Further results for the double ended queue

Summary For the double ended queue involving taxis and customers at a taxi-stand (Kashyap, 1965 a; b) the probabilities that (i) only taxis are waiting and (ii) only customers are waiting have been investigated by the use of Laplace transform. The L.T.s of the mean queue lengths of taxis and of customers are also obtained. The arrivals of taxis and customers are taken as general and Poisson respectively. The supplementary variable technique (Syski, 1960) has been used.     

BOUNTIES FOR FERTILIZERS

Bounty payments on fertilizers have rapidly emerged as a major form of assistance to Australian agriculture. They have been justified as a way of reducing costs and increasing productivity, though economic theory and experience from agricultural production studies suggest that they achieve these objectives inefficiently. The bounties are directed towards making acres more productive, which should in turn make farmers more productive. It is suggested that greater economic welfare would result from tackling the problem the other way round.     

Technological Forecasting: Who does it and how useful is it?

This article reports on the results of a survey undertaken to estimate the extent of use of Technological Forecasting (TF) in U.S. industry. The results demonstrate that more firms use TF than eight years ago, and the perception of its importance has increased greatly. The emphasis on TF, the range of time horizons for the forecasts and the use to which TF is put differ according to the nature of the industry and the organizational level within the firm. Based on these results, the characteristics of firms that find TF crucial to their business, and those that find TF unimportant, are developed.     

INFLUENCE OF DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS ON CONSUMER PURCHASING PATTERNS AND PREFERENCES FOR GROUND BEEF

A study of 198 household units in the Fort Collins, CO area was made to ascertain the importance of such factors as consumer age, income, education and marital status on the purchasing patterns for ground beef. Compared to younger consumers, older consumers tended to: (1) make more frequent purchases of ground beef; (2) buy less ground beef per purchase; and (3) select leaner ground beef. Households with gross incomes in excess of $25,000 tended to buy larger quantities of ground beef per purchase and bought leaner ground beef compared to households with less than $15,000 gross income. In making purchasing decisions, participants in the study considered leanness, visual appearance and price as the most important factors, while packaging and brand name were considered the least important factors.