ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction Tendering process involves the determination of the final cost of a project and submitting it for approval (Ashworth, 2002, p.319). Organizations need to make a good estimation for their proposed project to avoid losses. Thus, the estimation department has to obtain an accurate date and consider the factor that is likely to affect the proposed project. Similarly, due to stiff competition from other companies for tenders firms need to have the knowhow of developing winning tenders. The economic situation is affecting tendering process in the construction industry; the current economic meltdown has reduced the number of workers in the pipeline. Therefore, firms employ strategies and position themselves to compete effectively for the few available projects. Essentially, construction firms position themselves using human resources, partnerships and planning leverage. Through a partnership between contractors and clients both parties benefit from repeat business and elimination of tendering costs (Brook, 2008, p.16). Tendering Decision and Estimation The decision to submit a tender for a proposed project should be informed; the company should have the financial capability and technical capability to complete the project within the stipulated time. In fact, bidding decisions are complex due to uncertainty about many factors affecting the outcomes of the bid. Moreover, a company has to consider its current workload, current work profile and its scale and quantity. Furthermore, companies submitting tenders need to consider the following factors; accessibility of the work, need for special skill or designs, quality of work and the working condition (Ashworth, 2002, p.330). Estimation is defined as a technical process of calculating construction costs by building up rates for each of the items in the tender” (Ashworth, 2002, p.319). Apart from estimators, there are other parties that are involved namely, the client’s staff, professionals, construction contractor’s personnel and external organization. The cost of labor, plant and materials and subcontractors are some of the factors that estimators utilize to determine the final price of a project. Harris et al. (2006, p.188) note that both planning and estimating departments are involved in the estimation. In addition, estimators and planners use the Bill of Quantities (BOQ) type of contractor to estimate the value of tenders. Estimators incorporate quality assurance to estimating function in order to ensure profitability, efficiency, accuracy, competence, job satisfaction and client satisfaction (Brook, 2008, p.9). Competitive Bidding The most common type of bidding theory is competitive bidding where several contractors submit tenders for a proposed project (Harris et al., 2006, p.216). Subsequently, clients evaluate the submitted tender based
Synopsis Set in futuristic China, the story of Jin Ping Mei is adapted to take into consideration new social developments within the country. The one child policy has been abolished resulting in the rise of many prominent business oriented clans. Located in the Qingdao region of China, the Ximen household rose to prominence over a period of 50 years as a direct result of lucrative government construction contracts as well as a monopoly over the regions tourism industry. However, the heirs of the clan have squandered the wealth and success of their ancestors resulting in the slow and gradual deterioration of the household. Ximen Qing, the current head of the Ximen clan, has done little to advance the stature of his household and is known as being a lustful perverse man who has taken an assortment of wives and concubines, all of whom do not have his best interests at heart. Fortunately, Ximen Qing continues to have a steady stream of income from his clan’s numerous businesses and assets and, as such, is able to continue to live lecherously often taking numerous aphrodisiac pills and engaging in orgies with his wives and concubines. It is only when his lustful ways lead him to develop an adulterous relationship with Pan Jinlian that Ximen Qing meets his ill-fated yet ironic death as direct result of a Viagra overdose (Dhume, 2003). Plot The story begins in the suburbs of Qingdao within the compound of the Ximen household. Despite the declining finances of the clan, their home is still the best looking within the Qingdao region. Ximen Qing uses this to his advantage as a way of enticing beautiful yet financially underprivileged women from aro
Overview This paper shall focus on the article titled, ‘My Son Looks like a Girl. So What?’ (Newman, 2012). Catherine Newman, a blogger who talks about several issues, wrote this article. One of the main topics that Newman focuses is on sexuality. This is because, as the world is experiencing drastic changes in terms of technological advancement, social interaction, and religion, it is essential to note that the manner in which we perceive sex and sexuality is changing too. Since time immemorial, it has always been normal before the eyes of the society for a man and a woman to have an intimate relationship. For this act to be accepted by religion and society, marriage between a man and a woman has always been advocated for, treasured, and cherished. However, over the last few centuries, sexual relationships between individuals of the same gender have emerged. During the early days, prostitution and homosexuality were considered as a
Childhood has the most direct impact on a person’s adult life since it is the first step in the socialization process. Unfortunately, not all parents understand effective methods of upbringing, do not realize the value of a favorable environment for the child’s independence, and neglect the appearance of the youth’s emotional anticipation. It is a severe issue that requires broadening the knowledge of the theoretical bases of the family relations structure. One alternative that can promote the growth of skills and erudition of parents is studying online resources. Parenthub is a quality option with a sufficient amount of theory and approaches of its practical application to promote children’s mental and physical health. Parenthub is a resource that provides access to materials on interacting with children from their conception to adulthood. One can read about pregnancy, parenting, psychology, children’s education, family connections, eating habits, and householding. Complex relationships between kids and their parents are always psychological and mental trauma, which can provoke severe depression and destroy the most fundamental instinct – self-preservation (Idris & Ahmad, 2020). The online resource contributes to the solution of this concern at the early stages when contact is just being constructed, and approaches to family links can still be modified. For a child, the household is the primary environment for living, developing, and becoming a whole person. Kids learn to recognize the world, grasping the basic mechanisms of cognition and interpersonal relationships from the family (Chen et al., 2022). Therefore, the relationship with parents determines the basic skills, abilities, and psychological qualities, since children are imitators, beginning to learn the basics of communication from infancy. However, not all parents understand the vital role of contact and often inadequately assess the child’s activities. They do not support the youngsters’ self-esteem, have hardship determining their emotional state, and cannot establish a partner connection. Parenthub offers access to numerous resources on childrearing to construct a strong relationship. It provides articles from experts in diverse fields, from medicine and psychology to physical education and nutrition. Thus, this Internet resource supplies comprehensive parenting training and promotes an understanding of the child’s peculiarities in the different stages of growing up. In addition, there is the possibility of an open forum so that everyone can share their own experiences or ask for help from those who have already experienced upbringing hardships. The site is split into categories, and therefore the search is quick and efficient. One can search for the necessary materials by keyword or
Looking for The Gift of the Magi essay? Summary and analysis of the themes, characters, and irony in the short story by O’Henry are below. O. Henry, an American writer, is famous for his short stories with an unpredictable ending. The Gift of the Magi is one of his masterpieces, which has become a traditional Christmas tale. In this story, the author shows a genuine love between young spouses, which is more precious than any material possessions. In this essay, the plot will be summarized, the main themes and characters will be discussed, and personal opinion will be given. The Gifts of the Magi Summary The story takes place just before Christmas, and Della Young is concerned about what she should give her husband, Jim, as a present. She counts her savings and finds only $1.87, which is not enough to buy a worthy gift. She is frustrated since she wants to present her husband with something he deserves for his hard work. Della tries to find a way out of the situation and finally comes up with an idea. The most precious thing she has is her long shining brown hair. After she looks at it in the mirror, she dresses up and goes to Madame Sofronie, a hairdresser. The woman cuts Della’s hair quickly and gives her $20. Having enough money, Della visits several shops to find a present for Jim. She is not satisfied with anything she finds until she knows exactly what she needs. Della remembers that her husband’s most valuable thing is his gold watch, but he
Introduction Money laundering is an illegal money transaction process. It involves transferring money through several countries in order to conceal its origin. Through this process criminals disguise the origin money gotten through illegal processes to appear to come from legal sources. The money transferred through this process also conceals its ownership and use. (Donald2006) This type of money transfer is common with criminals such as drug traffickers, fraud, corrupt politicians and public officials and terrorists. The drug traffickers require a very complex money laundering system to detect them, as most of their activities are cash money-oriented which brings a lot of logistics problems. The International Money Fund has established that the aggregate size of money laundering in the World is approximately four percent of the world’s gross domestic product. Money laundering is a diverse and often complex process that is not wholly dependant on cash. In some situations money laundering involves transfer of money informs of products. (Donald2007) Money laundering basically comprises of three processes. These are: Placement-This is introducing through depositing illegal proceeds into the financial system. Layering-This involves filtering criminal activities proceeds from their origin through the use of layers of complex financial transactions. Integration-This involves the carrying out additional transactions to make these dealings appear genuine by buying assets. ­In the past money laundering was only restricted only to financial transactions that were linked to organized crime, but nowadays money laundering also encompasses the evasion of taxation. (Donald2007) Money laundering in Australia In Australia money laundering is very high a survey conducted in 2006 revealed that an estimate of $3.8b was the total proceeds of crime generated in all the crimes in the country. Offenses involving fraud and illicit drug trafficking headed the list of crimes generating income for laundering, but when the amounts of money involved were compared, fraud exceeded drug crime by a significant margin. The best estimate for drug proceeds was $382m while frauds collectively totaled $3.16b. (Margaret2004) The survey showed that on average over 80 percent of drug proceeds, and around 70 percent of the proceeds of fraud were laundered. The estimates of proceeds of crime and estimates of the percentages being laundered were combined to provide an estimate of the total amount of $2.8b laundered, either within Australia or overseas, from the proceeds of Australian crime. Fraud at around $2.3b was by far the largest component of money generated and laundered in Australia; illicit drugs were second, at around $300m. The banking sector, casinos, the real estate market and the accountancy profession are most commonly utilized for money laundering in Australia, sending money overseas or receiving it from overseas. (Margaret2004) The money laundering to, from, or within Australia is characterized by the frequent use of structuring transactions to avoid re
Introduction The acquisition of Cadbury Company which was a leading chocolatier by the Kraft Company was surrounded by controversies (Wright 2010, 3). The first initial bid by Kraft was 19.5 billion pounds and was expected to generate forty confectionary brands from the combined portfolio and each confectionary was expected to have an annual sale of one hundred pounds resulting to the leading producer of confectionary in the world (Yoder 2010, 5). Eventually the deal was completed after Kraft acquired Cadbury at an accepted bid of 11.7 billion pounds in order to own 72 percent of Cadbury shares (Davies & Williams 2009). Criticism The deal had a lot of deficiencies in that; Kraft just needed 50% shares plus one in order to take control of Cadbury (Sealy and Worthington 2007). The acquisition received criticism from the public and also from Peter Mandelson who is the United Kingdom business secretary when he met with Irene Rosenfeld (Kraft Chief Executive officer). According to Peter Mandelson, the acquisition would result to loss of 4,500 workers who worked for Cadbury. Kraft chief executive officer, Rosenfeld did not promise to offer any jobs for the employees but instead said through media that “the objective of the deal was to increase the sale of Cadbury and Kraft products” (Davies & Williams 2009). According to Kraft’s CEO, “the top Leaders of Cadbury were to directly go but the Cadbury CEO Todd Stitzer and Chief Financial Officer Andrew Bonfield would help Kraft integrate Cadbury into the Northfield, Illinois-based food maker, but would step out of the direct chain of command” (Yoder 2010, 5). From a human resource management perspective the deal would result to negative impacts to the employment sector whereby the number of the unemployed people would increase (Deakin & Gillian 2004). This was evidenced by the large numbers of Cadbury employees who gathered in central London to urge the government to protect their jobs after the deal was made (Jones & Sufrin 2005). According to analysts, “Kraft would delist the products that were manufactured by the combination of the two companies such as Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate, Halls cough drops and Trident gum with Kraft’s once it acquired 75 percent of Cadbury shares” (Garfield 2010, 8). This would result to the total stop of the manufacture of the Cadbury products and it would even be delisted from the London Stock Exchange. The impact of this move by Kraft would result to the disappearance of Cadbury products in the market and as a result of this; employees and business people who traded these products would lose a lot. Cadbury workforce union was left in suspense after Cadbury HR Director promised the union that Kraft would honuor the terms and the conditions and any previous undertaking by Cadbury (Lazarus 2009). The Cadbury HR Director further promised the employees that there would be a severance package for them and also a job centre would be created for them. This was not certain to happen since the acquisition d
Research is important for developments and innovations. To conduct research, data must be taken, interpolated, and analysed to give sound information about a certain issue under research. There are different methods of data collection (Pratt & Loizos, 2005). This paper is divided into two parts; part one discusses five data collection methods and parts two gives my personal research experience. Data collection methods Data collection methods are divided into primary and secondary collection methods. Under primary, we have:   * Use of interviews It is a method of data collection that involves oral questioning of a certain population whether individuals or in groups. Response from the interviewee regarding a certain question are recorded either at the time of interview or are tape recorded for later recording and analysis. Questions may be fixed or flexible depending on the target group (Kothari, 2008).   * Use of questionnaires Questionnaires are structured questions given to respondents who are expected to answer them in written form and then give them back to data collector. The questionnaires can be sent through post, email or faxed to a respondent, they can also be hand derived.   * observation Observation is a data collection method where the researcher uses his eyes and participates in certain activities as he collects data. Observation may be open where the researcher takes data from the occurrence of certain activities or may be closed where the observer takes data from a limited number of people (Axinn & Lisa, 2006).   * Focus groups Focus groups are groups composed of a population that has the required information. They are collected together and the team leader who is usually the researcher asks relevant questions that lead to data collection in his area of interest. The team leader gives members of a group the chance to discus and gives their views regarding a certain phenomenon. Secondary data collection Other than primary data collection method, there is secondary data collection method that involves taking data from literature reviews of related material. The researcher does not go to the field to collect data but reviews data that already exists may be in books, documentaries, internet and media (Patton, 2002). Importance of examining collected data After data has been collected, it needs to be examined for quality and reliability. Consistency of data is important for data analysis thus it is important to examine and test the data collected. Extremes data are disregarded to ensure that data used for analysis can be generalized when making final inferences.
Process of critiquing an article Any note regarding critical analysis of an article starts with a summary of the point of view discussed in that paper. This summary highlights the thesis or the problem statement of the article under analysis. In this section, the author’s viewpoint is explored, based on the arguments and explanations provided by the author, and described. Here, some points may be given regarding the author’s experience in the subject, any previous work or other supporting evidence. The way article has been organized; which facts have been chosen by the author to describe or support his/her article. How much focused is the author bout his/her article? How the author provides his/her theoretical knowledgebase to support his own write up? Moreover, based on the presented theoretical explanation, what is the evidence utilized by the author for further supporting his/her work? Does the evidence provided is suitable for the current article? Do all the contents of the article are coherent? How much continuity is there in the main body of the article? Does the language of the article and the thought process go in unison? Any point where contradictions exist in the article? In the critical analysis of the whole article, addressing all the above mentioned issues is very important. This process is efficiently completed when all the sections of an article are thoroughly reviewed following the above mentioned guidelines. This can be achieved by taking all the sections as one article at the first instance and completing the whole process. Afterwards, the whole article is critiqued. This also needs to look at the linking process of all the sections contained in the article. Importance of critique for a nurse Nursing research has been defined by Hunt (1991) as a planned systematic search for information within or about nursing, for the purpose of increasing the body of knowledge of nursing. Nurses should be research aware and be able to apply it to practise and therefore have an influence on health care (Henderson, 1987). However, in order to fully appreciate and fully utilize research, the nurse needs to know that it is credible and reliable. Nurses can learn to distinguish between good and bad research and be critical of other individual research. Therefore, the aim of this assignment is to explore the strengths and weaknesses of a research study define the term critique as a judgment about the merits and/or value of a piece of research. He suggests that because research is never perfect all research may be critically evaluate
Introduction Anne Bradstreet wrote the poem entitled the flesh and the spirit and tried to compare the things of the world and the thing of the spirit (Lash 1). She clearly did this through dramatizing it into two different people in a form of conversation. Most of Bradstreet’s poetry revolved around her experiences in life and her great love for her family and husband. The theme of spiritualism can also be associated with the love and devotion she had for God. Thesis statement The writer, in her quest to compare spiritualism and materialism, dramatizes the two as sisters and involves them in a kind of conversation. The two seem to be in an argument, each wanting to support their own ideas and perceptions about life. The author also tries to show that the world is in a perfect balance between good and evil and that it is the choice of the human beings to choose from one of them. This paper aims at making an explication of the poem to get the inner meaning and the finer details there in. Explication of the poem In the poem, the author talks of the two sisters and names them Flesh and Spirit as shown in line 5 and 7 in the poem respectively. The flesh is used to symbolize the tangible things of the earth, which include diamonds, pearls and gold as shown in line 84. The author categorises and describes these things as having value. The spirit on the other hand, includes the things of the spirit that are not tangible and are priceless. This perception is highlighted in the phrase when the poet talks of the hidden manna in line 68 (Lash 2). The poem shows the difficulty the people have in seeing the spirit or getting in its presence. This is however not the case when it comes to flesh sin