...For exclusive use at University of Pennsylvania, 2015 3215 REV: JUNE 21, 2010 WILLIAM J. BRUNS Lyons Document Storage Corporation: Bond Accounting In December 2008 Rene Cook sat in her cubicle trying to remember what she had learned in business school about bonds and bond accounting. Ms. Cook, a new MBA and special assistant in a training assignment with the company president, had just met with David Lyons, president of Lyons Document Storage Corporation. He had asked her to think about the possible consequences of repurchasing company bonds outstanding using cash that he felt could be obtained by issuing new bonds with a lower interest rate. Mr. Lyons had asked Rene to focus on how much the company's annual interest payments could be reduced, how reported earnings would be affected, and how the refunding would change the company's financial position as referenced on the balance sheet, if at all. The Company The Lyons Company was a family business in the stationary supply business until the document storage opportunity appeared in the early 1990s. Lyons Document Storage Corporation was incorporated in 1993 to compete in the emerging and rapidly growing industry that provides secure, off-site storage of documents for other corporate customers. The demand for storage was fueled by the need for corporations to retain records of sales contracts, employment records, compliance records, and other documents. The convenience of secure storage and easy recovery in professionally managed...
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...This analysis will remain at the tactical level however, and focus on arguably the most decisive elements of the battle which were the extreme flanks on both sides led by Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine for the Union, and Colonel William Oates and the 15th Alabama for the Confederates. The expert use of terrain and the application of the mission command principles of disciplined initiative, shared understanding, accepting prudent risk, and ultimately building a cohesive team through mutual trust by Colonel Chamberlain and his subordinate Company Commanders and the failure to apply these principles by Colonel Oates and his higher chain of command ultimately led to the Union success on Little Round Top. Before this argument can be made however, the scene and conditions leading up to the battle must be described, as they would influence greatly the actions taken by both sides on July...
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...solutions to complicated problems to be approximated using random numbers. He was also involved in the design of the later IAS machine. Because using lists of "truly" random numbers was extremely slow, von Neumann developed a form of making pseudorandom numbers, using the middle-square method. Though this method has been criticized as crude, von Neumann was aware of this: he justified it as being faster than any other method at his disposal, and also noted that when it went awry it did so obviously, unlike methods which could be subtly incorrect. While consulting for the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania on the EDVAC project, von Neumann wrote an incomplete First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC. The paper, whose public distribution nullified the patent claims of EDVAC designers J. Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly, described a computer architecture in which the data and the program are both stored in the computer's memory in the same address space.[50] John von Neumann also consulted for the ENIAC project, when ENIAC was being modified to contain a stored program. Since the modified ENIAC was fully functional by 1948 and the EDVAC wasn't delivered to Ballistics Research Laboratory until 1949, one could argue that ENIAC was the first computer to use a stored program. John von Neumann also designed the instruction set for the modified ENIAC, and he should be given credit for this. The stored program version of ENIAC ran 6 times slower...
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...the desire of purchasing the commodity which in simple terms referred as demand. For most of the commodities if prices soar high then people purchase less good hence reducing demand in the same way if supply increases prices go down increasing demand. This basic principle is the basis for the ‘law “of demand which can be described as quantity demand plummets as prices go upward, other variable factors constant. To understand the demand and price relation economists refer demand as schedule of quantities of commodity people want to buy at various prices, other factors constant (Colander, Rockerbie, & Richter, 2006, p.73). Whereas quantity demand is referred as demand of goods at certain price in the demand curve. Ursinus College in Pennsylvania in the year 2000 increased their tuition fee 17.6% to $23,460 in order to increase college revenue and funds to support financial aid which also in turn increased their admissions (Brickley, Smith, & Zimmerman, 2009, p.110). The conjecture of college president is increase in demand is against the law of the demand because of college going student’s snob mentality and their comparison of quality with respect to price. He speculated student’s presumption of costly colleges will have better quality education compared to cheap colleges so demand for their admissions increased. Soon after Ursinus College doing well with their strategy many other colleges increased their tuition fee according to the demand curve it fetched them more admissions...
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...“Life does not consist mainly – or even largely – of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one’s head” states Mark Twain in his autobiography (Twain, Wit 78). Twain certainly had a “storm of thoughts,” but he was able to eloquently and succinctly put those thoughts onto paper. Because he wrote a combination of fiction and nonfiction, it is difficult to categorize Mark Twain as an author. According to Neil Schmitz, Mark Twain was, “a southern humorist gone over, not just a deserter, a dissenter, but a literary scalawag, a southern writer in unionist discourse and narrative” (91). Most people recognize Twain’s brief, witty, straightforward proverbs that are often quoted today. He also wrote many novels, a few nonfiction books, a plethora of short stories, and essays. Mark Twain uses a variety of rhetorical devices including carefully chosen, colorful language, satirical tone, and unique symbolism to entertain and to enlighten his readers about the moral dilemmas and the beauty of the America he knew. According to Ernest Hemingway, all of American literature comes from one great book, Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain, Huck Finn vii). Although this statement may seem hyperbolic, it does indicate the important place Mark Twain holds in American literature. Early Nineteenth century American writers tended to try to write like English writers with flowery, ostentatious language (Schmitz 100). Twain’s...
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...About the Author: George Washington Williams wrote this letter to the King of Belgium. He was born to a free black family in Pennsylvania in 1849 (O’Connor 1). He served in the Union army, served as a pastor, studied law, and was a part of the Ohio legislature, to name a few things he did in his life (Andrea 309). To say the least, Williams was a man of many talents with an incredible background and was recognized by many important people. Williams’ interest of the Congo started when Chester B. Arthur introduced him to Henry Sanford, who was a friend of King Leopold of Belgium (Andrea 309). Williams traveled to the Congo, which was under the hold of Leopold, for six months while he was traveling Africa. Historical Context: This letter was written in 1890, after Williams’ six month trip to Africa. During this time period, much of Africa was being imperialized by European countries in order to gain land for crops and materials. The Belgians, under the rule of King Leopold II, occupied the Congo Basin in central Africa (Bulliet 679). The Berlin Conference in 1884 was a gathering of leaders from different European countries in order...
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...when the shareholders of USX spun off the oil & gas business of Marathon Oil and the steel business of U. S. Steel to shareholders. In 2001 it was still the largest domestically owned integrated steel producer in the United States, although it produced only slightly more steel than it did in 1902, after significant downsizing in the 1980s. U.S. Steel is a former Dow Jones Industrial Average component, listed from April 1, 1901 to May 3, 1991. It was removed under its USX Corporation name with Navistar International and Primerica. Formation J. P. Morgan and the attorney Elbert H. Gary founded U.S. Steel in 1901 (incorporated on February 25) by combining Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel Company with Gary's Federal Steel Company and William Henry "Judge" Moore's National Steel Company for $492 million ($13.58 billion today). It was capitalized at $1.4 billion ($38.63 billion today), making it the world's first billion-dollar corporation. At one time, U.S. Steel was the largest steel producer and largest corporation in the world. In 1907 it bought its largest competitor, the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, which was headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. This led to Tennessee Coal's being replaced in the Dow Jones Industrial Average by the General Electric Company. The federal government attempted to use federal antitrust laws to break up U.S. Steel in 1911, but that effort ultimately failed. Time and competitors have, however, accomplished nearly the same thing. In...
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...Company Analysis (Aqua America) Investment decisions are of vital importance to all, since they determine the potential to succeed. The decision whether or not to invest in a particular business would be based on a careful consideration of some key financial indicators of that particular business. Aqua America (formerly Philadelphia Suburban Corp.) is the largest U.S.-based publicly traded water utility, providing water and waste services in 10 states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and Georgia (unregulated). The first factor considered is ‘Volume’; volume here refers to the number of stocks bought and sold in a single day of trading. The average volume of stock traded has to be over 500000; if lower, then liquidity is low. Technical analysts strongly believe that “It takes volume to make price move” (Kapoff, 1987). The average daily volume of this organization was estimated to be 771119 which is above the 500000 mark, this indicates that the company’s stock is quite liquid which make investment worthwhile. The second factor considered is ‘Beta’ (volatility); according to the CAPM of William Sharpe (1964) and John Lintner (1965), ‘a stock’s risk is summarized by its beta.’ Investments with a high beta are always very risky while otherwise for investments with a low beta. It usually make more sense to invest in business with a low risk level in as much as the higher the risk the higher the return, it makes more...
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...HERSHEY FOODS CORPORATION: BITTER TIMES IN A SWEET PLACE Teaching Note Synopsis and Objectives The proposed sale of Hershey Foods Corporation (HFC) during the summer of 2002 captured headlines and imaginations. After all, Hershey was an American icon, and when the company’s largest shareholder, the Hershey Trust Company (HSY), asked HFC management to explore a sale, the story drew national and international attention. The company’s unusual governance structure put the Hershey Trust’s board in the difficult position of making both an economic and a governance decision. On the one hand, the board faced a challenging economic decision that centered on determining whether the solicited bids provided a fair premium for HFC shareholders. On the other hand, the governance decision required the board to balance its fiduciary responsibility against the original mandate of Milton Hershey to support the Hershey School in perpetuity. The fiduciary responsibility is relatively simple compared with satisfying a broad array of constituents, including the Hershey community, HFC employees, and Pennsylvania’s attorney general. In addition to this teaching note, we provide a variety of teaching supplements to support a discussion of the complex issues presented by the case: • Video footage of the Hershey community and key players in the case • Excel spreadsheets for key case exhibits • Excel spreadsheets for key teaching-note exhibits • Projection-ready...
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...For the exclusive use of W. HUANG Harvard Business School 9-201-016 Rev. April 29, 1983 Allen Distribution Company On June 16, 1967, William McConnell of the mid-Atlantic office of the Allen Distribution Company was considering whether the company should extend a credit limit of $1,000 to the Morse Photo Company of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. McConnell had recently become credit manager of the mid-Atlantic branch office, where he assumed full responsibility for initiating and supervising the branch's credit policies. When he assumed this position, McConnell had asked the five credit representatives who had been handling the branch's accounts on their own to submit to him for review a few borderline credit accounts waiting for credit limits to be established. McConnell believed that his decision and method of analysis might prove helpful in setting the tone of future operations in the credit department. Therefore, he planned to write out his analysis and decision so that it could be circulated. The Allen Distribution Company, a subsidiary of the Allen Electric Company, one of the nation's largest manufacturers of electrical appliances and lighting equipment, was a national wholesale distributor of the parent company's products. Merchandise sold by the Allen Distribution Company ranged from refrigerators and television sets to electric light bulbs. Its competition included other nationally known wholesalers and small regional wholesalers of the Allen line...
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...members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes. External forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act only at the nodes and result in forces in the members which are either tensile or compressive forces. Moments (torques) are explicitly excluded because, and only because, all the joints in a truss are treated as revolutes. Planar truss Planar roof trusses The roof trusses of the basilica di Santa Croce (Florence) The simplest form of a truss is one single triangle. This type of truss is seen in a framed roof consisting of rafters and a ceiling joist, and in other mechanical structures such as bicycles and aircraft. Because of the stability of this shape and the methods of analysis used to calculate the forces within it, a truss composed entirely of triangles is known as a simple truss. The traditional diamond-shape bicycle frame, which utilizes two conjoined triangles, is an example of a simple truss. A planar truss lies in a single plane. Planar trusses are typically used in parallel to form roofs and bridges. The depth of a truss, or the height between the upper and lower chords, is what makes it an efficient structural form. A solid girder or beam of equal strength would have substantial weight and material cost as compared to a truss. For a given span, a deeper truss will require less material in the chords and greater material in the verticals and diagonals. An optimum depth of the truss will maximize the...
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...Nonprofit Organization Case Study – Community Action Program of Lancaster County Pennsylvania Melissa G. Hartman Liberty University – HLTH 635_B01 June 16, 2016 Nonprofit Organization Case Study – Community Action Program of Lancaster County Pennsylvania Introduction/Background Imagine not having a job or having a job that pays minimum wage or less, food insecurity, and a home in a neighborhood that is run down and considered unsafe. This is the scenario of what millions of Americans are living each and every day with some wondering what can they do to make their lives better. Poverty is defined as a state of being extremely poor and is determined by the federal poverty guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.1,2 For a family of four, the federal poverty guideline to apply for federal assistance is $24,250.2 According to the nonprofit organization, Feeding America, which helps feed America’s hungry through a network of food banks, 46.7 million people are living in poverty in the United States.3 Specifically in Pennsylvania, 13.7 percent of people are living in poverty.4 Poverty in the United States is very real and unimaginable as because we are considered one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Although poverty in the United States is happening at rates that are hard to understand, it seems poverty in America is more about lack of basic necessities and lack of security to include food and housing.5 It is estimated that...
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...Hydrofracking in Marcellus shale: The Consequences of America’s Gas Rush Introduction Demand for fossil fuels in America has led to a flurry of unorthodox methods for the extraction of natural gas. Fracking or hydrofracking in the U.S.A has proven to be an efficient way of extracting natural gas from permeable rock. A new large scale hydrofracking operation has been proposed in the eastern states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. This method of extraction is highly controversial, and is thought to have severe environmental and potential health consequences. This essay will provide further insight into the practice of Fracking in an area of shale known as Marcellus shale, and help to expose the environmental and human implications. What is Hydrofracking? Hydraulic Fracturing is an un-conventional process used in the extraction of gas in permeable rock (David 1973). A horizontal well is drilled into permeable rock such as shale and is injected with millions of gallons a high pressure fluid known as frac-fluid, this fluid is a mixture of sand, water, and an array of lubricating chemicals (Deutch 2011). The high pressure frac-fluid forces open fishers (cracks) within the rock which are kept open with sand granules; this allows pockets of gas to flow more easily from the shale (David 1973). Once the well is depleted all fluid that can be recycled is extracted, and the well is capped to stop any unused gas escaping (David 1973). The process of fracking is expensive and requires...
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...vA Very Brief History of Computer Science Written by Jeffrey Shallit for CS 134 at the University of Waterloo in the summer of 1995. This little web page was hastily stitched together in a few days. Perhaps eventually I will get around to doing a really good job. Suggestions are always welcome. A translation of this web page into French has been prepared by Anne Dicky at the University of Bordeaux. Before 1900 People have been using mechanical devices to aid calculation for thousands of years. For example, the abacus probably existed in Babylonia (present-day Iraq) about 3000 B.C.E. The ancient Greeks developed some very sophisticated analog computers. In 1901, an ancient Greek shipwreck was discovered off the island of Antikythera. Inside was a salt-encrusted device (now called the Antikythera mechanism) that consisted of rusted metal gears and pointers. When this c. 80 B.C.E. device was reconstructed, it produced a mechanism for predicting the motions of the stars and planets. (More Antikythera info here.) John Napier (1550-1617), the Scottish inventor of logarithms, invented Napier's rods (sometimes called "Napier's bones") c. 1610 to simplify the task of multiplication. In 1641 the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) built a mechanical adding machine. Similar work was done by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). Leibniz also advocated use of the binary system for doing calculations. Recently it was discovered that Wilhelm Schickard (1592-1635)...
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...are all in Pennsylvania this morning![endnoteRef:1] [1: Rudyard Kipling, Philadelphia, http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/philadelphia.html, accessed October 2016.] Rudyard Kipling 1. The Commonwealth They Served The weather was seasonally cold in Pennsylvania?s Capitol late in 1914. On Sunday morning, December 27, the temperature was 1 degree Fahrenheit. This reading was the lowest ever registered in the last month of the year during the almost three-decade history of the Harrisburg weather station.[endnoteRef:2] The cold did not dim...
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