Imagine that you are preparing taxes for a local tax service provider. A married couple named Judy and Walter Townson have come to you to seeking assistance with their federal income taxes. During your meeting with the Townsons, you gather the following information:

• They are both 55 years of age.
• They have two daughters and one son. One daughter (age 25) is married with children. One daughter (age 20) is living at home and attending college. Their son (age 16) is a junior in high school.
• They are currently paying for their college-student daughter to attend school full time.
• Judy is employed as a teacher and makes $60,000 a year. She used $500 of her personal funds to purchase books and other supplies for her classroom.
• Walter is employed as a CPA and makes $100,000 a year.
• They provided you a 1099-INT which reported $4,500 in interest, of which $500 was savings bond interest.
• They provided you a 1099-DIV which reported $300 in dividends.
• They received a state tax refund last year of $385.
• They provided you a list of expenses including:
  • Doctor’s bills, $800
  • Prescriptions, $400
  • New glasses, $2,000
  • Dental bills, $560
  • Braces, $5,000
  • Property taxes for their two cars of $800, which included $50 in decal fees
  • Real estate taxes of $4,500
  • Mortgage interest of $12,000
  • Gifts to charities, $1,000
  • GoFundMe contribution to local family in need, $100
  • Tax preparation fees for last year’s taxes, $400

Consider the most beneficial way for Judy and Walter to file their federal income tax return. Prepare a brief written summary that addresses the following:

1. Estimated taxable income for Judy and Walter (please show computations).
2. Summary of tax return, including any suggestions or tax planning considerations.
3. Explain how you determined the filing status, dependents, and use of standard/itemized deduction.

You assume college students will mostly purchase cookies. You plan to sell individual cookies in store for $2 per cookie or $24 per dozen. It costs $2 to make a dozen cookies, and you figure college students will purchase 72 cookies per year each of their four years in school. To be conservative, you assume a 50% retention rate. You think you will spend $0.40 per student per year on retention costs.

For care packages, you plan to charge $30 per dozen cookies and figure parents will purchase 2 care packages per year (once each semester) over the four years the child is in school. You assume a 60% retention rate. Costs to make the cookies are the same as for the college market ($2 per dozen), but there is an additional $1 per dozen in packaging and delivery costs. You think you will spend $0.25 per parent per year on retention costs.

For cakes, you plan to initially offer just one-sized cake for $60. It costs $20 to make the cake. You think clients will be quite loyal and estimate an 80% retention rate with clients purchasing 1 cake in the first year and 3 cakes each subsequent year. You plan to spend $2 per client in retention costs and use a 4-year lifetime to maintain consistency with the other markets.

You plan to spend $100 in upfront marketing costs to acquire new customers. You figure this will come out to about $1 per student for the college market, $5 per client for the parent (care package) market, and $20 per client for the special occasion cake (local) market.

Given these numbers and assuming an 8% discount rate, what is the customer lifetime value of a customer in each target market? Round your answer to the nearest 100th (i.e., use 2 decimal places) and show your work.

Once upon a time a new hotel manager, whose staff was responsible for selling banquets and hotel packages, was highly motivated to take advantage of a year-end bonus program for managers. In order to win the bonus, he needed to bring in new business so he decided to initiate a contest for his sales agents. He announced that he would pay $100 to the agent who had brought in the most new clients by the end of the month. He then sat back in his chair to await the results and decide how he would spend his bonus money. While visions of bonuses danced through his head, his sales agents were busily belly-aching for the following reasons:

(1) They were used to working as a team and resented being encouraged to compete against each other.
(2) In the manager's last contest, a new sales agent had reportedly cheated and "stole" new clients from the old-timers.
(3) The winner of the last contest was paid the prize money several months late, only after she had "shaken" it out of the sales manager.
(4) One sales agent's position had been cut, so the agents felt they were already operating beyond full capacity and working extra hours.
(5) The sales manager had not endeared himself to the agents, and they felt he was just using them to get his bonus.
(6) The sales agents felt as if they were being manipulated and perceivd the $100 bonus as an insult.

Not surprisingly, then, the sales agents decided to ignore the contest. The sales manger was angry when he saw the low level of new business at the end of the month and concluded that the agents were lazy. He told them they were unprofessional and complained about them at staff meetings so that soon everyone in the organization had heard about their "laziness." Old-timers who knew better scratched their heads because they remembered how hard the sales agents used to work before the new manager was hired. Within a few months, some of the agents quit and went to work for a competitor.

Questions:

(1) Should this manager go back to school and learn about the theories of motivation? What mistakes did he make?

(2) Which motivation theories apply to this case? Explain your answer. Does Expectancy Theory apply, and if so, how (explain)? What about Reinforcement Theory or Self-Determination Theory? Be sure to explain your answers.

(3) What do you think the sales manager should have done to try to motivate his sales agents? Relate your motivational strategies to the theories that we have discussed in class.

On December 31 of last year, Lauren burst into the family living room and announced that she and Connor (her college boyfriend) were going to be married. After recovering

from the shock, her mother hugged her and asked, “When?” The following conversation resulted:

Lauren: January 21.

Mom: What?

Dad: The Now Wedding will be the social hit of the year. Wait a minute. Why so soon?

Lauren: Because on January 30 Connor, who is in the National Guard, will be shipping out overseas. We want a week for a honeymoon.

Mom: But Honey, we can't possibly finish all the things that need to be done by then. Remember all the details that were involved in your sister's wedding?

Even if we start tomorrow, it takes a day to reserve the church and reception hall, and they need at least 14 days' notice. That has to be done before we can start decorating, which takes 3 days. An extra $200 on Sunday would probably cut that 14 day notice to 7 days, though.

Dad: Oh, boy!

Lauren: I want Jane Summers to be my maid of honor.

Dad: But she's in the Peace Corps in Guatemala, isn't she? It would take her 10

days to get ready and drive up here.

Lauren: But we could fly her up in 2 days and it would only cost $1,000.

Dad: Oh, boy!

Mom: And catering! It takes 2 days to choose the cake and decorations, and Jack's Catering wants at least 5 days' notice. Besides, we'd have to have those things before we could start decorating.

Lauren: Can I wear your wedding dress, Mom?

Mom: Well, we'd have to replace some lace, but you could wear it, yes. We could order the lace from New York when we order the material for the bridesmaids' dresses. It takes 8 days to order and receive the material. The pattern needs to be chosen first, and that would take 3 days.

Dad: We could get the material here in 5 days if we paid an extra $20 to airfreight it. Oh, boy!

Lauren: I want Mrs. Jacks to work on the dresses.

Mom: But she charges $48 a day.

Dad: Oh, boy!

Mom: If we did all the sewing we could finish the dresses in 11 days. If Mrs. Jacks helped we could cut that down to 6 days at a cost of $48 for each day less than 11 days. She is very good too.

Lauren: I don't want anyone but her.

Mom: It would take another 2 days to do the final fitting and 2 more days to clean and press the dresses. They would have to be ready by rehearsal night. We must have rehearsal the night before the wedding.

Dad: Everything should be ready rehearsal night.

Mom: We've forgotten something. The invitations!

Dad: We should order the invitations from Bob's Printing Shop, and that usually takes 7 days. I'll bet he would do it in 6 days if we slipped him an extra $20!

Mom: It would take us 2 days to choose the invitation style before we could order them and we want the envelopes printed with our return address.

Lauren: Oh! That will be elegant.

Mom: The invitations should go out at least 10 days before the wedding. If we let them go any later, some of the relatives would get theirs too late to come and that would make them mad. I'll bet that if we didn't get them out until 8 days before the wedding, Aunt Ethel couldn't make it and she would reduce her wedding gift by $200.

Dad: Oh, boy!!

Mom: We'll have to take them to the Post Office to mail them and that takes a day. Addressing would take 3 days unless we hired some part-time girls and we can't start until the printer is finished. If we hired the girls we could probably save 2 days by spending $40 for each day saved.

Lauren: We need to get gifts for the bridesmaids. I could spend a day and do that.

Mom: Before we can even start to write out those invitations we need a guest list. Heavens, that will take 4 days to get in order and only I can understand our address file.

Lauren: Oh, Mom, I'm so excited. We can start each of the relatives on a different job.

Mom: Honey, I don't see how we can do it. Why, I've got to choose the invitations and patterns and reserve the church and . . .

Dad: Why don't you just take $3,000 and elope. Your sister's wedding cost me $2,400 and she didn't have to fly people up from Guatemala, hire extra girls and Mrs. Jacks, use airfreight, or anything like that.

• Using the time estimates offered in the case create a simple timeline/schedule. This need not be detailed, just the basics are sufficient.

Brenna and her lifelong friend Megan are catching up on the latest in each other's lives, and they are discussing how shocked they were to hear about the deaths of two of their high school classmates. Now in their late forties, Brenna and Megan have both had families and their own personal share of health issues, but no one they know in their age group has had cancer before. They feel like they're still "too young" to know people their age who pass away, let alone from cancer.

1. Megan expresses her fears about developing cancer. She tells Brenna how cancer runs in her family, with family members on both sides having had a cancer diagnosis before. Megan is paranoid that this fear is starting to take over her life because she is constantly reading about ways to prevent cancer. One of the topics that keeps getting brought up in her readings is healthy eating and foods that may cause cancer.

Which of the following is considered to be part of a "carcinogenic diet"?

2. Reflecting on what has happened to many of their classmates, Megan and Brenna realize how healthy they are compared to the majority of their graduating class. Both struggled with celiac disease and endometriosis in their twenties and early thirties, but through diet and lifestyle, they were able to manage and minimize their conditions. Neither has had a major health problem in over 16 years.

Brenna and Megan's nutritional health could be defined as what according to the Continuum of Nutritional Health?

3. Brenna and Brett's girls are now in high school. Their parents have always taught them to "choose the rainbow" in order to consume a variety of nutrients in their diet. One day, Silvia asks her mom, "Why do we even have to do this? I hate fruit." Brenna explains that certain compounds in many plant-based foods have been shown to reduce chronic disease risk.

Which of the following compounds is she talking about?

5. Brenna says that she has been keeping up with her vitamin D supplements and, after reading a recent article online, she has also been eating foods with lots of vitamins A and E, as they are both rich in antioxidants. Brenna rattles off several awesome health benefits of getting these nutrients from food. Then she lets Megan know that the real promoting factor in eating foods rich in these nutrients is that they "help keep you looking pretty longer. Why give that up a day sooner than need be?"

Which of the following are roles of vitamin E?

6. Brenna and Megan have been very busy for the past decade taking care of their growing children. They are now hoping to look after themselves a bit more. They decide to partner up and make New Year's resolutions about living a healthier lifestyle, in particular regarding the Physical Activity Guidelines.

Which goal matches the Physical Activity Guidelines?

Designs for comparing means using College Board data on SAT scores. Please write the null and alternative hypotheses such that it is clear we are testing which of the following: 1) a single mean versus a claim in null hypothesis, 2) Means from two independent samples, or 3) Means from matched pairs. Also state the degrees of freedom associated with the t-test. (2 points for correct hypotheses, 1 point for df)

a.) The college board aims to achieve a mean of 500 on the Math section of the SAT each year. A researcher randomly selects 50 Math SAT scores from Fort Collins college-bound seniors to see if the Fort Collins mean is different than 500.

b.) A researcher randomly selects 23 male Math SAT scores and 29 female Math SAT scores from Fort Collins college-bound seniors to see if their means are different.

c.) A researcher randomly selects 26 Math SAT scores from one Fort Collins high-school and 21 scores from another Fort Collins high-school and tests for a difference between means.

d.) A researcher randomly selects 25 SAT scores and tests for a difference between the mean of the Math SAT and the mean of the Critical Reading SAT score.

e.) A researcher randomly selects 20 high-schools across Colorado and then randomly selects 2 male Math SAT scores from each school to test for a difference in the overall mean with the national average for males.

1.       A study showed that in a certain month, the mean time spent per visit to Facebook was 19.5 minutes. Assumes the standard deviation of the population is 8 minutes. Suppose that a simple random sample of 100 visits in that month has a sample mean of 21.52 minutes. A social scientist is interested in knowing whether the mean time of Facebook visits has increased. Perform the hypothesis test and compute the P-value.

Based on the P value, what is the conclusion we test at 0.05 level significance?

2.       A random sample of 64 second graders in a certain school district are given a standardized mathematics skills test. The sample mean score is 51.58. Assume the standard deviation for the population of test scores is 15. The nationwide average score on this test us 50. The school superintendent wants to know whether the second graders in her school district have greater math skills than the nationwide average. Perform the hypothesis test and compute the P value.

Based on your P value, what is the conclusion if we test at 0.05 level of significance?

3.       Suppose that the mean price of a home in Denver, Colorado in 2008 was 225.3 thousand dollars. A random sample of 49 homes sold in 2010 had a mean price of 200.1 thousand dollars. A real estate firm wants to test to see if the mean price of 2010 differs from the mean price in 2008. Assume that the population standard deviation is 140. Perform the hypothesis test and compute the P value.

Based on your P value, what is the conclusion if we test at the 0.05 level of significance?

The accompanying table lists a random selection of usual travel times to​ school, in​ minutes, for 40 secondary school students in country A. A second selection of usual travel times to​ school, in​ minutes, was randomly selected for 40 students in country B. Complete parts​ a) and​ b).

Sample Country A   Sample Country B
45   29
5   10
4   9
14   30
50   5
21   8
21   7
19   15
21   10
21   36
24   16
36   10
14   24
29   22
19   20
11   26
45   29
10   10
2   25
60   7
24   15
19   19
5   25
16   15
5   10
15   26
18   5
30   2
40   4
20   25
11   20
30   14
10   48
14   21
20   20
10   12
14   19
16   5
10   14
24   11

Calculate the test statistic.

t = _ ?

​(Round to two decimal places as​ needed.)

Calculate the degrees of freedom.

df = _ ?

Determine the​ P-value.

P-value = _ ?

​(Round to four decimal places as​ needed.)

Make a conclusion.

Comparing the​ P-value to the level of​ significance, a = ​0.05, the decision is to (reject/fail to reject) the null hypothesis. There (is/is not) sufficient evidence to conclude that​ students' travel times in each country are (same/different).

Construct a​ 95% confidence interval for​(μ1−μ2​).

( _ , _ )

​b) Are your​ P-value and confidence level in part​ a) trustworthy?

yes or no

A statistics professor asked his class to use the following chart to first, determine what statistic method should be used. Two, answer the following information: Step 1: State the point estimate Step Two: State the null and alternative hypothesis Step 3: Label a diagram with the approperiate tails and critical values Step 4: Calculate the test statistics, Step five: State the conclusion

How does one's high school grade point adverage affect the potential earning for males and females?

1. Jenny wants to know which college among the 3 she has attended that is best. In fact, she visited each school this past week. To answer her question, she asked five people at each school to rate how awesome their school is on a scale from 1 to 20, with 20 being the most awesome score possible. The results are below.

DATA:
University of Minnesota:
10
12
14
13
11

Cal State University, Fullerton:
18
20
19
18
17

Irvine Valley College:
18
20
19
20
17

a. State the null and alternative hypotheses.

b. Conduct an ANOVA, showing all your work for each step, and then also report your answers in an ANOVA table like the one below. You need to show both the work for the answers you will present in the table and then also present the completed table itself.

c. Use a Type I error rate of α (alpha) = 0.05, look up your critical F-value.

d. What do you conclude regarding the null hypothesis? Would the p-value be bigger or smaller than alpha?

e. What do you conclude about your research question (use your own words, in everyday language)?

f. Conduct and interpret follow-up t-tests for this ANOVA analysis, including an overall interpretation of the results.