 1980s, the urgency of the issue arose from several concerns. Many of these concerns remain unaddressed today, while other issues have remerged to make an interest in violation responses more critical than ever. Placing low-risk children in high-level supervision can result in more arrests and confinement time because they are likely to be charged with technical violations. In spite of this problem, youth with nonviolent and minor offense histories are often placed on high-intensity service plans that are not needed to ensure community safety. The share of prison admission due to probation/parole revocations rather than new sentences has been rising. In the early 1990s, about 1/3 of all prison admissions were for probation/parole violations with no new convictions, while by the late 1990s, about half were for probation/parole violations with no new convictions. The trends are fairly consistent across racial groups. When a probationer violates certain conditions of their probation sentence (e.g., misses appointments with their probation officers or treatment provider, fails to pay fees or fines, tests positive for illegal drugs through a urine test), they are considered to have technically violated their probation sentence. One important thing to consider when comparing rates of technical violations is that the more conditions included in a probationer’s sentence, such as treatment, financial conditions, community service, urinalysis, etc., the more chances there are for technical violations. By co
Critical issue at stake: Pollution Industries, cities and towns as well as increased population have resulted to environmental damage. People depend with the environment directly or indirectly; as people industrialize, development of cities and towns, they increasingly are affecting the salinity of the environment. Nature is very unforgiving; if people destroy nature today, it will destroy their current or future generation. Some effects of environmental damage can be felt almost immediately while others have a long-term effect. The most sure things are that environmental damage will affect the life of human beings in one way or another. Industries depend on nature for their raw materials and produce wastes disposed into the environment. Sociologists have suggested sociological approaches to preserve and conserve the environment (Irwin, 2001). This review paper discusses how industrialization, development of cities and increased consumption of goods and serves by increased population have affected the environment; it will also look into sociological approaches that can be used to preserve and conserve the environment. Dimension of the problem The world is fighting back from effects of global warming; air pollution has reached to a level that it has affected weather patterns and threatened human, animal and plant lives. It is estimated that between 1906– 2005, earth’s surface temperatures raised by 0.74 ± 0.18 °C. Other than environmental damage, industrialization, cities, towns and population has lead to congestion and the resultant implications are heath hazards. As people live together, in cities/towns and along industries, there is an increase in social problems like robbery and immorality. Evaluating evidence of the problem (chapter 2 and 3 of “The Environment a sociological introduction” by Philip W. Sutton) Industrialization Industries depend on raw material from nature to manufacture goods and services. Some materials are exhaustible while other are not, in case the rate of use of these materials is not monitored, then the nature of capitalist is that they are likely to over-exploit the materials for their own profit again. Available resources are never enough so they need to be utilised in the best possible way. In course of production, industries produce waste materials, which are disposed to the environment. When these materials are not disposed in an appropriate manner, they are likely to pollute the environment, for example if solid waste is disposed on land, it may have chemical components that pollute land and when it gets its way to underground water, they pollute the waste. Gaseous wastes from factories also pollute the environment. Cities and town developments One of the major reported problems with modern cities and town is disposal of waste material issues. Policies s
The Bayor article “Exploring What it Takes to Lead in the 21 st Century” written by Eric Krell outlines seven primary competencies a leader should have in the modern business environment. The author puts forward a claim that when it comes to the priorities in leadership, experts always tend to mention shared mission, stewardship, and values. Thus, Krell makes a list of competencies that were influenced by three top drivers of modern change: globalization, volatility, and technological change. These drivers of change influence every business as well as their leaders (Krell 8). The primary competencies provided in the article include the qualities that successful leaders are devoted to becoming: continuous strategic planners, virtuous leaders, cultural caretakers, active listeners, change managers, virtual leaders, and open innovators. Moreover, according to Kirk Coleman cited in the article, there are also areas the business leaders should pay attention to – succession planning and leadership development (qtd. in Krell 11). However, the two other attributes of a successful leader that were not mentioned in the article include personal adaptability as well as being able to leverage networks. The leverage networking ability means taking networking beyond the limits of the career and create a close relationship with customers, partners on strategies, suppliers, and most importantly, competitors (Benna par. 8). The adaptability competency means looking forward to new realities instead of thinking about the usual way business is done. If I were to rank the attributes listed in the article with some changes, the primary competency would be adaptability followed by network leveraging that are fundamental in establishing relationships in the modern economy. The third and fourth competencies should include cultural caretaking and active listening that relate to establishing close connections within a company. The last three attributes should remain the same as listed in the article as they fully reflect important qualities of a successful leader. Nike Strategic Management Assessment Nike, Inc, is a company that has managed to establish an international business that is hard to contest. It produces sports clothing, footwear, accessories, and equiment worldwide and employs more than forty thousand workers (Ackerman, Claar and Jackson 5). For the company, innovation is a center point to the business as well as to its competitive and growth strategy. The focus to become better, change, and adapt to the modern market requirements has helped the company to create the most innovative products for devoted customers worldwide ( Nike, Inc. Corporat
Introduction The process of change is known for its complexity and the multitude of barriers it faces along the way. One of the reasons that may slow down is implementation is the seeming lack of urgency (Hall & Hord, 2015). The following paper examines the introduction of the predictive analytics service program at the Coastline Community College in 2015 by reviewing the chosen model and the assessment techniques used by the team. Reasons for change The core issue that led to change was the lack of predictability in certain areas. The area that suffered the most was in direct connection with the innovations taking place in the organization. Coastline Community College has a long record of successful innovative strategies and ideas that increase the effectiveness of the learning process. While the fact of the constant innovation is by no means negative in itself, it introduces uncertainty and the need to analyze the possible outcomes of the process and barriers to its implementation (Zentner, 2015). While certain techniques were utilized previously, they were not standardized enough and thus did not provide an opportunity for the systemic and unified analysis of the situation. Besides, the limited amount of staff members and part-time employees further limited the capability of assessing and addressing all the possible adverse issues of each innovation. Finally, the process is usually costly, so constant monitoring is required to evaluate its financial side. The monitoring should consider the validity of any given change and prevent the losses resulting from unnecessary investments. While the issue was not immediate, some negative consequences would inevitably arise in the future. First, the limited possibilities of predicting the financial side will likely result in budget shortages and possible debt, the issues which are known to persist among the high schools (Mitchell, Palacios, & Leachman, 2014). Second, the absence of a dedicated predictive analytics service platform will require the allocation of human resources, which, given the already limited staff amount, would sooner or later result in either under-staffing of other areas or the excessive pressure and stress among employees. Finally, the student performance would likely lag behind considering the constantly changing learning environment and gradually rising demand for a competent and skillful workforce. Change model To implement a predictive analytics service platform the organization decided to use Lewin’s change management model. The model consists of three basic steps – unfreezing, change, and refreezing (Cummings & Worley, 2014). In the case of Coastline Commu
Memo   * To : Texas County Board of Supervisors   * From :   * Date :   * Re : Capital expenditure Fact In 2009, Sarah inherited 3 parcels of land, which were appraised at $15,750. This value was lower than what she had estimated. On challenging the valuation, she was informed that zoning on the land would only allow one residence for every 2 acres. Therefore, the resale value of the land is significantly diminished. In 2010, she appealed the decision to the Texas County Board of Supervisors challenging the County’s zoning law. However, the authorities took two years to adopt the new zoning law. By the end of the entire legal process, she had incurred $11,000 as attorney’s fees and other legal costs. Issues There are two main issues emanating from the case study as illustrated by being following questions.  1. Is the attorney fee incurred in the process of challenging the appraisal of the land tax deductible?  2. What is the appropriate tax treatment on the $11,000 incurred as attorney fees? The legal costs incurred in the process of acquiring or improving a capital asset such as land are treated as capital expenditures under Section 24 (a) (2). Conclusion The cost incurred in the process of requesting a change on land zoning or rezoning is not tax-deductible. Capital expenses refer to the cost incurred in the process of acquiring or improving capital assets. The land is categorized as a capital asset. Moreover, land rezoning costs are not amortizable as they are undeterminable and indefinite with regard to the period within which they may be subject to tax consequences. The decision to categorise the legal fees incurred in the process of acquiring or improving land arises from the fact that the owner will recover the capital expenditure if the asset is sold in the future. However, the taxpayer may be rewarded a loss deduction if the land rezoning efforts do not succeed. Authorities and Reasoning Sec. 263 (a) and Sec. 1.263 (a) of the Income Tax Regulation postulates that there should be no deductions on any cost that is paid in the process of acquiring a new building or any other activities aimed at improving the value of an estate or property. Moreover, Section 1.263 (a)-2 (a) categorises a number of costs such as cost of property acquisition, cost of machinery and other equipments, building cost and furniture, and fixtures as capital expenditure. Section §1.263 A-2 (a) (3) (i) postulates that capital expenditure should be capitaliz
Introduction The interracial bonding that takes place in the film testifies to the cultural and social discourses encountered by the two males. It challenges notions of race because these two individuals eventually surpass their biases in order to achieve a common goal. More importantly, the bonding between the two individuals renegotiates the role of the white male as an oppressor, and makes him appear as much a victim as the black male. Analysis The two protagonists in the middle of the film started as fierce rivals who judged and hated each other because of race. Furthermore, both inmates committed varied crimes that attest to their divergent experiences and former lives. However, as the film progresses, one realizes that these differences are only on the surface; the two convicts are more similar than they would like to admit. They share the same aspirations and experiences as victims of oppression. It is through the difficulty of their circumstances (fleeing from an angry mob, fighting the forces of nature and escaping the treacheries of a lonely widow) that a member of the audience can realize these two individuals are like brothers. The film demonstrates that in life and death situations, two people can surpass their racial prejudices in order to survive. In the middle of the movie, Joker and Poitier had no choice but to cooperate with one another because they were chained together. Towards the end of the movie, they did not have to because they had unchained themselves; nonetheless, they still chose to do so because they had developed a bond. This is evident when the lonely widow reveals that she has led Poitier to a dangerous swamp where he will not survive. Jackson runs off to the swamp to warn Poitier about it, yet he did not have to. The end of the movie also testifies to this bond because Poitier jumps from the train to help his friend. This movie also challenges the notion of the male oppressor through the text of the narration as well as through its symbolism. Both men are chained together, and these chains represent the level of oppression that they are subjected to at the time. The movie wanted to illustrate that white males can be disenfranchised, as well. In this case, the audience is supposed to notice that just like the black male, Jackson is a victim of the social order. The sheriff and other law enforcers now represent the new face of the oppressor while Joker and Poitier are the new faces of the oppressed. The film seeks to challenge historical understandings of what society perceives as a dominating group. While this approach serves to articulate the perspective of the white male, it undermines the importance of race in the African American male’s life. Therefore, the redefinition of white masculinity comes at the experience of the b