ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
My friend Deb really frustrates me with her illness issues. Deb and I graduated from high school together and have remained close friends throughout the years. About five years ago, doctors diagnosed her with fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. Since then, her behavior has changed to somebody different, which actually frustrates me. I however, sometimes feel that Deb’s behavior does not come from her illness; it has become a mental problem, which frustrates and worries me. My thesis in this essay is that Deb’s behavior is no longer a result of illness but mindset. Based on her condition, I will demonstrate how her mentality has changed her behavior. Deb is always reflecting on the illness. While in high school, Deb was a bubbly, outgoing and a fun person; since the diagnosis however, she has changed from that kind of a person to someone who complains constantly of some illness. Even at times when she is not suffering from any pain, she complains of how she suffered the previous night or how she is likely to suffer the coming night. Her plans and thoughts revolve around the illness and this ends up frustrating all our plans. If we have made plans to do something, inevitably and regrettably a day or two before, she will call and cancel due to illness. The illness of other people reminds Deb of her sickness even when she is not suffering from any pain. My little knowledge on fibromyalgia informs me that people with this condition experience pain periodically, not as frequent as Deb insinuates. What frustrates me further is that when other people note to have a cold, sore back or anything, she will change the subject to her condition and something worse. Why should the situation of other people worsen her ill condition? I attribute this to her mindset. Looking at her physically, even when she is not suffering, she seems disturbed. She is always concerned about pills and her doctor. Whenever we are moving out, she has to carry her pills. This has set her mind such that she carries the pills even when she is not going far from the house. She always needs a pain pill for this or need to go to the doctor for that, and honestly this behavior worries and frustrates me. While sometimes I can justify her need for the pills, her carrying the pills most of the times is habitual. I am afraid that she is becoming addicted to being sick and the pills. In fact, she is ever discussing her encounters w
Introduction The global business environment is dynamic with globalization and technological changes affecting many businesses. Because of these changes, it is necessary that firms establish the best strategies that can sustain their future objectives rather than make them quit the market. Following these challenges, firms have increased competitiveness using strategic planning with the management establishing existing business conditions in the business environment that are used to establish the best strategies that can increase competitiveness of the firm after their implementation. This paper will look into business factors in Singapore and UAE that will inform the entry of General Electric to either market. Following the analysis, the author will make an informed decision that will be instrumental to the management of GE when entering either of these markets. The author will use factors such Porters five forces analysis tools, weighted averages of factors and logic reasoning to arrive at the relatively better location. Overall Operations GE is a global company with presence in over 160 countries. In some of the countries, the company has regional operations. This has been the model of operations, which had helped the company to trounce major players in many industries such as Energy. However, since the global economic downturn, the company has experienced major reshuffle in its operations strategy to remain relevant and competitive. The company has developed two business groups with different focuses. One focuses on the developed market while the other focuses on the emerging markets. The two market groups are christened the mature market group and the emergent market group respectively. The former covers traditional markets such as United States and Australia. The latter covers emerging markets such as Brazil, Africa and a huge part of Asia. Using this two-pronged strategy the company has continued to localize its operations. The localizations have gone a notch higher whereby the company is producing some of its products in certain nontraditional countries such as Russia and Brazil. According to the company’s strategy, this is to cater for localized markets and to retain local jobs, which is what immediate governments need. This ultimately creates loyalty and drives sales levels of GE’s products. The magnitude of GE’s operations requires a coordinated and focused supply chain. The company is decentralizing operations with the view that this will strengthen the supply chain even further. While the company is steadily gaining markets globally, it still treats its headquarters (USA) as an emerging market with vast untapped potential. Hence, the company is still finding ways to continue appreciating the potential of USA market. The company’s long-term focus is to be the best producer of PCs in terms of
Introduction Numerous companies do not attain the profitability they desire due to utilizing erroneous systems or frameworks to establish the correct costs of products. Such a failure to appropriately identify the costs related to enterprise affects not only the profitability but in addition the company’s competitive edge. So as to determine if the company is succeeding in realizing maximum resource distribution, the company should consider the method first demonstrated by Michael Porter and called the value chain analysis. This methodology aims to describe the full chain via which commodities are delivered to clients (Porter, 1998). The value chain analysis can be a strong instrument in increasing a company’s competitive strength; by appropriately pricing goods and determining the correct costs of labor and raw materials; a company can align the expansions in effectiveness, quality, and profit margins with its strategic goals. Value chain analysis is utilized to explain the operations that occur within the company and relate such activities to a study of the competitive advantage of the company. Porter (1998) observed that the actions of a company could be classified into two groups: Major operations are activities that are directly related to developing and delivering products and supporting operations. This category comprises activities indirectly engaged in production; such a category as well adds values to the company since its processes aid in increasing competence or effectiveness. Porter as well affirmed that was unusual for a company to carry out all core and support operations (Porter, 1998). Started in 1952, Kaiser Permanente (KP) is a non-profit health care facility based in Oakland. There are three diverse organizations that make up Kaiser Permanente, Foundation Health Care System, Foundation Clinics, and Medical Groups. Based in eight regions, Kaiser Permanente presently is the biggest non-profit healthcare facility in the United States with roughly 8.8 million healthcare plan participants, over 100,000 workers, 13, 856 nurses, 33 healthcare clinics, 483 medical outlets, and $29 billion in yearly sales. Its income system is determined not by the number of customers served per week, but rather by the number of participants integrated in their medical plan. Thus, the organization controls its funds based on gross rate analysis of average cost per medical department (Toba et al., 2008). This paper will examine the strengths and weaknesses of Kaiser Permanente. It will as well define and describe the competitive relevance of the identified strengths and weaknesses. Strengths and weaknesses Strengths One of the strengths of Kaiser Permanente is Integrated Practice Unit. The health care value chain is a framework to analyze and maximize the full process of medical care in the organization. Kaiser Permanente is structured in Integrated Practice Unit, each focused on a disease or associated category of diseases, and committed to attain excellence in developing patient value in its area.
Since the modern age man has fallen in love with science and the thrill of discovery spurns him on to explore new frontiers. After the invention of the airplane and telecommunication there seems to be nothing left to discover except those that can be found beyond the borders of the earth (Boss, p.90). When man landed on the moon it opened a new frontier – outer space. Since then, generation after generation continued their fascination with space travel. At the same time, those who were born after 1963 were fed a steady diet of science fiction novels and films increasing the excitement in the quest for a world similar to earth but inhabited by aliens more powerful than human beings. The Kepler Mission is the testament to that enthusiasm although after decades of searching there is no single piece of evidence that can confirm that we are not alone in the universe. Everything is based on conjectures. There is no scientific phenomenon as of yet that can enable scientists to proclaim that there are other living organisms outside planet Earth. The guesswork is based on the fact that since there is a planet teeming with life then it follows that there is another one similar to it. This is based on the argument that the universe seems to be limitless and because of that it is prudent to consider this idea. But a closer examination of the evidence reveals that the earth seems to be an anomaly, meaning to say that there are so many factors that has to come in play just at the same time in order to produce life (Kasting, p.192). Ask the astronauts and the scientists who are familiar with the brutal conditions of outer space and they would tell you that it is impossible to sustain life outside the friendly atmosphere of the earth. The Mission Hundreds of millions of dollars had been spent to strengthen the argument that there are other beings in other galaxies. For instance in the Mojave Desert of Southern California one can find gigantic listening devices built by scientists to eavesdrop on outer space (Launius & McCurdy, p.149). But many years after it became operational these devices had not yet recorded anything that can be said as irrefutable evidence that there are others out there. The quest for alien life forms in outer space should have been relegated to fantasy and science fiction if not for the discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting stars (Ames Research Center, p.1). In other words there is indeed a system similar to what is known as the solar system of the Milky Way galaxy. So far there are at least three types of planets that orbit stars and these are exoplanets labeled as gas giants; hot-super-Earths in short period orbits; and ice giants (Ames Research Center). Again there is no solid footing that one can use to make a declaration that Earth-like planets are about to be discovered by NASA. However, for those who have kept the belief that we are not a
The essay “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits” is non-fiction and it as an autobiography written by Suki Kim. Suki Kim tells her story about how she and her family went from living a wealthy life to being bankrupt and having to start over in America after her father lost everything he had in South Korea. Suki and her family moved to Queens, New York form South Korea in the 1980’s. Suki describes how she lived in a crowded apartment which was nothing like the mansion that her family owned in Korea. She also writes about the challenges that she faced due to her struggles and the adjustments she had to make while in America and how she overcame her struggles. It is truly hard to imagine how tough it was for Suki to have to deal with her new lifestyle, living in a new country, making new friends and facing a language barrier. Suki writes about how the first English word she learned was “fresh off the boat” (Kim, 2004, November 21). Certainly, the language issues mentioned above are not the only barriers that Suki had to face as soon as she started plunging into the U.S. life. The social barrier was just as hard to overcome as the one concerning the language. As a matter of fact, it seems that the two are pretty much related to each other. Indeed, language has a lot to do with a nation’s culture, values and pace of life. Therefore, by speaking a foreign language among the natives, one is most likely to be credited as a stranger or, worse yet, an outcast, which Suki’s experience shows in a very graphic way: “One new fact that took more time to absorb was that I was now Asian, a term that I had heard mentioned only in a social studies class” (Kim, 2004, November 21). Related to the previous issue rather strongly, the problem of alienation is also brought up. While the American children seemed to give Suki a cold shoulder, she and the other children, who started studying English as a second language, also started feeling their superiority and showing it to the newcomers. There was, however, little fault of Suki in it; she could hardly change the way in which the immigrant society worked, seeing how traditions among the Koreans who moved to the U.S. have been cultivated for five generations running. The given problem raises a number of peculiar ethical questions, among which the ones regarding acculturation and social hierarchy should be mentioned first. To start with, the change in attitude towards the Korean newcomers that Suki and other Korean immigrants who started learning English displayed might be the sign of losing their touch with their culture. Consequently, a dilemma of either losing one’s culture and becoming one of the U.S. citizens, or retaining the culture and becoming a social outcast appears. As for the issue regarding hierarchy in society, it would be peculiar to find out if the aforementioned attitude towards the immigrants of the new wave could be considered the so-called “social valve.” Since, as Suki explained, in U.S., she and other once wealthy Koreans were reduced to d
The article “First, Let’s Fire All Managers” by Gary Hamel explores the case of the Morning Star company as an example of an unusual and efficient approach to management. This paper aims to assess the contents of the article and relate them to the concepts and theories encountered in my studies. Article Summary “First, Let’s Fire All Managers” covers the management strategy used by the Morning Star tomato processing company. Their approach is unique since the firm fully relies on the self-management by the employees themselves. There is no hierarchy and no bosses aside from one director. The company uses a system of self-determined goals and missions to coordinate the efforts of individuals and work groups. Each employee, or as they are called at Morning Star “colleague,” drafts his own work plan and consults his co-workers to ensure he is contributing as much as possible. The progress of the personal mission is tracked by the other members of the group to ensure that there is no laziness or overspending. The whole system is held together by cooperation and judgments of the field workers who manage to organize efficiently and bring the company immense financial success each year. The founder of the company states that using such an innovative approach allowed him to promote cooperation, lessen the politicking and backstabbing, and ensure that the workers make rational decisions much quicker. Plus, the system effectively nullifies the management expenses (Hamel, 2011). Theories and Concepts in Article The key concepts covered in the article are the mission, vision, and value which are described in chapter four of the course book (Carpenter, Bauer, & Erdogan, 2010). The author describes how personal missions allow the employees to organize the workflow without the need for constant supervision. The article also describes the overall vision that the founder had when forming the company in an unorthodox fashion and the val
Introduction Hatshepsut statue is located on Metropolitan Museum in New York and is known as one of the remarkable Egyptian Arts. The 8’6″ inches height is made of red granite globular offer jars which are placed on her hands 1 . She lived through 1473 to 1458 BCE and her statue was placed on the upper court of her mortuary temple, Deir el Bari in Egypt in the 18th Dynasty. Even though most of her portraits were destroyed after she died, she was interpreted as a famous female pharaoh in that period (Gardner, 121). This article will discuss how she played an important role and how she became so popular in Egyptian Art. The role played by Hatshepsut Hatshepsut was very popular because she ruled Egypt for twenty-two years a time when women were not supposed to be heard. Women at that time were not supposed to own anything or to occupy any office 2 . She was the famous female leader of Egypt after she was crowned and declared herself a king. The statue features her in the attire of the Egyptian pharaoh which was known to be a man’s role. Instead of Hatshepsut having feminine attire, the statue had a masculine look. The titles on the throne were also feminized which was not an ordinary thing in Egypt. After Hatshepsut took the throne, she made a mortuary temple next to her predecessor’s temple (Pancella 209). The temple was decorated with several statues showing her as a pharaoh giving offerings to gods and the decorations also portrayed her as a sphinx. Hatshepsut was a clever person because she used various strategies which made her be seen as a pharaoh in Egypt and thus she would proclaim herself as pharaoh and also make herself look like a god by narrating stories relating to gods. She mislead those who were not educated that gods used to visit and talk to her when she was still in her mother’s womb. As depicted in the statue, Hatshepsut wore men’s clothing and fake beards and was also depicted as a pharaoh which earned her many adornments from the men. He used this strategy of depicting herself as a man to convince the masses after joining the priesthood. Hatshepsut is remembered for her many achievements like ordering the repairs to be done to the temples that had been destroyed during the battles. She also paid a lot of attention to developing Egyptian commerce
Introduction The 1950’s classic sitcom ‘I Love Lucy’ has long been considered the hallmark of how America and the rest of the world view are the 50’s and the societal clique of that age. The 50’s in themselves marked the end of the Second World War and television was hailed as the medium to project a utopic view of what ‘America’ could be like. The notion of ‘perfect families’, ‘perfect homes’ and ‘perfect people’ was widely promulgated by sitcoms, and ‘I love Lucy’ probably leads the forefront in – what was back then -considered the ‘ good ol’ fashioned American way of life . Episode: Men are Messy This particular episode highlights not only Lucy’s ‘neat freak tendencies’ but also the 50’s theme of ‘perfect home keeping’ as Lucy and Ricky end up arguing over cleaning up the apartment. After being accused by Lucy of being a ‘message, Ricky insists that he has as much a right to live the way he wants to as she does. The apartment is therefore divided into two sections to help Lucy prove her point. Although when Ricky’s agent Kenny Morgan organizes a publicity spread, Lucy in a fit of fury turns the apartment into a complete pigsty just to prove her point. That is until she realizes that the photographer actually belongs to ‘Look magazine’… The opening scene of the show sets the theme that recurs throughout the narrative, that of ‘keeping up appearances. It seems the ’50s really were all about appearances when one comes down to it. Lucy’s character in the show has always been portrayed as a sort of 50’s Martha Stewart, with a funny bone, and Lucy’s tendency to need things to look perfect is the basis of this episode as she accuses Ricky . “Men are nothing but a bunch of messages” , this sentence describes a lot more than the mere fact that men – regardless of Age or theirs – tend to be slobs, but of how this is actually a ‘woman’s problem. Today, ‘messiness’ or the general tendency to clean up after one’s self is no longer a pre-requisite to the success of a marriage or a relationship, it is desirable yes, but not absolute. In the 50’s the need and/ or ability of a woman to ‘pick up after her man’ defined the kind of wife she was. This sentence and the fact that later on in the show Lucy actually tries to exact revenge on Ricky for his messiness is summed up in the sense of exasperation that underlines her words. It is no small surprise that Ricky follows up Lucy’s accusation with a confident “A man’s home is his castle”, apparently not everything has changed since the ’50s! Men’s attitudes have shifted over the years, with the feminist movement, but the ‘man of the manor’ stereotype still applies to most family dynamics. Even though one might say that the ’50s propagated a culture that was conservative and perfectionist, it is no use denying that uniformity still remains a priority in today’s society. While we in the year 2008 ma
Are people dangerously disillusioned with their livelihoods such that they have to keep watching others on TV? This is a question that many scientific papers try to unravel as these programs continue to undo our civilized society. The shows are continuously attracting a large audience every new day. There are mixed reactions that explain such a rise. The great quantity of the programs looks like they are as reliable as the seasons, with shows like the “American Idol” and some Soap Operas being more popular than any other time ever. Their imitations are proliferating the cable channels at an alarming rate. In the entire world, people are fascinated by the rising popularity of reality TV programs. This paper explores the reasons behind the popularity of reality TV programs. Advantages of reality TV programs To understand the reason why many people watch reality TV, it is imperative to analyze the advantages of these programs. Firstly, these programs can be informative and thought provoking (Hill, 2005). For instance, programs that deal with crime can educate people on the dangers that policemen deal with on a daily basis. Other programs that deal with health issues can help people, especially pregnant women, depict early signs of complications. It is possible for viewers to learn of the disease symptoms through the information gotten from some of the reality programs like Dr. OZ, for example. In these programs, viewers also identify themselves with the celebrities in the view that they will one day become ones. These programs provide people with an opportunity to showcase their natural gifts and make people aware of social causes. What is so appealing about reality TV programs? The greatest appeal that makes these programs so popular is that viewers feel as though they are real participants. Secondly, the suspense created by these programs makes viewers anticipate the next ep