ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Starbucks Corporation specializes in the processing of different coffee brands. The company stamps its authority in several countries via its company-owned outlets as well as authorized retail stores. Starbucks’s extensive geographical reach, extended to more than 50 countries, not only enhances its bargaining power in the beverages market, but improves its market share. The corporation’s continued growths in business environments where is I already operating, as well as emerging and new environments manifests the company’s mission of realizing the global presence and limits its reliance on small market share. Nevertheless, the company’s prosperity may be badly affected by the increasing coffee prices around the world. Strengths Large market share Lynd and Gross (347-356) suggest Starbucks’ broad geographic influence and sustained growth of the market share enables it to cash in on the fortunes presented by the consumers present in the more than 50 nations. Its multinational markets are evenly spread across the six continents of the world, because of the company’s quest to control these markets via direct stores ad authorized dealers. By the end of 2010, Starbucks was operating 6,707 company-run retail outlets in the United States and 2,126 in foreign markets, with Canada operating 799, the United Kingdom 601, Thailand 133, Germany 142, China 220, and 231 spread across the world (Tălpău and Boşcor 51-58). Rapid expansion strategies The corporation enters into business deals with established local giants, in order to boost its revenue. This enables Starbucks to acquire retail stores that run its authorized outlets. Starbucks receives payments and other royalties from these partnerships (Ferrell and Hartline 677). By December 2010, the firm had 4,424 licensed outlets in the United States market and the more than 3,500 licensed outlets in foreign markets (Perera et al 174-185). The royalty and accreditation fee revenues from the United States and authorized retail stores in foreign markets accounted for half of the returns of the company, acquired from specialty operations. These accounted for almost one fifth of the entire revenues of the corporation in 2010. In view of this, Starbucks has never looked back in its effort to capitalize on market opportunities to extend its the outreach of the company-run retail stores (Argenti 91-116; Schultz 50-55). Sound business deals Schultz (50-55), indicates Starbucks is good at acquiring better business deals across the world. For instance, in 2010 it entirely took control of Starbucks Brazil, after acquiring Cafes Sereia do Brasil Participacoes. As a result, the company’s operations in Brazil have since transformed into a company-run corporation, thus allowing Starbucks to concentrate on improving its operations in Brazil, which is a significant consumer market in Latin America. The corporation is also striving to spread its ma
Zakat is among the key pillars of Islam. It requires all Muslims to contribute some portions of their wealth, either in cash or in kind, to needy persons. As a result, the government and other several stakeholders have embarked on offering simple methods for many Muslims to pay their Zakat. Specifically, Muslims can contribute from their homes, offices, bank ATMs, or anywhere they are in the world. The system allows even farmers to contribute with their date harvests. This essay monitors the growth, contribution, and disbursement of Zakat Fund. Zakat Fund is an autonomous federal agency that spearheads and centralizes collection and payout of Zakat throughout the UAE. In order to achieve its mission of fostering the role of Zakat among Muslims, Zakat Fund has developed an online platform, which allows users to calculate and remit payment too. Moreover, the online platform also has a dedicated Zakat Fatwa to assist users with all questions related to Zakat. The online payment option is also available to donors globally. Users can also use their mobile phones to contribute to the Fund or they can make direct deposits into the Fund’s bank accounts with different Muslim financial institutions. Zakat Fund has embraced social media for communication as it has both Facebook and Twitter accounts for users (@zakatuae). Zakat Fund is a social welfare fund. As a result, the fund assists needy people in the society. In 2013, Zakat Fund spent over “Dh 24 million to assist 10,000 needy people in the UAE within two months” (Salem, 2013). In the month of July and August, Zakat Fund officials offered financial help to students, the sick, and other people in debt or with meager earnings among other deprived members of the society. On the same note, Zakat Fund, “Abu Dhabi University, and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank started a fund-raising project to raise money for 300 needy students” (Swan, 2013). ADCB Islamic Bank has taken this opportunity to extend its corporate social responsibility by providing an online channel for customers to
“Spurious relationships” are relationships in which two events are having no direct connection, it might be wrong when inferred that they do have a connection. The two independent variables may, however, be found to have a connection mainly as a coincidence or due to the existence of unforeseen factors (Stark 68). The sale of ice creams in the city and cases of drowning can illustrate a superb example of spurious relationships. The reason is that ice creams record high sales when it is hot, and it is same time people love going for swimming sessions. Therefore, the chances of many people drowning in the swimming pools increase with an increase in the number of people going for swimming sessions. This relationship may be true although there is no direct connection linking the ice cream and the drowning effect. However, the spurious relationships can hold water due to the existence of a third factor which is the weather. It is obvious that when it is hot, people will tend to buy ice creams than when it is cold. At the same time, others will tend to flock swimming pools due to high temperatures but not due to increased ice cream sales. “Spurious Relationships” “The more violence on television young people view, the higher the rate of violent behavior among young people.” This is a negative correlation because the young people may enjoy violence in the television as a source of entertainment but the behavior acquired turn out to contradict the expectations of the society. There are other traits that young people can learn from the violence they view, and if taken positively, they can be useful to the community. For example, when youths learn from films characters about being better leaders who are brave and courageous, they remain focused that it is their role to protect their siblings (Stark 88). Once this is developed in their minds, they end up being responsible leaders since they do not fear anything that might come their way. On the other hand, the youth may end up practicing everything they view from screens hence becoming so violent in life, although not everyone may be violent. Youths might grow up to be violent even if they did not view any form of violence when growing up. It may be in the blood or acquired from environments they lived in hence making it clear that there exists no direct linkage between what was viewed. What causes youths to be violent comes from the environment and not directly from whatever they view. For example, if they feel that they are being deprived of their rights, they may protest, and in the course, some elements of violence may show. Here, the deprivation of rights has acted as a confounding factor that led to violence (Stark 75). This form of violence cannot be attributed to whatever the youth watched when growing up. This is because, if the rights of the youths are respected as required by law, no violence can erupt regardless of whether they viewed viol
Median sale price for houses The graph below will show the trend of median sale prices for the houses for from 1993 to 2012. The data is presented in quarters. From the graph above, it is evident that there is an upward trend of median sale prices in all the cities. The trend is upward from year to year in all the quarters. It is an indication of increasing prices of housing over the years. The growth can be attributed partly to increase in the inflation level and partly to increase in the level of economic activity in the regions. Inflation increased from 65.7 in the first quarter of review 104.5 in the last quarter (Rabinowitz 2004) Estimation of the mean The graph below shows the trend of the mean value of sale prices. The mean value of sale prices was increasing over time. It is shown by the upward trend of values over time. This could be an indication of the structural increase in the long run and the equilibrium. This could also be as a result of an increase in interest rates. Increase in interest rates increases the cost housing thus increasing the sale price of houses. Simple linear time regression Regression analysis is a statistical tool that is used to develop and approximate linear relationships among various variables. Regression analysis formulates an association between several variables. When coming up with the model, it is necessary to separate between dependent and independent variables. Regression models are used to predict trends of future variables. The section carries out a simple linear regression between the mean sale price of houses and time. The mean sale price will be the explained variable while the explanatory variable will be time (Arnott & McMillen 2006) The regression line will take the form Y = b 0 + b 1 X Y = Mean prices X = Time The theoretical expectations are b 0 can take any value and b 1 > 0. Regression Results The table below summarizes the results of the regression.            Coefficients  Standard Error  t – calculated Intercept  -74738.9      1873.306        -39.8968       Time (X)   37.59659      0.93548         40.18962       R 2        95.50%                                        From the above table, the regression equation can be written as Y = -74738.9 + 37.59659 X . The intercept value is not dependent on the area of the house but on other factors such as the location of the house. The value captures all other factors that were not included when modelling the regression line. The coefficient value 37.59569 implies there is a positive relationship between mean sale price and time. The value of the coefficient of determination is high and it shows a strong positive relationship between the two variables. Real median prices Converting the nominal median sale prices to real median sale prices eliminates the e
Introduction The development of contemporary art in China is a result of intellectual, cultural, economic political and social factors. The growth and acceptance of contemporary art in China has not taken place overnight. Rather, it has taken decades of struggle for freedom, execution of artists, and manipulation of art associations by the communist government. However, the fruits of the struggles are worth the effort, if the current fame and reputation of China as a beacon of contemporary art is anything to go by. Politics and policy evolution and their effects on contemporary art in China Many governments around the world practice preponderant influence on culture and religion. In China, the case was not different for many years. This hampered the growth and development of contemporary arts and even led to migration of many artists to countries considered liberal at the time like France, Britain, and United States of America. The opening up of China to works of contemporary art has taken many years with many political regimes contributing in various ways towards the attainment of this status. In 1942, the Peoples’ Republic government showed its will to assert control over arts. Mao Zedong, the leader of the People’s Party of the time, made an expected announcement that, “…the arts should serve the people, especially the workers, peasants and soldiers” (Andrews 37). Andrews further argues that, “from 1949 to 1979, the communist party succeeded in eradicating most of the artistic styles and techniques it found politically repugnant” (1). In 1949, Mao made another announcement, which seemed to correct the effects of his first announcement, albeit superficially. He called on all cultural producers to come up and share their work with the people as a means of educating the masses. This empowered many contemporary artists whom saw it as an avenue and opportunity for participating in the great revolution of the time. The result was the formation of Artists Association led by experienced and established artist within their ranks. Later, it emerged that the association of artists served only the interest of the Communist Party leadership. Clear-cut evidence emerged when the first chair of the association, Jiang Feng, presented a report to the government on development and progress in contemporary art in China. The report “praised the accomplishment of communist artists and presented concrete goals for remolding the non-Communist art world” (Andrews 37). It was clear that Jiang was not speaking his mind considering that some of the information he was disseminating contradicted what he had said three years ago. The government manipulated the organization’s leadership, thereby interfering with its policies and ideologies, and ensuring that every decision made in the organization served its interest. The Communist government’s
The making of the meaning in Chapter 10 of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Flow, explains that sportsmen and artists can be joyful when performing their activities and differ when in their artistic or sporty world. He states that “the flow in a single occasion never essentially guarantees that it will be carried over to the rest of their lives” (Csíkszentmihályi 214). The author explains the approaches he uses in the making of life in various parts. They comprise the meaning of means, the purpose of cultivating, forging resolve, harmony recovery, and the unification of themes in life (Csíkszentmihályi 214-241). The author argues that meaning is complex since any creation of meaning might result in being circular. By asking the question “How do we talk about the meaning of meaning itself?” the author provides three methods that can be associated with meaning (Csíkszentmihályi 215). First, he argues that the creation of meaning entails having the elements of the mind in order by joining activities into a combined flow of experience (Csíkszentmihályi 216). Second, meaning is a way that can be used to express intentions by someone. Finally, he suggests that one ought to pursue a goal with a motion. The author explains that one needs to observe various steps to make every minute of their life sensible. The first part of his theory is cultivating purpose; this is because challenges that a person is required to face are defined by the goals set ahead (Csíkszentmihályi 220). The author argues that every culture of human beings has a meaning which serves as a general-purpose through which people classify their goals (Csíkszentmihályi 220). For instance, the author explains that in an ideational culture, the body is valued as a sign of some abstract principle of spiritual perfection related to the idea of the ‘Aryan race’ or ‘Roman valor.’ In forging resolve, the author explains that purpose offers direction to efforts made by a person but never makes life easy. Also, goals create problems that might make a person desire to quit at a certain point (Csíkszentmihályi 225). He hints that when one alters his goal, believing that he or she might attain a better life, sometimes they ends up gaining no experience. Therefore, the author argues that every goal has its challenges and if one is not ready to struggle with them, then the goal is useless. In Recovering Harmony, the author argues that initially, the capacity of human beings to have reflective consciousness was a condition of their minds before being disrupted by danger, pain, sexuality, and hunger. In the unification of meaning in life themes, the author believes that; rather than concurring with the unity of purpose offered by the conventions of the society, the main challenge that human beings have is creating harmony based on choice and reason (Csíkszentmihályi 229). Therefore, one ought to respect the flow of experience to make life enjoyable because the game of life is determined by different rules. Finally, the author states that for people to value s
Thesis statement The Assyrians, Persians, and Athenians shared similar characteristics in the way they conquered their weaker opponents and acquired new states. This paper identifies similarities in the way these three states were organized politically and culturally so as to strengthen their military. Discussion In the western civilization, empires were created by the Assyrians, Persians, and Athenians through conquests and overpowering enemies. The creation of empires in history was characterized by the use of military power by the Assyrians, Persians, and Athenians. The Assyrians used a variety of methods to overpower their enemies and keep their subjects in line. Religion was predominant in the armies of the states and was the foundation of their success. These three groups used more or less similar techniques. However, there exist differences in terms of politics and organizations that so them succeed in their undertakings. The Assyrian empire to begin with utilized new weapons in their army to conquer their enemies for instance the iron weapons were critical for their success. They also employed new fighting techniques in their fights with their enemies. They used huge iron shields to protect themselves from the enemies. The Persians also used oval shields made of wood to protect themselves from enemies. All these tools of war were significant in strengthening the armies because their opponents lacked some of the weapons and protective regalia. The Assyrian army was also noted to have used sappers which undermined the foundations of their enemies. Opponents who were defeated were treated without sympathy. The Assyrian methods were characterized by psychological warfare for instance the soldiers could first try to convince their opponents to surrender because their resisting was of no use. The political organization of the Assyrians was fundamental to their military strength. Their kings could not take major military actions without consulting their diviners Reports concerning military campaigns were also submitted to the statues of their supreme gods and this cultural affair strengthened the army. This divine intervention was also a common feature in both the Persian and Athenian empires and contributed significantly to the unity and success of the empire in terms of conquests. The three empires were marked by very large armies which consisted of so many soldiers. A large number of soldiers was directly proportional to the strength of the army. These large numbers of soldiers contributed a great deal to the strength of the military therefore conquering weaker states was very easy. These three states were also characterized by gods who apart from spiritual fulfillments were also symbols of unity and it is this unity that kept the people together as they conquered their enemies. Politically these states were well organized with powerful kings that provided good lea
The 21st century is turning into the age of global development and collaboration. Many businesses today are working together to exchange knowledge and expertise, as well as to establish a foundation when moving into a new market. One recent approach to collaboration involves collaborative innovation between young, relatively small businesses and large, successful companies (WEF 3). This type of collaboration can be potentially beneficial for both sides, as well as for the local economy (WEF 3). Several models may be used for collaborative innovation, which promotes economic sustainability. One recent example of collaborative innovation with an eye to economic sustainability is Campbell’s 2016 investment into organic food start-ups. Collaborative Innovation and Sustainability According to Yoon and Hughes, large companies have many reasons for collaborating with start-ups and smaller businesses (par. 4). For instance, economic growth in certain industries relies on start-ups, such as the food industry, where the largest 25 companies only contribute 0.1% to growth (Yoon and Hughes par. 2). Therefore, developing start-ups can contribute to a faster-growing economy, where large businesses are more likely to succeed (Furlong par. 5). However, it is hard for start-ups to grow without external support. Most of the new companies close within a couple of years, which makes their contribution to economic growth short-term. By investing in and collaborating with start-ups, big businesses can promote long-term economic improvement, thus achieving financial sustainability. Another reason for working with start-ups is their innovativeness and ability to find and share new opportunities: Yoon and Hughes state that “Startups excel at giving birth to successful proof of concepts; larger companies are much better at successfully scaling proof of concepts” (par. 4). For instance, Campbell’s characterises collaborating with smaller firms as “the latest step in the company’s attempt to better align its portfolio with consumers’ changing tastes, which have shifted away from processed food toward fresh goods” (Kowitt par. 6). Models for Collaborative Innovation However, not all collaborative innovations manage to achieve their plans for developing economic sustainability. Either small firms fail to grow in spite of the larger company’s financial contribution, or their growth does not lead to any significant change in the economic stability of the industry. In his article, “How Innovative Companies Collaborate,” Davis aims to explain why some collaborations are effective, whereas others fail. One of the main reasons he gives is that too many companies are involved in the collaboration: “Forging an alliance between two companies has its own share of obstacles, including (but certainly not limited to) corporate culture clash, divergent strategic interests, and fear of intellectual-property poaching” (Davis par. 7); thus, the introduction of a third company is likely to create far more difficulties than benefits. Second, poor exchange of information and communica