Humanities

Select one (1) composition by Tchaikovsky that you enjoy. Describe the music and subject matter of that work, and explain why you enjoy it. Explain the key reasons why you believe that compositions by Tchaikovsky continue to be popular with contemporary orchestras and audiences. Passionate nationalism, like Tchaikovsky’s for Russia, could be a feature of Romantic art and music and in the arts of the late 1800s. Give primary examples of music today (besides national anthems) that is characterized by nationalism.

• Tchaikovsky

  • Audio of musical compositions on Tchaikovsky webpage , Kennedy Center Website at http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=3651&source_type=C
  • Video clip of Tchaikovsky (1812 Overture) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrsYD46W1U0

Listen to one (1) composition (i.e., for a symphony) by Beethoven, a transitional figure between classical and romantic music. Identify the composition that you listened to, and determine whether you would characterize the chosen composition as either the Classical or Romantic style of music. Explain the key features that lead you to your conclusion. Identify one (1) modern musician who you believe was great at one type of music yet pioneered another.

• The Beethoven-Haus Website at http://www.beethoven-haus-bonn.de/sixcms/detail.php?template=portal_en (Note: Click on Digital Archives > Works by Ludwig von Beethoven; then find one [1] of his symphonies and listen to a clip.
• Beethoven’s Eroica at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XL2ha18i5w and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RFG5rGVL1s

List references with replies to the questions/summaries.

Software skills: Spreadsheet downloading, formatting, and formulas

Business skills: Financial statement analysis

Pick one e- commerce company on the Internet— for example, Ashford, Buy. com, Yahoo, or Priceline. Study the Web pages that describe the company and explain its purpose and structure. Use the Web to find articles that comment on the company. Then visit the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Web site at www. sec. gov to access the company’s 10- K ( annual report) form showing income statements and balance sheets. Select only the sections of the 10- K form containing the desired portions of financial statements that you need to examine, and download them into your spreadsheet. Instructions below provide more detailed instructions on how to download this 10- K data into a spreadsheet and information on financial statements. Create simplified spreadsheets of the company’s balance sheets and income statements for the past three years.

• Is the company a dot- com success, borderline business, or failure? What information provides the basis of your decision? Why? When answering these questions, pay special attention to the company’s three- year trends in revenues, costs of sales, gross margins, operating expenses, and net margins.

• Prepare a PowerPoint overhead presentation (with a minimum of five slides), including appropriate spreadsheets or charts, and upload your file to this assignment. An example PowerPoint slide presentation is attached for your review in this learning module folder in Blackboard.

As needed: Students can find material on understanding financial statements on financial Web sites such as Ameritrade (www.ameritrade.com) or the Small Business Knowledge Base http://www.bizmove.com/finance/m3b2.htm.

Downloading the Data into a Spreadsheet

Use the Convert Text to Columns Wizard in your spreadsheet software to arrange the 10-K data you downloaded into spreadsheet columns and rows. From the Excel menu, select Data and then select the Text to Columns option. The software brings up a Wizard to convert the imported text into spreadsheet columns. Although you can decide to create line breaks, it may be easiest to accept the default settings (Fixed Width, General format) and then adjust column widths after the Wizard has arranged the data in spreadsheet columns.

Financial Statements

Financial statements are used to evaluate the performance of a business and diagnose its strengths and weaknesses. The two primary financial statements are income statements and balance sheets. The income statement, also called an operating statement or profit and loss statement, shows the income and expenses of a firm over a period of time, such as a year, a quarter, or a month. Gross profit is calculated by subtracting the cost of goods sold from revenues, or sales. The gross margin is calculated by dividing gross profit by revenues (or sales). Net profit (or loss) is calculated by subtracting all other expenses, including operating expenses and income taxes from gross profit. Operating expenses are all business costs (such as expenditures for sales and marketing, general and administrative expenditures, and depreciation) other than those included in the cost of goods sold. Net margins are calculated by dividing net profit (or loss) by revenues (or sales).

A balance sheet provides a snapshot of a company’s financial assets and liabilities on a given date, usually the close of an accounting period. It lists what material and intangible assets the business owns and what money the business owes either to its creditors (liabilities) or to its owners (shareholders’ equity, also known as net worth). At any given time a business’s assets equals the sum of its liabilities plus its net worth. Current assets include cash, securities, accounts receivable, or other investments that are likely to be converted into cash within one year. Liabilities are outstanding obligations of the firm. Current liabilities are debts that are due within one year. Long-term debt consists of liabilities that are not due until after a year or more. If too much debt has been used to finance the firm’s operations, problems may arise in meeting future interest payments and repaying outstanding loans. By examining a series of balance sheets, one can identify and analyze trends in the financial strength of a business.

Assignment Title: Conducting Primary Research
Developing the ability to conduct primary research can be an invaluable asset to add to your business
tool belt. Marketing researchers conduct primary research to gain human perspective on the problem or
opportunity being studied, or to identify problems or opportunities for study.
Directions for Completing this Assignment:
In this Assignment, you will analyze the Student Computer Lab case study. To effectively meet the
requirements of this assignment, analyze the qualitative data derived from the primary research found
in the case study scenario.
To successfully complete this Assignment, write a 2-3 page critical essay covering the following topics:
1. Determine overall student satisfaction with the computer lab.
2. Provide an opinion describing if it was wise to have a group with both graduate and undergraduate
students included? Support your opinion with research.
3. Analyze the focus group transcript very thoroughly. Make a list of problems and ideas generated
for the student computer lab.
4. What do you see as the benefits and limitations of the focus group findings? Do you think the task
force plan for utilizing the focus groups is appropriate?
5. What changes would you make to improve the problems or to capitalize on the opportunities
identified in the primary research? Collect and describe student recommendations for
improvements.

Make sure to use headings.

Applying an Ethical Theory

Please read these assignment instructions before writing your paper, and re-read them often during and after the writing process to make sure that you are fulfilling all of the instructions. .

Overview
The following short essay assignment is designed to help prepare you for an important part of the Final Paper. In this essay, you will do the following:

Topic: Physician Assisted Suicide

• Choose either the same ethical question you formulated and introduced in the Week One Assignment, or a different one based off the topic:
• Choose either utilitarian or deontological ethical theory to apply to the ethical question.
• Explain the core principles of that theory.
• Demonstrate how the principles of the theory support a certain position on that question.
• Articulate a relevant objection to that position.

Instructions
Write a five-paragraph essay that conforms to the requirements below. The paper must be at least 1,000 words in length (excluding title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. The paragraphs of your essay should conform to the following guidelines:

• Introduction
  The introduction should clearly state the ethical question under consideration, and define the essential issues. You may build upon the question and introduction you provided in the Week One Assignment; or you may choose a different question, but it must be based off the list of acceptable topics. Your introduction should include a brief remark about the kind of theory you will be using to approach this question. The last sentence of the introduction should briefly summarize the or position on the issue you think is best supported by this theory and succinctly state what the objection will be. Bear in mind that your essay will not be concerned with your own position on this issue, but what someone reasoning along the lines of the chosen theory would conclude; this may or may not be the position you took in the Week One Assignment.

• Body Paragraphs
  Each paragraph in the body should start with a topic sentence that clearly identifies the main idea of the paragraph.
  • Theory explanation
    Explain the core principles or features of the deontological or utilitarian theory and the general account of moral reasoning it provides.You must quote from at least one required resource other than your textbook that defends or represents that theory. Refer to the list of acceptable resources.
  • Application
    Demonstrate how the principles or features of the deontological or utilitarian theory apply to the question under consideration and identify the specific conclusion that results from applying the reasoning characteristic of that kind of approach.Your application should clearly show how the conclusion follows from the main principles and features of the theory as addressed in the previous paragraph. Please see the associated guidance for help in fulfilling this requirement.
  • Objection
    Raise a relevant objection to the argument expressed in your application. An objection articulates a plausible reason why someone might find the argument problematic. This can be a false or unsupported claim or assumption, fallacious reasoning, a deep concern about what the conclusion involves, a demonstration of how the argument supports other conclusions that are unacceptable, etc. You should aim to explain this objection as objectively as possible, (i.e., in a way that would be acceptable to someone who disagrees with the argument from the previous paragraph).Note that this does not necessarily mean that the objection succeeds, or that the conclusion the theory supports is wrong. It may be an obstacle that any adequate defense of the conclusion would have to overcome, and it may be the case that the theory has the resources to overcome that obstacle. Your task here is simply to raise the objection or present the “obstacle.”

• Conclusion
  The conclusion should very briefly summarize the main points of your essay.

Resource Requirements

• You must use at least two resources to support your claims.
• At least one of the resources should be one of the Required or Recommended Resources that represent the theory you have chosen, and must be drawn from the list of acceptable resources available in your online classroom.
• The other source should pertain to the particular issue you are writing about and should be drawn from the required or recommended readings in the course, or be a scholarly source found in the Ashford Unversity Library.
• You are encouraged to use additional resources, so long as at least two conform to the requirements above.
• The textbook does not count toward satisfying the resources requirement.
• Below is the original outline to use as a guide.

Should physician assisted suicide be allowed in certain specific cases, such as when the patient is suffering and terminally ill?

Introduction:

Throughout the United States, committing suicide or attempting to commit suicide is not considered and legal offense, however, assisting another person to commit suicide is an illegal act in every state except Oregon. Physician assisted suicide takes place when a physician facilitates a patient’s death by providing the necessary means to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act. Physician assisted suicide is a topic of controversy that has been gaining support over the past century in the United States.

Position Statement:

Physician assisted suicide should not be allowed under any circumstances because it betrays human dignity and equality before the law. Human life does not need to be extended by every medical means possible but a person should never be intentionally killed.

Supporting Reason:

Physician assisted suicide changes the culture in which medicine is practiced. It corrupts the practice of medicine by allowing the tools of healing to be used as techniques for killing. This threatens to damage the doctor-patient relationship by reducing patients’ trust of physicians and may impact the doctors’ undivided obligation to the life and health of their patient. This also raises the question of how well this practice can genuinely be regulated (Kass, 1991).

Opposing Reason:

Supporters of physician assisted suicide believe that the matter is based on individual choice that should not be limited by law. They believe that individuals have the right to make life-and-death decisions for themselves without government assistance.

References:

Kass, L. R. (1991). Why doctors must not kill. Commonweal, 118(14), 472-476. Retrieved from https://library.ashford.edu/ezproxy.aspx?url=http%…

Create an outline for the Debate Paper due in Week Nine. Include all references to be used in the paper.  Be sure to review the Debate Paper Requirements located under Week Nine prior to completing your outline.

Should parents be held responsible for their minor children’s criminal behavior?

Write a 1,750- to 2,100-word debate paper in which you create a debate of a current event or other controversial topic and provide an analysis of arguments presented for both sides. Complete the following sections in the paper:

• Introduction: Introduce the issue that is the subject of the debate.
• Body
  • Include a minimum of two but no more than four arguments for the pro side of the debate and a minimum of two but no more than four arguments for the con side of the debate.
  • Evaluate any potential ethical, moral, or legal issues.
• Conclusion
  • Identify what you determined is the more persuasive argument.
  • Reflect on the arguments presented and reveal your consensus.
  • Base the conclusion solely on the pro and con arguments.
  • Include a rebuttal of weaker arguments.
  • Explain why the selected arguments were more persuasive.

Cite at least three sources.

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.
Click the Assignment Files tab to submit your assignment

Week4GradingForm-DebatePaperOutline.doc