ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction Religious Pluralism as defined by John Hick, one of the major proponents of this school of thought, is the belief that each religion will lead its followers to salvation, and the differences between religions are a result of various cultural factors which result in different responses and therefore different understandings of the same truth and reality. In response to this school of thought there is a major criticism that there are in reality huge differences between the beliefs of different religions, for example the Quran is strictly monotheistic and refuses to make any allowances for a monotheistic religion like Hinduism, John Hicks says that approaching historical claims with a scientific approach and improved dialogue can resolve many differences between believers of different religions (Wefound.org, n.d.) The purpose of this essay is to explore the room that the Quran allows in terms of religious pluralism with specific regard to Judaism and Christianity and all in all what attitude it possess towards these religions. The method used will be to analyze certain elements of what the Quran says and their implication as far as the perception of Muslim’s regarding these religions and how it reflects on the Quran’s stance on pluralism. Treatment of prophets of Judaism and Christianity One of the key factors to understand and know in regard to this topic is that the Quran recognizes both these religions as part of a line of religions of which the final one was Islam 1 . This means that Muslims are asked to recognize the prophets of Judaism and Christianity as messengers of God and to respect them as such. This important stricture has been repeated many times in the Quran. For example: “ It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion (of judgment between right and wrong).”( Yusuf Ali, 3:3) “We gave Moses the Book, and made it a Guide to the Children of Israel, (commanding): “Take not other than Me as Disposer of (your) affairs. O ye that are sprung from those whom We carried (in the Ark) with Noah! Verily he was a devotee most grateful”( Al-Quran, 17: 2-3) These verses clearly show that the Quran recognizes that it is the same Allah who revealed the Quran to have revealed the Torah and the Bible and he is the one to have inspired their prophets. This immediately indicates two important things. One is that as far as Christianity and Judaism goes the Quran is recognizin
A Benefit or a Harm? By algorithm we understand a list of rules that should be followed in a certain order for the purpose of solving the problem (“Algorithm” par.1). Due to the rapid development of computational technologies, modern software developers have an opportunity to increase the efficiency of their programs with help of advanced algorithms. Nowadays, algorithms are used in many spheres of human activity. Due to a great ambiguousness of the phenomenon, the use of algorithms cannot be called a method causing positive or negative consequences. In fact, the results of the use of various methods of data collection and analysis usually depend upon the real intention of their creator. Algorithms used in different spheres of our activity tend to have different application targets as well. I believe that the use of algorithms is essential if we consider the spheres bearing a direct relation to human health. Algorithms are impossible to replace when it comes to the disease diagnostics. The functioning of almost all medical facilities such as tomographic scanner is based on the use of various algorithms (Villasenor par. 11). What is more, when the doctor is making a diagnosis based on observations that do not require the use of special facilities, he also uses an algorithm. The benefits of the use of algorithms are numerous, as they help to distinguish between the primary and the secondary objectives. Thus, algorithms prevent people from fulfilling unnecessary tasks. At the same time, the algorithms sometimes fail and its consequences can threaten the security of the people and their personal data (Duhigg par.13). What is more, some algorithms are used to arrange the information in accordance to its relevance for the user (Dewey par. 5). In addition to the benefits of such a program, it may also limit or block an access to the information in the social networks that is considered to be irrelevant (Sandvig par. 13). The Use of Algorithms Causes Risks In his article “The Perils of Algorithm-Based Marketing”, Utpal Dholakia (2015) expresses his opinion on the negative sides of marketing strategies based on algorithms. Because of the title of this article, one may suppose it to contain nothing but the critical comments on the use of algorithms in marketing. In fact, the author pays much attention to explaining the reasons why algorithms are indispensable for intelligence analysts. For instance, he mentions that processing of data concerning customers’ preferences and interests is impossible without algorithms. Despite all the benefits that it may bring, the use of algorithms also causes certain risks. In the discussed article, Dholakia cautions companies against the extensive use of algorithms, and he distinguishes a few reasons for that. At firs
Experimental Objective The objective of performing this experiment was to investigate the directions of motion of both open and crossed belt-drive pulleys. As such, a correlation between the drive and the driven shaft in terms of speed was ascertained to establish whether it matches a theoretical explanation. Theoretical Background When focusing on the efficient means of transmitting power between shafts one can hardly overlook gears and chains. However, when it comes to cost-efficient means to the same the belts triumph. To date, with efficiency enhancements made on the belts, they are slowly becoming cheap alternatives to gears and chains. Belts are known for their smooth and quiet runs as well as their abilities to mitigate the effects of load variations on bearings and motors. Moreover, their advantage specifically over gears is that they are economical especially when shafts are wide apart. Nevertheless, one of its many demerits stems from the fact that the ratios between the diameters and that between the angular velocities of the pulleys are not necessarily constant. This is owed to the fact that they are prone to stretch and slips which are significant in determining power transmissions. When it comes to classification, belts can be categorized into four classes including V-belts, flat belts, timing belts, and film belts. All of these are uniquely designed to suit different applications. For instance; timing belts have thread-like patterns on their inner surfaces to provide for ‘no-slip,’ and as such, they are widely applicable where sync is needed as is in locomotives’ timing belt. On the other hand, flat belts are common where speed rather than power is necessary and, where shafts are wide apart (Flather, 1995). The scope of this report is limited to the belt-pulley arrangements as well as a correlation between the speed and diameters. As such, there exist two arrangement systems including open and crossed belt pulley arrangements (Fig. 1). The difference? In an open pulley, the direction of motion of shafts is the same while the opposite is true for crossed belt pulley. As regards speed and diameter, the relationship is believed to assume an inverse trend. Open belt pulley. Closed belt pulley Basically, the power transmitted to the driven pulley at a distance D from the driving pulley is given by the product of the toque (ᴦ) and the angular velocity (ώ). However, this varies depending on the speed ratio, the distance D, pulley belt arrangement, driving unit loads, and service environment. Experimental Procedures For this experiment, a belt drive unit was mounted on a vertically mounted mounting panel. The belt drive unit was such that it consisted of two pairs of pulleys mounted on t
Introduction The French revolution is seen as a period of both social and political upheavals in the History of Europe and France. During the early ages, the French government which was an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for both the Catholic and aristocracy underwent a period of enlightenment on nationalism, inalienable rights, and citizenship. During this period, several changes were accompanied by violent turmoil and warfare which involved major European power. There were other subsequent events during this period some of which include, Napoleonic Wars, the modern French revolution, and the restoration of the monarchy. France was later governed by a dictatorship. The French revolution was not only a crucial event in western history but was also of crucial influence to the philosophical, British intelligence, and political life in the 19 th century. During its first times, it was portrayed as a triumph of forces of reason and was welcomed by English radicals who saw it as a symbolic act that presented the return of humanity to the state of perfection from which it had fallen away. It was the French revolution that was seen to overthrow this old regime to the French people. (Doyle, 1990). Historical factors The French revolution is also associated with historical factors. It’s argued the cause of the French revolution is subject to historical debate. France is one of the most powerful nations in Europe. The masses of the European powers had less freedom and a higher chance of arbitrary punishment. France in 1787 was an absolute monarchy. This monarchy was an unknown form of government during that time since most of the European countries did not use this form of government. The kings during this time acted theoretically and their power was curtailed by prerogatives of the remnants of feudalism. This revolution provided the world with its first meaningful experience with political ideology. It did many things; it unleashed new forces, destroyed the old ideas, and offered new promises. It was the people who made the revolution who came up with these ideas and promises. Many historians see the French revolution as the encounter of competing classes. The revolution is seen, to begin with, as an aristocratic protest against the absolute monarchy requested by Louis XIV. The bourgeois movement seeking fundamental political change and taking popular dimensions with the working class led also to this revolution. During the 18 th century, political life was the reassertion of the French nobility. This revolution led to the massive shifting of powers from the Roman Catholic Church to the state. The church during this time was the largest landowner in the country. It was during this time the legislation abolished the church authorities to heavy taxation on crops which were known as a dime. Certain privileges to the clergy were canceled and took the church property. All the church property was confiscated and this cat led to a response by the archbishop of Aix. It was
The story of Dido and Aeneas became a source of endless inspiration for many generations which succeeded in Vergil’s work. Though the poem’s creation was encouraged by the emperor Augustus, Vergil put into The Aeneid not only a laudatory narration of Roman people origin but vividly depicted social and moral values of that period; he also covered controversial consequences of the conflict between private interests and social responsibilities. Aeneas’ destiny represents the dilemma mentioned above, he has to follow Gods’ will even if his desires do not coincide with the given divine command: he did not want to leave Troy; when he came to Dido, he wanted to stay with her; then he came to Latinus, wanted to stay there and marry Lavinia. The reasons for his obedience lay in the fact, that Aeneas is a social man, moreover, a statesman; his life is a path with a definite aim ahead. He has to find a new homeland, while his and Dido’s love is a pure accident. Though they share a strong feeling, love is inferior to the public matter in the hierarchy of moral values for Aeneas, who is a hero and a public character. At the same time, Dido’s world got narrowed and became equal to her feelings. In other words, the loss of Aeneas meant the loss of the world for her. Though Aeneas also is not indifferent about their parting: Aeneas’s reminder to Dido that they were never officially married suggests, somewhat dubiously, that had they entered into such an ordained commitment he would not leave. But, he argues, without a true marriage, he is sacrificing only his desires by leaving Dido. (Virgil) He was forced to leave her, as he told her in the underworld. For Vergil, civil responsibilities were first-priority values that a man should have kept. Speaking about the political motives of The Aeneid we should take into account the fact that the emperor was the one who inspired Vergil to write the poem. According to the official version of Roman origin they were successors of the Trojan people, while the gens Julia descended from Aeneas, the son of Venus. As long as Emperor Augustus reckoned himself to Julia’s kin, he became the heir of Gods. The poem was meant to become praise to Augustus’s ancestors and ancient regulations, as long as August considered himself a restorer of ancient traditions. New taste in literature was guided by examples of classical art, so, the epoch demanded the creation of a big epic work, enriched by new social and political content. Moreover, the rapid development of the Roman Empire required not only historical but also ideological explanations. Mythology is often used to turn an ordinary story into a miraculous one, the same that happened with The Aeneid. Thereby, Vergil created a new kind of epic poem. Moreover, his work in this or that way competes with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. The appearance of a significant literary poem undoubtedly influenced the social and political life of the Roman Empire. Thanks to The Aeneid Ancient Rome substantiated its enormous power. Myths became a propitious ground for creating a new ideology, as
Executive summary Central Carolina Hospital’s management team has decided to buy a new model X-ray machine and replace the existing machine. This is a capital investment undertaken by the company whose benefits are expected to surpass the investment cost. Total investment costs are in terms of acquisition costs and operational costs (Anon, 2001). Benefits will be derived from internal and external customers. The machine will also result in social benefits as it is expected to raise the standards of medical facilities in the locality. The duration that the machine is expected to be in good operational form is five years and will have a scarp value of £440,000. When the values have been interpolated using project analysis methods like social benefit analysis, Net value method, and payback method, the venture is seen as viable since it will result in both monetary and social benefit to the hospital. Maintaining high standards and improving the health of the community is the main agenda of the hospital shareholders and manager; it also goes in line with the hospital’s vision and mission statement. When the machine is acquired, it will fulfill the objectives and vision of the hospital. Budgeting for the X-ray machine When budgeting for an asset, two sides must be considered; the gains and the costs involved in the acquisition. Capital budgeting in a hospital setting has two benefits they are;   * Monetary gain; this is the gain that the hospital is going to get in terms of financial returns from the project. The major source of this benefit is from the collection of customers and referral cases. There are other benefits like capital investment reliefs that the hospital is likely to get from the government.   * The next benefit that the hospital is likely to accrue from the project is a social benefit. This is the benefit that is attributed to better services to patients and the general welfare of society. Social costs cannot be given a monetary value but the truth is they exist and should be considered when buying the machine (Hefeker, 2006
Introduction The Enron Scandal, uncovered in 2001, was one of the largest accounting frauds in history. The fraud occurred as a result of accounting gaps and poor financial reporting which allowed top executives to conceal billions of debts from failed deals and projects. The company’s CFO and other executives not only lied to its BOD and audit team on risky accounting norms, but also pressed Arthur Andersen to ignore the issues. Arthur Andersen was handling Enron’s auditing activities during this period. As a result of the Enron scandal, shareholders lost billions of dollars and the company was eventually declared bankrupt. Arthur Andersen willingly surrendered its licenses to practice auditing in the US and sold most of its practices (Healy & Palepu, 2003). As a result of the scandal, a number of regulations were implemented by the government to prevent similar activities from happening again. The most common piece of legislation implemented was the Sarbanes–Oxley Act. Sarbanes–Oxley Act This act was signed into law in 200 and hence sometimes referred to as the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002. The act set new or improved standards for all American-based public company boards, management and public accounting and auditing companies (Kuschnik, 2008). The act was enacted following a series of accounting scandals by large corporations in the US, including Enron, Tyco International and WorldCom. The scandals cost shareholders and tax collection agencies billions in dollars, affected share prices, and led to the collapse of some of the companies. The Sarbanes–Oxley Act comprises of 11 titles ranging from supplementary management board roles to criminal penalties, and compels the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to implement the outlines of the act. Key provisions of the act include disclosure controls, improper influence on conduct of audits, disclosures in quarterly reports, evaluation of internal controls, and criminal penalties for violating the provisions of the act (Farrell, 2005). Under disclosure controls, the Act sets out internal processes aimed at ensuring accurate financial reporting. The signing officers must verify that they are “responsible for establishing and maintaining internal controls” and the officers must have assessed the efficiency of the firm’s internal controls as current three months prior to the report (Kuschnik, 2008). Further, external auditors are obliged to provide their opinions on the effectiveness of the internal controls during financial reporting (Kuschnik, 2008). The title on improper influence on conduct of audits states that is illegal for an officer (or any other person acting under the commission’s mandate) to partake in any activity meant to falsely sway, force, influence, or misinform any independent public or certified accountant undertaking audit of the financial statements of that company. Under the title on disclosures in quarterly (or periodic) reports, the Act requires the di
Introduction Quality management in the public sector has ignited a heated debate among scholars, some arguing that the applicability of quality management in the public sector is a hectic task. The skeptics of the public sector’s quality management techniques cite the political interference and the bureaucracy in the public sector as the main challenges limiting the operation of the quality management techniques in the sector (Flynn, 2007). The need to provide quality goods and services to the customers has facilitated the adoption of quality management techniques in the past few decades. The private sector has fully implemented the quality management techniques documented in the literature to improve the quality of goods and services. This paper proposes research to unravel the applicability and efficiency of the quality management in the public sector. To achieve the stated objectives, the paper shall propose the conduction of the research through both the qualitative and the quantitative techniques. The paper shall also describe the process of designing an effective questionnaire and highlight the importance of statistical analysis in research. Literature review Diefenbach (2009) posits that bureaucracy and politics derail the implementation of quality management in the public sector. He argues that the changes in policy caused by changes in the administration cause instability in the sector. The elected government can alter the policies implemented by the previous regime. Additionally, the policymakers are usually politicians, which means that a change in government will mean a change in the policies. Karia and Hasmi (2006) identify the staff resistance to change as a causal factor of the slow pace of the adoption of quality management techniques in most institutions. Employees are usually reluctant to embrace changes in the operations due to the perception that such changes may complicate their work or lead to unemployment. In that regard, the application of the quality management strategies in public institutions is derailed by the mentioned misconceptions. For quality management to work in the public sector, employees need to be trained to handle their new tasks following the implementation of the quality management systems. Van Dooren, Bouckaert, and Halligan (2015) argue that quality management is non-existent in the public sector, with customers obtaining poor quality goods and services from the government institutions. The author proposes the introduction of Total Quality Managem
Predicting High Levels of Multitasking Reduces Between-Tasks Interactions “Predicting High Levels of Multitasking Reduces Between-Tasks Interactions” by Rico Fischer and Gesine Dreisbach stated that the simultaneous handling of two tasks requires protecting the prioritized primary task from the interference of the secondary task processing. Therefore, the authors aimed to present an effective way of reducing multitasking by predicting its high levels to reduce the between-tasks interactions. The authors hypothesized that the performance of two tasks at the same time could be interrupted by secondary task processing, especially in cases when primary and secondary tasks are similar. To test their hypothesis, researchers implemented an “item-specific proportion manipulation of temporal task overlap” (Fischer & Dreisbach, 2015, p. 1482). The experiment included 44 students (35 female and 9 male) from Technische Universitat Dresden. It is crucial to mention that all study participants had normal vision, and only one student reported left-handedness. Participants were given a specific task for completion, which included stimuli (S1 – digits 2, 3, 7, 8 and S2 – 1, 4, 6, 9), presented on a black and white monitor in 20-point Arial font. The first group of stimuli was responded to with middle and right index fingers, while the second group of stimuli was responded to with left middle and index fingers. To respond to the given stimuli, participants were given to use a German QWERTZ keyboard. The entire experiment was presented and recorded by Presentation Software. The strength of the study was associated with the conducted experiment that gave reliable results, while, on the other hand, was limited to a relatively small sample s