Sachs Brands' defined benefit pension plan specifies annual retirement benefits equal to: 1.5% × service years × final year's salary, payable at the end of each year. Angela Davenport was hired by Sachs at the beginning of 2004 and is expected to retire at the end of 2038 after 35 years' service. Her retirement is expected to span 18 years. Davenport's salary is $98,000 at the end of 2018 and the company's actuary projects her salary to be $320,000 at retirement. The actuary's discount rate is 8%.

1. What is the company's projected benefit obligation at the beginning of 2018 (after 14 years' service) with respect to Davenport?(Round your final answer to nearest whole dollar)

2.Estimate by the projected benefits approach the portion of Davenport's annual retirement payments attributable to 2018 service.

3.What is the company's service cost for 2018 with respect to Davenport?(Round your final answer to nearest whole dollar)

4.What is the company's interest cost for 2018 with respect to Davenport?(Round your final answer to nearest whole dollar)

5.Combine your answers to requirements 1, 3, and 4 to determine the company's projected benefit obligation at the end of 2018 (after 15 years' service) with respect to Davenport. (Round your final answer to nearest whole dollar)

Fruit flies, like almost all other living organisms, have built-in circadian rhythms that keep time even in the absence of external stimuli. Several genes have been shown to be involved in internal timekeeping, including per (period) and tim (timeless). Mutations in these two genes, and in other genes, disrupt timekeeping abilities. Interestingly, these genes have also been shown to be involved in other time-related behavior, such as the frequency of wingbeats in male courtship behaviors. Individuals that carry particular mutations of per and tim have been shown to copulate for longer than individuals that have neither mutation. But do these two mutations affect copulation time in similar ways? The following table summarizes some data on the duration of copulation for flies that carry either the tim mutation or the per mutation (Beaver and Giebultowicz 2004):

b) Do the populations carrying these mutations have different variances in copulation duration? Enter the calculated F-value.

c) Do the populations carrying these mutations have different variances in copulation duration? Finish this hypothesis test and describe your conclusion.

3.50

Passedix is a game of chance played with three fair dice. Players bet whether the sum of the faces shown on the dice will be above or below ten. During the late sixteenth century, the astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei was asked by the Grand Duke of Tuscany to explain why “the chance of throwing a 9 with three fair dice was less than that of throwing a 10.” (Interstat, Jan. 2004) The grand duke believed that the chance should be the same because “there are an equal number of partitions of the numbers 9 and 10.” Find the flaw in the Grand Duke’s reasoning and answer the question posed to Galileo. Hint: What the Grand Duke was saying is: There are six ways to get a 9: 1+2+6; 1+3+5; 1+4+4; 2+2+5; 2+3+4; 3+3+3. There are also six ways to get a 10: 1+3+6; 1+4+5; 2+2+6; 2+3+5; 2+4+4; 3+3+4. [10 pts] 3.56 Two fair dice are tossed, and the following events are defined: A: {Sum of the numbers showing is odd} B: {Sum of the numbers showing is 9, 11, or 12} Are events A and B independent? Why? [10 pts]

Matlab

Given an array of monthly rainfall that covers some number of years

(where each column is a month and each row is a year)

create a function YEARLY that prints the average rainfall for each year

For example, if the information below were to be stored in a 5x12 matrix RAIN...

     J F M A M J J A S O N D
2003 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
2004 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2005 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2006 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
2007 5 1 2 4 3 3 5 1 2 4 3 3

Then the function YEARLY(RAIN) would print the result

average rainfall for year 1 is 1.500000
average rainfall for year 2 is 1.000000
average rainfall for year 3 is 2.000000
average rainfall for year 4 is 2.000000
average rainfall for year 5 is 3.000000

Note that only the rain amounts (not the labels) are stored in the input array (RAIN).

De Beers, a diamond mining and distribution firm, is one of the most successful monopolies in history. The firm used numerous tactics to successfully control supply and demand. Read the article 'Here's why diamonds are so expensive' (Links to an external site.), and watch the video 'Why engagement rings are a scam' (Links to an external site.) [warning: contains strong language], and respond to the following prompts in a post with a minimum of 250 words. Feel free to bring in additional references to these reply posts. Using economic principles and models, explain how De Beers are able to set high prices for their diamonds? In recent times, rival firms in Canada, Australia, and Russia have found huge deposits of precious stones. What would happen to prices and supply of diamonds if De Beers allowed their competitors to enter the diamond market. Use economic principles and models to explain your answers. In 2004, De Beers was charged by the US Department of Justice for violating antitrust laws. What is the purpose of antitrust laws? What other kind of government policies exist in dealing with monopolies? Now that you have learned about De Beers and the diamond market, would you spend or expect your partner to spend two months of your/your partner's salary on an engagement ring? Explain your answer.

Case: Airport Authority

The Airport Authority (AA) has been under considerable pressure from the Regional Government to increase capacity at Changow Airport. Originally built fifty years ago as a small regional airport serving a population of 250000, Changow's single runway is at full capacity for 20 hours of the day. The region's population has climbed to over 5 million and much of this growth in air travel is due to the rapid economic expansion of the region from industry and tourism.

The options facing the AA are not attractive. To increase capacity at Changow presents some serious engineering problems on the only available land to the north, over which a new runway must be built. The problems are due to local geology and some regular flooding from the Hankse River delta flowing nearby. A residential population of about 1 million lives within an area of 15 kilometers to the north of the airport and they believe that their lives would be affected severely by a major new runway.

Moreover, economic developments close to the airport crowd right up to the southern boundary, which is the only suitable means of access from Changow city for a wider road. The land close to the east and west boundaries contains mainly high income residential properties, mixed with isolated green sites, containing rare natural plants, exotic birds and other small wildlife. The State Government recently designated some of these areas as ‘National Heritage Sites’.

The other option is to build a completely new airport at Fongow, at a distance of forty kilometers from Changow, in agricultural land, presently farmed by thousands of small holders, whose families have worked the land there for many generations. New access roads would be needed, plus, perhaps a railway system which would require many bridges and tunnels, and the airport would be close to high wooded hills. There are doubts about the operational feasibility of building an airport so far from the regional capital.

The local political representatives, all members of the governing coalition, favor expansion of Changow airport on the grounds of ‘national economic development’, ‘social progress’ and national pride. So does local business, which claims that the current airport is holding back economic expansion in the region. Airport passengers, business and tourist alike, are plagued by long delays to flights and missed connections, and traffic jams during access and egress/way out along the airport's single and inadequate southern road to Changow city.

Public disquiet/worry about proposals to expand Changow airport have surfaced and are attracting media interest. The main opposition comes from local residents around the airport, though they do not yet form a majority. On the southern boundary, people living along the main road to the airport oppose widening the road because this would mean demolishing many thousands of homes. People living just behind these houses oppose widening because this brings the new road right up to their properties. A ‘Homes Before Roads’ campaign is underway.

People to the north oppose a new airport runway because of the impact during construction and afterwards on the residents who would have to move to make way for it, and on those left behind, who would be near aircraft taking off and landing. A ‘Hands off the Hankse’ campaign has been formed.

1. Summarize the main finding(s) of the case.

How a Welsh jeans firm became a cult global brand

With a look of concentration on her face, a worker guides the sheet of denim through the sewing machine, and a pair of jeans starts to take shape.

As the needle goes up and down in a blur of movement and rattling noise, a line of stitching starts to form a neat trouser leg.

When most people think about the global fashion industry it is safe to say that a sleepy town in far west Wales does not immediately spring to mind.

Yet Cardigan, on Wales' Irish Sea coast, has for the past five years been home to a high-end jeans-maker - the Hiut Denim Company.

Beloved by a growing number of fashionistas from New York to Paris, and London to Melbourne, Hiut ships its expensive jeans around the world.

As orders arrive via its website, Hiut's workforce of just 15 people gets to work hand-cutting and sewing the trousers from giant rolls of indigo-coloured denim that the company imports from Turkey and Japan.

Despite only making around 120 pairs of jeans a week, founder and owner David Hieatt has big ambitions to expand.

While it may seem a little incongruous that a posh jeans business is based in west Wales, Cardigan (population 4,000) actually has a long history of jeans-making.

For almost 40 years the town was home to a factory that made 35,000 pairs of jeans each week for UK retailer Marks & Spencer. But in 2002 the facility closed with the loss of 400 jobs when production was moved to Morocco to cut costs.

Fast forward 10 years, and when Mr Hieatt - a proud Welshman - was looking to open a factory to start making jeans, he chose Cardigan. The company name is a combination of the first two letters of Mr Hieatt's surname and the word "utility".

"Where better to locate ourselves than in a town with a history of jeans-making, where the expertise remains?" he says.

Employing machinists who had previously worked in the old factory and not lost their years of jeans-making skills, Mr Hieatt says he was confident that Hiut could be successful if it concentrated on selling directly to consumers around the world via its website.

"Without the internet we'd have been dead within 12 weeks," he says. "But the internet has changed only everything. The internet allows us to sell direct and keep the [profit] margin... it enables us to compete."

Now exporting 25% of its jeans, it takes Hiut about one hour and 10 minutes to make one pair, compared with 11 minutes at a highly mechanised jeans industry giant.

And rather than staff doing just one part of the manufacturing process, such as sewing on the pockets, each machinist at Hiut makes a pair of jeans from start to finish.

Mr Hieatt refers to the workers as "grand masters". This is in reference to the fact that some of them have more than 40 years of jeans-making experience, and new joiners have to train for three years before they can start making jeans for customers.

In running Hiut Mr Hieatt and his co-owner, wife Clare, have benefited from their experience of previously owning a clothing firm called Howies, which they sold to US firm Timberland for £3.2m in 2011.

But what has also been invaluable is Mr Hieatt's previous career working in advertising.

This advertising nous has enabled him to very effectively market and promote Hiut, from its snazzy website, to its extensive use of social media; both adverts in people's Facebook feeds and arty photos of people wearing its jeans.

"The interesting thing about social media for me is that up until Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and SnapChat you had to have a huge budget in order to tell your story," he says.

"In effect you were locked out of telling that story because the costs [of advertising and wider marketing] were too high. But social media has actually allowed the smaller maker [small firms that manufacture things] to go and tell his story.

"And actually, if David wants to beat Goliath, the best tool in the world is social media."

Mr Hieatt also sends out free jeans to what he calls "influencers", either fashion bloggers or famous people, in the hope that they will write or talk positively about the brand.

Successful examples of this have been an increase in orders from Denmark after Hiut sent a pair of its jeans to celebrated Danish chef Rene Redzepi, and also UK TV presenter Anthony McPartlin of the duo Ant & Dec tweeting about the company.

As Hiut continues to win overseas orders for its jeans costing up to £230 ($300) a pair, Mr Hieatt admits that one negative issue the company has to deal with is a return rate of "about 14%" - people sending them back because they don't fit.

To counter this problem Hiut is exploring using technology that can accurately tell from a photo a person's perfect jeans size.

Dr Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas, fashion marketing course leader at London College of Fashion, says that if Hiut wants to expand its overseas sales it needs to "have the website in different languages" and consider partnerships that will see its jeans listed on other websites.

Back at Hiut's small factory on the edge of Cardigan, Mr Hieatt says the long-term aim remains to recreate 400 jeans-making jobs in the town.

"Our aim is to get 400 people their jobs back. If you ask me when is that going to happen, the honest answer is I don't know.

"But I believe in compound interest. Small things over time gather huge numbers."

QUESTION:

What international marketing strategy would you recommend to the firm?

The 2019 list of the 15 largest banks in the world by assets:

A. Compute the median and the mean assets from this group.

B. Which of these two measures do you think is most appropriate for summarizing these data and why?

C. What is the value of Q2 and Q3?

D. Determine the 63rd percentile for the data.

E. Determine the 29th percentile for the data

F. Build a box plot for 2019 and compare with 2018.

For Part F: The 2018 list of the 15 largest banks in the world by assets: