ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Outline There are two aspects to this study, the first being the study of the chosen technology that is, the use of biometric scanning in the banking industry and how it could possibly further the cause of banking business. The main aspects that are being covered in this study would be the evolution of biometric technology over the years and its usage. The study would dwell on how this technology works, who are the major suppliers, and to whom they cater. (The consumers). Next, the study needs to consider the uses and application of biometric scanning technology and considers the strengths and weaknesses of this technology. It is necessary to determine this in order to arrive at an unbiased and authentic conclusion on the subject. The strengths are in terms of whether crimes could be totally avoided if biometrics are used and whether large investments in biometrics are justified by added benefits and advantages. The success and failure rates of this are also considered in that in certain known cases, eyes have been gorged off, hands chopped and fingers severed in order to facilitate biometric spoofing. But experts believe that such actions do little to demean the technology itself since it is dependent upon the quality and fidelity of inputs and the systems, left to itself are incapable of arriving at the right decision and need to be humanly monitored and controlled. The study then considers the future trends of the technology based on past performances. While it is seen that government departments have been the major users (and Beneficiaries) of biometric technology, it is believed that in the years to come, with lowered installation costs, the private sector would be a major player in biometric technology in the years to come. The future of this technology would depend, to a large extent, upon the confidence that is reposed on it by its users, institutional or otherwise. This would change because, in the years to come, there would be a need to reinforce sensitive sectors like banks and financial institutions, not only from the vagaries of the money markets but also from criminals and malicious system intruders. This needs to be given top priority since banking forms the bulwark of commercial business. This study also considers the forces that could make it necessary to effect changes in the banking systems, so that it addresses the problems caused due to lowered security and customer privacy, needing a more emphatic use of biometric systems to filter transactions and ensure maximum security to customers and bank alike. Finally, the study concludes on a note of optimism that the enhanced role of biometric scanner technology augurs well for the international banking scenario. Executive summary It is seen that 21st Century has witnessed an alarming rise in banking irregularities and malpractices, which has created the need to have an absolute foolproof and effective system that could possibly thwart and prevent such occurrences in the future. In this context the importance of biometric technology, wh
Cubism burst on the art-viewing public at the Salon Des Independents in 1911 (Harrison and Wood 2002, 184). An ancient Chinese proverb wishes, “May you live in interesting times.” Cubism reflected all that had gone before in art, but also reflected the ‘interesting’ technological and social trends of its era, as attested by each of the commentators in Section IIB. The cubists themselves and those who observed them experienced a time of tremendous change and scientific advances. Some were positive, e.g., indoor plumbing. Some were regarded with ambivalence, e.g., the disappearance of many class distinctions. Still others were frankly unpleasant, e.g., factory smoke darkening the sky. Fernand Leger most explicitly connects recent innovations and the altered perceptions of the world by everyone, including artists. He notes that the camera, the cinema, and popular novels, supplant the reality-capturing function of visual art [1] . This left artists to create something beyond, above, or other than reality. The ‘something’, in Leger’s opinion was cubism (Leger 2002, 202). Rozanova also is perhaps alluding to something similar when she speaks disparagingly of artists who sought to imitate nature, or themselves (Rozanova 2002, 206). The appearance of photography, which can be painstakingly accurate and endlessly repeated, simultaneously, provided the simulacrum of nature that Cubists were bypassing (Rozanova 2002, 205). Rozanova also mocks the desire of the public for the merely familiar (Rozanova 2002, 206). The very fact that she denigrates a fear of change mirrors the shift to a ‘modern’ society. Change for change’s sake was not necessarily desired nor expected in earlier generations. Cubism was change in art on a large scale. Leger, as well, makes note of social trends, and remarks on the fragmentation of modern life. He draws a parallel between this and the cubists’ fragmentation of forms on canvas to show them from all angles (Leger 2002, 202). Apollinaire notes that cubism need not please the viewer as older art tried to (Apollinaire, The Cubists 2002) . The acceptance of the notion that anything should be less pleasing than it possibly can be reflects, perhaps, the imposition of machine forms and rhythms on the visual world. A machine cares not whether it offends or delights (Apollinaire, The Subject in Painting 2002, 185). Cubism often appeared explicitly to depict the angular power of contemporary equipment. Apollinaire also makes reference to divergence from Euclidean geometry (Apollinaire, The New painting: Art Notes 2001, 188). This reflects discoveries in physics. Einstein’s theory of relativity appeared, after all, in 1905 [2] . The idea that the universe was both much larger and much smaller than previously imagined [3] is also implicit in Apollinaire’s ecstatic goal for cubism, namely, ”…the expression of the universe, in so far as it has been humanized by light.” (Apollinaire, Chapter VII of ‘The Cubist Painters’ 2002). This emphasis on light in Apollinaire’s commentary may also reflect the spread of electrical light, with all its distinct differences from sunlight or candlelight, and unvarying consist
The love between mothers and daughters is a sacred sort of love that will never become surpassed on the same type of intimate level. Cardinal Mermillod, Swiss Catholic Priest of the mid-1800s said, “A mother’s love can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take.” This quote has precise relevancy to the key theme of Barriers existing between generations, in Amy Tan’s captivating novel, The Joy Luck Club. As a litterateur, Ms. Tan evokes further realization that a mother’s love is an unsurpassed and eternal sentiment; through this, the mothers improve their relationships with their daughters. Firstly, the story An-Mei Hsu demonstrates that even the tiniest of motherly/daughterly acts can greatly alter perception. At a very young age, little An-Mei has been taught to deny her mother the slightest bit of kindest and shows great hostility towards her. The young child lives with a grandmother, Popo. The elderly woman eventually becomes very ill, and one-morning An-Mei’s mother return’s to Popo’s deathbed. The young woman gives an offering to her dying mother; this one act of sacrifice and forgiveness impacts An-Mei forever. For the first time, she understands the power of a mother/daughter relationship. When An-Mei grows old and has a daughter of her own, the reader realizes that they too have tensions in their relationship. Rose Hsu, An-Mei’s daughter, feels opposed to her mother, and in essence afraid of her. It is only when Rose receives support and encouragement from her mother that their relationship begins the strain in their relationship disintegrates. (Wynter, B1) As an outcome of reduced tensions, Rose begins to feel closer to her mother; she realizes that An-Mei loves her unconditionally. An-Mei, who is inarguably a strong woman, learned at a young age the value of maternal love. (Tibbets, N1). Throughout the story, she offers guidance, yet at the same time gives her space to shape as an individual, a prospect the other three daughters in the novel would have embellished upon, but inevitably Rose is not as much of an individual as the others, “My mother once told me why I was so confused all the time. She said I was born without wood so that I listened to too many people. She knew this because once she had almost become this way.” In this quote, Tan uses Old Chinese Symbolism to explain how a lack of inner strength equates to an inadequate supply of wood in a person, making them “crooked and weak”. Eventually, Rose reaches a central imperative period in her life where she bares some crucial decisions and looks for support and guidance from her mother. Although An-Mei would be pleased to make the proper choices for her daughter, she is aware that Rose needs to triumph this obstacle on her own and offers an exact amount of support, the young woman needs to find her inner might. (Weinraub, H7) An-Mei has shown she wants the best for her daughter; she wants Rose to be stron
Being involved in the business of providing services, the fluctuation of demand is a reality that needs much attention. This is because business profitability will adversely be affected if the demand is not effectively forecasted. For instance, the services sector would sometimes experience low demand, and the capacity of a certain company will be underutilised to some extent. However, there’s also a scenario when the level of demand is so high that the company could not deliver the utmost quality of services expected by the customers. Given the two scenarios described above, a good reservation system should effectively manage and control demand to maximise the capacity of the company to assure the customer of receiving good service at all times. If possible, the waiting time should also be reduced to a minimum level so that customers can maximise the full use of their own time. This is the main reason why many service firms, such as hotels, hospitals, airlines and even tattoo shops, designate a reservation system to control the flow of demand. They also make use of the reservation system in planning the operations, finances and marketing when they are able to control the demand ingress to suit what they are able to provide (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2007: 281-282). When talking about reservation systems, effective service capacity strategies would resolve issues that revolve in the area of service management, like growth, profitability, change, and even competition. Wisner (2005) defined service capacity is “as the number of customers per day the firm’s service delivery systems are designed to serve, although it could also be some other period of time such as customers per hour or customers per shift”. Capacity measures can be stated somewhat differently, too, depending on the service. For instance, airline companies define capacity in terms of available seat miles per day. Most services desire to operate at some optimal capacity level (less than maximum capacity) to reduce the likelihood of having queues develop and to serve customers more effectively. For services dealing directly with customers, service capacity is largely dependent upon the number of employees providing the services and the equipment they use in providing the services. Pullman and Thompson (2002) identified the service industry’s core problem by the fact that “demand for services must be met as it arises because it cannot be inventoried”. With this dilemma, the variability of demand could create “alternating periods of idle service workers or facilities and consumer waits”. In this case, “management must trade off the cost of idle resources versus the potential cost of customer dissatisfaction with long waits”. Pullman and Thompson (2002) also identified the importance of preventing customers from being dissatisfied because it can “hurt the long-term profits and success of service firms for the following reasons:  1. failure of the customer to return for future business;  2. reduction in the custome
Persia differs considerably from the Western world, especially when it comes to arts and music. Making the audience plunge into an absolutely unique universe, the Persian music is doubtlessly a worthwhile experience. Existing on its own since Persia turned into Iran, it still possesses the unique flair of Sumerian culture (Kilmer para.3) and offers unforgettable experience. One of the most famous Persian artists, Dariush Eghbali offers his audience a specific mix of popular and political music, which makes him quite a controversial person worth taking a closer look at. Taking place in Roy Thompson Hall on Saturday, October 6, 2012, in Toronto, the concert was a perfect introduction to Persian music. It was necessary to see the performance in order to understand the specifics of the singer’s style, the passion that he manages to convey in every single note of his song, and the ways in which he manages to comprise the popular songs with a political context. The latter is defined by Carr as the artists’ skill of “building into their music a semi-hidden, heretical agenda that their political masters could not decipher” (Carr para.5). There is no doubt that great settings allow to render a lot of information about the song and the performer, as well as set the mood for the on-coming performance. In the case with Dariush Eghbali’s concert, the settings work exactly the way they should, introducing the audience to the world of the Persian music and making them dive into the unknown style. To start with, the stage is lit with purple and a slight shade of maroon, which makes one plunge into the realm of 1001 Nights . The lack of details allows the audience to focus on the band and the performer. Unlike many other popular music performers, Dariush Eghbali does not shock with his appearance; in fact, it is only slightly emphasized to make him stand out of the band. It is essential that he can be distinguished among millions of others by his voice and manner of singing, not by his looks. However, it is worth noticing that Dariush Eghbali is dressed in white – probably, not to merge into the background. It is also quite important that Dariush Eghbali seems to interact with the audience quite efficiently; the singer does not stand nailed to where he started from – he paces the entire stage, gesticulating and establishing eye contact with the audience. The latter, however, also added their bit into the aesthetic impression; keeping silence throughout
Introduction Federico Breve’s article “The Maras: A Menace to the Americas” addresses the problem of maras, youth gangs that are active in Central America. After telling the story of the gangs’ establishment and evolution, the author addresses the issue of solving the threat, offering some measures that would be required to deal with this hazard. According to Breve’s “Maras” article, why and how have street gangs proliferated in Central America? According to Breve’s article, maras have their origins in people who fled from enmities and clashes between rebels and heavy-handed state enforcers that took place in their native countries at the end of the 20 th century. Many of the refugees sought sanctuary in the USA, and some of them found it in areas riddled with criminals. Having very little choice, the evacuees (or, more often, their children) joined already existing street gangs or formed new ones. Many of these now-gangsters then came back to their mother countries in Central America to take advantage of their countrymen. The spread of the maras was significantly exacerbated by the problems that commonly lead to increasing crime levels, namely, poverty, low-standard system of education and dearth of social stress on staying at school, unemployment and underemployment, as well as resulting from these factors declination of moral values, and an ineffective system of crime control. Besides, a great number of gang members who had been active in America were captured by the police and deported to their native countries in 1998-1999, where they quickly became gang leaders. How have maras changed over the years, and why have their members become “natural gangsters?” As time passed, maras grew bigger; they employed practices their members used in the US in the past, which led to the formation of a bipolar system of gangs. Having realized their own impunity, the gangs extended their area of influence and grew in size further, either luring new members by the prospect of escaping economic problems, or by forcing people (especially schoolchildren) to join. It is assumed that maras also received support from major crime organizations or corrupted members of the state system. In 2007 (when the article was written), maras already grew wealthy, obtained expensive firearms, participated in illegal trafficking of people, and were looking to establish a drug distribution network. Having grown mature, gang members no longer required tattoos, special dress codes or other external symbols to express their identity; they also received credentials from various centers for rehabilitation and started to avoid using special sign language for communication, becoming “natural gangsters”, which complicated the process of their identification. What are Breve’s proposed anti-gang solutions? Which do you think will be most effective and why?
Executive Summary The aim of this paper is to conduct an analysis for the Air Canada Company that was established in 1937. It has been undergoing a rebranding process to improve its competitiveness amid the various evident operational challenges. The corporate governance arm of the company ensures that the interests of the shareholders are observed. On the other hand, the codes of ethics ensure that the company’s workforce executes its tasks in a manner that is consistent with the Air Canada’s stipulated vision and mission. In the attempts to make sure that the company serves the interests of the communities in which it was established, the company subscribes to the environmental laws besides providing mechanisms of tracking derailment from the stipulation of the environmental laws. As part of CSR, the company funds a hospital transportation program. The organization of the Air Canada Company is essentially hierarchical. The hierarchy provides the positions for CEO, CFO, and other managers who must work to realize functions such as leading, planning, and controlling, as discussed later in the paper. Introduction In November 2010, the CEO of the Air Canada Company made a public announcement that the company had managed to deal with various challenges that had afflicted it since 1990’s. Specifically, the CEO “told the business crowd the company that had more passengers, more revenue, and rapidly escalating stock prices” (Cowan, 2012, p.23). Interpreted in the manner the CEO puts it, these were good signs that the company had made pragmatic strides towards overcoming the crisis it had been experiencing financially in 2009. Such a success, as claimed by the CEO, is essentially impossible without proactive participation by the company’s management towards enhancing the measures of ensuring that the publicly traded company adhered to its mission and vision statement. In particular, corporate governance must have played critical roles in ensuring that accountability by the management was enhanced. In this paper, corporate governance is considered as having the need to mitigate or foster the enactment of conflicts of interest, control, and prevention among stakeholders. Generally, the mitigation of these conflicts of interest is more often accomplished through the enactment of various customs, laws, processes, policies, and institutions, which have enormous repercussions of afflicting the manner in which organizations are controlled. From a different perspective, the paper also considers and discusses ethics within the Air Canada Company as one of the mechanisms of strategically focusing all the employees towards the realization of the goals of the company. Ethics is used in the context of the paper to refer to the rules and regulations that are set by the Air Canada Company to ensure all employees
Infectious diseases are those that spread extremely fast and are responsible for most deaths in the world. These diseases are caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other parasites. They bring social and economic disruptions to millions of people all over the world (Global Health, 2010). The exceptionally high level of cases of these infections raises the awareness of the world’s vulnerability to the effects of these infections and thus necessitates the strengthening of the health care systems (Global Health, 2010) These infectious diseases have their impacts more severe among the poorest the group who have very little resources and low medical standards. They have limited access to integrated health care, prevention tools, and medications. However, efforts are being put in line with combating the diseases and progress has been seen on the infections. The sixth-millennium goal is focused on stopping and changing the trend of spread of these infections. Furthermore, there are already noticeable achievements in this fight in that in areas there has been a near eradication of diseases such polio and the guinea worm amongst other tropical diseases. Therefore the only workable solution that can urgently help fight such diseases is to avail enough funds which will go towards, not only eradicating the diseases but also controlling and preventing them. Reference Global Health, 2010, Web. World Health Organization (2006). Neglected tropical diseases, Web.
Ann Fudge is open to new ideas that her staff propose to her. She is positive in her approach which makes her receptive to new ways of doing things proposed by those she works with. She gets good results out of her team by encouraging her subordinates to be creative. Her conscientiousness is displayed through the lessons she offers senior managers on the best leadership approaches to use in their firms. This speaks highly of her dedication to work and those who work with her to achieve the desired results. Her extraversion traits led her to take a break from work for two years. This shows that there are other more fulfilling interests in her life apart from her career. The sabbatical invigorated her personal drive which improved her leadership skills at work. She is agreeable which makes her to get along well with both her juniors and customers. She has travelled and interacted with her company’s employees in different parts of the world which shows her as affable. Her neurotic side is shown by how she works long hours to ensure that her company stays profitable and competitive in the market. Ann values collaboration between her employees in the organisation. She encourages those who work under her to be more creative and innovative in their duties. Ann is receptive to her workers’ ideas and suggestions and this helps her to make better decisions. She is constantly involved in her organization’s activities. She inspires her subordinates to emulate what she does by interacting with them constantly. These interactions help her acquire different perspectives on work related issues. Therefore she is in a position to make better decisions which bring positive results to the organisation. Ann has created a vibrant work culture which sees her being involved in the activities of her firm globally. Her personality and demeanour helps her subordinates to have positive attitudes to work. She has encouraged her employees to have good customer care skills which has made them more effective in their work assignments. The policies she has instituted have changed the firm’s organisational culture. Fudge has a strong work ethic which has made it possible for her to steer the organisation in a prosperous direction. Ann’s dec