Category: Essays

Essay title:

Discuss the influence of gradient performance, pulse sequence and receiver coil design on image quality and patient safety in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Word limit: 3,000 words ± 10% in total (maximum 3,300 words)

Learning outcomes:

Successful students will typically…

1. demonstrate a critical awareness of the historical background to and current status of the science and technology of MRI
2. have a comprehensive understanding of the factors, procedures and guidance which govern safe practice, clinical care and image quality optimisation in MRI
3. understand the complex relationships between human tissue type, scan sequence and image signal characteristics in MRI
4. flexibly and creatively apply science principles in order to enhance MRI scan quality, patient safety and clinical diagnosis
5. independently evaluate MRI scanning techniques and resultant images, in order to generate transformative solutions to clinical problems

Guidance:

You will need to read widely and to reference your essay fully. See the School guidelines to referencing 2015/16. You should use journal articles as well as textbooks. Use a reference list. A bibliography is not needed. There is no word count for the reference list, images or diagrams. You are advised to make use of MR images to illustrate your discussion. You should use an essay writing style. Appendices will not be expected.

25 to 30 references

Please stick to the above nober of references (25)

You are the vice president of a human resources department and Susan has been your executive assistant for one (1) year. She effectively completes her given assignments, sometimes ahead of schedule. Susan has a welcoming personality and is commended on her willingness to help when asked. As a result of her efficiency, Susan often has spare time on her hands.

In several conversations, you have spoken with Susan about taking a proactive stance and involving herself in the business to increase her knowledge base. You have suggested she attend strategic planning meetings, shadow other Business Partners, and take professional development courses geared towards human resources. Susan has not incorporated any of these suggestions.

The organization promotes and encourages employee development and has a requirement of 24 professional development (PD) hours for each employee per annual review cycle. As VP of the department, you have offered to mentor Susan; yet she has not taken advantage of the offer. Given Susan’s capabilities and potential, you want to mutually establish future performance goals and developmental opportunities to enhance her effectiveness and maximize her organizational contributions.

Susan’s professional appearance and interaction with co-workers is superb. When asked to complete a task, she fulfills the assignment willingly and with very few errors. She is well liked and respected by her peers. She has impeccable oral and written communication skills. Overall, you are pleased with her performance but want to see Susan take initiative to seek out tasks to complete rather than waiting to be told what to do.

As the VP of HR, you have been tasked with a two part assignment. In part one of this assignment you will explain the importance of performance appraisals, analyze the essential elements which should be included and describe how performance appraisals can be used to promote employee growth. In part two of this assignment you will create a performance appraisal for Susan.

Your paper should be 8-10 pages in length incorporating both parts I and II. You can either design a performance appraisal document or use an existing template. The performance appraisal should be no more than 3 pages of the total page count for the assignment. Be sure your paper addresses all of the following components:

Part I: Importance of Performance Appraisals:

Explain how performance appraisals can be used as part of employee development.

Explain why rankings are given to employees and the advantages and disadvantages of including rankings.

Address why organizations should deliver appraisals in a timely manner to employees.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of three different types of performance appraisals. Make a recommendation of which type of performance appraisal is most appropriate for Susan.

Provide suggestions on how the manager can give feedback on a continual basis to the employee to encourage continual development.

Part II: Susan’s Performance Evaluation

As the VP of HR, you are providing Susan with feedback on these areas and suggesting ways to develop in the areas where she is not meeting expectations as outlined in the scenario. The performance appraisal directly ties to compensation increases. The appraisal should highlight achievements over the past year; while addressing expectations and setting goals moving forward.

The performance evaluation should address the following areas:

Professional Development

Job performance

Communication – internal and external

Professional Demeanor

Working relationships

Compensation recommendations

Imagine that you are in training and development for a global organization. You have been tasked with the creation of a cultural diversity training course that all employees will be required to take. Before designing the course, you must consider the ethical and cultural issues of the task.

In an eight- to ten-page paper (excluding the title and reference pages), you must address the following:

Examine any legal implications in creating a training course that discusses culture. Identify what laws and regulations should be considered.
Explain how the demographic diversity of your employees affects discussions of cultural diversity.
Examine which ethical implications should be considered.
Examine if training can be standardized for all locations in a global organization. Analyze what media is best suited for training in a global setting.
Provide recommendations for implementing the training course.

Paper requirements

Must be eight to ten pages in length (excluding the title page, references page, exhibits, etc.) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a cover page:

Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
Must include an introductory paragraph with a clearly stated thesis or topic.
Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a separate references page, formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center

This is your final IMC plan. You will use content from the first 4 Individual Projects to complete the submission. This will be presented to the client, be persuasive in your recommendations.

Include at least 3 media from the following:

Broadcast Advertising
Print Advertising
Outdoor/Out-of-Home Advertising
Sales Promotion
Direct Marketing (traditional)
Interactive Marketing (New Media)
Public relations (PR)
Personal Selling

Part 1: Media Choice 1

Why was it chosen? What objectives will it achieve?
Advantages/drawbacks
Detail the media plan: What forms will be used, when, and how often?
Who will it target?
Creative concept (headline, copy, visual elements)

Note: You are encouraged to reuse content submitted for Units 1–4 Individual Projects. This section of the paper should be 2 pages in length.

Part 2: Media Choice 2

Why was it chosen? What objectives will it achieve?
Advantages/drawbacks
Detail the media plan: What forms will be used, when, and how often
Who will it target?
Creative concept (headline, copy, visual elements)

Note: You are encouraged to reuse content submitted for Units 1–4 Individual Projects. This section of the paper should be 2 pages in length.

Part 3: Media Choice 3

Why was it chosen? What objectives will it achieve?
Advantages/drawbacks
Detail the media plan: What forms will be used, when, and how often
Who will it target?
Creative concept (headline, copy, visual elements)

Note: You are encouraged to reuse content submitted for Units 1–4 Individual Projects. This section of the paper should be 2 pages in length.

Your assignment should contain a cover page, an abstract page and a reference page in addition to the body. The body of the paper should be 6 pages in length, starting with a brief 1-paragraph introduction and ending with a short conclusion. The entire submission will be 9–11 pages in length.

Application of Business Processes and Embedded Internal Controls

Scope:
This is an individual project that requires the development of an event-driven IT application prototype for a business process in your assigned industry. The project will conclude in a demonstration of your working database. The objective of the project is to:
Apply the cumulative instruction provided in this course to a final project that integrates your understanding of the course material and the relational database management skills presented throughout the semester;

Increase understanding of how technology affects organizations and the varying information needs of different industries; and

Increase understanding of how the use of technology and the knowledge of business processes and internal controls can help accounting professionals produce and deliver more valuable information.

Organization of the Project:
Individuals within each industry group will be assigned the responsibility of modeling and developing an event-driven information system.  Each member will be responsible for different events within the three basic business processes: Payment/acquisition process; conversion process; and sales/collection process.  The nature and scope of these processes will vary, depending on your industry.  You should make sure that your business process incorporates some of the unique information aspects of the industry you have studied (e.g., for the health care industry – patient management). While each member of the industry group will be assigned different business process events, the database components designed by other members of the team need not interface. Note that the HR process cannot be chosen for this assignment.
In Step One, you will create an REA model with cardinalities for the process you have chosen. The REA model will describe the entire process. The database you develop, however, will include only two related business events in the process.

In Step Two, you will create any needed tables, complete with key attributes (primary keys), foreign keys, and non-key attributes for each of the two business events you have chosen within your business process (including resources, agents, and locations) using Microsoft Access.

Identify potential business rules and business risks associated with each event you have modeled, and invoke real-time information risk controls.

Complete your prototype. You should have an information process to record the event; a maintenance process for each resource, agent, and location data store; and a reporting process for each document and report produced by the system.
Specifically, your systems project will include:
At least one table for each object related to the two events you are prototyping.  Additional tables will be needed for *:* maximum cardinality relationships and some 1:* relationships as required.

One form for each recording and maintenance process. This includes the agents and resources, as well as the operating events.

At least two reports, one of which will be a response or notification confirming the business event took place (i.e., an invoice for a sale event or a profitability analysis for a sale event). This will require complex queries.

A main menu form and submenu forms that will help organize your system and allow access restrictions. The various users of your system must be able to access all forms and reports using menus. Users will not use the database objects window in MS Access.
Populate your database and test the accuracy of your prototype. This will require you to add new records to your event and maintenance tables using the forms you developed, printing the reports and verifying their accuracy, and navigating your system using the menus created.

Prior to the turning in your project, test your application with another member of your class to iron out any problems ex ante.

Required at Time of Completion (all requirements are to be uploaded to Blackboard):
Documentation of the tables (i.e, the data dictionary and documenter) of your event-driven IT prototype.

An entity-relationship diagram (computer-drawn) of your prototype. This can simply be a screen print of the relationships in your database.

A computer-drawn REA model with cardinalities of your entire business process, as in Step One, and not just the two sequential events you prototyped.

Upload your completed and populated prototype (Access database) to Bb.

A three- to five-minute in class presentation of your system .
Note that all projects should use “accy” as the password for system access and any additional passwords that are created in your system. This will allow your professor to test your system.

ACCT-361: Systems Development Project
Application of Business Processes and Embedded Internal Controls

Scope:
This is an individual project that requires the development of an event-driven IT application prototype for a business process in your assigned industry. The project will conclude in a demonstration of your working database. The objective of the project is to:
Apply the cumulative instruction provided in this course to a final project that integrates your understanding of the course material and the relational database management skills presented throughout the semester;

Increase understanding of how technology affects organizations and the varying information needs of different industries; and

Increase understanding of how the use of technology and the knowledge of business processes and internal controls can help accounting professionals produce and deliver more valuable information.

Organization of the Project:
Individuals within each industry group will be assigned the responsibility of modeling and developing an event-driven information system.  Each member will be responsible for different events within the three basic business processes: Payment/acquisition process; conversion process; and sales/collection process.  The nature and scope of these processes will vary, depending on your industry.  You should make sure that your business process incorporates some of the unique information aspects of the industry you have studied (e.g., for the health care industry – patient management). While each member of the industry group will be assigned different business process events, the database components designed by other members of the team need not interface. Note that the HR process cannot be chosen for this assignment.
In Step One, you will create an REA model with cardinalities for the process you have chosen. The REA model will describe the entire process. The database you develop, however, will include only two related business events in the process.

In Step Two, you will create any needed tables, complete with key attributes (primary keys), foreign keys, and non-key attributes for each of the two business events you have chosen within your business process (including resources, agents, and locations) using Microsoft Access.

Identify potential business rules and business risks associated with each event you have modeled, and invoke real-time information risk controls.

Complete your prototype. You should have an information process to record the event; a maintenance process for each resource, agent, and location data store; and a reporting process for each document and report produced by the system.
Specifically, your systems project will include:
At least one table for each object related to the two events you are prototyping.  Additional tables will be needed for *:* maximum cardinality relationships and some 1:* relationships as required.

One form for each recording and maintenance process. This includes the agents and resources, as well as the operating events.

At least two reports, one of which will be a response or notification confirming the business event took place (i.e., an invoice for a sale event or a profitability analysis for a sale event). This will require complex queries.

A main menu form and submenu forms that will help organize your system and allow access restrictions. The various users of your system must be able to access all forms and reports using menus. Users will not use the database objects window in MS Access.
Populate your database and test the accuracy of your prototype. This will require you to add new records to your event and maintenance tables using the forms you developed, printing the reports and verifying their accuracy, and navigating your system using the menus created.

Prior to the turning in your project, test your application with another member of your class to iron out any problems ex ante.

Required at Time of Completion (all requirements are to be uploaded to Blackboard):
Documentation of the tables (i.e, the data dictionary and documenter) of your event-driven IT prototype.

An entity-relationship diagram (computer-drawn) of your prototype. This can simply be a screen print of the relationships in your database.

A computer-drawn REA model with cardinalities of your entire business process, as in Step One, and not just the two sequential events you prototyped.

Upload your completed and populated prototype (Access database) to Bb.

A three- to five-minute in class presentation of your system .
Note that all projects should use “accy” as the password for system access and any additional passwords that are created in your system. This will allow your professor to test your system.

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This assignment presents the analysis and conclusions of each student’s research on their chosen “problem”. It should be at least 8 double-spaced pages, excluding appendices. Key headings and elements to include are described below:

INTRODUCTION Provide a clear specification and description of the problem. Remember, your problem should be very specific, recurrent, and likely involve recurring events (see Clarke and Eck’s [2005] CHEERS test to confirm that you are on the right lines). This description should be informed by a review of the literature (below). Review the available literature on your problem, or similar types of problems. This should cover at least 6 scholarly references and perhaps some other sources of information (e.g. newspapers, websites). This should set the stage for understanding the context and causes of the problem.

METHODS AND DATA You should identify the data sources you obtained, and the measures and variables you were able to examine. You should also outline the types of analyses you performed.

ANALYSIS OF PROBLEM PATTERNS Describe the patterning of the problem. This description should draw on available data and published statistics. You can also fill some gaps in available data and statistics referring to literature that has examined the same or similar problems. You should try to assess:  Who is involved in the problem?  When does this problem occur?  What are the trends in time of the problem?  Are there any strong patterns of concentrations of this problem (on particular people, places, times etc.)  What are some of the apparent causes of the problem? Remember to include some selected tables and graphics, to illustrate key points. Don’t throw loads of these into the main text, just include the critical ones. However, you may use an appendix to present additional tables and graphics. CONCLUSIONS Drawing on the results of the analysis of problem patterns (drawing both on data and existing literature) and assess:  What are the key characteristics of the problem (including its distribution across people, space and time)  What can we identify as likely causes of this problem? (In particular, focus on causes that may be changeable through intervention.)  What, additionally, do you hypothesize might also be causes of this problem, based on the data you have analyzed? (Again, focus on factors that may be changeable through intervention.)  Based on your conclusions, what kind of interventions (policies, programs, or practices) would you recommend to help reduce the problem? In describing these, talk about the agencies or actors who would need to implement your ideas.

FURTHER DATA COLLECTION The final part of your assignment should discuss the further steps you would take to find out about your problem, and to help test hypotheses you could not test in your initial study. Remember, you have been limited to relying only on publically available data, often aggregated to counties or states. Maybe you next would want to analyze administrative data broken down to individual crimes or people, or perhaps you would talk to key players around a problem. Or maybe it’s useful to carry out a small survey to find out more. The goal here is not to design a giant research project that will take 5 years to complete. Rather, it is to outline modest data collection and analysis you could do over a few weeks or months with limited resources. Be strategic and thoughtful; don’t throw in the whole kitchen sink.

REFERENCES Don’t forget a correctly formatted bibliography.
Attachments:
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet iconbaltimore_.xlsx
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document iconproblem_analyis_2.docx

Each group of three students is required to prepare, write, and present a case study on one of the UAE major private or public companies or governmental agencies. The company or agency of your choice should be subject to an interesting strategic issue. Issues of interest include but not limited to: corporate mergers/acquisitions, new market penetration, severe competitive pressures, new market positioning strategy, innovative way for allocating of resources, selection of new top management, new organizational restructure, new strategic governance, new product/market scope, innovative way to achieve strategic harmony between firm components, new way of contributing to find solution to society problems, major outsourcing endeavor, creative new way to economize functional area operations, new approach to identify and exploit business (competitive) opportunities, aggressive way to compete against all odds, and creative way to invest in order to achieve superiority.
The written case study reports are to be prepared on group basis. These written analytic reports are due from all groups on the day they are scheduled (see the Schedule of Class Activities) and should be submitted in both hardcopy and softcopy. The soft copy should be emailed together with “Turn-it-in” report (showing 30% or less score) to the course instructor via the University e-mail system. Written case study reports turned in after the scheduled class period are eligible for a grade no higher than a C (and that only if the paper is otherwise an A or B+ paper). No late papers will be accepted if submitted more than 2 weeks past the scheduled due date (except by prearranged consent of the instructor).
All written case study reports are to be typed (double-spaced) and should be professional m appearance and format. Accurate spelling and good grammar are absolutely essential. The minimum requirements of a case study report should include the following sections:
1. General information on the company/agency, its business, and the industry it is related to. 2. Analysis of the industry structure (number of major competitors, industry market leaders, and how intensive the industry market is controlled by major competitors). 3. The company/agency’s specifics of internal environment components (marketing, operations/production, finance) and organizational structure. 4. The company/agency’s major external environment forces (other than competition). 5. Analysis of the company/agency’s competitive forces (how much effective are the company/agency’s producers of substitute products/services, possibility of new entrants to its market, customers’ bargaining power, suppliers’ bargaining power, and how powerful the company/agency’s existing rivals are). 6. How effective the company/agency’s top management is. Your objective evaluation of this top management performance. 7. Analysis of company/agency’s financial performance. Compare this performance over time and with a valid benchmark (its industry leader, worst, average, or competitor of choice). 8. Strategic issuers) facing the company/agency. 9. Your recommendation(s). 10. Expected trend in the future.
Papers which, in the opinion of the instructor, employ disproportionately poor grammar and poor quality written communication skills will be assigned a grade that is one-letter lower than would otherwise be assigned.
In general, the following elements (and structure) should be adhered to in the project paper
1. Introduction 2. Company history and background 3. Parent company history and background (if any) 4. Product-market characteristics 5. Industry structure: Try to use Porter’s Five Forces Model. 6. Competitive Environment: identify major competitors and provide limited information on their performances, strengths, weaknesses, etc. 7. Company performance review, at least for last five years, (these could be available from company annual reports, or company web sites), marketing operations, production, human resources and corporate culture and leadership, etc. 8. Management/Organizational structure of the company: 9. CEO/Managing director, other directors’ background, education, age and leadership (their brief background could be given in an appendix). 10. Current problems and difficulties (key/strategic issues to be resolved.) 11. SWOT and PEST 12. Porter’s 5 Forces 13. E-Commerce (OPTIONAL) 14. Vertical Integration and Outsourcing 15. Ethics and Leadership 16. Balanced Scorecard Strategy (OPTIONAL) 17. Blue Ocean Strategy (OPTIONAL) 18. Appendices 19. References

Select a concept that you care about and that you may want to do your final research paper on- and perhaps you even want to work on this issue in your future career! Now, find two dependent variables (DV) that are attempts to measure that concept. One must be interval and one must be ordinal. One must be interval and one must be ordinal (got it?). Remember the first day when you identified the big problems facing the world? Hopefully, there are some questions in the ANES survey that connect to your areas of interest. It is time for you to be the scholar! This assignment will help you for your final paper. If you do your final paper well, this will be evidence that you can conduct independent research, conduct data analysis, and work with SPSS. Good luck.
Name the two variables, how they are coded, and describe their dispersion. Describe how these variables are good measures of the concept you care about.
(Example: Concept: Equality, Measure:

2. Think critically about what independent variables may affect your dependent variables and why. Conduct a brief literature review. What do other scholars argue affects your dependent variable?
List TWO academic journal articles that conduct quantitative analysis on the concept of your interest using standard APA citation guidelines.
How do they measure it?
Where do they collect their data?
What is their research method?

3. YOUR TURN! HYPOTHESIS
Craft two hypotheses on your DVs of interest. Then, select potential intervening variables that may affect your relationship between your IV and DV. YOU CANNOT HAVE AN INTERVAL VARIABLE AS AN INTERVENING VRIABLE
Revise and write down the two hypotheses and indicate: the independent variable, the intervening variable, and the dependent variable in each one.

4. Presenting data well is key to good research. Thus, often you need to recode variables in order to make the information digestible. Also, this helps you refine your research. SPECIFY the relationships you want to investigate. For example, if you think age affects attitudes towards illegal immigrants, can you refine your hypothesis so that it is not all AGES but rather a specific Age that you think is critical for your hypothesis? Such as those over and under 50? Simplify and specify!!!! Most independent and intervening variables should have no more than 4 categories, preferably 3 or less. You want to test a SPECIFIC relationship. So, narrow it down!
Recode your variables into new variables that are more specific.

5. DATA: ORDINAL DEPENDENT VARIABLE HYPOTHESIS: Run a cross tabs analysis for your hypothesis with ordinal dependent variable. One time with the intervening variable, one time without. Be sure to place your independent and dependent variables on the correct axis and to include appropriate percentages.

6. TEST FOR SIGNIFICANCE. Run at least three tests that measure association between the independent and dependent variable (Lambda, Chi-Square, Kendall’s tau-b, Kendall’s tau-c, and/or Somer’s D depending on your variables).
What do you find? Is the relationship significant? Interpret your results.

Extra Credit: Run the tests with an intervening variable and interpret the relationship.

7. INTERVAL DEPENDENT VARIABLE HYPOTHESIS: Run a compare means analysis for your dependent variable that is interval, including your intervening variable. For the dependent interval variable, create a LINE GRAPH to demonstrate a relationship with the independent and intervening variable represented.

8. TEST FOR SIGNIFICANCE. Run a independent sample T-Test.
What do you find? Is the relationship significant? Interpret your results.

9. ANALYSIS: What do your cross-tabs and compare means tests results suggest? Interpret your findings in connection to your hypothesis. WHY do you think this relationship is (or is not significant)? What does this tell us about the general US population? What are other potential measures of your concept? What are other potential explanatory variables?

10. Conclusion: So what?

**PLEASE READ INSTRUCTIONS THROUGHLY, 2-3 PAGES OF GRAPHS AND TABLES. IF U HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ASK PLEASE.