"Freshman 15": Fact or Fantasy? BOSTON Along with all of the typical "back-to-school" hype about lunch boxes and school buses, each September is typically greeted with media reports and advice about the "freshman 15," which is the popular name given to the phenomenon of first-year college students gaining 15 pounds during their freshman year. But does this 15 pound weight gain actually occur, or is it simply a myth? Carole Nhu'y Hodge, Linda Jackson, and Linda Sullivan are Michigan State University researchers who conducted their own investigation. They studied 61 Michigan State female students who took an introductory psychology course. The volunteers, who were given extra credit for participation in the experiment, were weighed at the beginning of their freshman year and at a point in time six month later. Among their findings reported in Psychology of Women Quarterly : "Body weight at the beginning of the first college year (Time 1) was compared with weight approximately 6 months later (Time 2). Average weight at Time 2, 131.45 lb (59.62 kg), was no different from average weight at Time 1, 130.57 lb (59.23 kg)." They also state that "Our findings suggest it (the 15-lb weight gain)is fantasy, although additional research is needed before drawing firm conclusions."

The Assignment:

Answer the following:

1. What do the researchers infer when they say that there is "no difference" between the mean weight at Time 1 (130.57 lb) and the mean weight at Time 2 (131.45lb), when there is an apparent difference of 0.88-lb?
2. What are the limitations of this particular study? That is, if the sample data are used to make inferences about a population, identify the specific population in question.
3. Identify any aspects of the experiment that could potentially threaten the validity of the results.
4. Identify a possible null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis for this experiment.
5. Your submission is to be a well-written grammatically correct response.

9.   Columbia won’t discriminate on the basis of religious belief. Historically, some creeds have been singled out more than others for abuse, but one that’s not often found on the list of mistreatment is Haitian Voodoo. Houngan Hector of New Jersey identifies himself as an asogwepriest of Haitian voodoo. His story is interesting. He claims to have been hit by an ancestor at the age of seven, and so began his spiritual journey. Eventually, it led Houngan Hector to perform spiritual cleansings for money. They haven’t always gone well. According to this newspaper story in the Philadelphia Daily News: “Lucille Hamilton paid $621 to have her ‘spiritual grime’ removed by voodoo high priest Houngan Hector in an ordinary townhouse in Camden County. Hamilton, 21, a male living as a woman, flew in on Friday from her home in Little Rock, Arkansas to take part in the three-day spiritual cleansing. By Saturday night Hamilton was dead, and authorities are awaiting results of an autopsy and toxicology tests to determine exactly what happened.”[1]

Here’s Houngan Hector’s advertisement for his services on his MySpace page, as it was reported in Odd Culture: “I have over 15 years of experience helping individuals resolve their issues, and well over 9 years of helping people through the means of the Haitian Voodoo tradition. Having gotten individuals out of jail, brought lovers back, and improved people’s financial situation, I keep myself humble remembering it is not I who does it. It is God and Ginen who resolves.” [2]

The three basic ethical arguments against discrimination (and, in this case, discrimination based on personal religious belief) are fairness, rights, and utilitarianism.

• Choose one and make the case that Houngan Hector—who was never charged with any crime—should be treated like any other applicant for a job at Columbia University.
• Can any of the three arguments be used to show that discriminating against Haitian voodoo believers is ethically acceptable, even recommendable?

the subject of human resources management

Kinaxis is a software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, that sells to clients around the world. Its specialty is software for supply chain management – all the processes and relationships through which companies obtain supplies as needed and get their products to customers on time and at minimal cost. This is a sophisticated type of product, tailored to a company’s specific needs. Therefore, depends on salespeople who understands how businesses work, who listen carefully to identify needs, and who provide excellent customer service to maintain long-term business relationships. Recently, Bob Dolan, Vice President for sales at Kinaxis, needed to hire a sales team to serve clients in North America. The company had just one salesperson serving the continent, and Dolan wanted to add four more. He received about 100 resumes and wanted to select from these. He started by reviewing the resumes against job requirements and selected 20 candidates for a first round of interviews. The interview process helped Dolan cut the list of candidates in half, so he needed another way to narrow his options.

Dolan decided his next step would be personality testing. He hired a firm called Opus Productivity Solutions to administer a test called PDP ProScan to remaining 10 candidates. In addition, Dolan himself took the test and had his current sales rep do the same. The existing salesperson was doing an excellent job, so the results of his test could help Dolan and Opus pinpoint the characteristics of someone likely to succeed in sales at Kinaxis. Based an analysis of all the results, Opus created a benchmark of traits associated with success in the job. Representatives from Opus also discussed the test results with each candidate, giving each one a chance to disagree with the scores. No one did. Dolan observed that all the candidates scored high in assertiveness and extroversion – not surprising for people in sales. In addition, two of them scored above the benchmark in conformity and below the benchmark in dominance. Those results suggested to Dolan that these candidates might be so eager to please that they would be quick to give in to whatever customers requested – a pattern that could become costly for the company.

Dolan eliminated those two candidates. That meant Dolan still had eight candidates to fill four positions. He asked each one to give him the names of major accounts he or she had signed up in the previous two years. Four candidates were able to come up with three or four large clients. Those were the candidates Dolan hired. Since then Dolan says his experience with personality testing has only reinforced his belief that this selection method helps Kinaxis identify the best candidates. For Example, one sales rep had scored low on “pace”, indicating that the individual might lack the patience needed for the slow cycles required to close a sale of a complex software system. Dolan hoped the issue could be overcome if he provided enough coaching, but in fact, the sales rep sometimes behaved impatiently, annoying prospects. After three years of trying to help him grow into the job, Dolan laid him off.

The company’s commitment to careful selection is expressed on its website: “As a growing and determined company, we’re always looking for people eager to push the limits each day of what’s possible”. Kinaxis was recently named one of Canada’s top employees for young people.

Discussion questions:

1. What selection methods did Bob Dolan use for hiring salespeople? Did he go about using these methods in the best order? What if anything, would you change about the order of the methods?

(at least 1 page)       

2. Given the information gathered from the selection methods, what process did Dolan use to make his selection decision? What improvements can you recommend to this process for decisions to hire sales reps in the future? (at least 1 page)       

please do not copy from the internet I needed unique ans

13. Actual costs must be captured at the control account level.

True

False

14. The safety inspector is testing 10 car seats for every 1000 car seats being produced. What earned value technique is the project using for this aspect of the project? (no multiple choice)

15. The 0/100 earned value technique has earned value when the task

has started

has been apportioned

has been completed

has some actual cost that can be associated with it

16. Which is true of earned value?

It is the actual cost plus the planned cost.

It is usually equal to the actual cost.

It is the work performed when compared to the actual cost of the work.

It is 100% of the completed tasks's budget

17. The software development work package starts on March 1st and will end during September of the same year. What earned value technique would not be advisable for this work package,

Percent complete

50/50 technique

Units complete

Equivalent units

1. Suppose the initial Brazilian real to US dollar exchange rate is 4 reals (or “reais”) to 1 US dollar. The cost to buy a specified market basket of same quality products is $500,000 in the U.S. and R$1,400,000 in Brazil. Valued in U.S. dollar terms, the market basket in Brazil costs $350,000. (This market basket cost represents the combined price of thousands of products, and so also indicates an average price for those products.)

(e) Product prices in the U.S. and Brazil have changed. Using the prices in domestic currencies

for the two countries, does the ratio of Brazilian market basket price US market basket price (brazilian market basket price/ us market basket price) move toward or away from the initial nominal exchange rate?

· For (e and j), use the (Brazilian price/US price) ratio so as to match the (Brazilian reals/US dollar) ratio.

(f) There has been a change in the amount of imports that Brazilian firms (wholesalers, retailers etc.) buy. With this change in the buying of foreign products, what happens to the supply of Brazilian reals in foreign exchange markets? (Compared to the previous period, for example.)

(g) What happens to the price (strength, value) of the Brazilian real?

(h) There has been a change in the amount of imports that American firms (wholesalers, retailers etc.) buy. With this change in the buying of foreign products, what happens to the supply of American dollars in foreign exchange markets? (Compared to the previous period, for example.)

Write a letter to the operations manager of your company who has omitted important procedures in operations. You work as a manufacturing operations analyst in an aerospace company

1.What is the brief history of the fortune 500 company Costco. Who is the founder? Where? When?

2. Do an. internal analysis of the company.(SWOT, etc)

Note: The advertising, telephone, and electricity expenses are debited to miscellaneous expense since there are no separate expense accounts provided for the same.

Prepare an income statement, a retained earnings statement, and a balance sheet.

If an answer is zero, enter "0".

9. Journalize the closing entries on Page 4 of the journal. (Do not insert the account numbers in the journal at this time.) Post the closing entries to the general ledger in the spreadsheet. Then go back and enter the appropriate posting references in the journal. (Income Summary is account #34 in the chart of accounts.)

For a compound transaction, if an amount box does not require an entry, leave it blank.

10. Prepare a post-closing trial balance. List the accounts in order by type: Assets, Liablities, Capital, Dividends, Revenue, and Expenses. If an amount box does not require an entry, leave it blank.

Gopher Gulch Corp. is a little two-store retailer operating in a local market. Its problem is that one store in the company is losing money while the other one is making money, based on company financial reports, causing the company as a whole to lose money. The most recent income statement for Gopher Gulch Corp. is given below:

                                      Store 1                       Store 2                           Total
Sales                                        $976,000                  $1,145,000                     $2,121,000

Variable costs                         (593,000)                     (685,000)                    (1,278,000)
Contribution margin                383,000                     460,000                          843,000

Traceable fixed costs            (470,000)                     (269,000)                        (739,000)

Store segment margin             ( 87,000)                    191,000                           104,000
Common fixed costs               (116,000)                       (85,000)                         (201,000)

Net operating income (loss)   $(203,000)                   $ 106,000                      $ (97,000)

Because of its poor showing, Gopher Gulch Corp. officials are considering closing Store 1. However, management and the workers at Store 1 say, “Not so fast!” A study by a consultant hired by Gopher Gulch Corp. officials show that if Store 1 is closed, 39 percent of its traceable fixed costs will continue unchanged. The study also shows that closing Store 1 would result in a 28 percent decrease in sales in Store 2. The company allocates common fixed costs, such as your corporate officials’ salaries and advertising costs, to the stores on the basis of square footage of the stores. Management and workers at Store 1 claim that Store 1 is being unfairly targeted for closure.

Your uncle, the CEO of Gopher Gulch Corp., knows that you are a student in the prestigious Delta State University Integrated Master of Business Administration (IMBA) Program, and so has turned to you for advice on what to do.

Required

• Compute Gopher Gulch Corp’s total net operating income (loss) if Store 1 is closed. (Hint: The answer will entail determining the lost contribution margins for Store 1 and Store 2 offset by the amount of fixed costs shed by closing Store 1. Pay close attention to the percentages listed above.)

• Compare the total net income (loss) when the two stores are open with the total net operating income (loss) when only Store 2 is open. Is the total net operating income greater (total net operating loss smaller) when two stores are open or when only Store 2 is open?

• Based on your calculations above, what should you tell your uncle regarding Store 1? In other words, should Store 1 be closed or do store management and workers have a basis for their claims and both stores should remain open?

• Given the profit or loss overall for the company, what is your recommendation to your uncle regarding the capital invested in Gopher Gulch Corp.? In other words, “eyeball” the value of the assets of the company versus the profit (loss) generated by those assets. Should the company continue to operate one (or both) stores, or should the company get what money it can for the assets and invest that money elsewhere (such as in another business, bonds, stocks, T-bills, etc.)?

Ok, you are this “hotshot” turn-around specialist who will soon have a Delta State University IMBA degree. For you to turn around your uncle’s company as a retail operation, you must get a handle on the company’s costs -- variable, traceable fixed, and common fixed.

Required

• Variable costs for each store individually is what percentage of that store’s sales revenue?

• Total fixed costs for each store individually is what percentage of total sales revenue for that store?

• Do fixed costs for each store individually appear to be reasonable, unreasonable, or cannot be determined. Explain your answer.

• Is net operating income as a percentage of sales revenue for Store 2 “reasonable?” Explain your answer.

• Traceable fixed costs for each store individually is what percentage of the individual store’s sales revenue?

• What percentage of total company sales revenue does each store provide?

• What percentage total common fixed costs for Gopher Gulch Corp. is charged individually to each of the stores?

• Does the allocation of common fixed costs to each store appear to be equitable in light of the sales revenue generated individually by each store?

• On what basis do you believe that common costs should be allocated in Gopher Gulch Corp.? (Be specific.)

• Based on your review of various costs for each of the stores individually, why do you think Store 1 has a net operating loss?

• As a turnaround specialist, what steps do you recommend to turn Gopher Gulch Corp. around into a profitable retail company? (Be specific.)

• Do the costs relative to sales revenue appear to your “practiced professional eye” to be excessive, low, or within a “reasonable range”?

• Analyze the distribution of the costs between the two stores. Do you see anything that seems awry?

• What effect does what you identified in the question immediately before this one have on determination of store operating costs?

• In answering the questions above, you have examined sales revenue, various categories of cost, costs relative to sales revenue, the distribution of costs between stores, and the contribution margins of each store. After doing all of these analyses, what is your advice to your uncle on how best to make Gopher Gulch Corp. profitable, or is that not even possible?