This problem will relate some of the ideas of microstates, ensemble, statisticalmechanical entropy, and our ideal model of many identical oscillators, to intuitive notions of entropy and disorder in a very complex system – a protein. A protein is basically a long chain of amino acid residues that folds into a regular shape and performs a huge variety of biological functions. Biochemistry and biology students will already know a lot about proteins, you may know a lot after having taken organic chemistry. If you don’t know anything about them, it’s a good idea to learn some. The protein in its folded state is called the “native” state. There are beautiful pictures of folded proteins that are easily accessible. Google [ protein folded unfolded ] then go to “images” and you will find many pictures, e.g. the top row on the left and right are good. Intuitively, one says the properly folded structure is “ordered” and therefore low entropy, the unfolded structure is “disordered” and therefore high entropy. In terms of statistical mechanics, if we think in the microcanonical ensemble (ignore any heat bath), there should be an ensemble W_f for the folded condition and W_u for the unfolded condition. Then S_f = lnW_f and S_u = lnW_u. What does this have to do with order anddisorder?

Think in terms of an oscillator model and its degeneracies. The protein with N atoms in either its folded or unfolded state has 3N vibrational modes i.e. consists of 3N oscillators. The oscillators do not have identical frequencies by any stretch of the imagination. But think of each state as having some “average frequency” ωf or ωu, and then imagine the 3N oscillators to all be identical. Each state, folded or unfolded has the same energy E in the microcanonical ensemble.

Now, try to argue, qualitatively but as persuasively as possible why the “ordered” protein has a much smaller ensemble Wf than the unfolded protein with ensemble Wu, and therefore a lower entropy.

(Hint: the folded protein sort of “snaps together” with non-covalent bonds. Think about

what this does to the average frequency. (Hint: see the frequency equation for an oscillator

in the lecture notes. Think about the bonding in the folded protein in connection with the

oscillator force constant in the frequency expression. Think about what this means for the

number of quanta. Think about what this means when you plug into the combinatorial

formula for the number of microstates in the oscillator model

1. Briefly explain in TWO (2) ways how the pandemic of Covid-19 has affected the business structure.

2. Covid-19 has caused major changes on business discussions. Cultural elements, such as gift giving and hospitality custom are least likely due to lack of physical meetings. Assume that you are a business development manager at your organization. What will you do to woo the potential clients from countries where such elements are important? Suggest and explain any TWO (2) strategies.

3. Another impact of the pandemic is the increasing “work from home”. As an employer, identify FIVE (5) ways how work from home may negatively affect the organization’s productivity.

4. When designing its organization, a multinational corporation (MNC) must make a particularly critical decision that determines the level of autonomy, power and control it wants to grant its subsidiaries. Assume that you are working in an MNC. Advice your organization about centralize or decentralize decision making for the subsidiaries during this pandemic.

5. Discuss FOUR (4) factors that influence recruiting and selecting employees for international assignments.

6. The pandemic has also impacted business functions inside an organization. As a Human Resource manager, you are required to identify ONE (1) effect of Covid-19 and ONE (1) way to overcome the effect on the following:

i. Performance appraisal

ii. Staffing policy

iii. Compensation

iv. Training and development

Plastic Products Ltd

Plastic Products Ltd is a company that produces and markets plastic cups, teaspoons,

knives and forks for the catering industry. The company was established in 1974 in

response to the changes taking place in the catering industry. The growth of the fastfood

sector of the market was seen as an opportunity to provide disposable eating

utensils which would save on human resources and allow the speedy provision of

utensils for fast customer flow. In addition, Plastic Products has benefited from the

growth in supermarkets and sells ‘consumer packs’ through four of the large supermarket

groups.

The expansion of sales and outlets has led Jim Spencer, the sales manager, to

recommend to Bill Preedy, the general manager, that the present salesforce of two

regional representatives be increased to four.

Spencer believes that the new recruits should have experience of selling fastmoving

consumer goods since essentially that is what his products are.

Preedy believes that the new recruits should be familiar with plastic products

since that is what they are selling. He favours recruiting from within the plastics industry,

since such people are familiar with the supply, production and properties of

plastic and are likely to talk the same language as other people working at the firm.

Discussion questions

1 What general factors should be taken into account when recruiting salespeople?

2 Do you agree with Spencer or Preedy or neither

Which of the following statements is (are) correct?
(x) Price ceilings and price floors usually reduce the welfare of society because quantity demanded does not equal quantity supplied if the price control is binding.
(y) The particular price that results in quantity supplied being equal to quantity demanded is the best price because it maximizes the welfare of buyers and sellers.
(z) A result of welfare economics is that the equilibrium price of a product is considered to be the best price because it maximizes the combined welfare of buyers and sellers.
A. (x), (y) and (z)
B. (x) and (y) only
C. (x) and (z) only
D. (y) and (z) only
E. (z) only

Suppose the United States changed its laws to allow for the legal sale of a kidney. According to the textbook, which of the following statements is (are) correct?
(x) If the government allowed a free market in organs for transplant then there would be an increase in the price of a kidney and a decrease in the shortage of kidneys for transplant.
(y) At present, the maximum legal price for a human kidney is $0. The price of $0 maximizes both producer surplus and consumer surplus.
(z) If the government allowed a free market for transplant organs such as kidneys to exist, critics argue that such a market would benefit the rich but not the poor.
A. (x), (y) and (z)
B. (x) and (y) only
C. (x) and (z) only
D. (y) and (z) only
E. (z) only

Many food products contain small quantities of substances that would give an undesireable taste or smell if they are present in large amounts. An example is the "off-odors" caused by sulfur compounds in wine. Oenologists (wine experts) have determined the odor threshold, the lowest concentration of a compound that the human nose can detect. For example, the odor threshold for dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is given in the oenology literature as 25 micrograms per liter of wine (µg/l). Untrained noses may be less sensitive, however. Here are the DMS odor thresholds for 10 beginning students of oenology. 30 35 26 31 37 33 32 40 21 23 Make a stemplot to verify that the distribution is roughly symmetric with no outliers. (A normal quantile plot confirms that there are no systematic departures from normality. Enter numbers from smallest to largest, separated by spaces. Enter NONE for stems with no values.)

2 2 3 3 4

Give a 95% confidence interval for the mean DMS odor threshold among all beginning oenology students. (Round your answers to three decimal places.)

Are you convinced that the mean odor threshold for beginning students is higher than the published threshold, 25 µg/l? Carry out a significance test to justify your answer. (Use α = 0.05. Round your value for z to two decimal places and round your P-value to four decimal places.) Z= P-Value=

1) Driving cars and generating energy produces many pollutants. Suppose you are interested in determining whether exposure to one pollutant, sulfur dioxide (SO2), has an effect on human health (health). You also suspect that older people are more affected and people with higher incomes can invest in health insurance to reduce their risk and exposure. Note, the variables in your data are health outcomes (health), exposure to SO2, income, and age.

a) Write down a multiple variable regression model that tests the relationship between health outcomes (health) and exposure to SO2 controlling for age and income.

b) Next, you suspect that the marginal effect of exposure to sulfur dioxide depends on a persons’ age. In other words, you think that older people are harmed more by SO2 exposure than younger people. Write down a new model to test this relationship, still controlling for income.

c) For the model you wrote down in part b, write down a null hypothesis that the effect of SO2 on health outcomes does not depend on a persons’ age. Hint: the hypothesis is that one of the coefficients in the regression equation in part b is equal to zero.

d) Write down the t-statistic to test the null hypothesis from part c. What criteria would you use to decide whether or not you can reject your null hypothesis.

A random-digit-dialing survey sampled 1750 adults and found that 1140 used some form of prescription medication. Of these 1140 adults who used prescription drugs, 940 said they are concerned about the current state of health care; 320 of the 610 nonusers said this, too.

1. Could cancer cells be selectively targeted by using antibodies recognizing a tumor-specific protein marker? Researchers grafted human cancerous cells onto 20 healthy adult mice and then randomly assigned 10 of these mice to be treated with tumor-specific antibodies. They found that only 1 of the 10 mice treated with antibodies developed metastases, whereas all 10 of the 10 mice in the control group developed metastases.

   We want to compare the proportions of mice developing metastases under the two conditions. Here, a large-sample significance  test is    

   	A.	appropriate because a total of 20 mice is large enough for any inference.
   	B.	not appropriate because the respective counts of successes and failures are not large enough.
   	C.	appropriate because the study was randomized.
   	D.	not appropriate because the experiment is not double-blind.

1 points   

QUESTION 7

1. Refer to question number 6.

   A plus-four 90% confidence interval for p_control - p_treatment (the difference in the proportions that develop metastases) is

   	A.	0.53 to 0.97.
   	B.	0.74 to 1.05.
   	C.	0.49 to 1.01.
   	D.	0.17 to 0.92.

Ms. B. continued her explanation. “Everyone has two alleles for each gene in their cells. We all inherited one allele for every gene from each of our parents. Since your mom is type A, she could have two copies of allele A or one copy of allele A and one copy of allele O. In either case, she is type A. Your father could … ”

“His father could have two copies of allele B or one copy of allele B and one copy of allele O. Either way, he is type B,” Peter said.

“Yes, you’re getting smarter,” smiled Ms. B. “Keep going. Think. If Kevin’ s mom has one copy of allele A and one of allele O, and his dad has one copy of allele B and one of allele O, then what possible blood types will their children have?”

“Oh, let me think,” Peter and Kevin said simultaneously.

Questions

1. What is genetic inheritance?
2. Among the three alleles of human ABO blood group, which is/are dominant, which is/are recessive?
3. What is homozygous? What is heterozygous? Are Kevin’s parents homozygous or heterozygous for the A or B allele if Ms. B’s assumption is true?
4. Predict the possible blood types of their children from the marriage of Kevin’s parents. Use a Punnett square to solve this problem.

5. What are the probabilities (%) of the children’s possible blood types?