ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
The conventional meaning of human health is shifting from an emphasis on physical health to a more holistic model that incorporates the psychosocial and emotional well-being of persons as well. This paradigm shift has broadened the reaches of health studies to include environmental health and environmental psychology; disciplines that study how the natural and built environment influence the health of populations (Jackson and Kotchitzky, 2001). This paper addresses simple and cost-effective measures to alter the built environment in a city in a way that improves human health. One of the major health concerns in North America is the prevalence of obesity and cardiovascular diseases both of which have been positively correlated to sedentary living and lack of physical exercise (Pruss-Ustun and Corvalan, 2006). Adopting measures that encourage physical activity like walking and cycling can lead to a healthier population and this can be achieved by building safe sidewalks and bicycle lanes on roads. Demarcating areas for parks and playing fields within a city and developing recreational areas are likely to increase physical exercise in the population; reducing the prevalence of obesity and cardiovascular diseases. An area that city administration is directly involved in is transport and changes in transport can alleviate some health problems in a city’s populace. Injury and fatalities caused by motor vehicle collisions and pedestrian accidents is easily reduced by putting in simple road safety measures such as road signs, crosswalks, speed bumps and rumble strips. The motor vehicle causes a considerable amount of air pollution and congestion which are major factors for respiratory and stress respectively. To lower air pollution and congestion, a city ought to cut its reliance on personal motor vehicle transport and one way of achieving this is by constructing bus lanes to improve public transport. Constructing an efficient transport system can also decrease mental health problems related to commuting such as aggressive behavior, stress and depression. City planning and zoning highly affect land use in a city. Some social problems that are associated with zoning are social exclusion and low density living due to urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is a form of land use typified by single-use zoning of land and this usually results in city expansion, low density living and low density land use (Fox and Barodness, 2003). Zoning the city into residential, commercial and industrial areas means that city residents travel more to get to work and access services; increasing commuting and reliance on motor vehicles both of which have been shown to negati
In his article, Lindahl (2006) addresses the right to education as an irrefutable right of every citizen of the world. The focus on globalism and the active promotion of cross-cultural communication and cooperation have shaped the environment of modern education to a considerable extent. Because of the propensity toward viewing academic processes from multiple perspectives, including a legal one, global legal principles have been incorporated into it recently. Particularly, the right to receive education as something that everyone is universally entitled to should be viewed as a significant breakthrough in the modern international relationships. According to the principles of equality in education promoted by global organizations, particularly, the UNO, every single person on the planet is entitled to receiving a proper education (Bolman & Deal, 2013). That being said, for a range of reasons, most of which revolve around economic and financial factors, a significant percentage of the global population does not have access to free education. Even in cases when basic educational opportunities are provided, the quality of the teaching process may be questioned. Furthermore, the choice of the knowledge and skills that students should be taught, as well as the qualifications of the school staff, can be deemed as the areas of concern in the present-day education system in a range of states. The shortage of qualified staff and coherent instructions will have to be addressed by improving the economic system and the financial situation in some countries. Reaction The idea of making education available to everyone without any exceptions seems exciting to me. Despite the fact that the principles of equality are currently viewed is the foundation for building relationships on both interpersonal and intercultural levels, prejudices and other obstacles on the way to equal educational opportunities remain in their places. Therefore, I find the idea of using modern tools for enhancing the importance of equality in education across the world an essential step toward improving the education system. Implementation in the TESOL Classroom However, I must admit that the elation caused by the article was immediately toned down as I realized that the goals set by Lindahl (2006) are not quite achievable yet. First, the premises for encouraging global equality in education must be created. Or this purpose, gender- and culture-related conflicts, as well as similar issues preventing the enhancement of equality, must be addressed. The identified processes, in turn, are bound to take much time. The article by Lindahl
Introduction Making a sound investment decision is one of the biggest challenges that investors encounter, especially when they want to explore the stock market. As Doepke and Schneider (2017) note, before investing money in the stock market, numerous factors have to be taken into consideration. The driving factor that makes one invest in a given company is the hope that the company will make profits and the value invested will increase after a given desired period. However, the truth is that market forces and the strategies used by the company can have a varying impact on its financial performance. In some cases, the investor’s value is increased as was desired because of the impressive performance of the company within a specific period. In other cases, a firm may face challenging economic forces that may lead to a financial loss and a drop in the value of the investment made. Graham (2017) notes that many investors are always keen on ensuring that the value of their investment is not significantly lost in such situations. It means that selecting the most appropriate company in which to invest is critical. Making the right decision on whether to invest in shares or debentures is the next important step that one has to make. In this paper, the researcher seeks to determine whether it is prudent to invest in Qatar National Bank’s shares and debentures. Critical Appraisal of the Financial Objectives of Qatar National Bank Background of the Company Qatar National Bank, also known as QNB Group, is a commercial bank that has its headquarters in Doha, Qatar. The company was founded on June 6, 1964, as the first commercial bank owned by the locals. The company experienced massive success in its early years, and it started spreading its operations to different parts of the country as Qatar’s population continued to increase. The rapid expansion of the company began to spread beyond the national borders in 1980. Acquisition has been the bank’s main expansion strategy in the regional and global market. In Egypt, it acquired ALAHLI Bank, and in Togo, it acquired over 20% stakes in Ecobank Transnational Inc. It has used the same strategy in Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Tunisia. The company has a strong presence in Libya, Syria, Turkey, Yemen, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. In Asia, it has branches in India, China, Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Singapore. In Europe, it has made an entry into the United Kingdom, France, and Switzerland. Bruner (2016) observes that Qatar National Bank currently has 4,300 branches spread across 31 countries. From a small number of 35 employees that the company had in its first year of operation, the bank currently employs over 28,000 in different parts of the world. Its revenue has increased to over USD 6.4 billion for the financial year that ended on December 31, 2016. Ulrichsen (2014) says th
All languages in the world have tenses. This is what facilitates communication by placing the action in relation to the time that it took place or is expected to take place. Tense is thus defined as a “temporal aspect of a verb in use.” Buzzin (2009). The English language boasts a number of tenses. Although many people categorize them as a notion of time, some analysts consider what is referred to as tense in textbooks as an interplay of tense, aspect, and situation type (Saeed, 2003). This situation means that tense has a complicated twist that needs to be looked at with an analytical eye in order to understand the various complicated situations that occur. This has led to many controversies and debates between scholars of semantics. Among the most controversial aspects of semantics is the issue of the future tense in English. Views from different scholars conflict with some saying that English has no future tense while others insist that it has. Looking deep at the points of argument, it is reasonable to say that English has a future tense although it is marked by an ambiguity that results from the secondary modal meaning. What are the aspects of the future tense that lead to this conflict? A lot of people tend to believe that the word ‘will’ denotes a future tense (Declerck, 1991). This could be true to some extent but not in all aspects. For example, John will see her tomorrow This sentence shows that the action will take place the day after the sentence has been uttered. Therefore, the word ‘will’ is used here to portray the aspect of time. It is, therefore, true to say that the word ‘will’ is used to denote a future tense in English. The controversy arises in the fact that the word ‘will’ belongs to a family of words referred to as modal verbs. This group includes words like might, may, can, would, etc. therefore the word ‘will’ can be used in a sentence without denoting an aspect of time. For example, Peter will be in church now This sentence does not have anything to do with future or present tense. It is purely based on the behavioral pattern exhibited by Peter. It simply means, at such a time, Peter is usually in church. Peter’s location at that point in time is based on his normal behavior. On the other hand, the future can be denoted without using any future tense. For example, Peter is arriving tomorrow morning This sentence has placed the situation in a future context without using any verb to denote the time aspect. ‘Will’ is, therefore, an ambiguous word in terms of its future and modal capacities. Scholars have found a great problem when it comes to the issue of tense markers. The words are commonly known to
Article Summary This is a concise representation of revolution of media in terms of how audiences are captured, analyzed and sold to the advertisers; particularly understanding the capture of the media and how it has evolved with time to the present internet era. Audience manufacture calls for concise determination of size and behavior of the audience and by the use of a set of measurement procedures shaped by industry dynamics and technological usage patterns, the audience is manufactured and sold to the advertisers. The need for advertisers to understand the quantity and quality of audience they were paying for led to the evolution of audience manufacture and analysis (Bermejo 2009). Audience manufacture dates back to the radio era where different methods of advertisement approaches were carried out over the radio. However, the mode of determining or measuring the quantity, behavior and response of the audience receiving began with the invention of advertising rating systems most of which depended on the sampling concept. Such early methods included the famous Nielsen’s metered system. The growing need for understanding of media audience led to rise of independent third party to carry out the research. With much struggle and improvements, national representative samples were achieved at around 1940 (Bermejo 1). Initially, the concept of dividing a program into segments which were sold to different sponsors was preferred but this later changed to spot commercials. Different methods of measuring audience exposure time were invented with the most prominent being use of questionnaires, telephone and booklets with each having its advantages and disadvantages. This was later followed by A.C. Nielsen of audiometers which did not last for a long time due to the increased need for detailed demographics and personal viewing patterns as well as the shift from household to individual unit of audience. Audiometers could not keep up with the diminishing size and increased portability of radio receptors. People meters provided viewing data at the individual level and thus provided more precise information about the audience. Possible solutions such as satellite, cable and digital television as well as switching channels using remote controls brought yet another complexity in audience measuring techniques (Bermejo 1). Evolution of the society brought about yet another advertisement platform with the internet technology. Internet technology provided better methods of audience analysis with techniques such as trace Log files, and use of tags both of which could provide the needed information about the interaction of the audience with the internet platform. However, they could not give details of the number of viewers or their profile for a given page. Search for a standard source of measurement took the center stage. This brought about new methods of advertisement pricing depending on cost-per-action on the platform. Internet is global in nature and thus presents a problem of precise sampling such as h
Interestingly, superstitions are often very territorial in nature. They vary from one part of the world to another, and bring an almost unique flavor to the region that they belong to, shaping the lives of its people and their sense of culture. Furthermore, the more timeless a superstition may seem, the more believable it becomes. It is better to have accounts of several generations supporting a superstition’s ability to turn your life upside down – for better or for worse – than to simply read it off the internet. Somehow, the former never fails to lend an air of authenticity to a superstition’s power of bringing good or evil in your life. Because of their territorial character and claims of having history – personal or otherwise – on their side, superstitions tend to vary from one civilization to another. Sometimes superstitions in one region are almost the same as those in the other, making them part of a big harmonious family of superstitions, whereas at other times they may offer conflicting prescriptions to their followers with an almost nationalistic or religious fervor. Chinese civilization dates back thousands of years and, therefore, has its own long list of dos and donts in terms of superstitions. The list is so long and extensive that I am not sure if anybody has ever managed to follow all of them. At the end of the day, I think people just tend to pick and choose the ones that seem authentic and easier to follow. My personal favorites are the ones that surround the Chinese New Year. It is not just one or two, but a collection of superstitions built around this festival. Building on each other, they warn of death and poverty on the one hand and offer promises of prosperity and health on the other. The most interesting superstition, however, involves cleaning – or to be more precise, no cleaning at all – on the Chinese New Year’s Day. As a family, this means that we are all required to help in cleaning the house before New Year’s Day, especially making sure that our individual rooms are properly cleaned and have no clothes, books or other objects aimlessly lying around the room. All this however had to be done before the New Year deadline, and once done there is to be absolutely no cleaning on New Year’s Day. My parents would never fail to remind us that while the house was being cleaned to welcome good luck and prosperity in, we should avoid all cleaning on New Year’s Day as we may end up sweeping away good luck. For the same reason, all brooms and mops had to be kept out of sight. Interestingly, if you did manage to leave any cleaning abject lying around on New Year’s Day, then you will have to wait till the next day to be taken to task for it since all bickering or crying needs to be avoided on that day, and my parents rightly felt that if one mistake had been made already then we did not necessarily need to follow it up with another. Of course, children often take advan
Having been raised for centuries on the go, the issue of family relations in terms of hierarchical organization and distribution of authority is acquiring importance in modern society as well. Following the feministic booms of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there came an understanding that a woman is still a special constituent of the institute of family and that her role is complex and intricate. At different times, the scales of powers inclined alternately to the husband and to the wife, ascribing different functions, responsibilities and rights to them. And yet, the issue of who should be the leading party and whether it is for the husband to enjoy complete and inseparable authority is still unresolved. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper on the example of John the reader can observe an image of an unsuccessful husband, whose overprotection and excessive caution which might have been based on good intention nevertheless lead to the crushing of a woman’s inner world and her mental disorder as a result. At first sight, it is standardly known that according to a deep-rooted family tradition the husband is supposed to take utmost care of his wife and to provide all the protection he can give to her in order to guard her against the dangers of the outer world. Being the brain and the intellectual reason of the family, the husband wisely guides the ship of his matrimonial unit through all the possible mishaps and traps and takes the necessary precautions in order to avoid the foreseeable evil. Supposedly possessing the adequate knowledge for resolving any situation, he becomes the herald of the absolute truth which cannot be dared to be opposed by the female party of the family. All the vital decisions originate from the husband, as he is endowed with unlimited powers and authority. Notwithstanding a grain of truth in such considerations, one can nevertheless observe a situation when the husband, guided by such family code turns into a kind of domestic tyrant, taking individual decisions and not allowing for any intrusion into them or any suggestion made as for their appropriateness. All spheres of the private and public life of the family conform to his opinion and pitiable is the wife of that man for there is nothing left to her but silently and gratefully agree to anything her sovereign commands. In worst cases, the husband’s rule stretches even to such petty but important to the woman’s individuality areas as her thoughts, ideas, transient fantasies and small joys of the day. B
Introduction Cardiovascular conditions may differ in symptoms depending on the patient’s age, gender, and previous medical history. In women, some conditions can present additional problems or be asymptomatic (McSweeney, Pettey, Souder, & Rhoads, 2011). In Case Study 2, a 63-year-old African-American woman comes to the office with a complaint of intermittent chest pain that started two weeks ago. The patient’s signs and physical examination point to several diagnoses that require immediate intervention to prevent other severe issues from developing. The differential diagnosis includes stable angina, myocardial infarction, and costochondritis, and a treatment plan for the primary diagnosis is offered. Differential Diagnoses The first differential diagnosis is stable angina (angina pectoris) – chest pain that occurs due to reduced blood flow. The main symptoms of this condition include chest pain defined as pressure or burning, pain in the extremities or one’s jaw, neck, and back, fatigue, dyspnea, nausea, and sweating (Manolis et al., 2016). Furthermore, angina-related signs appear after physical exhaustion and can be mitigated by rest and medication (Manolis et al., 2016). The patient’s description of the pain, as well as relieving and exacerbating factors, meets the description of stable angina. The palpation reveals the tenderness of the chest wall, and the blood pressure (BP) is raised, which is a common risk factor for angina. The second possible diagnosis is a myocardial infarction, the blockage of blood to one’s heart. The signs of a heart attack are tightness or pressure in the chest, nausea, heartburn, abdominal pain, fatigue, sweating, and dizziness (Ford, Corcoran, & Berry, 2018). The patient’s high BP and age put her at increased risk of myocardial infarction. However, the patient states that pain resolves with rest, and she does not have any other symptoms. Thus, this diagnosis is less likely, although the risk of myocardial infarction exists if the patient’s pain remains unresolved. Costochondritis is the final differential diagnosi
Monopoly is a situation where there is only a single seller of a given product (a good or service) in the market (Sharkey, 1998). It emerges when the product has no close substitute. The government policies on monopolies such as prohibition, permitting or regulating activities usually affect businesses and society as a whole (Geddes, 2000). Monopoly has two extreme cases namely pure monopoly and pure or perfect competition. According to Posner (1999), pure monopoly is when one company controls completely the supply or sale of a product with no close substitute. Pure or perfect competition on the other hand occurs when there are several sellers of identical products in the same market (Posner, 1999). Natural monopoly Natural monopoly is a circumstance that occurs in the market when the average cost of production reduces as compared to relevant range of product demand (Sharkey, 1998). The relevant range of product demand is whereby the average cost curve falls below the demand curve making it is cheaper for a single large firm to provide for the market as compared to multiple smaller firms (Mckenzie, 2008). The government intervention is therefore necessary failure to which such markets would naturally turn to monopoly exploiting consumers through high pricing and limiting supply. Government-granted monopoly This is a form of monopoly whereby the government provides exclusive opportunity to a firm or private individual to be the only supplier of good or service to the market (Sharkey, 1998). In such a market potential competitors are barred through legislations that are enforced by the government as patent, copyright and trademarks (Geddes, 2000). The current monopoly in the Unites States of America is the United States Postal Service. This is an independent agency of the government. It was established in 1971 to solely provide postal services in the America.However, the first postal service in America was established in February 1692 through a grant from King William and Queen Mary to Thomas Neale to initiate a body that would receive and dispatch letters in the colony (Sharkey, 1998). The agency is currently administered by Board of Governors who establishes policies, procedures and rates that are applied in all services provided. The United States constitution has given the congress the authority to make laws that regulate delivery of mails thereby creating government-granted monopoly as the competitors are barred(Mckenzie,2008). Impacts of Postal Service monopoly in United States of America This monopoly has had several adverse effects on the consumers of the services offered by the agency. To start with, it has led to the existence of low quality services as mails are sometimes mishandled hence getting torn as well as recording high number of mails getting lost. Secondly, it has led to constant increase in prices of p