In the United States, the word "earthquake" is extensively used. This natural disaster has a year-round impact on numerous states across the country. Earthquakes are simply more than a natural calamity; they also have a negative psychological impact. Earthquake safety measures are essential for ensuring citizens' safety. This paper proposes, a technique for evaluating earthquake safety activities and instructing individuals in selecting appropriate precautions. Earthquake protection using Reach.love plus Amazon Alexa is special in that it uses cutting-edge virtual reality technology. The platform developed by Reach.love takes earthquake prevention to a new and innovative direction. The feeling of presence in a VR headset linked within Reach.love, allows the user to feel that an earthquake is occurring right now. Additionally, each location includes audio instructions that explain what to do in specific scenarios. The user can practice and mentally train to respond appropriately when a real earthquake happens, comparable to a 3D drill. Finally, the user will be able to utilize Amazon Alexa for help within the rooms in Reach.love to improve the experience of earthquake safety training. For example, if the user speaks to Alexa during the simulation and says, "Alexa, turn off the audio instructions," Alexa will do so, and the user will no longer hear them. Alexa would be the user's personal assistant during the training of earthquake protection.

The goal of Dough is to create financial content that educates college students and young adults in areas of financial literacy. College students and young adults generally have debt from student loans, and typically don’t have much time to work as they focus on school and earn their degree. Financial literacy can make the lives of young adults much easier, however this is typically not a resource that is easily available to them. Our proposed solution to fight the lack of financial literacy is to create educational content including videos, articles, and a website that educates students and young adults on how to acquire good financial habits.

The goal of Dough is to create financial content that educates college students and young adults in areas of financial literacy. College students and young adults generally have debt from student loans, and typically don't have much time to work as they focus on school and earn their degree. Financial literacy can make the lives of young adults much easier, however this is typiclly not a resource that is easily available to them. Our proposed solution to fight the lack of finacial literacy is to create educational content including videos, articles, and a website that educates students and young adults on how to acquire good financial habits.

Spatial audio can be especially useful for directing human attention. However, delivering spatial audio through speakers, rather than headphones that deliver audio directly to the ears, produces the issue of crosstalk, where sounds from each of the two speakers reach the opposite ear, inhibiting the spatialized effect. A research team at Meteor Studio has developed an algorithm called Xblock that solves this issue using a crosstalk cancellation technique. This thesis project expands upon the existing Xblock IoT system by providing a way to test the accuracy of the directionality of sounds generated with spatial audio. More specifically, the objective is to determine whether the usage of Xblock with smart speakers can provide generalized audio localization, which refers to the ability to detect a general direction of where a sound might be coming from. This project also expands upon the existing Xblock technique to integrate voice commands, where users can verbalize the name of a lost item using the phrase, “Find [item]”, and the IoT system will use spatial audio to guide them to it.

Spatial audio can be especially useful for directing human attention. However, delivering spatial audio through speakers, rather than headphones that deliver audio directly to the ears, produces the issue of crosstalk, where sounds from each of the two speakers reach the opposite ear, inhibiting the spatialized effect. A research team at Meteor Studio has developed an algorithm called Xblock that solves this issue using a crosstalk cancellation technique. This thesis project expands upon the existing Xblock IoT system by providing a way to test the accuracy of the directionality of sounds generated with spatial audio. More specifically, the objective is to determine whether the usage of Xblock with smart speakers can provide generalized audio localization, which refers to the ability to detect a general direction of where a sound might be coming from. This project also expands upon the existing Xblock technique to integrate voice commands, where users can verbalize the name of a lost item using the phrase, “Find [item]”, and the IoT system will use spatial audio to guide them to it.

This honors thesis for Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University provides an analysis of a leveraged buyout (LBO) of Foot Locker. This thesis serves to demonstrate how a fictional private equity firm would acquire a company through an LBO. The project provides insight onto what private equity firms do, the background of Foot Locker, and an industry analysis on the sector that Foot Locker operates in. The thesis looks to provide a deeper understanding of the fair value of Foot Locker using a discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, comparable company analysis, and precedent transaction analysis. Included is a pitchbook, the DCF model, and LBO model.

In the end, an increase in repurchases of company stock will also influence the rate of dividends to increase. This means, an investor should not necessarily worry about the dividends they receive, but rather to see if the company is making profit at a consistent rate and reinvesting into value-added activities. Through the major pillars of finance, technology, legal, and human resources, the budget for reinvestment can be optimized by investing into these respective categories with percentages that are mindful of the specific companies needs and functions. Any firm that chooses to ensure proven methods of growth will enact a combination of these four verticals. A larger emphasis on finance will branch out efficiency in the entire organization, as finance control everything from the toilet paper to the acquisitions the company is making. The more technology is used to reduce redundancy and inefficient or costly operations, the more capability the organization will have. IT, however, comes with its technical challenges; having a team on-hand or even outsourced, to solve the critical problems to help the business continue operation. Over-reliance into technology can be detrimental to a business as well if clear processes are not set about straight to counteract problems the business will face like IT ticketing systems or recovery and continuity support. Therefore, technology will require a larger chunk of attention as well.

The upcoming legal and HR investments a company will make will depend upon its current position and thus the restructuring will differ for every firm. Each company has its own flavour and style of work. In that regard, the required legal counsel will vary; different problems will require different solutions for risk control and management, which are often professionally advised by intelligent corporate counsel. This ability to hire efficient legal counsel would not arise in the first place if a firm were to give out dividends; the leftover profit would have gone towards the shareholders and not back into growing the equity of the business. Lastly, nothing is possible without the contribution of people, and their efforts. A quality that long-lasting, successful businesses have, is they are investing in their people and development. Paying salaries, insurances, bonuses, all requires extra capital that is needed to be set aside in order to grow human capital. Good people, better people. There are qualities for each role that need to be defined and a process for attracting talent needs to be invested in. This process can also include outsourcing to an external firm who specializes in these strategies. By retaining profits internally, the company is able to stretch its legs to have further reach upon the market they work in. Financially and statistically, dividends are likely to grow as well with the increase in equity due to the increase in security an investor feels with more cash reserve and liquidity within the company.

All in all, a company should not be pressured into giving out periodic payments in predetermined timeframes, in other words a dividend, to investors even when they are insisting. Rather, pitch and prove, a new method for reinvestment within the company that will raise the value of the company, through proven methods like the value chain model, to increase the equity in the company. By expanding the scope and capability, the company is allowing for a larger target market which will reap more benefits; none of it would be possible if it had continued to give out large percentages of capital to investors as dividends. Companies, and investors, should not be worried about dividends at all as a matter of fact; an increase in stock buyback, in other words reinvesting into the company, will increase the rate of dividends anyway, due to increased confidence and capital within the company.