Conch Republic Electronics is a midsized electronics manufacturer located in Key West, Florida. The company president is Shelley Couts, who inherited the company. When it was founded over 70 years ago, the company originally repaired radios and other household appliances. Over the years, the company expanded into manufacturing and is now a reputable manufacturer of various electronic items. Jay McCanless, a recent MBA graduate, has been hired by the company’s finance department.

One of the major revenue-producing items manufactured by Conch Republic is a smartphone. Conch Republic currently has one smartphone model on the market, and sales have been excellent. The smartphone is a unique item in that it comes in a variety of tropical colors and is preprogrammed to play Jimmy Page 349Buffett music. However, as with any electronic item, technology changes rapidly, and the current smartphone has limited features in comparison with newer models. Conch Republic spent $750,000 to develop a prototype for a new smartphone that has all the features of the existing smartphone but adds new features such as WiFi tethering. The company has spent a further $200,000 for a marketing study to determine the expected sales figures for the new smartphone.

Conch Republic can manufacture the new smartphones for $220 each in variable costs. Fixed costs for the operation are estimated to run $6.4 million per year. The estimated sales volume is 155,000, 165,000, 125,000, 95,000, and 75,000 per year for the next five years, respectively. The unit price of the new smartphone will be $535. The necessary equipment can be purchased for $43.5 million and will be depreciated on a seven-year MACRS schedule. It is believed the value of the equipment in five years will be $6.5 million.

As previously stated, Conch Republic currently manufactures a smartphone. Production of the existing model is expected to be terminated in two years. If Conch Republic does not introduce the new smartphone, sales will be 95,000 units and 65,000 units for the next two years, respectively. The price of the existing smartphone is $385 per unit, with variable costs of $145 each and fixed costs of $4.3 million per year. If Conch Republic does introduce the new smartphone, sales of the existing smartphone will fall by 30,000 units per year, and the price of the existing units will have to be lowered to $215 each. Net working capital for the smartphones will be 20 percent of sales and will occur with the timing of the cash flows for the year; for example, there is no initial outlay for NWC, but changes in NWC will first occur in Year 1 with the first year’s sales. Conch Republic has a 21 percent corporate tax rate and a required return of 12 percent.

Shelley has asked Jay to prepare a report that answers the following questions.

QUESTIONS

What is the payback period of the project?

What is the profitability index of the project?

What is the IRR of the project?

What is the NPV of the project?

Cupcakes-Palooza (CP) is bakery in Janesville, WI, that specializes in gourmet cupcakes. CP is a privately held corporation that was founded by partners Pat and Chris Anderson. Pat and Chris are the majority shareholders.

CP currently owns a building that serves as their bakery. They sell their cupcakes at select area grocery stores. They do not currently sell directly to consumers; they only sell to grocery stores who sell to consumers. They sell an average of 1,000 cupcakes a day (five days a week, year-round) at their current location, and see demand staying strong despite the economy.

Pat and Chris would like to expand their business. They are considering adding a retail storefront to their existing building. Pat and Chris received an estimate from a construction company to add a retail presence to their existing building. The project cost is a $ 50,000 one-time charge for renovations to the building. Construction time is expected to be three months. (Note that this means that in the first year of operations, they will only receive nine months of revenue from the retail store!)

Pat and Chris did some market research and estimate the following sales from this new retail shop: 100 cupcakes a day @ $2 per cupcake, and they will be open 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Pat and Chris expect their cost of goods sold to be $0.46 per cupcake.

To sell to the public at the current building, they plan on hiring one new full-time employee; he or she will be managed by existing bakery employees, who will also cover for the new employee during breaks, sick days, etc. You do not need to include any expenses for the new employee other than their hourly wage. Pat and Chris estimate they will pay $10 per hour (including taxes and benefits) for this new employee. Assume the employee will work 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year.

Pat and Chris have told you that they pay 20% of their profit in taxes. They also want you to use a discount rate of 14% in calculating this potential investment. They plan to retire in 5 years, so they want you to base your analysis on a 5 year term.

Pat and Chris have asked you to review this potential investment and write a short, one page memo to them, with an Excel file attached with the supporting financial calculations. The memo should communicate to Pat and Chris three financial measurements:

The Payback period for the investment

The Net Present Value of the investment

The Internal Rate of Return for the investment

THREES ELECTRONICS COMPANY Threes Electronics is a mid-sized electronics manufacturer located in Santa Monica, California. The company president is Jack Tripper, who inherited the company. The company originally repaired radios and other household appliances when it was founded over 70 years ago. Over the years, the company has expanded, and it is now a reputable manufacturer of various specialty electronic items. One of the major revenue-producing items manufactured by Threes Electronic is a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Threes Electronics currently has one PDA model on the market and sales have been excellent. The PDA is a unique item in that it comes in a variety of tropical colors and is preprogrammed to play Jimmy Buffet music. However, as with any electronic item, technology changes rapidly, and the current PDA has limited features in comparison with newer models. Threes Electronic spent $750,000 to develop a prototype for a new PDA that has all the features of the existing one, but adds new features such as cell phone capability. The company has spent a further $200,000 for a marketing study to determine the expected sales figures for the new PDA. Threes Electronic can manufacture the new PDA for $86 each in variable costs. Fixed costs for the operation are estimated to run $3 million per year. The estimated sales volume is 70,000, 80,000, 100,000, 85,000, and 75,000 per each year for the next five years, respectively. The unit price of the new PDA will be $250. The necessary equipment can be purchased for $15 million and will be depreciated on a 7-year MACRS schedule. It is believed the value of the equipment in five years will be $3 million. Net working capital for the PDAs will be 20 percent of sales and will occur with the timing of the cash flows for the year (i.e., there is a no initial outlay for NWC). Changes in NWC will thus first occur in Year 1 with the first year’s sales. Threes Electronic has a 35 percent (federal & state) corporate tax rate. Threes Electronic plans to finance by a combination of 1/3 debt and 2/3 internal equity (i.e., retained earnings). The beta of the firm’s stock is 1.75. The firm uses a risk-free rate of 4% and the market risk premium of 7%. Threes has 15,000 9 percent semi-annual coupon bonds outstanding, $1,000 par value per bond, 15 years to maturity, selling for 108 percent of par. Threes Electronic can issue bonds for $5 ~ $6 million in the similar terms. Construct a project cash flow statement; estimate the cost of capital; and provide NPV, IRR, payback period (our target PB is 3 years) and profitability index of this project.

This week's discussion forum is based on your reading on Personality Disorders chapters. Thus, the case vignette enclosed portrays Henry Smith who suffers from two personality disorders. Make sure to justify your diagnoses for your chosen case vignette. This case suffers from two personality disorders therefore you need to justify both diagnoses with specific behaviors. Do not diagnose these cases with any other disorders except personality disorders.

CASE: Case Vignette #2 – Henry Smith

            Henry Smith, a 19-year old college sophomore, was referred to the student health center by a teaching assistant who noticed that he appeared odd, worried, and preoccupied and that his lab notebook was filled with bizarrely threatening drawings.

            Henry appeared on time for the psychiatric consultation.  Although suspicious about the reason for the referral, he explained that he generally “followed orders” and would do what he was asked.  He agreed that he had been suspicious of some of his classmates, believing they were undermining his abilities.  He said they were telling his instructors that he was a “weird guy” and that they did not want him as a lab partner.  The referral to the psychiatrist was, he said, confirmation of his perception.

            Henry described how he had seen two students “flip a coin” over whether he was homosexual or straight.  Coins, he asserted, could often predict the future.  He had once flipped a coin and “heads” had predicted his mother’s illness. He believed his thoughts often came true.  

            Henry had transferred to this out-of-town university after an initial year at his local community college.  The transfer was his parents’ idea, he said and was part of their agenda to get him to be like everyone else and to attend parties and hand out with girls. He said all such behavior was a waste of time.  Although they had tried to push him into moving into the dorms, he had refused, and instead lived by himself in an off-campus apartment.

            With Henry’s permission, his mother was called for collateral information. Henry insisted that he should be present when the call was made to ensure that the psychologist was talking to his mother and not his instructors.  His mother said Henry had been quiet, shy, and reserved since childhood. He had never had close friends, and never dated, and had denied wanting to have friends.  He acknowledged feeling suspicious and anxious at times, but these feelings did not improve when he was around other people and only got worse. He was teased by other kids and would come home upset.  His mother cried while explaining that she always felt bad for him because he never really “fit in”, and that she and her husband had tried to coach him for years without success.  She wondered how a person could function without any social life.

            She added that ghosts, telepathy, and witchcraft had fascinated Henry since junior high school.  He had long thought that he could change the outcome of events like earthquakes and hurricanes by thinking about them.  He had consistently denied substance abuse, and two drug screens had been negative in the prior 2 years.  She mentioned her grandfather had died in an  “insane asylum” many years before Henry was born, but she did not know his diagnosis.

            On examination, Henry was tall, thin, and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He was alert and wary and, although nonspontaneous, he answered questions directly.  His affect was flat during the interview and he would often go on tangent and overelaborate on minor details.  He denied feeling depressed or confused.  Henry denied having any suicidal thoughts, plans, or attempts.  He denied having any auditory or visual hallucinations, panic attacks, obsessions, compulsions, or phobias.  His intellectual skills seemed above average and he had a perfect score on his Mental Status Examination.

Math & Music (Raw Data, Software Required):
There is a lot of interest in the relationship between studying music and studying math. We will look at some sample data that investigates this relationship. Below are the Math SAT scores from 8 students who studied music through high school and 11 students who did not. Test the claim that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not. Test this claim at the 0.05 significance level.

You should be able copy and paste the data directly into your software program.

(a) The claim is that the difference in population means is positive (μ₁ − μ₂ > 0). What type of test is this?

This is a left-tailed test.

This is a two-tailed test.    

This is a right-tailed test.
(b) Use software to calculate the test statistic. Do not 'pool' the variance. This means you do not assume equal variances.
Round your answer to 2 decimal places.

t =
(c) Use software to get the P-value of the test statistic. Round to 4 decimal places.
P-value =  
(d) What is the conclusion regarding the null hypothesis?

reject H₀

fail to reject H₀    
(e) Choose the appropriate concluding statement.

The data supports the claim that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not.

There is not enough data to support the claim that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not.    

We reject the claim that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not.

We have proven that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not.

A boarding school in your area has asked you to design a simple system so that they could easily identify the students who are staying in the hostel rooms as well as the wardens who are in charge of each student blocks.

Each staff may be in charge of guarding a hostel block. This is not permanent because after certain duration the staff will change blocks. The guarding duty is rotational and not all the staff are required to do this duty. So it is important to keep track of the staff number, staff name and staff contact number as well as the start date and end dates of their guarding duties. The block name and location must also be recorded.

Each hostel block will have many rooms. The room details will be room number and room level. A student can occupy a room but might change rooms in different school terms. A room can be occupied by many students but in different terms. Not all rooms in a hostel block is used for student occupancy. Some rooms are used as store rooms and pantry.

There are many clubs in the school. The clubs are important so that students can enroll in extra co-curricular activities. The school has made it a rule that each student must enroll in at least one club. A club will have many students enrolled as members. The club details will be club name, club established date and the club fee. When a student registers in a club, the date of enrollment must be recorded.

Each student in the school will be assigned under one academic staff. A staff may be in charge of looking after many students. Not all staff are assigned students. The administrative staff will not be assigned any students. Once a student is assigned under the care of a staff, it will be permanent until the day they end their studies in the school. It is very important to know which staff is assigned to which student. Student’s details such as student number, name, name of their guardian as well as the guardian’s contact number must be recorded in case they need to be contacted.

Based on the situation given above, draw a complete Entity Relationship Diagram using the Crow’s Foot notation which includes:

(i)

All entities and attributes

(ii)

Relationships

(iii)

Connectivity and relationship participation

(iv)

Primary and foreign keys

Overview of the Study: The data are based on a Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) Initiative that focused on the improvement of reading and writing for students in the primary grade. The school received a grant from the state which was used to strengthen classroom teachers’ instructional skills. The regression outputs present information for students in the school.

Description of the variables: Please use the following description/coding to help you in your analyses.

Gender: female; 1 male=0

EnrollmentStatus: 0 - Not General Education; 1 General Education Students

CSR Participant: 1 -Taught by a teacher who was part of the comprehensive school reform professional development experience;   0- taught by a teacher who was NOT part of the comprehensive school reform professional development experience

Reading score: Reading assessment score

STATISTICS QUESTIONS

Question 1: What is the impact of gender on writing vocabulary?

Question 2: What is the relative impact of gender and enrollment status on writing vocabulary?

Question 3:   How well does the linear combination of variables in Output 3 explain writing vocabulary?

Question 4:   Based on your answers to Questions 1 2, and 3; what are your recommendations to the school principal?

Regression 2 – Question 2

Variables Entered/Removed b Model Variables Entered Variables Removed Method dimension 0 1 Enrollment Status, Gendera . Enter a. All requested variables entered. b. Dependent Variable: Writing

Vocabulary Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate dimension0 1 .413a .171 .132 13.867 a. Predictors: (Constant), Enrollment Status, Gender

ANOVA b Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 1704.577 2 852.288 4.432 .018a Residual 8268.901 43 192.300 Total 9973.478 45 a. Predictors: (Constant), Enrollment Status, Gender b. Dependent Variable: Writing Vocabulary

Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 30.783 3.842 8.012 .000 Gender -10.388 4.093 -.353 -2.538 .015 Enrollment Status -6.930 4.157 -.232 -1.667 .025 a. Dependent Variable: Writing Vocabulary

Math & Music (Raw Data, Software Required):
There is a lot of interest in the relationship between studying music and studying math. We will look at some sample data that investigates this relationship. Below are the Math SAT scores from 8 students who studied music through high school and 11 students who did not. Test the claim that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not. Test this claim at the 0.05 significance level.

You should be able copy and paste the data directly into your software program.

(a) The claim is that the difference in population means is positive (μ₁ − μ₂ > 0). What type of test is this?

This is a left-tailed test.

This is a right-tailed test.    

This is a two-tailed test.

(b) Use software to calculate the test statistic. Do not 'pool' the variance. This means you do not assume equal variances.
Round your answer to 2 decimal places.

t =

(c) Use software to get the P-value of the test statistic. Round to 4 decimal places.
P-value =  

(d) What is the conclusion regarding the null hypothesis?

reject H₀

fail to reject H₀     

(e) Choose the appropriate concluding statement.

The data supports the claim that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not.

There is not enough data to support the claim that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not.     

We reject the claim that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not.

We have proven that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not.

Assignment #7: One-sample Chi-Square
Directions: Use the Chi-Square option in the Nonparametric Tests menu to answer the questions based on the following scenario. (Assume a level of significance of .05 and use information from the scenario to determine the expected frequencies for each category)

During the analysis of the district data, it was determined that one high school had substantially higher Graduate Exit Exam scores than the state average and the averages of high schools in the surrounding districts. To better understand possible reasons for this difference, the superintendent conducted several analyses. One analysis examined the population of students who completed the exam. Specifically, the superintendent wanted to know if the distribution of special education, regular education, and gifted/talented test takers from the local high school differed from the statewide distribution. The obtained data are provided below.

*For purposes of testing, special education includes any student who received accommodations during the exam.
1. If the student distribution for the local high school did not differ from the state, what would be the expected percentage of students in each category?
2. What were the actual percentages of local high school students in each category? (Report final answer to two decimal places)
3. State an appropriate null hypothesis for this analysis.
4. What is the value of the chi-square statistic?
5. What are the reported degrees of freedom?
6. What is the reported level of significance?
7. Based on the results of the one-sample chi-square test, was the population of test taking students at the local high school statistically significantly different from the statewide population?
8. Present the results as they might appear in an article. This must include a table and narrative statement that reports and interprets the results of the analysis.
Note: The table must be created using your word processing program. Tables that are copied and pasted from SPSS are not acceptable.

Math & Music (Raw Data, Software Required):
There is a lot of interest in the relationship between studying music and studying math. We will look at some sample data that investigates this relationship. Below are the Math SAT scores from 8 students who studied music through high school and 11 students who did not. Test the claim that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not. Test this claim at the 0.05 significance level.

You should be able copy and paste the data directly into your software program.

(a) The claim is that the difference in population means is positive (μ₁ − μ₂ > 0). What type of test is this?

This is a right-tailed test.

This is a left-tailed test.   

This is a two-tailed test.

(b) Use software to calculate the test statistic. Do not 'pool' the variance. This means you do not assume equal variances.
Round your answer to 2 decimal places.

t =

(c) Use software to get the P-value of the test statistic. Round to 4 decimal places.
P-value =

(d) What is the conclusion regarding the null hypothesis?

reject H₀

fail to reject H₀    

(e) Choose the appropriate concluding statement.

The data supports the claim that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not.

There is not enough data to support the claim that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not.  

We reject the claim that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not.

We have proven that students who study music in high school have a higher average Math SAT score than those who do not.