Situational Software Co. (SSC) is trying to establish its optimal capital structure. Its current capital structure consists of 25% debt and 75% equity; however, the CEO believes that the firm should use more debt. The risk-free rate, r_RF, is 4%; the market risk premium, RP_M, is 6%; and the firm's tax rate is 40%. Currently, SSC's cost of equity is 12%, which is determined by the CAPM. The data has been collected in the Microsoft Excel Online file below. Open the spreadsheet and perform the required analysis to answer the question below.

What would be SSC's estimated cost of equity if it changed its capital structure to 50% debt and 50% equity? Round your answer to two decimal places. Do not round intermediate steps.

Suppose you buy a straddle by purchasing one Clearwire August $50 call option contract quoted at $4 and also purchasing one Clearwire August $50 put option contract quoted at $5, where $50 is the strike price for both options. The two options have the same expiration date. (a)(6 points) If the Clearwire stock price is $30 at expiration, what is yourpayoff from the call option, your payoff from the put option, and yourtotal payoff from the straddle? What is your profit (loss)?(b)(6 points) If the Clearwire stock price is $60 at expiration, what is your payoff from the call option, your payoff from the put option, and yourtotal payoff from the straddle? What is your profit (loss)?

This basic problem is a practical application of if-statement(s).

Write a function called bolt_check that takes one scalar input argument and returns one scalar output argument. The input represents the measured length of a machine screw during the quality-assurance phase of its manufacturing. The purpose of the function is to categorize the measured length into one of six categories. If the measured length is within two percent of one of its five nominal lengths-- 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, or 1 (inch), then the nominal length is returned. Otherwise 0 is returned, signifying that the bolt failed the test. You may find that the built-in function abs for absolute value is useful for this problem.

You may submit your work as many times as you want. Try to get 100%!

This basic problem is a practical application of if-statement(s).

Write a function called bolt_check that takes one scalar input argument and returns one scalar output argument. The input represents the measured length of a machine screw during the quality-assurance phase of its manufacturing. The purpose of the function is to categorize the measured length into one of six categories. If the measured length is within two percent of one of its five nominal lengths-- 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, or 1 (inch), then the nominal length is returned. Otherwise 0 is returned, signifying that the bolt failed the test. You may find that the built-in function abs for absolute value is useful for this problem.

You may submit your work as many times as you want. Try to get 100%!

This basic problem is a practical application of if-statement(s).

Write a function called bolt_check that takes one scalar input argument and returns one scalar output argument. The input represents the measured length of a machine screw during the quality-assurance phase of its manufacturing. The purpose of the function is to categorize the measured length into one of six categories. If the measured length is within two percent of one of its five nominal lengths-- 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, or 1 (inch), then the nominal length is returned. Otherwise 0 is returned, signifying that the bolt failed the test. You may find that the built-in function abs for absolute value is useful for this problem.

You may submit your work as many times as you want. Try to get 100%!

This basic problem is a practical application of if-statement(s).

Write a function called bolt_check that takes one scalar input argument and returns one scalar output argument. The input represents the measured length of a machine screw during the quality-assurance phase of its manufacturing. The purpose of the function is to categorize the measured length into one of six categories. If the measured length is within two percent of one of its five nominal lengths-- 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, or 1 (inch), then the nominal length is returned. Otherwise 0 is returned, signifying that the bolt failed the test. You may find that the built-in function abs for absolute value is useful for this problem.

You may submit your work as many times as you want. Try to get 100%!

This basic problem is a practical application of if-statement(s).

Write a function called bolt_check that takes one scalar input argument and returns one scalar output argument. The input represents the measured length of a machine screw during the quality-assurance phase of its manufacturing. The purpose of the function is to categorize the measured length into one of six categories. If the measured length is within two percent of one of its five nominal lengths-- 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, or 1 (inch), then the nominal length is returned. Otherwise 0 is returned, signifying that the bolt failed the test. You may find that the built-in function abs for absolute value is useful for this problem.

You may submit your work as many times as you want. Try to get 100%!

This basic problem is a practical application of if-statement(s).

Write a function called bolt_check that takes one scalar input argument and returns one scalar output argument. The input represents the measured length of a machine screw during the quality-assurance phase of its manufacturing. The purpose of the function is to categorize the measured length into one of six categories. If the measured length is within two percent of one of its five nominal lengths-- 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, or 1 (inch), then the nominal length is returned. Otherwise 0 is returned, signifying that the bolt failed the test. You may find that the built-in function abs for absolute value is useful for this problem.

You may submit your work as many times as you want. Try to get 100%!

This basic problem is a practical application of if-statement(s).

Write a function called bolt_check that takes one scalar input argument and returns one scalar output argument. The input represents the measured length of a machine screw during the quality-assurance phase of its manufacturing. The purpose of the function is to categorize the measured length into one of six categories. If the measured length is within two percent of one of its five nominal lengths-- 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, or 1 (inch), then the nominal length is returned. Otherwise 0 is returned, signifying that the bolt failed the test. You may find that the built-in function abs for absolute value is useful for this problem.

You may submit your work as many times as you want. Try to get 100%!

This basic problem is a practical application of if-statement(s).

In matLab: Write a function called bolt_check that takes one scalar input argument and returns one scalar output argument. The input represents the measured length of a machine screw during the quality-assurance phase of its manufacturing. The purpose of the function is to categorize the measured length into one of six categories. If the measured length is within two percent of one of its five nominal lengths-- 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, or 1 (inch), then the nominal length is returned. Otherwise 0 is returned, signifying that the bolt failed the test. You may find that the built-in function abs for absolute value is useful for this problem.

You may submit your work as many times as you want. Try to get 100%!

1. a. In about three (3) sentences each, outline four (4) ways in which adult learners in Ghana can be helped to learn at a distance.

b. Distinguish between Educational Sociology and Sociology of Education.

c. Identify any three (3) characteristics of a successful teacher.

2. a. In about eight (8) sentence, explain privatisation in education.
b. Explain Socratic technique in about seven (7) sentences.
c. In about ten sentences, write on how a teacher can use the Socratic technique?

3. In about six (6) sentences each, explain five (5) conditions that can promote adult learning.   

Roland Inc. is planning to expand their business by entering in the construction industry as a panel formwork supplier. The potential number of forthcoming projects, you forecasted that within two years, your fixed cost for producing formworks is $ 292,000. The variable unit cost for making one panel is $ 18. The sale price for each panel will be $ 50. The company’s income statement from last month is as follows: Sales Revenue Total $600,000 Per Unit $50 Variable expenses 216,000 18 Contribution margin 384,000 $32 Fixed expenses 292,000 Net operating income $ 92,000 Required a) What is Roland's contribution margin ratio? Its unit contribution margin? b) If Roland's sales were to increase by $100,000 with no change in fixed expenses, by how much would net operating income increase? c) Roland's managers have determined that variable costs per unit will increase by 16% beginning next month. To offset this increase in costs, they are considering a 10% increase in the sales price. Market research indicates that the price increase will result in a 2% decrease in the number of panels Roland Inc sells. What will be Roland's expected net operating income if the price increase is implemented

Match one-on-one as is most appropriate.

A manufacturer is considering two investment programs to supply a new laptop. Market research anticipates rapid market growth: sales are expected to be 300, 000 the first year, 600,000 the second, and 900,000 the third. However, the company recognizes that actual sales may differ by plus or minus 50%.

The company has two plans to produce 900,000 units:

• Plan A: Build a single plant that could produce 900,000 units. Construction would cost $900 million and be finished in a year. The company would net $2,000 per computer sold, and the incremental manufacturing costs beyond the capital cost of the plant is expected to be $1,280 per computer.

• Plan B: Build three 300,000-unit plants, one each year, to match expected annual demand. The capital expenditure for each small plant is $300 million. The smaller plant has a unit manufacturing cost of $1,500. This plan gives the company the flexibility not to build successive plants if the demand falls short in the first or second year.

Note that both plans have drawbacks:

• Plan A involves a large amount of excess capacity in the first two years until market demand grows; and there is always a chance that demand falls short of expectations. Thus, the demand in year 3 might be as high as 1.35 million or as low as 450 thousand units.

• Plan B is less efficient. Also, if the demand grows faster than expected, it cannot take advantage of it.

The CFO asks you to prepare spreadsheets to analyze this decision. As the company will want to carry out extensive sensitivity analyses on the spreadsheet, all the input variables must be set in an input sheet, so that the rest of the spreadsheet will be an automated black-box that generates the required results.

Part 1: Based on the forecast demand expectation without variability, set up a spreadsheet to calculate the net present values (NPVs) for Plan A, and Plan B with an inflexible expansion plan (build one plant each year regardless of market demand). Based on this first analysis, which plan is better? See end of exercise for assumptions you should use for the NPV analysis.

Part 2: Now consider the effect of uncertainty in discount rate for small and big plant. Use “Data Table” in What-if Analysis to estimate profitability of plan A over plan B in a one-way (only change discount rate of one plant at a time) and two-way (change discount rate of both plants simultaneously). Draw a chart to illustrate the changes. Also use “Conditional Formatting” to color code when the sign of the difference of profitability of plans changes.

Part 3: Now consider the effect of uncertainty for variable costs of both plants and run another two-way sensitivity analysis using “Data Table” function. Draw a chart to illustrate the changes. Also use “Conditional Formatting” to color code when the sign of the difference of profitability of plans changes.

Part 4: Now consider the effect of uncertain market demand. Assuming that the market forecast is evenly distributed over the range, simulate the performance of Plan A, and Plan B without the flexibility. Use a two-way sensitivity analysis for 1^st year demand vs 2^nd years demand and another two-way sensitivity analysis for 2^nd year demand vs 3^rd year demand using “Data Table” function.

Note: In future assignments, I will ask you to conduct more sophisticated analysis on this same problem.

Assumptions for NPV analysis:

• Use a discount rate of 9% for Plan A, and 8% for Plan B.
• No salvage value for Plan A at year 3. Salvage value for Plan B is $300 million at year 3.
• No corporate overhead or selling costs allocated to the projects.
• For simplicity, assume that a new laptop line will replace the product in the 4^th year so that there will be no sales in year 4 and beyond.

USE EXCEL TO SOLVE THE QUESTION

Question 1 (25pts):

Consider the string “data and program analytics”. Write a program to perform the following actions

• Find the index of the character ‘p’ in the given string
• Print the character which is present at index number seven
• Find the length of the String
• Split the string at every occurrence of a whitespace
• Replace the word “data” in the original string with “information” using a standard string manipulation function. Your output after the manipulation should be “information and program analytics”

Question 2 (15 pts):

List1 = [3, 4, 5, 20, 5]

• Find the index of the second 5
• Find the last element of this list

Question 3 (15 pts):

Set1 = {1, 2, 3, 4}, Set2={4, 5, 6}

• Print all elements that appear in both sets
• Print those elements that appear in either set
• Print all elements that appear in Set1 but not Set2

Question 4 (15 pts):

L = [('',), (), ('apple', 1), (), ("Paul", "Merage', 2020, "MSBA212"), ("d")]

Write a Python program to remove an empty tuple(s) from a list of tuples.

Expected outcome is:

[('',), ('apple', 1), ('Paul', 'Merage', 2020, 'MSBA212'), 'd']

Question 5 (15 pts):

• Reverse words in the string "one apple a day keeps the doctors away" and print the new string
• Sort the words in the string "one apple a day keeps the doctors away" alphabetically and then print the new string.

Question 6 (15 pts):

Two given lists [1,2,4,8,5,10] and [2,4,5,8,12,15], write a program to make a list whose elements are intersection of the above given lists.

1. While playing the role of Catherine Piper on Boston Legal, Betty White “killed” the character of Bernard Ferrion (played by Leslie Jordan). Catherine ended being found not guilty, but it led Betty to wonder: are men and women treated differently when convicted of murder? As a result, Betty took two random samples of convicted murderers, given below, and determined how long the sentences were.

Men: 25, 30, 50, 25, 20, 30, 40, 25, 30, 25, 75, 25, 15

Women: 25, 15, 20, 15, 20, 25, 15, 30, 25, 40

You may assume the data comes from normal distributions. At the .05 level of significance, is there evidence to show that men get longer sentences for murder than women?