Why are sympathetic ganglia near the spinal cord while parasympathetic ganglia are near the target organ? I'm trying to reason this out so I can memorize less. If there's no explanation, is there a mnemonic that you use?

Question 25

On February 1, 2017, Marsh Contractors agreed to construct a building at a contract price of $5,940,000. Marsh estimated total construction costs would be $4,112,000 and the project would be finished in 2019. Information relating to the costs and billings for this contract is as follows:

Fill in the correct amounts on the following schedule. For percentage-of-completion accounting and for completed-contract accounting, show the gross profit that should be recorded for 2017, 2018, and 2019.

1. Tom is a civil engineer and working in a large construction project. Tom was assigned by his manager to look for steel suppliers for the project. Tom placed a newspaper advertisement for potential suppliers to bid. A potential supplier approached Tom, indirectly requested Tom to buy steel from his company. Then he invited Tom to an expensive dinner and a boat tour. Tom was planning to accept the dinner invitation and boat tour. (a) Identify the ethical situation in this case (if any) (b) Explain what Tom should do (c) Mention the relevant Rule of Practice or Professional Obligation (if any)

2. Nathan and Bill are electrical engineers. They are colleagues and working for a reputed private firm. One day Nathan saw that his colleague Bill is accepting a new laptop as a gift from a material supplier. Next day, Nathan talked with Bill about this and told him that this is not appropriate. Bill did not care. After a couple of months later, Nathan got to know that the same supplier has arranged a vacation (i.e., air ticket, hotel etc.) in Hawaii for Bill. (d) Identify the ethical situation in this case (if any) (e) Explain what Nathan should do (f) Mention the relevant Rule of Practice or Professional Obligation (if any)

. Managing Employee Benefits: Cutting Benefits at Generals Construction As Generals Construction moves into its tenth year, the company’s future is promising. The company has continued to grow and profit, but the CEO has asked company leaders to examine expenses to ensure that the company is financially stable going forward. As the Director of Human Resources, Jane Smith is examining opportunities to cut employeerelated expenses while maintaining employee satisfaction and morale. However, Director of Finance Ann Lane is pushing some cost-cutting measures that Jane thinks may have a negative effect.

Generals Construction employs over 100 full-time construction workers and about 40 other workers that include construction supervisors, office staff, and management. Right now, all employees receive the same basic employee-benefits package, which includes a health insurance plan fully paid by the company and a generous vacation allowance. After 30 days of employment, all employees can enroll in the health plan and receive coverage for themselves and their families, and the company pays the full premium. New hires receive 5 vacation days, employees with one year of service receive 10 vacation days, and employees with three years of service receive 15 days. Finally, the company also provides a modest retirement plan benefit. The benefit offerings were determined when the company was started, before Jane joined the company. At the time, the CEO needed to hire nearly 50 workers in a short period of time to fulfill a new contract, and the attractiveness of the health insurance and vacation benefits in particular were instrumental in meeting the company’s recruitment goals. Ann suggests that the company make some significant changes to the benefits offerings in order to stabilize company finances for the future. While Jane agrees that the benefits that the company offers are fairly generous compared to those of competitors, she does not think the cuts Ann is suggesting are a good idea for the company. First, Ann wants some dramatic changes to the health insurance plan. Ann thinks the employees should bear more of the cost of the health insurance plan, including asking the employees to pay at least half of the cost of the premiums for individual coverage and the full premiums for family coverage. This shift would result in an increase of several hundred dollars in deductions from the biweekly pay of many employees. Ann also suggests a cut in the number of vacation days, but only for the construction workers. She thinks construction workers should receive 5 vacation days after one year and 10 vacation days after three years of service. However, she states that these cuts are not necessary for other workers, including the supervisors, office workers, and management. She argues that the vacation time for the construction workers is costing the company too much money because they must pay overtime and hire temporary workers to cover the absences. She notes that when others are absent, the same coverage is not required, and thus, it won’t cost the company anything to keep the same vacation allowance. While Jane understands that some reduction in employee benefits expenses is needed, she is concerned that the cuts Ann is recommending are too drastic and may be perceived as unfair. While she knows the employees will understand that they may have to contribute to their health insurance premium eventually, she thinks that the changes Ann is proposing are too much of a change at one time. Further, Jane has serious concerns with offering different vacation allowances for the front-line construction workers and the other employees. As she prepares to meet with the CEO to discuss reducing expenses, she needs to consider her response to Ann’s recommendations.

1. Does Jane have a valid concern?

2. What kind of changes could the company make to benefits to address Jane’s concerns?

You are appraising a five-year-old, single-family residence. The total square footage of the livable area is 2,700. The garage is 500 square feet. According to figures obtained from a cost-estimating service, the base construction cost per square foot of livable area is $125 and $80 per square foot for the garage. The lot is valued at $98,000. What is the reproduction cost of the new structure?

SHOW ALL STEPS

Red Carpet LLC is a national hospitality and entertainment company with headquarters in Philadelphia, PA with national operations in the US. Historically, the company has had 3 divisions: hotels, food service, and cruise lines. However, it recently completed the acquisition of Sparkstar theaters, a movie theater company, that it is slated to become its 4th division. Red Carpet now owns 200 hotels in 48 states, 4 brands of restaurants with 1776 locations, 4 Buoy Bay branded cruise ships, and 300 Sparkstar theaters.

Its matrix organizational structure consists of a central HR, accounting, business development, sales, marketing, and research and development departments located at the headquarters in Philadelphia that serve each division. Each division is located in a different part of the US and lead by a VP that reports to the President and CEO. The company is privately owned by a consortium of investors and investor groups.

Red Carpet has 16,000 employees, 1000 of which work at its corporate headquarters. The organizational culture of the headquarters is informal and organic and there are few policies and processes that guide employee behavior. The company, as a whole, does not value HR so employees struggle with many employee relations and employment law concerns. The company outsources all of its training to one of the investor group companies, however this training is commonly not customized to the needs of Red Carpet.

As a whole, Red Carpet struggles with its business to business partners and suppliers because of its reputation for being nonnegotiable. Red Carpet would rather disrupt the quality and availability of its only products and services rather than partner for the supply chain resources that it needs. Likewise, Red Carpet does not hold many of the General Managers in its hotels, restaurants, and its cruise ships accountable for performance, opting instead for a weaker political strategy of blaming and gotcha games.

Being aware of these challenges, Red Carpet acquired Sparkstar for their strong industry reputation and financial performance in the hopes that merging the structure and culture of Sparkstar into Red Carpet would change the organization for the better. Historically, Red Carpet has been a highly successful company, however in recent years, its mismanagement has created noticeable effectives in product and service quality and its bottom line.

Divisions

Hotels: Red Carpet branded hotels are mid-price semi-luxury hotels known for high quality. Each customer is given a red velvet cupcake upon checking in. Red Carpet relies on its General Managers to micromanage the hotel. Despite its corporate parent owning a restaurant division, no Red Carpet hotels have restaurants. The Red Carpet division headquarters are in Sedona AZ. Many of the hotels are in need of refurbishment.

Food Service: Chicken Heaven is a fast-food chain with a long tradition of quality, large customer base, and 1000 locations. It is a solid overall performer for Red Carpet with high employee satisfaction. Burger Blast is another fast-food chain recently launched to cater to upscale customers who seek customized, gourmet-style burgers. It has 200 locations, however General Managers are struggling with budget and supplies causing a poor customer experience and high employee turnover. Food Park is a buffet-style restaurant with 500 locations that has been recently struggling because of high competition and poor marketing. Delicacy is a high-end restaurant with an urban theme. It has 76 locations, is the oldest of Red Carpet's food service operations, and provides a unique dining experience for customers. However, General Managers have a high turnover at Delicacy because of the grueling schedule. The food service division is located in Burke, ID.

Cruise Ships: Buoy Bay cruise ships offer low-cost, short-term cruises from Port Canaveral, FL only to the US Virgin Islands. Buoy Bay offers customers average quality staterooms and food from Chicken Heaven, Burger Blast, and Food Park. However, it does not offer a non-buffet formal dining option such as Delicacy. Although they are known for their over-the-top entertainment, employee turnover is very high relying primary on seasonal employees who are poorly trained. Buoy Bay has had much controversy. Just 5 years ago, the Buoy Bay cruise ship, Garland of the Sails, hit a reef, partially sank, and had to be salvaged in a 1.5 billion dollar operation. This resulted in a Federal investigation that is still pending. The Buoy Bay division is located in Lapsowanne, OR.

Movie Theaters: Sparkstar theaters were recently purchased from the Vegamega group for 2.3 billion dollars. Sparkstar is the highest rated movie theater chain the US. It has high customer and employee satisfaction, an efficient organizational structure, and solid financial results. Sparkstar's culture is one of high HR involvement including a strong training and development department, Sparkstar Institute. Sparkstar has a customer rewards program that provides a free movie rental of the film that the customer saw in the theater which has been very popular and has increased its strong customer base. Sparkstar has its divisional headquarters in Pasadena, CA.

The Issues

With the purchase of Sparkstar theaters, Red Carpet is hoping to redefine its operations in the next 5 years. It sees opportunities to integrate its divisions, products, and services to better serve its customers and employees. Here is a summary of some of the issues that Red Carpet must address in its strategic plan:

Internal politics and communication
Improved HR and training
Employee relations issues
Federal investigations
Product and service quality
Marketing support
Performance issues
Redefining the organizational structure
Improving its organizational culture
Integrating products and services
Resource and supply chain issues

Your Role

Leroy Banks, the Director of Change management at Red Carpet is seeking an Organization Development Consultant to address Red Carpet's need for change. You've just received a consulting contract from him to help prepare a plan to assist Red Carpet. You're excited about the opportunity and are motivated to work on this project. You know that your insight will assist Red Carpet with managing organizational change.

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 300-400 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Additional Information:

The VP of HR reviewed the executive summary and decided that your recommendation was a strong course of action for the change process. In her discussions with Leroy, she mentioned that it would be good to have you participate in a focus group to discuss your experiences with the change process. She was interested in discovering some best practices for change and felt that your experiences would be very valuable to Red Carpet’s approach to change. To guide the discussion, she recommended addressing a few points that should be covered in the focus group. Leroy will gather the results of the focus group and share it with the VP of HR.

Review the Red Carpet scenario for this course and with your classmates; discuss the following questions that will provide insight into your own change experiences:

Describe a successful change initiative from your own experiences and why it worked well.
Describe an unsuccessful change initiative from your own experiences and why it did not achieve its intended objectives.
From your own experiences, summarize the key success factors for change at Red Carpet that you would recommend to Leroy.

The figure 3 represents the construction hoist used to handle material handling in construction sites Figure 3: Construction Hoist

a) Explain the working principle of construction hoist and its application.

b) Identify the mechanism used for construction hoist.

c) Identify the driving link and generate the kinematic diagram.

d) How the vibration on the machine is managed during operation?

*** PLEASE ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS IN PARAGRAPH FORMAT.

The following case study provides information for a hotel chain. They have recently conducted a customer satisfaction survey. Given these research results and the other information in the case, what advice would you give them? This is a good exercise in utilizing the results of market research.

ACTIVITY/TASK

The Quick-Stop Hotel Chain

Quick-Stop Hotels is a small hotel chain located along on the north coast of New South Wales. This chain consists of five different hotel complexes located several hours drive apart along the main coastal highway between Sydney and Brisbane.

Their prime target market is the family segment. This is because families often choose to drive from Sydney to Brisbane (or Brisbane to Sydney) and back again for their holidays. As this trip is around a 12-hour drive, many travelers choose to stop overnight in order break up their journey. Therefore, Quick-Stop has deliberately chosen popular stopover towns for their hotels.

In line with this location strategy, they promote themselves with the slogan, “the “perfect place for a break”.

Their individual hotels vary a little in quality, but all have either a 3 or a 4 star rating. This means that they are either medium (3 star) or good (4 star) quality in terms of facilities and general standard of accommodation. On average, they each have around 80 rooms and a fairly broad range of facilities (that is, a heated swimming pool, room service, restaurant and bar, a kid’s club during school holidays, a small gym, and some have tennis courts and a couple of stores).

In terms of promotion, they are heavy outdoor (billboard) advertisers on the coastal highway. They also advertise in various holiday and travel directories, and on the government tourism website.

As you can see from the table below, they vary pricing throughout the year. Pricing is generally used as a tool to increase demand in the low season and to increase revenue in the high season. This is necessary as they have highly seasonal demand, being frequently being booked out over the Christmas holiday period, and with very high demand in other school holiday periods.

The table also shows the results of a customer satisfaction survey for Quick-Stop Hotels. On average, 80% of customers indicated that they were satisfied with their stay and 10% were delighted with their stay. However, 10% indicated they were dissatisfied. These figures vary by season, whether the customer was a first-time customer, and by the quality of the individual hotel. Additionally, the table includes information on average room rates (per night) and occupancy levels. (Note: The occupancy level is the percentage of rooms occupied per night.)

QUESTIONS

1. Review the customer satisfaction information. Does it make sense? Why/why not?
2. Given these research results and the other information in the case, what advice would you give this firm.
3. Which of the above metrics did you find helpful? Which did you ignore?
4. What other information would have been helpful?

A suburban hotel derives its revenue from its hotel and restaurant operations. The owners are interested in the relationship between the number of rooms occupied on a nightly basis and the revenue per day in the restaurant. Below is a sample of 25 days (Monday through Thursday) from last year showing the restaurant income and number of rooms occupied.

1. Choose the scatter diagram that best fits the data.

• Scatter diagram 1

• Scatter diagram 2

• Scatter diagram 3

2. Determine the coefficient of correlation between the two variables. (Round your answer to 3 decimal places.)

1. c-1. State the decision rule for 0.01 significance level: H₀: ρ ≤ 0; H₁: ρ > 0. (Round your answer to 3 decimal places.)

1. c-2. Compute the value of the test statistic. (Round your answer to 2 decimal places.)

1. c-3. Is it reasonable to conclude that there is a positive relationship between revenue and occupied rooms? Use the 0.01 significance level.

4. What percent of the variation in revenue in the restaurant is accounted for by the number of rooms occupied? (Round your answer to 1 decimal place.)