What advantages might there be for infants to be born with more nerve cells (neurons) than they actually need or use?  

Think of language, for example. When a human infant is born, he/she has to ability to learn to speak any language that humans speak however, as the infant grows and is exposed to one predominant language in his/her home, this becomes the language that the child learns to speak. The child sounds like other native speakers of his/her language. Later, if the person decides to take a foreign language in high school, he/she will most likely sound like a foreign speaker when speaking the newly learned language or for some students, learning a foreign language is a rather difficult task.

In later life, if a person has a cerebral vascular accident (CVA) or what people in the community call "a stroke", and this person speaks more than one language, after the CVA, she/he will more likely be able to speak basically the first language learned. The second, third, etc. languages the person learned, will typically be very difficult for this person.

Example: Elisita was born into a Spanish speaking family in Mexico . Her parents spoke only Spanish in the home, as did Elisita's siblings and other relatives. Very few of Elisita's neighbors spoke English therefore Elisita was never exposed to the sound of English as a baby/toddler. When Elisita was two years of age, her family migrated to Chicago, Illinois. At age five, Elisita was enrolled in a public school where she was exposed to the English language at least six hours per day. She learned to speak English quite well. When Elisita was age sixty-nine, due to uncontrolled high blood pressure, she suffered a cerebral vascular accident. With some speech therapy she was able to recover a great deal of her Spanish language skills, but her ability to speak English was impaired.  

QUESTION 1
While you were involved in the audit of your client White Cross (Pty) Ltd, the following policies, procedures and conditions exist:
1. There is strong segregation of duties in the inventory cycle between receiving inventory, its custody, the issue of inventory and the recording of all movement in the inventory records.
2. The board of directors and senior management meet every six months to identify the challenges facing the company and how successfully they are being addressed.
3. The company’s organizational structure is designed in such a way as to provide the board with a realistic chance of achieving its objectives on an ongoing basis.
4. The human resource department goes to great lengths to define the skills necessary for each job category and to recruit suitable personnel.
5. The financial director meets frequently with the financial accountant to ensure that information required to be disclosed by IFRS is properly accumulated, recorded and processed.
6. Access to the company’s network is controlled by the use of comprehensive logical controls, eg: user IDS’s, user profiles, passwords, and is granted on a need to know basis.
7. The recording in the general ledger of sales, purchases, etc, processed by the computer is achieved by passing journal entries. All journal entries are scrutinized and authorized by 2 senior financial accounting department employees.
8. All transactions keyed into the computer via terminals are subject to a wide range of input controls.
9. The internal audit department conducts frequent reviews of breakdowns in internal control and how these are corrected.
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10. To enter White Cross (Pty) Ltd’s computer facility, warehouse and processing plant, an individual must place his thumb on a biometric scanner.
YOU ARE REQUIRED TO:
a) Briefly describe each of the components of internal control. (10)
b) Indicate to which component each of the policies, procedures or conditions listed in
points 1-10 relate. (10)
c) Explain the difference between an automated control and a manual control (1)
d) Suggest four ways in which computerization (IT) benefits a company’s internal control. (4)

1) Which one is not true about overall cost leadership?

Select one:

1. Often firms avoid marginal customer accounts.

2. This strategy usually provides substantial entry barriers.

3. Overall cost leadership always implies some limitations on the overall market share
achievable.

4. Firms can achieve overall cost leadership by tight cost and overhead control.

2)A firm successfully implementing a differentiation strategy would expect _______

Select one:

1. to charge premium prices

2. customers to perceive the product as standard

3. customers to be sensitive to price increases

4. to have high levels of power over suppliers

3)Among generic strategies, which generic competitive strategy does this explain?

“To attract price-sensitive customers away from competitors, 7-Eleven stores offer $1 coffee or iced coffee.”

Select one:

1. Blue Ocean

2. Differentiation

3. Overall cost leadership

4. Focus differentiation

4)Which activity is one of the primary activities in the value chain analysis?

Select one:

1. technology development

2. operations

3. firm intrastructure

4. procurement

5. human resource management

5)Among generic strategies, which generic competitive strategy does this explain?

"Lush is unlike any other makeup brand on the marketplace. This cosmetics maker has international reach with a local "warm and fuzzy" approach that isn't afraid to push the boundaries.

So, what makes LUSH so different from the likes of Sephora or even Etsy? Handmade products. Advocates of LUSH are committed to ethical buying, and are obsessed with the purity that comes from a handmade item. The company's biggest success is knowing that its core buyers value social and corporate responsibility over a luxurious and out-of-reach image."

Select one:

1. Internationalization

2. Differentiation

3. Overall cost leadership

4. Vertical integration

1. Match the following definitions/terms by placing the Number that identifies the best definition in Answer Column. Note: 15 Definitions – Second page.

What is a good response/explanation to the following: Would you be agree/disagree to this research?

How does the research conducted by Brene Brown differ from quantitative research?

Brene Brown's research was conducted to retrieve in-depth information from participants while quantitative research lacks the in-depth factor. She also used the information gathered and made interpretations and found commonalities and differences than quantitative research could consider extraneous variables or lacking numerical value. Brene Browns used all the collected interviews to explore common reoccurring factors with great detail. These details of life struggles and resilience did not hold statistical (numerical) data but provided valuable information from real populations willing to share their story.

What qualitative techniques does she use?

Brene Browns used understandability and comparability to engage in research that held human life experiences with value. During her assessment of written and verbal interviews, she was active in the conversation for how shame is related to our fear of disconnection. She analyzed the information and found outliers and focused on the comparing qualities they shared. She held on to the data for several years before creating a theory about what it all means.

What are some advantages and disadvantages to Brown's approach?

Some disadvantages in Brown’s approach are that she too struggled with vulnerability and it did not feel like her to openly accept the emotions that can arise from vulnerability. I believe this bias made it difficult to initially grasp the value of vulnerability. An advantage to her approach is she gathers thousands of reports/interviews that helped guide her to narrow her thoughts on why things were happening and why embracing authenticity and feeling worthiness for love and belonging were so important. The depth of the stories provided knowledge of real-life experiences with a thorough understanding of how the details relate and differ from each other.

Short Essay 7 Case Study: Baby Kelly’s Parents The case of Baby Kelly began in our Infancy discussions. Baby Kelly was born prematurely to Paige and Jacob. Paige’s maternity leave was up when Kelly was four weeks old. At that time, she made the decision to take a one year of absence from her career in human services. She was apprehensive and fearful that her position would no longer be available at the end of one year, but felt that she had no other choice in order to meet her responsibilities to her vulnerable baby and the rest of her family. Jacob did not have any leave of absence options at his management consulting firm. He used his paternity leave and sick time when Baby Kelly was born. Baby Kelly’s first birthday is fast approaching. He is still prone to colds and respiratory infections that require him to be on some type of medication almost constantly. Paige is still waking up in the middle of the night to Kelly’s crying. She is sleep deprived and longs to have some time alone to relax in peace and quiet and to sleep. With her leave of absence almost complete, Paige has started to wonder how she will manage working fulltime plus taking responsibility for Kelly and her other children, and managing the household. She is becoming tense as her start date for work approaches.

Answer the following questions in essay form. Your essay should be between 1 - 2 pages in length and adhere to APA guidelines.

What are some issues that Paige must deal with in order to find a balance between work and her family life?

What strategies would you suggest that might help her be effective in finding a workable balance? What type of public policy or corporate policy should help reduce the pressure on parents who have responsibility for a special needs or vulnerable child or aging parent?

In what ways does the parenting role contribute to the achievement of generativity?

Please use excel and demonstrate the formulae used.

A regional architecture/contractor firm purchased an HVAC unit for $25,000 that was expected to last 15 years. It has a salvage value of $0 in 10 more years. The annual operating cost of this unit started at $2,000 in the first year and has increased steadily at $250 per year ever since; last year the cost was $3,000. Its book value is now $13,000. They are building a new wing at their regional headquarters to accommodate a much larger computer design emphasis requiring larger, faster computers, architectural printers, e-storage for a construction repository of previous designs, and an increased human heat load. They can buy an additional unit to air-condition the new wing for $18,000. It will have a service life of 15 years, a net salvage of $0 at that time, and a $3,000 market value after 10 years. It will have annual operating costs of $1,800 in the first year, increasing at $100 per year. As an alternative, they can buy a new unit to heat and cool the entire building for $35,000. It will last for 15 years and have a net salvage of $0 at that time; however, it will have a market value of $8,500 after 10 years. It will have first-year operating costs of $3,700/year, increasing at $200 per year. The present unit can be sold now for $7,000. MARR is 11%percent, and the planning horizon is 10 years.

a) Clearly show the cash flow profile for each alternative using a cash flow approach (insider's viewpoint approach).
b) Using a PW analysis and a cash flow approach (insider's viewpoint approach), decide which one is the more favorable alternative.
c) Clearly show the cash flow profile for each alternative using an opportunity cost approach (outsider's viewpoint approach).
d) UsingaPWanalysisandanopportunitycostapproach(outsider'sviewpointapproach), decide which one is the more favorable alternative.

Respond to you thoughts on this discussion in 150 words

It is important in today’s world to be able to understand present and future value in the monetary system when making any decisions. Due to the need of understanding the calculations, I have chosen the green side for this discussion. One reason is that even outside of a business environment, the use of understanding the calculations of present and future value are necessary. An example that comes to mind is one of my coworkers and his finance have decided to buy a house. He has had to determine what the future value of his mortgage payments would be today to make the decision on what would be the best option home for him and his finance. This requires him to have more of an understanding of the calculations that the tools used to make these calculations. Another example that comes to mind for this side is equipment. My father, though he is employed by the military, also runs a farm. He has spent numerous occasions calculating the resent value of purchasing equipment and the payments that come with the purchase. One of the reasons that I have chosen the green side, is that he may understand that he may be pay $650 in six months for a tractor, but what would that payment be considered today. This ultimately means that though he has the tools required to perform the calculations needed; without the knowledge of how the calculations work within the monetary system, he would not understand the significance of the calculation itself. Technology is a great tool to use when working with equations such as the present value formula; however, just like there is human error, technology also could have errors that can change the value of the calculation that could end up causing people to have slightly false information. It would benefit people to have an understanding of the formulas in the monetary sense rather than just putting the information into a computer system or calculator and using that answer without knowledge of why we use the calculation.

“For several years empirical studies have spanned the spectrum of research from software productivity, quality, reliability, performance to human computer interaction. Analyses have involved software systems ranging from desktop software to telecommunication switching systems. But surprising there has been little work done on the emerging digital game industry, one of the fastest growing domains today. To the best of our knowledge, our work is one of the first empirical analysis of a large commercially successful game system”. “In this paper, we introduce an analysis of the significant user data generated in the gaming industry by using a successful game: Project Gotham Racing 4. More specifically, due to the increasing ubiquity of constantly connected high-speed internet connections for game consoles, developers are able to collect extensive amounts of data about their games following release. The challenge now is to make sense of that data, and from it be able to make recommendations to developers. This paper presents an empirical case study analyzing the data collected from a released game over a three year period. The results of this analysis include a better understanding of the differences between long-term and short-term players, and the extent to which various options in the game are utilized. This led to recommendations for future development ways to reduce development costs and to keep new players engaged. A secondary goal for this paper is to introduce software game development as a topic of importance to the empirical software engineering community and discuss research results on a key difference area: data analytics on user data to customize user and development experiences” (Hullett, Nagappan, Schuh and Hopson, 2012)

1) What is the research approach used in this study?

2) What are the key findings from this study?

3) Who are the key people who will benefit from this study? Please use suitable examples.

4) In your opinion, what are the potential drawbacks of case study approach?

Ahmed and Mohammed want to start their own business. They are thinking to establish a factory to manufacture
sunglass in Oman. The factory needs an investment of OMR 600,000. Mohamed having OMR 150,000 and
Ahmed having OMR 250,000. They have a shortage of OMR 200,000. Ahmed suggests to take loan from Bank
but Mohammed suggests to sell shares to manage the investment shortage. They are confusing regarding the suitable source of finance to manage the investment shortage. This will affect the legal entity of their
organization. There are many forms of organization, but they are confusing between LLC and SAOG.

Furthermore, Ahmed suggest to hire the following employees:
 The Managing Director has the major responsibility for running of the company, including setting
company targets and keeping an eye on all departments.  The Distribution Manager is responsible for controlling the movement of goods in and out of the
warehouse, supervising drivers and overseeing the transport of goods to and from the firm.  The Production Manager is responsible for keeping a continuous supply of work flowing to all production
staff and also for organizing manpower to meet the customers' orders.  The Sales Manager is responsible for making contact with customers and obtaining orders from those
contacts.  The Finance Manager controls all the financial dealings of the company and is responsible for producing
management accounts and financial reports.  The Public Relation Manager is responsible for external communications, media, social media and
complains  The Human Resource Manager is responsible to handle all staff affairs, HRP, recruitment and selection,
etc.  The IT Manager is responsible for maintain the organization ERP and any technology within the
organization  Maintenance manager is responsible to maintain the production line and company assets.   
Also, they are planning to hire 5 distribution officers, 5 accountants, 5 HR officers, 3 Public relation officers, 10 Trade promotors, 5 Mechanical Engineering for production, 5 Mechanical Engineering for maintenance 100 production labours and 10 Labour supervisors.

Explain the main functional areas of a business organization that you have identified from the case study? Support your answer by identifying the responsible manager of each functions