ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Generic Strategies There are several different frameworks used to analyze the strategies implemented by different organizations. However, the most popularly used framework is the one designed by Michael Porter, in which he has divided the generic strategies into three broad categories: low-cost producer, niche supplier, or differentiation strategy (Porter, 1980). Almost all the businesses can be divided into these three categories. The three retail firms that I have chosen for the project are:  1. Apple  2. Dell  3. Ties. These three companies are totally different in terms of the strategy that they have adopted for the long run. Apple and Dell operate somewhat in the same industry; however, Apple has a totally differentiated strategy (Johnson, Scholes, & Whittington, 2009), whereas Dell is a low cost leader in the market, and well known for cutting the costs. The third company I have chosen is Ties.com, which is an online retail store that specializes only in men’s neckties, and has been operating since 1998. Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is one of the most popular brands in the world and it has certainly differentiated itself from the rest of the competition. The rivalry and competition in the industry is immense, and there is huge pressure for the companies to decrease prices and earn profits through volume, but Apple Inc. has been successful in differentiating itself from the rest of the companies. First of all, Apple Inc. uses a very unique and creative marketing and positioning approach, which is particularly designed to target the desired consumers. This marketing approach by Apple Inc. has been very successful, as it is one of the most well-known brands in the world. Secondly, Apple Inc. never indulges into price wars, it has positioned itself as a premium brand that delivers finest value and for that it charges premium prices. These techniques have enabled Apple Inc. to differentiate from the rest of the companies. Dell On the other hand, has not positioned itself as a premium brand. Dell is a company that promises value for money. There are no frills attached with the product and thus there are no additional costs. To achieve this, Dell first of all, has developed a unique
Introduction The proposed plan will depend upon a series of factors for its success. The private or public status of a hospital might come into play. Resource constraints may be a significant problem. Additionally, issues pertaining to staff and administrative attitudes/ skills may impede the success of this plan. Barriers and pitfalls The most obvious barrier to the success of this plan is poor financing. If a hospital is a private institution, it will require approval from financial officers before implementation of the plans. One must make a business case for improvement of hospital operations management to these administrators. The main challenge for overseers of such plans is making hospital financiers look beyond obvious financial ramifications. For instance, some of the strategies suggested will eliminate unnecessary use of tests, surgical procedures or other hospital services. This may lead to diminished income for the company (Rosenthal 353). Alternatively, if the concerned institution is a public hospital, then the financial problem becomes even more restrictive. Most public hospitals must treat whoever walks into their doors. Sometimes, these patients may not have medical cover or the ability to pay. Therefore, public hospitals take on an additional risk that is not prevalent in private hospitals. In fact, this explains why their profit margins are often quite low. It will be difficult to finance a quality plan for hospital operations when resources are inadequate. The other serious obstacle is staff support. Many individuals may not fully support the plan if they do not see the need for quality improvement. This means that the entire process may drag on for a longer period than anticipated. If a hospital is quite busy, then the operations management improvement plan will seem like a distraction from their core activities. Therefore, time constraints may be an issue here. Alternatively, if the senior leadership appears to downplay the plan, then the rest of the staff members may follow suit. Staff members may suffer from quality improvement fatigue. If they had already carried out another plan to boost their quality of care, then they may not understand the usefulness of an operations mismanagement improvement plan. On the other hand, if no quality improvements have ever been done, employees may not have enough confidence in themselves to carry out the changes. Poor team leadership and team organization may also hamper project success. It may be difficult to select the right panel to identify the key obstacles in the hospital operations system. Consequently, everything else will fail because the team will identify few or wrong areas for quality improvement. Alternatively, the team may lack skills needed to improve operations mismanagement. Other structural and reporting issues may also impede its success. Factors that may influence those barriers and pitfalls For financial problems in private hospitals, a factor that may alter this barrier is the education of financial administrators about the cost savings that may result from the plan. In public hospitals, employe
Spinal cord injuries (SCI) are often associated with paralysis of peripheral body parts including limbs, neck, and the back. People with SCIs are highly immobile and for this reason, they are exposed to very many risks such as the development of heart diseases, diabetes, and obesity. Once these diseases develop, they can cause premature death. For this reason, various devices have been developed in a bid to counter the development of such problems. These devices normally use a robotic mechanism to enable patients achieve near normal mobility of various body parts. In addition, the devices enable patients to move various body muscles. These robotics assisted devices confer specific advantages to patients with SCI. The paper explains how such devices accomplish this goal. When applied during the initial phases of SCI, robotic-assisted tilt-table therapy (RATTT) enables the patient to do cardiopulmonary exercise. In particular, it is most beneficial to the SCI patient during the acute phase of spinal injury, before the patient can withstand orthostatic exercise and before commencement of the customary exercise (Craven, Gollee, Coupaud, Purcell, & Allan, 2013). When used to enable head uplift exercises, passive robotic-assisted stepping increases ventilation, albeit in small quantities. The use of this device also increases oxygen uptake, heart rate, and minimal ventilation in an SCI patient. When used in conjunction with RATTT, functional electrical stimulation (FES) facilitates the cardiopulmonary and ventilator response of motor-incomplete in SCI patients. FES-assisted RATTT results in a considerable increase in cardiopulmonary and ventilator functions for patients, especially while participating in volitional therapy (Craven, et al., 2013). Another benefit of RATTT is that it facilitates oxygen uptake and respiratory exchange ratio (RER). Both respiratory exchange ratio and oxygen uptake are indicative of the amount of stress that the cardiopulmonary system has to endure while the patient is exercising. However, the SCI patients cannot attain normal oxygen uptake owing to its
Introduction International relation is the study of relationships that exist between countries and the role played by governmental and non governmental bodies. It is a branch of political science that deals with analyzing and formulating foreign policy between different states. International relations also try to explain the kind of cooperation that exists between nations and how they achieve set objectives. It also relates the effects of globalization to the performance of different nations. The world is changing drastically in terms of economics, ecology, and politics and there is need to study how different nations are doing to accommodate such changes. We all understand that a state can not perform efficiently without interacting with other states in the global world. International cooperation can trigger the achievement of national economic objectives. Through it, governments are able to attain their social, economic, and political objectives. International cooperation mainly addresses issues related to security, peace, human rights, and poverty eradication. This is more reflected in international trade where nations from many parts of the world exchange their goods and services, technical advice, expertise as well as aids. However, this cannot be possible without the assistance of international institutions. These are institutions formed by members from different states to address issues of politics, economy, and peace in the respective member countries. This paper will give an in-depth analysis on how international institutions assist international cooperation in achieving some of its political, social, and economical objectives. Competition Law It is common for most business to extent their activities across national borders. This is done in the form of exports, investment, or transfer of technology for the purpose of earning profits. These activities improve economic performance of the trading nations and this was the main objective for the formation of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Today, the international organizations have increased and we now have the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the World Bank. Every country has objectives and competition law that differs from one nation to the other. This often creates disputes among the trading nations which can create an unstable environment for investors who want to invest in the concerned nations. These differences can even cause competitive disparities that can either make it easy or hard for trading nations to access the national market. For instance, if one country’s competition law (lets say country A) does not allow any foreign products but its products
Introduction Learning institutions are in a better position to fight the use of tobacco products among the children. Children spend a considerable share of their time in school. As a result, they acquire the smoking behaviors from their peers in school (Goldstein et al. 295). Over 80% of the adult smokers claim that the practice originated from school. Research conducted in American schools in 2015 showed that a significant number of eighth, tenth and twelfth-grade students use tobacco products. Some students claimed that the behavior started when they were in the sixth grade. Nicotine is “a highly addictive drug and adolescents who are still going through critical periods of growth and development are particularly vulnerable to its effects” (Adams et al. 19). Thus, it is imperative for the schools to initiate programs and implement policies that prohibit the use of tobacco products within the precincts of the learning institutions. Statistics show that in the United States, the number of young smokers increase by over 2,100 youths every day. Besides, each day, over 3,200 teens use tobacco products for the first time. The statistics are startling and call for immediate action. This paper will discuss the prevention programs that schools use to deter smoking amid youths in the United States. The paper will also discuss the programs that Georgia has taken to resolve the issue of smoking in schools. Prevention Programs In the United States, the community in partnership with tobacco industry has come up with programs aimed at preventing tobacco use among the youths and young adults. One of such programs is the national 4-H program. The program facilitates the formulation of and implementation of initiatives aimed at preventing kids from engaging in smoking. The national 4-H program trains the youths and young adults in general life skills (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 4). Additionally, the teens learn the consequences of indulging in cigarette smoking and how to make the right choices in life. The tobacco industry funds programs aimed at promoting positive growth amid youths. In 1990, the tobacco industry initiated a program dubbed “It’s the Law” that sought to ensure that retail stores do not sell cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors. However, the program was not effective in deterring retail stores from selling cigarettes to children. Currently, the United States has laws that punish youths for smoking or using tobacco products (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 5). The only weakness of these laws is that they do not hold the tobacco industry and retailers into account for distributing tobacco products to youths and young adults. The government of the United States has advocated the use of standardized packages for tobacco products, mainly cigarettes. The government requires tobacco companies to use plain boxes to pack the cigarettes. The use of branded boxes
Operation Anaconda took place in early March 2002 in the Shahikot Valley and the Armagh Mountains, Afghanistan. This operation was the first large-scale battle in the US war in Afghanistan since the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001. It was also the first operation in Afghanistan to include a large number of US conventional forces, other than air forces, in direct combat. Between March 2 and March 16, 2002, 1,700 US troops and 1,000 pro-government Afghan militias were deployed to capture 300 to 1,000 Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters to gain control of the valley (Hastert, 2004). It seems reasonable to suggest that during the operation, the US military leaders adhered to the seven principles of mission command. These are “competence, mutual trust, shared understanding, commander’s intent, mission orders, disciplined initiative, and risk acceptance” (Department of the Army, 2019, p. x). Despite the fact that there were a number of difficulties and unexpected factors that indicated several problems within the operation’s governance, the command still remained well-organized and followed these seven principles. According to Kugler (2007), “the command structure was multi-headed” (p. 9). Such a state of affairs implies that there were several commanders responsible for dealing with serious issues. There were many intersected units accountable to different military leaders. In this vein, the principles of mutual trust and shared understanding are visible. The command structure units did not hesitate to delegate authorities and responsibilities to each other, which implies their trust in each other – this contributes to confidence both at the headquarters and battlefield. Then, the fact that there was no confusion in implementing orders by different units means that they understood the situation on a shared basis. Then, the principle of commander’s intent “is a clear and concise expression of the purpose of the operation and the desired military end state that supports mission command” (Department of the army, 2019, p. 1-10). It should be admitted that before the operation, the command had designed a comprehensive and concise plan that had clearly stated aims and roles each unit should play. This principle was visible further when the necessity to adapt the plan occurred – the command followed the best practices in this regard as well, which led to relative success in the aftermath. At this point, the reasons for the mentioned adaptation should be provided to further discuss the remaining principles. From the very beginning of the operation, things did not go as planned by American strategies. The result of the bombing was exactly the opposite of what the
A person’s identity is formed under the influence of the environment. It is determined by various factors related to how a person perceives this world, interacts with people, and manifests itself throughout life. As an African American, Latino, and Japanese male, I grew up in a female environment with my mother, stepmother, and sister. I never felt any need; our economy class was Upper Middle Class (Bhatt & Pujar, 2020). My educational background is Homeschooled by my mother at Tennessee State University. Since she received a good education, she can pass all the necessary knowledge for life to me. Mother has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the University of California Berkeley along with a master’s in Business Administration. Our family is Buddhist by religion, which has never limited me in social interactions, so I belonged to the United Service Organization for some time. It is a mentoring for the children of the military to stay focused and not go astray. This experience also influenced me and contributed to the development of my personality. I did not have a childhood neighborhood, as my parents moved due to work. Most of my friends were children of the military, but thanks to such circumstances, I had the opportunity to get to know different parts of the world, “to understand and respect different cultures.” (Sanford, 2017, p. 23) The biggest culture shock for me was facing racism due to my dark skin (Davenport, 2020). In South Korea, where my mother worked, I was not even allowed to enter certain places, and the police stopped me several times because of suspicions of theft. However, when they saw that my mother was in the military, they immediately changed their attitude. Numerous situations have influenced my personality and made me worry about inequality. This changed my views; therefore, my political affiliation is nonpartisan; I believe that it is necessary to strive for equality regarding race, gender, social class, and other identities. The totality of all the factors and experiences that I faced made me who I am now and shaped my identity.
Throughout history, people tend to believe in all kinds of mysteries. Belief gives people consolation in situations when they meet something unusual or unknown. In this case, belief replaces knowledge. Nowadays, numerous works and books are written that relate mystic beliefs to archeology and other sciences. Despite the vast number of such kind of writings, the scientific approach that is commonly implemented in archeology proves that there is no room for mystery in the history of humankind, showing the importance of epistemology and factual basis for knowledge. The authors of the pseudo-archeological writings have multiple reasons for the creation of their compositions: money, fame, nationalism, religious beliefs, or the realization of the romantic worldview (Feder 11). Although the reasons may be different, the lack of informational and factual basis is common for the majority of the pseudoscientific books. The book “Chariots of the Gods” by Erich Von Daniken raises the questions of the extraterrestrial emergence of the humankind. To prove this point of view the author applies the description and analysis of the artifacts that were discovered worldwide: Egypt, Asia, North and South America. His approach is rather cultural than scientific, and it is very subjective. Through description and interpretation of the pictures on the ancient monoliths, he claims that there were the “unknown gods who visited the primeval earth in manned spaceships” (Daniken 10). It can be considered an example of interpretation according to a particular belief, preconception when the facts are misread according to the prejudiced point of view. The epistemological approach is needed to avoid misinterpretation. Epistemology’s concern is the evaluation and consideration of the facts. It excludes belief as such and deals directly with the actual things of reality. Despite this, Erich Von Daniken manages to use the inconsistency of knowledge and lack of scientific ground for his purposes, creating the fascinating and improbable stories about the “incredible technical achievements existed in the past” (Daniken 10). Nowadays, some people believe in the existence of the ancient civilizations that were as developed as the present-day society, and that had a vast number of technological devices comparable to modern technology. All these ideas are flourishing on ignorance. The propensity to believe in mystic and supernatural may also be explained by people’s dependence on others. People are prone to rely on those who, in their opinion, have more experience and influence. So, some authors write their books under the impressions caused by the works based on older sources, considering them sufficient proof for their beliefs. Often the pseudo-scholars approach to the facts described in the ancient sources without any rational analysis and put their own ideas into them. The scientific approach supports the provision of the “knowledge that is reliable, truthful, and factual” (Feder 23). Science deals with the part of reality that is material and knowable, the part that can be researched, estimated, and analyzed. The ground f
Polio is a highly dangerous virus that took many human lives at the beginning of the twentieth century and later in the 1950s. It can cause not only fever, sore throat, headache, and nausea, but sometimes paralyzes parts of a human body and may even cause death via disabling parts of the breathing system (“What is polio?”, 2017). At the beginning of the twentieth century and later in the 1950s, the number of cases of polio was very high, and there was panic among society. Fearful of the implications of the disease, many scientists became interested in inventing the polio vaccine. There were a few crucial figures in the history of vaccine development, but Dr. Salk and Dr. Sabin are the most famous researchers since they managed to invent vaccines that are widely used nowadays (Plotkin, 2014). The two scientists worked on a cure for polio with different approaches, and both vaccines helped society in fighting the illness. Thanks to their inventions, nowadays, most people reside in areas where there is no wild poliovirus. Although Sabinaimed to develop a better vaccine, there is still a debate about which way is more beneficial for people. The U.S. prefers Dr. Salk’s vaccine and Sabin’s cure being used in most of the other countries in the world. Sometimes Sabin’s attenuated virus can cause paralysis “after spontaneous reversion to neurovirulence,” so some may say that such a vaccine is unsafe and, therefore, worse (Patel, Zipursky, Orenstein, Garon, & Zaffran, 2015, p. 751). However, I believe that since both vaccines have saved and will continue to save so many lives, it is irrelevant to think of the best one.