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Germany's "Big Three" chemical producers—BASF, Bayer, and Hoechst—all had significantly reduced profits in their just-released results for the first half of 1993, continuing the dreary trend of the past few years. "The weakness of the world economy, tough international competition and low demand, combined with a surplus of supply resulting in unrelenting pressure on prices" are continuing characteristics for the world's chemical industry, says BASF chairman Jurgen Strube. Indeed, of the three firms, the picture is bleakest at BASF. This company has been the most dependent on petrochemicals, currently the hardest-hit sector of the European chemical industry. BASF's pretax profits for the first six months, at $284 million, were down 50% from first-half 1992. Sales were down 7% to $12.97 billion. Even at Bayer, which has made the greatest effort to diversify into downstream chemical and pharmaceutical areas, pretax profits dropped 20% to $829 million on a 5% sales decline to $12.4 billion. And at ...

We explore the response of collusive prices to changing demand conditions when firms operate under capacity constraints in the presence of demand uncertainty. We find support for the conventional view that periods of low demand lead, through the emergence of excess capacity, to a breakdown of collusive pricing. We also find that the nature of price wars depends on the degree of excess capacity in the industry; while small amounts of excess capacity can lead firms to engage in "mild" price wars, characterized by uniform price reductions and market share stability, more "severe" price wars, characterized by price undercutting and market share instability, can emerge if excess capacity is sufficiently great. Finally, our results lend support to the view that market share instability is a symptom of ineffective collusion.

This paper examines monopolistic pricing decisions under production and storage capacity constraints, which firms may well encounter in practice, but which have generally been ignored in earlier price-inventory analyses.' If these capacity constraints are present, they evidently influence firms' pricing decisions. These constraints should therefore be formally modelled for a more complete theory of price behavior. The paper addresses the issue of whether or not inventories will lead to an asymmetry in price behavior. Amihud and Mendelson [2] and Reagan [15] have noted that inventory adjustments moderate downward price adjustments in periods of low demand, but do not moderate upward price adjustments in periods of high demand when stockouts occur. These analyses are in contrast to Blinder [4], wherein a possible symmetric role of inventories and unfilled orders in dampening price adjustments is considered. Blinder argues that stockouts may not be empirically significant. Abel [1] observes, however, that casual empiricism may lead one to think that stockouts are rather

In a study of the effects of variations in the levels of job demand on self-reported levels of job-related strain, an unanticipated gender differential was found. Higher levels of job demand were hypothesized to lead to higher levels of job-related strain. No differential effect due to gender was anticipated. Subjects in the high demand condition reported significantly more job-related strain than did subjects in the low demand condition. However, when an analysis of covariance was performed, gender showed an unexpected interaction effect with demand. Females experienced lower levels of strain in the low demand condition than did males. In the high demand condition, females experienced higher levels of strain than did males. This indicates that women were more sensitive to demand variations than men. This gender difference suggests that assignment of workers to certain positions based on gender may reduce overall levels of job-related strain.

Two types of subjects (undergraduates satisfying a course requirement or volunteers for a treatment program) were administered repeated Behavioral Avoidance Tests (BATs) involving a live snake. Level of demand for approach was varied by presenting the test as a measure of avoidance (Low Demand; L) or a measure of physiological reaction which required that subjects handle the target object (High demand; H). All subjects were tested twice, half under the same level of demand and half under increased or decreased demand. On BAT-I, the H condition resulted in more approach and less overt fear behavior. Treatment volunteers showed significantly less approach, more overt fear, and longer latencies to touch. The main effect of repeated testing was significant for all behavioral measures, and the Treatment × Time interaction was significant for approach and overt fear measures. Subjects displayed less fear on the second as opposed to the first BAT. The results were discussed in terms of three aspects of outcome research: demand characteristics, repeated testing effects, and type of subjects employed.

The author compares the relative merits of production cuts and buffer stocks as measures for market stabilisation in mineral commodity markets. He concludes that, although under certain conditions producers may gain by building up buffer stocks at times of relatively low demand, the low global price elasticities in most minerals markets make it likely that producers' interests would usually be better served by production cuts when demand falls.

Sixty male and sixty female undergraduate subjects verbally reporting high or low fear of snakes were administered a behavioral avoidance test (BAT) under low or high social demand conditions. Overall, males displayed significantly less avoidance as well as more frequent snake contact and task completion than females, although the sex differences held only among high fear subjects and no sex effect was found on other measures. Reported fear level was significantly associated with latency to touch, approach score, touch frequency, and task completion (high fear subjects displayed less boldness) but, on all measures except latency, this was true only for female subjects. High demand conditions produced significantly more approach, target contact, and task completion than low demand. The highest correlation between reported fear and BAT behavior accounted for less than 25% of the variance common to verbal and overt responses.

In Western economies, considerable short-run output instability derives from the individual actions of resource owners to employ and produce and from the actions of consumers to spend and save according to their own best interests. This economic freedom at the lowest level enables firms and individuals to vary their spending between resources, goods, time, and place, and hence to create opportunities for imbalances between the quantity of output which producers would like to sell and the quantity which consumers would like to buy. Thus, shortages and surpluses may be created in the current period which affect the level of production in subsequent periods. The proponents of central planning argue that a system of state resource ownership and the authority of planners to establish a wages and incomes policy and to allocate productive resources stabilize the behavior of producers and buyers in the economy. It is said to assure a greater homogeneity of economic objectives, rewards, and standards of performance, and offers the opportunity directly to influence the use of resources. With the control of resources, planning has the potential of projecting sector needs and of coordinating the demand and supply in various industries so as to reduce the frequency and severity of short-run adjustments in output. Vacillation in the tautness of plans from year to year from targets which are slack to those which are excessive, however, may be a source of instability in production. Keren, for example, argues that an "optimum target" exists, and targets above or below that quantity may lead to dysfunctional activities and reduced output.1 Yet, while one would expect to observe differences in the tautness of plans between countries, it is reasonable to expect a consistency in tautness within countries from year to year, so that actual output changes are consistently high or low relative to the target. The expansion and contraction of industry output levels is not in itself undesirable, since such adjustments may reflect the scarcity of resources, changes in the preferences of buyers, changing technology, and other factors which cause producers and buyers to adjust their activity levels. However, the manner and frequency with which resources are redirected from one industry to another are important. If imbalances develop in various industries, surpluses and shortages of labor and capital are created and must be transferred from areas of low demand to areas of high demand. The reallocation of resources is highest when short-run instability is highest, and it is costly in two respects. First, there is reduced productivity, lost production, and waste associated with displaced labor and unused (untransferable) capital. Second, the economic system must provide institutional conditions and personnel which facilitate the transfer (reallocation) of resources. Hence, re

Investigated the active components of covert positive reinforcement (CPR) with a 2 X 2 X 2 factorial design (N = 64) that consisted of an S-R modality (covert vs. overt), a reinforcement procedure (covert vs overt), and a demand for expectancy of success (high vs. low). Posttreatment and follow-up results of the Behavioral Avoidance Test indicated that generally Ss in the overt S-R modality groups approached closer to the rat than did those in the covert groups (N = 64). More importantly, the S-R modality X demand interactions reflected that those Ss in the two covert S-R modality groups under low demand evidenced less approach than those Ss in the other six groups (p less than .01). Self-rating measures of anxiety on the Self-Rating Rat Anxiety Scale and the Fear Intensity Scale reflected overall decrements of fear from pretreatment to posttreatment and follow-up. Follow-up analyses indicated that plans should be made for the generalization of treatment effects by varying the treatment setting and perhaps by employing multiple therapists.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of distraction tasks varying in attentional demand on the perception of exercise-induced symptoms and on exercise performance. Tasks were constructed to vary in attentional demand but not in emotional engagement in order to isolate the former. Sixty females rode a bicycle ergometer while they participated in one of three experimental conditions: high demand distraction, low demand distraction, or no systematic distraction. Measures of mood, perceived exertion during exercise, physical symptoms following exercise, and timed riding tolerance were collected and analyzed. Level of distraction had little effect on mood, which confirmed that the tasks were not differentially emotionally arousing. Contrary to theoretical predictions, level of distraction led to no differences in exercise performance or symptom reports across the three groups. Limitations of the 'competition of cues' explanation for the efficacy of distraction as an intervention to reduce symptom perception and increase exercise performance are discussed.

Rural transportation systems often suffer from low capital utilization, low demand, lack of connectivity between routes and other operational problems. Costs are frequently much larger than the revenue because provision of adequate transportation may be instrumental to regional developments. The paper presents the results of a transportation study in Greenland, where STOL aircraft technology is shown to be superior to current modes of transportation. A procedure for optimal timing of airport construction and STOL implementation is presented.

Energy conservation is considered an important means of improving the competitiveness of Canadian manufacturers on world markets. The government has adopted energy conservation as a significant element in its energy strategy and is positively encouraging it through a system of sectorial task forces. After five years of operation, the exercise has achieved an overall average saving of 13%; however, there still remain some sectors that due to low demand have been unable to report a net improvement in efficiency. Some means of economizing fuel in Canadian primary industry are described.

Assertive and nonassertive subjects role played responses to interpersonal situations of known response difficulty in which various types of assertions were appropriate to evaluate the interactive effects of demand and difficulty on assertive performance. Subjects responded as they normally would (low demand) and as if they had just finished an extensive assertive training program (high demand). Role-play data, rated for overall assertion, revealed that (a) subjects were more assertive under high than low-demand; (b) assertive performance varied with situational difficulty; and (c) self-reports of assertive ability predicted behavior only when role-play situations were easy or demand low, and high demand had preceded low demand. It was concluded that assertive performance is strongly influenced by situational and cognitive variables, that self-reports predict behavior only in specific assessment circumstances, and that role plays tend to measure maximal, rather than typical, performance. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications concerning the validity of role-play assessment procedures.

The situation considered is that where a sales outlet holds a stock of goods for sale which are topped up by regular weekly deliveries. Demand is highly variable and ranges from high to very low over the many items held in stock. An appropriate stock system to use in these circumstances is an ‘order-up-to’ policy but the problem is to set the right order-up-to levels for each item. Items which experience low demand require particular care. The mathematical model used for setting stock levels for these items has to allow for the possibility of stockouts occuring before the review time and not only in the period from review to delivery. The paper consideres various measures which are used for assessing the performance of sales outlets and the implications of these measures for setting stock levels. Some measures are shown to be very sensitive to the level of sales and also need to be used with care when making interbranch comparisons. A consideration of performance measures also brings out the potential for conflict of interest between supplier and stockist.

The aim of this paper is to clarify the locational characteristics of electric supply enterprises and the local conditions which influenced each enterprise, through case studies in central Japan before 1938.As a result, we can identify three types of location of the electric supply enterprises:(1) The first type of the location of the electric supply enerprises was one in urban areas. In such areas, a typical case was the‘Nagoya Electric Supply Company’established in 1889 in Aich Prefecture. This company built many electric power stations in the upper reaches of Kiso River and began to supply electric power to the urban and manufacturing areas of Aichi Prefecture, and later further to the Osaka area which was developed as the largest manufacture region in this period. Thus, this company developed to the one of the largest electric supply enterprises in Japan, absorbing many other electric supply enterprises in this area, changing its name to‘Toho Electric Supply Company’in 1922. A new company, ‘Daido Electric Supply Company’was separated from the‘Nagoya Electric Supply Company’.In this process, the‘Toho Electric Supply Company’and‘Daido Electric Supply Company’ were developed together and could exchange their electric power to fill the increased demand from electric power stations spread increasingly at the upper reaches of large rivers supported by the improvement of techniques in the generation and transmission of electric power.(2) The second type was one located in the traditional manufacturing areas, such as raw silk manufactures in Nagano Prefecture in central Japan. Raw silk manufacturing had developed in central Japan before World War II, based on increasing exports. The Suwa area in Nagano Prefecture was famous for this manufacturing. In the early days, many managers of this manufacturing weren't interested in electric power as their power source. But, later, they introduced electric power to increase their production, and they planned eagerly to establish many electric supply enterprises and manage these enterprises.Thus, electric power that was produced by these companies was mainly demanded by such raw silk making manufacturing in the Suwa area in the middle of Nagano Prefecture.(3) The third type was one located in the mountain areas, which was established by the public sector, managed by the authority of towns and villages. In peripheral areas, especially in the mountain areas in central Japan, the supply of electric power had to be managed by public sectors in each small village, because the larger electric supply enterprises could not economically supply electric power to these areas, due to their low demand for electric power. Kamisato Village in Nagano Prefecture was one such case. At first, all of the villagers wanted electric power to be supplied by one of the electric power enterprises. But the enterprise agreed to supply electric power only to a part of this village. Thus a conflict between the electric power enterprise and villagers occured.After this, the villagers made a decision to establish a new public enterprise to supply electric power to each household in the village. This could be accomplished because the village had extensive forest land and forest resources, and created a large fund by cutting and selling timbers.

The acquisitions policies of the Division are based on a consideration of a number of criteria—academic level, demand, availability and speed of supply from elsewhere, and country of publication. Only ‘worthwhile’ literature is collected, and apart from the serials area where a comprehensive collection is maintained, low demand categories of literature are collected only if availability elsewhere is non‐existent, restricted or slow. Among its 51,500 current serials are conventional journals, directories, yearbooks, report series, a few technical newspapers, some standards series and many official publications (particularly British). Including secondhand material, over 100,000 books are acquired each year. Most of these are in English but many foreign language items are brought in response to demand. Other categories of literature acquired are dissertations, research reports, research series in microform and music. The preferred method of obtaining serials is through a subscription agency. Although British books are selected in house, the majority of books are obtained by means of approval programmes. In addition, the Division has many exchange arrangements.

The boll weevil's impact on southern agriculture poses a dilemma. Micro-level evidence suggests the weevil triggered a transition out of cotton, but macro-level indicators fail to register much long-term impact. Econometric simulation of boll weevil impact—taking into account the low demand elasticity for southern cotton, differences between states in the timing and levels of infestation, and long-term supply and demand shifts independent of the weevil—shows that the two sets of evidence are not inconsistent.

The paper gives the main results of studies on the size-performance relatio ship of mail sorting offices in two of the developed countries. A distinct optimum size was found at about 450 total operatives and the major factors causing the declining performance of larger offices were identified as deteriorating motivation, increasing specialization in work method, and a poorer industrial relations climate. The performance of small offices is believed to be adversely affected by the minimum number of operatives needed to guarantee service during periods of low demand but who cannot be fully occupied. Special attention was paid to the definition of terms and to statistical technique as these matters have been noted as weaknesses of some previous studies on the effects of size in organizations.

T HE proposition that imperfections in product and labor markets lead to wage rigidity has been stressed by many authors in their analysis of wage inflation.' The most commonly held view is that wage differentials which result from these imperfections behave countercyclically. That is, periods of rapid inflation and/or low unemployment are believed to be associated with reduction of the wage premium attributed to both unionization and oligopolistic structure. On the labor market side it is argued that wage rigidity is primarily due to lags introduced by collective bargaining.7 In periods of low demand union wage levels are maintained through long term agreements. On the upswing these same long term agreements do not allow the union wage to react as quickly as the nonunion wage to increases in demand. Cross-sectional estimates of economy-wide union/nonunion differentials are often used to support this hypothesis.3 On the product market side it is often argued that concentrated industries have the ability to raise prices in periods of economic slack. This market power is a permissive factor which may allow workers in these industries to demand a share of the excess profits.4 Of course, the work force must have some method of demanding this share. It is usually assumed that union power is relatively great in these concentrated industries. Thus, this argument is really conditioned on imperfections in both the labor and product market, and is therefore much closer to an interaction hypothesis than a pure oligopolistic structure hypothesis. Proponents of this argument further hypothesize that concentrated industries do not increase prices as fast as competitive industries in an economic upturn. Wage differentials between concentrated and unconcentrated industries are therefore expected to narrow in periods of rapidly increasing prices. With one exception,5 the support for this hypothesis comes from studies of wage changes in concentrated versus unconcentrated industries.6 This paper is a reexamination of the wage rigidity hypotheses. The impacts of unionization and concentration on average wage levels are first estimated for a series of cross-sectional observations in manufacturing between 1947 and 1976. The differences in these cross-sectional impacts across time are then analyzed using rates of inflation and unemployment levels as explanatory variables.

In many military and commercial contexts, complex equipment undergoes scheduled maintenance overhauls at regular intervals during which all failed components are replaced. Failure to have replacements on hand for all failed parts requires emergency measures at premium cost. When reparable parts are highly reliable and expensive, both holding and shortage costs are high. This model determines the reparable parts inventory for a maintenance center under three alternative criteria: (1) maximizing job-completion rate subject to constraint on total holding costs, (2) minimizing total holding costs plus expected job-noncompletion costs, and (3) minimizing total holding costs subject to a required minimum job-completion rate. Exact solutions may be obtained using dynamic programming. Approximate solutions, found easily by marginal analysis, have readily computed bounds on possible error. The solution methods for the three formulations are illustrated in a simple example.

Systems and the design methods developed to use off peak electrical energy for greenhouse and plant propagation bench heating are described. Energy is stored by heating water to temperatures up to 85 C in insulated water tanks with capacities up to 30,000 litres. The electrical energy used for heating is supplied at low cost on a restricted hours tariff during daily periods of low demand on the electricity supply system.

year; second, the desire to retard or prevent during the later summer months bacterial aftergrowths in the sedimentation basin of the slow sand filter plant. Our experience in control of the latter problem is not sufficient to justify discussion here. We are quite well satisfied with regards to minimization of taste the process has been effective. It is important to point out that at no time prior to the use of ammonia has the supply been subject to continued objectionable tastes. In the extreme cold of midwinter, at times of high rainfall in midwinter or early spring, at times in early summer when the water temperature was rising, occasional consumer comments have been made. We believe that Indianapolis has a low rate of comment regarding taste, but not so low as to justify indifference to the conditions. So the ammonia process was studied. The filtration system consists of two plants deriving their supply through a common intake structure. The supply leaves the intake through two 48-inch diameter pipes one leading to each set of filters. The slow sand plant consists of 6 units of a total capacity of 36 m.g.d., the supply for which is first coagulated and then settled in a basin having a detention capacity of 1.25 days at maximum rates. During the recent months low demand has increased the detention up to 2.5 days. The rapid sand plant has a normal rating of 12 m.g.d. with six-hour settling basins. Recent reduction in demand has increased this detention up to ten hours. Coagulant is applied at the head of each 48-inch pipe and pre-chlorine about ten seconds flow down the line. All filtered water flows to a contact basin where the post chlorine is applied. Approximately thirty minutes elapse before the operator checks the residual chlorine and forty-five minutes before the water reaches the pumps.

This paper considers a two-echelon inventory model for consumable or repairable parts in which the first-echelon facilities use one-for-one replenishment policies and the second-echelon facility uses a continuous-review (s, S) policy. Repair may be accomplished at all facilities. Repair and transportation times are assumed to be deterministic, and the failure processes that generate demands are assumed to be Poisson. The paper derives exact expressions for the stationary distributions of stock on hand, stock in repair, and backlogged demand at each facility, and indicates how these expressions may be utilized for optimization purposes.

The following note is concerned with establishing an inventory control policy for items with extremely low demand. In the event that the expected savings in ordering cost that would result from buying in lots is less than the concomitant increase in carrying charges, it is uneconomical to use a lot size formula. In this event, it is appropriate to use a system consisting of placing orders as units are demanded.

Initial provisioning decisions (inventory stocking requirements) for low demand items often have to be made without much knowledge of what future demand rates will be. When the nature of an item is such that little demand for it is expected, the problem of whether to stock initially or risk not stocking the item is most critical. This report discusses this problem and presents decision procedures which can be used to handle this aspect of initial provisioning. The procedures relate an item's provisioning desirability to its provisioning characteristics, such as expected cost, expected resupply time, current information on its likely demand rate, and to an overall operating policy or criterion. The criterion function measures the total system degredation as a function of the events of having items out of stock when demand occurs. Several different policy functions are discussed and the provisioning decision rules which apply to each are presented. Demand rate information is handled through a Bayesian type approach. The decision rules presented in this report can be utilized to either determine stocking requirements within a budgetary constraint, or determine the relative stocking desirability on an item-by-item basis.

This paper extends Connors and Zangwill's work in network flows under uncertainty to the convex costs case. In this paper the extended network flow under uncertainty algorithm is applied to compute N-period production and delivery schedules of a single commodity in a two-echelon production-inventory system with convex costs and low demand items. Given an initial production capacity for N periods, the optimal production and delivery schedules for the entire N periods are characterized by the flows through paths of minimal expected discounted cost in the network As a by-product of this algorithm the multi-period stochastic version of the parametric budget problem for the two-echelon production-inventory system is solved.

A mathematical and statistical study of the supply operations at a typical Air Force base is made. The objective of the study is to determine the effect upon support cost of different logistics policies, involving changes in safety level and requisitioning frequency. This effect is found to vary according to the price and demand rate of the item being considered, and the study indicates that large monetary savings can be realized by adopting different stocking and requisitioning policies dependent upon item demand and price. Thus, the study indicates that it is more economical to have items costing under $10 requisitioned from the depot every three or six months, rather than every month, even if obsolescence charges on base stocks are as high as 50 per cent per year. The study has also indicated that standby stockage of cheap (under $10), low demand items is desirable because the cost of such stockage tends to be less than the costs incurred by premium supply action when a demand for such an item arises. (Author)

Urban mobility transport mostly focuses on collective transport based on largely exploited models such as metro, trains or buses. The basis of current public transport is a fix network of both infrastructure and services, presenting a high lack of flexibility, especially regarding geographical issues. Traditional and innovative on-demand transport services, such as taxi and carsharing respectively, can provide the level of flexibility to the public transport needed to provide both a better service while reducing the exploitation costs. In this context, the study aims to improve the efficiency of on-demand transport systems, mainly taxi and carsharing through the development of analytical models and their application to the city of Barcelona. The optimization of the fleet management and the allocation of resources aim to ensure both the level of service of public transport users and the agency's profitability. The decision variables are the fleet size (number of vehicles) as well as the number and capacity of the depots or stands. Two models are presented, one for the provision of taxi stand service and one for the provision of one way carsharing service. Both models are applied to the demand for taxi services of the city of Barcelona, presenting for each model the optimum number of vehicles and depots, the depots’ capacity, the system unitary costs and the level of service. Although the results show that the performance of both systems is very similar, the taxi service is up to three times more expensive due to the extra cost from the need for having a driver.

The transport process is a summary of time and substantive processes that make up the transport chain. The requirement of relocation exists at the beginning of each transport process in passenger transport. Finding the appropriate connection, familiarity with the transport conditions, the purchase of travel documents and their subsequent validation are other activities involving the transport process. One form of validation can be ensured by the responsible employees of the carrier. The second form is a creation of self-service system on the track section. Economic matters of carrier points to disadvantages of validation of the travel documents by train crew in comparison to the tracks where the self-service system is implemented. The paper analyzes the possibilities of validation machine placement for the validation of travel documents, which can be placed at railway stations and stops or in vehicles in low demand areas of railway transport. The paper analyzes the factors that affect the required quantity of validation machines at the railway stations and stops or in railway vehicles, depending on the parameters of railway infrastructure (number of tracks, maximum track speed, number of railway stations and stops on the track and their average mutual distance), railway vehicle fleet (construction of the vehicles, number of doors, transport capacity) and transport technology (time of train sets circulation, transport distance, travel speed, creating timetable). Based on the analysis of these factors, the paper provides the methodology for calculating the quantity of validation machines in railway transport. The methodology is applied to the model.

Solution of the convection-diffusion equations are developed for predicting the bulk deposition velocity and concentration profiles within plant canopies. The calculation scheme is based on an initial value approach; this offers flexibility and accuracy, and has a low demand on the memory requirements of a computer.

Kruse and Kaplan (Kruse, W. K., A. J. Kaplan. 1973. Comments on Simon's two echelon model. Opns. Res. 21 1318–1322.) identified a logical flaw in a paper by Simon (Simon, R. M. 1971. Stationary properties of a two-echelon inventory model for low demand items. Opns. Res. 19 761–773.), which modeled a two-echelon inventory system composed of a number of independent bases using S − 1, S replenishment policies, and a common depot using a more general R, Q type policy.

The demand theory of gene regulation predicts that regulated cell-specific functions in high demand (i.e., high level of gene expression frequently required) are under the influence of a positive regulatory element whereas those in low demand (i.e., high level of gene expression not frequently required) are under the influence of a negative regulatory element. Furthermore, during differentiation, when the demand regimen for cell-specific functions changes, a switch in the regulatory mechanism itself is predicted. For the case in which a function is regulated in both demand regimens, the mode of regulation will switch from positive (high demand) to negative (low demand) or vice versa. These predictions are compared with published experimental evidence and found to be in good agreement.

The roots of this work are from a paper by Richard Simon: (1) Stationary Properties of a Two-Echelon Inventory Model for Low Demand Items (AD- 689 765). A subsequent paper by Kruse and Kaplan; (2) claimed to correct Simon's results, but Kruse; (3) points out that Simon's results are, nevertheless, correct in spite of the apparent logical error in their derivation. He also notes that both Simon's and Kruse and Kaplan's results reduce to a simple and intuitive form. We take a new look at the model in this paper with the intent of providing a more revealing analysis than appears in either (1) or (2). We then show how these 2-echelon results can be extended to model an N-echelon inventory system in a manner similar to the way the METRIC model uses Palm's Theorem to accommodate an indefinite number of echelons.

Blood glucose levels (BGLs) and subjective estimate of stress levels (SESLs) were measured repeatedly in 45 min baseline sessions on three successive days in insulin-dependent diabetic and non-diabetic groups. In the diabetic groups the initial level of BG was twice that of the non-diabetic group and BGLs declined steadily within each session but not across sessions whereas BGLs in the non-diabetic group remained steady both within and across sessions. On two subsequent days half of each group performed a high demand and half a low demand task, BGLs and SESLs being assessed before, during and after the stress period. Stress did not appear to induce significant changes in BGL in any of the groups even though SESL measures indicated that the task appeared stressful to the groups. The implications of these findings for the relationship between stress and increases or decreases in BGL are discussed.

The seemingly paradoxical finding that granular convoluted tubules (GCT) cells of rat submandibular gland possess large stores of secretory protein, yet appear deficient in organelle systems necessary for protein synthesis was investigated by autoradiography. The results show that the protein turnover time of the GCT cells was very slow, in contrast to that seen in the acinar cells. Thus, the limited ability for protein synthesis exhibited by the GCT cells is consistent with a very low demand for their secretory products.

Publisher Summary The occupational structure of marginality in Latin America may be described as low-productivity occupations that utilize obsolete skills and residual production resources, nonproductive occupations that require little or no specialized skills, and occupations in low demand and with unstable labor markets. There are objectively different economic levels in the shantytown. The occupational histories of settlers in Cerrada del Condor indicate that marginals frequently change their occupations within the bounds of marginality. An unskilled laborer may be a construction worker today and a waiter or a carpenter tomorrow. Specialization occurs at the level of maestro, that is, the partially specialized craftsman or freelance worker. There are many economic, educational, organizational, and social barriers against the eventual incorporation of marginals into the urban industrial economy. As a whole, the data on shantytown economy suggest the existence of an economic system that is peculiar to marginality. This system meshes with the urban industrial system as it exists on its waste, inefficiency, and occasional surplus.

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) is a concept for electric utility application which stores energy generated during periods of low demand and releases that energy during peak demand periods. Air is compressed during low demand periods by motor-driven compressors and stored in large underground reservoirs. When power is required, the air is heated by burning fuel in combustion chambers, and expanded in turbines to drive electric generators. CAES technology appears to be one of the most attractive near-term energy storage options for utilities. This is reflected in the currently operating CAES plant in West Germany and the present American CAES technology and demonstration programs.

A review of recent studies reveals that there has yet to be a clear demonstration of a behavioral model affecting hypnotic levels. Two studies were conducted to test whether a peer model who portrayed deep or light hypnosis could affect S hypnotizability under minimal demand conditions. Using a low demand version of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (Shor & E. Orne, 19621, the first study showed a difference (Good Model scoring higher than Poor Model) that only approached significance. A replication on a larger Sample, however, showed significantly higher scores for those Ss observing a good model rather than a poor model. Although base scores were not obtained on these Ss, norms from comparable populations suggest that the poor model seems more effective than the good modek but this difference does not appear attributable to differential attitudes created by the models.

(1) Introduction A number of beds are reserved each day in most hospitals to accommodate emergency cases arriving during the day. Since the number of emergency cases fluctuates considerably from day to day, it is not immediately obvious how many beds should be set aside for this purpose. If all the beds so reserved are filled during the day, any further emergency cases must either be accommodated in extra beds in the centre of a ward, or referred to another hospital. Neither of these expedients can be regarded as fully satisfactory. The former method involves extra duties for hospital staff, and the latter not only causes extra travelling for emergency cases, but also fails to guarantee a bed. In London, for example, where the transfer of applications for beds is very efficiently organized by the King Edward's Hospital Fund Emergency Bed Service, beds are not immediately available for 10 to 15 per cent, of the cases referred to the Service (Daley, 1953). On the other hand, if a large number of emergency beds is provided to satisfy peak demands, many of them will remain empty on days of low demand. As emergency beds can only be reserved at the expense of the beds available for patients on the waiting list, wastage of this kind should be kept as low as possible. The problem thus resolves itself into balancing two opposing factors

We investigate classroom assignments and resulting student work to identify important characteristics of assignments in terms of instructional quality and their validity as measures of teaching quality. We examine assignment quality within a large-scale project exploring multiple measures including classroom observations, teacher knowledge measures, and value-added estimates based on student achievement scores. Analyses included descriptive statistics, multivariate analyses to understand factors contributing to score variance, and correlational analyses exploring the relationship of assignment scores to other measures. Results indicate relatively low demand levels in all teacher assignments, a marked difference in score distributions for mathematics (math) and English language arts (ELA), and a substantial relationship between what was asked of and produced by students. Relationships between assignments scores, classroom characteristics, and other measures of teaching quality are examined for both domains. These findings help us understand the nature of and factors associated with assignment quality in terms of intellectual demand.

This paper examines whether an intra-household externality prevents adoption of a technology with substantial implications for population health and the environment: improved cookstoves. Motivated by a model of intra-household decision-making, the experiment markets stoves to husbands or wives in turn at randomly varying prices. We find that women – who bear disproportionate cooking costs – have stronger preference for healthier stoves, but lack the authority to make purchases. Our findings suggest that if women cannot make independent choices about household resource use, public policy may not be able to exploit gender differences in preferences to promote technology adoption absent broader social change.

This article examines the factors that affect the profits of four airlines in the Philippines. The estimated profit equation indicates that an additional passenger contributes PHP 1,989 to profits, while an additional seat reduces profits by PHP 1,312. The findings indicate that airlines have a strong incentive to fill a seat before departure, justifying the practice of heavy discounting to stimulate passenger traffic during periods of low demand. An additional route reduces profits by PHP 107.736 million, which may indicate that new routes have lower-than-expected passenger traffic. This may also suggest that most profitable routes are already served by at least one airline and entry into existing routes may not be profitable. The 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 2001 terror attacks in the United States, and the most recent global financial crisis, collectively result in PHP 1.391 billion reduction in profits, underscoring the vulnerability of the airline industry to unanticipated events.

Grid system is used by many researchers’ and scholars all over the world to solve the complicated and complex problems in different sciences. Job ranking backfilling is the most used model by many researchers in grid system to improve the performance of job scheduling algorithm. The model aims on serving the smallest job in the queue. As a second improvement of job backfilling, researchers proposed job ranking backfilling that serve job based on ranking equation. This paper proposes an enhance job ranking algorithm based on using linear and logarithmic ranking equations. Both proposed ranking equations used curve estimation model to predict on the variables’ coefficients. By simulation and after different tests, the average results of job ranking backfilling with linear ranking equation outperform conventional job ranking backfilling with improvement equal 3.2% and 56.53% in total execution time and average waiting time, respectively. In addition, job ranking backfilling with logarithmic ranking equation shows average improvement equal 1.78% and 46.62% in total execution time and average waiting time, respectively. The results indicate that the proposed ranking equations would improve conventional job ranking backfilling in high and low demand grid system under different conditions

Cholera, a diarrheal disease primarily affecting vulnerable populations in developing countries, is estimated to cause disease in more than 2.5 million people and kill almost 100,000 annually. An oral cholera vaccine (OCV) has been available globally since 2001; the demand for this vaccine from affected countries has however been very low, due to various factors including vaccine price and mode of administration. The low demand for the vaccine and limited commercial incentives to invest in research and development of vaccines for developing country markets has kept the global supply of OCVs down. Since 1999, the International Vaccine Institute has been committed to make safe, effective and affordable OCVs accessible. Through a variety of partnerships with collaborators in Sweden, Vietnam, India and South Korea, and with public and private funding, IVI facilitated development and production of two affordable and WHO-prequalified OCVs and together with other stakeholders accelerated the introduction of these vaccines for the global public-sector market.

We consider a leader-follower game with output quantities as strategies, so as to demonstrate the reduced advantages of the Stackleberg leader in a stochastic environment with private information. At the equilibrium, the strategy of the leader reveals to the follower information about the demand. In an attempt to signal low demand, the leader contracts his output. Nevertheless, unless the leader's information is infinitely noisy, the follower can always correctly infer his signal. We find a wide range of parameter values over which the follower is better off compared to the leader.

Arrangements which must be made for starting reversible pumped-storage plant in the pumping mode are reviewed, and the alternative starting methods are discussed. It is necessary to study the starting process in detail, together with the effect this has on the power system, because of the capacity of large pumped-storage plant, with the requirement that the machines be started during periods of low demand. The method chosen must be technically sound, reliable and economic. Two starting methods are considered in detail: asynchronous starting and synchronous starting. Disturbances imposed on the power system by the starting process are particularly important in asynchronous starting. The method discussed is related principally to the Korndorfer procedure. The effect on starting performance of varying the system constraints, together with the effect of other criteria, is examined. Theoretical predictions are compared in specific cases with test results obtained on conventional hydroelectric plant relating to both asynchronous and synchronous starting, to verify the representation employed. Typical theoretical results relating to 2 × 150MW and 4 × 300MW schemes are given.