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Topic Review
Consent Decree
A consent decree is an agreement or settlement that resolves a dispute between two parties without admission of guilt (in a criminal case) or liability (in a civil case), and most often refers to such a type of settlement in the United States . The plaintiff and the defendant ask the court to enter into their agreement, and the court maintains supervision over the implementation of the decree in monetary exchanges or restructured interactions between parties. It is similar to and sometimes referred to as an antitrust decree, stipulated judgment, settlement agreements, or consent judgment. Consent decrees are frequently used by federal courts to ensure that businesses and industries adhere to regulatory laws in areas such as antitrust law, employment discrimination, and environmental regulation.
  • 2.5K
  • 07 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Christian Republic
A Christian republic is a government that is both Christian and republican. Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke considered the idea to be an impossibility and a self-contradiction, but for different reasons. As of the 21st century, the only countries in the world with a republican form of government and with Christianity as the established religion are Argentina, Costa Rica, Finland, Greece, Armenia, Samoa, Iceland, and Malta. Some other republics, such as Georgia, Peru, Guatemala, Panama, El Salvador, and Paraguay, give some credit or preference to Christianity, but without establishing it as the religion of the state. Others, such as Hungary, and Zambia, describe themselves as Christian countries. In A Letter Concerning Toleration, Locke wrote that "there is absolutely no such thing, under the Gospel, as a Christian Commonwealth". By this he meant that political authority cannot be validly founded upon Christianity. Rousseau, in On the Social Contract (in book 4, chapter 8), echoed this, saying that "I am mistaken in saying 'a Christian republic'; the two words are mutually exclusive.". However, Rousseau's point was subtly different, in that he was asserting that a civic identity cannot be moulded out of Christianity. David Walsh, founder of the National Institute on Media and the Family, acknowledges that there is a "genuine tension ... between Christianity and the political order" that Rousseau was acknowledging, arguing that "many Christians would, after all, agree with him that a 'Christian republic' is a contradiction in terms" and that the two live "in an uneasy relationship in actual states, and social cohesion has often been bought at the price of Christian universalism". Robert Neelly Bellah has observed that most of the great republican theorists of the Western world have shared Rousseau's concerns about the mutually exclusive nature of republicanism and Christianity, from Machiavelli (more on which later) to Alexis de Tocqueville. Rousseau's thesis is that the two are incompatible because they make different demands upon the virtuous man. Christianity, according to Rousseau, demands submission (variously termed "servitude" or "slavery" by scholars of his work) to imposed authority and resignation, and requires focus upon the unworldly; whereas republicanism demands participation rather than submission, and requires focus upon the worldly. Rousseau's position on Christianity is not universally held. Indeed, it was refuted by, amongst others, his friend Antoine-Jacques Roustan in a reply to the Social Contract. Rousseau's thesis has a basis in the prior writings of Niccolò Machiavelli, whom Rousseau called a "bon citoyen et honnête homme" and who alongside Montesquieu was one of Rousseau's sources for republican philosophy. In his Discoursi Machiavelli observes that Christianity in practice has not met the ideals of its foundation, and that the resultant corruption leads, when mixed with secular political ideals, to something that is neither good religion nor good politics. Further, he argues, whilst Christianity does not preclude love for one's country, it does require citizens to endure damage to republican government, stating that the best civic virtue in regards to a republic is to show no mercy to the republic's enemies and to put to death or to enslave the inhabitants of an opposing city that has been defeated.
  • 2.5K
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Love Letter
A love letter is a romantic way to express feelings of love in written form. Whether delivered by hand, mail, carrier pigeon, or romantically left in a secret location, the letter may be anything from a short and simple message of love to a lengthy explanation of feelings. Love letters may 'move through the widest range of emotions – devotion, disappointment, grief and indignation, self-confidence, ambition, impatience, self-reproach and resignation'.
  • 2.5K
  • 17 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Apricot
Fruits maintain the image as the richest sources of vitamins. Focusing on apricots, utilization of apricot species for many applications is possible due to its various benefits. Many research studies demonstrated different perspectives of apricot, especially in medical used as it can act as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial agents. Moreover, in the industrial sectors, apricots can be used in the production of biofuels and batteries.
  • 2.5K
  • 18 Aug 2022
Topic Review
War on Women
War on Women is a slogan in United States politics used to describe certain Republican Party policies and legislation as a wide-scale effort to restrict women's rights, especially reproductive rights. Prominent Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer, as well as feminists, have used the phrase to criticize proponents of these laws as trying to force their social views on women through legislation. The slogan has been used to describe Republican policies in areas such as access to reproductive health services, particularly birth control and abortion services; the prosecution of criminal violence against women; the definition of rape for the purpose of the public funding of abortion; and workplace discrimination against women. While used in other contexts, and prior to 2010, it became a common slogan in American political discourse after the 2010 congressional elections. The term is often used to describe opposition to the contraceptive mandate in Obamacare and policies to defund women's health organizations that perform abortions, such as Planned Parenthood. The concept again gained attention in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when Republican nominee Donald Trump drew notice for a history of inflammatory statements and actions toward women. The phrase and the concept have been criticized by Republicans and some pro-life Democrats. Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus described it as an over-simplified fiction advanced by Democrats and the media while other Republicans contended that such rhetoric was used as a distraction from President Barack Obama and the Democrats' handling of the economy. In August 2012, Todd Akin's controversial comments regarding pregnancy and rape sparked renewed media focus on the concept. Republicans have tried to turn the phrase against Democrats by using it to argue hypocrisy for not critiquing sex scandals of members within their Party who have cheated, sexted, and harassed women; and for not supporting bills to combat sex-selective abortion.
  • 2.5K
  • 07 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Latina Stereotypes in Hip Hop
Beginning in the 1960s, hip hop music was centered around the ideas of cultural discourse in urban communities where Latinos and African Americans resided. Through this music, the lyrics quickly became misogynistic and violent in response to the way that these marginalized cultures viewed by mainstream society. Much of hip hop's beginnings can be traced back to the Bronx, New York, where the population consisted of mainly African-Americans and Latinos. During the 1960s and 1970s, New York City was in an economic slump. The conditions in the Bronx and other low income areas were substandard; issues facing the community included: insufficient housing, gang violence, and drugs. Blacks and Latinos came together to speak on their struggles, experiences, and lifestyles through hip hop. After recognizing these trends in hip hop/rap lyrics, mainstream media accredited hip hop culture with being inherently misogynistic. Due to the historic marginalization of Latinos and African Americans, the blame can be easily placed on hip hop artists for perpetuating this violent and masochistic culture. This is not something that is/was taken lightly by these communities of color; more rebellion through hip hop emerged. However, this movement did not attempt to fix the misogynistic elements of the music, and in turn, more women were being viewed as sexual objects within artist's works. Latinos, particularly Puerto Ricans, were at the forefront of the hip hop movement, however; they have often been forgotten in conversation. Nonetheless, we can see the presence and influence of Latinos in hip hop when we think about artist like: Africa Bambaataa & the members of the Zulu Nation (1960s), Latino DJ, DJ Disco Wiz (aka first Latino DJ in hip hop) & DJ Grandmaster Caz came together to form the Mighty Force (1974), DJ Charlie Chase of the Cold Crush Brothers (1975), Lee Quiñones & Lady Pink (1970s), and various others have allowed for Latinos to have a part in hip hop culture and hip hop history. Latina's also had a huge role in hip hop, women who were not on the hip hop stage take part in: the influence and making of music and hip hop performance, dancing of music, and graffiti art. Today we see Latinas like: La Caballota aka Ivy Queen (1995), Ana Bijoux (1995), Angie Martinez: "The Voice of New York" (1996), Hurricane G aka Gloria Rodriguez (1997), Mala Rodríguez (1990s), Lisa M: "The Queen of Spanish Rap" (1988), Nina Dioz (2009), Snow Tha Product aka Claudia Feliciano (2011), Mélony Redondo: MelyMel (2018) have been women who have all taken the stage and made their mark as Latina and Afro-Latina rappers/artist in the hip hop world.
  • 2.5K
  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Jewish Views on Marriage
The Jewish view on marriage, historically, provided Biblically mandated rights to the wife which were accepted by the husband. A marriage was ended either because of a divorce document given by the man to his wife, or by the death of either party. Certain details, primarily as protections for the wife, were added in Talmudic times. Non-Orthodox developments have brought changes in who may marry whom. Intermarriage is not encouraged.
  • 2.5K
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Sex Differences in Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EI) involves using cognitive and emotional abilities to function in interpersonal relationships, social groups as well as manage one's emotional states. It consists of abilities such as social cognition, empathy and reasoning about the emotions of others. Current literature finds women have higher emotional intelligence ability than men based on common ability tests such as MSCEIT and the newer Test of Emotional Intelligence. Reviews, meta-analysis and studies of physiological measures, behavioral tests and brain neuroimaging also support such findings.
  • 2.5K
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
BRP for Non-Residential Buildings
According to its strategic long-term vision, Europe wants to be a climate-neutral economy by 2050 and buildings represent a sector with low-cost opportunities for high-level CO2 reduction. The main challenge is to increase the renovation rate of the existing building stock, which currently is around 1.2%/year. The ALliance for Deep RENovation (ALDREN) project developed a Holistic and reliable European Voluntary Certification Scheme to trigger deep renovation of non-residential buildings. The ALDREN approach is composed by a sum of protocols and tools with the goal of encouraging property owners to undertake renovation of existing buildings using a clear, robust, and comparable method using coherent and harmonized instruments, the so called ALDREN EPC and ALDREN Building Renovation Passport for non-residential buildings.
  • 2.5K
  • 01 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Chinese Emperors Family Tree (Middle)
The following is a family tree of China emperors (420-1279), from the Northern and Southern dynasties period, of first half of the fifth century AD, until the conquest of China by the Mongols under Kublai Khan, and the end of the Southern Song dynasty in 1279. Chinese emperors family tree (ancient) → Chinese emperors family tree (early) → Chinese emperors family tree (middle) → Chinese emperors family tree (late)
  • 2.5K
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Envy-free Item Allocation
Envy-free (EF) item allocation is a fair item allocation problem, in which the fairness criterion is envy-freeness - each agent should receive a bundle that they believe to be at least as good as the bundle of any other agent.:296–297 Since the items are indivisible, an EF assignment may not exist. The simplest case is when there is a single item and at least two agents: if the item is assigned to one agent, the other will envy. Therefore, the division procedures provide various kinds of relaxations.
  • 2.5K
  • 21 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Art History
Art history is the study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts; that is genre, design, format, and style. The study includes painting, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, furniture, and other decorative objects. As a term, art history (its product being history of art) encompasses several methods of studying the visual arts; in common usage referring to works of art and architecture. Aspects of the discipline overlap. As the art historian Ernst Gombrich once observed, "the field of art history [is] much like Caesar's Gaul, divided in three parts inhabited by three different, though not necessarily hostile tribes: (i) the connoisseurs, (ii) the critics, and (iii) the academic art historians". As a discipline, art history is distinguished from art criticism, which is concerned with establishing a relative artistic value upon individual works with respect to others of comparable style, or sanctioning an entire style or movement; and art theory or "philosophy of art", which is concerned with the fundamental nature of art. One branch of this area of study is aesthetics, which includes investigating the enigma of the sublime and determining the essence of beauty. Technically, art history is not these things, because the art historian uses historical method to answer the questions: How did the artist come to create the work?, Who were the patrons?, Who were his or her teachers?, Who was the audience?, Who were his or her disciples?, What historical forces shaped the artist's oeuvre, and how did he or she and the creation, in turn, affect the course of artistic, political, and social events? It is, however, questionable whether many questions of this kind can be answered satisfactorily without also considering basic questions about the nature of art. The current disciplinary gap between art history and the philosophy of art (aesthetics) often hinders this inquiry. Art history is not only a biographical endeavor. Art historians often root their studies in the scrutiny of individual objects. They thus attempt to answer in historically specific ways, questions such as: What are key features of this style?, What meaning did this object convey?, How does it function visually?, Did the artist meet their goals well?, What symbols are involved?, and Does it function discursively? The historical backbone of the discipline is a celebratory chronology of beautiful creations commissioned by public or religious bodies or wealthy individuals in western Europe. Such a "canon" remains prominent, as indicated by the selection of objects present in art history textbooks. Nonetheless, since the 20th century there has been an effort to re-define the discipline to be more inclusive of non-Western art, art made by women, and vernacular creativity.
  • 2.5K
  • 02 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Jury Nullification
Jury nullification is a concept where members of a trial jury find a defendant not guilty if they do not support a government's law, do not believe it is constitutional or humane, or do not support a possible punishment for breaking the law. This may happen in both civil and criminal trials. In a criminal trial, a jury nullifies by acquitting a defendant, even though the members of the jury may believe that the defendant did commit the alleged crime. This may occur when members of the jury disagree with the law the defendant has been charged with breaking, or believe that the law should not be applied in that particular case. A jury can similarly convict a defendant on the ground of disagreement with an existing law, even if no law is broken (although in jurisdictions with double jeopardy rules, a conviction can be overturned on appeal, but an acquittal cannot). A jury verdict that is contrary to the letter of the law pertains only to the particular case before it. If a pattern of acquittals develops, however, in response to repeated attempts to prosecute a statutory offence, this can have the de facto effect of invalidating the statute. A pattern of jury nullification may indicate public opposition to an unwanted legislative enactment. In the past, it was feared that a single judge or panel of government officials might be unduly influenced to follow established legal practice, even when that practice had drifted from its origins. In most modern Western legal systems, however, judges often instruct juries to act only as "finders of facts", whose role it is to determine the veracity of the evidence presented, the weight accorded to the evidence, to apply that evidence to the law as explained by the judge, and to reach a verdict; but not to question the law or decide what it says. Similarly, juries are routinely cautioned by courts and some attorneys not to allow sympathy for a party or other affected persons to compromise the fair and dispassionate evaluation of evidence. These instructions are criticized by advocates of jury nullification. Some commonly cited historical examples of jury nullification involve jurors refusing to convict persons accused of violating the Fugitive Slave Act by assisting runaway slaves or being fugitive slaves themselves, and refusal of American colonial juries to convict a defendant under English law. Juries have also refused to convict due to the perceived injustice of a law in general, or of the way the law is applied in particular cases. There have also been cases where the jury has refused to convict due to their own prejudices (for example, about the race of one of the parties in the case).
  • 2.5K
  • 16 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Hollywood Indian
The Hollywood Indian is a fictitious stock character, a stereotype and representation of Native Americans used in television and movies, especially in the Western genre. The image of the Hollywood Indian reflects contemporary and historical Native American popular culture. Closely connected to myths and images created about Native Americans and the Wild West, the stereotype has undergone significant changes from the beginning of cinema to the present day.
  • 2.5K
  • 13 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage
The conservation and restoration of cultural heritage focuses on protection and care of tangible cultural heritage, including artworks, architecture, archaeology, and museum collections. Conservation activities include preventive conservation, examination, documentation, research, treatment, and education. This field is closely allied with conservation science, curators and registrars.
  • 2.5K
  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Empowering Healthcare Leaders: Coaching for Leadership Development
Coaching is a dynamic, evolving field that seeks to unlock individuals’ potential to achieve their personal and professional best. It has gained widespread recognition across various sectors as an effective means of leadership skills development, including in the vital healthcare sector, which requires innovative strategies to build leadership skills that can sustain high-quality services and maintain patient safety. Many healthcare organizations have thus embraced coaching as a valuable tool for leadership development. This review presents the definitions, concepts, methodology, and applications of coaching, and identifies its salient characteristics in relation to other professions. The second section of this study focuses on a literature review, specifically examining coaching in the healthcare industry and its role as a method for leadership development. The outcome from the review offers insights and results from a review of related research, specifically identifying the potential for coaching within healthcare and its effectiveness in leadership development. The information gathered from this study provides valuable guidance to healthcare leaders and organizations seeking to implement coaching practices in their leadership development programs.
  • 2.4K
  • 08 Jan 2025
Topic Review
Visual Rhetoric
Visual rhetoric is the art of effective communication through visual elements such as images, typography, and texts. Visual rhetoric encompasses the skill of visual literacy and the ability to analyze images for their form and meaning. Drawing on techniques from semiotics and rhetorical analysis, visual rhetoric expands on visual literacy as it examines the structure of an image with the focus on its persuasive effects on an audience. Although visual rhetoric also involves typography and other texts, it concentrates mainly on the use of images or visual texts. Using images is central to visual rhetoric because these visuals help in either forming the case an image alone wants to convey, or arguing the point that a writer formulates, in the case of a multimodal text which combines image and written text, for example. Visual rhetoric has gained more notoriety as more recent scholarly work started exploring alternative media forms that include graphics, screen design, and other hybrid visual representations that does not privilege print culture and conventions. Also, visual rhetoric involves how writers arrange segments of a visual text on the page. In addition to that, visual rhetoric involves the selection of different fonts, contrastive colors, and graphs, among other elements, to shape a visual rhetoric text. One vital component of visual rhetoric is analyzing the visual text. The interactional and commonly hybrid nature of cyber spaces that usually mixes print text and visual images unable some detachment of them as isolated constructs, and scholarship has claimed that especially in virtual spaces where print text and visuals are usually combined, there is no place either for emphasizing one mode over another. One way of analyzing a visual text is to look for its significant meaning. Simply put, the meaning should be deeper than the literal sense that a visual text holds. One way to analyze a visual text is to dissect it in order for the viewer to understand its tenor. Viewers can break the text into smaller parts and share perspectives to reach its meaning. In analyzing a text that includes an image of the bold eagle, as the main body of the visual text, questions of representation and connotation come into play. Analyzing a text that includes a photo, painting, or even cartoon of the bold eagle along with written words, would bring to mind the conceptions of strength and freedom, rather than the conception of merely a bird. This includes an understanding of the creative and rhetorical choices made with coloring, shaping, and object placement. The power of imagery, iconic photographs, for instance, can potentially generate actions in a global scale. Rhetorical choices carry great significance that surpass reinforcement of the written text.  Each choice, be font, color, layout, represents a different message that author wants to portray for the audience. Visual rhetoric emphasizes images as sensory expressions of cultural and contextual meaning, as opposed to purely aesthetic consideration. Analyzing visuals and their power to convey messages is central to incorporating visual rhetoric within the digital era as nuances of choices regarding audience, purpose and genre can be analyzed within a single frame and the rationale behind designers’ rhetorical choices can be revealed and analyzed by how the elements of visuals play out altogether. Visual rhetoric has been approached and applied in a variety of academic fields including art history, linguistics, semiotics, cultural studies, business and technical communication, speech communication, and classical rhetoric. Visual rhetoric seeks to develop rhetorical theory in a way that is more comprehensive and inclusive with regard to images and their interpretations.
  • 2.4K
  • 17 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Verse of Mawadda
The Verse of Mawadda (Arabic: آية الْمَوَدَّة) refers to verse 42:23 of the Quran, the interpretation of which is disputed. This verse is often cited in Shia sources to support the elevated status of the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, known as the Ahl al-Bayt. Most Sunni authors reject the Shia view and offer various alternatives.
  • 2.4K
  • 02 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Huntington–Hill Method
The Huntington–Hill method of apportionment assigns seats by finding a modified divisor D such that each constituency's priority quotient (its population divided by D), using the geometric mean of the lower and upper quota for the divisor, yields the correct number of seats that minimizes the percentage differences in the size of subconstituencies. When envisioned as a proportional electoral system, it is effectively a highest averages method of party-list proportional representation in which the divisors are given by [math]\displaystyle{ \scriptstyle D=\sqrt{n(n+1)} }[/math], n being the number of seats a state or party is currently allocated in the apportionment process (the lower quota) and n+1 is the number of seats the state or party would have if it is assigned to the party list (the upper quota). Although no legislature uses this method of apportionment to assign seats to parties after an election, it was considered for House of Lords elections under the ill-fated House of Lords Reform Bill. The method is how the United States House of Representatives assigns the number of representative seats to each state – the purpose for which it was devised – and the Census Bureau calls it the method of equal proportions. It is credited to Edward Vermilye Huntington and Joseph Adna Hill.
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  • 06 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Deathtrap (Plot Device)
A deathtrap is a literary and dramatic plot device in which a villain who has captured the hero or another sympathetic character attempts to use an elaborate, improbable, and usually sadistic method of murdering them. It is often used as a means to create dramatic tension in the story and to have the villain reveal important information to the hero, confident that the hero will shortly not be able to use it. It may also be a means to show the hero's resourcefulness in escaping, or the writer's ingenuity at devising a last-minute rescue or deus ex machina.
  • 2.4K
  • 04 Nov 2022
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