ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Executive Summary The demand for footwear products is constantly growing owing to the increased urban population and change in the standard of living. Even though there are a considerable number of footwear manufacturers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the demand still surpasses supply. This report focuses on the establishment of a semi-mechanized footwear production unit in the UAE by Hamdan Footwear. Hamdan Footwear is a company based in Punjab, India, and is planning to venture into the UAE market. The UAE’s production unit will exclusively focus on the production of affordable footwear for ladies. The footwear will be sold directly to wholesalers and retail outlets in major cities across the country. The company will target female consumers between the ages of 18 to 35. Since the company will focus on manufacturing stylish and affordable ladies’ shoes, it will target both lower and upper segments of the market. The shoes that meet the quality standard will be classified as “Grade A”, whereas shoes that fail to meet the standard will be classified as “Grade B”. Out of the aggregate output, 80 percent will be “Grade A”, whereas 20 percent will be Grade B”. The shoes that fail to meet the standard will be sold at half the price. The operational capacity of the proposed production unit will depend on the available machinery. The established capacity of the new unit will be approximately 600 pairs of shoes daily. The initial capacity will be 50 percent, while the optimal capacity will be 80 percent. At optimal capacity, the unit will be able to produce 480 pairs daily, which translates to 144000 pairs each year. However, the initial capacity of 50 percent will only be able to produce 300 pairs daily, which translates to 90000 pairs in a year. This production capacity is deemed financially feasible and validates the capital outlay, as well as the costs of operation. Also, the owner’s extensive knowledge and experience in the footwear industry, excellent shoe quality, reasonable pricing, and strong market connection are the main elements of success for the company. The total cost of establishing the unit is expected to be around 9.93 million Dirham. The project will be financed through borrowing and shareholders’ equity. The tenure of the loan will be 5 years. The yearly markup for short-term and long-term loans will be 16 percent. The Net Present Value (NPV) will be approximately 32 million AED, with an Internal Rate of Return of 55 percent and a payback period of 2.7 years. Introduction Business history Hamdan Footwear is a famous Indian designer and producer of ladies’ footwear under its brand. The company was established in the mid-90s in Punjab, India, and has more than 20 retail stores across the country. It is well-known for a wide range of women’s shoes, including sandals, slippers, and rubber shoes. Nonetheless, Hamdan Footwe
China floods in 1931, Katrina and Rita Hurricanes, the Tri-State Tornado, and San Francisco Earthquake in 1906. This list of noticeable disasters is not finished and considered rather huge with the volume of damage that varies considerably (Prophet, 2008). During a long period, people attempt to fight against natural forces and disasters in order to get a chance and survive. Though such steps like climbing the highest mountains, cultivating the earth, and sailing seas and oceans may be counted as the successful results of human activities, people are still not ready to the most harmful and unpredictable effect as natural disasters. The variety of natural disasters is amazing indeed: tornadoes, earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, floods, droughts and so on (Stern, 2007). Each of these hazards has a considerable impact on the environment, human lives, and activities. In spite of the fact that technological progress allows to make the greatest calculations and predict weather, it is still hard to prevent any disaster and provide people with the necessary help and support. Unfortunately, natural disasters and hazards are regarded as an integral part of human life. To avoid the most terrible outcomes and protect people, many sophisticated teams appear in order to forecast, analyze, and evaluate the environment and weather conditions. They strive to provide citizens with the necessary information concerning the ways of getting prepared and taking important actions to be saved. “A disaster is a sudden event that can lead to loss of lives and property” (Viegas, 2007, p. 5). However, the peculiar feature of any natural disaster is that it may be worsen and developed by human actions such as military actions, chemical industries, desire to investigate more and deeper, etc. People cannot even imagine that their actions and their attempts to improve their own lives may lead to rather different and dangerous outcomes. The results of natural disasters spread over different spheres of live. First, these disasters affect the environment people live in. It is hard to get used to the conditions which formed after fires or floods. Buildings, gardens, and fields are wrecked, and people face considerable difficulties to recover within a short period. Second, financial losses are observed after natural disasters (Casale & Margottini, 2004). When people spend much money on buildings, reconstructions, and improvements they expect to get profits from their investments. However, then the vast majority of their ideas are destroyed because of a disaster it is impossible to be financially recovered. Finally, the most important point concerning natural disasters and their negative impact on lives is connected to human losses. Of course, much depends on the type of disaster but still the fact that human lives are lost because of natural disasters. It is still possible to improve the damaged environment
Introduction This research paper gives a detailed coverage of Blockbuster Company, a renowned player in the entertainment industry. Of special interest during the survey will be an analysis of the company’s management style and its impact on the performance of the organization. The synthesis will therefore explore management pitfalls that led to the collapse of the company plus some of recovery strategies, which have been adopted to regain the company’s status in the entertainment market. Company overview Blockbuster is an American company, specializing in the entertainment industry by providing rental services for video games and home videos. Initially, these services were offered through rental shops, which were principally franchised and under ownership. Due to the changing demand and technology, Blockbuster has continuously improved its service delivery and introduced new products like delivery of DVDs through customer emails, streaming of videos that are highly demanded in the market and use of kiosks ( Blockbuster Corporate , 2011). Based on its performance and trends, the company attained its peak in 2009, when it had a total of one thousand seven hundred stores in the United States with branches in seventeen countries around the world. The company’s head office is in McKinney, Texas. Due to stiff competition in the market, Blockbuster has been hit by countless financial crises that have led to severe revenue losses. This led to the company’s decision to declare the firm bankrupt in September 2010, resulting into an auction that saw Dish Network, win the acquisition at a cost of $233 ( Blockbuster Corporate , 2011). Following the auction, the company operates as a subsidiary under Dish Network ownership. Blockbuster management There is no doubt that management is a key factor that determines the succes
Market Segmentation Creating conditions for a stable increase in profits through effective marketing approaches and solutions is a common practice in the sales market. One of the concepts that allow addressing the interests of the target audience and, at the same time, ensuring a steady demand for specific goods or services is segmentation. According to Liu et al. (2019), “market segmentation is a strategy that involves the division of a large market into segments of consumers with different needs, characteristics or behavior which might require separate marketing policies” (p. 2). About the considered situation of the need to increase ticket sales, this approach can be an effective solution to create sustainable demand. Online purchases are common today, and since football is one of the most widespread sports, utilizing a segmentation strategy to drive profits through an appropriate plan is a potentially successful step. Principles of Using Market Segmentation to Increase Ticket Sales The use of market segmentation as a mechanism to promote ticket sales is due to the real prospects for increasing profits. According to Sun et al. (2019), one of the practices that accompany this strategy is price differentiation, an approach that allows creating individual plans for the purchase of specific goods or services. About the sale of tickets, prices can be differentiated based on such criteria as the importance of games, the status of teams, and other factors that may affect the choice of tickets. As a result, this mechanism is one of the possible steps to increase profit in the next year. Variables to Segment the Customer Market Demographic Variable To segment the target market, specific variables may be applied, which can help divide potential customers into individual categories. One of the variables is demographic; as Johansson (2017) states, it allows using such characteristics as gender, income, age, and other customer features. Applying th
Introduction Issues surrounding privacy often attract heated debates ranging from definition, perception, and interpretation by a clique sharing common values. Often, the shared views are dependent on what such a group would quantify as an immediate area of concern. “The end of privacy: how total surveillance is becoming a reality” is a political science book written by Reginald Whitaker, and is dwelling on power, specifically on surveillance as a tool for controlling social mechanisms. Though Michael Foucault and Jeremy Bentham developed panopticon concept, as a compliance prison with guaranteed rules of inescapable surveillance, Whitaker applies the principles of real world instances on surveillance technology development across the period from the early Second World War to the modern digitalized society. Quantitatively, Whitaker is straight on approaching panopticism analysis. Thus, the key conceptualization of this analytical treatise is an in-depth review of the book, “ The end of privacy: how total surveillance is becoming a reality” by Reginald Whitaker on the facets of the dwindling privacy concept as component of information technology metamorphosis. This book captures the impact of increased surveillance and information technologies on the privacy of an individual. Since the author is more interested in revealing the magnitude of these impacts, he is relevant in selecting the book title as a significant discussion background. Being a vastly experienced political scientist, the author articulates these implications with an inner understanding and a personalized approach. He concentrates on the issues surrounding political power as influenced by information technologies such as surveillance. Century of Intelligence In chapter one, the author is stringent in presenting the key roles played by information technologies on growth of a state in the twentieth century. The author reflects on the issues surrounding secretive information acquisition as the main aim of intelligence service. This chapter discusses the use of information technology in wars, spying, and maintaining superiority as a state. Several wars are mentioned from the Second World War to the infamous gulf war of 1991 when the warring nations used information technological inventions to experiment on the strength of their arsenal. In England, the then prime minister, Winton Churchill is described as having successfully use his pool of information technology wizards to encode and interpret the signal messages from their enemies during the second world war. The same trend was adopted by America who used advance technological skills to encode the plans of Japan who intended to raid them. As a precautionary measure, Hiroshima was hit by a deadly bond before their plan matured. In addition, the chapter discusse
A great variety of cultures exists in the world, and the new cultural phenomena occur as the world faces changes in different aspects of life. Globalization and rapid development accelerate cultural processes. Overall, it is fair to say that culture reflects society. Throughout history, society experienced growth and evolution that left the imprints in the cultural heritage. The international interactions caused the penetration of some cultures into others. Nowadays, American culture is one of the most diverse. The varieties of multinational cultural values merge with each other and contribute to the complexity of the American legacy. Memes and Cultural Evolution Culture is symbolic in its nature. The cultural symbols are endowed with the meanings, values, and ideas. The evolution of symbols causes cultural development. The fundamental units of cultural evolution are called memes. Overall, the meme is a complex idea that is organized and expressed in a memorable and catchy element that is culturally transmissive. The main qualities of memes are “longevity, fecundity, and copying-fidelity” (Dawkins 194). According to Dawkins, memes are transmitted through imitation. He compares memes with the virus that is concerned only with its own development and spread. The examples of memes are ideas, catch-phrases, tunes, and fashion (Dawkins 192). There were many cultural phenomena in the past that are irrelevant to the present-day situation in the world. But there are also memes that survived throughout a long time. The meme’s survival ability depends on its capacity to imitate and relate to the present-day societal issues. The analogy with natural selection, given by Dawkins, explains that there is a certain competition for human minds that exists among memes. The dominance of a particular meme in the culture depends on the extent of the dissemination and its acceptance by society. Zombie: Historical and Cultural Significance While talking about zombie meme, it is better to start with the origins of the zombie conception that is rooted in the African-Haitian culture. The meme’s spread started from the Haitian colonies owned by French. The origins of the contemporary American zombie are rooted in the mystical and religious cults of the African continent. Haitians called a walking dead person a zombie. The conception of zonbie was first mentioned in the 18 th century and was defined as “a person bodily raised from the grave and turned into a slave worker” (McAlister 459). Nowadays, in Haiti, zombies are regarded rather as spiritual slaves. They are the spirits who are captured and intended to serve their owners. One can observe the idea of the slavery reflected in the Haitian zombie mythology. In the period of colonizat
Productivity in Healthcare Organizations Productivity can be defined as a measure of output from a process involved in production per unit of input. Productivity is essential in healthcare organizations to improve efficiency in these organizations. Since productivity deals with inputs to achieve the required outputs it can be viewed as a metric of engineering efficiency in the production process. Productivity in health care organizations has been improved by the use of new IT systems solutions such as clinical systems, Inventory management patient profiling, and tracking of patient care. This enables improvement in the quality of services offered by healthcare organizations and enhances efficiency in the provision of these services. Labor productivity is the number of output units or services produced within a given time that can be improved to increase the overall productivity of the healthcare firm (Huber, 2010). Productivity is essential in healthcare organizations due to the following reasons; Improves on quality of services offered in health organizations. Reduces cost of running the organization. More patients can be served in a short period. The use of its services conforms to the worldwide technological changes in structures of organizations. Labor productivity is of main importance in health care organizations as most of the activities are carried out by employees in health organizations. With the increased pressure of improvement in qualities of services offered in health organizations, most hospitals and health centers have resulted in growth in productivity; levels to match with the demand for better services. With the improved services in health organizations people can now be assured of their health status as emergency cases can now be handled under utmost care and precision and with the required speed. Higher productivity thus should be embraced in all health organizations. Areas requiring an increase in employee productivity Labor is one of the factors of production and is essential for production, in some cases labor is the main factor of production especially in service-related industries. Increasing labor productivity means increasing output of a certain employee or adding value to an employee. Areas that largely require an increase in employee productivity include; Healthcare services, it is not that the number of doctors and nurses available to serve the health fraternity is demanding and thus more employees to train in this area. Another area is IT technicians, due to the evolving world and emerging issues in business world it would be of importance that labor productivity is increased to deal with new technological advancements. Employee productivity should
First, we recommend a website. We have chosen this mode of capturing the students’ enthusiasm to guide them to choose the right path for their future careers for various reasons. Following features are recommended: company profile with goals and objectives, the core values and history of the organization. Displayed on a simple, brief, understandable, yet seemingly sophisticated but beautiful site are the many features of the company, like the company’s mission, the present Board of Directors, the management and top-rank employees and the regular employees. It is recommended that this website must be constructed with perfect copywriting techniques to be written by topnotch copywriters in the internet. Constructing a website may not cost much nowadays because there are many businesses and independent individuals offering the best in copywriting. Other website features   * What the company offers to the consumers/clients; quality goods and services, with corresponding prices;   * Corporate social responsibility and environmental objectives of the company;   * Company plans, testimonials, etc.   * A blog for company employees and clients/customers where they can offer suggestions, make comments and post their complaints. The staff employees are encouraged to write articles and testimonials, on their experiences with the company. The students and prospects are invited to log on to the site. Videos and Photos Videos and photos on the inside of the industrial plant will also be displayed. Second, a website must be accompanied with physical and human presence. What is physical and human presence? This means inviting people, guests, and most especially, students from universities, to visit the company’s facilities and its showrooms featuring the best of the company. Inviting guests through the website, is one; inviting them physically is another. Visiting schedules may be done to popular schools and universities. If schools and school administrations are well informed, and they know the relevance of the company when it comes to providing career opportunities to their students, the administrators themselves can provide the information and the invitation to the students. Ready brochures and other reading materials containing the programs and activities of the company are provided on hand, so that when students come to visit, they know what they are going to expect in the orientation inside the company. Student Field Trips Regular field trips for the students are encouraged. Activities and field trips are posted in the website, so that it is easy for the students to go on a visit without further formalities; they just have to inform the designated perso
Knowledge of foreign languages gives people plenty of advantages. It is the opportunity to travel around the world without an interpreter, to read foreign literature, to watch foreign films in the original, and to have friends from different countries. Word cards help to increase language vocabulary in record time. This seemingly simple method is based on the utilizing of mechanisms of short-term and long-term memory. This paper is a report on learning 50 German words using word cards. First of all, I decided to use this method as it seems interesting and time-saving. The following scheme was applied: I chose a card, read the word in accordance with its transcription, read its translation, and then put the card into the second pile, and so with all the cards. During the first attempt to learn chosen words, I read, repeated, and learned the meaning of half of them approximately eight times for about one hour. The second day I spent about two hours reading, repeating, and learning the translation of other 25 words. In order to fasten the achieved results, I took my cards with me to the café on the third day and repeated all words following the advice by Blerkom: “carry word cards around with you and recite or mumble them whenever you have a few minutes to spare” (2012, p. 279). It required around 20 repetitions during three hours when I learned words with my friend. Overall, I have learned 50 German basic words during three days by repeating them roughly 30 times. However, it should be noticed that some words such as “stehen” (to stand) – “stellen” (to put), “sitzen” (to sit) – “setzen” (to set) caused difficulties as their meaning and form are similar to some extent. Nevertheless, I consider using the word cards promotes to setting goals and monitoring achievements in foreign language learning. For example, by means of shifting already learned words in a separate pile, it is possible to count how many new words person learned in a day, week, or month. Additionally, I used the keyword technique also known as mnemonics, as it is “a way of making a strong link between the form of an unknown word and its meaning” (Nation, 2001, p. 311). For instance, the word “die Brille” (glasses). To begin with, I repeated this word several times and found that it seems like “brilliant”. Then I imagined the next situation: somebody made me a gift of unprecedented generosity: diamond glasses. Speaking more precisely, instead of glass there were two huge brilliants. Finally, I represented them in my mind in details and remembered. In my opinion, mnemonics is very useful foreign language learning method in comparison with usual memorization because it is typically connected with a specific bright visual or auditory images and strong feelings. I believe the following research questions worth exploring with this type of technique: Is the keyword method more productive for learning at home than at school (university)? Is it significant to combine mnemonics with other foreign language learning strategies? What is the difference between paper word cards and their electronic version (which of them is more effective)? In conclusion, it should be stresse