ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Quality Function Deployment and Its Role in Quality Management It is evident that every organization has its internal or external customers, and these customers have their special needs and requirements. For the company to determine precisely what is necessary to satisfy these needs, or whether the current product or service can do that, there is a method of Quality Function Deployment. According to Stevenson (2014), “obtaining input from customers is essential to assure that they will want what is offered for sale” (p. 155). QFD is a formal way of documenting clients’ wants and a particularly structured approach that integrates “the voice of the customer” into the process of service and product development (Stevenson, 2014, p. 155). The central feature of QFD is listening to and understanding whether the clients are satisfied, that is why this method plays a significant role in quality management. A set of matrices is the base of the QFD structure, and the main matrix’s purpose is to relate the requirements of a customer and the technical ones. The Kano Model and Its Purpose The Kano Model is a unique theory of service and product design that provides insights into the attributes that the customers consider essential. This model uses three definitions of quality: basic, performance, and excitement, so the purpose of the Kano Model is to determine the features that can delight the customers. These three definitions have a different level of influence on the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of clients based on the degree of implementation (Stevenson, 2014). Basic are those requirements that barely satisfy the customer if they exist and utterly dissatisfy if they do not. Then, “performance quality refers to customer requirements that generate satisfaction or dissatisfaction in proportion to their level of functionality or appeal” (p. 158). Finally, excitement quality is an attribute or a feature not even expected by a client, but their presence delights them significantly. Therefore, with the help of these definitions, this theory can define the requirements for a product to excel, compete, and even exist in the competitive marketplace. Reference Stevenson, W. (2014). Operations management . McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
For more than a century, one of the key possessions of a successful person has been defined as a car. The American dream cannot be complete without it, and neither can the European. The meaning of cars can range from mere means of transportation for a busy employee or the one taking the family out on a picnic to an item of prestige and luxury, confirming the status of its owner. Following the traditional stereotypes, society ascribes different gender attitudes to cars: as a rule, cars are seen connected with the rougher sex. But as the redistribution of gender roles takes place, women are becoming more and more involved with owning and driving cars, which leads to reconsideration of traditional female and male attitudes towards automobiles. Obviously, nowadays the standard female and male attitudes to cars can be described as connected with the notions of practicality and entertainment correspondingly. Paradoxically enough, contradicting the widespread idea of women going rather for design than quality of their automobile, facts show that an average female places immense importance on the practical aspect of her car. According to the research conducted by Forbes , the new-car registration data for United States for September 2009 to late January 2010 testifies that the majority of women go for “practical crossovers like the Kia Sportage and the Honda CR-V” (Elliot 1). Such interest to reliable practical models can be explained to a certain extent by female unwillingness to involve in the complex maintenance procedures which may be more frequent with cars of a less practical and more aesthetic profile. All the manipulations with oiling, wheeling, and other mechanical maintenance procedures are traditionally viewed as ‘the guys’ things’ and are not typical for a female to perform. Therefore females prefer reliable models which run low risks in terms of technical maintenance. On the contrary, in their choice of car the males appear to digress from the rationality and practicality traditionally ascribed to them, and to strive for explicitly brawny and powerful models. The same study has showed that the “list of the top five autos most popular with men is dominated by trucks, from the heavy-duty Ford F-350 to the lightweight Ford Ranger” (Elliot 2). The desire of power is not bolstered with any practical consideration, since the overly powerful vehicles are actually never used to their full capacity. But the inherent need to physically dominate provokes men to acquire most powerful cars even if there is no need for that force in practical conditions. Maintaining the image of a ‘tough guy’, a male simply needs to know that his automobile in capable of almost incredible towing loads. This instinctive desire of power explains why Camaro — 426 horsepower in the SS version — is the most popular non-truck among male buyers (Elliot 2). As remarked by Aaron Gold, a Los Angeles-based automotive journalist, “A guy will say, ‘Let me get this BMW because it’s really fast and will make people think my penis is bigger. […] A guy will say ‘I can do zero to 6
In religion and Christianity in particular, the question of sexuality is one of the debatable ones. Changes in culture and morality influence the idea of sex an interpretation of sexuality by church leaders. Still, they use the scripture to define and interpret this issue and its moral base. Many people regard sexual intercourse as simply a recreational activity, like playing tennis or swimming. They look for different partners, as a surfer seeks the perfect wave, hoping that the next one will be better, that the blast will be bigger. Sexuality is accepted by Church as a natural human behavior but the church admits it should reflect universal moral and ethical values. There is no general agreement on whether young people should or should not have sex, about whether it is right or wrong. Many people will say that it is wrong and that young people shouldn’t. Sometimes this absolutist stand is based on strict religious teaching, on the traditional belief that sex and sin are synonymous. Such a viewpoint might cite the religious text, which tells us to “abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (Robertson 43), or Saint Paul’s stern warning: “For know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean or covetous person hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Robertson 43). For orthodox Christians, the pleasure of sex was put there by God to induce humans to continue the species so that they could, in turn, worship Him. It was not, they hold, instituted to be enjoyed for its own sake. Sometimes those who oppose premarital sex on religious grounds maintain that abstinence, except in marriage, purifies the soul and makes us better persons. By fighting and overcoming our animal instincts people demonstrate the use of consciences that make them different from and superior to animals, consciences that make us moral and give us human dignity. Some of the early church fathers even believed that married couples who enjoyed sexual relations were “befouling” an act that they had to concede was essential if the earth was to be populated. It was, in their minds, a necessary evil (Ellingson and Green 72) The meaning of love is further borne out by his teaching. In the Sermon on the Mount, for example, he stresses the return to the original purpose of the Old Testament law which can be fulfilled not just by refraining from murder, adultery, and false oaths, but only positively in respect for other people, in a genuine appreciation of the role of sex in life. His emphasis on service is primary: “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all” (Mark 10). Other individuals are against having sex before marriage because such behavior might make it difficult for one to be sexually faithful in a marriage; the reason being that the couple that engages in premarital sex treats it lightly. Still, others cite psychological studies showing that sex before marriage can cause guilt, which in turn adversely affects the sexual relationship of two people when they marry. And finally, some oppose premarital sex for their da
C4.5 algorithm is a decision tree with unlimited number of paths within the node. This algorithm can work only with discrete dependent attribute, that is why it can solve only classification tasks. C4.5 algorithm is considered to be one of the most famous and widely used algorithms of generating decision trees. It is necessary to follow the next demands for working with C4.5 algorism:  1. Each record from set of data should be associated with one of the offered classes, it means that one of the attributes of the class should be considered as a class mark. It may be concluded that all the samples should belong to the same class, otherwise the mistakes are inevitable.  2. Each class should be discrete. Each sample should belong to one of the classes.  3. The number of classes should be much fewer from the number of samples in the considered scope of data. One should understand that C4.5 algorithm works slowly with very large scale set of data. Using the concept of information entropy, C4.5 builds the decision trees based on the set of data, like ID3 algorithm. Filestem.ext is the form for the files which are read and written within C4.5 algorithm (filestem is a file name, and ext is a file extension which is aimed at defining the file type). Working with the program, one is expected to have at least two files, the first one is with the file name and class definition and the second one is with the date which gathers the set of objects described by the value of the class attributes. Considering the structure of a decision tree based on C4.5 algorithm, it may be either a leaf, which is predicted to identify a class or a decision node with a number of branches and sub trees, which show the possible outcome of the trial (Quinlan 5). There are two ways how this algorithm can generate decision trees, batch mode and iterative model. Batch mode (often called default mode) generates a single decision tree. This tree covers all the data available for the decision. Another kind of this algorithm, iterative mode, is based on the random basis. The set of data is selected randomly. Then, a decision tree is generated with adding some specific objects which have been misclassified. The actions are repeated and the decision tree is continued until it is classified in a correct way or it is found out that there is no any progress. Keeping in mind that iterative model is based on the subset selected randomly, many trials may be used for generating decision trees based on the same data. Keeping in mind that there can be many different decision trees due to the multiple trials, the presence of the filestem.unpruned is necessary. This file is created with the purpose to collect the decision trees in th
Part of the American tradition is celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday. This annual celebration started way back some four hundred years ago during the American colonies. All these years, I thought that this was just like any other gathering. A day set just for the sake of thanking a bountiful harvest of crops and some other farm products. But things have changed when I heard the real story behind the feast. On the eve of Thanksgiving Day of last year, a friend of mine was sharing fond memories she had with her family. She told me that the best part of the celebration aside from the best recipes set on the table was the story-telling part. Their grandparents would gather all the family members around and share bits of information as well as personal experiences about Thanksgiving Day. Her grandfather who was a war veteran shared about the favor of Divine Providence. According to him that in the 1620s, there were about a hundred people who started to question the existing beliefs in the Church of England. Because they wanted to distance themselves from what they consider misguided beliefs, the group sailed the vast waters of the Atlantic Ocean and settled in a place called the “New World” which is now known as the state of Massachusetts. There they started a life away from what they don’t believe in. Life was also tough for this religious group as they experienced the first winter in the New World. The colony was attacked by certain diseases due to the lack of fresh food since it was already too late to grow crops when they arrived in the place. Half of the group died. However, the following springtime was another part of history. The Iroquois Indians taught them how to grow several crops including corn (maize) in the unfamiliar soil. Maize was considered then as the colonist’s new food. They also taught them how to hunt as well as fish. And with perseverance and deep faith, a bountiful harvest in autumn was made. The colonists, with the aid of their Indian friends, were able to have a bountiful harvest for a number of crops. As a way of thanking for such blessings, they thought of coming up with a day of celebration. The first time I heard the story, I was in a state of great awe for such brave people. I totally admired their dependence on the Divine providence which made them victorious in the end. Although I was not able to witness such early feasts my mind seeped through the hardships of my own family and how my
Introduction Technological innovation is the highlight of any progressive society and as such its use towards the development of early societies is integral towards determining how such societies progressed as a result of new innovations that changed their way of living. Examples of innovations that changed societies can be seen in the development of maritime technology in Ancient Greece which made the various Greek city states the first maritime powers. The development of tempered steel in Japan helped to usher in a new way to wage war and the development of the samurai culture embodied by the tempered steel blade of the katana. Finally, the development of techniques in food preservation and the development of sturdier and faster Viking long boats led to their historic reputation as a race of invaders. As it can be seen in such examples technological innovation within early societies has always resulted in “societal leaps” wherein their very cultures and ways of living changed as a result of these new innovations (Asia, 12). No where is this more evident than in the development of early societies in Asia particularly the Chinese, Indians and Koreans (Asia, 12). This statement is based on the fact that the level of technological sophistication attained by these early societies rose to such a degree that it enabled them to achieve new heights of cultural distinction and prowess not seen in other early societies for at least several thousand years after they were created by Asian societies. Inventions of Ancient Asian Civilizations that Changed Asian Society While China has had the distinction of being credited with the development of literally hundreds of different inventions the fact remains of all the technological innovations it has been credited for the top four are: the development of the compass for maritime navigation, the creation of gunpowder, their innovations in papermaking and the development of mass printing actually helped to shape both Chinese and Asian society for several thousand years (Karasick, 66). Historical records show that before China became an insular and closed off kingdom it initially had a great maritime exploratory fleet that precipitated trade between the various countries in South and East Asia. In fact the proliferation of Chinese made goods today is nothing more than a reproduction of events in the past wherein great Chinese merchant fleets brought products from China to several early Asian societies which precipitated the first occurrence of international maritime trade within the region (Karasick, 66). This was possible through the development of the compass which helped Chinese navigators accurately navigate from port to port based on maps and the directions of the compass. The development of gunpowder on the other hand facilitated a new generation of modern warfare in Chinese society wherein gunpowder was used for antipersonnel mines to even the equivalent of today’s RPG launchers. In fact the use of gunpowder has such far reaching results in Chinese history that it became a staple of Chinese warfare for several thousand years and was responsible for the deaths of millions. On
Executive summary Canada is one of the most vigorous trading partners with the US, European Union and other countries in Asia. Some of her major trading partners include the US, UK, China, and Japan. Notably, the US is the leading trading partner. Its trading volume amounts to 70% of total transactions in Canada. Moreover, some of the major commodities that Canada exports to her trade partners include food substances, energy, minerals ores and forest products. On the other hand, Canada imports machinery, equipment and chemicals from some of her trading partners. Needless to say, the US enjoys a comparative advantage in its transaction with Canada. In line with this, Canada has a comparative advantage of trading with her partners in the midst of her competitors. Some of the factors that have positioned the country in a more competitive platform include globalization, economies of scale, technological advancement, consistency in exportation and industrial stability. Major trading partners with Canada It is apparent that Canada has numerous trading partners all over the globe (Salvatore, 2010). For this reason, it can be considered as a trading nation whose transaction through trade amounts to about 75% of its GDP (PRLog, 2011). Studies have shown that the US is the most prominent trading partner since the transactions account to 70% of total trading exchange with Canada. Evidence has shown that for a long time now, much of the Canadian transactions have been done by US, a factor that has made the partner to dominate the transaction in an overwhelming rate (PRLog, 2011). Pointless to say, due to the bilateral and free trade agreements between the US and Canada since 1988, it has led to economic growth and increase in per capita income (Salvatore, 2010). In addition, Mexico, Japan, China and UK are other major trading partners with Canada. Other partners include Norway, Brazil, South Korea and Netherlands (PRLog, 2011). Major commodities and services It is imperative to note that there are numerous merchandises that are exported and imported by Canada and her trading partners. The transaction involves huge deposits of income moving in and out of each country. For instance, research has shown that Canada is the greatest supply of energy to the United States. Factually, there are numerous forms of energy such as gas, oil, uranium and electric power which are derived from Canada by the US. Due to the fact that Canada is an agricultural country, it supplies most of food products to the US. Hamid (2011) asserts that the US imports an average of 50% of food products from Canada. Moreover, there are other automobile merchandises such as cars and auto parts which the US imports from Canad
Press Release Brian R. Callahan, an investment banker and Adam J. Manson, a real estate developer, has been recently charged by a New York court in a case that saw their $96 million Ponzi scheme unearthed. Both defendants were slapped with fraud charges relating to the operations that they were involved in running their Ponzi scheme. As a result of these charges, the government seized $1 million that had the defendants because this money was suspected to be part of the loot that they directly obtained in their various criminal engagements (Miller & Whitehaed, 2011). In addition to that, the defendants’ stake in the famous Panoramic View Resort & Residences was also taken over by the authorities as part of the ongoing investigation into their alleged criminal activities. The prosecution team was led by Lorretta E. Lynch who was the prosecuting attorney, George Venizelos, an FBI agent, and Toni Weirauch, an agent with the IRS. The investigations unearthed the role of the two defenders in establishing and running the scheme. Callahan was the one involved in the formation and running of the scheme. Through the use of fraudulent means, Callahan was able to obtain an amount of $118 million from a group of 40 investors after promising them that he would invest this money in mutual funds, hedge funds, and other securities that would enable this investment to realize significant growth. However, instead of investing this money as promised, Callahan misappropriated a large portion of it, $96 million to be precise (Miller & Whitehaed, 2011). Some of this amount was used to set up the Ponzi scheme while the rest was diverted into the Panoramic View, an investment that was owned by both Callahan and his brother. Despite the unprofitable nature of the Panoramic View, which is a development consisting of several beachfront apartments, Callahan and Manson went ahead and sunk millions of dollars in this unprofitable investment, an act that resulted in significant losses on the part of investors. Just like any other typical Ponzi scheme, Callahan operated his scheme by taking money from one investor and giving it to the other as a form of return on investment. He also utilized some of the money for purchasing luxurious homes and cars. To ensure that he covered his tracks, Callahan furnished his investors with a fake statement of accounts that showed a positive trend as far as the performance of their investments was concerned (Miller & Whitehaed, 2011). As part of her submission, the prosecuting attorney pointed out that the tw
It is the high time that climate change was acknowledged as an epidemic across the world. The issue has even become a center stage in social media discussions (Pearce, et al. 1). In 1986, a potential climate change was reported in 1986 by a Swedish scientist. He revealed that the burning of fossil fuels would ultimately result in global warming. The projections were indeed experienced in the 1940s after it was discovered that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere was increasing. A sharp rise in the concentration was reported in the 1980s thus making the issue of global warming a major topic area in most international debates. As a result of the growing phenomenon, international conflicts have arisen, essential animals and plants have become endangered, and water quality has continued to lower. Based on this context, it is worthwhile to assert that the outcomes of climate change are damaging and that it requires active governmental participation in order to establish working solutions. Álvarez demonstrated how animals contribute to climate change. According to the researcher, processes used in animal production were responsible for close to 1.6 GtC*y emissions of methane gas in 2000 (Álvarez 8). An increase was registered in 2007 where it was revealed that animal feed production was responsible for 8.0 GtC*y-1 emission (Álvarez 8). The annual mean methane gas emission during this period was 0.91 GtC*y-1. Enteric digestion and inadequate livestock feces management were responsible for the increasing level of the gas (Álvarez 8). Due to insufficient feces management and enteric processes, the height of methane gas emission, which has a higher warming capacity when compared to carbon diox