ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
The following are the key characteristics of accounting information. These characteristics are the threshold, which makes accounting information important to the user. This essay will discuss those characteristics in detail and look into why they are important. The first characteristic of accounting information is understandability. Understandability means that the information needs to be cohesive and arranged in a manner, that any person with basic business knowledge can comprehend. The organization of accounting information in a cognizable and comprehensible manner is a vital aspect in communicating to the people who need this information. This is because business people who want to understand it to improve their businesses or comprehend where their businesses may have loopholes usually require the information (Romney 7). The second major characteristic of accounting information is that of relevance. Relevance has to do with time because accounting information requires the base of time. It has to include when a transaction occurred and who carried out that transaction. This relevance also means that it has to relate to people who need that information. Someone cannot include transactions that do not correlate with the business and authorize for the accounting information (Romney 8). The other major factor, which is part of the threshold of accounting information, its timeliness. The accounting information compares with the news on radio and television. People are not interested in stale news or information that happened many years ago because they need information, which is timely and recent to evaluate today’s performance and for prediction of the future. Any information that does not serve the two purposes lacks relevance (Romney 8). The reliability of accounting information is another factor of great significance. Accounting information, which is misleading and unreliable, may have negative consequences on the users. This happens when this information is useful for the evaluation of business and its performance as well as predicting the future. The information and the sources of information should possess unquestionable characteristics. This means that sources of information need verification. In the case of accounting, such sources are the receipts, the cashbook, and the invoices. They need authentication for consideration as a reliable source of information (Romney 9). This adds another major characteristic, which is necessary and critical to accounting information. The verifiability of accounting information is a major attribute that integrates with the characteristic of reliability. This means that the sources of accounting information must be identifiable so that if the evidence is required to prove or support information provided the sources are capable of such test. The materials used need to be positioned in a manner that can be proved (Romney 10). The other characteristic is neutrality for the accounting information to be free from bias. Biasness in accounting information is a tendency to hide some facts in the information provided such that a company does not provide true costs of production
Xynegen Corporation is a company that deals with the production of chemicals for a wide range of uses. For a long time, the company processes have been effective although due to increase in competition, and the need for a competitive advantage over our competitors, it has become imperative to improve business practices. After a review of the results from last year’s employee survey, the senior leadership team identified several areas of improvement. The biggest issue that was identified was quality and safety management in the production department. Problem Identification In the last five years, the numbers of lab accidents that have occurred within the company have been unacceptably high. Last year alone, six employees were seriously hurt in the process of carrying out their duties. An employee survey carried out revealed that quality and safety issues are the biggest challenges that the company faces in delivering its products. In order to find a solution for this problem, it was decided to undertake process improvement through benchmarking as a means of finding a solution for this problem. This report explains the benchmarking process and a description of the methods that will best serve this company. Bench Marking Selection of Process Form the employee survey carried out, the management team identified quality and safety in the production department as the main processes needing improvement. This benchmarking procedure will focus on these two processes and develop a plan to be applied in improvement. It is the intention of this report to research the best practices that can be applied to solve the quality and safety issues in the company. State-of-the-art Organizational Process Improvement Practices In order to understand the best practices to be applied in this company, it is important to review process improvement practices that have been successfully applied in other organizations. In order to achieve this, I first decided to talk to the company’s employees in order to understand their views on what practices they thought could be applied to solve quality and safety issues (Camp, 1989). I then sought management employees from other companies to understand what practices they applied in their companies to tackle the issues of safety and quality. Most of these companies operate in the same field as Xynegen but some of the companies chosen were from a different field. Finally, a research of literature pertaining to process improvement was undertaken to reconcile collected information and process improvement theories used in management (Hutson, 1992). From this process, several process improvement practices were identified. The improvement practices have been described below: Business Process Mapping One of the main process improvement practices being carried out in the field is business process mapping. Process mapping is a technique used in Six Sigma that aims at understanding the steps involved in carrying out a process, and identifying ways in which to improve this process (Breyfogle, 1999). Most of the companies that utilize process mapping use the ICOR technique. ICOR (inputs, outputs, controls and resources) is a wi
Introduction The field of art has been in existence since the ancient times. It provides a mechanism through which the artists express their feelings and emotions. Art encompasses a wide range of activities through which these individuals can express emotions or feelings. This includes music, literature, paintings, and sculpture among many others. The products developed here are valued for their beauty or the information that it portrays to the viewers. The field has had certain developments over years due to the changing creative ability of the different individuals. The modes through which individuals express their feelings have changed over the periods in different parts of the world. Some modes of expression that have had significant developments are music, painting arts, and recently, the art of movie making. Certain artistic competitions bring together different artists of a given genre with different abilities thereby creating competition. The viewers of the arts products have also developed more interest on the information depicted by a given art product rather than its aesthetic value. These changes in the individual’s views of arts and artistic works explain the different generations of arts that have been witnessed in the recent past. Since there is a relationship between arts and the culture of a given group of people, the developments that have been registered in an area may be different from those registered in another area. One region whose art has been of interest is Germany. Some of the generations that have been observed in the German art include Neo-Expressionism, Modern Art, Post-modern art, and inverted art. The developments that were seen in the German art can be attributed to different individual. One of the artists of the twentieth century who had significant contributions is Georg Baselitz. Others like Hans Thoma dominated the field in the nineteenth century [1] . It should be noted that paintings (or any other artworks) should portray some meaning. In doing so, they should also express some sense of morals and be in line with the legal provisions in a given region. This paper focuses on the contributions of Baselitz to the German arts. Some of his works that had significant impacts are highlighted here. Germany also excelled in other arts apart from painting among photography [2] . The traditional arts involved manual creation of images. With the modern technology, some of these tasks could be performed by other devices. This includes computer arts, videos, and television programs. However, such applications have led to conflicting themes in the postmodern arts as the products become personal and self-critical [3] . Early life of Georg Baselitz George Baselitz was born on January 3, 1938 in Deutschbaselitz, Germany [4] . His original name was Hans-Georg Kern, the name Baselitz would be adopted later in 1961 when he was enrolled for a Masters course at Hochschule der Kunste. His life has revolved around the field of arts, starting as a painter and devel
Introduction Societal security differs from the traditional approaches on various levels. Unlike the traditional approach to security, a new concept argues that security can be based on economy, environmental protection and politics. Societal security focuses on how to preserve the society against infiltration, invasion and military actions from foreigners (Panić 2009). In addition, societal security is best analyzed from an international and individual perspective. Therefore, international systems, subsystems, units and subunits are critical to the analysis of societal security (Panić 2009). Compared to the traditional approach, societal security does not focus on territorial sovereignty. Instead, societal security focuses on collective identity ranging from politics, economy, institutions, and the environment to individuals. Therefore, preservation of elements that compose national identity is the hallmark of societal security. Reconceptualising security Security as the survival of the society rather than of the state In recent times, security is viewed as a survival of the society and not the state. From this perspective, the concepts of security from a national perspective focus on protecting the sovereignty of the state (Brauch 2008). Major threats for national security means include countries, terrorism and guerrilla groups. From state security, a focus on national and societal groups becomes imperative. The main aim of societal security is to preserve national unity and identity (Brauch 2008). In this context, threats against national identity are derived from immigrants and foreign cultures. Human security refers to survival for individual or mankind. However, human survival refers to the quality of life that may be threatened by nature, terrorism and globalization (Brauch 2008). Environmental security refers to the sustainability of the ecosystem that is normally threatened by mankind through pollution and socioeconomic activities. In other instances, human survival can be determined by gender security. In this context, indigenous people, gender relations, racial minorities, mature adult and children are subject to insecurity (Brauch 2008). The idea of providing gender security is to promote equality, equity, identity and social representations that are threatened by totalitarian institutions, intolerance, elites, violence and religion. Societal security as a threat to collective identity National, ethnic and religious identities As the need for societal security grows with time, countries become sources of self-threat, especially on national, ethnic and religious matters. For example, as countries prevent invasions from other nations, the consequences result in the creation of inter-regional conflicts. Therefore, acts of war and similar provocations by the government may endanger the citizens and the country from external attacks. Moreover, the need to have a collective identity may cause inter-ethnic conflicts due to lack of intolerance. The same intolerance may threaten freedom of worship and human rights, especially on religious matters. Unrest in Tibet The outbreak of unres
Introduction There has been a rapid growth in utilization of social media applications amongst various groups of internet users in the last five years (Ostrow, 2010). The common applications in the social media platform include Facebook, Blogs, RSS and wikis (Hansen et al., 2011). These platforms have become popular with most internet users, who utilize it as a channel of communication at least on a daily basis (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Public sector Organizations such as Estee Lauder Companies cancer campaign and NPOs such as the Hope campaign that was used by President Barrack Obama and anti-kidnapping campaign through Weibo in China have taken to the social media platform as a means of staying in touch with the public and their affiliated members. NPO’s do not exist to generate profits hence are not concerned with outdoing any form of competition. They work much more to be noticed by the public and to get more donor money (Gregory and Rathi, 2008). NPO’s have a duty to handle the information at their disposal in an effective way for efficient dissemination to the public. The social media proves to be a most effective way of achieving this goal. Role The social media promises to be the best means of realizing online and real world social networks. A number of social networks have been created as a means of pooling together people with common interests who probably have not had a chance to meet in real life (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Social networking enables direct interaction with people willing to participate in the organization’s activities. It also enables them to establish their presence online and boost their brand consciousness (Salamon and Anheier, 1992). The Impact of social media services is quite tremendous hence making it a very effective tool for dissemination of information. There is great potential in social media platforms for the future of Knowledge Management theory and practices. The desires and trends of the users need to be considered (Shaw and Edwards, 2005) before putting in place a workable means that would gain from the power of social media. The Non Profit Organizations are an example of organizations that have taken up the exercise of information management such as KM (Kaplan and Haenlien, 2010; Salamon and Anheier, 1992). SWOT analysis for a non profit Organization The SWOT analysis is an important management practice that focuses on four areas; Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strength and weaknesses are internal factors whereas Opportunities and Threats are external factors. SWOT can be used to study competition. The SWOT evaluation of a Non Profit Organization is carried out in the same way as that of a profitable organization with major factors to be considered being fundraising, Volunteer staff and goodwill. SWOTS help non profit organizations to come up with a marketing plan (Lettieri, et. al, 2004). Strengths One of the major advantages that the NPO’s have over the profitable organization is their exclusion from taxes. They can thus afford to sell products at a discount and their customers are also exempt from taxes
The rise of the guild system in Germany occupies a unique and bright page of the European history. Dating back to the Middle Ages, guilds for a long time had been the key representations of local self-government and created the basement of the modern European city self-regulation. Guilds are often seen as a typical German phenomenon, but in fact, they were spread across all Europe and other countries of the world 1 . Guilds were specially regulated associations of craftsmen, for example, bakers, textile producers, blacksmiths, jewelers and others. Later guilds became more spread among the merchants, who as a rule united due to the goods they sold 2 . The reason for the formation of guilds can be explained by the need to protect trade and other professional interests in the existing local government conditions. German state was highly decentralized so that the central authorities could not ensure the security of shipments and sale of goods and the rights of various professional groups. Moreover, the guilds were seen as a logical outcome of the rising intercity and international trade. A guild was a professional community, where all the members were equal and equally obliged to recognize the authority and protection of their community. The merchants guarded their goods together, created farmstead on fairs and shopping malls, strove for various benefits and tax reliefs 3 . As it can be seen from the image of the guild, the labor there was precisely divided among the members. Everyone had his or her responsibilities and followed the established procedure. It is also notable that women are present in the picture. Women were initially not allowed
The movie The King and the Clown is one of the first films in contemporary Korean cinema to portray open homosexuality on screen. It was controversial since homosexuality has been a topic of taboo if not illegal in a mostly conservative Korean society. This attention benefited a minor film as people could connect to the emotions and social ideas expressed in the movie despite its controversial perspective. The film was able to show genuine emotion in the characters, striking a delicate balance of advocating homosexuality without creating an overexaggerated and forceful attempt of forcing the topic unto the audience. The film explores various aspects of South Korean society, showing the challenges that each social group had to face. Although The King and the Clown is a period piece, it holds some relevance in the modern day. For example, the privileged king apparently struggled with his mental health, sexual identity, and public perception. The film’s characters show a depth of emotion that contrasts with fundamental human flaws. Even though the characters are homosexual, that does not make them different emotionally or impervious to social struggles. The director chose to enclose homosexual relationships within a heterosexual context by portraying one of the gay partners as effeminate. This may be inherently opposing to the true nature of LGBTQ equality since sexuality should not be based in gendered terms. East Asian queer cinema is based on appropriating Western ideals of homosexuality and adapting them to local cultures, specifically applying them to the concept of family. A person’s role in the family is contrasted with sexual identity. Inherently, it may create conflict that can be resolved through acceptance. “Constructed as a localization of the Western cultural model of gay identity, hybrid gay identities challenge the view of cultural globalization as homogenization” (Shin, 2013, p. 92). Many conservative cultures view homosexuality as a degradation of social morals imposed by the West. The hybrid strategy is influenced by a strong advocacy for LGBTQ rights in Western cinema but seeks to adopt an inherently local cultural approach through local films. For example, The King and the Clown highlights homosexuality in Korean history where royalty or traveling clown troupes were known to engage in such sexual relationships. Therefore, the origin of the ideas and emotions stems from within Korean tradition itself, forcing a reexamination of current social barriers. Contemporary Korean cinema is firmly grounded in realism which reflects the expectations of film audiences. Therefore, homosexuality is challenging to find openly exp
Introduction In the article, the author seeks to enhance the understanding of anaphor agreement effect. It seeks to demystify the prevalent knowledge and general understanding among linguists that anaphors are syntactically positioned and that they happen in harmony with their linguistic agreement. Using the premise of argument marking, the author explains that case and agreement must be in line with LF visibility (Everett, 2001). Nonetheless, Shiraki explains that in case that anaphors occur in situations with positioned argument, they cannot be in relation with agreement. In this case, there is no chance for visibility condition. This critique attempts to address various factors that the author considers in the article. Besides, the paper will focus on the content rather than the style that the author uses. Critical analysis From the outset, it is important to appreciate that anaphors can never occur within a sentence in an autonomous way. The author uses numerous arguments to illustrate this perspective by focusing on the manner in which the anaphors are usually distributed within sentences. In harmony with Chomsky’s articulations, Shiraki says that the anaphors have many constraints that include c-command and locality among many other factors (Chomsky, 1993). This makes them unable to occur independently. The author distances himself from various renowned linguists and says that lack of agreement of anaphors may have different perspectives. To him, this agreement ought to be ‘marked’ making it apparent in a sentence. As such, according to Shiraki, agreement presents a way in which an argument may be marked. In fact, the author appreciates that this position is controversial among many linguists but goes a step further to provide research and scholarly articles that reinforce his theory. Throughout the paper therefore, the author provides his theoretical framework that takes a different approach to the prevalent explanations of ‘anaphor-agreement’ effect. The article is categorical that anaphors can agree exquisitely. Particularly, Shiraki asserts that anaphors agree in most instances but when they do, the results are grammatical limitations especially those that relate chain conditioning. It is important to notice that the author agrees that anaphors can never end up becoming grammatically right. Indeed, Shiraki says that such grammatical and syntactic rules as subject-verb constrain the anaphors from making a linguistically right sentence. As such, it is critical to ascertain that whenever such a situation occurs, ‘ theta-marking’ should take precedence and enhance the agreement (Chomsky, 1993). Therefore, the article seeks to reveal ways to mark anaphors in argument by prescribing the marking criteria. Although this perspective by the author may seem surprising, he presents it in an interesting way that brings about new theory of anaph