Author: chris

Select two major insurance (health) plans. You may choose Medicaid, Medicare, HMO, PPO, or private insurance plans for this assignment. You can choose your own personal insurance plan as well. Examples of care options that facilitate or limit access include medications, primary care physicians, specialists, emergency care, labs and diagnostics, wellness care, prevention, surgery (these are just a few examples). Deductibles and costs of the plans are not the focus of this assignment.

1. Introductory paragraph. Extensively describe the importance and relevance of health care coverage. Provides specific facts and details. End paragraph with a clearly worded purpose statement.

2. Select a major health care plan. Summarizes three care options provided by the plan that facilitates access for the patient. Summarizes three care options that limit access to care for the patient. Provide specific examples and facts.

3. Select a second major health care plan. Summarizes three care options provided by the plan that facilitates access for the patient. Summarizes three care options that limit access to care for the patient. Provide specific examples and facts.

4. Extensively describes the purpose of Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) using specific facts and details. Explains the impact of DRG’s on treatment, length of stay, referrals, and payment of service using specific facts and details.

5. Comprehensively describe the role of charity care within a health care facility by including two specific facts and details. Clearly discusses how vulnerable populations and the uninsured may be impacted by including two specific facts and details.

Kovner, A. R., Knickman, J., Weisfeld, V. D., & Jonas, S. (2011).

Jonas & Kovner’s health care delivery in the United States.

Earlier this year, the troubled airline QANTAS declared a significant redundancy programme. It also failed in an attempt to secure government backing and has been subject to much media speculation about its long term strategy and leadership. Early in 2014, Qantas debt was downgraded by Moody’s, its senior, unsecured rating being reduced to Ba2 (barely above Junk status), with a negative outlook. Qantas has not declared a dividend since 2009.

Over the last 5 years, the share price of the company has fluctuated between just below $1 per share and around $3 per share. However, despite a lack of dividend, since the end of 2013 its share price has risen around 30%.

Share

price

Traded

volumes

Source: Yahoo Finance, 25/8/2014

Assignment

Using publicly available data, analyse Qantas as an investment proposition with particular reference to:

1. Its share price history and history of traded volumes over the past 5 years, identifying the main causes of its volatility in share price and traded volumes.

2. A ratio analysis. Undertake a ratio analysis for the company outlining any key trends or danger signals relative to comparable companies.

3. Its current share price. Do you consider the company over, under or correctly valued? Assess this by valuing the company using several different techniques.

Explain which of the techniques you consider most appropriate for assessing the value of Qantas and why.

4. Considering all of the above, draw a conclusion on the attractiveness of Qantas as an investment proposition. Include in your analysis a discussion of any key risks that may affect the attractiveness of the company as an investment.

As you already know that web films and videos are everywhere on the net, SmartV is one of these online video companies who provides online video services, including video searching, video streaming and delivery, video editing, transcoding and adaptation. Actually, for video applications and services over the Internet, there are strong demands for cloud computing because of the significant and scalable amount of storage and computation required for serving millions of Internet users at the same time. Recently, due to the significant increased number of SmartV users, the company decides to move their IT infrastructure to cloud.

Part 1:
Design a cloud infrastructure for them to satisfy some basic requirements as follows.
1) Considering video services requiring a significant amount of storage, please design a proper storage plan for SmartV.
2) In order to support video searching, streaming, editing and transcoding, SmartV demands high computational power.
3) Consider future development, SmartV requests for a scalable solution.
4) Network virtualization needs to consider providing high bandwidth for video delivery related applications.
5) Some other basic cloud implementation/management requirements, such as high availability, DRS, resource control, updating, etc. Advanced requirements can be further considered by postgraduates (and undergraduates who want to add extra features to their cloud for higher marks):

1) Security node (e.g. vShield implementation)
2) Backup issues (e.g. Veeam Backup & Replication)

Part 2: Implement a small prototype to demo your proposed cloud infrastructure.
1) In your demo, you need to have more than 2 hosts implemented in your demo. In this case, you need to create at least one ESXi host on your own.
2) Please feel free to use your own laptop for assignment 2.
3) In Part 1, a proper solution should have been designed. The implementation in Part 2 is only for a demonstration purpose. Therefore, please use as minimum resources as possible, e.g. max of 30GB. 4) Postgraduates can consider to try different virtualization platforms, e.g. OpenStack Part 3: Develop a specification report for your designed cloud infrastructure.

As minimum, the design report should include the following:
1) Business requirements: The group needs to clearly analyse what the business requirement would be, i.e. specify the target client and the business case scenario for a cloud computing infrastructure.
2) Cloud architecture and design: The group needs to have a detailed architecture design, including diagrams of the proposed infrastructure and components. This part needs to include implementation platform choices, tooling to be used or developed. Cost analysis also needs to be included. Postgraduates are expected for more detailed analysis on platform comparison.
3) Considerations and challenges: You need to summary what you feel are some of the key issues or challenges in the cloud infrastructure design, and what tools, design patterns and other supports are available to simplify these issues or challenges.

1. Compare and contrast the components of Cloud computing infrastructure differentiating from the key stakeholder’s perspectives
2. Hypothesize the business case for virtualisation and cloud computing given the businesses requirements and strategic needs
3. Summarise the current theory behind Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platforms and be able to analyse alternatives
4. Compare and contrast the core architectures and technologies used within current Cloud Platforms.
5. Reflect and generalise on the technologies used in existing and future cloud computing infrastructure
6. Design, architect and plan a cloud infrastructure solution for a business, allowing for dynamic scaling of applications, delivery on SLAs in the most efficient way possible.
7. Implement a small–‐scale enterprise cloud platform given cost, time, technical and business constraints.
8. Assess the limitations and business risks of cloud computing, especially the adoption of public and hybrid cloud deployments, including the Sovereignty, Jurisdictional and Security implications of the cloud.

1. Explain the key components of Cloud Computing Infrastructure, both from a service provider and consumer perspective
2. Explain how virtualisation and cloud computing technologies come together to deliver a sustainable business advantage, increase efficiencies and resiliencies
3. Classify the components and underlying theory behind Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platforms
4. Describe the core architectures and technologies used within Cloud Platforms and be able to compare and contrast proprietary, commercial and open source applications and implementations
5. Apply the technologies used within Cloud Computing today, including open source tools and enterprise software
6. Design, architect and plan a cloud infrastructure solution for a business, allowing for dynamic scaling of applications, delivery on SLAs in the most efficient way possible
7. Implement a simple cloud platform given cost, time, technical and business constraints
8. Explain the technical limitations and business risks of cloud computing, especially the adoption of public and hybrid cloud deployments. Students will examine the Data Sovereignty, Jurisdictional and Security implications of the cloud

Martin purchased a derelict building on 1st January 2013 in Surry Hills for $500,000. To finance the purchase Martin borrowed $500,000 from Big Bank Ltd at 10% interest per annum. Before Martin bought it, the building had been leased by a charitable organisation to a women’s refuge at a nominal rental of $100 per week. On 1st January 2013, there was still a year remaining under the lease.

When Martin purchased the building he shouted, “I have a dream!” Martin’s dream was that one day the building would be a multicultural café, the “World Community Café”, where people from all over the world would want to come and eat. Martin wanted the logo to be a world globe inside a coffee cup. On 14th February 2013, Martin applied to the local council for permission to redevelop the building as a café. The cost of putting together the application, including the architect’s fees, was $35,000. On 14th February 2013, Martin also gave the women’s refuge one month’s notice to vacate the premises. The women’s refuge refused to vacate and Martin incurred $10,000 in legal fees associated with ejecting the group. The women’s refuge finally vacated the building on 1st June 2013.

The local council consented to the redevelopment on 1st May 2013. On 1st May 2013 Martin borrowed a further $700,000 from Big Bank Ltd, again at an annual interest rate of 10%, to undertake the necessary renovations for the redevelopment. The total cost of the renovation work was $700,000. $100,000 was spent on the central coffee making machine and the individual nozzles. $500,000 was spent on plastering and painting the inside of the building. $60,000 was spent replacing the existing awning to protect café customers from the weather. The old awning was made from cloth and was operated manually. The new awning is made from Kevlar and operates electronically. $40,000 was spent on a new stereo system that is Apple compatible. Martin had the stereo system at home between the time when he bought it (4th May 2013) and 1 January 2014.

The café was due to open on 1st December 2013. However, on 15th November 2013, Martin received an injunction notice from a competitor, World Cup Coffee. The injunction prevented Martin from opening his café until a substantive matter was resolved in court. World Cup Coffee alleged that Martin’s logo was substantially similar to theirs and that Martin’s café would materially affect their business. (World Cup Coffee’s logo is a cup of coffee inside a globe of the world.) Martin incurred $50,000 in legal fees in relation to the injunction proceedings but was unsuccessful. Martin tried to find another concept and logo for his café before 1st December 2013 but he was so disillusioned by the legal proceedings that he lost interest in the café. Instead he opened an art gallery on 1 January 2014 which shows photos by artists from all around the world.

Required:

Advise Martin of the tax consequences that will result to him on these facts. You need to consider both the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 income years.

This essay asks you to comparatively examine the phenomena of modernism at the domestic scale. To accomplish this essay, you will be expected to identify two modernist villas, one well know, and one more obscure, so as to perform a series of conceptual and material comparisons. Ideally for this to work to your advantage, the two villas from different contexts should be as similar as possible. Villa 1: select and LEARN one of the villas or single-residences identified by name, or by architect, in the Frampton or Colquhoun textbook, built between 1925 – 1965. Villa 2: select and LEARN one of the villas or single-residences not mentioned in the Frampton or Colquhoun textbook, built between 1925 – 1965. You can look to Australian houses, either through the UniSA Architecture Museum, or books such as The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture by Philip Goad, 2001. Alternatively, you can select a trusted book on any non-Western modern architects and houses, finding a superior documented project from either Asia or Latin America.

For each of the two villas, you must offer clear identification with evidence of the concepts and materiality of each house and its components (know the construction system, the structural and circulation systems, the program and its eccentricities, the materials and their eccentricities, the detailing logic, what pre-modern cultural forms of domestic living have been adopted or ignored, how it deviates from the architect’s normative style, and what is unique (possibly enigmatic or mysterious) about any of these decisions. Analysis must move beyond mere description (how it is made, how it is structured, how it signifies modernism) to proper clever analysis (why it is made that way and no other, why it is structured that way and no other, what other meaning it signifies for hat culture). Lists and the recycling of quotations is insufficient for analysis.