Getting Started

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2­–4

Here we are told not only to persevere when we face hard times in our life, but also to be joyful. For some of us, that can be a challenge to understand, especially initially. As you read and reread this verse, it becomes clear that it underscores the importance of spiritual maturity. We are instructed here to persevere through our trials so that we may become spiritually mature.

Consider what spiritual maturity means to you.

God desires us to spiritually mature, or to “[attain] to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). As we persevere through our individual trials of life, God wants us to grow closer to Him.

As professional social workers, it is a privilege to learn how our many of our clients have grown closer to God through their life struggles. Many clients have a strong sense of spiritual maturity, and many do not. But for those who do, their faith is a strength we can use to help them help themselves. You will be study the strengths perspective in this workshop. As you do, don’t forget to consider the spiritual strengths your clients bring to the table.

Consider your spiritual strengths. Would you consider yourself spiritually mature? Why or why not? Reflect on how your personal trials have impacted your relationship with God.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

• Demonstrate Christ-like attitudes, values, and worldviews and ethical and professional behavior within advanced clinical practice. (PO 1)

Resources

• Bible

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.
2. In an APA formatted paper, write a one-paragraph response to each of the following prompts:
   1. How would you describe spiritual maturity? What does the term mean to you? Are you spiritually mature? How have the tests and trials of your life led to greater spiritual maturity?
   2. How are you joyful when you face challenges in life? If you aren’t, how could you be?

Those are discussion for financial risk management. See attachments for articles needed for discussion 9 and 10. Each discussion need about 150-200 words. No format needed.

Discussion 6:

Credit risk mitigation always comes at a cost. Deciding whether a credit risk mitigation strategy is cost-effective requires determining if the reduction in revenue caused by the cost of credit risk mitigation in a contract, commitment, financial instrument or portfolio is justified by the reduction in credit risk exposure achieved by the mitigation strategy. Following an example provided by the instructor, you will be asked to provide two examples, one of a credit risk mitigation strategy which is cost-effective and one that is not. You will also be asked to comment on the examples submitted by your fellow students.

Example: A bank holds a $100 million 5-year corporate loan outstanding to a firm that has an external credit rating of “A+”. The loan is partially secured by marketable securities with a current value of approximately $50 million. The firm’s risk manager is considering executing a 5 year Credit Default Swap for $100 million notional that will cost approximately $1 million per year in premium payments. This is an example of a non-cost effective hedge because; a) the probability of default for an “A+” rated firm is typically very low (e.g. < 0.25%) and b) the loan is already 50% secured by collateral so executing a CDS on the full $100 million value of the loan doesn’t appear reasonable. As such, the firm would likely be paying $5 millions of total CDS premium to insure a loan position that will be paid in full with a very high degree of certainty based on historical default rates. While still probably not necessary, a more cost effective hedge would be to do buy CDS protection on a much smaller amount (say $25-$50 million) to cover the unsecured portion.

Discussion 9:

Using the Northern Rock event discussed in Wednesday’s class, please provide an example(s) of a concept we discussed during the lecture that is illustrated by the Northern Rock saga and how this example contributed to the bank’s liquidity problems or could have been avoided by management taking a different action. If you read the article very carefully there are numerous such examples.

Discussion 10:

Why are Liquidity stress tests critical for financial firms? Following an example of Deutsche Bank Risk Reports (Page 77 – 80) which I’ll provide, you will be asked to state your opinion, explain your reasoning and give an example that supports it.

Developing a hypothesis_2

Develop a rough and ready theory of declining participation in democratic process. Taking any case that you choose, or reviewing democracy in general, brainstorm to come up with some hypotheses that help to explain why is there a general trend of declining participation in democratic proces. The dependent variable in each hypothesis will be declining participation (with the values being voting, party membership, pressure group particiation, protests, etc.).What are some independent variables? Keep a few things in mind:

• Choose variables that could reasonably be measured (though a survey or some other means).
• Consider carefully issues of both conceptual and operational definition. For example, if you posit literacy as an independent variable, do you mean that people with education are different than those without , or do you mean that there will be differences between people of different levels of education – you also need to consider what that means and how you might measure.
• Specify the nature of the relationship. Do not merely say that participation is related to education. Or there is a difference with regards the levels of education?
• Provide rationales for your hypotheses. (“Educated citizens are more likely to participate because they are more aware of the impact of the political system on their lives” )
• Don’t worry at this point about whether your hypothesis is valid.

Connecting Theories With Gaps in the Literature

Selecting a working theory is central to your dissertation study. A theory provides a framework for understanding a phenomenon or a process by describing the relationships among variables and concepts. Theory provides the lens or perspective out of which research is conducted, analyzed, and interpreted. It is through theory that research problems can be formulated, hypotheses put forward, phenomena categorized, and conclusions drawn. The theoretical framework of a study is, therefore, intended to hold all of the research components in a coherent structure. As such, every research design and study should have an underlying theoretical framework.

In this week’s Discussion, you will describe a theory that you found referenced consistently throughout the studies you read. You will also draw a connection between the theory and the gap you identified in the literature.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Consider, based upon your literature review thus far, what theories have been recurrent.
• Review Chapter 3, “Writing” (pp. 23–25), in the Stadtlander text.
• Review the media piece Research Approaches and Theoretical Frameworks.

Post by Day 3 a response describing one theory in your own words, and explain its relationship with the gap in the literature you identified.

1-2 References

In this assignment, learners are required to write a case report addressing the personal knowledge and skills gained in the current course and potentially solving an identified practice problem.

General Guidelines:

Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:

• This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
• Doctoral learners are required to use APA style for their writing assignments. The APA Style Guide is located in the Student Success Center.
• Use primary sources published within the last 5 years. Provide citations and references for all sources used.
• Your case report should be no more than 10 double-spaced pages, including references.
• You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.

Directions:

Choose a specific focus of patient practice (e.g., acute care hospital, clinic, primary care, long-term care, home health). Select a particular disease process (congestive heart failure, fall, diabetes, etc.). Identify and fully describe a technology element that could be involved in providing care to a patient with your selected disease process and the patient practice. Define how this technology will integrate treatment, monitoring or communication from the identified care setting to the home and then to ongoing care through the clinic.

Your case report must include the following:

1. Introduction with a problem statement and your disease process described from the focus of patient practice.
2. Synthesized literature review.
3. Description of the case/situation/conditions. Use a real life patient situation or condition to describe your case, including the problems the patient encounters and the barriers to care.
4. Describe at least one technology that may be used as a solution to the patient situation or condition described in your case.
5. Describe how the technology can be used specifically in the case you have proposed.
6. Summary of the case integrating proposed solutions(s).
7. Conclusion.