Clinical Trial

Between 2004 and 2007, the National Institutes of Health conducted a STEP vaccine clinical trial—Phase IIB "test-ofconcept" study.

The STEP study is the name of a clinical trial to test an experimental human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine. The STEP study enrolled 3,000 participants at sites in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru, Puerto Rico, and the United States. The study was designed to test an HIV vaccine, which aimed to stimulate production of immune system T-cells that can kill HIV-infected cells.

Based on its first evaluation of vaccine efficacy, the findings showed there were 24 cases of HIV infection among the 741 volunteers who received at least one dose of the investigational vaccine compared with 21 cases of HIV infection among the 762 volunteers who were vaccinated with the placebo. In volunteers who received at least two vaccinations, there were 19 cases of HIV infection among the 672 volunteers who received the investigational vaccine and 11 instances of HIV infection among the 691 volunteers who received placebo. The study investigators of the vaccine trials have decided to cease immunizations and are contacting study volunteers to inform them of the developments.

Based on your research, understanding, and above information, answer the following questions:

Prior to beginning this study, how would you have described the risks and benefits of the study to participants?

What are the ethical issues surrounding this study at the beginning and when the decision was made to terminate the study?

Inventory Turnover and days’ sales in inventory Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc., and Whole Foods Markets, Inc. are three grocery chains in the United States. Inventory management is an important aspect of the grocery retail business. Recent balance sheets for these three companies indicated the following merchandise inventory (in millions) information: Kroger Sprouts Whole Foods Cost of merchandise sold $85,512 $2,541 $9,973 Inventory, end of year 5,688 165 500 Inventory, beginning of year 5,651 143 441 a. & b. Determine the inventory turnover and the number of days’ sales in inventory (use 365 days and round to one decimal place) for the three companies. Round all interim calculations to one decimal place. For days' sales in inventory, round final answers to the nearest day, and for inventory turnover, round to two decimal places. Company names Inventory Turnover Days' Sales in Inventory Kroger days Sprouts days Whole Foods days c. The inventory turnover ratios and days’ sales in inventory are for Kroger and Sprouts. Whole Foods has a inventory turnover and a days’ sales in inventory than

Kroger and Sprouts. These results suggest that Kroger and Sprouts are efficient than Whole Foods in managing inventory. d. If Kroger had Whole Foods’ days’ sales in inventory, how much additional cash flow would have been generated from the smaller inventory relative to its actual average inventory position? Round interim calculations to one decimal place and your final answer to the nearest million. $ million

1. A Nash equilibrium occurs a. when a unilateral move by a participant does not make the participant better off. b. when a unilateral move by a participant makes the participant better off. c. when a unilateral move by a participant does not make the other participant better off. d. when a unilateral move by a participant makes the other participant worse off. 2. Several politicians have proposed a "guzzler" tax that would be added to the cost of few-miles-per-gallon vehicles. If enacted, this tax would most likely a. reduce the equilibrium price. b. increase the equilibrium output. c. increase U.S. dependency on foreign oil supplies. d. shift the supply curve (for automobiles) inward. e. do all of these.

3. A cartel is a. implicit collusion. b. explicit collusion. c. a facilitating practice. d. a merger of firms into a monopoly. e. legal in the United States.

4. In some African countries, the elephant population increased significantly when the government facilitated a. substitution of African elephants for Indian elephants. b. a shift from common ownership to private property rights. c. social regulation of elephant breeding. d. a shift from private ownership to public ownership. e. the creation of a natural monopoly. 5. Which of the following is not one of the classifications of current economic thinking? a. Keynesian economists b. Reaganomists c. Marxists d. free market economists e. All of these were presented as current schools of thought.

Please read the following excerpt from an article:

" As President Barack Obama prepares to depart Thursday for his first Asia trip, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao is urging the U.S. to keep its deficit to an "appropriate size," a clear message to the leader of the world's largest debtor nation from its largest creditor.

China is the largest holder of U.S. government debt and has invested an estimated 70% of its more than $2 trillion stockpile of foreign-exchange reserves (the world's largest) in dollar assets, Reuters reports. Further dollar weakness, brought on by enormous U.S. deficit spending and near-zero interest rates, would erode the value of China's huge U.S. holdings.

"Most importantly, we hope the United States will keep an appropriate size to its deficit so that there will be basic stability in the exchange rate, and that is conducive to stability and the recovery of the global economy," Wen Jiabao said over the weekend at a news conference in Egypt.  

In contrast, the best strategy for the U.S. may be an inflationary stance. We need stimulus spending to jump start our economy and reduce the real value of our record budget deficit of $1.42 trillion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. An improved U.S. economy also would mean more Americans buying up Chinese-made goods"

Please comment on the following questions:

Why is China concerned about the value of US dollar? What can they do to decrease their exposure to fluctuations in the value of US dollar? Is decreasing exposure to US dollar an easy task for China? Why?

2. the cotton mill is an upscale chain of women’s clothing stores. Located in the southwestern united states. Do to recent success, the cotton mill’s top management is planning to expand by locating new stores in other regions of the country. The director of planning has been asked to study the relationship between yearly sales and the store size. As part of the study, the director selects sample of 25 stores and determines the size of the store in square feet and the sales for the last year. The sample data follows.  

a.       The regression model is?

b.       interpret the regression constant and regressioncoeffient?

c.       Forecast a value for the dependent variable

d.       Test the significant of the regression coefficient using apha=0.05

e.       Test the overall significant of the regression model.

f.        Interpret the coefficient of determination

g.       Are there any indications of a violation of the general linear model? Be specific.

2. In wooly mammoths 50,000 years ago, the presence of a curled tusk allele (t) was recessive to a straight tusk allele (T). In Siberia populations, the frequency of the curled tusk allele was 0.85. Across the ice bridge in North America, the frequency of the curled tusk allele was 0.18. One thousand years later, the frequency of the curled tusk allele in the North America population was now 0.55. Of the wooly mammoths that currently reside in North America, what proportion of them must have migrated from Siberia to result in the increase in the curled tusk allele? (4 points)

3. Charles Xavier (a.k.a. Professor X) is researching mutants in the United States using his machine, Cerebro. There are many mutants with many different abilities, but every mutant power has a common epistatic “control” gene. The alleles for this gene are labeled “C” and “c”. If an individual has a gene that codes for a certain ability, that ability will not express itself unless the control gene has two recessive alleles. Knowing this, Professor X wants to track this control gene, and evaluate its mutation rate throughout the American population. Note that a mutation from C to c is a forward mutation and from c to C is a reverse mutation. Of the 318,000,000 people tracked through Cerebro, 11,943 experienced forward mutations and 25,937 experienced reverse mutations. What are the forward and reverse mutation rates? What are the C and c allele frequencies, assuming this population is in equilibrium? Are mutants on the rise or decline in the U.S. population? (5 points)

Many consider early and middle adulthood times of relatively little growth, but adults encounter a multitude of tasks and changes during these phases. For instance, the quality of relationships change, vocational choice might be solidified, formal education might be completed, parenting responsibilities might be present, and changes in physical capacities might set limits on behavior. An adult's perceived success or failure can influence his/her sense of self and ability to accomplish tasks and navigate changes in early and middle adulthood.

In the United States, individuation is an important aspect of adulthood. Individuation refers to processes by which you become a unique individual with a distinct sense of identity. The process is sometimes identified as separation-individuation (Berger, 2016). Adulthood is the period in which roles change from that of a dependent child to a more autonomous individual with different responsibilities and commitments.

Boucher and Maslach (2009) discuss how the type of culture—individualistic or collectivistic—can influence the degree of individuation. Think about how cultural differences can influence the changes that adults face during early and middle adulthood. The influence of culture on these changes impacts individuation. Consider collectivist societies that value conformity over individuality. How does that impact an individual's sense of uniqueness?

1. Select one aspect of adulthood (identity development, vocational development, relationships, or parenting).

2. Post a description of the aspect of adulthood you selected.

3. Then, explain individuation in terms of that aspect. Include an explanation of the challenges that might influence individuation.

4. Be specific and provide examples from the Learning Resources. Use proper APA format and citations.

You are in a world where there are only two assets, gold and U.S. stocks. You are interested in investing your money in one, the other, or both assets. Consequently, you collect the following data on the returns on the two assets over the last six years.

1. If you were constrained to pick just one, which one would you choose? Explain.

(2) A friend argues that you must choose the gold. He tells you that the distribution of gold returns is positively skewed (while the distribution of stock returns is not skewed) and thinks that choosing the stock market ignores the big payoffs that you can occasionally get on gold. What would your response be? Explain. Hint: There is no right or wrong answer here, just write what you think and justify your position.

(3) How would a portfolio composed of equal proportions in gold and stocks do in terms of mean and variance? Explain and show your work.

(4) What are the proportions of gold and U.S. stocks in the minimum variance portfolio? Show your work in Excel and write your answer here.

(5) You now learn that GPEC (a cartel of gold-producing countries) is going to vary the amount of gold it produces with stock prices in the United States. (GPEC will produce less gold when stock markets are up and more when they are down.) What effect will this have on your portfolio? How would you change the composition of your portfolio? Explain.

Consolidated Electronics Group, Inc. is a manufacturer and supplier of avionics equipment to various airlines across the continental United States. Recently, the company has laid off several employees, which left many in the company in a disgruntled state. Now, the information technology (IT) staff has reported to management a significant spike in network attacks numbering in the thousands. Reports from the intrusion detection system (IDS) indicate that two of these potential attacks may have compromised highly classified plans for a new prototype avionics switchboard, which is expected to revolutionize the market. The IT staff suspects that the attacks and potential security breach may have something to do with the recently laid off staff. Assignment Instructions: The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a recognized authority for providing security standards, guidelines and procedures. NIST provides a large array of other security related documents, which are of great value to information security professionals.

For this assignment, you are asked to use NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 2

http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-61r2.pdf

While this document is quite large, you will find Section 3 starting on page 21 helpful for this assignment. Using the guidance from this NIST document, craft an incident response plan that includes:

A description of the specific measures that would be taken to investigate a security breach.

An explanation of steps taken to prevent future attacks and to secure the company’s information systems

A communication plan to disseminate the results and findings of this event to the organization

Your plan should be two to three pages.