ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction This paper is an analysis of five important themes in relation to what an entrepreneur is. The five themes include characteristics, socialization, resources, innovation, and failure as what shapes an entrepreneur. The analysis is based on the literature contained in the book “The Eddie Stobart Story.” Several definitions have been proposed by different scholars for the term entrepreneur. McCoy-Pinderh (2000, p. 1) defines an entrepreneur as an individual who is capable of visualizing a plan and possesses a strong desire to implement changes in his sounding through hard work. The main drive of an entrepreneur is to achieve his set personal and business objectives. This drive makes an entrepreneur restless in general and always looking for opportunity to achieve the change. Characteristics Picking out a potential entrepreneur from a group of individuals has always posed a major problem to investors. A number of investors have fallen prey to pretending entrepreneurs and ended up losing their investments. The FACETS approach is often used to describe the salient characteristics for identifying a potential entrepreneur. If such individuals are properly mentored and walked through the business operations process, they can develop very successful enterprises. The complex nature of human beings makes it difficult to assess their potential accurately; the FACETS approach is significant as a measure to indicate and not to identify one’s exact potential. The process of developing an enterprise from scratch to a multi-million company requires management attributes that are exceptional. A high ego is a fundamental attribute for entrepreneurs. Characteristic attributes such as focus, advantage, and ability to form and work through a team and creativity are central to all successful entrepreneurs. It is an individual’s ego that makes him or her apply the attributes differently from the others. Entrepreneurs never settle for a given goal, they have a restless ego that keeps pushing them to strive for more. They always look out for new challenges every time they attain a particular goal; they do not sit back to rest on attaining a set goal. Eddie Stobart is described as having a high ego. He was motivated to work on a full-time basis for the sake of his family well being. After a long time in business, he had almost wound up his venture just before an idea to begin a warehousing business groped up; he took up the business to earn an income to take care of his children (Bolton & Thompson, 2002, p.138). Entrepreneurs have the courage to stand by their beliefs strongly. Eddie Stobart was determined to change the image of the haulage industry that was previously characterized by untidiness
Scenario Retelling is the effective tool to assess the students’ comprehension of the text while reading with references to understanding the order of events and key points of the story. Retelling is important to assess the students’ abilities in constructing the texts and organizing the responses to the guided questions if they are necessary. Moreover, retelling is helpful for the teacher to pay attention to the points which are added or inferred by students while retelling the texts (Gunning, 2010, p. 91-92). To conduct a retelling assessment, a student from the second grade was selected with the help of the classroom teacher. The age-appropriate text for reading was chosen to assess the retelling (“Tadpole Teasing” by Kara Waite) (Waite, n.d.). “Tadpole Teasing” is a fiction book that is why the “Retelling Rubric and Scoring Form” for fiction is used to assess the student’s skills in retelling. Before asking to start reading the story, I drew the student’s attention to the fact that I would like to listen to her retelling the story after reading. The student started reading the text. The reading was rather good and relevant for the student’s age and level. When the reading was finished I asked the student to retell the text. To guarantee the correct and full retelling of the story, I used the following phrase, “Pretend I have not read the story. Please, tell it to me”. To record the retelling, a dictaphone was used. I took notes while the student was retelling the story in order to fix the details omitted or added to the plot. The retelling was guided with the help of questions to get more information and assist students to cope with some difficulties experienced with retelling. The guided questions are taken from the appropriate retelling form (How does the story start? Do you know the main characters and can you tell me something about them? Tell me about the problem/conflict/situation of the story. What are the most important things that happen in the story?). The student’s responses to the guided questions were recorded. The student retold the story in clear language, using the full sentences organized sequentially. When the retelling was finished I asked the student about her desire to add any details to the retelling. The student concentrated on the fact that tadpoles discussed in the story were rather cruel in relation to the main character Taddy because they liked teasing. Analysis: Retelling/Comprehension Summary; Fiction Retelling Rubric Retelling/Comprehension Summary Retelling Summary __Retelling attempted                                    Fully   Partially  Minimally Fiction text:                                                                           * identified and recalled setting                      ______  __X____    ______      * identified and talked about main characters          __X___  ______     ______      * identified the sequence of story events              __X___  ______     ______      * identified main idea/theme                           __X___  ______     ______      * related characters and ideas to own experience       ____    ___X___    _____
Introduction It is through elections that citizens of a particular country can elect leaders of their choice. Elections give people the right to choose the leaders they would want to serve them. Campaigns are among some of the methods that candidates seeking elective office use to woo voters to turn out in large numbers and vote for them. It is the democratic right of citizens above the age of 18 years to take part in elections and elect their preferred leaders. What could be done to increase voter turnout? There is only one way through which voter turnout during an election can be increased. This can only be done by using positive campaign adverts. Campaign adverts used during elections can either be positive, negative, or mixed. Research has shown that candidates use negative campaign tactics whenever they are facing a stiff challenge from their opponents. Negative campaign adverts make people boycott elections. Recent research conducted also reveals that the use of negative campaign tactics may be the main reason why most people only vote for presidential candidates. Would a program of reforms to increase voting turnout need to focus on the cost of voting, the benefits, or both? What do current reform proposals prioritize? It is important to come up with effective programs that would help increase voter turnout during elections. It is important that during elections, voters turn out in large numbers and vote for their preferred candidates. These programs should focus mainly on the benefits of voting. People also need to be educated on the advantages of voting. Current programs aimed at increasing voter turnout focus on negative advertising, which makes more people avoiding taking part in elections. Why not simply make voting compulsory or tie voting to the receipt of government benefits? It is the democratic right of people to take part in elections. People should never be forced to take part in an election against their will. However, the government and other stakeholders need to come up with proper mechan
Introduction Cosplay first appeared in Japan at the end of the 20th century and proliferated all around the globe. For many fans costume play is self-expression. Those, who are involved in cosplay, create clothes, props, wigs and etc., which help them to recreate the beloved characters. For some people, this activity became a hobby, for others, it is a lifestyle. For decades cosplay evolved into a big community, which involves people of different ages, professions, genders and unites them in their devotion to anime and video games. Main Body Ger Tysk represents those for whom cosplay is an object of passion. She enjoys the creative activities related to costume play: prop-making and photo shooting. She spent years recreating weapons for herself and for other people who participate in conventions. In some way, cosplay helped Tysk to reveal her creativity, and to find something she is good at. For some time Tysk was engaged in the creation of props for other cosplayers. At first, it was just a hobby, but later it became a small business. The pieces, which she made for others, and which were shown in conventions, drew attention and so Tysk’s work got prominent. Small business in the cosplay industry is frequent, but in the countries like Japan, where cosplay is a part of mass culture, companies gain great profits selling goods for anime and video games fans. The cosplay community develops rapidly and gains popularity, especially among young people. Everyone has different reasons for entering the community. Some fans simply want to express themselves, socialize, and communicate with people of the same interests. Others want to show themselves, to draw attention, or even to become famous. The difference in motivations divides the community members and creates preconceptions, misunderstandings, and conflicts. Nowadays discrimination and prejudices often take place in the cosplay community. One of the reasons is that most of the anime characters, which fans attempt to recreate, have unnatural features of appearance. Some features are exaggerated. Most of the characters have subtle body structures and are extremely skinny. In cosplay competition, the total resemblance to the character is highly estimated. Those who succeeded in purchasing a look of a standard anime personage become prominent. Those fans whose body isn’t that skinny or whose face doesn’t resemble a cartoon character’s face usually receive bad commentaries. Negative responses often make fans lose motivation and quit their hobby. Sometimes the incidents of sexual harassment also take place in the cosplay community. Frequently, young women wear garments that expose some parts of their bodies. Though partial nudity is a component of a cosplay look, often it remains misunderstood, and the fact that the main purpose of cosplay is a performance of the art of transformation is avoided. Of course, few people like to expose their nudity and to draw attention but for most of the cosplayers, it is simply a way to try on the character’s form. The incidents of sexual harassment indicate the situation not only in the cosplayer’s community but in society as a whole. Unfortunately, pre
Introduction This paper seeks to analyze and discuss the financial statements of a publicly-traded company. The company chosen is Lowe’s Home Improvement Store. Brief Company background Founded in 1952 and having its base in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company is registered under the name Lowe’s Companies, Inc., and its subsidiaries functions as home improvement retailers, which may be found both in the United States and Canada. As the company is engaged in a wide range of products and services for home decoration, maintenance, repair, remodeling, and property maintenance, customers could found Lowe’s home improvement products to include appliances, lumber, flooring, millwork, paint, and building materials. 1 Other products include fashion plumbing, lighting, tools, seasonal living, lawn and landscape, cabinets, countertops, rough electrical, nursery, hardware, and other home environments, and building materials products. The Company is noted for serving homeowners and renters on a do-it-yourself and do-it-for-me provision. Its other customers buy for personal and family use; and still, other customers include those in the commercial business, which include repair and remodeling contractors, painters, plumbers, electricians, landscapers. 2 3 Such customers also include commercial and residential property maintenance professionals. To reach its customers more, the company also makes its products available both through retail stores and online. As of this writing, the company is already operating not less than a thousand home-improvement stores that are found in almost all of the United States. Profitability Some profitability ratios 4 of the company for the last three years ending. February of each year are shown below: Financial Ratios      2007  2006  2005 Gross Profit Margin   0.35  0.34  0.34 Net Profit Margin     0.07  0.06  0.06 Return on Assets      0.11  0.11  0.10 Return on Equity      0.20  0.19  0.19 Current Ratio         1.27  1.34  1.22 Debt to Equity Ratio  0.77  0.72  0.84  Profits measurement is one way to gauge management effort to increase the value of the stocks as a higher increase would have the greater probability of providing stockholders with dividends and assured higher values of stocks. In terms of profitability 5 , the company exhibited a slightly increased profitability for the years under review with net profit margins that were reflected at 0.07, 0.06, and 0.06 for the years 2007, 2006, and 2005 respectively. Profitability ratios in terms of return of assets confirm the same with the ratios of 0.11, 0.11, and 0.10 for the years 2007, 2006, and 2005 respectively. As for the return on equity, it was almost there same for three years except that the increase in ratio was felt only in 2007 as compared with the two ratios when the increases were noted in 2006. It may be inferred that the company is doing well with a net profit margin of about 6% or more, which would indicate that the company can earn about six dollars for one hundred dollar revenues. If these net profit margins
Introduction The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an organization of countries from North America and Europe and its member states are unified in defense. It is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium and it was established with the signing of the 1949 treaty known as the North Atlantic Treaty. It has interests in the vast East Asia countries because some of its goals include fighting terrorism and restoring the world order. The East Asian countries include China, Japan, Vietnam, Mongolia, Serbia, North Korea, South Korea, and Russia. Experts have lobbied for the inclusion of these countries into NATO citing that the unification could bring about more success in some of NATO’s objectives like fighting terrorism and restoring the world order. Reasons for East Asia partnership with NATO East Asia has some of the world’s superpowers which include Japan, China, Russia, and South Korea. Many of the countries in this region are fully developed and hence command some of the best military forces in the world. NATO on its part also has in its membership the most developed countries in the North America region and Europe. A combination of these forces can deliver a lot of success in their objectives. There is also an important fact to consider because there is a great likelihood that Russia and China will have an alliance very soon. These two countries are forces to reckon with in the world and hence there is a great possibility the unification of these two countries will bring another force in the world. It is important to note that there has existed a rivalry between Russia and the Members of NATO. If Russia is to be left out of NATO there is a likelihood that Russian militarists and Nationalists will have an upper hand in the control of arms. This will only help in threatening world peace and hence the reason for the unification of NATO and countries of the East Asian Region. Failure to that East Asia will start its conflicts especially started by the Russian Militarists and Nationalists and the other countries in the region cannot be able to handle the conflicts. This will deteriorate the world peace as it is of now. The effects to the US if Japan’s economy collapsed For a long time in history, the United States and Japan have shared a good relationship until Japan attacked the United States Pearl Harbor in 1941. However, things would later come back to normal after the end of the Cold War era and nowadays Japan and the United States share one of the closest relationships in the world in terms of economic and military relationships. The United States of America is one of Japan’s economic partners and this is evident because Japan’s 22.7% exports
The process of developing child abilities and personal qualities can be studied from different angles, and psychological concepts used to explain certain norms imply different approaches to the description of cognitive, behavioral, and other features. Based on the analysis of one of the theoretical perspectives regarding a specific example, it is possible to estimate the degree of a particular property’s influence. This paper includes the behavioral factor’s influence on child development and the main aspects and challenges that may arise during this process. Character Description from the Perspective of Behaviorism One of the properties that largely determine the degree of children’s socialization and their perception of the world around them is behavior. Vital attitudes obtained at a young age form the manner of communication and are often explained by hereditary traits. Nevertheless, Steinberg, Vandell, and Bornstein (2010) call into question this assumption and do not consider the concept of behavioral genetics as a key factor influencing the actions of children. As the authors argue, “development is a result of reciprocal influences between biology and experiences, genes and environment” (Steinberg et al., 2010, p. 17). Therefore, the factor of behavior is not subject exclusively to hereditary influence and is the result of accumulated experience and the perception of the environment. As an example, it is possible to describe Alice’s character from Carroll’s book (1998). The girl in Wonderland finds it hard to perceive reality and the events that happen to her. However, as the story progresses, the character acquires new experience, in particular, communicating with unusual creatures, and adopts some behavioral traits of those whom she meets. As a result, the impact of heredity is minimal here, and the key role belongs to communication and the surrounding world. Therefore, the theoretical concept of behaviorism is closely related to socio-cultural phenomena. Basic Issues of C
Introduction On March 5, 2006, the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand received a notification that a Robinson R22 helicopter, which had a registration number ZK-HLC, was involved in a fatal accident (Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand, 2006). The preliminary report had indicated that the helicopter left Wanaka Aerodrome at about 08:15 for a one-hour scenic flight around Homestead Peak before landing back at Wanaka Aerodrome (Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand, 2006). There were two people on board, a Canadian pilot and an American tourist. They were expected back at Wanaka at about 09:15. However, at about 09:00, eyewitnesses reported a fire at Homestead Park. Immediately the local authorities received the report, a fire-fighting helicopter was dispatched to the area. The first responders on the helicopter immediately realized that the huge inferno was caused by a helicopter crash. After controlling the inferno, a rescue team arrived at the scene of the accident a few minutes later. They established that no one on board had survived (Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand, 2006). The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) commenced an investigation the following day to establish the cause of the accident. The report focuses on collecting physical, technical, and observational evidence for an aircraft investigation, with a specific focus on this particular accident. Evidence plays a critical role in an air accident investigation. According to Chittum (2017), whenever an accident occurs in the aviation sector, the investigators often focus on determining the exact cause so that similar events can be avoided in the future. Besides the information from the flight data recorder and flight voice recorder, physical, technical, and observational evidence also play a critical role in understanding events that occurred before and during the incident. They provide clues as to the possible chain of events responsible for the accident. Discussion The primary goal of an air accident investigation is to gather evidence that would help in making a conclusion as to the cause and ways in which similar cases can be avoided in the future. According to International Civil Aviation Organisation, (2018), air accidents can be caused by pilot error, malfunction of the control system, physical damage to critical parts of the plane, meteorological factors among others. In an effort to make air transport the safest means of movement, each time an investigation has conducted the team of aviation experts often goes beyond identifying the specific factor(s) that caused the accident (Wood & Sweginnis, 2006). They also provide detailed recommendations to the manufacturer, airlines, and pilots on how to avoid a similar