rite at least seven sentences explaining how one of the following works you have read has a theme with relevance for today. 

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          Albert Bierstadt, Strom Among the Alps.

Long, long ago — perhaps maybe some time in the seventeenth century somewhere in the Alps, two valleys with a village each  – Gschaid and Millsdorf – lay next to each other, ringed by high mountains and linked by a sole, lonely path.  Due to this separation, the inhabitants considered each other as strangers. Yet it came to pass that the shoemaker from Gschaid married the Millsdorf dyer’s daughter, and the couple had two children, Conrad and Sanna.

One unusually warm Christmas Eve, the two children set out on the path from the northward valley, through pine forest and over the pass, to visit their grandmother in the valley to the south.  Their mother had sent Conrad and Sanna to their grandparents in Millsdorf to give them Christmas greetings and presents. Conrad and little Sanna set out early, arrived in time for lunch, and were kissed and showered with gifts by their adoring grandmother. Yet she insisted that they start for home early. The temperature was dropping, and ice was forming on the puddles in the road. As Conrad and Sanna climbed the path back toward home, a significant snowfall began. It was a snowfall the villagers later called once in a century: “unprecedented, unwearying, and voracious.” The children climbed and climbed, but their path never descended as it should; they never find their familiar landmark.

On the way home, they “fell into” heavy snowfall which became so dense that they could see only the very nearest trees.  They looked for their usual signpost.

“Shall we see the post today?” asked the girl. “The snow will fall on it and the red color will be white.”

“We shall be able to see it,” replied the boy; “even if the snow falls upon it and makes it white all over we are bound to see it, because it is a thick post, and because it has the black iron cross on its top will surely stick out.”

“Yes, Conrad.”

Yet they did not see the signpost, and instead of going down into the valley, the children wound up wandering up into the bare rock and ice region. The big brother who made a little roof out of the shawl that his sister was wearing to keep the snow off her face; meanwhile, the sister, maintained her brother’s courage simply by how much she trusted him.  Meanwhile, it had been growing dark.  At last they climbed into a stone cave to spend the night there.  To shield themselves against the cold, they drink from the coffee their grandmother had packed for their parents. The exceedingly strong extract took effect at once and all the more powerfully as the children had never in their lives tasted coffee.  Despite the dangers, Conrad, the elder of the siblings, was overwhelmed by the great canvas of nature before them. They saw a northern light wafting in the night sky, and the stars gleamed and shone and twinkled.  Only an occasional shooting star traversed them.. At dawn, Konrad and Sanna set off to find a way down the valley. At last the boy thought he saw a flame skipping over a far-away snow-slope. It bobbed up and dipped down again. Now they saw it, and then again they did not. They remained standing and steadfastly gazed in that direction. The flame kept on skipping up and down and seemed to be approaching, for they saw it grow bigger and skipping more plainly. It did not disappear so often and for so long a time as before. After awhile they heard in the still blue air faintly, very faintly, something like the long note of a shepherd’s horn. As if from instinct, both children shouted aloud. A little while, and they heard the sound again. They shouted again and remained standing on the same spot. The flame also came nearer. The sound was heard for the third time, and this time more plainly. The children answered again by shouting loudly. After some time, they also recognized that it was no flame they had seen but a red flag which was being swung. At the same time, the shepherd’s horn resounded closer to them and the children made reply.

“Sanna,” cried Conrad, “there come people from Gschaid. I know the flag.”

Then the children saw on the snow-slope opposite them several men with the flag of Millsdorf.

During the night, men had set out  from both villages, Gschaid and Millsdorf, to look for the children. When they were now at last found, they were driven home on a sledge. In the parents’ house, all friends and neighbors were gathered — even the grandmother from Millsdorf has arrived.

The common salvation of the children became a topic of conversation in the inn. The inhabitants of the two mountain villages, who had previously regarded each other as strangers and treated each other accordingly, reconciled themselves due to this joint rescue operation. From that day on, the children became the property of the village, and were viewed as natives of both villages who had miraculously been delivered from the mountain. Even the mother from Millsdorf was now considered a true native of Gschaid.

     Comparison – Contrast Composition Directions:  

            You may have followed the story in the news last year about the 12 boys on a soccer team and coach from Thailand who were trapped in a cave for two weeks. Countless people around the world were captivated by the rescue of the young Thai soccer team from a flooded cave. (Locate an article on the Internet and read about this event and how it ended.)

The  news about the Thai soccer team was recent fact; the account of the two children lost in the snow and rescued by the men of the two villages is a story from 1845 – “Rock Crystal.”  Yet there are some common points between the two narratives.

     Write a composition of two paragraphs of five sentences each comparing and contrasting the fictional story of the two children lost in the mountains and their rescue with what happened to the Thai soccer team.  Use specific examples from both narratives.  

Part 2:

 

Reading the Classics

 There is nothing that so greatly recreates the mind as the works of classic writers. Directly one has been taken up, even if it is only for half-an-hour, one feels as quickly refreshed, relieved, purified, elevated, and strengthened as if one had refreshed oneself at a mountain stream.      — Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Books and Reading”

                 THE   CLASSICS   FOR   TODAY

During this English course, you have been reading modern texts in our textbook as well as in your research for various assignments.  For the discussion questions, many of the topics have involved Great Books by classic authors, especially classic nineteenth-century writers such as  Guy de Maupassant (Week 3), Nathaniel Hawthorne (Week 6), Ralph Waldo Emerson (Week 5), and Henry David Thoreau (Week 5).  In reading such skilled writers, one improves one’s vocabulary as well as one’s critical thinking skills.  You should feel very good that you were able to read, understand, and write interesting commentaries on these classic writers!

RETURNING  TO  WALDEN

More than being examples of great writing and honing critical thinking skills, however, classic literature is important because it brings up universal themes which are important for today’s society.  One such example you read and wrote about in Week 5, that Thoreau’s Walden (with its peaceful associations with Nature and withdrawing at least temporarily from the hustle and bustle of modern society) has a relevance perhaps even more important today than when Thoreau published his book Walden in 1854.  As you read, Walden is even considered viable enough to see commercially a modern video game!

YOUR  PARAGRAPH  TOPIC

Write at least seven sentences explaining how one of the following works you have read has a theme with relevance for today.  Make sure you have a topic sentence supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence.  Use at least one quote from the work.  Choose one of the following works to write your paragraph about:

“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupaussant

“Under the Pear Tree” by Theodor Fontane (in-class)

“David Swan” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

“The Blue Flower” by Henry Van Dyke

Come up with original ideas, and do not repeat anythying you have written before or what other students who have posted before you are saying about the work.  Also include in your discussion a commentary on how the work fulfills the comment by the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (quoted above) that “there is nothing that so greatly recreates the mind as the works of classic writers.”

What are the relevant individual OB themes that might explain the problems (and not just the symptoms)?

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Locate a suitable subject organization for your course project. The organization can be your current organization or one that you are familiar with. Contact your instructor early in the week if you need assistance selecting an organization. For your paper, provide a summary of the organization. Include the following details in your summary:

  • What is the organization?
  • What does it do?
  • Who does it do it to/for?

In organizational diagnosis, one of the first steps is an initial assessment of potential areas of concern. If you were contracting with an organization as a consultant, the CEO would likely share in the early conversations why you are being hired. As part of the process, you would make observations, look at some organizational documents, and even have some informal conversations with organizational members to get a sense of where issues might be located so that you can determine how you will gather necessary data for diagnosing problems and recommending solutions.

In your paper, provide an initial assessment of some organizational problems that are evident in your case study organization. In an actual consulting scenario, you would do your assessment on the basis of your full range of organizational and leadership theory knowledge; however, for this course project, focus on individual OB themes.

  • What are the symptoms of the problems?
  • What is the evidence that problems actually exist?
  • What are the relevant individual OB themes that might explain the problems (and not just the symptoms)?

Remember, individual OB themes revolve around two questions:

  • Why do people say what they say and do what they do?
  • How do we enhance individual performance to achieve organizational goals?

On the basis of your initial assessment, one of the first things you will need to do is determine the additional information required for fully assessing the situation. In other words, what resources do you need to better understand the themes and assess the organizational difficulty? For your paper, provide an annotated reference list of at least five peer-reviewed sources that are relevant to your case study. Most of the references should relate to individual OB themes. However, at least one resource must relate to methodology (e.g., how to do organizational diagnosis). Remember, for APA, every reference must have at least one corresponding in-text citation. For this paper, the annotated reference list is your reference list, and entries need to be part of your research and support in the paper.

An annotated reference list means that each reference is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited. Annotations are descriptive and critical; they expose the author’s point of view and authority.

Submission Details:

  • Complete your analysis in a 5- to 6-page Microsoft Word document, using APA style.

*** OB- Stands for Organizational Behavior  

Describe the predictive power of  categorical variable on binary outcome.

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Logistic Regression estimates the probability of binary outcome as a function of independent variables.

An example is the probability that a borrower will default as a function of his credit score,

income, loan size and his current debts. In other words, Logistic Regression is a statistical method

for analyzing dataset in which there are one or more independent variables (predictor) that determine

the outcome of a dichotomous dependent variable such as YES or NO. Dichotomous is an outcome variable

with the possibility of only two alternative outcomes such as TRUE or FALSE.

Binary logistic regression model is used to estimate the probability of the binary response of dependent

variable based on one or more independent or predictor variables. Logistic regression uses categorical

predictor to predict the binary dependent outcome.

Question:

In assessing the predictive power of categorical predictors of a binary outcome,

should logistic regression be used?

Requirements:

Another way to frame the question is:

Can logistic regression be used to predict

categorical outcome?

If yes, then how can logistic regression be used to predict

categorical outcome?

If no, why?

Start by defining Logistic regression

Define binary logistic regression.

Describe the predictive power of  categorical variable on binary outcome.

Explain the usefulness of logistic regression in Big Data Analytics.

Provide examples.

Create a plan for how you would identify users, their roles and tasks, their motivations, and their expectations for the restaurant experience.

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  • Choose a restaurant as your hypothetical client for the project. The course project information describes the criteria to make this choice. Note that you need to keep the same client throughout all assignments in this project, and throughout the course.
  • Complete your initial post for the unit discussion. This will help you prepare for the assignment.

Before you begin Part A (restaurant description) of this assignment, brainstorm about the restaurant itself. Take 15–30 minutes to note as many details as possible about who its main patron groups are and what makes the restaurant attractive to these people. You can do this by visiting the restaurant itself, visiting the Web site, and/or by recalling from memory. A few key questions include:

  • What kind of restaurant is it? (Fast food? Ethnically-themed? Family-friendly? Casual or high-end?)
  • What are some patron demographic groups who would be likely to order food here?
  • When do they do most of their business? (Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or late night?)
  • Where would the patrons be and what would they be doing, if they decided to order online from this restaurant?
  • When or how might the patrons be distracted or need to look away from the screen, if they are placing an online order? Do they need to confer with others?

Note: You do not need to submit these brainstorming notes; use them to write the paragraphs described in Part A.

Assignment Instructions

Part A: Restaurant Description

Identify characteristics of your chosen restaurant that should inform your design of this online food ordering system.

  • State the name of the restaurant and the URL of its Web site. (If the restaurant has no Web site, provide the link to an official social media page or to the online menu.)
  • Create a concise description of the restaurant, based on your brainstorming notes. Aim to write one or two paragraphs, choosing only the key details to provide a complete picture of the restaurant environment.
Part B: User Research Plan

If you were actually building this ordering system, you would spend a lot of time conducting this research. For the purposes of this assignment, develop a plan as though you were going to do that hypothetical research. You would want to learn which groups of people are likely to visit this ordering system, what is important to them, and what they need to accomplish. In Unit 2, you will be developing a single, brief persona based on some of the ideas you generate here.

Create a plan for how you would identify users, their roles and tasks, their motivations, and their expectations for the restaurant experience. Please be sure to read or review all resources in the unit studies before you begin. Using Sherwin’s 2013 article, “A 5 Step Process for Conducting User Research,” as a guide, write a plan that addresses all of the following:

  • Explain what you think you already understand about your users.
    • What are there gaps in your understanding that need to be filled so that you can design a user experience that will meet their needs?
  • State your goals.
    • What (hypothetically) would you hope to accomplish in your user research?
    • How will you make this a vital part of the design process? Explain.
  • Develop a set of research questions to find out what users would expect from your interface.
    • Consider what you need to know about your users to build personas and design an engaging user experience, following the five-step process described in the Sherwin article.
    • Formulate these priorities into questions that would be answered by representative patrons. Some sample questions are provided in steps 1–4 in Part 2 of Goltz’s 2014 article, “A Closer Look at Personas.” These may give you some ideas and you can modify them to meet your needs in addition to adding your own questions.
  • Develop a user research method for learning what users will expect from your interface.
    • How will you ask these questions—interview, surveys, or other methods?
    • Are there other methods that you might use to get answers to your questions?
  • Include representative users.
    • Who are they, and how will you gain their cooperation?
  • Include information capture.
    • How will you compile the information—notes, online survey, or audio files?

Do not be deceived by this plan’s brevity. You will need to put some careful thought and into your questions and your research approach, based on the resources provided in the unit studies.

Part C: Design Strategies

Next, think forward to the interface you are about to build by employing the strategies you have explored in the unit readings. Use ideas, concepts, and quotes from the unit studies to describe the design strategies you plan to adopt in building your prototype food ordering system during one of the later assignments. Respond to some or all of the following questions:

  • What implications do the past experience, current context, and future goals of your user groups have for the design of your online food ordering system? How would this change based on different groups of patrons?
  • What are the implications that your own experiences and context might have on your design choices? What assumptions might you make about a good interface that might not be true for others?
  • Are the Gestalt principles likely to play a role in your user interface design? If so, explain their relevance.
  • How might visual structure enhance users’ interaction with the system?
  • What useful and important roles might color play in the design of the interactive restaurant experience?
  • Is users’ peripheral vision likely to be a main factor in your design decision? Why or why not?

Note: You will be gathering ideas and design strategies throughout the course. For this reason, it may be efficient to start a design journal document for yourself to keep track from week to week how you are planning to incorporate these design strategies into your prototype.

Refer to the Planning User Research Scoring Guide to ensure that you meet the grading criteria for this assignment.

When complete, compile all three parts in a single Microsoft Word document and submit it as an attachment in the assignment area.

Submission Requirements

Your assignment should meet the following requirements:

  • Written communication: Communicate effectively. While content is the most important aspect of your assignment submission, organization, readability, grammar, and spelling are also important.
  • APA format: Resources and citations must follow current APA guidelines.
  • Document type: Submit the assignment as a Microsoft Word document.