ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction The purpose of this proposal is to present the problem statement and objectives for secondary research that will be conducted to examine accounting and auditing strategies adopted by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) . Two questions take center stage. The first one pertains to accounting and auditing standards that the ADNOC Group of Companies currently has . The second question is whether the group’s inner control policy and approaches to account reports and financial reviews need to be improved in order to be able to compete with other companies. The proposal also provides the details of the industry selected for the research, as well as details related to ADNOC. The SWOT analysis will be performed to propose a background for understanding business and accounting issues in ADNOC. The relevant course learning outcomes, methodology, and plan of action are also discussed in the proposal. Details of Chosen Industry The gas and oil industry is the leading sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In 2014, the revenues from this industry comprised 24% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), up from 18% in 2004; in terms of total general government revenue, oil and gas accounted for 65% in 2014 (International Monetary Fund, 2015, p. 3-4). The UAE produces approximately 3.7 billion barrels of oil per day (International Monetary Fund, 2015, p. 8). Oil exports are especially important: in 2011, they accounted for 77% of the UAE’s state budget (Global Data, 2016). Within the country, the oil and gas industry, including its petrochemical sector, is dominated by state-owned companies (Global Data, 2016). Therefore, much attention should be paid to researching specific accounting and auditing practices in this industry, in order to focus on principles of conducting business and preparing financial statements at the state level. Details of Chosen Organization ADNOC is a state-owned company that operates in the oil and gas industry of the UAE. The company was founded in 1971, and today, it unites more than 20 subsidiaries, known as the ADNOC Group of Companies, that operate in the oil and petrochemical sectors of the UAE (ADNOC, 2016). The ADNOC Group of Companies includes such firms as Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO), Zakum Development Company (ZADCO), and Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (ADMA-OPCO), among others (World Market Intelligence, 2014). These companies monitor upstream, midstream, and downstream operations. The focus is on the exploration and production of oil and gas products, as well as on the production of petroleum products. Currently, ADNOC “manages and oversees oil production of more than 3.15 million barrels per day (bpd), ranking it the 12th largest oil and gas producer in the world” (ADNOC, 2016, para. 4). The group manages 95% of the UAE’s proven oil reserves and 92% of the country’s gas reserves (ADNOC, 2016, para 3). The overall number of employees working in subsidiaries is more than 20,000 people (Global Data, 2014). ADNOC has been selected for
Introduction Businesses must enhance their competitiveness so as to remain relevant and successful in the market. Additionally, maximizing shareholders’ stocks is helpful in indicating how businesses progress. Shareholder’s wealth is total market worth of a business in regard to common stocks. It is obtained by multiplying the market price (price trading at market place) of each share by the outstanding common shares. The long-standing objective of a business is to increase shareholders’ wealth. This comprises all earnings of the concerned shareholders. It is important to understand various aspects of shareholders’ wealth in the business realms. Thus, when a firm decides to increase the wealth of its shareholders, it is important for managers to analyze the future effects of such practices (Brigham & Houston 2009 p. 324). However, it is vital to understand whether maximizing the wealth of shareholders should be the main objective of the management. Precisely, this paper focuses on whether the management of any business should augment the wealth of shareholders and owners. Should the primary objective of management be to increase the wealth of shareholders and owners? According to Milton Friedman, the main purpose of any business is to make profits for its shareholders and owners. In addition, he points out that businesses that involve themselves in other ventures would eventually be less competitive. This would offer smaller number of benefits to its shareholders, workers and the society in general. When a business does not make profits for longer duration, its capital reserves and sources of funds would decrease sooner. Thus, the company would not be able to carry out its businesses appropriately (Ahlstrom 2010 p. 21). This shows how important it is for a business to make profits and increase its shareholder’s wealth. Additionally, it is crucial to provide shareholders/owners with other viable benefits. Precisely, they should gain fully from their investments. However, businesses should provide more benefits than just returns to their shareholders. Consequently, these businesses offer economic development, opportunities for employment as well as substantial advances in the lives of individuals. The newer products that are available in the market today are as a result of more innovations and inventions of corporations as they try to solve the problems in the society. Therefore, the main objective of businesses should not only be making profits to its shareholders and owners but making innovations that solve societal problems (Bejou 2011 p. 5). Actually, these innovations will provide more benefits to the owners besides solving societal problems than just making profits. In addition, inventions will bring to the market products that are not only affordable to most people but also products that are superior and more useful to customers. Most people anti
Introduction The adoption of the IFRS has become a normal accounting standard within the Gulf region as is the case across the globe. The rationale for adoption of the IFRS has been the need to create a standard accounting method to ensure that there is enhanced transparency and comparability of the financial information in the market (Beaver 2011). This means that decision makers within a capital market or economic bloc will have better information since application of the IFRS in a consistent and rigorous manner would create a better integrated economic market that is controlled by a single currency regime (Filip & Raffournier 2010). As a result, the integration will eventually result to an efficient funds allocation formula, reduced capital cost (meaning low interest rates), and increase flow in the foreign direct investments (FDI) (Ball & Brown 2006). In relation to the GCC member states, the positive outcome as a result of integration of the IFRS would result in expanding trading, increasing liquidity, and creating an environment for informational efficiency since single currency regime ensure stability and consistency as is the current case with four out of the six members of the GCC. Research Problem Statement The integration of the capital markets within the GCC has continued to face the challenge of varying reporting incentives, which is responsible for reporting and observation of the disclosure practices in economic integration of a single currency regime. At present, most of the reporting incentives are formulated at the member state level and not as the GCC policy, except for the four states that have embraced the single currency proposal (Blank 2011). The institu
Jack the ripper is an alias name of an unknown serial killer who killed many prostitutes in London in 1888. The criminal came to be called so after someone wrote a letter at the time of the murders, claiming he was the killer. He was also called by two other names, ‘Whitechapel murderer’ and ‘leather belt.’ The murders were around and in the districts of Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Aldgate. City of London proper was also involved in some of them. Jack the ripper became famous because he was the first to do so many crimes at a time when the people were literate and the press played a huge role is a society. There are no correct details of how many women were killed by him. It is generally believed that he killed five, but there are also other opinions that he killed only four and seven and so on. The press and some of the junior police officers believe that he killed women. Out of that, five are known to everyone. The method used by Jack the ripper was understood only after several years. He stood face to face with the victims and as the victims lifted their skirts, and was defenseless, he strangled the victims’ throats until either they were dead or unconscious. After one of his operations, he wiped off his knife with a piece of the victim’s apron and also left a chalked message which read, “The Juwes are the men That Will not be blamed for nothing.” (Ryder and Johnno). The police could not charge any suspect in the cases, because there was not enough evidence in any of them. The police received two letters and a postcard, all claiming to be from the criminal. Five days after the first letter, the police received a postcard in which was written about a ‘double event’. This came the day after he killed two women and the earlier letter was mentioned in it. This initially made the police wonder if it was actually the criminal. But later on, police came to the conclusion that it was the work of probably a journalist. Years later, it was proved that a journalist was behind the letter and the postcard. The next letter sent to the police also had a packet with it, containing a part of a kidney. This one seemed more probable because one of the victims suffered from Bright’s disease and the description of the kidney seemed to be similar to Bright’s disease kidney. In 1894, Sir Melville Macnaghten, then Chief Constable, in a report mentioned three names that he called as top suspects, but the later investigation and studies failed to find the real culprit. After a long unsuccessful investigation, the police closed the file in 1892. In the later years, many books and articles were written about Jack the ripper. But all of them were just myths and attempts to unveil what actually happened in London during that autumn. Even after almost two centuries, Jack the Ripper remains a fascinating case. There have been several conjectures to the actual identity of the Ripper even though none of them have been proved to date. A British surgeon had conjectured that he was from an aristocratic family and even hinted that the person might actually be Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. What was more dramatic was that this person was th
Executive Summary Lebanese Flower Restaurant has started operations in the very competitive hospitality industry at Dorchester Street, Sydney, Nova Scotia, in Canada. The external environment in this country, such as political stability, economic environment, technology, and legal structures, have been friendly to the operations of this firm. However, competitors have been posing a serious challenge that hinders their growth. In order to succeed in this market, this firm must develop strategies that will help it understand the market need. It should use its strength to maximize market opportunities and fight threats while managing their weaknesses. Situation analysis The Lebanese Flower Restaurant is a newly established restaurant located at Dorchester Street, Sydney, Nova Scotia, in Canada. This firm is a family-owned business that offers the Middle East and Arabic foods. The firm has been in operations for the last two years. When conducting a situation analysis of this firm, it is appropriate to use models that can enhance understanding of the firm’s internal and external environment in order to determine its competitive capacity in this market. PESTEL and SWOT analysis models would be important in understanding this firm. In analyzing the external environment, PESTEL analysis would be appropriate. The political environment has been very stable. This country is one of the leading democracies. The political leadership has been very stable for the past several years. The government has offered a good environment where this firm can grow without any form of political interference. However, this firm has a responsibility of paying taxes as set by the law and following other regulations set by this government. The economic environment in this country has also been stable. According to Thoma (2009), Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with the rate of unemployment estimated to be less than 6%. Lebanese Restaurant has the capacity to benefit from this stable economy. It means that the purchasing power of the market is relatively high. The management must find the best approach to reaping maximally from this developed economy. The social environment in this society is varied. Canada has people from different ethnic groups, some of whom migrated into the country from as early as the 14 th century. The social environment is always important, especially when designing a marketing strategy that is most appropriate in the market. This firm’s products target the Arab market, especially people from the Middle East. The current location of this firm is in a tourist hub. Although most of the residents are not of Arab origin, the firm can benefit massively from the A
Introduction The interrelationship between the health sector and economic welfare cannot be overlooked. Changes in economic status have adverse effects on the performance of health providers as well as their profitability. On the other hand, the health care sector also contributes substantially to economic growth. For instance, an unbelievable percentage of private sector jobs are created by the health provision sector. The effects of economic crisis to hospitals are innumerable. A remedial-based consideration of the most serious effects should be made to ensure that health providers have sufficient motivation to save lives (Quinn 1). Effect of the current economic environment on hospitals Hospitals have suffered many blows from frequent economic downturns. The current economic crisis has seen many hospitals being deprived of facility finance and finance for technology needs which are a prerequisite for effective Medicare. The number and variety of patients has also declined substantially due to the prevailing economic crisis. This is due to the less number of people seeking Medicare for small health problems and the decrease in admissions. This reduction of patients due to economic crisis has adversely affected the financial health of hospitals and thus many hospitals are either making or considering cutbacks. The economic crisis has also affected budgets in hospitals because hospital employees seek financial support from the hospitals to ease their survival. It has also affected government budgets with a considerable cut on the funds dedicated to Medicaid which has an enormous effect on hospitals. Despite the hard economic times, hospitals should employ strategies for survival since the society must be provided with health care (AHA 1). Hospital strategies in the current economic environment The current economic situation calls for action in ensuring that it does not bring down industries. Hospitals are likely to employ strategies that will enable them cut down costs, access finance and increase revenues in a bid to contain the economic crisis. In doing this, they should ensure that the quality of health provision is not compromised. Some specific strategies that could be employed include: reducing budgets to cater for items with urgency and priority, monitoring of employees to phase out false overtime, reevaluation and perfecting of point-of-sale collections, reducing nursing hours per patient and therapy hours per day, renegotiation of vendor contracts, doing away with unnecessary business lines in the hospital etcetera (HFMA 4). Comparison with other industries Virtually all industries are affected by the current economic crisis. However some industries are affected more than others while few others are not affected at all. The health provision industry is one of the least affected industries. This is because during an economic recession there is a tendency of more people getting sick more frequently and therefore the health providers get clients (Rupp 1). Infrastructural industries are the most affec
The poem “Life After Death” by Ted Hughes is a hymn of the sharpest grief and devastation that can only appear after losing the dearest and beloved person. When people continue living after their closest friend and the meaning of their existence dies, it is not a true life anymore. It is an unbearable survival when pointless days come and go, and everything loses sense. Children who lose their mother turn into the hardest substance of the purest pain with wet jewels instead of eyes and a pale shadow with the wound. When a husband loses his wife, he becomes the Hanged Man, dropped from life, and without any senses left. The only creatures capable of understanding and comforting them are wolves, which can wound the walking dead, entangle them, mourn for them, weave into their voices.
Introduction Artificial intelligence (AI) and biotechnological achievements have become an integral part of present-day developments and have delved into the majority of the spheres of life. An illustrative example of this tendency could be such an obvious situation when a smart navigation system prevents sitting in a traffic jam. It has also become a common sight when an individual watches the target advertisement from reliable stores as a result of an analysis of a great amount of data, which is used by AI. In addition, it is not a problem to have a child for people with reproductive diseases. These examples supply apparent advantages of appliance modern technologies both to the everyday routine and scientific and business issues. However, society tends not to pay appropriate attention to ethical and rightful problems, which arise during the process of gathering and analyzing data (Subramanyam & Patagundi, 2018; Kavanagh, 2019). Therefore, the purpose of the paper is to outline the probable threats of applying biotechnology and AI and state how these concerns regard humanism. Violating the Right to Life The right to life has a considerable impact on the content of each biomedical technology. The manipulations with embryos are the basis for cloning, genetic experiments, and reproductive technologies. Consequently, the proclamation that the right to life becomes valid at the moment of birth makes the aforementioned procedures illegal. In this case, embryo annihilation can be considered as killing and incurred by criminal prosecution. In ca
Breast cancer is one of the most problematic diseases for women around the world because of its prevalence. Fortunately, due to the widespread of this illness, the attention of doctors and citizens is riveted to it. However, many people still know very little about breast cancer. Besides, this topic includes many issues, from ethical to genetic. The purpose of the paper is to discuss various aspects of the disease, both moral and medical. Any condition is associated with a specific ethical dilemma that both doctors and patients face in the process of treatment. Breast cancer is an acute topic, as the tumor is located in a sensitive area. The operations to eradicate it can even change the appearance of a person if it becomes necessary to remove the breast. Therefore, questions regarding this disease are associated with many ethical considerations. Firstly, all actions should be carried out with the full consent of the patient. Naturally, this also applies to breast cancer surgery. In this case, the patient should be informed as much as possible. Also, the subject should be asked about the method of the operation: whether to conduct a mastectomy or perform breast-conserving surgery (Carmichael & Sandelin, 2019). The individual opinion in this matter should be decisive, as it is connected with a person’s anatomy. In addition to the question of the surgery, there is an ethical problem associated with the genetic characteristics of the disease. Since for many tests, professional doctors conduct genetic analysis; they have a lot of information both directly about the patient and the family. Such information may include a predisposition to some diseases, as well as biographical moments related to the lifestyle. This knowledge is purely personal and cannot be divulged; therefore, the doctor must handle such data in a way that protects the rights of people (Carmichael & Sandelin, 2019). Maintaining medical confidentiality and protecting the
Introduction to Akron Children’s Hospital Case   * need for reform in management and brand   * lack of attention to internal issues   * need for identifying the perceptions of patients   * the necessity of quality increase In conditions of a highly competitive health-care market, Akron Children’s Hospital, similarly to other health care facilities, needs to implement change to both its management and brand. This intervention is expected to create some distinction features able to differentiate the hospital from other clinics in the area. There is also a need for the identification of internal issues and determination of its patients’ perceptions. The case study under consideration utilizes observational research thus contributing to developing the positioning and key metrics that can enhance the quality of Akron Children’s Hospital. Hospital and Scenario Background   * High competition due to location in Northeastern Ohio   * Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic as main competitors   * 253 beds   * More than 30 areas of practice and expertise   * Low patient visitation rates   * Lack of available bed space The Akron Children’s Hospital is located in Northeastern Ohio, which is a highly competitive health-care market for children’s hospitals. An area is a place for some other large hospitals that provide high-quality care. The major competitors of Akron’s are Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic. The first one is nationally ranked in 8 pediatric specialties and has a capacity of admitting 155 children daily (U.S. News, n.d.). Still, Akron’s Children’s Hospital positions itself as a leading pediatric healthcare provider in Northeastern Ohio. It has about 253 beds that are used to provide care in over 30 areas of practice and expertise, including medical and surgical care for children. It possesses innovative medical equipment that enables providing care for children of all ages. For example, the hospital can execute skin transfers and intra-operative MRI for brain tumor removal. Despite positioning itself as a leader in child care, Akron is still losing out to its competitors in the market. Consequently, there is a need for an effective reform to upgrade the hospital’s brand and develop features that distinguish Akron’s Children’s Hospital from competitors. Management-Research Question   * management dilemma   * management question   * research questions   * investigative questions   * measurement questions   * management decisions (Cooper & Schindler, 2013). To identify and address the issues in business research, a management-research question hierarchy can be applied. It involves six specific stages such as management dilemma, management question, research questions, investigative questions, measurement questions, and management decisions. The research process is launched by the demand for a solution or decision cr