PLEASE ANSWER ALL OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

2. Describe the networks that might be used to support a small family-owned neighborhood convenience store with a point of sale (POS) computer, and an office computer for inventory control, accounting, product acquisition, etc.

3. Describe the distributed applications that might be used to support a neighborhood book store with a coffee shop/browsing area that offers free Internet access to its customers, accepts credit cards for purchases, has an email-based marketing plan, and sells some products online.

4. Describe the networks that might be used to support a small manufacturing facility that supplies widgets to a large international manufacturing firm. The organization uses automation in their production, employs a small management staff (accounting, materials procurement, human resources, etc.), and receives their orders for widgets via electronic communications with the larger firm.

5. Explain the differences between backend LANs, SANs, and backbone LANs

6. List and describe the key components of satellite communications systems

7. In a computer and network security context, list and briefly describe three classes of intruders

8. In a computer and network security context, list and briefly describe three intruder behavior patterns

9. Describe the computing needs of a medium-sized enterprise and the need for client/server, intranet, and/or cloud computing.

10. Conveniently Yours is a small family-owned neighborhood convenience store that sells products and Lottery tickets to a very limited customer base. Their computing equipment is minimal with a point of sale (POS) computer, an office computer for inventory control, accounting, product acquisition, etc. Describe Conveniently Yours computing needs and their possible need for client/server, intranet, and/or cloud computing that would support his business operations.

Please completely answer the below Biostatistic question.

Hurricanes Rita and Katrina caused flooding of large parts of New Orleans, leaving behind large amounts of new sediment. Before the hurricanes, the soils of New Oleans were known to have high concentrations of lead, a dangerous toxin capable of creating potential health hazard. Zaharan et al. (2010) were interested in the human health impacts of the flood and so measured lead concentrations of blood (in ug/dl) of children who lived in 46 different affected areas both before and after the floods. Complete the responses for the following R outputs.

R Output

data: lead$bloodLeadAfter and lead$bloodLeadBefore

t = -8.031, df = 45, p-value = 3.107e-10

alternative hypothesis: truedifference in means is not equal to 0

95% confidence interval: -2.411851 -1.444671

sample estimates: mean of the differences = -1.928261

a.) Name the sampling unit and sample size

b.) Name the variable(s) and associated scale(s)

c.) Name the design (one-sample t-test, two-sample t-test, paired t-test)

d.) Is this an appropriate design, given the narrative above? Why or why not?

e.) Name the population parameter of interest, using specific descriptors from the narrative (hint: write what are we estimating in specific terms)

f.) Use the output to write the null hypothesis for the associated t-test (be sure to state it in terms of the population parameter of interest)

g.) Use the confidence interval from the output to write a statement about the set of plausible values for the parameter estimate, and to evaluate the plausibility of the null hypothesis.

h.) Use the null hypothesis to write a statement interpreting the p-value from the output. (Do not use more or less than 0.05.as reasoning)

Please completely answer the below Biostatistic question.

Hurricanes Rita and Katrina caused flooding of large parts of New Orleans, leaving behind large amounts of new sediment. Before the hurricanes, the soils of New Oleans were known to have high concentrations of lead, a dangerous toxin capable of creating potential health hazard. Zaharan et al. (2010) were interested in the human health impacts of the flood and so measured lead concentrations of blood (in ug/dl) of children who lived in 46 different affected areas both before and after the floods. Complete the responses for the following R outputs.

R Output

data: lead$bloodLeadAfter and lead$bloodLeadBefore

t = -6.0538, df = 70.325, p-value = 6.212e-08

alternative hypothesis: true difference in means is not equal to 0

95% confidence interval: -2.563481 -1.293041

sample estimates: mean of x = 3.21087, mean of y = 5.13913

a.) Name the sampling unit and sample size

b.) Name the variable(s) and associated scale(s)

c.) Name the design (one-sample t-test, two-sample t-test, paired t-test)

d.) Is this an appropriate design, given the narrative above? Why or why not?

e.) Name the population parameter of interest, using specific descriptors from the narrative (hint: write what are we estimating in specific terms)

f.) Use the output to write the null hypothesis for the associated t-test (be sure to state it in terms of the population parameter of interest)

g.) Use the confidence interval from the output to write a statement about the set of plausible values for the parameter estimate, and to evaluate the plausibility of the null hypothesis.

h.) Use the null hypothesis to write a statement interpreting the p-value from the output. (Do not use more or less than 0.05.as reasoning)

International Business Country Project Your supervisor stopped by your office today to tell you about an international assignment she wanted you to take. This assignment would require you to live in the country for 18 months. You would be allowed to take your spouse and your two children along with you. After talking it over with your spouse, you decided to take the assignment. Now you need to research before you make the move. Prepare a report that will provide you and your family with crucial information to be successful in the new country. You need to include citations as you add information and a research page that lists your sources including websites visited. Part 1 – Select the country and city you to which you will be relocating. Select a country you are interested in, but that you have not visited before. Part 2 - Report should include, but is not limited to the issues below. You need to start out talking about the assignment and then cover the issues below. It should be a report, not answering questions below. Be sure and cite your resources. While there is no page limit, it would be hard to achieve in less than eight pages. Overview of economic, political, and societal issues. Type of economy Major trading partners and trade agreements Relationship with US Ideologies and Political system Current rulers – picture would be a nice touch, maybe link to a speech or bio info. Legal and regulatory environment Technology – types, advances MNC presence – major companies headquartered there. New companies entering. Human rights Religion Practical issues Currency Cost and types of housing Language Common Etiquette Transportation Food Maps Places to visit Movies or books your family might use to familiarize themselves with the country. (These could be used for your book and movie reports) my report is on Canada

The State of Florida refused to expand Medicaid included in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).   Hence, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) gave a stimulus grant of $100,000 to the Florida Department of Children and Families to spend on healthcare services. DCF is required to allocate the money in the way that saves the greatest number of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). After much analysis, DCF developed a list of possible programs and estimated their expected health benefits and resources costs. These are as follows:

Each program has benefits that are independent of the benefits of other programs. Moreover, each program is divisible into fractions.

Suppose the agency has a budget of $100,000. Which of the programs should the DCF fund? What are total costs and total benefits attributable to each funded program?

Rather than using the money for the program above, DCF decides to implement a screening program that it can implement in several locations. This program can be carried out at any of the five possible levels or variations listed below, but only one level will be implemented. Each level represents a different mix of behavioral activities. The costs and benefits of each level are as follows:

Which variation, if any, of the screening program should be undertaken given the agency’s budget? And in how many locations the selected program will be implemented?

Task: The below table shows socio-economic data of two fictitious countries. From the perspective of a business considering the possibility of undertaking business in these countries, consider what the data could mean and present three conclusions. Each conclusion should compare both countries using at least two variables. You can relate each conclusion to any type of international business (eg. you can present a conclusion from the perspective of a business choosing a new export market, a business seeking an import source, a business choosing a location for FDI, etc). Recommended length for each conclusion: approximately 200 words.                                           (4 marks per conclusion)

You are going to begin the process of data gathering. There are three types of data you will be gathering – Administrative, Technical and Physical. For this assignment, you will be gathering your administrative data. This data will be created by you for your fictitious company. You may use as many resources as you need in order to develop this data. The Internet, data from real companies, and data you just make up on your own may be used. Areas of data that need to be gathered are as follows:

• Human Resources
  • Recruitment – steps for hiring new employees
  • Employment – policies and procedures employees must follow
  • Termination – steps for terminating employees
• Organizational Structure
  • Senior Management – how is the senior management structured
  • Security Program – how is this structured. What are the components and policies and procedures
  • Security Operations – what are the policies and procedures and how is this structured
  • Audit – how are these performed and how often
• Information Control
  • User Accounts – what is the process for creating and managing them
  • User Error – how is this tracked and what happens in the event of user error
  • Asset Control – how are assets protected, assigned value and monitored
  • Sensitive Information – what sensitive information exists, how is it protected and what are the policies and procedures
• Business Continuity
  • Contingency Planning – do they have it and how is it managed
  • Incident Response Program – do they have it and how is it managed
• System Security
  • System Controls – what are they and do they need to be improved
  • Application Security – what is in place and is it effective
  • Configuration Management – what do they have in place, what are the policies and procedures and how often is it updated
  • Third Party Access – who has access to any of the assets and how is it controlled

All of the above information will be documented in the risk assessment. In some cases it will be tested and questions to appropriate personnel will be asked.

What is the ratio of the mass of fresh water produced to the mass of water in the incoming brine?Multi-stage flash distillation is used to desalinate seawater so it is fit for human consumption. A flash distillation tank is composed of small chambers (called \"stages\"), each at a lower pressure than the previous stage. Salt water enters the first chamber, some fresh water flash evaporates, condenses, and is removed from the distillation tank. The remaining salt water moves to the next chamber, some fresh water flash evaporates, condenses, and is removed from the distillation tank. The remaining salt water moves to the next chamber, and the process repeats until very salty water is expelled as waste. Brine that is 35,000 ppm salt is desalinated through a 5-stage flash distillation process. The pressure in the stages is such that 8.5% by mass of the water entering the stage evaporates and leaves as fresh water. If the desalination plant wants to produce 1200.0 gallons of drinking water per day, how many gallons of brine must the plant take in per day? The density of fresh water is 1.000 g/cm3. The density of brine is 1.025 g/cm3.

What mass of waste brine is expelled in one day?

What is the ratio of the mass of fresh water produced to the mass of water in the incoming brine?

The larger this ratio is, the more fresh water is produced for the given incoming water. If additional stages are added, each removing 8.5% of the available incoming water, so that the above ratio gets above 0.5, what are the total number of stages in the multi-stage flash distillation tank? (respond with a whole number)

The energy requirement of this type of desalination plant is 25.5 kW·h/m3 of fresh water. How much energy does the plant require to produce 1200.0 gallons of fresh water?

Uber has had phenomenal growth, going from four people in 2009 to the two kinds of workers it deals with today: (1) 12,000 full-time nondriver employees, such as those working in its San Francisco headquarters, and (2) about 2 million active drivers globally, the independent contractors it calls “partners.”

Uber’s Employees

Former CEO Travis Kalanick viewed human resources (HR) as having one function—recruiting. Other HR functions were not a priority for Uber. For example, the company had fewer than 10 HR representatives in 2016 who were responsible for training managers and handling issues such as sexual harassment for the 6,000 employees it had at the time. “When HR becomes solely a talent race, boards and CEOs can miss the less obvious but equally vital value of managing both new hires and leaders who are facing increasing demands,” says John Boudreau in a Harvard Business Review article.

Kalanick’s lack of focus on HR created a toxic atmosphere at the organization. Much of this became evident with Susan Fowler, a former Uber engineer. Fowler claimed in a February 2017 blog that she was sexually harassed by her supervisor and that HR ignored her claims. Other employees have since reported that a premium was placed on workers who delivered strong performance and aggressive growth, and that their inappropriate workplace behavior was overlooked, according to the New York Times.

Uber attempted to improve this situation by focusing on the accuracy of its performance evaluations. In the past, performance reviews were subjective with managers simply meeting behind closed doors and rating their employees. This obviously increased the potential for managerial bias. The process also was deficient in that employees did not have individual goals to be evaluated against, making it hard to hold employees and managers accountable for objective results.

Uber implemented two significant changes in 2017 to overcome problems with its appraisal system. First, the company established measurable goals for all employees, and they were transparent for all to see. Second, Uber implemented something similar to a 360-degree performance appraisal system as evaluations needed to take into account more than a manager’s direct observation of subordinates. The system consisted of committees reviewing employees’ self-evaluations, peer evaluations, and manager evaluations to make sure bonuses were given out fairly, according to Uber Chief People Officer Liane Hornsey.

While these changes may have improved the human resource process at Uber, employee issues still persist. For example, HR Chief Hornsey resigned in July 2018 amid continuing employee dissatisfaction. “Disgruntled employees still don’t trust Uber’s systems, and they are turning to the media to air their grievances. This suggests that Khosrowshahi’s attempt to build trust among employees, an assurance that the company can address challenges internally, has not taken hold,” says Wired Magazine.

Uber’s Drivers

Uber isn’t only failing its employees; it’s also failing its drivers. The company seems to offer very little in human resource development for its contractors. Drivers are given the option of watching a 13-minute training video covering such topics as how to provide good service and get five-star ratings from customers. “The only safety thing they tell us,” says one driver, “is to have a hands-free phone holder and to keep your eyes on the road.” Drivers who want additional training will have to pay for it on their own. Uber has contracted with 7x7 Experience to offer quality improvement courses at a rate of $49 per course. They can also take a course on “Tip Maximization” for another $29.

Uber drivers may not be happy about having to pay for quality improvement courses, especially because a recent study found they aren’t making that much. The Economic Policy Institute released a 2018 analysis showing that Uber drivers take home around $9.21 an hour. This means drivers are making less than the minimum wage of some of Uber’s biggest markets, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. The $9.21 figure actually “puts Uber drivers at the bottom 10 percent of wage earners” according to the Chicago Tribune.

Drivers, often undertrained, are also victims of an automated performance appraisal system in which passengers rate drivers on a scale of from 1 to 5 stars. Each driver then receives a weekly average rating for all passengers, and this average is used to make personnel decisions. In Atlanta, for example, a driver receiving less than 4.6 stars may be kicked out of the program. Uber did update its ratings system in July 2017 by introducing a “ratings protection” initiative. This system was designed to protect drivers from complaints that are unrelated to their actual performance. For example, when a rider selects a rating below 5 stars, a screen will pop up asking “what could be improved?” Options include “route by Uber” and “co-rider,” and only one option goes back to the driver.

Uber drivers may not have much power to fight back against the company’s HR policies. The company is resisting unionization because it wants its app-based drivers to be “business partners”—that is, contractors not subject to employee-protection laws. The issue of unionization is being fought in the courts. In 2015, Seattle passed an ordinance allowing Uber (and Lyft) drivers to unionize, which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Uber have sought to overturn. In May 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s 2017 decision to uphold the law, continuing the legal saga by sending the case back to the lower court for further review.

Uber has worked to improve and safeguard its driver performance appraisal rating system, yet it still lacks some of the basic components of traditional employee performance management systems. Based on the case, which of the following is not part of Uber’s performance appraisal system for drivers?

A: Rewards

B: Feedback

C: Expectations

D: Monitoring

E: Punishment

Regression Analysis to Understand Cost Drivers in a Purchasing Department – Business Case

Each year Joe reviews the financial information for all the CWWR stores. This past year was a relatively good year; company profits were up despite the huge July Fourth fire in Las Vegas, Nevada, that shut down the store for four months and required replacements of all inventory. Joe did notice however that purchasing department costs varied considerably between stores. The minimum was $575, 000 and the maximum was $2.2 Billion. This was perplexing, and he thought this be an area where efficiencies could be achieved. Currently each store has its own purchasing department with full autonomy. In the western wear industry, regional customers have regional tastes and desires. Local purchasing agents are thought to be best able to understand the desires of local customers and to those needs.

              On his management team, Joe has a managerial cost specialist with skills in data analytics. Together they discussed the purchase department cost problem and identified three potential cost drivers: merchandise purchased, number of purchase orders, and number of suppliers. To verify these ideas, Joe contracted purchasing managers from three different stores who agreed that these were potentially good cost drivers and they no others were readily apparent. The managerial cost specialist gathered the data for four variables from last year’s financial information and reported in Table 1. The data was also entered into an Excel spreadsheet (See appendix) By the team’s administrative assistant.

1. Prepare a statistical analysis of the costs provided.

Plot the purchase department cost vs each cost driver (Graph per page)

Analyze the data for the potential problems, correct data problems if necessary and report any changes made.

Use the regression analysis to develop cost model for all potential cost drivers.

Identify the best model and explain why.

Explain what the model means from an economic perspective.

2. Use the model to make two recommendation to the CWWR management team for improving the efficiency of the purchasing operations

Be specific with the details of the recommendations

Estimate the cost saving from the implementation of your recommendations.

Consider the secondary implications, quantitative and/or qualitative.

Indicate how these changes (recommendations) should be implemented.

Discuss

1. What cost drivers are useful for predicting the purchasing departments costs? What is the recommended model? What does it mean? How can this model be used to reduce costs?

2. Does CWWR use a centralized or decentralized purchasing system? Why would the company use this strategy? Under what circumstances would a decentralized strategy be more valuable?

3. You developed recommendations, which are essentially are changes to human behavior. Is change in an organization easy? How can human behaviors be changed in a management setting?