American Express Company Value Enhancing Strategies             American Express Company (Amex) in an American financial organization that specializes in processing payments, credit cards, and provide travel-related services across the globe. Over time, the company has established itself as one of the top brands in financial service provision. The company has excellent significantly in its operation, as seen in its USD 27 billion cash position and a market capitalization of USD 97 billion. It has a strong financial ratio of 1.86, which places it a pole position of liquidity. The financial ratio is higher than its liabilities; thus, it is capacitated to manage its debt obligations. Compared to its competitors, the company has a lower solvency ratio. Its excellence can also be attributed to its low financial risks. The company has reported an increase in its return on assets ratio, as well as a significant net profit margin. Despite the successes, AMEX has a large pool of opportunities. The company also needs to leverage its capital structure, which can be vital in reducing the company’s expenditure. Though AMEX has been successful,…

Synthetic Diamonds                                                      Introduction De Beers had for decades enjoyed a monopoly in the diamond business. The monopoly had reached a point where the terms De Beers and Diamonds could be used interchangeably. Between 1888 to the 1980s, De Beers mined about 90% of diamonds produced annually. The firm rooted its monopoly through strategies such as purchasing all the available diamonds in the market, stockpiling them, and releasing only the required diamonds each year in order to exert control over the supply of rough diamonds to maintain consumer confidence and ensure price stability. The success of this approach is asserted by Kleingeld, De Sousa, and Penny (2001) who state that diamonds were the only products whose price had steadily increased since the Depression. However, by the end of the 20th century, there were a number of forces threatening De Beers’ dominance in the diamond industry: declining profitability, growing competition from new entrants into the industry, and loss of market share. Also, new technology paved way for the creation of synthetic diamonds, which are indistinguishable from those created by natural forces.…

Is cyberterrorism a real threat? (contrasting viewpoints Yes/No)   Introduction What is terrorism Terrorism can be indicated to be the use of attack to create a universal condition of panic in a society and hence attracting political attention. This term originated at the time of the French Revolution in the eighteenth century.  Terrorism is commonly used to associate something with wrong did. Most governmental and non-governmental institutions use this term to show a group on the opposition. Terrorists are known for instilling fear to the public as they attack people publicly; engage in violent and dramatic assaults like kidnapping, hijacking, bombing, and other forms of attacks. On the other hand, Cyber terrorism can be defined as an attack on computer programs, information, computer systems, and data that causes violence. It can as well be referred to as the use of the internet to carry out violent activities threat that causes the loss of data and money as the hackers get access to personal or organization informants.  Cyber terrorism came into existence once the computers started to evolve, and the experts,…

Gross sales Gross sales are the overall trade transactions that are reported within a period. These transactions do not include any deductions. On the other hand, net sales are the gross sales subtracted the following deductions; sales discounts, sale allowances and sales returns. Net sales are used to calculate the vertical analysis of an income statement because they provide the total overall sales. In vertical analysis, each item on the financial statement is indicated as a percentage of the total sales. The vertical analysis shows several expenditure lines of items as a percentage of the total sales. For an entrepreneur, the numbers in the vertical report tell them about the trending of their account and also help them see the different changes that happen to the account over some time. The information is valuable for noticing the hiking in expenses or which expenses are unworthy of the company’s attention. The vertical analysis uses one accounting period to compare the percentages of items in a financial statement, while the horizontal analysis compares the historical data of different accounting periods over several…

simple survey of members within a team in which you work You will conduct a simple survey of members within a team in which you work. This survey is meant to tap into key aspects of team science discussed in class thus far. You will design 10 questions meant to be distributed to a small diverse team (no less than five people). Questions should be a combination of metrical and explanatory questions. What questions you ask are up to you but keep in mind that you will be providing a paper that described what you learned. HINT: read Assignment #2b before completing your questions. [unique_solution] This is a five page assignment. All papers must be presented with excellent grammar and spelling and follow the American Psychological Association Publication Manual (6thedition) for writing style and format. See the assignment rubric for a full description of the grading criteria.  

Competitive Programming Activity             CodePSU is an organization that is responsible for competitive programming activities, which are mind computing sports usually held over the internet or local network. The main aim of the organization is to organize a competition that motivates students to perfect their computing skills. The association register participants in groups and involved applicants try to program according to the provided specification. The organization host competitions on a regular basis, and the activities are referred to as sport programmers. The activity is recognized and supported by various multinational software with internet companies like Google and Face book. Participants should be in a group of three to five. My group comprised of three members, and we were required to write source code of computer programs that will be able to solve given programs. Vast problems appeared during programming, and we had to answer them in both mathematical and logic. The activity was inclusive of online judging in online the environments, and the judge’s rank list s shows participants who have the most significant number of solutions through the time…

Colon Cancer and Relationship to Immune System Introduction Colon cancer also called colorectal, or bowel cancer is a type of cancer that begins in the colon or rectum. Colon cancer usually affects older adults; however, it can as well happen at any age. It usually begins as small noncancerous clumps of specific cells called polyps that develop inside the colon or rectum. Often most of these polyps develop into colon cancer. The polyps are generally small and may or may not produce any symptoms. However, the doctors recommend regular screening to help in identifying the polyps as well as removing them before they become cancerous. There are various treatments available for colon cancer. They include radiation therapy, surgery, and drug treatments like chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy. A colon is the last part of the digestive system. Signs and symptoms of colon cancer It is not easy to identify colon cancer at the early stages because its symptoms are barely noticeable, and when the symptoms appear, they are likely to vary depending on the size and location in the colon. …

Commonality Practices for National Infrastructure Protection Introduction Commonality refers to specific aspects and features that are common in most areas of protecting national infrastructure against attacks. Commonality encompasses various security protocols, regulations, standards, and best practices, such as auditing. Auditing for national infrastructure should be meaningful and objective. There are many common standards and practices related to the security of the national infrastructure. They include the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, Federal Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). Other standards include payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT), and ETSI/IEC 27000 Standard family (ISO27K). These standards are done to enhance the security and safety of national infrastructure. Commonality Practices for National Infrastructure Protection The driving factors in most national infrastructure protection strategies are the success and general security of enterprises. The HIPAA act was developed to protect both the patients against attacks. There have several cases of loss of patient’s information and data in health facilities. As a result, it has compromised the privacy and…

Background information on coronavirus The world has faced with outbreaks of diseases such as Zika, Ebola, Mers a particular type of coronavirus and the 2019 coronavirus within the past five years. Coronavirus has infected several people, and around 130 people have died from Coronavirus in China. The classification of the virus that affected people in 2019 is a family of viruses called coronavirus. The virus is a severe form of coronavirus compared to SARS experienced in 2002. The virus infects small mammals, pigs, and bats before it affected humans. Therefore it is believed that the virus mutated and begun to harm human beings. The coronavirus 2019 infected people who ate seafood from a market in Wuhan, China.  The virus spreads from one person to another through kissing, coughing, and other activities that make an individual be in contact with the infected saliva. China is greatly affected by the virus compared to another country in the world, followed by the United States. Media source identified The media sources identified is The New York Times with the topic “We Made the Coronavirus…

Corporate fraud Introduction In the contemporary world, money is stolen from corporations by use of the pen to the extent of creating a significant problem. Globalization has created a dynamic business environment that is characterized by increased competition for profits and market expansion. Stock prices act as an indicator for corporate performance, and this results in undesirable but intentional corporate fraud by business managers. According to the Standard on Auditing (2004), fraud is defined as the use of deception by an individual with managerial and governance responsibility to attain an unfair and unlawful competitive advantage. As such, corporate fraud is an intentional act to possess money, property, and enjoy corporate advantage through illegal means (Singleton & Singleton, 2010). Therefore, corporate fraud exists where there is a false statement, knowledge of management, strong belief, and financial damage (Golden et al., 2016). In a business organization, corporate fraud occurs through embezzlement of assets, corruption, and provision of false financial statements (ACFE, 2014). Asset misappropriation is a type of corporate fraud that is undertaken by employees, and it results in misuse of the…