ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Business managers are increasingly finding themselves being replaced by business leaders. The difference between a leader and a manager is that while a manager views the job as a career, a leader perceives it as a calling and a personal responsibility. There are many traits that differentiate between a manager and a leader, but the most significant element is their role since the duty of a manager is to manage, while that of a leader is to lead. Unlike managers, leaders attract their follows by earning their trust and through motivation. In my professional career, I have had several opportunities not only to be a manager, but also to exercise my leadership skills. This essay endeavors to describe one such occasion. Our company strategized to formulate a method through which our major clients would be transited for GAAP to IFSR. The company executives preferred internally bred solution. Thus, we were divided into teams, each with a leader and a mentor. The teams were to present their findings to the judges who were the company executives in a span of two weeks. Ken, an extremely respected business leader was my team leader. However, his packed schedules did not allow him time to convene our group within the first week. Upon realizing that we were running out of time, I decide to convene our first meeting with our mentor to map the way forward. This first meeting was not very successful as my team members did not have the necessary knowledge on the case we were working on. This influenced our mentor to be very skeptical of our team’s ability. That is when I decided to take full responsibility of the project. I rallied my team members and within a short time, we had a workable project plan, comfortable with all members. I then identified the special talents in each of my team members and assigned them responsibilities concurrent with those talents. This proved very useful in improving team efficiency. Prior to every meeting, I did extensive research on the case and summarized my findings. These findings provided my team with necessary information it needed. I had to provide the general direction, thus giving each member space for creative involvement in the task. The fact that we were short of time motivated team members to work diligently in their areas of responsibly and reporting to the group on the progress made. The task was not only compl
Introduction Corsets have a long and amazing history. They have survived historical moments to the current time. Over time, they have continuously been modified to shape the bodies of women into what the society expects them to appear like. During the Victorian era, corsets were not only body shapers, but also indicators of a woman’s class and her moral standing. This article describes Victorian corsets, and compares and contrasts them with today’s corsets. It will examine the materials used to make corsets in the two cases, and how and why they were and are worn. Description of Corsets Shape Narrowest Victorian corsets took after the shape of a hourglass. They were narrowest at the middle with the upper and lower ends opening up to accommodate the bust and the hip area respectively. They did not have any strips hanging from either ends. There was a strap at the back running from the top to the bottom through small holes on both sides; this strap was used to tighten it to the body. The front middle lower end extended by few inches downwards below the waistline. The front middle upper end extended to accommodate breast halfway in a manner today referred to as over-bust. Modern corsets in some few ways take after the shape of Victorian corsets. One difference is seen in the middle part which is not as narrow as that of Victorian corsets. Unlike the Victorian corsets which can be said to have been significantly over-bust, today’s corsets are customized and come in the forms of over-bust and under-bust. Materials Silk corset Victorian corsets were made up of a variety of materials. Heavy linen, cotton and sometimes soft leather were popular materials (Winter 1). Colored silk was used to make corsets for special events such as weddings (Pinterest 1). Reinforcement to the corsets was by means of whale bone (Winter 1). According to Eleri, the whale bone referred to here is not actually a bone at all but “keratinous material found around the upper jaws of baleen whales, used to filter plankton and krill” (Eleri 1). The whale bone was popular because it is flexible and very strong. Furthermore, it can be cut into very narrow strips without compromising strength. The whale bone strips were inserted into corsets to give them strength (Eleri 1; Winter 1). Winter also noted that some plants with very strong fibers were also used to offer reinforcement to corsets. This was expected because whale bones probably could be rare at times. Steel was another strengthening material used at this time. Iron maidens were also popular especially in the late Victorian era. Winter described iron maidens as “molded iron devices shaped like a woman’s body or in a manner anticipated to shape the body” (1). Corsets made out of iron maidens were particularly very stiff (Winter 1). Spiral Steel Modern day corset significantly make use of fabrics such as cotton, silk and leather. The reinforcement or boning materials are numerous with the most common ones being white steel, spiral steel, plastic, and reeds. Modern technology has enabled today’s corsetieres to use light and flexible boning materials (Corset Making 1). Convenie
Introduction The ultimate goal of every business function is to maximize shareholders’ value. This objective is achieved when a company records increased profits. Chief executive officers (CEOs) and leaders who want to make their companies profitable and sustainable must implement evidence-based strategies, values, and cultures that resonate with the intended aims. Business organizations associated with positive leadership styles will record desirable gains within a short period. Such companies will also be keen to implement and support admirable corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs or policies. Consequently, firms that promote appropriate CSR policies will attract more customers and remain profitable in their respective market segments. Unfortunately, the challenge of corporate fraud continues to haunt many companies across the globe. Organizational scholars and researchers have been keen to study the relationship between organizational culture, corporate fraud, and CSR. Using the works of different scholars and theorists, this research paper seeks to explain why corporate fraud is usually a product of an ineffective organizational culture. Understanding Corporate Fraud The complexity and nature of corporate fraud is something that has captured the attention of many scholars within the past eight decades. Whenever this form of dishonesty surfaces in big companies, their images and performances are disoriented (Morgan 2014). Some of the common forms of fraud include overstated assets, expenses, profits, and sales. Rahman and Bremer (2016) acknowledge that some leaders in a given company might decide to use deceptive financial or accounting practices. The purpose of such approaches is to ensure that the wrong performance message is communicated to different stakeholders. With this kind of understanding, it becomes clear that corporate fraud is an intentional act aimed at misleading members of the public (Morgan 2014). The targeted consumers of the information will believe that the company is making adequate (or huge) profits. Zack (2015) indicates that cases of corporate dishonesty and financial fraud tend to be complex. Those involved use a wide range of accounting malpractices to ensure that their wrongdoings are never unearthed. Individuals behind every form of corporate fraud are usually secretive. Such malpractices are usually shocking to different members of the public since they involve tax evasions, economic scandals, and neglected financial roles or responsibilities. Past studies have revealed that many financial or corporate fraud cases begin as a joke or small (Zack 2015). This fact explains why it is usually hard to detect any form of corporate dishonesty during its initial stages. Consequently, many frauds go unnoticed for several years. The implications of various corporate fraud cases are usually mindboggling. For instance, any form of fraud in a big organization will result in massive financial losses. The affected corporation will be affected since members of the public will no longer have trust in its operations. This outcome can affect the company’s bus
Introduction This paper provides a complete profile of the Nordic’s business and accounting environment with the focus on Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. Nordic countries have common economic interests. These are small countries, which greatly benefit from foreign trade. Rapid economic developments in Nordic countries have made them among the most competitive economies of the world. Such high rates of economic developments imply that Nordic countries have become significant for both individuals and public policymakers, within and outside their territories. The rise of Nordic countries has surprised many economists due to their large sizes of governments and high taxes. Figure 1: World Bank Report – Ease of Doing Business, 2012 Norway Norway is a well-developed and industrialized nation with a free export-based economy. The country is among the richest country in the world. It has high standards of living, life expectancy, housing, and health. The Heritage Foundation ranked Norway as the 31 st in terms of economic freedom in the 2013 Index with a score of 70.5 (Heritage Foundation, 2013). This represented an increment of 1.7 points from the previous score. The Heritage Foundation has attributed this increment to significant indicators of economic freedom like public spending, freedom of investment, and freedom from corrupt activities. The past gains in economic freedom have placed Norway among countries with high-levels of economic freedom. The government of Norway has focused on reducing public spending. The country has been able to keep its public debt under control amidst a budget deficit and fiscal stimulus. However, the country controls most of the industries. The country has developed its competitiveness through a strong culture of transparency and openness. Norway has trade-oriented and investment policies. In addition, its legal system is among the best in the world, and it offers effectual protection of intellectual property rights. The people have upheld the rule of the law with low tolerance to corrupt practices. The Heritage Foundation provides quick data on Norway as follow (Heritage Foundation, 2013):   * Population: 5.0 million   * GDP (PPP):       + $265.9 billion       + 1.7% growth       + 0.7% 5-year compound annual growth       + $53,471 per capita   * Unemployment:       + 3.0%   * Inflation (CPI):       + 1.3%   * FDI Inflow:       + $3.6 billion Finland The Heritage Foundation has ranked Finland in 74 th position in terms of economic freedom. This has placed the country in the 16 th position in the world ranking of 2013 Index. The country has improved by 1.7 points above the previous year’s rating. The gain has been due to developments in labor freedom, effective management of public finance, and investment freedom. The Finnish economy has been among the top economies in the freedom Index category. It operates on protected rights to property, promotion of entrepreneurship, economic flexibility, and productivity. The country legal framework does not tolerate corruption, and it strives to maintain the rule of the law. The judiciary is not under political influences, and it ensure
Delivering of Evidence to the Lab for Testing After the physical evidence comprising of broken glass, statins from carpet, furniture, and clothing, and drinking glasses, has been appropriately collected and packaged, it is then transported to the crime laboratory for analysis. Often, evidence obtained from a scene is presented to the investigator-on-case with the proper documentation and a brief explanation of how it was collected. The investigator-on-case then determines which evidence should require further lab examination (Washington State Patrol, 2015). Several methods are used to deliver evidence; however, the method selected is dependent on the size and type of the item, the complexity, and the urgency of the case (Washington State Patrol, 2015). Regardless of the method employed, it is vital to ensure that evidence is not lost, damaged, or contaminated. Furthermore, the chain of custody should be kept as short as possible. Personal delivery is the most recommended method as it shortens the length of the chain of custody. The other way is delivery by the use of a common carrier, for example, the U.S. Postal Service. When using carrier services, it is necessary to request a formal notification on delivery or sent by Registered Mail with a return receipt requested. Moreover, the investigator should begin by checking with the local and state crime laboratories to determine where evidence should be sent. This is because most laboratories analyze controlled substances; nevertheless, certain types of examinations involving glass and latent print analysis are performed at specific laboratories. Forensic Examination of Collected Body Fluids Blood Blood comprises cells, proteins, enzymes, water, and inorganic substances. Three steps have to be followed by the forensic serologists when presented with stains from clothing, furniture, and carpet. First, the analyst performs a presumptive test to determine if the stain is blood. The principle of the presumptive test is based on hemoglobin’s ability to oxidize specific reagents, therefore, bringing about a color change (Gefrides & Welch, 2011). The oxidizing agent is often hydrogen peroxide. In the case of invisible stains, the luminol test is conducted. It is often utilized in large areas, where blood is suspected but invisible. The bloodstain will glow in the presence of blood (Gefrides & Welch, 2011). Luminol is highly sensitive and lacks false positives. However, in instances where there are visible stains, the Kastle-Meyer (KM) and leukomalacia green (LMG) tests, are applied. The KM or phenolphthalein test is a popular presumptive catalytic method. A phenolphthalein indicator solution is applied to the suspect
Specifics of Infrastructure in Galveston The questions of infrastructure and city development are extremely important for the history of Galveston because this city seems to be always at risk of destruction due to natural disasters. The reason for this statement is Galveston’s location as a port city. From this perspective, the purpose of the essay is to discuss special features of the city’s infrastructure with the focus on political leaders’ actions, city plans, and current issues. The Great Galveston Storm of 1900 was the major natural event that influenced the further development of the city and its infrastructure as it was almost destroyed because of the disaster. That storm was the most influential for the city, but minor hurricanes and storms were also typical of the region, making the city authorities pay more attention to the construction of protective buildings and strengthening roads. 1 As a result, the authorities developed a specific city plan to locate new hospitals and schools, as well as governmental buildings and roads, in the safest parts of this port. In his work, McComb refers to the data from newspapers, statistical reports, books, journal articles, and interviews in order to support his conclusions. 2 Thus, the author’s discussion of the city’s infrastructure is based on both primary and secondary sources of information. The inability of the city authorities to respond adequately to the Great Galveston Storm of 1900 and later hurricanes allows some researchers to state that political leaders did not realize all their potential in order to assist in developing effective infrastructure plans. It was important to develop plans regarding security and preventive measures, the distribution of funds in case of disasters, and the plan of reconstruction of activities. 3 Still, the history of the city demonstrates that political leaders were more oriented to Galveston’s expansion and growth as a powerful port in the region, and the structure of the municipality was changed to refocus on securing the city. The experience of Galveston in addressing the risk of hurricanes and storms was also taken into account by other city of the United States in order to develop their infrastructure plans. Thus, the ideas of building seawalls and floodgates and constructing houses only at a certain acceptable level above the sea were also realized in other cities of the country. The use of sand and floodgates in Galveston demonstrated how it is possible to protect the city from waves. 4 However, there are still issues associated with the city’s plan: more attention should be paid to expanding the seawall, improving a drainage system, and constructing new elevated roads because risks of storms remain to be high for Galveston. From this perspective, it is possible to state that the experience of Galveston in addressing hurricanes allowed the city officials to focus on designing effective infrastructure and city development plans. Although some of the initiatives were not effective enough, the most successful ones were easily replicated in other cities. As a result, preventive measures tested in Galveston became actively us
Introduction The world is experiencing increased moral decadency. Unless morality issues are enhanced, the world moral sanity is at stake. In this regard, Michael Sandel (Born 1953) offered to shed more light on justice and the numerous analogies that thwart genuine implementation of justice. While justice is a fundamental human right, violation of it has become the norm rather than the exception. To avert escalation of injustices radical constitutional amendment remains a necessity. While justice is unequivocal in theory, political players construe it to favor a social class. This essay will therefore, exude the four principles of justice that Sandel defend in the light of liberalism. Justice at a glance To many scholars justice is a concept of moral correctness that founded on ethics, rationality, law, religious inclination and religion ethos. Thus, justice strives to inject fairness, to the society by prescribing appropriate punishment to those who violate the norms. Rawls contends that justice is the prime virtue of social institution that springs all moral values (20). Intrusion of injustices in the modern world segregate justice as divine instituted, influenced by fate and not humanly managed. The predominance of laissez faire market marginalizes fairness and justice is manipulated by money, political will and biased judicial system. Principles of justice Freedom of expression Michael Sandel in an attempt to explain vividly the principle of justice came up with four ideas that are core to understanding fairness. The first principle entails freedom of choice. While the freedom of choice is analogous to human rights, the principle is often violated especially in political scenes. Sandel contents that each person has intrinsic freedom that should be preserved by other. At the same time, a persons’ freedom should neither infringe another person’s freedom. Each individual is therefore, entitled to air his/her opinion freely, by extension, this entails participating in the political arena and on public gallery. Political liberty that Sandel demonstrates entails rights to vote and vie for political offices in offer. The liberty to own property is also engraved in Sandel principle of justice. Here, Sandel presumes the existence of Laissez faire economic order, where market forces operate freely under the natural law of demand and supply. However, a deeper exposition of the principle reveals that the liberty to own property is not basic as opposed to the liberty of expression. Thus in this principle, Sandel presents his argument that each individual is unencumbered. Although humans are unencumbered, some responsibilities are inherited and by extension inseparable to humanity. Hence, only a looser version of unawareness is possible. Rawls presented a contrary position stating that the ignorance veil is restrictive enough and such that decision are made without baring in mind who will be affected by them. However, under normal circumstance, individuals are connected to the world and decision makers know with certainty their subjects. Sandel illustrates that human ability to discern their environment not only makes them reflexi
Introduction After years of releasing harmful gases into the atmosphere, the global climatic trends have been disrupted leading to a rise in incidents of undesirable conditions like drought (Marsh and Henrik 2000). Climate change has reached alarming levels and, over time, countries have come out to declare their intention to deal with the issues. This essay seeks to evaluate the United Nation’s response to the issue of climate change. The United Nation’s Response to climate change The Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Action Plan In 1992, countries came together in an international treaty dubbed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (US National Research Council 2008). The primary goal of this treaty was to try and come up with methods of cutting back the global temperature rise and the subsequent climate change. The treaty also aimed at coming up with measures to deal with the impact of the climate change (Edwards and Miller 2001). The talks continued for the next three years and, in 1995, it was agreed that climate change was an issue that could only be addressed from a global perspective. This led to the adoption of Kyoto Protocol two years later (International Energy Agency 2011). The Kyoto Protocol was a legal agreement that any signatory country had to ensure that their toxic missions were significantly reduced. In 2007, the United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in the Indonesia. Out of the conference 187 countries committed to continue with talks aimed at giving strength to the process of global warming reduction (Government of Japan 2008). The eventual action plan, title the Bali Action Plan , aimed at ascertaining the global response to climate change through the following four key objectives: mitigation, adaptation, technology and financing (Government of Japan 2008). The section below shall briefly explain the proposed strategies for the attainment of the four items of the Bali Action Plan. Mitigation In order to effectively deal with the climate change issue, it was decided that countries set up measures to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This would be achieved through the following methods: Reduction commitments-Most of the nations in the developed world agreed to put measures in place to help reduce emissions by the year 2020 (Pash 2010). Emission reduction-Some of the measures that were proposed for helping