A chef in a restaurant that specializes in pasta dishes was experiencing difficulty in getting brands of pasta to be al dente – that is, cooked enough so as to not feel starchy or hard but still feel firm when bitten into. The chef decided to conduct an experiment in which two brands of pasta, one American and one Italian, were cooked for either 4 or 8 minutes. The variable of interest was weight of the pasta because cooking the pasta enables it to absorb water. Pasta with a faster rate of water absorption may provide a shorter    interval in which the pasta is al dente, thereby increasing the chance that it might be overcooked. The experiment was conducted by using 150 grams of uncooked pasta. Each trial began by bringing a pot containing 6 quarts of cold, unsalted water to a moderate boil. The 150 grams of uncooked pasta was added and then weighed after a given period of time by lifting the pasta from the pot via a built-in- strainer. The results (weight in grams) for two replicates of each type of pasta and cooking time are provided for you in Pasta.xls.

At the 0.05 level of significance,

1. Is there an interaction between type of pasta and cooking time?
   1. State the decision rule
   2. Report the test statistic
   3. Report the results/findings of your statistical analysis
2. Is there an effect due to type of pasta?
   1. State the decision rule
   2. Report the test statistic
   3. Report the results/findings of your statistical analysis
3. Is there an effect due to cooking time?
   1. State the decision rule
   2. Report the test statistic
   3. Report the results/findings of your statistical analysis
4. What conclusions can you reach concerning the importance of these two factors on the weight of the pasta?

You are the financial manager for a healthcare organization that is considering the purchase of a building costing $3,000,000. The resale value would be $4,000,000 in 5 years when the organization expects to move into a wing of a new hospital that is being built. You will consider the financial impact of several scenarios.

The owners of the organization are concerned about the following:

1. The business needs to decide whether the future value of the projected purchase outweighs the interest they could earn on a CD that matures in 5 years.
2. What happens if they earn some rent on part of the building?

You will make a recommendation to the company as to whether they should purchase the building now and whether they should seek a tenant for some of the offices.

1. If the interest rate is 8%, what is the present value of the sales price?
2. Is the property investment attractive to you?
3. (1) What is the present value of the future cash flows, if you also could earn $300,000 per year rent on the property? The rent is paid at the end of each year.

(2) Is the property investment attractive to you now?

4. Alternatively, the organization has a choice of remaining in the building it is in now and investing the money in a Certificate of Deposit at one of two different banks. First National Bank pays 4.2% interest compounded semiannually. Second National Bank pays 4% interest compounded monthly. First you will need to calculate the annual rate for both banks and then determine the future value of the CDs.

In your presentation, be sure to highlight how you considered the time value of money as one of your considerations. If your calculations are contradictory, discuss how you came to your decision. Explain whether there are any other issues you would consider.

Ahmad Wazir is 34 years old, married with a three-year-old child and another on the way. He lives in a town of about 100,000 people outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After graduating with a BBA in marketing and later with an MBA in Islamic Finance, he joined one of the biggest Takaful operators, Takaful Ehsan (TE) where he built a sizeable business marketing in general and family Takaful products. But with changes in the organization and having no control over client services made him realize that his prospects for growth at TE is limited. With some savings accumulated over the years to carry him through, Wazir left his position as a senior marketing manager to become an independent Takaful advisor. Instead of targeting everyone, Wazir realized that he needed to focus on specific client segments. Hence, he decided to put his limited resources behind the most viable prospects. Many of his clients acquired during his former job had been close families in his town. Several of them had been regulars at the local mosque as well as members of the community and sports club. Wazir is of the view that one of the best approaches to screen the prospects is to conduct a geo-demographic segmentation of his own as part of the targeting and segmenting process. i) What is geo-demographic segmentation and how is it different from psychographic segmentation? ii) In conducting the geo-demographic segmentation, what are among the actions that Wazir may take in order to ensure that the prospects will fit into his target segment? iii) Why do you think that Wazir has chosen this approach?

On the last page of this file you will find the Excel output for a multiple linear regression model. The model was built in an attempt to better understand why students at area high schools perform differently on the state high school mathematics test. The average test score for a class of students is what we are trying to predict. In our attempt to understand why these test scores differ, we use 3 independent variables: a rating (0-100) for the quality of the math degree obtained by the instructor, the age of the instructor, and the salary (in thousands) of the instructor.

1. Estimate the average math score for a class of students whose instructor is 52 years old, earns $48,000, and got her degree in a math program rated 72.
2. What percentage of the variations in math scores can be explained by this model?
3. Conduct a test to determine if the model, taken as a whole, provided us with any significant explanation of the differences in math scores. That is, should the model be retained for further analysis?
4. Which of the independent variables appear to be significant to the model? Which appear to be insignificant? What leads you to these conclusions?

An apple orchard farmer wants to know the true population proportion of all apples harvested at their farm which have the less valuable condition of being blemished, or in other words, are cider apples.

This true population proportion is a parameter value represented by the symbol p. As a population parameter, this value can never be known with certainty. It can however, be estimated with varying levels of confidence.

To estimate this parameter p, the farmer draws a simple random sample (SRS) of 524 apples from the orchard. Within this sample, the farmer finds that exactly 47 of the apples are cider apples.

The farmer then computes a 96%-level confidence interval estimate for the parameter p.

In percentage form, and rounded to four digits past the decimal point: What is the approximate value of the Lower Limit of this confidence interval?

Include a percentage symbol at the end of your numerical answer (with no spaces).

In percentage form, and rounded to four digits past the decimal point: What is the approximate value of the Upper Limit of this confidence interval?

Include a percentage symbol at the end of your numerical answer (with no spaces).

In percentage form, and rounded to four digits past the decimal point: What is the approximate value of the Margin of Error for this confidence interval?

Include a percentage symbol at the end of your numerical answer (with no spaces).

Suppose the farmer now wishes that they had instead built a confidence interval with a 99% confidence level, and a margin of error no greater than 2%.

To achieve these new specifications: The farmer intends to draw another SRS of apples in the future, and build another confidence interval.

What minimum sample size of apples will the farmer have to draw, in order to achieve these new confidence interval specifications?

(Note: Your answer should be a whole number here.)

Data exploration through visualization is important because statistics alone might not tell the entire story. This is best shown by the French statistician Francis Anscombe in 1973 when he presented four sets of data. This data is shown here and show the code:

Using R programming studio, calculate the mean, variance, correlation, and linear regression for each data set (No data partition). Using base R or ggplot2, create a visual representation of this data. What does this visualization show? (show the code for each data set)

Using R studio programming, how do you evaluate and compare the developed linear regression models? Are there any issues with the models built?

Is there any way to improve the linear regression models for Data I, II, and III?

Which of the following is correct about budgetary slack?

-Managers may include budgetary slack by overstating budgeted sales figures.

-Budgetary slack helps managers make responsible spending decisions since it removes performance evaluations based on budgeting.

-budgetary slack is a bit of cushion built into a budget, making it more likely budgetary goals will be met.

-Managers may include budgetary slack by understating budgeted expense figures.

Which of the following is not a benefit of budgeting?

-It servers an important role in motivating and rewarding employees.

-if forces managers to look to the future.

-it builds organizational slack.

-it plays an important role in communication within the organization.

Which of the following statements is true about the strategic plan?

-it is management’s vision of what they desire the organization to achieve over the long term.

-it is created by employees of a company and shared with management for execution.

-it is created as a thought exercise for long-term planning purposes, but it does not relate to daily activities.

-it is management’s vision of individual professional development goals over the long term.

The difference between the actual price and the standard price, multiplied by the actual quantity of materials purchased is the:

-direct materials quantity variance.

-dire materials volume variance.

-direct materials price variance.

-direct materials spending variance.

Which of the following sequences is correct?

-Cash receipts budget – sales budget – production budget – budgeted income statement.

-inventory budget – production budget – sales budget – selling and administrative budget

-budgeted income statement – direct materials budget – production budget – sales budget

-sales budget – production budget – direct materials budget – budgeted income statement

Businesses both large and small are flocking to social media platforms to engage consumers in conversations and also to drive sales through deals and coupons. Small businesses have found that social media and the Internet help them to level the playing field. They can foster closer relationships with clients and identify potential customers. Flirty Cupcakes owner Tiffany Kurtz says that Facebook and Twitter greatly helped her with product innovation, market expansion, and customer service. Many other entrepreneurs are using social media to launch and expand their businesses.

Read the article, "9 Businesses that Social Media Built (Links to an external site.)."

Using the Internet, search for small businesses that have used social media to start a business or expand their market share. Select four businesses to study. Analyze their use of social media. What do they have in common? When these companies were first launched, most of them probably needed to borrow money to get started. How might these companies have described the social media potential in writing a proposal seeking funding? In which of the proposal components would this information be best placed? In an e-mail or memo to your instructor, describe briefly the four companies you selected. Then, for one company write a portion of the proposal in which the entrepreneur explains how he or she plans to use social media to promote the business. How much time do you think the entrepreneur would need to devote to social media weekly? What platforms would be most useful?

Submission Guidelines: Submissions should be turned in on a Word document, be at least 250-words, and properly cite any outside sources used.

. Gradualism is an important assumption of evolutionary theory.

A. A complex structure like the eye would be unlikely to emerge from a single large-scale mutation. How does gradualism help evolutionists address the evolution of complex adaptations, such as the eye?

B. How do ring species support a gradualist model of speciation? Explain.

2. Use the comparative method to answer the following questions about selection and adaptation, discussed Chapter 8.

A. What are convergent evolution and divergent evolution?

B. Why would selection ever delete a trait after having built it? Explain how cave-dwelling species lost the eyes that had evolved in their ancestors.

C. Why are disabling mutations in an olfactory receptor gene more likely to be “tolerated” by selection in a species with full trichromatic vision than in species without it?

D. Do you see parallels between increased loss of olfactory genes in species with trichromatic vision and the evolution of eyelessness in cave-dwelling species? Explain.

3. Altruistic traits, by definition, harm the individual manifesting the trait and help others.

A. What does Hamilton’s Rule say about the conditions under which kin selection should favor altruism?

B. In the woodpecker nest-helper example from class, explain how it can be in the evolutionary interests of a young bird to help their mother or sister breed when there are not enough nest holes to breed on their own.

C. Even when there are nest holes available, young birds sometimes help their mothers breed instead. How do “Selfish Genes” explain the evolution of behavior that is not in the interests of the individual (not facultative altruism).

D. In the case of reciprocal altruism, explain how reciprocity can maintain altruism even without close genetic relatedness.

PLEASE NUMBER EACH ANSWER

Students will use advanced looping methods including replicate(), lapply(), sapply(), and apply(), and access datasets provided with R packages in an R script.

1. The function call, rnorm(1), generates a normal random number. Use replicate() to generate 10 normal random numbers and assign them to a vector called nums.
   
2. The R statement, data(iris), loads the built-in R data set iris. This dataset has 150 rows and 5 columns. The 5 column names are "Sepal.Length","Sepal.Width","Petal.Length","Petal.Width" and "Species".
   1. Write R code(s) to return a list of 4 items that correspond to the averages of the first 4 columns in iris. The contents of the list should be as follows:
      
      $Sepal.Length
      [1] 5.843333
      
      $Sepal.Width
      [1] 3.057333
      
      $Petal.Length
      [1] 3.758
      
      $Petal.Width
      [1] 1.199333
      
3. With the iris dataset still loaded,
   1. write R code(s) to return a vector of 4 items that correspond to the averages of the first 4 columns in iris. The contents of the vector should be as follows:

4. The following R code converts the contents of the first 4 columns in iris to a matrix called data.
   data=as.matrix(iris[,1:4])
   1. Write R code(s) to use apply() to return a vector that contains the max values of the 4 columns. The contents of the vector should be as follows [Hint, use max()]:

5. Write R code(s) to read the contents of the provided file COS-206-ShoppingCart.html into a variable called cart and then show the first 5 lines of cart.