Author: chris

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As you read the assigned chapters in the text, write a reading journal. You may select from the following suggested questions, all of which are designed to help you reflect on the ways you react to the reading. In your reading journal you are to include items for all the chapters for a given period of time according to the course schedule.

Reading journals should be typed and be three to four full pages double-spaced. The reading journals will be uploaded to Blackboard on the day it is due. You cannot submit them after the link under Assignments is unavailable. Your reading journal should have a cover page and follow APA style including running head, title header, numbered pages, section headings, and a reference page where the only reference is the textbook. Do not write the questions into the narrative just use a section heading like interesting, unclear, linkable, debatable, and so on.

Choose a total of three of the following questions to write your Reading Journal. The use of the three questions should cover the chapters that you were assigned to read. Each question should be in its own section. What I am looking for in this assignment is for you to apply the readings to your classroom or professional practice. I am not looking for a summary of the readings.

1. Interesting: What do you find interesting in this reading assignment? Summarize the point of interest and then discuss why you find it interesting.
2. Unclear: What do you find unclear in this reading assignment? Summarize the section you find muddy or foggy and explain what you think it means but why you're still uncertain.
3. Linkable: What do you find "linkable" in this reading assignment? Something may link up with your previous reading in this class or in others. Perhaps it links up with an experience you've had or a theory you're developing. Explain the linkages you see.
4. Stimulating: What do you find stimulating or exciting in this reading assignment? Summarize the section and explain why you find it stimulating.
5. Contradictory: What do you find contradictory in this reading assignment? The passage in question may seem to contradict something else the writer(s) has said; it may contradict your reading in another class or in another text in this class; it may contradict common sense; it may contradict your experience or expectation. Explain the contradictions and try to work out what you are going to think about the ideas associated with it.
6. Debatable: What do you find debatable in this reading assignment? Who would debate this passage and what arguments would he or she bring to the debate? What do you think about the possible positions one can take on the issue discussed in the reading?
7. Practical/Useful: What do you find practical or useful in this reading assignment? It might be useful in your daily life now, in your professional life now or in the future, in your academic research as you prepare to write a paper. What specifically is useful, and how can it be used?
8. Suggest your own word for a heading.

Non Profit: Families First Weaver Gardens
1. Marketing Plan Complete a formal social marketing plan for an existing non-profit agency of your choice to help facilitate expansion and growth. The plan should not exceed 25 pages. A good starting place may be start-ups that lack resources for developing a formal marketing plan. Your role is a consultant for the agency. Students must use actual budget figures and work with the existing organizational mission (if necessary, students may consider revising the existing missions).

Identify an organization dealing with an important societal need you particularly care about. I recommend that you begin your project by looking at the websites and annual reports of nonprofit organizations to understand their organizational design, offerings, and target audiences.

In your marketing plan, you should:
1. Identify the mission and vision statements for the organization and briefly
describe basic services it has been providing during the last 6 months of operation.

2. Analyze the organizational environments:
a. Internal environments
• Review organizational goals and objectives
• Describe the organizational culture

b. External analysis
• List and briefly describe all clients, donors, volunteers, board members, and others
• Describe the competition faced by this organization (please, do research on similar local nonprofit and for profit organizations operating in the same service area)
• Point out various aspects of the current macroeconomic situation and how they may affect the organization

3. Formulate your core marketing strategy (e.g., new markets? new offerings?)

4. Describe marketing research you plan to undertake to gain an understanding of how your target audience makes decisions about changing their behavior according to your organizational desires. Based on common sense and any online information you can find, make preliminary assumptions about the character of their decision-making (e.g., who are the decision-makers? How, when, where, and why do these potential consumers use or may use the services?), latest trends in demand (is the demand for services growing or declining?) and social, cultural, and economic characteristics of consumers.

5. From you research, provide some ideas and a rationale for market segmentation.
6. Identify the ‘brand’ for your organization (name, logo, detailed positioning message).

7. Describe the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion).
• Are you planning on developing a new product or improving the style, or packaging of your current product? What sources of data will you consider to guide your ideas for a new product?
• Price – what pricing techniques will you use?
• Based on the character of your offering and the traits of your target audiences, how will you be reaching your audiences?
• Promotion: what messages would you want to send and what media would you use?

8. How will you assess the effectiveness of marketing activities?

9. Describe the implementation plan (responsibilities, tasks, and timeline).

File Pricing Exercise.doc (43 KB)
..

This Pricing Exercise is a combination of a variety of concepts found in the text. Pricing includes many considerations – the 5 Cs of Pricing – Company, Customer, Competition, Channel, Costs.

In addition, certain companies have a particular way in which they approach pricing – some companies are profit oriented, some are competitively oriented, other companies are customer value oriented. But no matter what orientation a company is, a baseline price should be calculated from which a "what if" analysis can be done in terms of what would happen if the price is raised or lowered from that baseline.

This exercise has 3 parts. The Part 1 is a Cost-Based Pricing Model. Businesses have two major cost to be considered – Fixed Cost (FC) which is always expressed as an annual amount, and Variable Cost (VC) which is always expressed as a per unit or per item amount. Fixed Costs do not change no matter how much demand or sales forecasts change. Variable Costs change based on on how many units are forecasted to be demanded or sold.

Therefore: Total Costs = FC + Total VC (VC per unit X # of units demanded or forecasted to sell)

The steps to calculate the correct Selling Price (SP) and the Break Even Quantity (BE) are a three step process, however, we first have to calculate what I am calling a Unit Cost (UC) which is a more representative cost to base our Selling Price on because it is the Variable Cost plus some portion of the Fixed Costs. It should be noted that Unit Cost is not an accounting term – it is a marketing term. Marketers calculate a Unit Cost to base their Selling Price on. Selling Price then is the Unit Cost divided by 1 minus the return (marketers often refer to the Return as a target profit, target margin, or a return). Finally, Break Even is calculated by dividing the Fixed Costs by the Selling Price minus the Variable Costs. The Break Even quantity final answer is always rounded up no matter how small the decimal amount, since we cannot sell a part of a product. The denominator of the BE calculation (SP-VC) is the Contribution per Unit (or Contribution Margin which is an accounting term) or how much each unit or product sold contributes to the bottom line.

1. UC = VC + FC

Sales (Qty)

2. SP = UC

1 – Return

3. BE = FC

SP – VC

However, marketers rarely only want to know what the Cost-Based Selling Price would be. They want to know how much they REALLY should sell something for depending on what they are trying to do – gain market share quickly with a lower price, or capture more profit and recover investment dollars with a higher price. Of course, the law of Supply & Demand says that if I raise the Selling Price from the Cost-Based Price demand will fall; if I lower the Selling Price from the Cost-Based Price demand will increase. The question is whether the change in demand will effect the overall profitability for the product which is largely based on the elasticity of that particular product. To answer this question requires a "what if" analysis.

Once you complete the three step process as outlined above, you can then do a "what if" by calculating what will happen to overall profitability by changing the selling price up or down, taking into account that the price change will affect the overall demand or forecasted sales, and then completing the table on Part 2 of this exercise. On the table in Part 2, I have given you the potential new selling prices in column one, with the resulting demand or forecasted sales in column three. You should complete the rest of the table and answer all the questions on both Part 1 and Part 2.

Part 3 of this exercise then calculates the Elasticity (EoD) of this particular product, which is the % CHANGE IN DEMAND divided by the % CHANGE IN PRICE. The Elasticity final answer is always expressed as an absolute number. If it is < 1 the product is inelastic; if it is > 1 the product is elastic.The mathematical elasticity of the product should confirm why this product acts the way it does and helps to explain the results from the table in Part 2. Relatively inelastic products can usually be pushed to higher prices before it negatively effects profitability. Relatively elastic products can show losses at both a higher price point if demand drops so much that revenue falls, or a lower price point if demand rises so much that variable costs outstrip revenue.

You can type your answers into the document itself and then reattach it with your answers. I need to see all your work in order to give you partial credit.

Introduction to Topic: Refer to the Final Research Project guidelines for your topic selection. For your introduction, you should write a 150-word paragraph which clearly explains the topic, the importance of further research, ethical implications, and how the topic relates to one’s academic and professional pursuits. Make sure you effectively inform the reader of the rationale behind your topic.
Topic: How Poverty Affects School Aged Children
Thesis statement: Write a direct and concise thesis statement, which will become the point or perspective you will argue or prove in the Final Research Project. A thesis statement should be a single declarative sentence that makes one point in 25 words or less. The thesis statement must appear within the introduction paragraph.
Annotated Bibliography: To help prepare for your Final Research Project, write an annotated bibliography to indicate the quality of the sources you have read. The bibliography must include no less than five scholarly sources( I have attached two sources that must be used) that will be used to support the major points of the Final Research Project. Critical thinking skills need to be demonstrated by accurately interpreting evidence used to support various positions of the topic. Please make sure to provide full reference information in accordance with APA style. Write a brief paragraph (around 150 words) summarizing the source and explaining how it is pertinent and relevant to the topic of the project and how each source will support your thesis statement. See the Sample Annotated Bibliography (I have attached a copy of format)

Must be 1,000 – 1,250 words in length (excluding the title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA.
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
Must use at least five scholarly sources I have attached two sources that must be used.
Must document all sources in APA style

In the land of free trade, the public does not view all industries as equal. Do you believe that is ethical? Do you believe that some industries are unfairly targeted? Should it be consumers’ choice to partake in products that are not healthy for them, or do those companies have an ethical obligation to protect people? In this assignment, you will choose one (1) industry to write about. Possible industries to research could be tobacco, soda, alcohol, casinos, or candy companies, just to name a few.

Write a one and a half to two (1½ – 2) page paper in which you:

1.Become an advocate for either the consumer or the industry. Prepare an argument explaining the major reasons why you support either the consumer or the industry.
2.Explain the role capitalism plays in corporate decision making.
3.Discuss if you believe it is possible for a company to cater to both its best interest and that of the consumer conjointly or if one always has to prevail. Justify your response.
4.Use at least two (2) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as academic resources.
5.Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
a.Typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
b.Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, your name, your professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
c.Include a reference page. Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

•Determine the considerations for and process of ethical business decision making to balance corporate and social responsibilities, and address moral, economic, and legal concerns.
•Analyze selected business situations using the predominant ethical theories, such as utilitarian, Kantian, and virtue ethics to guide ethical business decision making.
•Use technology and information resources to research issues in business ethics.
•Write clearly and concisely about business ethics using proper writing mechanics

Review the material we've discussed so far – IA program governance, device discovery, service enumeration, vulnerability assessments, attacker methodology, etc and begin an outline of your proposal. Final projects should be 4-7 pages not including network diagrams, figures, etc. if you choose to include them.

Scenario
You are an information security consultant and have recently been hired by a new client to update their information security program. Submit your final report as a .doc or .docx attachment via this assignment, please do not email me your report.

Hoosier Medical Systems has grown by acquisition over the last five years. They operate two hospitals and four doctor’s offices in the central Indiana area. They have managed information technology in an ad-hoc manner for years and have recently hired a Chief Information Officer who is pushing for a centralized data center to support the IT needs of organization; he has limited experience in information security, so Hoosier Medical System has hired you to fill in the gap. There is no one dedicated to security, no security awareness program, no dedicated security hardware or software (other than client managed anti-virus), and no one has examined potential regulatory issues that may impact Hoosier Medical Systems.

The doctor’s offices are running a mix of Windows XP, ME, Vista, and 7. There is no standard build, one of the two part-time IT staff members usually buy new workstations as needed from Best Buy. They also have wireless at most offices for the doctor’s to use their personal laptops in patient rooms without the need to plug into the live network jack in every room, they often bring their laptops home to review patient records and for general personal use. Each office handles their own billing and accept credit cards via a single Hoosier Medical System website or over their VoIP phone system. Each office has a file server, domain controller, network switch, and router directly connected to the Internet. The router has an ACL limited some network protocols. They send and receive some information between the two hospitals, including patient records, payroll, billing information, and other administrative data.

The hospitals have a larger and slightly better managed technology infrastructure. They have a small network room which was a janitor closet. Each floor has its own network hub which connects all workstations together. All departments use the same file server, but the finance department has created a shared folder limited to just their department.

The new CIO plans to completely rebuild the infrastructure, starting with a new high availability data center. He wants to re-architect and centralize data storage, applications, device management, etc. He’s not convinced that he needs to do much with the workstations at each site, but employees complain about lack of technical support and sporadic malware infections – they all have administrative rights. He would like your perspective on the workstation issue, architecture suggestions, and anything else that they should consider when redesigning their IT infrastructure.

Your assignment is to document recommendations based on the scenario provided. Begin with the first section we covered in class and suggest a governance model for the Hoosier Medical System’s new information security program. Consider each section, one by one, and apply the material we’ve covered in class to this client’s situation. Think about the attacker methodology, but this is not an incident response scenario. You may suggest an annual penetration test, but there’s no need to go into specific detail. Your final report should be 4-7 pages, single / 1.5 spaced (excluding diagrams if you choose to include them). There are plenty of issues to discuss and opportunities for improvement. If you have questions, please contact me directly.

SET 1
I
1. What is intentionality and why does neuroscience face a challenge in explaining how it is possible? (Note neuroscience is the scientific study of the brain as a chunk of matter. It does not have much to do with strong AI.)
2. Why does Jackson’s thought experiment about Mary the color scientist commit him to epiphenomenalism?
3. Nagel tells us that an organism has consciousness just in case “there is something that there is like to be that organism.” Is this a good definition of consciousness? If yes, tell us why and how it captures the right/essential things about consciousness. If no, tell us why the definition tells us too little, or assumes too much (or both!). Finally, discuss why Nagel cannot offer an operational definition for consciousness.

SET 2
II
4. Suppose you and everyone else (including scientists) could crawl into the brain of a bat and see everything that is going on there (i.e. see the synapses firing, blood pumping, hormones travelling etc.) How would this impact (if at all) Nagel's anti-physicalist argument in "What is it like to be a Bat?"
5. Nagel does not deny that physicalism is true. Rather he says we don’t even know what it means for physicalism to be true. Explain and defend or criticize Nagel’s claim.
6. Defend or criticize: The right answer to the problem of personal identity is that there is no such thing as a numerally identical person over time, it is a fiction useful for moral, social and political reasons.

SET 3
III
7. Can one be a physicalist and a theist? That is, are the two theories logically compatible? If so, is the evidence for one at the same time evidence against the other?
8. In the first night of “A dialogue on personal identity and immortality” Perry advances epistemological arguments with metaphysical conclusions. (We encountered epistemological arguments from Descartes and Swinburne for the opposite metaphysical conclusions). State one or more of these arguments and evaluate its soundness.
9. Watch the film “Being John Malkovitch,” available at Lilly Library or on line (remember pirating is a violation of intellectual property rights). Explain what is incoherent or philosophically mistaken about the theory of personal identity it employs.

THREE INDEPENDENT ESSAYS OF UP TO 750 WORDS EACH. SELECT ONE ESSAY FROM EACH SECTION OF THREE PROMPTS. ATTACHED ARE PERTINENT DOCUMENTS AND A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL PROMPT. THANKS!!

I will include the formal instructions as a file. To prepare for the assignment: Read the Required Learning Resources for Week 7. Part A BLC Ltd. is a medium-sized UK manufacturing company based in Liverpool. The company is seeking to expand its operations with the establishment of an office block to house the marketing and human resources staff in Manchester. The company has narrowed the choice to two alternatives with the following net cash flow information being available: Year Property 1 Property 2 000s 000s 0 (2,500) (2,750) 1 1,000 900 2 500 700 3 600 800 4 1,000 600 5 900 700 Items to keep in mind: The companys current cost of capital is 10%. For this assignment, ignore taxation. Required As the company accountant is currently on holiday you are required, by calculating net present value, internal rate of return and payback, to advise the company which option they should take. You should also critically evaluate the other qualitative factors that might be taken into account in this decision. Part B BLC Ltd. has revenue of 500 million and sells all of its goods on credit to a variety of different wholesale customers. At the moment the company offers a standard credit period of 30 days. However, 70% of its customers (by revenue) take an average of 70 days to pay, while the other 30% of customers (by revenue) pay within 30 days. The company is considering offering a 2% discount for payment within 30 days and estimates that 80% of customers (by revenue) will take up this offer (including those that already pay within 30 days). The Managing Director has asked the credit controller if the cost of this new policy would be worth offering. The company has a 80 million overdraft facility that it regularly uses to the full limit due to the lateness of payment and the cost of this overdraft facility is 15% per annum. The credit controller also estimates that bad debt level of 2% of revenue would be halved to 1% of revenue as a result of this new policy. Required 1. Calculate the approximate equivalent annual percentage cost of a discount of 2%, which reduces the time taken by credit customers to pay from 70 days to 30 days. 2. Calculate the value of trade receivables under the existing scheme and the proposed scheme at the year-end. 3. Evaluate the benefits and costs of the scheme and explain with reasons whether the company should go ahead and offer the discount. You should also consider other factors in this decision. (Hint: You need to work out the cost of the discount compared to the interest on the overdraft saved and bad debt reduction.) This assignment should be around 1,000 words and should be submitted in the form of a Business Report (approximately 500 words for each part). Your Make sure the spelling and grammar are correct and the language, citing and referencing you use when providing your opinion are appropriate for academic writing. Do Not use any quotes and paraphrase only please. This is vital! Do Not use any previous work from other papers please. This is vital! Please Use Harvard Citing to fully answer all points and questions below. Please use mainly material provided but can use 2-3 outside sources. Please do not use as your external sources other similar basic marketing management textbooks, texts from your previous MBA classes, dictionary definitions or marketing tutorial style sites, such as Wikipedia, NetMBA, Marketing Tutor, about.com, etc)

-How facial expressions/facial feedback work with humans.
-How Facial expressions appear to be genetically determined and that they are displayed universally, almost always in the same emotional contexts, and in adults as well as infants, including newborns and infants who are both deaf and blind.
-Info about James-Lange theory of emotion holds that we experience emotions based on sensory feedback from our movements like how, we are happy because we smile and are smiling not the other way around.
-Why do we smile rather than frown when we are happy?
-What explains the associations between particular expressions and particular emotions?
-How Newborns can imitate facial expressions in the first 36 hours of life. Implying that newborns can perceive and produce distinct expressions and can accurately reproduce the expressions they perceive.
– How Couples who have been married for long periods tend to look more alike than the couples who have been married for 1 year because of facial expression

Your final project will culminate with a high quality research project in which you defend an original thesis on a topic of your choice.
This paper:

should be an in-depth investigation and analysis of a particular problem in the field of philosophy
should make frequent use of the principles that were developed in the course, and
should engage directly with some particular argument that you found in the class materials or in your research.
While your research may uncover various relevant and important empirical facts, this is primarily a normative, argumentative essay, in which you defend some position in philosophy. If you're not clear on the distinction between a normative and empirical claims, please use the discussion board to ask your questions.

STRUCTURE
Your final project should be structured roughly as described below.

Introduction

A description of the topic you are investigating and an explanation of the philosophical and moral problems that are generated from the topic.

A clear and concise thesis statement, of the form “I will argue that xxx because yyy"

Body

Describe the philosophical issue you intend to solve. In your description, go beyond the obvious, and try to embed your description in the larger philosophical literature.

Give a charitable (fair-minded) reconstruction of the argument that you will be criticizing. In a short essay like this, it is best to confine your analysis to a small argument, from within the larger problem. In such a short essay, it would be difficult, for example, to adequately defend the thesis, “I shall argue that functionalism is true.” Instead, focus on some smaller thesis such as, “I shall argue that Dennett's defense of functionalism is incomplete.” In a case like this, the charitable reconstruction would be of Dennett's argument for functionalism.

Introduce any empirical evidence that you've collected, and explain why it is relevant to your topic and how it helps to support your thesis.

Evaluate the argument you will be opposing in terms of the logic and principled support that the author is able to give to it. First, an argumentative essay is much easier to structure if you have some specific argument you can discuss critically. Second, since this is an argumentative essay, this evaluation is the most important part of the essay, will constitute your principal objection, and will be the place that you can introduce your own position and contribution to the debate. Take some time to develop it carefully.

A brief answer to your evaluation/objection, on behalf of the original author (since he/she is not here to answer for him/herself), or on behalf of defenders of that position.

Conclusion

Provide a brief restatement of your initial thesis statement.

Determine exactly what your argument allows you to claim. Don't claim too much (e.g., In conclusion, I've shown that the mind is identical with the body…), but be sure to locate exactly what your arguments have committed you to. But don't underestimate your conclusion, either.

Offer suggestions regarding what other investigations might be useful to continue the conversation particularly if there is empirical research that may be conducted. For example, if you are arguing that artificial intelligence is conceptually possible, you might suggest research projects to determine how scientists or philosophers may proceed, mention research that is currently underway, etc.

GUIDELINES

Your paper should be 1500 to 2500 words (usually 4-7 pages) in length and should cover the directives already given.
You should follow accepted research approaches and citation format (APA or MLA).
Your paper should be well developed and convey your understanding of the readings and concepts.
Your paper should be organized, coherent, and unified.
Your paper should be free of spelling and grammatical errors.
Use an even mix of hardcopy and online sources because there is a definite qualitative difference between the two types.
Be sure to document all contentions and “facts” mentioned in an academically acceptable manner. (See writing resources below)
Encyclopedias—especially Wikipedia—and dictionaries are unacceptable sources.