ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction Chinua Achebe is an African writer from Nigeria born in the year 1930. He comes from the Ibo tribe. He grew up in Nigeria in a village called Ogidi. At the university Achebe took English literature and while studying he encountered novels written by Europeans about Africa which he called appalling. He realized that no one was better placed to tell the African story than the African themselves and thus he began writing to tell the African story (Innes 11). The short story Dead men’s path by Chinua Achebe is a story written to tell the postcolonial experience. The story was written in 1949 after the British had colonized Nigerian at the beginning of the twentieth century. The colonizers despised the culture and beliefs of the Igbo people which they considered as barbaric and inferior. To that effect, they introduced Christianity and western form of education through the missionaries. The introduction of Christianity led to weakening of the tribal affiliations. The meeting of the two cultures led to a conflict. Aspects of colonialism The protagonist in the story is Michael Obi a young man aged twenty-six years. He is a teacher who has been promoted to head Ndume Central school because he is a “young and energetic” man besides being very modern and progressive (Spack 113). He also got the position because he had sound academic qualifications above other headmasters in that area and he was “outspoken in his condemnation of the narrow views of these older and often less educated ones” (Spack 113). He sees the older less educated teachers as representatives of the conservative way of life and narrow views that he wanted to replace with modern progressive methods. He wants his teachers to work very hard to bring about the adaption of the modern methods in his school. He is very happy that the teachers are unmarried and thus they will devout all of their energies to school work. Obi had embraced the white’s way of life and his wife Nancy had also been caught up in his fascination with modern ways at the expense of the traditional way of life practiced by his people. Nancy wanted to have modern beautiful gardens, which symbolize the western way of life. Just like her progressive husband, she has adapted the western lifestyle as she speaks to her husband she reads a woman’s magazine and calls him Mike. Postcolonial identity Due to Michael’s progressiveness, he has no regard for the traditional practices of his village. The village in which Ndume Central is situated is traditional. The people believe in shrines and spirits. They have a footpath that runs through the school that even though it is often disused. The path joins the village shrine and the place where they bury their dead. Michael does not understand why the villagers have been allowed to continue using the path yet
IT support the organizational performance A modern organization responds to continuous changes in the external environment, transforming its behavior, operational practices, and business processes. Business transformations cause changes in information systems (IS) supporting business processes, and changes in the corresponding IT infrastructure. In some cases, these changes may affect the corporate IS as a whole. The main feature of changes in a turbulent external environment, and, consequently, in corporate IS is their unpredictability. Thus, on the one hand, the corporate information system must ensure the effectiveness of the current business model, and on the other, possess the necessary level of flexibility to implement unpredictable changes in requirements. A modern organization operates in a highly turbulent external environment, so it must have a high level of adaptability or agility. In such environment, the conceptual model of a flexible corporate IS is defined as a working system that must compensate for the largest number of gaps caused by external events by incremental changes in its components (Kaehler 4). Thus, to ensure its own effectiveness, the organization must continuously adapt to changing conditions. The external environment, the size of the organization and its strategy are considered as the main factors of uncertainty that form the organization. A similar concept can be proposed for corporate information systems (CIS). This approach is called “bricolage” or improvisation; it involves the gradual improvement of existing systems, the involvement of operational level employees, first-hand training, trial and error (Onik and Erwin Fielt 6). All this forms unique operational practices that cannot be easily comprehended and reproduced by competitors. This approach contradicts the more traditional view of IT-based innovations ‑ the introduction of CIS as a radical means of changing existing competencies based on a preliminary analysis and plan. Thus, the introduction of new CIS, aimed at improving the efficiency of existing business processes, should not impede the change of these processes in the future. Today’s organizations are increasingly relying on IT, which allows them to remain competitive in a fast-changing market, but there are still gaps in understanding how IT resources influence the flexibility of CIS (Furukawa, Hirobayashi, and Misawa 88-90). In practice, the evolutionary development of CIS increases its functionality, complexity, value for business, but, at the same time, reduces its flexibility (Kryvinska and Gregus 34). Therefore, it is very important to have CIS, which allows changing business processes without significant costs. Ideally, this sh
Features of the Good to Great Companies   * Good leadership.   * They had the right people.   * The people knew the direction they were headed.   * They confronted brutal facts (Collins & Porras, 2002). Good to great companies are characterized by good leadership. The people who are led know the direction they are heading. Consequently, they are able to confront any brutal facts they may encounter.   * They embraced the hedgehog concept.   * They never gave up.   * They were disciplined.   * They adopted technology to accelerate growth.   * They adopted the flywheel effect. Technology will increase the companies’ productivity in that it will bring in new and better, effective and efficient ways of doing things. It should create a flywheel or other a responsibility that it will commit itself to executing to create a momentum in due time. The 11 Good to Great Companies   * Abbott Laboratories;   * Circuit City Stores;   * Gillette Company;   * Kroger;   * Nucor;   * Fannie Mae. These companies were sieved from among over 1, 000 companies which were included in the initial study. They are the only companies that exhibited the characteristics of a good to great company. They had succeeded from being good companies to the great companies they are now.   * Kimberly Clark;   * Philip Morris;   * Walgreens;   * Pitney Bowes;   * Wells Fargo. Why the 11 Companies?   * The companies had great returns on their investments.   * They had developed for sometime to become what they were.   * The companies had differentiated leadership.   * The companies showed persistence (Collins, 2011). Not all the studied companies could be picked as being good to great. The research team had a number of reasons as to why it picked these companies. This was actually the criteria that the research team used to separate the good to great companies from the rest of the companies.   * The companies had an upward trend.   * There was a pattern of good performance.   * They had a transition point.   * They had company specific transitions.   * Their transition occurred before 1985 (Collins & Porras, 2002).   * The companies were stand-alone.   * They had influential leaders.   * They had self
Introduction The USA is one among the many nations in the world that has the most dynamic education systems. The USA’s education system has been changing from time to time with respect to political, sociocultural, and economic factors. In this case, this research paper aims at exploring the changes that have taken place in the US’s education system since the year 1970. There is a special interest to analyze factors of discrimination in higher education vacancies, the increase or decrease of students accessing higher education, and how cost of colleges has contributed to educational variables is the focus of this paper. Review Of Literature Increased College Attendance Prior to the 1970s, education was limited to a few individuals depending on their qualifications, physical state, mental state, and their races. These groups of individuals comprised of mostly White Americans from well up social backgrounds. The mentally challenged and students with exceptional needs are among the changes that authorities addressed, and the government proposed and passed laws that took care of the groups. In 1972, the Indian Education Act was signed into law, the state of Pennsylvania allowed children with exceptional needs to be taught or instructed through alternative or improvised means, and Title IX of the 1972’s Education Amendment was signed into law in order to disregard discrimination in all aspects of education. The number of students that access higher education is determined by the number of students making out of high school; the fact that the state of Pennsyl
Introduction The information gathered in research is useful in developing of a grounded theory while the right method of research leads to understanding of the phenomenology of the study. In order to analyze a research effectively, there is need to follow certain guidelines that are useful in coming up with the right conclusion from the research (David, 2009). This paper provides a critique of the study that was conducted in a group of traditional birth attendants in one of the communities in Guatemala. Childbearing continues to become a problem in developing countries with high rates of infant mortality and morbidity. In addition, it is estimated that either inexperienced family members or TBAs conduct at least 95% of all births in rural areas in developing countries. In Guatemala, professional birth attendants are trusted with the responsibility of assisting in child bearing. A research was conducted by professional investigator regarding the beliefs of these women towards prenatal practice and how they regard the practice as effective. The report of the research needs to be critiqued to know the level of validity of the findings. This paper explains the methods that were used to critique the report. It explains the validity of their beliefs and rituals in the practice of prenatal care and how these beliefs and rituals can be helpful in adding knowledge to the practice of nursing. It provides a critique of ethnographic techniques used in understanding the practices of Mayan TBAs. Method The use of ethnographic techniques ensured that in-depth information was gathered regarding the beliefs and behaviors of people in natural settings. Traditional methods with participant observation ensured that observation and participation was used in exploring the world of traditional birth attendants. Participation allowed interaction between members of the community and the researchers. Observation ensured that the researchers visited the homes of pregnant women and determined the resources that were available for assisting the women during birth. Observation in the homes of comadronas enabled the researchers identify the resources that were being used to assist women during birth and also artifacts and rocks that were placed in certain places to show they were sacred. Ethnographic research ensured that the researchers immersed themselves into the community under study and interacted with the comadronas and pregnant women to develop familiarity with lifeways of the members of the community. By using a principal investigator (PI) with an experience of more than 25 years and who had been working with community birth attendants and health promoters in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala the research gave concrete information on its findings. This ensured that the relevant areas of study were focused on by interviewing the right comadronas, the right materials were used during the interviews and conf
Introduction The development of the elite real estate sales sector is dynamic in those regions where the income level of the population is high, and there is a demand for this offer. In Dubai, where the infrastructure is advanced, and a large number of luxury apartments is concentrated, the high-end real estate is a product with an extensive target audience. As an example of one of the companies involved in such a business, DAMAC Properties Dubai can be cited. This corporation has been operating in the elite real estate market for a long time and has a large client base and positive feedback received for diligent work. The activity of DAMAC Properties Dubai is successful, however, difficulties may arise during work. To analyze the company’s activities, a special technique can be used – Porter’s five forces analysis. This method allows considering the main components of the corporation’s work and highlighting those areas of activity that deserve special attention. Porter’s five forces analysis is a valuable mechanism for assessing the performance of any organization, and it can be applied to DAMAC Properties Dubai as a tool for evaluating its success. Basic Characteristic of Porter’s Five Forces Analysis This technique is the common way of analyzing the work of any enterprise. Proposed in 1980, it includes the key aspects of the activity – “the threats posed by competitive rivalry, powerful buyers, powerful suppliers, potential new entrants, and substitute products” (Dobbs, 2014, p. 32). In the case of DAMAC Properties Dubai, these elements can help to assess the company’s performance, difficulties encountered, and the primary areas of work. Each of the components should be considered separately to obtain a comprehensive result. The threat of New Entrants Even though DAMAC Properties Dubai possesses a sufficient number of assets and a large customer base, the threat of new entrants may adversely affect profits. The corporation has been successfully operating since 2002, and more than 20,880 homes have been purchased (“About DAMAC,” 2018). However, during this period, many new real estate agencies have appeared, which can potentially create harsh competition. The need for costs for product di
Audience for Terrorist Propaganda Terrorism has increasingly become a communication tool between various entities in modern communities. The perpetrators of terrorism use such unlawful actions to achieve some determined radical, virtuous, and/or sociopolitical goals. The scope of most terrorist activities is to pass certain individual or group messages to the largest possible population. The primary audience for terrorist propaganda is their followers. Terrorists target their propaganda to their supporters in the quest for full endorsement and proliferation of terrorist threats. Youths also form a large percentage of the audience. Through religious extremism, terrorist groups have targeted their messages to the youthful generation since they (youths) are more deceit-prone than any other target age group. Extremists pass their terrorist propaganda to the youth through the power of the media and the internet (Meleagrou-Hitchens, Maher, & Sheehan, 2012). Symbiotic relationships that exist between the media and terrorist activities enable terrorist propaganda to reach large populations within very short durations. Audience for Government Propaganda The audience for government propaganda is mainly the public. According to Von Behr, Reding, Edwards, and Gribbon (2013), governments use propaganda to influence public opinions through dissemination of actualities, concepts, and/or rumors. Just like terrorists, the government extensively uses the media to spread its propaganda. In this context, even in times of crucial terrorist
The Effect of Tariffs and Quotas Both tariffs and quotas reduce imports from the targeted country. The difference is that quotas set quantitative restrictions while tariffs are usually raised as a disincentive to further imports. Thus, if Big Auto had advertised helium-powered Prius’ from Japan and ultra-cheap compacts from China for sale after New Year, an FTC measure imposing an annual quota of 10,000 units on those very same car makes would restrict the number of fully-assembled cars that could be shipped in from both countries. There is nothing to be done about the reduced supply which Big Auto and rival chains of dealers will now have to parcel out among themselves. Tariffs reduce the price differential between U.S. brands and those enjoying the advantage of lower manufacturing costs abroad. If a Chinese model could be brought in for the equivalent landed cost of $10,000 per unit versus $18,000 for the lowest-priced American-made car, a punitive tariff of 80 percent would instantly wipe out the price advantage of the import and “level the playing field”. Foreign Trade Payment Systems and Managing Foreign Exchange Volatility Commercial and merchant banks are the usual intermediaries for all foreign trade. When a U.S. importer like Big Auto needs to replenish inventories of parts or completely-knocked-down (CKD) kits for local assembly, the company will open a letter of credit in favor of Asian, South American or European suppliers. Even if the overseas supplier has never had a transaction with Big Auto, it can rely on the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. bank Big Auto has deposited money to pay for the shipment when the goods arrive at a U.S. port (the typical arrangement). The same holds in reverse when, say, a Canadian dealer wishes to import some of Big Auto’s assembled cars for sale in Ontario. Given that Big Auto takes a foreign exchange risk in a floating regime versus the Canadian dollar when it quotes a price in U.S. dollars and waits some days while the goods are in transit north, the company can have recourse to either buying hedging cover from a third party, speculating by taking a short/long position with forex traders, or accepting foreign currency and “parking” it until such time as the Canadian currency appreciates against the American greenback (Pugel, 2003). On Identifying Comparative Advantage In principle, comparative advantage assuming two goods X and Y both produced by countries A and B can be calculated based on the opportunity cost of one good in terms of the other in both countries. For simplicity’s sake, if labor were the sole input as L in the following expressions:   * In country A, the opportunity cost of X in terms of Y is: L X A /L Y A ;   * In country A, the opportunity c
The Dagger Brigade case describes a division that faces different challenges as it prepared for its deployment to Europe. The leaders are expected to address such issues and ensure that the deployment schedules and training sessions are completed effectively. The 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team is required to fill all vacant positions, address personnel turnover, and identify the right professionals with the relevant competencies to fill all open positions. Currently, the unit has a shortage of spare parts and equipment readiness gaps. With only ten months to prepare for the upcoming deployment, the unit has continued to lose personnel and lacks adequate reset time for equipment. The team is also compelled to adapt to the introduced reporting system (Donnelly & Cunningham, 2017). Nonetheless, the margin of error remains slim if desirable results are to be recorded. The outstanding NCO core competency is that of understanding operational and mission variables while resolving complex problems to support the training process of soldiers before deployment. The current doctrine provides powerful approaches that unit leaders can implement through the training process to support the delivery of outlined mission goals. First, the commander in charge should ensure that the available professionals are trained adequately and current on their weapons qualifications. Second, the unit members can work collaboratively to reset equipment. Third, the individuals need to take more time to acquaint themselves with the new reporting system. Additionally, senior leaders in this brigade should consider evidence-based approaches for solving soldiers’ concerns and ensuring that they are satisfied with the assigned tasks (Marr, 2018). Being an unnamed operation, the commanders should consider new approaches to ensure that the soldiers and their respective family members get the required resources and support throughout the training period. Finally, proper leadership will direct the soldiers to be aware of the anticipated predicaments and potential hindrances (Nilsson, 2020). In a nutshell, this case presents numerous lessons for unit leaders to identify and mitigate challenges and manage training effectively to support the accomplishment of mission goals.
Introduction Discrimination and equality are the two most important factors in business today since they define an organization’s ability to promote greater creativity, strengthen workforce and improve production and profitability. According to Janicijevic (2010), cultural ethics and gender differences are major issues of concerns in the discussion of diversity. Therefore, there is need for equality at workplaces. In spite of key legislations that already exist to encourage diversity and reduce inequality, it is crucial to mention that bias and discrimination against left-handed people in workplaces are still prevalent. This paper explores the importance of understanding diversity and equality towards left-handed people and its effectiveness among leaders in business organizations. The essay evaluates the effects of poor management of diversity alongside inequality. The paper also outlines key recommendations on how workplace diversity can be enhanced in order to take care of the needs for both left and right-handed people. Brief background on culture and left-hand dominants Quinn (2005) observes that the left-handed people constitute about 10% of the total world population. Discrimination against this group through unfavourable cultural associations has been evident in a number of societies. Several societies and religious groups have created rules and ideals that greatly favoure the use of right hand (Quinn, 2005). For instance, the religious “right hand of God” asserts that those who have fallen are on the left hand of God or the “left hand path’ and they are associated with black magic. In addition, Satanism is part of the cultural association that has negatively impacted the lefties (Quinn, 2005). Beyond the social associations, many societies and workplaces consider these groups to be barbaric, dishonest and awkward. Some manufactures have also designed tools for right-handed people that are massively produced. In some workplaces, left-handed dominant workers are exposed to the difficulties and dangers of using tools which range from simple knives, power saws to other huge machineries. Besides, researchers have concluded that in most workplaces, different states still exercise bias in paying wages to their workers based on how effective they are in using machines and equipment. In most cases, right-handed workers receive more than their left-handed counterparts. Janicijevic (2010) explains that the current notion of diversity and equality in workplaces is a reflection of a paradigm shift from the past. Most organizational managers and leaders are inclined towards discriminating the lefties (Palmer, 2009). Leadership, culture and gender differences in workplace Janicijevic (2010) argues that an understanding of diversity and equality by leaders in businesses is perhaps one of the m