The U.S. Government (USG) sets aside $133 billion annually to procure goods and services from small businesses. To increase efficiency and effectiveness, the USG employs e-commerce procedures that continually change, forcing small and microbusiness owners (MBO) to learn new technical skills. This continuum of change is adversely affecting MBO who lack technical skills. The purpose of this correlational study was to determine whether a relationship existed between the independent variables of formal training consisting of third party providers, consultants, and higher education (INTM); previous federal employment (PFE); and government-sponsored training (GST) and the dependent variable of MBO winning a USG contract. The theoretical lens used to frame the study was the resource-based view. Participants included 259 owners of microbusinesses with fewer than 5 employees located in the United States. A Web-based survey provided data for logistic regression analysis, which showed a statistically significant finding that MBO who did not have GST were 2.6 times more likely to win a USG contract than MBO who had GST. INTM and PFE were not significantly associated with winning a USG contract. Implications for social change include encouraging government officials to develop training programs whereby MBO may benefit from increased business opportunities, which may spark business growth, reduce unemployment within communities, and contribute to the economy.

Thesis (M.M.P.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: George R. Parsons, Dept. of Marine and Earth Studies. Includes bibliographical references.

In this study seventeen various relationships between yields of three-month, six-month, and twelve-month maturity negotiable CD's and U.S. Government T-Bills were analyzed to find a leading indicator of short-term interest rates. Each of the seventeen relationships was tested for correlation with actual three-, six-, and twelve-month yields from zero to twenty-six weeks in the future. Only one relationship was found to be significant as a leading indicator. This was the twelve-month yield minus the six-month yield adjusted for scale and accumulated where the result was positive. This indicator (variable nineteen in the study) was further tested for usefulness as a trend indicator by transforming it into a function consisting of +1 (when its slope was positive), 0 (when its slope was zero), and -1 (when its slope was negative). Stage II of the study consisted of constructing a computer-aided model employing variable nineteen as a forecasting device. The model accepts a week-by-week minimum cash balance forecast, and the past thirteen weeks' yields of three-, six-, and twelve-month CD's as input. The output of the model consists of a cash time availability schedule, a numerical listing of variable nineteen values, the thirteen-week history of three-, six-, and twelve-month CD yields, a plot of variable nineteen for the next thirteen weeks, and a suggested investment strategy for cash available for investment in the current period.

This graduation thesis focuses on analyzing the impact(s) of the recent American mortgage crisis. The main goal is to study measures that have been taken to overcome this crisis andv evaluate them. The thesis is divided into four parts. The aim of the first part is to quantify the size of the United States housing bubble. The second part brings in the estimates of losses to individual financial institutions in the USA. The third part concentrates on detailed analysis of the arrangements that have been used to overcome mortgage crisis and consequential financial crisis. The last part compares the measures taken in order to solve the recent crisis with the ones that had been taken to overcome the Great Depression.

Louise Erdrich's novel Love Medicine presents a variety of voices that depict thetruths of Chippewa life and how they as a group are victims of a society that authorizesoppression and domination. Studies show that Chippewa tribes have a close connectionto nature and with each other as people. Ecofeminist critics draw analogies between theexploitation of nature and the oppression of groups such as those based on race, class,and sexuality, which results in a distortion of Native people's identity and connection tonature. Since the characters and nature are both oppressed and exploited by the U.Sgovernment, it becomes relevant to draw parallels between Erdrich's characters andnature with ecofeminism. The analysis concludes that ecofeminism can be applied toErdrich's novel because they share some values such as the importance of striving forinterconnection between humans and nature to free both from the power structure. TheChippewa characters and the U.S government can be identified in ecofeminist discourseas a set of dualisms. However, there are also some differences between ecofeminismand the way in which Erdrich depicts her Chippewa characters and nature. Erdrich’sstory shows that both female and male characters of Chippewa origin possess a sacredrelationship to Mother Earth, not only women, as ecofeminists would suggest.

The al-Qaeda Organization (AQO) and the Islamic State Organization (ISO) are transnational adversaries that conduct terrorism in the name of Sunni Islam. It is declared U.S. Government (USG) policy to degrade, defeat, and destroy them. The present book has been written to assist policymakers, military planners, strategists, and professional military educators whose mission demands a deep understanding of strategically-relevant differences between these two transnational terrorist entities. In it, one shall find a careful comparative analysis across three key strategically relevant dimensions: essential doctrine, beliefs, and worldview; strategic concept, including terrorist modus operandi; and specific implications and recommendations for current USG policy and strategy. Key questions that are addressed include: How is each terrorist entity related historically and doctrinally to the broader phenomenon of transnational Sunni “jihadism”? What is the exact nature of the ISO? How, if at all, does ISO differ in strategically relevant ways from AQO? What doctrinal differences essentially define these entities? How does each understand and operationalize strategy? What critical requirements and vulnerabilities characterize each entity? Finally, what implications, recommendations, and proposals are advanced that are of particular interest to USG strategists and professional military educators? / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1127/thumbnail.jpg