Compared virus sequences with human and avian. they are over 95%similiar.

Based on your results (which of course are limited—it would be necessary to do many more comparisons in reality), do you think there is evidence that human adaptation is occurring in H5N1 viruses that might merit concern about human-to-human transmission in the near future?

An Indonesian foreign firm agreed to sell and deliver goods to a Malaysian company that paid a considerable sum of money in advance. However, the contract was frustrated because of the 5.0 magnitude of an earthquake near Bima in West Nusa Tenggara. The Malaysian company claimed the right to recover the deposit they paid prior to the frustrating event. Advise the Malaysian company.

A company is planning a plant expansion. They can build a large or small plant. The payoffs for the plant depend on the level of consumer demand for the company's products. For the large plant, the company expects $90 million in revenue if demand is high and $40 million if demand is low. For the small plant, the company expects $55 million in revenue if demand is high and $20 million if demand is low. The cost of the large plant is $5 million. The small plant cost is $1 million.

The company believes that there is a 72% chance that demand for their products will be high and a 28% chance that it will be low.

Construct a payoff and regret matrix based on the given information.

What is the decision according to the EMV criterion? Be sure to support your answer.

Is your decision sensitive to the demand assumptions given for this problem? You may answer generally, such as “very sensitive” or “not very sensitive” as long as you support your answer.

The company can pay a market research firm to survey consumer attitudes towards the company's products. The market research firm cost is $100,000. The market research firm has provided the following cross tabulation showing recent results.

Construct a decision tree for this problem showing when the survey is conducted but the plant has not been built. Include all relevant probabilities on the tree and all EMVs needed.

What is the expected value of the market research survey data?

Should the market research firm be hired at a cost of $100,000? Be sure to support your answer.

Lazer Technologies Inc. (LTI) has produced a total of 20 high-power laser systems that could be used to destroy any approaching enemy missiles or aircraft. The 20 units have been produced, funded in part as private research within the research and development arm of LTI, but the bulk of the funding came from a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

Testing of the laser units has shown that they are effective defense weapons, and through redesign to add portability and easier field maintenance, the units could be truck-mounted.

DoD has asked LTI to submit a bid for 100 units.

The 20 units that LTI has built so far cost the following amounts and are listed in the order in which they were produced: Use Exhibit 6.4 and Exhibit 6.5

a. Based on past experience, what is the learning rate? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to the nearest whole percent.)

b. What bid should LTI submit for the total order of 100 units, assuming that learning continues?

c. What is the cost expected to be for the last unit under the learning rate you estimated?

1. Alan owes Brian HK$5,000, which is due on 31 March. On 15 March, he sought Brian’s consent to accept a lesser sum of US$600 on 24 March (i.e., one week in advance of the due date) to discharge the whole debt. Brian agreed to this arrangement. Alan then made a bank loan of US$600 at an annual interest rate of 5% with a view to paying Brian. Today is 24 March, Brian has now changed his mind. He insists to revert to the previous position of full payment HK$5,000 to be paid on 31 March. Advise Alan if his part payment is able to discharge the whole debt in such case. [ Discuss the doctrine of promissory estoppel.]

2       Milky entered into a contract for the hire of 6 rooms in New Castle Hotel in    Kowloon West. The purpose of the contract was to watch the fireworks gala in the Victoria Harbour on the 1st July (Reunification Day) through the windows of the rooms. Milky planned to invite her close friends and their families to stay in the 6 rooms to enjoy the fireworks. Just two hours before start of the fireworks, the Hong Kong Police Force received a serious threat from some terrorist organizations that they would launch large scale attack to the crowds who gathered to watch the fireworks. The Hong Kong Government immediate ordered the cancellation of the fireworks and gave an order that this kind of gala will not be launched at least for five years. Milky, having already paid a deposit, refused to pay the balance of the room charges. The hotel took legal action to recover the balance.

Required:

Analyse the chance of success by the hotel and explain in detail the legal principles that you base on for analysis.

3      Devil Computers Ltd (DCL) produces hard disks for installing in computers. The Hong Kong Land Bank (HKLB) would like to purchase new computers for its new computer room situate at the fourth floor of its headquarters in Homantin. HKLB asked DCL for their hard disks which could survive in good conditions for at least 3 years. DCL sold some of their “long life” hard disks to HKLB.

         In fact, the “long life” hard disks only survived for 6 months and the staff of HKLB complained about the performance and quality of the hard disks.

Required:

Advise whether HKLB could claim damages and repudiate the contract of sale with DCL under the provisions of the Sale of Goods Ordinance. Detail explanation of that specific provision is necessary.     

The Sai Kung Inn is a small family-run hotel in the New Territories. As a family-owned business, it relies mainly on traveler recommendations and on visitors to local Sai Kung residents. In particular, it ranks in the top 10% of TripAdvisor’s accommodations in Sai Kung. The Sai Kung Inn has 12 guest rooms, and to keep the operation running efficiently it employs two full-time reception staff, and three morning housekeeping staff.

Winnie is the hotel manager and the daughter of the property owner. She is considering to adopt a balanced scorecard approach for performance evaluation. She has identified a number of potential performance measures:

1. 1) Number of items on hotel restaurant menu

2. 2) Revenue

3. 3) Percentage of reception staff completing hospitality and customer satisfaction course

4. 4) Customer satisfaction with dining options

5. 5) Average percentage occupancy

6. 6) Number of restaurant staff completing cooking training courses

7. 7) Percentage of cleaning staff completing housekeeping and hygiene courses

8. 8) Average TripAdvisor rating

9. 9) Number of guest complaints about room cleanliness

10. 10) Average number of minutes taken to process guests’ check-in

11. 11) Total profits

12. 12) Frequency and quality of room cleaning

Required:

1. (a) Using the 12 performance measures suggested above, draw a balanced scorecard diagram for The Sai Kung Inn with the four main categories of the balanced scorecard, classifying each of the performance measures into one of the four categories. Draw arrows between individual performance measures to show causal links and indicate with a “+” or “–” whether the performance measure should increase or decrease.

2. (b) Winnie believes that The Sai Kung Inn’s occupancy rate is lower than her competitors because The Sai Kung Inn charges slightly higher prices and does not attract guests who prefer cheaper accommodation. Winnie believes that in order to improve the financial performance of The Sai Kung Inn, the company should focus on improving customer satisfaction to justify higher prices, instead of reducing costs to compete on price. She would like to improve the rank on TripAdvisor to be the top-rated accommodation in Sai Kung, by focusing on operational and staff improvements. Help Winnie develop two new performance measures to build into her balanced scorecard. For each performance measure you suggest, identify which category it would fit into, how to measure it, and how it relates to the organization goal.

Given the following relative weights of importance for the major components of the Consumer Price Index or CPI:

I recommend developing a spreadsheet that addresses the quantitative aspects of parts b and c below. Print a copy and submit the hard copy to me in class along with your answers to the following questions.

What is the CPI and what does it measure?

What is the annual rate of inflation in 2017 as measured by the CPI?

What was your inflation rate in 2017? Please indicated why it differs from the answer in Part (b) above.

Bank of America’s Consumer Spending Survey collected data on annual credit card charges in seven different categories of expenditures: transportation, groceries, dining out, household expenses, home furnishings, apparel, and entertainment. Using data from a sample of 17 credit card accounts, assume that each account was used to identify the annual credit card charges for groceries (population 1) and the annual credit card charges for dining out (population 2). Using the difference data, the sample mean difference was $861, and the sample variance of the difference was $2,788,900. (PLZ DONT COPY AND PASTE FROM OTHER ANSWERS, THIS HAS DIFFERENT VARIABLES,, THANK YOUUU)

a. Formulate the null and alternative hypotheses to test for no difference between the population mean credit card charges for groceries and the population mean credit card charges for dining out.

b. Use a 0.05 level of significance. Can you conclude that the population means differ? What is the p‐value?

c. Which category, groceries or dining out, has a higher population mean annual credit card charge? What is the point estimate of the difference between the population means? What is the 95% confidence interval estimate of the difference between the population means?

Bank of America's Consumer Spending Survey collected data on annual credit card charges in seven different categories of expenditures: transportation, groceries, dining out, household expenses, home furnishings, apparel, and entertainment. Using data from a sample of 42 credit card accounts, assume that each account was used to identify the annual credit card charges for groceries (population 1) and the annual credit card charges for dining out (population 2). Using the difference data, the sample mean difference was d= $850, and the sample standard deviation was $1123. a. Formulate the null and alternative hypotheses to test for no difference between the population mean credit card charges for groceries and the population mean credit card charges for dining out. b. Use .05 level of significance. Can you conclude that the population means differ? What is the p -value? (to 6 decimals) c. Which category, groceries or dining out, has a higher population mean annual credit card charge? What is the point estimate of the difference between the population means? Round to the nearest whole number. 850 What is the 95% confidence interval estimate of the difference between the population means? Round to the nearest whole number. (n1,n2)=

Suppose you are the only owner of a chain of coffee shops near universities. Your current cafés are doing well, but you are interested in starting a fine-dining restaurant. You decide to use the cash generated from your existing business to enter into a new business. Your accountant provides you with the following data on your current financial performance:

Financial update as of June 15

Based on your evaluation you have   in free cash flow.

Can a company have negative free cash flow?

Yes

No