ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction Owing to the importance of research in enabling professional educators to think better, develop and understand educational principles, and make increasingly expansive and precise generalizations, there is a mounting need for educational researchers in every discipline to be knowledgeable on alternative research approaches if they are to make informed decisions about which approach to employ when embarking on a research study (Yilmaz, 2013). Although many researchers continue to rely on qualitative and quantitative research approaches to undertake their studies, there is a third methodological tradition known as mixed methods research due to its propensity to cut across multiple methodologies and paradigms (Venkatesh, Brown, & Bala, 2013). The report illuminates the similarities and differences of these research approaches and also discusses the best practice suggestions for the quantitative research approach. Similarities and Differences of the Research Approaches Qualitative research is defined as a type of research that explains phenomena according to numerical data which are analyzed by means of statistical methods and techniques, while qualitative research is defined as an emergent, inductive, interpretive and naturalistic approach to the study of individuals, cases, important phenomena, social situations and processes in their natural settings with the view to revealing in descriptive terms the meanings that individuals attach to their experiences of the world (Yilmaz, 2013). On its part, “mixed methods research is an approach that combines quantitative and qualitative research methods in the same research inquiry” (Venkatesh et al., 2013, p. 21). The documented similarities underlying the three research approaches include (1) presence of a problem or research question to which the researcher seeks answers (2) reliance on a plan of investigation to guide research, (3) reliance on data analysis strategies to provide meaning to the collected data, and (4) capacity of research findings to lead to change in the various attributes of interest (Venkatesh et al., 2013; Yilmaz, 2013). In this report, the significant differences between the quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research approaches are discussed based on their ontological, epistemological, theoretical, and methodological underpinnings. In ontological underpinnings (nature of reality), the quantitative research approach is objective as it portrays that social entities exist in reality external to social actors concerned with their existence, while qualitative research is subjective as it holds that social phenomena are created from the perceptions and consequent actions of the social actors concerned with their existence (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). While the quantitative approach views the social phenomena as having an objective reality that can b
Introduction According to Smith (2002) suggests that “Break even analysis is the point at which cost and expenses equals to revenues” (Smith, p. 3). Forecasting is a statistical model used to calculate and predict future trends using analyzed data. Break even analysis This is a business model used in economics and cost accounting to determine the point at which the revenues are equal to expenditure. At this point there are neither profits nor losses realized but only opportunity costs paid. Businesses use breakeven analysis to determine when all the expenses will be paid and at what point the business would start to realize profitability. It is pointed out that the expenses involved need to be clearly stated and identified. Expenses involved include fixed and variable costs which are usually used for calculating the breakeven point. Fixed costs are costs that do not vary with sales volume produced hence are always constant.All start up costs are usually considered as fixed expenses and include costs such as rent ,insurance and other expenses usually included in the startup of the business such as administrative salaries. Variable costs on the other hand are not constant and are usually recurring with each extra unit produced and mostly include transportation costs and manufacturing costs for a product. Breakeven point is usually calculated as:   * Fixed costs/ (selling price per unit- variable costs). Managers should use this model to determine when they are to break even i.e. point at which they are able to fully cover all their expenses in order to start achieving profitability. It helps the managers to know how many units they need to produce in order to cover costs and start achieving profitability. Diagram Business forecasting Muller (2005) defines “Business forecasting as a process of estimating future patterns and trends using the compiled data from the field” (Muller p.12). Examples of business forecasting techniques include: services and products demand prediction on fraud and risk, inventory management and reorder level calculation. Forecasting models are usually used by executives, analysts and end users in making decisions using intelligent software and decision support systems. Examples of forecasting models comprise of financial forecasting models, quantitative models and qualitative models. Qualitative models are considered to be effective in determining short term predictions of products and services of companies and where the scope involved is limited. They are usually considered to be professionally determined in order to make material decision. However it is considered that they are usually subject to certain limitations involved in the market such as measurable data. Qualitative methods commonly used include market research analysis and Delphi method. Market research analysis involves testing a certain product or service on random or a large group to determine whether it will be bought or not when it is launched in the market. On the other hand Delphi method involves using sales and
Modern people perceive television as a regular, routine phenomenon that seems to have been there forever. In the middle 20 th century, however, the active spread of the brand new medium created a considerable sensation and was able to change the society. Its most substantial consequence lied in an outstanding increase to news coverage, which influenced the involvement of the population in social and political life. One of the brightest examples of the impact TV has had on American culture is the Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960. Notably, television proved able to “assist the democratic process beyond the airing of 30-second commercials” (“The Kennedy-Nixon debates,” n.d., para. 1). That innovation fostered civil engagement and citizens’ interest to the functioning of the state. The Civil Rights Movement is also worth mentioning, as the 1950s were the period when TV began to illuminate the problems of black population (Goodwin, 2019). Unlike paper press, television covered the entire country at once, which improved awareness and favored for uniting. Another event that left its imprint on American national spirit, having been broadcast on TV, is doubtlessly the Moon landing. The astronauts had an outstanding public relation campaign behind and were presented as heroes, which “brought previously unthinkable images and ideas into the homes of millions” (Jeffrey, 2019, para. 1). The epochal event extended the boundaries of human abilities, hence gave a new lease of life to American dream. Tragic episodes were also shown on TV; actually, as soon as the medium grew mass, news networks began to seek for drama. Vietnam War became the first “television” one and provided Americans with a more realistic perspective on the lives of their soldiers (Kratzer, 2018). Empathizing with compatriots split the society that had always been proud of its unification. One part of it argued for the war, willing to support the troops, at least distantly, while the other one made a stand against numerous but senseless deaths. The latter part happened to prevail, which led to a rise of pacifistic motives in the USA. To summarize, the appearance and spread of television enabled illuminating news to big amounts of people in a short while. This resulted in a substantial activation of social response towards both positive and negative events fellow Americans were involved in. That activation, in turn, could result in either a consolidation, hence a rise of the national morale, or controversies, depending on the context of the situation.
GE’s framework enables it to be at the forefront of the markets in which it participates because it has a competitive advantage over other companies. This makes the company a step ahead of the others. There has to be an effective strategy combined with sufficient resources to attain this (Porter, 2001). The company should deliver the same products or even better than their competitors while at the same time ensuring that they have minimum costs and this is what GE does to stay ahead. The company I would like to work in is Microsoft. In order to attain a competitive advantage, it must have resources and capabilities that are better than those of its competitors. Resources are those assets that can be used to attain a competitive advantage (Gambino, 2009). These resources should be hard for competitors to acquire. For instance, industry market share, company image, and copyrights are good for business. All these are aspects that Microsoft has. GE’s strategies can be applied in my firm by creating superior value. This means that the company should ensure that the customer has superior benefits while using minimal costs. Defending against substitute products and also taking advantage of technology in acquiring this is of benefit. Application of GE’s lessons could be applied in my firm by first clearly studying the market and also marking out the competition. Rather than get scared of competition, one should strive to learn not only from their competitors but also the market. After attaining a competitive advantage, the company also has to strive to maintain that advantage. The firm also has to take advantage of business information resources and using it to out rank their competitors. The firm should also have advantageous capabilities over other companies (Saleemi, 2010). For example, bringing products to the market before other companies is helpful. These capabilities enable a distinct advantage over competitors.
This article tries to answer some pertinent issues about the American families. As such, it seeks to illustrate whom the Americans count as family, identify how the Americans perceive their families, and find the public opinion about the American nontraditional families such as same sex marriages (Powell et al. 17). In the article, the author asserts that currently there are several differing opinions on what counts as families. The author reaffirmed this opinion when he or she interviewed several family members from both heterosexual and homosexual couples. These family groups comprised of a man and a woman living together with children, a man and a woman living together with no children, a man and woman cohabiting, and homosexual couples. According to the article, the American’s definitions of families can be clustered into three groups. These groups are exclusionists, inclusionists, and moderates. It was found that the dissimilarity among these clusters extend beyond their views on same sex marriage. In the article, the author collected a number of respondents about pertinent issues concerning the American families. Through this, it was found that more individuals agreed that a man, wife, and children count as a family. The second living arrangements that had a number of individuals perceiving them as families were single families. Last in the list was housemates followed by homosexual couples with children. To reaffirm on these claims, the author carried out an independent research and consulted existing family literatures. For instance, the author acknowledges that finding consensus among existing definitions was not an easy task. The article notes that there are disagreements among several academicians indicating that the author relied heavily on previous works before coming to his or her conclusions. Equally, the author mentions several authors of other family related books. Among these authors are Berkowitz, Bernstein, Riemann, Holstein, and many more (Powell et al. 18). This indicates that appropriate evidence was provided for conclusions. In general, the article gave a broad overview of the distinctions that Americans make between families and non-families. The conclusions were drawn after analyzing a unique data set of several respondents. Based on this article, it is apparent that there are several perceptions about families in the American society. As such, it was widely agreed that a family constituted of a couple with their children as compared with couples with no children. Similarly, the article asserts that more Americans use cohabitation and homosexuality as a disqualifier for family status. However, it was worth noting that the number of those who acknowledged homosexual couples with their children as families was on the rise compared to some few years back. This implies that these types of families are slowly gaining acceptance among the American population. Based on these findings, it can be deduced that in the future the definitions of the American family will differ from the current definitions. In the future, social constructions based on emotional ties w
Ethical considerations of an experiment are the “difficult issues” raised by it that need to be taken into account since nowadays “researchers are bound by both law and conscience to treat their participants ethically” (Kalat, 2014, p. 46). To define the term “ethical treatment,” organizations that are concerned with research (for example, APA) provide relevant guidelines. Also, if a study is carried out in a college, it requires the approval of an Institutional Review Board (Kalat, 2014). As Kalat (2014) points out, psychological research is typically related to minimum risks, but it still needs to take into account certain concerns (p. 46). Possible risks need to be predicted, the confidentiality must be ensured, and all the information about the study must be provided to the participants as the informed consent document. The procedure of obtaining consent from children or mentally impaired people involves both the permission of a guardian and the assent of the participant (whenever possible). Both documents need to be written in the language that a person can understand (Myers, 2011, p. 38-39). To sum up, everything must be done to make sure that participants learn and realize what is going to happen during the study, what their rights are, and how they are going to be protected. If the research is not a high-risk one, a properly written informed consent is the key to avoiding ethical controversy. For more difficult and controversial issues, the intervention of a Board and the case-specific guidelines should be used. It is noteworthy that the development of ethical research guidelines was a gradual one and the research of the past used to be much less thought-out. An example is the notorious Monster Study, a speech pathology research, in which the subjects (orphan children) were exposed to very different treatment: the members of one group received positive comments on their talks and were praised for achievements, and those in the other one were blamed and belittled for any defect or mistake (LeVay, 2014). The study took place in 1939, and it has been compared to the Wolrd War II experiments that were carried out in concentration camps, which were technically crimes committed in the name of science. It is not difficult to understand that experiments like the Monster Study should have never been carried out, but other ethical considerations can be more subtle. For example, nowadays it is considered necessary to explain the purpose of the research to the participants (Myers & Hansen, 2011, p. 45). However, deception can provide a researcher with additional opportunities. Such was the case of Stanley Milgram’s study on obedience. It involved telling the part
Summary Population aging occurs when fertility declines and life expectancy increases leading to increased dependency because of an overall decrease in labour force. It, therefore, means that population aging is an economic crisis because it affects labour force participation in society. When population ages, the number of dependants increases due to increased life expectancy, while productive population of young people declines. Hence, consumption capacity outweighs productive capacity of population in the society. Statistics has shown that, in the past century, labour force participation in the United States for men over the age of 65 has changed tremendously from 75% during late 1800s to 16% in late 1900s. However, in the 20th century, labour force participation among older women increased, thus compensating for the decline in labour force participation of older men. Given that the retirement age is the determinant of labour force participation, increased retirement age would significantly reverse economic crisis due to population aging. Although population aging has been an impending economic crisis in the United States due to the increasing dependants and decreasing productive capacity of workforce, trends in labour force participation have considerably lessened the economic effect of population aging. In the United States, several factors have led to increased retirement age among older people. Firstly, technological and skill changes among workforce have significantly increased labour force participation since employees have high job satisfaction due to technology and earn a decent salary because of their skills, making them not to retire early. Secondly, couples who work together yet having different ages do not retire early because an older spouse has to wait for a younger spouse to reach retirement age so that they could retire together. Thirdly, Social Security reforms, which led to increased retirement age, abolition of penalty at recommended retirement age, and elimination of tax on retirement earnings have made many employees opt to retiring at the age of 67. Lastly, increased life expectancy due to improved health status has made many employers retain their employees even at the ages of 70s because they are physically strong and able to work. Budget Constraint for US Tax Structure Based on Income Brackets
Introduction to the Business Venture La Trobe University is one of the most prestigious universities in Australia and around the world. With a population of more than 25,000 students, around 1500 academic staff members, and over 1500 administrative members, the university is a major institution ( La Trobe University 2014). The university attracts both local and international students, which makes it an excellent university. The university’s main aim is to provide quality higher education to students. At the same time, it seeks to provide an enabling environment for both non-teaching and teaching staff members to support the provision of quality and all-round learning for students ( La Trobe University 2014). Family is an essential part of all individuals, and thus the well-being and safety of members are important aspects that determine whether staff members and students can be productive in their activities. This business plan proposes a free program for all students and staff kindergarten that will allow parents among the staff members and students to enroll their children at La Trobe University. A kindergarten within the university is essential as many staff members and students with young children have trouble finding accessible and secure schools for their kids. Establishing a kindergarten within the University will provide immediate relief to these parents since the school will provide convenience in terms of access and peace of mind. The staff members and students with kids in the university’s kindergarten will be in a position to put more effort into their studies or roles within the institution. The kindergarten comes at a time when the need for infant and young children services among the working class is increasing drastically. According to Nowak, Maude, and Thomas (2013), more than 70% of families will soon have mothers in the workforce. Therefore, these parents will require accountable and high-quality children care services and arrangements for their children. Additionally, statistics show that more than 40% of children are left at home without proper supervision (Allen et al. 2013, p. 364). Source: (Allen et al. 2013) Therefore, the kindergarten will provide a good opportunity for parents of young ones to access good and quality care as well as learning from within the University’s facilities. Business Venture Analysis As an institution of higher learning, La Trobe University is one of Australia’s largest universities (Mazzarol 2014). As part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) and duty towards its employees, the kindergarten will be significant towards providing a good facility to suppo
Learning Object Repositories are becoming more widespread and more popular among researchers and educators across the globe. Ochoa and Duval (2009) noted that LORs grew linearly and the popularity of such resources was growing steadily irrespective of the number of objects or quality of the objects submitted. Therefore, it is possible to note that LORs are seen as useful tools to improve and develop. People long to create communities where researchers and educators could share information. I believe that LORs make up almost an ideal community. I think LORs represent this idea community where a lot of valuable information is stored. People from different countries and having different backgrounds manage to share information. Admittedly, this fosters research and development of teaching strategies. I have found a lot of particular ideas and resources to make my teaching more effective. There were moments when I felt stuck as I could not find ways to present material in a more effective way. I came across a variety of ideas in LORS. I suppose lots of researchers and educators have had similar moments when they did not know an answer to a question. Many answers are available at LORs now. Koppi, Bogle and Bogle (2005) pointed out that there were three aspects of LOR. According to Koppi, Bogle and Bogle (2005, p. 83) the third aspect, i.e. “the collaborative space” is the most valuable for researchers and educators from all over the world. I agree with this assumption and I think availability of different data can foster research in a variety of spheres. Nonetheless, it is necessary to note that LORs are still almost ideal as there are certain factors that prevent these resources from becoming truly ideal communities. Some argue that ideas of ‘old’ teachers make people doubt in effectiveness of LORs. However, the major problem is still associated with technology as many people have no access to LORs due to scarce financial support of educational and research spheres (Richards, McGreal, Hatala & Friesen, 2002). I am a teacher in the UAE and I have access to the Internet and a variety of resources. However, some LORs are inaccessible for me as sometimes membership requires certain payments. I understand that many organizations have resources to be members of some LORs. At the same time, in the UAE many organizations do not have an opportunity to be members of such communities. Moreover, many teachers in this country do not have access to the Internet. Of course, this is quite a considerable limitation to the use of LORs as many really brilliant ideas are still outside the global communities of researchers and educators. Therefore, I’d like to note that LORs can become a really great invention of humanity as these global communities can rocket research, to a great extent. At the same time, it is necessary to remember that there is still much to be done. Governments should pay attention to the development of