ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction Brainwashing is the reduction of people to near zombie-like status through psychological manipulation in the religious and related domain. Allegations of brainwashing were projected by the Anti-Cult Movement (ACM) during the 1980s and 1990s who posited that cults were using advanced forms of psychological manipulation of their members. The ACM groups alleged that members joining cults were trapped not to escape through the tactics referred to as totalism, mind control, thought reform, coercive persuasion and brainwashing. The United States allegedly contain the largest number of religious group than any other country in the world. About 20 million people have reportedly fallen victims of negative impartation through coercive mind control imposed by cults in the United States for a period of ten years, according to Margaret Singer (qtd. in Ontario Consultations on Religious Tolerance, 2007). The proposition of brainwashing in religion has largely been faulted, and in deed can to date, for lack of scientific support. The acceptance of evidence of brainwashing into court testimony and subsequent admission can be questioned on the basis of the problematic nature of scientific support for the brainwashing based theories, according to James Richardson and Gerald Ginsburg. Hypothesis Brainwashing in religion lacks the support of science and research which finds insufficient evidence in the allegation. This makes the allegations unjustifiable and inadequate. Furthermore, those theories supported by the Anti-Cult Movement have been faulted for not only lacking logical credibility, but also research credibility. Objective To analyze the claims of brainwashing in religion, literature evidence (or lack of it) and draw necessary conclusions as relates to analyzed information. Literature Review A report publicized by the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey report that the greatest gaining group in the analysis of religious affiliation of the United States was the group of the unaffiliated, i.e. those who said that they were not affiliated to any particular group. In other words, this unaffiliated group was gaining more numbers than that of the affiliated category as religious changes take place in the country. The margin of the two groups was indicated to be about three to one respectively. The unaffiliated group consisted of 16.1% of the participants and this number was more than double to that number who said they were not affiliated as children. One out of four of those survey participants aged 18-29 were not affiliated to any particular religion. The number of those reported to be Protestants stood at 51% and was diverse and fragmented. The greatest losers of religion affiliation in the United States were the C
Introduction The report aims at presenting the outcome of the simulation game on the business strategy case. The aim of the simulation report is to draw out the key strategic issues and challenges encountered while running the fictitious company. Further, the report will discuss the models and frameworks used in the simulated environment. The report also presents the rational behind applying the models and strategies on the company and reflects on the experiences of going through the whole process. Competitive Strategy The generic strategy of the company is to achieve globally differentiated strategy. Denton Company focuses on selling their footwear to the mid and high range market. Their focus is to remain one of the top three market leaders with sustainable growth. For this, Denton has targeted a new revenue and profit increase of 10 percent annually. They aim to have their S/Q rating above than the industry average and their rejection rate below 7 percent. Thus, the focus of the company remains on attaining certain goals related to the market and industry vis-à-vis its competitors. Further, their product is made for specific customers. Denton does aim at keeping their cost low, as the advertisement cost, compared to its closest competitor, Company A, has a much lower cost spent on advertising. Further, the focus of the company remains with their wholesale, brick, and mortar market, with little attention paid to the Internet market segment. Their target market is specifically mid and high range footwear market, which shows differentiation and focus. Therefore, the generic strategy adopted by Denton is differentiated focus. Industry Overview Macro Environment The footwear industry report shows that the company that dominates as the number one company of the industry is AAA Sports while Denton has the second position. It is a monopolistically competitive industry as most of the companies target a different market segment and focus their strategy and products, which are differentiated, on the consumer group they target. The footwear industry has three main geographic regions that the company targets – North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Active and healthier lifestyle choices have provided a boost to the footwear industry. Other concerns that plague the footwear market is the rising concern for the increase in prices of raw materials. Further, there are certain concerns regarding the slowdown of the global footwear market. The market is segmented based on the distribution channels adopted by the companies. The distribution channels most prevalent in the footwear industry are the wholesale branded market and the online Internet sale. PESTEL A PESTEL analysis of the footwear market presents the complete socio-economic picture of the global footwear market. PESTEL is a tool that helps to determine the macro-environment of the company. The macro-economic factors that are out of control of the company provide opportunity or threat to the company. Political environment globally is mostly stable. Denton operates in three major ge
Executive Summary The increasing levels of diversity and market dynamism have brought stiff competition among organisations, thus forcing them to engage in training of the available workforce, as well as hire competent employees in order to give them competitive edge in the crowded market. Technological developments have also brought business services into a single platform where customers in any part of the world can access products and services of an organisation from the internet (Salkey 2005). With these drastic changes in business operations, organisations are struggling to be at advantaged positions by attracting, developing, motivating, and retaining productive employees. This move helps organisations to report high performance with the competent employees. In engaging a competent and diverse workforce organisations become sustainable in their operations, as
Chikungunya is a dangerous viral disease, frequently re-emerging in Africa, Asia, and South America. The RNA virus (the alphavirus genus of the family Togaviridae) is transmitted by infected female mosquitoes and brings about severe joint and muscle pain, fever, nausea, rash, fatigue, and headache. The symptoms may vary in intensity and duration. Although some of them can be relieved, the disease is still incurable. Its name comes from Kimakonde language and can be translated as “becoming contorted” (Weaver & Lecuit, 2015). History of the Disease The history of the outbreaks of chikungunya can be summed up as follows (Weaver & Lecuit, 2015).   * 1952 – the first recorded outbreak of the disease in the region of southern Tanzania.   * 1999-2000 – a two-year outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.   * 2005 – an outbreak in the Indian Ocean region.   * 2006-2007 – an outbreak in India, which spread to Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Maldives. 1.9 million cases were reported during the period.   * 2007 – a localized outbreak in the north-eastern region of Italy (the first reported case in Europe). 197 cases were recorded.   * 2013 – local transmission in France (the French part of St. Martin in the Caribbean region).   * 2013-2015 – first reported cases in the Americas. By 2015, more than 1.3 cases were suspected in the Unites States, Latin American countries, and the Caribbean islands; 191 deaths were attributed to the virus.   * 2014 – outbreaks in France and in the Pacific islands, American Samoa, Kiribati, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, and Marshall Islands.   * 2015 – 693,000 suspected cases (of which 38,000 were confirmed) with the biggest burden in Colombia.   * 2016-2017 – 350,000 suspected and 147,000 confirmed cases in Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Kenya, Pakistan, and Bolivia. Disease Spread: Implications Chikungunya continues spreading rapidly across the planet owing to globalization. If scientists do not manage to stop this tendency, the following implications are inevitable:   * The Caribbean islands and Latin America will have enormous life losses since the disease outbreaks there have continuously been reported there since 2013 (Lanciotti & Valadere, 2014).   * Since the infection is frequently misdiagnosed as dengue fever (both conditions reveal the same symptoms, including headache, joint and muscle pain, and rash), a lot of patients are at risk of receiving wrong treatment. Dengue can develop into terminal complication if mistaken for chikungunya. On the contrary, if chikungunya is diagnosed as dengue, the therapy applied may aggravate joint pain, which can persist for months (Musso & Gubler, 2015).   * The majority of the world’s population inhabits regions affected by the infection. If the disease continues spreading, 154 countries will be at risk (Weaver & Lecuit, 2015). Prevention of the Disease Since the most significant risk factor is the mosqui
Introduction Health disorders in women always present a serious concern to the medical professionals and to the society on the whole. The situation might become more complicated if the diagnosis is not made earlier. Several disorders confined to women are considered to be age related and associated with tumors which in the present context is Uterine Sarcoma. This gynecological disorder is considered as a rare neoplasm that occurs in postmenopausal women. It was thought that a plethora of malignancies of the uterine body are endometrial carcinomas – where uterine sarcomas constitute only about 4%.For the efficient management of this disorder, there is a need to review the literature that focus on is clinical characteristics and the possible risk factors. Main body Study by Vrzic-Petronijevic et al. (2006).This study was based on presenting clinical and pathological features of uterine sarcomas, diagnostic procedures, treatment options and studying previous year’s cumulative survival rates. A total of 61 patients with uterine sarcoma were involved. They have employed standard operative procedures like hysterectomy with bilateral salpingooophorectomy. Their analysis had shown that 43 of the patients were postmenopausal and their data was very much in agreement with the earlier survival rates of two, three and five years. They have described that patients found with obesity and hypertension may have possible link with endometrial cancers which are characteristic of uterine sarcoma and further added that postmenopausal abnormal bleeding was the key indicator for medical examination that helped them to establish the diagnosis. They have suggested that preoperative pathophysiology might better help in understanding early metastases characteristic for uterine sarcomas. This study may indicate that metabolic and gynecological complaints need to be carefully evaluated and there is a need of regular yearly or frequent follow-up studies, especially in postmenopausal women with known risk factors present. Hence, it is a worth
Introduction Motorola is engaged in marketing and production of services, products, and applications that relates to communications, information, as well as entertainment. Its network is supported through broadband embedded systems and wireless networks. The company operates three segments, including home and network mobility solutions, network and enterprise mobility solutions, and mobile devices. Motorola is well known for its pioneering role in WiMAX 802.16e, a technology that was glorified for its great efficiency and flexibility. Motorola operates in an industry that is highly competitive, a situation that calls for commanding strategies if it is to defend its market share and profitability. The latest financial information shows that the company was undergoing one of the most trying moments since its inception, because of the economic crisis that crumbled its profitability (Drucker, 1994).The objective of this paper is to analyze the case of Motorola Company, explore its SWOT, examine different aspects of its strategy, and finally recommend a way forward. Motorola’s’ Threats and Opportunities Motorola operates in an industry that is full of opportunities. All it takes is for the management to come up with good strategies, given that there are enough resources to implement them. A case in point is whereby the company can decide to broaden its range of products so as to capture wider market share. Notably, Motorola has a global presence which makes it even easier to enter new markets that have not yet been exploited. For example, the company can establish its presence in Asia where mobile technology industry has not reached maturity, and where market is growing fast. The company has a potential for improving its reputation and brand name through innovation and product improvement. Increased marketing and promotion efforts can help popularize the company’s brand and products (Jay, 2006). Despite scores of opportunities that are up for grabs, Motorola may not be able to exploit its full potential because of the limitations that comes from the external forces. The most threatening are Motorola’s competitors, who have established strong grounds in the market, and are strong financially. Some of them include wireless handsets, Nokia, Sony Ericson, and LG Electronics. Indeed, some of these companies conduct promotions which are superior to that of Motorola. It is also worrisome to notice that Motorola can only obtain some of its inputs from a single supplier as mentioned by the chairman when he says “in 2003 and 2004, Motorola suffered from product delays due to supply shortages caused by a lack of a sufficient number of suppliers” (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2011, p. 228). The economic crisis that the industry is undergoing currently is likely to constraint its suppliers financially and hence exacerbate shortage and delay of supplies. Also very threatening to Motorola’s market is the fact that the cellular market has almost reached maturity, and hence the sales are likely to slump. Motorola’s’ Strengths and Weaknesses Mot
Introduction Computers and microprocessors continue to enter every sphere of life. This fact is specifically apparent in highly automated sectors of industry. Such “artificial intellect” became more dispersed, where the necessity in a general standard to connect various devices and external networks became obvious, and led to the development of standards that will facilitate the management of controllable processes (Eisenbarth, 1998). In that regard, various standards of industrial buses were developed to connect various devices on the field level. This paper compares two industrial buses, in terms of their similarities and differences, which are the Foundation fieldbus and DeviceNet fieldbus. Target Markets The target market of Foundation fieldbus and DeviceNet are close to each other, in terms of their common specification for the industrial network. Nevertheless, slight differences between the markets exist, which makes each of the products more suitable for specific purposes. In that regard, due to specific optimization, Foundation fieldbuses are more suitable in industries with wet processes, and explosive environments, as well as their focus on high-end devices (Biegacki and VanGompel, 1996). Additionally, the market of Foundation fieldbuses is industries implementing process control and monitoring, i.e. “flow control, temperature control, and tank level control” (Eisenbarth, 1998). DeviceNet, on the other hand, uses CAN (Controller Area Network) and CIP (Common Industrial Protocol), and the protocol is concerned with the logic rather than the process, i.e. “manufacturing plants, automotive, packaging, material handling” (Barlow, 2003). In that regard, the target specifications of DeviceNet are processes with simple industrial devices, such as sensors and actuators, and more complex such as drives and barcode readers (Biegacki and VanGompel, 1996). DeviceNet is more of a low-end network itself, the main tasks of which is directly connecting the devices to the control system (Biegacki and VanGompel, 1996). Similarities The main similarity between the two solutions, in addition to their implementation in the industrial
To Survive in a Globalized World The age of globalization is upon us. This means that people from different cultures have opportunities to interact with each other, thus, they need to find ways to communicate better. Learning a second language on top of their native one may be one step in reaching out to people from another culture. Parents are now becoming more keen in letting their young children learn second, third and even multiple languages to prepare them for the competition they have to face in the world when they grow up. Children’s television shows such as Dora, the Explorer and Sesame Street are very popular, because these shows feature learning words in another language other than the child’s first language. Young children find exposure to more languages at an early age due to the encouragement of multicultural education. English has become the global language for businesses world wide, so many people from foreign countries engage in learning it as a second language. However, several issues have come up regarding linguistic diversity. Educators need to investigate and understand these issues so that they can better design second language learning strategies to implement in their multicultural classes. This paper will investigate language learning and discuss concepts, principles, theories and methods in learning language, specifically a second language. It will also discuss how learning a second language affects the first language as well as determine if age is a factor in learning a new language or if strategies employed in the learning of the language can override the age factor. This is in consideration of more and more adults wanting to learn a second language for their own benefit. Language Acquisition and Development Language acquisition and development has been a point of keen interest of educators, psychologists and researchers that numerous studies have been done to unveil more knowledge about it.There have been many theories conceptualized as to how language is acquired by human beings. A great deal of a child’s acquisition of linguistic structure occurs during the first five years of life. This is the period when he is most active in discerning a set of underlying organizational principles of language from the expression that surrounds him. It is amazing how at a very young age, he is capable of abstracting meaning from direct experience with other language users depending on his own context. Beaty (2009) explains that even at an infant stage, the baby’s early nonverbal communication helps in preparing her for the spoken and written language to follow and at 6 months, she has become a language specialist, based on the sounds she hears most frequently. At 20 months, she may possess a sizable vocabulary if she hears adults around her talk to one another and to her all the time. Of course good hearing and sensitive listening are paramount to language development. According to
Given the current propensity toward globalization and multiculturalism in the environment of most markets (World Economic Forum, 2016), there is a consistent need to address the issues that may occur in the course of cross-cultural communication. The dilemmas related to the subject matter do not necessarily concern direct conflicts; apart from the latter, misconceptions and the inability to adjust the workplace environment so that the representatives of any culture could feel comfortable in it deserves to be mentioned (Deloitte University, 2016). As the case of AGC shows, creating a multicultural environment in which the needs of all stakeholders are taken into account is the most promising strategy that is likely to lead to a strikingly rapid improvement in the staff’s performance. Culture Issues and Human Capital Problems Meeting the needs of the employees in the environment of the global economy is admittedly challenging because of the necessity to focus on a variety of other aspects of the firm’s functioning. Without a sustainable approach toward resources management, a leader will be incapable of paying due attention to the communication issues in the organization. Therefore, the promotion of a set of values aimed at creating a multicultural environment must be considered (Antwi, Opoku, Seth, & Margareth, 2016). A closer look at the case will show that the HRM managers are not fully aware of the reasons for the former members of the organization to leave. In other words, neither of the HR department members concerned themselves by asking the employees about the reasons for their dissatisfaction. The specified phenomenon shows clearly that the lack of care for the people that work for the company, as well as the unwillingness to encourage them to perform better, can be deemed as the foundational problems of AGC (Halim, Ahmad, Ramayah, & Halifah, 2014). Leadership Styles: Effects on Global Organizational Culture Seeing that the adoption of an appropriate leadership style may motivate people to learn more about other cultures and, therefore, adopt a more sensible approach toward the cross-cultural communication process, it can be assumed that the choice of a leadership strategy has a direct effect on the global organizational culture. For instance, in the case under analysis, Shawn’s idea concerning the increase in diversity rates in the organization and the emphasis on multiculturalism as the foundation for the communication process is likely to have a positive effect on the employees’ workplace experience and, therefore, on their performance (Yasin, Nawab, Bhatti, & Nazir, 2014). The Transformational Leadership (TL) framework, which is currently viewed as one of the most popular strategies for managing relationships in the multicultural environment, should be viewed as