ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction Australia has many global interests and deals with countries in many regions. These relationships mainly involve states that affect the country’s strategic environment and act as trading and investment partners. Australia has many bilateral ties with the countries within the region, such as Japan, China, and its closest neighbour Indonesia. It also has interests in nations that comprise the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The country has many security threats within the region. Therefore, Australian policy makers regard several issues as security threats. The country’s security policies are aimed at ensuring the safety of the country and her territories. There is a strong link between Australia and the regional security, as Australia is a significant power within the region. Thus, the policy is not just involved in advancing for direct defence, but also stability and progress among its neighbours (Bellamy 2010). There are several security treaties established by Australia. The ANZUS treaty is the most important treaty, where signatories include the United States and New Zealand. There are also the Five Power Arrangements, whereby an agreement was reached by Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand to have forces in Singapore and Malaysia. Australia is a middle-level power located within the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, it has the responsibility of ensuring stability in the region and encouraging peace among states that comprise the Asia-Pacific region. The department of foreign affairs and trade is responsible for developing and implementing the various policies established by the government. Thus, it advises the government and seeks to advance the interests of the country in the Asia-Pacific region and internationally (Government of Australi 2009). International terrorism The international terrorism threat is a critical security issue in Australia. Linking with many western countries, such as the United States, Britain, and other European countries, is an important aspect of countering the effects of terrorism. The country shares many things, such as cultural, economic, political, and strategic links with the western countries. It has led to a strong relationship between Australia and the western nations and more focus on the region. Currently, the Asia-Pacific region is responsible for about 40% of global trade and accounts for over half of the world production (Burke 2010). The region, as a whole, is an important contributor to the global economy, thus its security and stability is necessary for many western countries. Australia policy makers believe that the threat of terrorism will not be able to persist and grow if all countries come together through international cooperation and collaboration. All stakeholders in the international arena, especiall
Effective time management and planning of personal career are the crucial factors of success and learning. In order to plan my everyday life, I use simple steps; I plan my activity, I stipulates the main tasks to be fulfilled during a day and time needed for each of them. The main opportunities are desire to learn and master new knowledge and skills, creativity and self-confidence. Suppose that creativity can be encouraged (including oneself) by exploring some of the qualities and characteristics of creative thinkers and the activities/steps that can be undertaken to improve the processes involved. For me, communication skills are good laterally and vertically (and flatter organizations should — in theory, at least — encourage good lateral communication). My personal development plan can be explained as motivation, desire to learn and work, calmness and self-confidence. I suppose that each individual will be at a different stage/level up this hierarchy of needs and will need to be motivated accordingly. Other than in financial terms, I am usually motivated if I can see that they will be given: achievement, recognition, job interest, responsibility and advancement (Adair and Alen 108). In sum, planning and scheduling of activities and everyday life is a core of effective personal development. I ensure a good flow of information and suppose that ideas can emerge as a result. Good administration is the hallmark of good management and the proper and efficient use of resources. These leadership functions need to be handled with excellence and this is achieved by performing those functions with increasing skill. Works Cited Adair, John, Alen, Melanie. The Concise Time Management and Personal Development . Thorogood, 2003.
Introduction The evaluation of learning efficiency has always been one of the essential tasks for workplace training professionals. The three major approaches to assessment are based on the works of three scholars: Donald Kirkpatrick, Jack J. Phillips, and Robert Brinkerhoff. The first two concepts share similar grounds and are, in many ways, complementary, while the Brinkerhoff’s model is based on entirely different principles. All three approaches have their pros and cons, and choosing the most appropriate one in each particular case may turn a challenging task. Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation Donald Kirkpatrick first published his ideas on evaluating training programs in the late 50s and then developed them in his fundamental book as well as in a series of complimentary works. According to Kirkpatrick, training programs assessment is essential for several reasons. First, it provides grounds for improvement or dropping a particular curriculum. Also, evaluation is a crucial tool for measuring the performance of training offers. At present, Kirkpatrick’s four-level model has gained full recognition in evaluating training effectiveness. As per the model, each successive stage is based on the results of the previous one, which prescribes a linear design to the assessment process (Kirkpatrick, 1994). The assessor is believed to get a precise picture of the training outcomes after all the levels are approached gradually. At the first level, participants’ reactions to the learning experience are focalized. The trainees are encouraged to give some feedback on the relevance and efficiency of the program as well as the teaching methods employed by the tutor. The principal evaluation tools at this stage include feedback forms, post-training surveys, and questionnaires, which can provide all relevant information. A subsequent analysis of the data is aimed at detecting the program’s drawbacks and getting some hints on its improvement. Although the results obtained at the first stage are of independent significance, they also serve the grounds for the second phase of the evaluation process. At the second level, the increase in participants’ knowledge is assessed by comparing the results of tests before and after learning. The participants’ reactions are bridged to the newly acquired competencies, skills, and attitudes. One should bear in mind that the primary goal is to reveal how the trainees have advanced owing to the new knowledge, not the experience as such (Kirkpatrick, 1994). The evaluation tools at this level are more intricate, involving va
Technological advancement is one of the major characteristics of the contemporary world. Technology has penetrated every sphere of modern life and every field and industry of business and science. Financial analysis and forecasting have benefited significantly from the integration of technology. At the same time, this kind of integration has resulted in a variety of changes and adjustments that significantly transformed the specialty. In particular, the collection of information is the core activity underlying analysis and forecasting practices and enabling informed projecting in any financial specialization. In the contemporary world, in addition to the traditional sources of financial information such as the business publications, scholarly research, and financial reports of business organizations, there exist digital resources storing detailed and valuable financial information, thus making it accessible to different stakeholders and other types of readers. Some of the examples of digital sources of financial information are the news portals on the Internet that post relevant financial reports as soon as the news appears. Such resources prove to be of extreme value to investors and other financial decision-makers because the most recent changes in the marker are what interests them on a daily basis. This is the case because the newest financial changes immediately contribute to the overall situations in the industries and businesses and drive the decision-making process of business leaders. In that way, they carry more professional value than reviews and reports that only reflect the tendencies of the past. In addition to the news portals focused specifically on finding and publishing finance-related information, there exist social media resources where the choices of consumers and market fluctuations can be analyzed in correlation with social trends and used for financial forecasting based on concepts and theories from behavioral economics. In particular, Chung and Liu (2011) stated that one of the core principles of behavioral economics explains that people’s consumption patterns and choices are very often irrational and driven either by emotions or the judgments of others. In that way, the analysis of customer behaviors and other financial information on the online social platforms can be a powerful forecasting tool helping to see and understand the consumers’ intention to purchase, tastes, preferences, and ideas concerning different goods and industries, as well as the factors that contribute to the formation of certain tendencies in consumer decision-making. Since information is handled and presented differently on various social networks and news portals, there are many strategies helping to collect and process the most relevant data. In this paper, the focus is on the exploration of means and techniques of collecting and processing financial information from Internet resources. In particular, the financial data that can be found on the world-renowned social network Twitter and how it can be approached by a financial forecaster for the creation of a reliable basis f
The human curiosity and desire for communication often inspire them to transfer their knowledge and speech patterns to other organisms and artificial creations. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and robots was not an exclusion – to talk to robots, scientists began designing the Robot Interaction Language (ROILA). 1 It is a spoken language that was developed to communicate with robots. The difference of ROILA from other languages for computing is that it should be simple for both machines and humans to understand. For people, natural speech is the easiest way of sharing information, in contrast to programming languages and algorithms. For robots, however, the fluidity of human communication is challenging as it often does not follow the rules that can be analyzed or deciphered. 2 For this purpose, ROILA was created – it is a language that combines the learnability of natural languages and the optimization for machine recognition patterns. The rules of ROILA were designed to mimic the standards of existing spoken languages. Thus, its alphabet is based on the main letters from the English language, but the pronunciation excludes all diphthongs to remove inconsistencies that occur due to vowels’ position in a word. All words are taken from Basic English, and the vocabulary is separated into three ty
Introduction This is one of the most thriving trades in the world markets owing to the fact that, although majority of nations have criminalized drug trafficking, due to effects of the economic crisis that affected most nations, the trade provided and has been providing an alternative way of covering the revenue deficits that occurred ed in most nation’s budgets. For example, research by the United Nations on the impacts of drug trafficking on world economies showed that most countries benefited from the $325 billion, which the drug syndicate generated. Such benefits were either direct; out of drug selling, or indirect; out of criminal proceedings (Syal, p.1). In addition, due to the looming poverty levels in many global societies, and the weaknesses that exist in many governments’ legislation that prohibit the trade, majority of individuals venture into the trade with prospects of upgrading their economic statuses due to many incentives associated with the sale of il to legal drugs (Darryl, p.1). Therefore, this shows how hard it is for most nations to completely abolish the practice, owing to the many benefits such nations receive from the trade. On the other hand, it is important to note that, although some of such drugs are important in medicine, the majority of them have many associated societal problems, which are either political or economic. For example, as research by the Nation Members of Club De Madrid (p.1) shows, there is a great correlation between illegal drug trafficking and terrorism; one of the most dangerous world crimes Illegal Drug Trafficking Primarily, illegal drug trafficking encompasses all activities ranging from the time individuals venture into the practice of planting illegal drugs, to the distribution and sale of such drugs in black markets. Majority of nations have illegalized the trade. Hence, anyone caught transacting or using the drugs must face a tough prison sentence or in some Asian countries, a death sentence. Although this is the case, it is important to note that, in some countries, governments give specific individuals licenses to conduct such a trade, so long as they conduct their businesses under the set rules for such a trade. Majority of individuals who engage illegally in this trade use the same trade mechanisms used by individuals in underground markets. Depending on the type of drug cartel, different individuals must specialize in different processes, which make up the trade. Also, depending on the level of an individual in the business, the size of drug organizations they own vary ranging from the simple street sellers to the well organized multinational organizations well known globally (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, pp.3-8). It is important to note that, gains from illegal drug deals, are not only enjoyed by single individuals or organizations, but also many governments enjoy the many proceeds from the trade. The United Nation’s research on the importance of illegal drug cartels to governments in 2003 showed that the majority of n
Silence as a foundation to freedom & psychological wellbeing Kathleen Norris (10) in her book ‘The Secret Ingredient’ concurs with Theologian Thomas Merton, that silence is foundational to human freedom and psychological well-being. This generally means that for a person to be psychologically healthy and in a good state as to make sound judgments, he or she has to take time off to be either alone and/or in silence. It also means that silence offers human freedom in that it can be an escapism tactic from the chaos, pressure, and demands one faces in the social environment or work environment. Silence in lay man’s terms can be described as lack of audible sounds, communication in any form, or media within a specific environment. On performing the silence test, where I spent thirty minutes in a quiet room without doing anything except breathing and thinking, I got more clarity concerning this issue of silence as a vital tool for achieving psychological wellbeing. I was able to experience silence’s advantages first hand. However, this did not come easily as there were several challenges, both internal and external. Internal challenges encountered included the temptation to look around and pick up objects in the room or move furniture that looks misplaced, desire to move around the room, or to sniff loudly, or say something out aloud (Sasson 62). External challenges were also encountered; these included voices and noises from people outside the room, hence bringing about the urge to make contact with the people outside and to look out through the window towards where the distractions came from. All these threatened my peaceful state. This shows that there are several setbacks to attaining a peaceful state of mind and one needs to be strong willed so as not to succumb to these distractions. The exercise was quite strenuous for the first few minutes but then on getting used to the quiet atmosphere, l relaxed and started enjoying the peace and tranquility prevailing in the room. For the first few minutes my mind which had been at work had to adapt to the suddenly silent atmosphere hence the strain in trying to be quiet and not think or do anything. By the exercise being strenuous at first, it shows that there is lack of relaxation on my part, hence psychological unsettlement, which could be as a result of a strenuous or demanding environment from which I had been. My experience with the silence exercise supports Norris’s assertion concerning silence as after l had familiarized myself with the quiet, peaceful environment, I was able to relax and enjoy the silence prevailing, and could clearly organize my thoughts and hence feel more at home. After the exercise I enjoyed a feeling of utter serenity and my mind was at rest, not at all concerned with all the issues prevailing outside. I realized l had much better concentration on other ac
Introduction The Kraft Foods Group is one of the leading North American food and beverage companies. It is incorporated in the United States with its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. At the international level, the Kraft Foods Group operates like Mondelez International Inc. It operates in more than 170 countries worldwide through partnerships (Kraft Foods Group, 2013). The company deals in a wide range of unrivaled product portfolio. These include beverages, refrigerated meals, cheese, and a wide range of grocery categories. This case study provides an internal analysis of the Kraft Foods Group with a view of determining its major resources, and factors behind its market leadership and excellent performance. Tangible resources A resource refers to an input that a business uses to perform its business processes. These resources are classified as either tangible resources or intangible resources. Tangible resources are physically visible and measurable. They include physical resources, financial resources, information technology resources, and human resources (Longenecker, 2012). Physical resources The Kraft Foods Group focuses on streamlining its physical resources as a way of enhancing its future growth. Its strategic physical resources include manufacturing plants, equipment, and buildings. These resources are used in the production and supply of its products and services. In addition, they enable the company to carry out its administrative functions. The plants for production are designed to enable the company meet its manufacturing requirements. Through co-manufacturing arrangements, the company is able to access third party physical resources (Kraft Foods Group, 2013). Financial resources The Kraft Foods Group is undoubtedly a strong financial performer. In the last five years, it has recorded outstanding financial performances. In addition, its current financial position is a good indicator of its future prospects. The company’s excellent business success is also anchored on its strong consumer and supplier relationships. Although the company recorded a 1.7 % drop in net revenues in 2012, its financial performance is still sound (SEC, 2013). In 2011, it reported a 4.8 % increase in profits. It recorded net revenue of $18.1 billion. A large proportion of this revenue is generated from its global business operations in China, Brazil, India, and Mexico. As of Febr
Introduction Biodiversity of the world’s oceans has been under threat in the wake of intensified economic activities and human-induced climate change. For example, the fishing industry has had the most devastating impact on marine ecosystems. Global fish catches expand deeper into oceans, and industrial fishing covers at least 55% of the ocean surface (Diaz et al., 2019). Rising temperatures diminish ice shields in the Arctic, which can lead to the reduction of distance between Europe and Asia by about 40% (Aksenov et al., 2017). At the same time, several studies have shown that ships emit sulphur dioxide, which, in turn, intensifies the acidification of oceans (European Commission, 2016). All these activities undermine the sustainability of marine ecosystems and require collaborative action. Companies that employ resources of the oceans are not always able to take complete responsibility for the consequences of their activities. Therefore, there is a need for a legal tool to protect and conserve the marine environment. Marine Protected Areas (MPA) are the tools for the coordinated safeguarding of these territories. This essay dwells on the definition and importance of MPAs, including the ones in the high sea. Besides, it presents international legislation, consideration of a new international agreement, opportunities, and challenges. Overview of Marine Protected Areas Definitions matter a lot, especially when it comes to addressing legal papers and agreements. As defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a protected area is “a clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.” (Day et al., 2019, p 8). It should be highlighted that the ultimate goal of any protected area is to protect nature. Data accumulated by Marine Conservation Institute (n.d.) shows that all marine reserves account for 5.3% of global oceans. Marine protected areas vary from zones that are strictly protected to those that conserve specific natural monuments or particular habitats (Day et al., 2019). Therefore, established categories designate the level of allowed human intervention depending on the conservation objectives of every category. The marine environment is different from coastal and terrestrial regions because of its unique characteristics. There are multiple difficulties with controlling the entry to denoted zones, even though modern technologies offer solutions. Moreover, the lack of constant mon