Which of the following is an action company co-managers should seriously consider in trying to improve the company's credit rating? (The financial meausre used in determining company credit ratings are discussed in the Help document associated with page 5 of the Camera & Drone Journal.)

o Increasing the size of the company's dividend payments to stockholdersthis helps reduce the amount of retained earnings on the company's balance sheet (which in turn helps increase the company's interest coverage ratio)
O Placing increased attention on improving operating profits and operating profit margins in all four geographic regions -the resulting growth in operating profits companywide will increase the company's interest coverage ratio Using a portion on the company's internal cash flows and new issues of common stock to pay higher dividends to shareholders
ONot increasing the compensation paid to PAT members (until the desired credit rating is achieved)-this will help keep production costs for both cameras and drones from rising
O withdrawing all funds ronn the company's retained earnings account on the balance sheet and using the cash to pay off bank loans

Variable rate cd’s = $90 treasury bills = $150 discount loans = $20 treasury notes = $100 fixed rate cds = $160 money market deposit accts. = $140 savings deposits = $90 fed funds borrowing = $40 variable rate mortgage loans $140 demand deposits = $40 primary reserves = $50 fixed rate loans = $210 fed funds lending = $50 equity capital = $120 a. develop a balance sheet from the above data. be sure to divide your balance sheet into rate-sensitive assets and liabilities as we did in class and in the examples. b. perform a standard gap analysis and a duration analysis using the above data if you have a 1.15% decrease in interest rates and an average duration of assets of 5.4 years and an average duration of liabilities of 3.8 years. c. indicate if this bank will remain solvent after the valuation changes. if so, indicate the new level of equity capital after the valuation changes. if not, indicate the amount of the shortage in equity capital.

Imagine us is a startup that offers high definition 3d prenatal ultrasounds for high-end customers. the service process includes four activities that are conducted in the sequence described below. (the time required for each activity is shown in parentheses): activity 1: welcome a patient and explain the procedure. (20 minutes)activity 2: prep the patient (e.g., show them to the room, apply ultrasound gel). (17 minutes) (*your id number represents the amount of time needed to complete this task)activity 3: take images. (5 minutes)activity 4: discuss diagnostic with patient. (20 minutes)at each location there are employees (servers) s1, s2, and s3. the assignment of tasks to servers is the following: s1 does activities 1 and 2.s2 does activity 3.s3 does activity 4.a. what is the capacity of this process (in customers per hour)? b. suppose 3 patients arrive every hour on average. ignoring any “start of day” or “end of day” effects, what are the utilizations of all three servers (%)? c. suppose each activity can be done by any server and any server can do any set of activities. however, each activity is done by only one server. for example, a possible assignment includes: s1 does activity 1, s2 does activity 2, and s3 does activities 3 and 4. of course, the original assignment of servers to activities is also feasible. what is the maximum capacity of the process (in customers per hour)? d. now consider the capacity measures in (c) and (a), what is the percentage change? why can you improve capacity without using additional resources? (there is no free lunch, right? )note: for all hw assignments, show your process of getting the results. only providing the final answers is not acceptable and will get 0%. if necessary, use a separate sheet of paper to show your work.

Which of the following best describes vertical integration? a. produce goods or services previously purchasedb. develop the ability to produce products that complement the original productc. develop the ability to produce the specified good more efficiently than befored. build long term partnerships with a few supplierse. sell products to a supplier or a distributor