ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
The U.S. is a developed country found in North America and it is one of the largest economies in the world. The economic performance of the U.S. five years ago was not good since the country began experiencing the global financial crisis. In 2007, the level of speculation in the country was very high thereby leading to the bursting of the bubble in the real sector. The level of interest rates in the country in 2007 was 5%. However, the bursting of the bubble saw interest rates drop drastically to 2.8% in 2008 and 1.9% in 2009 before beginning to rise again to 2.5% in 2010. The current interest rates in the U.S. are 3.2%. Although the rates are not high to attract large deposits, they encourage borrowing in the country (CIA Fact book, 2013). Year  Interest rates  Inflation  Unemployment (% of total labor force) 2007  5               2.9        4.6                                   2008  2.8             3.8        5.8                                   2009  1.9             -0.4       9.3                                   2010  2.5             1.6        9.6                                   2011  1               3.2        9                                     2012  3.2             2          8.2                                    The level of inflation is a significant indicator since it determines the level of consumption for goods and services. The level of inflation in the U.S. five years ago in 2007 was 2.9%. The rate rose to 3.8% in 2008 during the crisis but dropped to -0.4% in 2009. Thereafter, it began rising gradually to 3.2% in 2011 and it has been maintained at 2% in 2012. Concerning the level of unemployment, the U.S. had a low number of unemployed workers in 2007 just before the financial crisis where it was 4.6%. However, the crisis led to bankruptcy of many firms as many closed down and increased the level of unemployment in the country to 5.8%, 9.3% and 9.6% in 2008, 2009, and 2010 respectively. Through government efforts, the rate of unemployment in the U.S. has been contained at 9% and 8.2% in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Two Strategies to encourage Spending The level of expenditure in an economy can be increased through various strategies. However, the most common strategy that could be exploited by the government is reduction of the interest rates. Reduced interest rates have various implications. First, depositing cash would not be attractive and people will withdraw their funds to spend on various projects. Second, it would be cheaper to borrow funds and many investors would exploit this channel to increase borrowing so that they can invest in various economic projects. The overall effect of reduced interest rates would reduce unemployment levels in an economy. The other strategy to increase spending would be the government initiative to establish various projects that will ensure that a large number of the active labor force is engaged. Such government projects
While searching for a job, a person should regard his/her work as a personal fit that would both meet the social needs and your personal preferences. As Russell Muirhead says, “Do what you love – the money will follow” (Muirhead 2). In other words, your job should suit your own interests and aptitudes. The author of “Just Work” insists that people must not consider the job as a means of earning money. Instead, the job must reconcile freedom in case it is our choice, but not the choice of necessity. According to Russell, the work cannot be associated with compulsion and as it was determined by history. Thus, it is obligatory to clarify what current jobs count as unjust or compulsive owing to the constant change of the social requirements. First of all, Muirhead argues that freedom plays a significant role in occupational choice. It influences the future experience and outlook on the job as a part of our life. In this respect, the author pays attention to the moral value of the job rather than to the material side. Moreover, job affects the workers’ character. Arising from it, the unjust job is the one that
Overview NASA initiated a program in 1993 that was referred as Mars Surveyor program with an objective of conducting on-going missions to explore Mars. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was assigned the role for leading the program. The MCO was launched in 11, 1998. It was supposed to reach Mars in December 1999 as the first interplanetary weather satellite that could provide communication relay for the MPL. The MCO vanished once it entered into Mars occultation at some point in the Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) maneuver. However, the spacecraft’s carrier signal was later seen on September 23, 1999. Use of wrong metrics while coding was the cause of MCO failure to reach its destination. Thus, the failure of system engineers to use the correct coding metrics was the root cause of the MCO problem. System engineers used wrong metrics while coding which caused the whole problem. The format adopted was in contrast to the data that was contained in the Angular Momentum Desaturation (AMD) file in existing software interface which represents the standards requirements that were to be followed in the coding process. As a result of the aforementioned mistakes during the coding process, the MCO was not able to reach on Mars as expected because of the delays it experience in its trajectory. The spacecraft received over 10-14 times than anticipated propulsion maneuvers that help to remove angular momentum build up in the spacecraft. The spacecraft lost its trajectory as a result of use of wrong metrics while coding as well as increased angular Desaturation events. Therefore, after 9 months which was the anticipated time for MCO arrival to Mars, it was noted that the spacecraft trajectory was about 170 kilometers than planned. Consequently, there is a high likelihood that MCO re-entered heliocentric space or was damaged. Cost Analysis Costs associated with failed systems are usually very high because of the high costs of system development (Aaker 77; Johnson par.6).The cost of launching a satellite to Mars is very high. For example, the cost of building an entire spacecraft can range to several 10 thousand dollars. In addition, the cost of paying salaries of engaged personnel is also very high. It is estimated that a complete satellite mission can costs approximately 1 billion dollars. The cost of the mission of sending MCO to Mars did not run as per its initial budget. The project was estimated to take 9 months. However, after 9 months, MCO was 170 kilometers below its expected trajectory. Therefore, the project ended up costing more than it was planned. The reason that caused the project to cost more than planned was the mistakes that occurred during the coding process. There was a mistake in the coding process that resulted to the MCO experiencing delays in its trajectory that reduced its speed. This resulted to a reduction in its orbit period to 2 -14 hours. This mistakes resulted to more money being used in to pay the team assigned the task of identifying the errors and re-coding the system.
Introduction Personal values are the ideas that people hold as important such as honesty, faithfulness, effort, perseverance, patience, education, responsibility, commitment, and fairness, among others. They determine my behavior, communication, and interaction with other people in society. Furthermore, values define the worth of any human being. Personal beliefs are the basic sources that individuals embrace as valid, usually not considering their real evidence. Personal beliefs comprise the assumptions or theories and/or perceptions about the world based on our education level, what we can see, hear, and experience. Our personal beliefs and values shape our attitudes and opinions that we have towards other people and the community at large. Consequently, personal beliefs shape one’s interpretation and analysis of ethical issues. This paper focuses on how my personal values and beliefs have shaped my interpretation and analysis of ethical issues based on my knowledge of utilitarian, deontological, and virtue-based ethical theories. The essay also provides an overview of how these theories have influenced my values and beliefs. Personal Values and Beliefs that have shaped my Interpretation of Ethical Issues People have different values and beliefs based on aspects such as heritage, ethnicity, culture, family, religion, level of education, and socio-economic background, among others. Personally, my Christianity and educational backgrounds have gained me values of responsibility, commitment, fairness, honest
Entering the era of information technology means incorporating modern media as tools for data acquisition and analysis in every single domain, including education. However, the promotion of modern media as essential tools for teaching and learning may have its disadvantages. A detailed study of the key effects of modern media in education, therefore, is required. As long as the use of modern media by students is controlled by teachers and occurs as a part of the lesson and not the focus thereof, the specified tools can be viewed as a means of enhancing the learning process and improving the performance of students. Among the key benefits of the use of modern media in classrooms, the fact that technology serves as essential aid in the course of acquiring new skills and learning new information deserves to be mentioned. In order to acquire new information and process it quickly, learners need supporting material, which in most cases must include both visual and audio elements. While watching a video can be viewed as an alternative to incorporating modern media into the curriculum, one still has to admit that traditional media lacks an essential element, which is the opportunity for learners to interact with the source of information. Modern media, in its turn, has solved this problem, providing students a chance to use an interactive interface in order to learn new information quickly. Indeed, a closer look at the modern media will reveal that most software used for learning purposes presupposes that students should be able to interact with the program (Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2011). Another important benefit that modern media provides is the fact that the learners are capable of accessing the necessary information easily. It should be kept in mind, though, that the benefit in question needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It is rather doubtful that students, especially young learners, are capable of identifying which information is useful for them, which can be skipped, an which data is downright harmful. Therefore, unlimited access to information, which the introduction of modern technologies into the classroom environment allows for, should be controlled by the teacher. The control executed by the latter will help students filter the information that they will come across, showing them how to locate the data that can be used for further studies. It should be kept in mind, though, that the use of technologies in classroom may also pose a range of threats to a successful learning process once misused. To be more exact, technology, especially modern one, may easily become a distraction for students and keep them away from the actual focus of the lesson. The specified problem becomes especially obvious once social media is introduced into the curriculum and the discussion of the key topics and themes is transferred from the classroom environment i
Abstract This paper explores the meaning of the word “happiness,” and proposes a way to modify its definition. Possible social and political consequences of such a modification are also scrutinized. The paper is based on a literature review; the literature mainly consists of research articles providing definitions, discussions, and examples of usage of the notion in question. It has been found out that literature often explains the term “happiness” via such concepts as well-being, satisfaction, and welfare; however, for laypeople across the world, such aspects as harmony and balance are of significant importance. The strength of this paper is that it explores not only the meaning of the word but also the results of its offered revision, including the reconsideration of the importance of the phenomenon of competition, which seems poorly consistent with harmony and balance; the weakness is related to the limitedness of the study the findings of which provided the basis for the proposed change in the definition of the notion of happiness. Further studies may verify (or, on the contrary, disprove) the importance of harmony and balance for people’s happiness, as well as explore the possible alternatives to the rivalry in the society. Introduction Concepts related to people’s values are often hard to define, and the definitions, or sometimes not even definitions but only explanations, may significantly vary not only across different nations but also among one people. The views on these concepts and the understanding of them that a particular individual has (consciously or unconsciously) may often be tied to numerous circumstances, such as the dominating culture, political views of the individual, their own life experience, etc. What is also important is that these ethical perceptions have consequences in numerous spheres of life, both personal and public. For instance, a person has a particular understanding of the concept of happiness; it appears clear that they will try, at least to a certain extent, to organize their life in a way that will let them achieve that happiness. Dominating perceptions on happiness may lead to certain political decisions or policies (Oishi, Graham, Kesebir, & Galinha, 2013, p. 574) that may be aimed at helping people obtain that happiness (or causing them to feel that much is being done to help them obtain it; it seems possible to state that politicians are not always very honest). Happiness is very often understood about welfare, well-being, success, and bodily pleasure. However, it seems that most definitions fail to capture such an important component of happiness as harmony and balance. Therefore, in this paper, after providing a broad overview of the perceptions that seem to dominate in literature, we will argue that harmony and balance should also be included in the understanding of this concept, and explain that this understanding may significantly influ
Marginal productivity in relation to wages is the change in total revenue earned by a firm from employing one more unit of labour. According to Keen, a firm may hire many employees at prevailing wages. However if the input is fixed in the short run, then output will be subject to diminishing returns. This is because each additional worker adds a less amount to output than the preceding worker. The effort applied by that extra worker to the firm may be variable while the wage per unit remains constant. Therefore as long as the wage is equal to the additional employees output that is sold, a firm will continue hiring. Furthermore, if a firm is competitive the extra unit may be sold without reducing the firms’ price. The returns an industry will gain by hiring its prior employees is equal to the price it sells its output, multiplied by marginal product of the last worker (2004, 112-113). Benjamin, Gidde and Gunderson (2002) argue that “a firm can vary the quantity of labour by either hiring more employees or increasing working hours”. If it opts to increase working hours, then it has to pay higher wages for overtime hours. However, non wage benefits like pensions and medical plans will not fluctuate with each extra working hour. Therefore, it is more cost-effective for a firm to extend working hours for current workers than to hire new employees. Hiring will result in a firm incurring some “quasi fixed” costs that are independent of the number of hours worked. Moreover, non wage benefits costs will be incurred. Furthermore, recruitment and personnel costs, training and termination costs will also be included. Benjamin et al (2002) suggests that by representing the “quasi fixed” cost of employing a new worker by a constant F. A firm will hire a worker up to the point where the cost of hire is F plus discounted current and future wage payment W, is equal to the current and future Value of Marginal Product of Labour (VMPL).Thus, hiring takes place at F+W=VMPL. Moreover, in an infinite time it will hire labour up to a point where F+W/r=VMPL/r; where r represents discounted interest rate. However, the wage received W will be less than VMPL because a portion of VMPL is used to pay the cost of hire. This can be represented in the diagram below (Para. 1-2). According to Benjamin et al (2002), for” zero fixed cost” at W0 and VMPL0 a firm hires L0 employees at point A. during recession it will loose L0-L1 employees due to layoffs. For “positive fixed cost” at W0 the firm hires Lf employees at point C. As a result, the fixed cost of hiring shifts the demand curve downwards or backwards to the left. During recession when a firm hires Lf workers layoffs may be avoided. As a consequence, the schedule will shift back to the left. Furthermore, the fixed cost associated with regulating the number of employees generates a lodge between VMPL and the wage rate. This will reduce the rate of layoff for a worker. In addition, a trained worker is important to the firm even if the rate of VMPL is more than the wage rate. This is because the firm will be recove
Paying attention to the changed economic and social environment in the United States, it becomes evident that there is a need to reconsider the existing health benefits companies provide to their employees. In particular, the given case requires focusing on homosexual and heterosexual couples in all locations and evaluating diversity training throughout the organization. To prepare the roll-out of the identified initiative, it is important to make it clear that domestic partners will be included in an employee health care plan provided by the organization. The paramount challenge is associated with the fact that employees may differently react to such innovations (Cole and Salimath156). Some of them would support it, while others are more likely to be confused with the provision of health benefits to non-family members. Another issue is associated with the eligibility criteria. The organization’s management should determine whether cohabitation, an unmarried status, or financial independence would matter while deciding on health benefits to domestic partners. The above point is essential as only some states have legalized same-sex marriages such as California, Arizona, or New York, while others do not recognize them. The mentioned challenges would impact diversity training. Change is required in terms of attitude towards domestic partners and potential discrimination. In particular, training should promote non-discriminative and inclusive views since the very corporative culture needs to be adjusted to new realities. The more diverse the cultural field of business, the more pronounced the cultural differences, and the higher the communication barriers, the more critical the requirements for the cross-cultural competence of staff and especially managers. An employee at any level of a large company does not merely interact with representatives of other cultures but also encounters various subcultures differentiated by age, gender, profession, religion, etc. If the given organization needs to be effective in implementing its initiative, then all employees should be trained properly according to the plan. To adapt employees to each other, there is a range of training strategies in terms of tolerance and diversity management such as mentoring programs or non-discriminatory performance appraisal (Janssens and Zanoni 325). Written instructions and special training that introduce employees into the course of the case allow staff to interact effectively regardless of the cultural background. It should also be noted that diversity training should include not only safety modules but also a code of business principles and morale. The latter should outline the principles of be
Self-Assessment For this task, I carried out self-assessment focusing on my desired work-life balance and my short- and long-term professional goals. For that purpose, I used an available template that could be found online. The assessment revealed that the factors that contributed to my work-life imbalanced come from different spheres of life such as family and personal relationships, social life, workplace communication and dynamics, personal habits, and the structure of work that I do. During this self-assessment, I listed the exact factors causing the imbalance and analyzed which of them I could control. Further, I compared my desired work-life balance with the one I could achieve potentially by addressing the aforementioned causes. Also, I worked out my actions in case I fail to meet my goals. Personal Development Plan The main contributors to work-life imbalance revealed during my self-assessment were poor self-organization, low time-management skills, and demanding nature of my work. They were confirmed by the feedbacks of my colleagues. As a result, the following personal development goals can be outlined:   * Improvement of self-organization and personal discipline (creating time-schedules and to-do lists for one day, avoiding multitasking)   * Training to boost time-management skills (using materials, exercises, and techniques available online)   * Coping strategies for occupational stress (leisure activities, more active lifestyle) Professional Development Plan   * Resolution of work time problems:       + S: Minimizing time spent on simple and medium tasks at work       + M: By measuring the time spent currently and establishing desired time goals       + A: Eliminating distractions to stimulate progress       + R: Will help save time for more leisure and personal a
Introduction “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”. This is a quote from a poem that is taught to grade school children to help them remember Christopher Columbus and his maiden voyage to discover America. Every October, Americans celebrate Columbus Day to honor this brave hero. Was he really a hero? Did he even discover America? He landed in Central America in 1492, but the Chinese had sailed to the Caribbean in 1421. What about all the crimes he is said to have committed? He is majorly associated with slave trade. In my opinion, the holiday should also honor all those who arrived in America first and rarely spoken of. Discovery of America John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), Sir Henry St. Clair or Antonio Zeno are all names that are much less popular with the general public, unlike Christopher Columbus. This is generally because the discovery of America is greatly attributed to Columbus who in 1942 is said to have visited the Central America (Lathe 1). When Columbus set out in his first voyage, it was for the sole purpose of reaching Asia by sailing to the west and not to discover any new habitation (Minster 1). Lathe in his article explores some details that put to doubt the honor crowned to Columbus as the discoverer of America (Lathe 1). For instance in 1398, it is said that Sir Henry St. Clair had arrived at the coast of America. Antonio Zeno his “chief navigator” is said to have given the details of their voyage (Lathe 1). Even earlier in about 995 AD, it is said that Leif Eiriksson had even settled in “Vinland” which is found in North America (Lathe 1). There is even archaeological evidence put forward by Patricia Sutherland that indicates artifacts of European descent (Lathe 3). Thus a strong opposition can be launched against the argument that Columbus discovered America. It will be an honorable move to give credit to those who were also there before Columbus came, or not to downplay anyone’s discovery, make the C