In Thorstein Veblen’s famous essay, Why is Economics not an
Evolutionary Science, he makes his famous critique of the
“hedonistic” assumptions of “classical economics”.
The hedonistic conception of man is that of a lightning calculator of
pleasures and pains, who oscillates like a homogeneous globule of
desire of happiness under the impulse of stimuli that shift him about
the area, but leave him intact. He has neither antecedent nor
consequent. He is an isolated, definitive human datum, in stable
equilibrium except for the buffets of the impinging forces that
displace him in one direction or another. Self-imposed in elemental
space, he spins symmetrically about his own spiritual axis until the
parallelogram of forces bears down upon him, whereupon he
follows the line of the resultant. When the force of the impact is
spent, he comes to rest, a self-contained globule of desire as before.
(Veblen 1898: 389-390)
Unfortunately, not much has changed since Veblen wrote this paper.
The most prominent assumption in neoclassical models, the “rational
economic agent”, is no different from the hedonistic “lightening
calculator” that Veblen criticized over a century ago. While these
assumptions may be useful for isolating variables and analyzing
mechanisms, they limit the real world application of Neoclassical
models. This narrow methodological approach leaves little room for
institutional arrangements, things like culture, social norms, and
other important factors that can shape behavior. Old Institutional
Economics tries to mitigate this gap in Neoclassical Economic theory.

1. Summarize, in your own words, the criticism Veblen makes about neoclassical economics. What aspect(s) of the neoclassical framework is he criticizing?

2. What, in the author’s opinion, do the neoclassical models leave little room for, and why might this be problematic?

It has been estimated that in humans, there are more than _________ hormones present in the body.

Which of the following statements best describes the role of hormones within the human body.

Which of the following  secreted substances contributes to lipid digestion and absorption?

o avoid suffocation from liquids or solid foods which valve has to close the air passageways ?

A new protein bar has been introduced containing 10 grams of lipids and 10 grams of carbohydrates and 10 grams of proteins. How many total calories does this new protein bar have?

Gina often goes through long periods of self starvation, where she avoids eating food for a long time. These long periods of not eating result in Gina losing too much weight and an imbalance in her metabolism. She might be suffering from:

Match the neurotransmitter with its behavior or related disease.

1. Dopamine                     A) Arousal; Depression

            2. Serotonin                      B) Reward circuits; Parkinson’s disease / Schizophrenia

            3. Norepinephrine C) Depression; Aggression; Schizophrenia

Please show steps in the calculation. Please make sure you include checking conditions for using the CLT.

Only Answer Question 3 and 4

The Human Resources (HR) Department of a certain college has asked all employees who were employed in 2018 to fill out a survey in December 2018. Three items on the survey were: “Your dental expense in 2018”, “Are you in a family with at least three other family members?”, and “Your medical expenses in 2018”. The manager of HR has randomly selected a sample of 169 surveys. Found that the sample average dental expense is $1600 per person with the sample standard deviation is $500. 70 of them are in a family of at least three other members. Also, the sample average medical expense is $2,450 per person and the sample standard deviation is $700.

1. The statistical inference will be made in parts (b), (c) and (d). Please clearly state the three parameters of interest.
2. Provide a 99% interval estimate of the average dental expenses per employee who was employed in the year 2018. please interpret your answer.
3. Using a 95% confidence interval, estimate the proportion of all employees who were employed in the year 2018 are in a family of at least three members. Interpret your answer.
4. As stated, the sample average medical expenses were $2,450. With your knowledge, the actual average price is more than $2,350. Obviously, 2,450 is more than 2,350 but this is only from a sample and is only $100 more, does it really mean that the actual average medical expenses are more than $2,350? Conduct a hypothesis test to prove the actual average medical expenses is more than $2,350 with a 5% level of significance. Use p-value to do a conclusion. Interpret your answer.

Which of the following statements best describes railroads’ contribution to the second half of the 1800s here in the United States?

Kay and Dee Manufacturing (K+D) has three business lines:

• Repair and Overhead (R+O): Repair of truck transmissions.
• Manufacturing: manufacturing of custom truck transmission parts
• Chemical Treating: cleaning of old parts

They also have three support departments. Major activities of each department are:

• Human Resources (HR): Payroll, HR staff, employee services, Union/Management relations. Costs for this service department are allocated based on Headcount.
• Facility: buildings, building maintenance and related building costs. Costs for this service department are allocated based on area occupied.
• Main Office (HQ): salaries for the President, VP, and Finance department. Costs for this service department are allocated based on Direct Labour hours.

Other financial information is in Appendix A.

REQUIRED:

a) Briefly comment on the cost drivers for the support departments. (ie. Do you think they are appropriate, or can you recommend something better?)

b) Using the Direct Method, allocate overhead costs from the support departments to the business lines.

c) Using the Step-down method, allocate overhead costs from the support departments to the business lines.

1^st Building

2^nd HR

3^rd HQ

d) Using the Reciprocal Method, allocate overhead costs from the support departments to the business lines.

The Gilster Company, a machine tooling firm, has several plants. One plant, located in St. Falls, Minnesota, uses a job order costing system for its batch production processes. The St. Falls plant has two departments through which most jobs pass. Plantwide overhead, which includes the plant manager’s salary, accounting personnel, cafeteria, and human resources, is budgeted at $250,000. During the past year, actual plantwide overhead was $240,000. Each department’s overhead consists primarily of depreciation and other machine-related expenses. Selected budgeted and actual data from the St. Falls plant for the past year are as follows.

For the coming year, the accountants at St. Falls are in the process of helping the sales force create bids for several jobs. Projected data pertaining only to job no. 110 are as follows.

Assume the St. Falls plant uses three separate overhead rates to assign overhead costs to jobs.

b-1. Find the plant wide overhead rate by using expected machine hours.

b-2. Find the department overhead rate using expected machine hours for Department A and Department B.

b-3. Calculate the projected manufacturing costs for job 110 using the three separate rates computed in b-1 and b-2.

Suppose that you are again working for your state government but that instead of working on health and human services issues, you are running the highway department. Your state turnpike is in poor shape, with large potholes and crumbling shoulders that slow down traffic and pose an accident risk. You have been charged by the governor with the task of considering whether the state should invest in repairing this road assuming it will last for 100 years.

The data for the project is indicated in the Table below. Note that all values are in nominal dollar terms (actual market values).

Benefit and Cost:                        

Making improvements will require the following inputs:

1. Initial cost: 1 million bags of asphalt, $100/bag;
2. Initial cost: 1 million hours of construction labor (500 workers for 2,000 hours each), at $20/hour
3. $10 million per year in the future for maintenance costs

There are two main benefits to these road improvements:

1. Driving time for producers (trucks) and consumers will be reduced by 500,000 hours per year. Hourly value is $19/hour.
2. The road will be safer, resulting in five fewer fatalities per year. The estimated life value (using wages) is $8.7 million/life.

Question 1: What is the net present value of the investment at 5%, 7%, and 10%? Should the project be undertaken?

Question 2: Now assume that the maintenance cost is increasing at the rate of 5% per year in nominal terms. Hourly value of the reduced driving time is rising at 2% per year in nominal terms. Life values increase by 1% per year in nominal terms. The inflation rate is 2% per annum. All annual values accrue at the end of each year. Assume the nominal discount rate is 7%.

1. What is the real discount rate?
2. What is the Net Annual Worth (annualized net benefit) of this project?
3. What is the net present value? Should the project be undertaken?

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.

Reference:

National Institutes of Health (2007). National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: Immunizations are discontinued in two HIV vaccine trials. Retrieved from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Pages/step_statement.aspx.

Using the South University Online Library or the Internet, research further on the STEP study, the STEP vaccine clinical trials, and their parameters.

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?

5. *__true or false____ Both the wood tick and the dog tick act as main vectors of this disease; therefore, the disease is most prevalent in warm months of the year.

6. ______ In Lyme disease,

a) 100% of those infected complain of / or notice the rash of erythema migrans.

b) few of those infected ever progress past the first stage of the illness (despite receiving no antibacterial medication).

c) passage of the infectious agent requires that the adult tick lay its eggs into the host animal.

d) the human population is the only reservoir of this infectious agent.

e) the heart, the nervous system, the skeletal system, and the psychological system can all be affected.

7. ______ Herpes Zoster (choose the incorrect answer)

a) is considered a reactivation of the chickenpox virus.

b) usually occurs a few months after the acute case of chickenpox.

c) starts with pain in the distribution of one sensory nerve..

d) Increases in incidence as one’s age increases.

e) , after resolution of the rash, can leave the patient with chronic pain which is termed “post herpetic neuralgia”.

8. Mucous membrane involvement in rubeola produces _____________________________________, erythematous lesions on the buccal mucosa near the molar region. No other disease will present with this finding.

9. ______ Congenital rubella syndrome

a) is a transient condition that causes no significant sequelae.

b) can occur even if the mother has no exposure to rubella during pregnancy.

c) results in surviving infants shedding the virus in throat secretions and urine for many months after birth.

d) typically does not effect the infant.

e) is classified as a zoonotic disease.

10. Candida albicans can

a) cause a blood born condition termed fungemia.

b) live harmlessly on the skin as normal microbiota.

c) thrive in moist skin folds.

d) invade into deep layers of the skin and subcutaneous tissue.

e) All of the above are correct.

Classifying Costs

The following is a list of costs that were incurred in the production and sale of large commercial airplanes:

Classify each cost as either a product cost or a period cost. Indicate whether each product cost is a direct materials cost, a direct labor cost, or a factory overhead cost. Indicate whether each period cost is a selling expense or an administrative expense.