ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Key Concepts Living in the modern world people live in the consumer society. To get a closer understanding of the notion ‘consumer society’, people should pay attention to the life style they follow. Having a lot of different goods at the market, people consume those and buy more and more other goods. One of the main characteristic features of a consumer society is that while consuming different products people do not do it independently, in vacuum. People are inevitable participants of the consumer society, as buying products they want to buy more and more other related or dependant ones. For example, when people buy a toothbrush, they are unable to use it isolated from other objects, they need toothpaste to get the highest effect from the bought product. The same is about other products, buying some goods, people always want to buy more. Ideology Ideology is a notion which may refer to different spheres of human life. One of the broadest meanings of this notion is the way people think. Ideology is not just the ideas people have in their minds in the relation to one specific problem. Ideology is a set of rules and norms people live with. People should not confuse ideology and culture as these are two absolutely different notions. Culture is an objective notion which just exists in the society. Culture is created out of traditions which have been formulating for many years. Ideology is a personal subjective treatment of the surrounding world, the attitude to each other and the desire to show a piece of a picture as a whole. Ideology tends to make complex notions simple. Propaganda is one of the sides of ideology, as its main idea is the conviction of other people that his way of thinking is the only correct. Semiotics Semiotics is a notion which is aimed at exploring different signs and symbols. One of the best practical applications of semiotics is the creation of different planned or constructed languages. Living in the modern world, it is impossible to imagine contemporary life without computers. Programming languages are an inevitable part of any computer program and software. Being divided into different branches, semiotics studies different qualities of sign systems, the relation between signs and symbols and their meaning, the connection between symbols their interpretation. Speech and language are the main objects of research in semiotics. Envy, Desire and Belonging in Advertising Envy, desire and belonging in advertising are the notions which can exist only in the consumer society. When people watch advertising they want what they see. The feeling of desire may be provoked by a number of reasons. It is not a problem when people want what they see because they need it, advertisement just helps them choose a brand. The problem appears when people want to buy a product because they envy those who possess it. This is called an advertising belonging. No matter whether people need this product or not, they will surely buy it as their desire to possess the thing others ha
Introduction The strategic analysis can help the company to advance its strategic position by studying the product, market, or the organization itself. The choice of these tools depends mainly on the organization’s needs and goals, as well as on the issues experienced by the company. Given the goals and concerns existing with the Panera Bread Company, there are three main strategic tools that would be useful to the organization. Five Forces Analysis Porter’s Five Forces analysis offers an overview of the external factors affecting the company’s performance. Porter’s model states that the key external factors affecting the company’s position in the market are the threat of entry of new competitors, the threat of substitutes, the bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, and the overall industry rivalry (Dobbs, 2014). The analysis would be useful for Panera Bread, as it is a company operating in a highly competitive fast-food market; therefore, having a solid knowledge of the external threats and factors affecting success would be useful to inform the organization’s strategic planning. 7S Analysis The 7S Analysis is used to analyze the organization itself by researching how the separate elements of the company’s structure align with its goals (Ravanfar, 2015). The 7S analysis emphasizes the importance of human resources as the key factor affecting organizational performance (Ravanfar, 2015). The particular factors influencing the work of human resources are the ‘Soft S’ factors, including shared values, style, skills, and staff. ‘Hard S’ values, on the other hand, are the structure, systems, and strategy. Therefore, the model would be beneficial to Panera Bread as it allows studying the internal factors affecting organizational performance. The 7S analysis would complement the results of the Five Forces analysis, producing a well-rounded overview of the company and its strategic position. Financial Performance Analysis Like any other business, Panera Bread seeks to grow and develop its profits. Thus, financial performance analysis is crucial to keep track of the company’s success and identify any weaknesses in the current strategic approach. One of the key tools for financial performance analysis for Panera Bread should be the net profit margin, which is the main ratio describing the profitability of the company (Dyer, Godfrey, Jensen, & Bryce, 2016). In particular, it would be useful to perform a comparative analysis, judging the company’s financial performance against its competitors’ figures (Dyer et al., 2016). Irrelevant Tools There are also a few tools that would not be useful in analyzing Panera Bread Company and its strategic position in the market. For instance, among the financial analysis tools, Times Interest Earned would not be relevant, as the company does not have debt payments that pose a significant concern. The TIE tool is more appropriate for SMEs looking to enhance their creditworthiness and ensure the ability to pay out existing deb
Patient care is a practice that has evolved a lot over the last few decades. Patient care has evolved to encompass medical practitioners, insurance companies, and family members. The following case is an incident that involves a bedridden patient and her family members. In this scenario, the family members are charging the patient money for food and laundry services. Several ethical and legal implications come into play in this scenario. This paper explores some of the ethical and legal aspects that apply to this situation. When sick people depend on family members for assistance, they always risk being exploited. One of the most common forms of exploitation when it comes to patient care is financial exploitation. However, the fact that in this case, the family members are taking money from a bed-ridden patient does not necessarily translate to financial exploitation. First, ‘taking’ money from a bed-ridden patient is unethical. However, ‘charging’ money to a bed-ridden patient is ethically and morally acceptable. In the latter scenario, the family members would wait for the patient to get back on her feet before requiring her to pay for their care. Several organizations that deal with patient care ethics agree that it is okay to charge a fair market rate for amenities that are used by a patient during homecare. Consequently, the real issue would be if the family members are over-charging for their services. Home caregivers are covered by the same ethics that cover nurses and other medical practitioners. Therefore, if the family members sign up for the role of caregivers, they should maintain a high level of ethics and professionalism. For instance, if a nurse discovers that the patient is not being fed well, he/she is required to report this matter to the relevant authorities. In addition, a patient’s level of hygiene should be at par with the recommended standards. The conflict between legal and ethical implications can only happen if the patient is not aware that she is paying for her family’s services. However, if the arrangement between the family members and the patient was mutually pre-agreed, there are no legal and ethical conflicts regarding the situation.
In implementing instructional technology, administrators may have several objectives. These objectives are based on the individual instructional goal that is expected to be achieved by the use of technology. Before coming up with the goals or objectives, administrators must have sat down and formulated a plan to determine and analyze the reasons for use of technology for teaching and learning purposes. In most cases after the planning process, administrators come up with similar objectives that include: technology supporting inquiry from the students, facilitating and enhancing the process of communication in the classroom, assisting the students in understanding concepts through critical analysis of data, and lastly technology helping to extend information access especially in the use of the internet (Lowenthal, 2010). There are various forms of technology that can be used for classroom instructions. These forms only differ with the purpose for which they are intended. Each form has its own unique objective that is aimed at enhancing the learning process. Some of these forms include computers and the internet, projections, video content, handheld technologies such as palmtop computers, and various educational software. Taking a look at the software programs, it is noticed that they have more specific instructional goals. For instance, a word processor might help a student develop good communication skills (Anderson, 2003). Spreadsheet software and the database will instill in a student the ability to organize things, something essential for the positive development of a student. Then there are modeling software for example in chemistry there could be software that gives every important detail of all the elements of the periodic table. These modeling software programs would assist a student in understanding scientific and mathematical concepts. Technology in the classroom assists the students to have a wide range of information access and hence being exposed to more resources. This is achievable especially with the use of the internet to enhance learning. The internet provides access to a lot of information which can be very useful to students. Internet access has even been made easier by the introduction of easily portable gadgets such as mobile phones, laptops, and handheld computers. All these technological devices can be used in the classroom to enhance teaching and learning (NCREL, 2005). The other objective is assisting students to understand concepts thro
Intercultural communication is faced by quite a number of barriers. Identifying the specific barriers by trying to learn the appropriate and inappropriate characteristics in every culture that one comes across is practically impossible. There is absolutely no way through which one is able to learn all the norms of every culture and their sub-culture all in a bid to understand the various barriers to intercultural communication. As a result, the only viable means of identifying these barriers is by generalizing their levels. This then prompted a scholar, LaRay M. Barna, to come up with the following barrier to intercultural communication.  1. Anxiety  2. Stereotype and prejudice  3. Ethnocentrism  4. Assuming similarity instead of differences Anxiety According to Barna, anxiety is one of the most common barriers to intercultural communication. He explains that people usually become absentminded in the event that they become very anxious. It is important to note that people always fail to know what to do when anxious and tend to focus more on their anxiety than other things like an ongoing communication transaction. For instance, someone may be so anxious during his/her first day at work to an extent of doing awkward things and appearing out of place. This would then make co-workers have a negative impression thereby jeopardizing intercultural communication especially if the new employee and his/her colleagues come from different cultures. Stereotype and prejudice Stereotype may be used to refer to either the positive or negative verdict made about persons depending on their observable membership especially culture. Prejudice, on the other hand refers to the general hatred of a particular group. These two may contribute to poor intercultural communication in the sense that stereotypes may have a formed opinion about people from other races hence failing to interact with them freely. Similarly, prejudice contributes to undermining intercultural communication by fostering suspicion amongst cultures thereby hindering their proper communication. Ethnocentrism This is a belief people have about the superiority of their culture against others. It is quite evident that most people have a feeling that their cultures are supreme as compared to others and would, in so doing, undermine people from other cultures. This would then result to avoiding interaction with people from such cultures thus deterring intercultural communication. The article gives an example of climate change that would compel Americans to close businesses and schools in the afternoon to evade raging heat and save power that would have otherwise been used for air-conditioning the premises. If this happens as a result of climate change, Americans would surely be comfortabl
Under-Communicating Under-communicating is a factor which may significantly affect the performance of stakeholder teams and the perceptions of recipient groups. According to Sipes (2015), “timely and frequent communication is crucial”, and it has a direct impact on the way organizational effectiveness is achieved (p. 50). The concept of under-communicating assumes that the information is delivered ineffectively to recipients and project teams. Communication serves as a mechanism of control when the recipient is asked to bring their actions into line with the organization’s strategy. In the setting of under-communication, the individual may lose their motivation since they will not understand what should be done to improve their performance. Effective communication is a two-way process, which implies that all stakeholder groups exchange information in regards to all aspects of the project implementation. It includes “meetings, status reports, presentations at different steering team meetings such as executive steering team (EST) and project steering team (PST) meetings, and documentation in a project notebook” (Sipes, 2015, p. 83). An example of under-communicating is when each team functions autonomously, and the information on the progress is not disseminated properly. In this case, the units do not receive the data they need for making adequate decisions (Sipes, 2015). Due to insufficient message exchange, they are unable to effectively identify and evaluate alternative solutions, which may result in time delays and slower task execution. Over-Communicating It should be noted that the concept of over-communicating does exist in the corporate environment. It implies over-providing information to different stakeholder groups to avoid situations when important details have been ignored or left out. Over-communicating means that decision-makers will spend a lot of time delivering and accepting feedback from the team members in regards to task delegation and its execution. Nevertheless, “the smaller and more detailed task help to facilitate control of the project” (Sipes, 2015, p. 66). Therefore, over-communication of information will result in greater organizational effectiveness and ensure the risks of project failure are mitigated. An example of over-communicating may be weekly meetings with stakeholder teams when they are capable of working autonomously and require intermediate control or supervision. The negative implications of this approach include the lost time and energy for both recipients and senders of the message (Sipes, 2015). Nonetheless, the positive outcomes of over-communicating the details or progress will be numerous. Important information will be constantly collected, and the possibility of losing it will be minimized. Progress reports will be prepared in a timely manner, and all the stakeholder groups will be aware of the actual project status (Sipes, 2015). Thus, the negative effects
It goes without saying that homelessness is one of the greatest problems of the modern society and that it has to be dealt with as soon as possible. According to the recent researches, life conditions in the world’s major countries has slightly improved since recently, yet the rates of poverty leave much to be desired and show clearly that a considerable amount of the USA population live on the breadline. Therefore, the phenomenon of homelessness has to be considered closer and the possible means to battle it have to be developed. Before proceeding with the suggestions for improving the current state of affairs concerning the public well-being, one should provide the definition of homelessness as a phenomenon. Although the results of poverty are rather explicit and unequivocal, the issue is rather hard to define, since it has a number of facets, such as the economical, the political and the financial proper. To pick the most concise and at the same time all-embracing definition, one should take a closer look at what Minnery & Greenhalgh (2007) provide. According to the latter, poverty is “a dynamic process that may include sleeping rough, insecure tenure, and chronic homelessness or, at times, being housed” (Minnery & Greenhalgh, 2007, 646). Homelessness does not come out of nowhere; it is usually a result of an unreasonable and indiscreet state policy or, in certain cases, of a certain individual’s mistakenly undertaken decisions and unplanned actions. According to the research conducted by Ryndell (2008), there are not only the economical and financial, but also social factors that impact the increase of poverty and homelessness in the state. As the author explained, such elements of the brutal reality as falling a victim of a fraud, the loss of job, the lack of proper education and a disability are the key factors which make people’s financial condition unstable and cause them lose their homes. Nevertheless, certain actions are undertaken to fight the increasing rates of poverty in the USA and Europe, with rather unstable success. According to the report recently made by Saul (2012), the USA have improved the existing system of care for the impoverished and the homeless, creating a chain of temporary shelters and increasing the number of days which the homeless are allowed to stay in the shelter for. As a result, considerable improvements can be observed: For families with children, the average length of stay is 337 days, but for adult families, the average is 414 days—more than a year—an 18.6% jump from the previous fiscal year. For single adults in shelters, the average stay is 270 days, an 8% increase from the previous fiscal year. (Saul, 2012, para. 2) Hence, it is obvious that poverty is the phenomenon that cannot be vanquished for good and eared from the minds of the entire world population. Even with the most efficient political system in the world, a certain amount of one’s success depends
Introduction The proposed K.I.S.S Car Wash and Laundry is an all-under-one-roof business model aimed at offering cash wash and laundry services from the same store. The store is modeled around convenience by giving customers an opportunity to access laundry services while they take their cars for a cleanup and minor checkup. The business functions on the traditional model consisting of an actual location and tangible services. This section of the business plan explores the marketing aspects of the K.I.S.S Car Wash and Laundry by examining competitor analysis, market analysis, and the actual marketing plan. Competitor Analysis Primary Competitors and Their Market Share The three main competitors of the K.I.S.S Car Wash and Laundry are LaBanze Car Care Center, Gary Auto Wash, and Wallonia Auto Experts. These businesses have a strong influence in the proposed location due to their ability to offer flexible, affordable, and exclusive car cleaning and minor services. Wallonia Auto Experts is the current market leader with a market share of 15%. LaBanze Car Care Center takes the second market position with a share of 11% while Gary Auto Wash controls 7% of the market share. These businesses have unique competitive advantages that have made then penetrate and control a sizable share. For instance, Gary Auto Wash is specialized in upholstery and provides discounter prices for basic car service after the wash. On the other hand, LaBanze Car Care Center is known for its quick service policy characterized by a complete car wash within 30 minutes. The company also offers buffing and free diagnosis for every car they wash. Lastly, the Wallonia Auto Experts offers the most competitive prices for their automobile cleaning services. In addition, the company is renowned for its free pick and delivery service for busy customers. This service involves picking the dirty car from a customer resid