ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
There is definitely something wrong with the phrase “the greatest fraud.” It is not only about the bitter oxymoron, but also about the very idea that a criminal mastermind wastes his/her incredible abilities on scams instead of something decent that makes one feel rather bitter. However, there is still the list of the world’s most famous frauds, and this is the case when knowledge is power, for learning more about the most daring frauds, one will be able to avoid being deceived in the future. To start with, the famous Ponzi scheme must be mentioned. Its features are very identifiable, yet, sadly enough, it works very efficiently, as the history of crime schemes has proven. It presupposes that the victim pays his money to invest into something for the sake of fast and incredibly high revenue. Needless to say, the swindler takes the money and runs away, leaving the investor broke. Another notorious criminal plan, the Nigerian 419 is simple yet ingenious. Relying on people’s trust in the authority of the people whose reputation and wealth are more than impressive, the given type of frauds is quite widespread. Peaking in the era when electronic mail appeared and spam was not known yet, the Nigerian 419 presupposed sending letters to people’s electronic addresses on behalf of a wealthy person asking for financial help and promising great revenues (Baines). Naturally, when one sent the money, they were never returned. Finally, the Spanish prisoner fraud lands on the third spot in the list of the most efficient scam plans in the world history. The fraud tells the victim that a person who is extremely rich and has huge authority in his own country has been put into prison while being in disguise. Hence, the given person needs money to bail out without revealing his/her true identity. Taking the money which the victim gullibly gives away, the criminal vanishes without a trace (Adams and Smith 282). Judging by the above-mentioned examples, one can suggest that there are several key features that most scams share. If taking the aforementioned issues as examples, it is important to single out three key elements that constitute the frauds dealt with above. To start with, the criminal has to either act presumably on behalf of a certain authority, or to pretend to be a person of authority, yet fail to provide evident proof for that. The second feature of an obvious crime scheme is that the promised reward does not come and that more money is demanded for it. The third and the most important element of any crime scheme is that the criminal emphasizes that the victim is completely free to decide on whether
Introduction Management of the employees is one of the key fields in ensuring the profitability of a company. If the management is poor, then the company will suffer in terms of the returns it receives. Companies depend on the income they generate in order to sustain their presence in the market. The development and profitability of a company are also dependent on its taskforce. The employees are the ones who carry out the daily activities for the company and ensuring that they are satisfied at all times is important. Managers should therefore ensure that they establish the needs of their employees and make efforts to ensure that these needs are met. Bruce in his book says that “the individual needs as well as the collective needs of the employees are established and efforts are made to take care of them” 1 . Employees Victor Michaels, 26, is a young employee whose interest is working in a vibrant environment. This environment should offer challenges and provide room for advancement in a person’s carrier path. He has just been employed and is categorized as an entry level employee. He sees employees in other departments rising through the ranks in the organization to become more influential people in their fields. His desire is to be able to advance in the field that he is currently placed. The fact that it will take him a minimum of two years in the company appears to reduce his enthusiasm in the working environment. His desire to advance in his field is enormous. His view is that this should be initiated by the input he puts daily in his work at the company. Paul Lambert, 34, is an employee who is always ready to learn. He enjoys getting to know the technological changes that take place in his field. He works in the department of electrical and electronics and mainly focuses on electronics. This field experiences adverse changes each day as a result of the advancement in technology. Paul’s desire is to be able to understand the new technologies. He therefore would wish to attend workshops that explain these new technologies so that he may cope with them whenever the company changes its system to incorporate these technologies. Stephen Terry, 30, considers the compensation he gets for his work to be very important. He demands to be paid well for the services he offers. He is one of the company’s technicians. Sometimes, he works overtime or may be called to perform inspection in case there is an emergency in the company that may require his attention. He would prefer to have incentives for overtime and emergencies in order to feel that the extra wor
IAS 7 is a set of practical requirements in compliance with which various entities are to organize their financial statements of cash flows. Such statements are necessary to reflect a firm’s performance across a specific period, including its on-hand cash and its equivalents in the form of short-term, cash convertible investments. IAS 7 requires entities to categorize their cash flows by operating, investing, and financing activities, as well (Ricketts et al., 2017). This framework is often compared with the U.S. GAAP standards in terms of their approach to financial statement structuring and organization. As such, the latter appears to have a stricter set of requirements, especially regarding the items’ cash flow type classification. For example, IFRS allows both operating and investing activities to be categorized as “interest received/paid,” whereas U.S. GAAP only deems operating activities eligible for it. Overall, the presence of two popular standards gives companies a possibility of choice while entailing certain risks. More specifically, preparing cash flow statements in both formats often arises. Considering their differences, the estimated numbers may considerably vary, potentially misinforming stakeholders and investors. Another difference is embedded in the two frameworks’ understanding of contingencies and provisions, namely in terms of liabilities. GAAP demands the disclosure of all contingencies that can change the estimated earning level to a significant degree as unspecified expenses. In IFRS, contingent liabilities are included when cash outflow is deemed probable. In other words, U.S. GAAP deals with possible expenses, whereas IFRS emphasizes probable outflows of cash. The two perspectives align in understanding the best estimate as the provision of the expenditure to be incurred by the entity. However, GAAP relies on the low end of the possible los
There are many modern theories about literacy and ways of constructing it through the personal hands-in experiences, the connection of learning materials to the actual social reality in which learners exist, and the alignment of students’ and teachers’ identities through social interactions. Such innovative techniques enable to weld the learning process in the social reality and make the learner less detached from the actual body of knowledge they obtain. The articles of Darville (2009), Atwood (2007) and Hamilton (2009) provide the practical and theoretical evidence to support the efficiency of these new approaches to literacy; due to the accounts given by authors, one can estimate the true value of these practices and design the curriculum and pattern of studies suiting him/her as a learner or an educator. The article of Darville (2009) offers an additional insight into how literacy represents a social construct. The author argues that teaching literacy should be aligned learners’ practices and involves embodying, giving voice to the text learned. It is also important to note that the mechanics of learning has to be learned through participative practices because students often feel detached from the material being learned, which gives them additional challenges in covering it (Darville, 2009). The experience-telling model of taught material, with easy instructions and the accessibility for learners, is estimated as the most effective learning tool. The institutional genres are thought to be exclusive for learners because of the absence of background knowledge implied in the text, so the author suggests that the innovative, inclusive genres of texts for learners should be created to enhance the educational process (Darville, 2009). This idea of the necessity to tie the texts learned to the immediate, practical reality in which learners exist and upon which they may reflect, is a truly useful finding for the present educational practice. It is a real challenge for the learner to align the learning material with the student’s perception because of his/her lack of understanding of the material’s relevance. As soon as the gap between learning and the learner’s life is bridged, the activity gains additional motivation from the learner and the internal incentives become the powerful drive for knowledge acquisition. The example can be wonderfully supported by the analysis of Hamilton (2009) who assessed the value of Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) in the formation of adult literacy – only once the teacher is able to act as a mediator between the student’s aspirations and demands, and the system’s requirements, adequately adjusting the flow of learning to the individual needs of learners, the success in obtaining literacy can be achieved. This fact is also supported by the account of the participation in the Nunavit education program Somebody’s Daughter by Atwood (2007). The author indicates how hard it is to initiate learning in the women from the ind
Introduction The following interview introduces the story of Zoé Mazorra, a young entrepreneur living in Pembroke Pines, FL. Currently, she is only 21 years old, but her company, Zoe All Over, has a wide variety of products and many satisfied clients who leave reviews and follow the business’ popular accounts on social media. The story of such young and successful people is always interesting for other aspiring businesspersons. Background Zoe All Over is an online-based boutique that specializes in swimwear but also offers clothing items and accessories. As of this moment, the store is most popular among young women who are looking for simple but high-quality summer clothing with unique designs. Interestingly, Zoe All Over does not have any brick-and-mortar stores, offering its products with the help of an online store, zoeallover.com. The company is based in the founder’s hometown, Pembroke Pines, FL; the orders can be shipped to any part of the world. According to Mazorra, she started the business by herself – her experience with previous ventures allowed her to create the plans and pursue specific goals. She is the only CEO of Zoe All Over, and she has been the only founder from the very beginning. Mazorra believes that her business is promising but not as successful as she thinks it can be in the future. She is positive that it can and will grow bigger, attracting new customers and, possibly, offering a wider variety of products to its clients. When developing the idea for her company, she devoted significant time to writing a business plan which allowed her to break even in approximately two years. Mazorra states that her previous business experience showed the importance of planning for the future. Prior to creating Zoe All Over, Mazorra became an entrepreneur by selling handmade bows at the age of 14. With time, Mazorra has changed her course by developing an online store of swimwear and becoming the CEO of her own company as early as 18 years. She notes that her family did not have other entrepreneurs, but they were very supportive of her decisions. In fact, she brings up her mother as a great role model – an inspiring woman on whom Mazorra often relied for help. Apart from her family, she also names other Floridian designers such as Rosita Hurtado as sources of inspiration. Mazorra mentions that she is still studying at the Florida International University, and it helps her to perfect her business ideas. Outside Help When talking about capital, Mazorra primarily discusses her previous business and the
From the establishment of Blockbuster Entertainment in 1985 it has made business of nearly $5.5 billion, but in recent times it is suffering from break neck competition from new companies and also the technologies that have made movie and video downloading from the internet a click away. Though many new technologies are evolved for fighting anti piracy and such things, it one the other hand made the services slow and put financial burden on companies. Jim Keys, the CEO of the company since 2007 admits the situation. The company will take steps to bring back people to watching movies in rental videos. In the beginning of the 90s, Blockbuster Entertainment was the leading video rental store of the country with more than 400 stores and also an efficient management. But after a short time the initial success began to melt down as the experts predicted that the success of the company will soon be challenged by the drastic development of technology in the field, and it happened. Though it was getting multinational, and tying with various entertainment companies like Viacom, but in the year 1996, the stock pricing for Blockbuster had fallen to the half of its peak time stock value. The problems went on and in 1998; the bankability of the concern was in question. It was in the year that Blockbuster made an agreement with America Online and developed blockbuster.com, a new distribution channel, with embracing the new marketing concept and technologies. But problems went on for the company and in 2005 they lost more than $ 500 million in late revenue fees only. Competitors Now the competitors in the market for Blockbuster Entertainment are:  1. Family Video.  2. Hastings Entertainment, Inc.  3. Movie Gallery, Inc.  4. Netflix, Inc.  5. Redbox Automated Retail, LLC The products of Blockbuster Entertainment One of the strengths of Blockbuster Entertainment is their collection and it consists of the very best of movies from the leading production companies like Fox Entertainment Group, Paramount Motion Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, NBC Universal, Buena Vista Motion pictures, Lions Gate International and the Weinstein Company and all of the production companies have great movies under them from not only Hollywood but all over the World. Blockbuster Entertainment tries to cater to all the tastes of people and it strives to do that too (Vorhies 1310-1334). Strategies used Some of the recent strategies of the company are keepings prices low and growing in volume, diversifications and modern technologies, along with downloadable movie contents. Also they made partnerships with companies like Coca Cola, Food.com and other companies to make the movie watching experience more relaxing. Also they have grown internationally and in recent times they have expanded their market in Hong Kong, Australia, Costa Rica and other countries too. With a very good supply chain and some really exciting corporate tactics it promises to break new barriers in business. The main strength of the company is its collection and also it is the pioneer in the industry. The
Executive Summary The article reviews the European currency from its inception to date. The introduction underlines the general importance of currencies to various individual countries and their contributions towards the economy. Euro has since become a major currency within Europe, uniting twelve countries. The paper then describes the history of the euro currency the benefits and disadvantages it posses to the member states within Europe, followed by the analysis on the most significant influences of its value from its inception to-date. The n the discussion on the pressure euro has encountered in the near past, the causes and how the pressure affected the individual countries. Finally there’s the conclusion on the overall effects of the currency to individual member states. Introduction Most countries define objectives they use in achieving financial goals based on the kind of environment they operate under. One of the prime factors which dictate the level of profits made by an international corporation is the nature of the exchange rates. This could either strengthen or weaken the level of trade any country enjoys with its partners. The objectives underline the processes applied together with the advantages which could help in improving any country’s trading status. The objectives revolve around the country’s key strengths and opportunities, and at the same time assist in preventing any form of weaknesses as well as protecting the individual countries’ against threats. However, there is a possibility that they could create competitive advantage through the implementation of appropriate business models (Camardella, 2003, pp. 103-107) Explanation on the origins of the Euro and the main advantages and disadvantages of a single currency for its member countries Euro is considered currency of almost twelve countries within the European Union. The euro currency has been in circulation in terms of notes and coins two years after its inception in the year 1999. The history of the Euro could be traced back to the commencement of the European Union which comprised of twelve coun
Introduction The brand image of a company is important in achieving higher sales because consumers readily purchase products which have a good reputation. Brand image is attached to the culture of the company and it is important for the stakeholders of a company to develop corporate cultures which are consistent with the national cultures. Companies operating in the global markets have a big challenge to identify the cultures of different cultural groups so that they can achieve better market positions. The global markets have become turbulent and there has been a great need to establish brand cultures that are acceptable by many customers (Freeth, 2008). For example, the computer industry has been very competitive and this has forced the existing companies to adopt strategies which will improve their market position. Apple is a company in this industry that has been able to develop differentiated products and has developed its brands to match the cultural needs of the consumers. This strategy has increased the sales volume of the company and Apple has been able to sustain the stiff competition in the market (Parsons & Oja, 2009). Building brand culture A brand is the perception that consumers have about a particular product. To build a brand name requires filing consumers with experiences about the product. It takes time to develop a good brand image to the consumers. Brand is a psychological aspect that is reinforced by experiences about a particular product for a given period of time. Customers identify with brands which have a good history of performance in the market. Consumer loyalty is embedded on brands that they admire and they tend to re-buy such products because they have developed a good image about them (Parsons & Maclaran, 2009). According
Introduction After creating a business plan, the next logical step is to come up with a solid marketing strategy for the enterprise and the product. Marketing strategy helps connect selling activities together, streamline product development, determine optimal prices, assist with marketing communications, and contribute to overall organizational impact (Riley, Singh, & Blankson, 2016). This paper focuses primarily on the company’s mission, branding strategy, brand extensions, positioning statement, and customer behavior study of the market, in order to determine a functioning competitive strategy. Company’s Mission Defining a company’s mission is paramount for formulating the company’s marketing strategy and improving employee motivation (Walker, 2012). The company’s mission must correlate with the company’s products, the target market, and have a transcendent theme to it. The mission statement must affirm the company’s values beyond the materialistic boundaries of reality. Company’s mission statement We work to make our customers happy. Our boxes provide quality, surprise, and intrigue that helps brighten up your day. It is the kind of feeling when you do not know what you will get, but you know that it will be something good. With us, every day will be like a birthday. Brand Name, Logo, and Slogan Our products will carry the name of our company, aBox4You. This name is original and represents what we are selling. The use of the number 4 instead of a word is meant to appeal to the younger generations and their slang, which is likely to make the brand more attractive and memorable to them. The logo will feature a colorful gift box with a smiley-face to represent cheer, as well as the name of the company either above or on it. The colors for the box would be yellow and red, with a green sign. All three colors have a positive connotation, according to color theory in branding, and ought to attract the eyes of potential customers (Behzad, 2014). The purpose of the logo is to be memorable, and the combination of bright, friendly colors in addition to a funny and positive image ought to send the right message. The slogan for our company would be “Sweets, goodies, and trinkets, just for you!” The first part slogan lets the customer know what kind of products we are offering. The last part of the slogan lets the customers know that our services are there to serve them. The individualistic and personal approach is valued in a modern capitalistic society. Perceptual Map Fig. 1. Perceptual Map The perceptual map represents how our customers and potential customers are going to view us. Due to the novelty of our services and products, aBox4You will no doubt attract attention as an interesting product. Our products will also be useful, as they will either be consumable or have a practical implementation. Due to our subscription box service being the first of its kind in Toronto, the company will not have any competition to include in this perceptual map. This is a good thing, as it will allow us to establish ground rules for any future comers to the market. Using this perceptual map, a positional statement can be co
Introduction Intellectual disability is a group of conditions that affect the intellectual ability of persons and it comprises congenital issues such as mental retardation, learning disabilities and autism, as well as acquired issues like brain injuries (Cass, 1998). This study is aimed at analyzing the intellectual condition that is autism. Autism is a disorder that affects the intellectual development of a child (Beaudet, 2007). It usually presents in the first 2-3 years of life and depresses the area of the brain that handles the growth of social and communication abilities (Dover and Le Couteur, 2007). Though it is not clear what causes autism, several factors have been found to contribute. Genetics, for instance, appears to play a role in the development of the condition, in the sense that identical twins are more likely to both be affected than singular siblings (Dover and Le Couteur, 2007). In addition, most of the children who develop autism are more often than not related to people with speech challenges (Beaudet, 2007). Families with autistic children also tend to be more affected by neurological problems (Cook and Scherer, 2008). Aside from genetics, other factors that have been thought to contribute to autism, but are yet to be confirmed include mercury poisoning, diet, and sensitivity to vaccines (O’Hearn, Asato, Ordaz, and Luna, 2008). Speech pathology is a medical field that handles communication and swallowing disorders. Professionals in this practice provide diagnosis and treatment for individuals with communication an