ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
The art and science of an acoustic guitar construction is much simpler than the construction of a vehicle or a cellphone. It seems complicated at first, because of the beautiful music that comes out from even the less expensive guitars. In fact, it does not require an engineer or an accomplished artist to create one. Ordinary individuals are now able to make guitars, especially those that have access to computer software that can help them create the correct design. One of the best examples of this type of tool is the world-renowned AutoCAD, a type of computer-aided design software (Sevy 1). Non-experts are now able to make their own guitar without the need to spend a great deal of money buying a brand new stringed instrument in a music store, however, the best sounding guitars are still made by experienced craftsmen. Solid wood compared with Laminated wood The instrument’s top is the most important part of the guitar. It is at the front part of the guitar, and it is the most critical part of the instrument, because the back part and the sides of the guitar reflects the sound back to the top (Wolfe 1). Therefore, there are two types of guitar in terms of the wood materials used to build them. The first group is made up of those that are made from solid wood. The second group is made up of laminated wood. It is easy to understand that guitars made from solid wood are more expensive. However, there is a good reason why musicians pay good money to buy guitars made from solid wood. This type of stringed instrument produces high quality sound. Nevertheless, this type of guitar is expensive and only a few people can afford to buy this type of guitar. The less expensive guitar is the one that is made from laminated wood. In this type of guitar construction, the craftsman uses several layers of inexpensive wood “pressed together and covered with a veneer (Wolfe 1). This type of inexpensive construction technique produces guitars that are priced cheap. Nonetheless, there is a way to buy quality guitars without spending a great deal of money. The solution is to buy a guitar with a solid top, but the back part and the sides are made of laminated wood (Wolfe 1). Tools and Materials One of the most important equipment is the machine to cut wood (Instructables 1). Some examples are automated machines like laser cutters and machines that can cut plywood or solid wood in the most precise way. Craftsmen also use coarse file or fine files to shape the neck of the guitar. They also use a sandpaper to provide a smooth finish to the neck and other areas. They also use drill press for drilling out the holes in the guitar, such as in the bridge and the tuning pegs (Instructables 1). Important Steps in Guitar Construction The following steps describes the critical processes in the construction of the guitar and these are listed as:  1. Bookmatching;  2. Strutting;  3. Construction of the sides;  4. the construction of the neck and fingerboard;  5. the construction of the bridge and saddle  6. Fitting the tuning machine to the guitar head (Acton 1). Bookmatching ens
The ability of a person to maintain the healthy work-life balance is critical for his performance and commitment to the goals set by leaders. Therefore, managers should enable workers to attain this goal (Bogenschneider, 2014). The key issue is that non-profit organizations usually provide more support to employees. It is important to understand why they act in this way. Overall, it is consider a wide set of factors such as inability to compete in terms of salaries, regulations, unionizations of workforce, and changes in the labor market. The analysis of these issues can be useful for understanding the methods for retaining the most skilled professionals. At first, it is important to mention that non-profit organizations are not able to compete with various enterprises in terms of salaries that they can offer to workers. Therefore, they need to attract potential candidates by offering some non-monetary rewards (Valcik & Benavides, 2011, p. 184). It is also necessary to mention that many modern employees value the work-family balance and they often regard non-profit organizations as potential employers. This is one of the trends that should be taken into account. One should also note the emphasis on work-life became one of the main trends in the late seventies, at the time, when the rate of employment among women increased significantly (Rajadhyaksha, 2012). Nevertheless, during the later decades, many organizations tried to help male employees maintain the work-life balance. These are the main details that one should take into account. It is also important to study the critical differences between profit and non-profit businesses. For example, non-profit organizations do not often have to meet stringent deadlines that often prompt people to work overtime. This is one of the details that should be taken into consideration. Under such circumstances, employees should be compensated for their efforts, but non-profit organizations are not able to offer this reward. Apart from t
Introduction Even though Tammy had a happy childhood, she was depressed due to her parent’s poor relationship or lack of frequent dialogue and this might have resulted into suicide attempts or divorce. Moreover, Tammy was poor in maintaining love relationships and commitments and these could be attributed to her poor upbringing, because both the father and mother had little dialogue, but more tense relationship. The tense relationship came as a result of Tammy’s fathers drinking behavior. In the end, it was witnessed that Tammy was depressed and attempted suicide, because of bitter argument/exchange with her son. Presenting concerns Tammy presented herself as despaired and depressed due to recent argument with her son. She displays the characteristics of despair, anger, thoughts of hopelessness/failure, and feeling of restlessness. To this end, she even attempted to commit suicide several times. Apart from bitter exchange with her son, she also reported a feeling of extreme anger towards the divorced husband who showed little interest in her. She complained that the husband was not sexually attracted to her and this was the main reason behind the couple’s divorce. It is even more depressing to realize that Tammy had several failed relationships, especially after her divorce. Indeed, such failed relationships put Tammy in a state of constant depression, lack of interest and anger. In this regard, Tammy’s bitter exchange with the son was not only due to the argument alone, but also as a result of several compounding factors such as her parent’s poor relationship, divorce and failed intimate unions. Tammy’s father had a bad temper, and this prompted the family member to avoid him, especially when he was drunk. Tammy’s marriage was not a happy one, because she had a mutual and satisfying sexual relationship only once at the age of 16. Tammy also reported that both her father’s uncle and aunt died at the age of 50 due to liver disease, which came as a result of excessive alcohol consumption. This implies that the main cause of Tammy’s depressed and suicidal behavior can be traced back to her father’s alcoholic habit. It is evident that, after Tammy’s divorce, she found it hard to move on since she could hardly maintain permanent relationships/commitment. This situation is more depressing, because Tammy has undergone several failed relationships. Tammy considered that the divorce was due to lack of the husband’s interest in her. Athough Tammy is 44 years old, retired and master’s level computer programmer, she considers herself to be an underachiever/unsuccessful. She has grown up knowing that nobody recognizes her worth and contribution. This statement can be supported by the fact that Tammy believes that she may do nothing good to please someone. This led to stressful situation, which could be harmful to her health. Stress causes several diseases, which include coronary heart diseases (CHD). Even though her father’s drinking habit affected the affectionate relationship, Tammy stayed with both the parents. It was not reported anywhere that Tammy’s
According to Fred Cooper, a “gatekeeper state” refers to African nations attempting to balance internal political unrest and instability with external elements and influence. He hypothesized that many African governments and countries had difficulty with forming functional economic-political systems due to incredibly tumultuous events in their history. This had much to do with European conquering, which had an organized and systematic nature, but did little in terms of ruling these countries in structured ways. This resulted in many African governments being unable to gain the trust and following of their citizens as they only began to interact with external economics and relations. As such, these governments were “gatekeeping” both their own people and the colonial forces from outside. The colonial powers prioritized resources almost exclusively, which planted deeply rooted issues that disregarded the well-being of African citizens and their future societal structure. The poor systemization resulted in African rulers at the time planning to impose strict rules to expand outwards later, which resulted in “gatekeeping.” However, with the independence of many nations, such political leanings became unwelcome. During the Cold War, both the socialist motives of the USSR and the imperialist nature of the United States affected African nations and their changing political states. The US promoted notions of the anti-colonial roots of many countries and held sympathy for the emerging countries that pursued economic growth and free markets. The Soviet Union held more support for socialist revolutions that began to emerge in other African countries that directly opposed imperialism and had revolutionary prospects at the time. However, with the rise of the Cold War, the anti-American and anti-Soviet Union projection only stifled the relations and growth of many political movements. The US focused more on preventing socialist regimes that promoted independence and economic and political developments. The same was done by the Soviet Union towards African nations that preferred democratic ideologies. This resulted in severe but differing violence in several countries, such as Liberia and Somalia. In the case of Liberia, the most notable cases of violence occurred throughout civil wars, starting with the violence in the form of a coup against negatively regarded leader Samuel Doe. On the other side, Somalia was a socialist state with an equally violent history. Siad Barre, the president of Somalia at the time, was also opposed and responded with repressive and violent repercussions towards his citizens.
Abstract Statistical reasoning is built on a foundation of probability, thus an understanding of statistical basics is linked to probability concepts and vice versa. This essay presents an array of quantitative data (The number of phone calls you get in each morning and in each afternoon) and a brief account of descriptive statistics. Finally how to interpret the statistical results of the data provided. A brief account on descriptive statistics Descriptive statistics have three functions; besides being a mathematical expression of a population’s data characteristics, it measures the central tendency of data. Central tendency is how the data collected aggregate around a most typical value. For this purpose, three values are essential; first, the mean, which is the average value of a data column. The second is the median, which is the middle observation of a data column. Finally is the mode, which is the most frequent value in a data column. The mean value is the most affected by changes in sample size (Krzanowski 2007). The third function of descriptive statistics is to measure data dispersion, which means data spread or variability, around the mean value. For this purpose, three measures are important; 1- the range, which is the difference between the highest and lowest values in a data column. Second, the standard deviation, which quantifies the inconsistency of data around the mean value; third, the variance, which expresses the observed differences from what is expected if the data are not normally distributed. It is a square value (s 2) and equals ∑(X – X~)2 / (n-1) where X is the observed value and X~ is the mean value and (n) is the sample size (Dekking et al 2005). Standard error of the mean measures how the sample means coincides with the population mean, it is needed to calculate the confidence intervals for the population mean. It equals standard deviation / the square root of (n) where n is the sample number). Whereas standard deviation measures the variability in a single sample, the standard error of the mean estimates the variability between two or more samples (Krzanowski 2007). Skewness is the extent of data a
The problems BAE encountered in implementing the baggage-handling system for the Denver International Airport The Denver International Airport project was not opened on the scheduled date because of delays caused by construction constraints. After the state of the baggage-system was assessed by Logplan a German firm hired by the mayor, it was noted that there were high chances for the project to succeed. But a report submitted by Logplan identified several problems hindering the implementation of the baggage-handling system. According to the report, mechanical and electrical problems were identified as some of the major hindrances to the implementation of the system. To revive the project once again, the assessors suggested that five more months should be allocated for that purpose only. Concerning restoring the backup system, the assessors recommended less than five months. Another dilemma that contributed to the problems in the implementation of this project was the overall design of the airport according to Gene Di Fonso who was the president of BAE. The root causes of the problems The project was marred with several risks that formed the ultimate problems which affected it in the long-run. The root causes of these problems were; the size of the project, its complexity, and the unfamiliar technology used. Other causes included too many resident entities that were served by a single system, uncertain definitions of the technicalities of the project, and the short deadline. This project was too big considering it was the first major airport in the region. Such a project had not been carried out in the region before. Therefore, the management lacked experience in the construction of such a big structure. In addition to the size, there were the complexities that emanated from the size of the project. The project was made more complex by the new technology that was to be used in the construction of the new baggage-handling system. This technology was new to the workers and the management as well. Therefore, there was a challenge in the general understanding of how to apply project management skills. Steps to mitigate the problems Problems facing the Airport’s implementation of a baggage handling system can only be mitigated through proper project management skills. I believe the company can be served better by foreign contractors who have technical experience in such a big project.
Presentation link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jltioeaEyY For today’s discussion, I decided to analyze a video by WIRED (2020) published on the official YouTube channel titled “Forensics Expert Explains How to Analyze Bloodstain Patterns.” The video touches upon how crime scene investigators and blood-stain analysts consider different factors to recreate the events of the crime (WIRED, 2020). The video goes through different difficulties of bloodstains, which helps to explain the view that a person needs very specific skills and much practice to analyze bloodstains. The presenter uses almost all the effective presentation skills at the top level, as the YouTube channel is viewed by more than 11 million people, which demands high-quality videos. However, I wanted to focus on the two most powerful techniques. First, the presenter starts very strong, which grabs the attention of the audience. At the beginning of the video, the presenter smashes a bloodstain with a hammer and says, “there we go,” with relief. Such actions make the viewer wonder why hitting blood with the hammer can be so relieving. Second, the presenter always maintains eye contact with the camera and talks with a smile, which makes the viewer feel important and relaxed. However, there are two presentation skills that can be improved. First, the presenter uses the visual aid ineffectively. Sometimes, when he talks, the video demonstrates pictures irrelevant to what he is talking about. This distracts attention and makes the viewer focus on the picture rather than on words, while the picture may be unimportant. As a result, the viewer may miss crucial information. Second, the presenter goes into very specific det
The problem of effective communication is one of the major concerns of all managers. This is important due to the fact that even the most reasonable objectives may be left unachieved because of the manager’s inability to communicate the goals in a comprehensive manner (Writer, 2011). In other words, the most likely outcome is failure. Regardless, there are ways to improve the current state of affairs and provide the team with relevant directions. By doing this, the manager will be able to eliminate confusion and make the most out of the joint employee efforts. Effective communication will involve each and every member of the team in the process of achieving the core organizational objectives. The customization of the approaches to the audience is a crucial component of operative communication. The style of discussions differs on various organizational levels due to the differences inherent in the organizational hierarchy and access to resources (Writer, 2011). The manager has to realize what kind of information should be grasped by each of the tiers – from subordinates to the high-level executives. One of the ways to communicate the objectives efficiently is to conduct in-person meetings and team up so as to outline all-inclusive and intricate objectives. This approach is useful when it is necessary to see the big picture and outline long-term organizational goals. It is critical to include these in-person meetings into the vision of the organization and involve as many reliable employees as possible. The contributions to the company’s success tend to be the highest among those members of the staff who clearly recognize their role in the company and know what they have to do in order to achieve the predetermined objectives. Communication Process When organizing the communication process, the speaker has to take into consideration several important points. First, it is critical to identify the target audience in order to be aware of who is going to be involved in the upcoming project. The fact is, different listeners may be influenced by different messages (Hamlett, 2017). This happens due to the variation of real-life perspectives. In other words, the speaker may experience diametrically diverse reactions from different communities. Second, the initial message has to be efficiently developed. The speaker has to help the listeners by simply rephrasing the previous statements. By communicating the goals and objectives, the speakers emphasize the fact of their leadership and commonly support it by their personal characteristics and talents (Hamlett, 2017). The key idea that an efficient speaker should always keep in mind is that the approaches that worked one time may not work again (even with the same audience). Third, effective communication can be characterized as relaxed and digestible. One of the most common mistakes made by managers is that they strive to present their ideas in a way that is easy to understand for them and hard for others (Hamlett, 2017). The message should be clear, short, and easy to understand. One of the ways to simplify the message is to include real-life examples and stories. On a bigger scale, the vision should
The Employment Standards Act of 2000 regulates terminating employees in Ontario. First, employees should be notified about the termination in advance. Terminating fifty employees implies that this is a mass termination; therefore, Form 1, a notice of informal termination, should be submitted to the employment standards director (Government of Ontario, ESA 58(1)). It is required to put Form 1 on the notice board to inform all the employees who are planned to be terminated soon (Government of Ontario, ESA 58 (5)). Due to this termination being a mass one, the prolongation of the notice period depends on the number of employees terminated. In this case, we will give notice of eight weeks. The legislated payments due on termination include vacation pay, wages in lieu of notice, severance, and retiring allowances. Vacation pay is usually four percent of gross salary, and it is each employee’s right to a paid vacation (Government of Ontario, ESA 76 (1)). Any accrued vacation pay must be paid at termination with no delay. In addition, we calculate vacation pay on salary, bonuses, overtime, holiday pay, and pay in lieu of notice. Since vacation pay is income, we will deduct income tax, CPP, and EI. Wages in lieu of notice are given to employees who do not receive written notice per the ESA requirement. In other words, if the employees do not get the notice, it means they must be paid wages in lieu of notice (Government of Ontario, ESA 44). The notice period is calculated in weeks as set by the employment standards. In Ontario, the wages are considered income; hence EI, CPP, and income tax must be deducted. Severance payment is compensation paid to qualified employees who have been affected. It is given to compensate for the losses that occur when a long-serving employee loses their job. Severance pay is required in Ontario if the employment period exceeds five years and the jobs of fifty or more workers were severed in six months period. One more requirement is that the payroll has a minimum of 2.5 million dollars (Government of Ontario, ESA 64 (1)). Regarding the given situation, the annual payroll is approximately 12 million dollars; thus, the severance pay needs to be calculated. Severance pay is calculated by adding a one-week wage for an individual full year of service and a one-week wage for part years multiplied by the number of weeks worked. Severance pay cannot be treated as a source of income but as a retirement allowance; hence we will only deduct income tax through lump-sum rates. Finally, retirement allowances are paid upon employment loss or an employee