The Role of Micro-simulation in Intelligent Transportation Assignment

The Role of Micro-simulation in Intelligent Transportation - Assignment Example Base case is usually used to cover and acts as the irreducible minimum for all the dynamics that may occur or accrue ion the course of the actualization of the project. For instance, there are chances that the communications lines along the simulated road models would be erected are. Thus, the base case is critical and beneficial because it would bear in mind the structural changes that are highly likely to be pursued in the due course of time (Khan, Armstrong, & Munir, 2006). Similarly, base case is also techniques that cover in and factors all the things and issues that are considered as eventualities in human life and aspect such as an accident.Why Adding New Capacity on Highway 417 is Ineffective This stems from the fact that highway 417 was expanded from a four lane to a six lane Highway and road network. This was done and factored in due to the comparison that was done and completed on the chances of expanding it relative to the traditional building capacity projects. For insta nce, during the simulation, it was postulated that an accident in this Highway may lead to a closure for close to twenty minutes before the spill heavy traffic spills over to the other lanes. This adds new capacity to highway 417 may to be as effective.Comparing the Effectiveness of Freeway-arterial Integrated Corridors and Ramp MasteringRamp metering seems to be more effective as compared to the free-arterial integrated corridors due to the fact that the former may be most effective over a short period of time.

Information Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Information Systems - Essay Example The CDMS is not only required to manage these activities but also required to provide decision support to Chief Executive. Moreover, it will serve as the first impression for the client at web. By building a web interface we mean, building a web enabled application. At application level we have to build various forms and reports in web page format. In our case we will make web pages in dotnet using C# at backend and ASP.net as the front end language. Our database in SQL Server 2000 will be connect be connected to our application through a connection object in application. We will be build web pages for the employees of the company; these pages will only be accessible through authorized login in to the application. SSL will be implemented to ensure the security of the information while accessing the application from web. However, clients of the company can access various informational pages without establish and secure channel and login. The level of user input will be kept to an absolute minimum in order to avoid typo errors from the user. Wherever possible, user input shall be facilitated with components that reduce possibilities of input-errors. CDMS is a mini Web Application on donNet platform. The application is designed for a small Computer Dealer and business requirement for big organizations are not catered for in this document. The database design is kept as simple as possible to avoid complexity. However, it provides all basic functionalities required for the implementation of a mini web application. SQL queries are provided only for example purposes and are not test over SQL Server 2000, which is the proposed database server for the application. Only few important functional requirements of the system are enlisted for the purpose of conciseness, however the design of the system can support many other functionalities which can be implemented while actual development of the system. This design

Reaction Paperon Overthrow by Stephen Kinzer Essay

Reaction Paperon Overthrow by Stephen Kinzer - Essay Example The second part involves overthrows that were because of covert actions. During this time, the world’s big countries were involved in a cold war. Kinzer argues that the reasons for the overthrows were mainly to assist anti-colonial elements in some of the affected countries, make changes in the democratic system, and to protect the U.S. security. However, the principal objectives of carrying out the overthrows were to establish U.S. business that acts as desired as stipulated. The U.S. also had in mind the ambition to expand and access needed resources necessary for the expansion. The need to obtain new markets and strengthen the U.S. economy at the expense of its competitors also contributed to this. In part one of the Overthrow, the U.S. carried out the overthrows with the purpose of protecting its citizens and companies operating in these affected countries. For example, the Nicaraguan president was overthrown because he compromised the American security and did not promote democratic principles. The then president of the U.S. ordered the Nicaraguan president to be overthrown with the idea of defending the right of American companies to operate as they wished in Nicaragua. The same case applied to Hawaii, the government was overthrown to help American companies get access to the sugar plantations. This was an opportunity to invest in those plantations for the benefit of the Americans. When the U.S. joined hands with the rebels in Cuba to fight the Spanish rule, they did not realize that the U.S. was doing this to help itself. Immediately after the government was overthrown, the U.S was given the right to maintain military bases in Cuba. The U.S. government gave Cubans permissi on to rule themselves as long it had to be consulted before Cuba made any decision. During this Imperial period, the U.S. government also overthrew the Puerto Rico government. Puerto Rico was under the Spanish rule and the U.S. was not happy about this. Kinzer urges

The Strategies to achieve competitive positions

The Strategies to achieve competitive positions Choose one of the four competitive positions mentioned in the strategy lecture and discuss, using examples, the marketing strategies an organisation would employ to achieve that position. Competitive strategies are chosen by firms depending on their roles in the market leader, challenger, follower or nicher. This essay will focus on firms who are market leaders and what marketing strategies are used to help them achieve that position. Every industry has its own market leader. Kotler, P. (2005) believes the market leader is one that has the largest market share or highest profitability margin in a given market for goods and services. Market leader often leads other firms in product innovation, price changes; distribution channels and promotion strategies. Good examples of market leaders would be Apple with their ranges of IPod, touch phones and tablet computer, Google with its search engine, social networking Facebook and Tesco (supermarket chains). Market leadership is extremely important. Almost every firm wants to be the first in the market. The reason is not only the revenue but it is because most customers prefer to buy from leaders. They perceive leaders to be better and they perceive leaders to be a safer purchase. Reference groups are great in influencing consumers behaviour. People tend to buy from where everyone else buys, this helps strengthening the leaders position. To become a market leader, a firm needs to own and control the relevant technology in whatever market it is in either through the use of patent or other proprietary protections. Moreover, it needs to adopt and implement better technologies directly, whenever they become available, regardless of whether or not any other organisations are currently using them. It is critical to be the first to use a technology or create a category for a product. Then make it an industry standard. Baines, P., Fill, C. Page, K. (2008) defined the two main strategies used by firms to achieve market leadership position are: Attack the market Defend the position Apart from expanding the total demand and protecting market share, the market leaders should try to expanding market share, even if market size remains constant (Kotler Gary, 2005). Forth strategy is proposed by Brassington, F Pettitt, S. (2006) who believed that companies should also seek stability and retention of customer base. In this essay, the four strategies will be analysed with appropriate examples of firms that applied those strategies successfully and firms that failed during competition. Attack the market Attack the market can be operated in different ways. The firms can create new uses, new consumers categories or increase frequency of use. This strategy is extremely popular as the dominant firm normally gains the most when the total market expands. In general, the market leader should look for new customers or more usage from existing customers. Every product has the potential of attracting buyers who are unaware of the product or who are still under consideration because of price or the products do not have some certain features. A company can search for new users among three groups: those who might use it but do not (market-penetration strategy), those who have never used it (new-market segment strategy), or those who live elsewhere (geographical-expansion strategy). Example: Johnson Johnson baby shampoo was losing market share due to birth rate declining, they had expand their customers segmentation, targeting adults which helped them regain their leader position. (New user) Kelloggs Crunchy Nut has expanded their ranges and introduced snack bars which increase frequency of use, relatively increase sales of the product. Defend the position/Protect market share The leader must constantly monitor the market because the market challenger is persistently trying to take away market share or worse, to replace the leaders position in the market. The firms can defend their positions in the market and their market share by monitoring their position, regular innovation; eliminate any weaknesses, price cutting and discount, increases promotion. Defend the position in the market is a difficult task for market leaders since they may be under attack from numbers of different competitors small to medium firms in the existing market or big players want to expand from a completely different industry. Although defence strategies may require a deployment of resources to defend different parts of the operation, it is hard of a challenger brand to dislodge a market leader if the market leader is actively defending territory. There are six different ways in defense strategy which are: Position defense (purely defensive is not enough, firms must take offensive counter-measure). It is considered as the least successful in the defense strategies. This defense was use by Mercedes until Toyota launched a frontal attack with its Lexus. Mobile defense (more than aggressively defend, stretches domain over new territories) E.g.: Legend Holdings, the top China PC maker Legend has announced a joint venture with AOL to broaden its business to provide Internet services in the mainland. Flanking defense (guarding territory is not enough, firms must create outposts/flanks to protect weak front and invasion base for counter attack) E.g. Gold Eagle is a flanking brand introduced by San Miguel in the Philippines as a defense against APBs Beerhausen. Contraction defense (strategic withdrawal: give up weak territories, concentrates strength and resources at more dependable areas). The market leader must make its own assessment to prioritise the importance of territories and should be willing to relinquish those that are not important to defend for those that are. E.g. Indias TATA Group sold its soaps and detergents business units to Unilever in 1993 or Ford retired T-birds and Probe to focus on Contour and Taurus. Pre-emptive defense (Detect potential attacks and attack the enemies first) Seiko with 2,300 watch models is considered as a successful example for this category while Heinz proved failure as they did not respond to Hunts attack which leaded to Hunt established a rival brand. Counter-offensive defense (Respond to competitors head-on attack by identifying the attackers weakness and then launch a counter attack) E.g. Toyota launched the Lexus to respond to Mercedes attack. Continuous innovation is considered as the best way to protect market share and is required for long-term leadership. When leaders become self-satisfied with their products or services, it becomes easier for the challenger to make progress. In large markets, small increases in market share can turn into great sales increases; a one-point gain in market share can be worth hundreds of millions of pounds. However not every firm understands the importance of continuous innovative process and often failed in retaining their positions in the market. Companies are hindered from investing and following through with innovation because they fear cannibalising established products (Tellis Golder, 1996). In order to protect mainframe sales, IBM obstructed its development of minicomputers and workstations while competitors kept making inroads into the mainframe market. Another reason why companies are less worried about innovation is that they are satisfied with their progress. Yahoo was satisfied with its social networking Yahoo 360Â  [1]Â  until the company started to lose market share to Facebook and Friendster in Asia. Thirdly, large bureaucracies can discourage innovations or slow the progress when companies bring new products to market. GM and IBM are well-known examples for this problem. Despite their technological strength and financial resources, both companies were slow to bring out new products because of their bureaucratic approval process. Firms that do well in continuous innovation are Apple, Procter Gamble. Apple was certainly not the first manufacturer to MP3 players but its iPod was totally different to anything else on the market at the time of its release. Apple has a large range of IPod from IPod shuffle, IPod Nano with stylish shapes or IPod classic for music lovers as they can hold a great number of files and IPod touch for multifunctional uses. The firm also introduced to its customers a range of IPhone from 2G-3GS and promising the new version of IPhone (IPhone 5) in 2011. Procter Gamble the worlds largest consumer products company- takes innovation seriously which shown in their heavily investment in innovative process. They outspend competition in Research and Development believing if they provide branded products of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the worlds consumers, consumers will reward them with leadership sales, profit and value creations. They are well-known for their open innovation outlook. As not all brilliant ideas are coming from internal, it is critically for firms to seek new ideas, innovations from outside. PG has introduced three different networks in which they encouraged their employees to interact with outside world or link different companies in different part of the world working towards a same goal. By doing this, they have received exceptional amount of new ideas, innovative products to increase sales and market share in consumers market. Expand market share Expand market share can gain great profits for the company but there is a drawback. Too many customers can put a strain on the firms resources, hurting product value and service delivery. Example: America Online experienced growing pains when its customer base expanded, resulting in system outages and access problems (Kotler Keller, 2006). Consumers may also infer that bigger is not better and assume that growth will lead to a deterioration of quality. If exclusivity is a key brand benefit, existing customer may resent additional new customers. (Kotler Keller, 2006) This strategy can be operated via the marketing mix. However this strategy can provoke antitrust action or anti-dumping charge. Vietnamese rice export market has received multiple charges on dumping issues in European market trying to gain more market share in short period of time. Economic cost such as legal costs needs to be taking in consideration. Wrong marketing mix strategy is also one of the problems firms face when expanding market share (for example: focus on unattractive segments). Successful example of firm in expanding market share is Starbucks. The company plans to continue to rapidly expand its retail operations, grow its specialty sales and other operations, and selectively pursue opportunities to leverage the Starbucks brand through the introduction of new products and the development of new distribution channels. Seek stability and retention of customer base Tesco is a great example for applying this strategy. They try to retain customers loyal via promotion and Club card which customers can save as they shop and spend the points on various products. Tesco seeks stability, it competes on prices with rivals such as Sainsburys and Asda, although it also focuses on customer service, how to deliver good service with reasonable price to the customers. It is important that leader firms understand their strengths and weaknesses, also have a clear view of their competitors in the market. Choosing the right defense strategy is critical in order to retain their position as leaders and continue to expand the total market and market share, as well as profitability. Market leaders should take innovation seriously in order to stay in the leading position.

Criminological Theories Essay -- Legal Issues, Crime

Many of the traditional criminological theories focused more on biological, psychological and sociological explanations of crime rather than on the cost and benefits of crime. More conservative approaches, including routine actives, lifestyle exposure and opportunity theories have clearly incorporated crime rate patterns as a fundamental part of analyzing the economics of crime. Crime statistics are important for the simple reason that they help put theories into a logical perspective. For example, a prospective home owner may want to look at crime rates in areas of potential occupancy. On a more complex level, it helps law enforcement and legislators create effective crime reduction programs. Furthermore, it also helps these agencies determine if crime prevention programs, that have been in effect, have been successful. There are many factors that influence the rates of crime including socio economic status, geographical location, culture and other lifestyle factors. More specifical ly, Messner and Blau (1987) used routine activities theory to test the relationship between the indicators of leisure activities and the rate of serious crimes. They discussed two types of leisure actives, the first being a household pastime, which primarily focused on television watching. The second type was a non-household leisure event which was consisted of attendance to sporting events, cinemas, and entertainment districts. The focus of this paper will be to study the effects that substantial amounts of leisure activities have on the offender and the victim. Leisure activities not only make a crime more opportunistic for offenders, it may also provide offenders with motivation to engage in criminal activity. On the other hand, it may also be argue... ... such as walking in well lit areas, abstaining from areas know as â€Å"hot spots†, and letting someone know your whereabouts, are suggested. Also, these individuals should be aware of the risks that come with certain types of activities. In conjunction to awareness, individuals should be involved in family leisure activities so that their idle hands do not become the devils workshop. Parents provide the primary foundation in the children’s socialization; if this process is not effective or neglected the result could be detrimental. It may lead children to transition into adulthood without the fundamental skills that prevent the development of a criminal disposition. Now that routine activities theory has created a clear understanding of the economics of crime, let’s focus our research on which parenting methods could prevent criminality or crime before if ever develops.

The Secret of Ella and Micha Chapter 19

Ella The next day is lighter somehow, like I've been buried in the sand and someone has finally dug me out. Micha seems happier too, although I can tell he's still hurting, so I work on keeping his mind distracted. â€Å"So what did you do to it?† I ask Micha as I circle the back end of his car with my hands on my hips, taking in the scratches and dings in the black paint, which look worse in the sunlight. â€Å"I took it for a very intense joy ride.† A lazy grin stretches across his face as he puts his head beneath the hood to examine the engine. I plant my butt on the edge where he's working and cross my leg over my knee. â€Å"At least tell me you won? And that the scratches and dings were totally worth it.† â€Å"Of course. They're always worth it,† he says with a hidden meaning that only the two of us could ever understand. Gripping the edge, I lean back over the engine and give him a peck on the cheek. He grins, tosses a greasy rag onto the ground, and pinches my ass. A squeak comes out of my mouth as I jump from the pinch and fall toward the engine. Pushing myself back up, I get grease all over my arms and backside. I hop off the hood, trying to clean the grease off with my hands, but it's only making a bigger mess. Micha laughs at me as he retrieves a new tool box from the top shelf. â€Å"That's a good look for you.† I stick out my tongue and turn to leave. â€Å"Where are you going?† he asks. I hold up my greasy hands. â€Å"Thanks to you, I have to go take a shower and wash my clothes.† A wicked look dances in his eyes. â€Å"I have grease all over me to. I think I may need to come in there with you.† My stomach flips thinking about last night. I keep backing up toward my house with my eyes on him. â€Å"I'll tell you what. If you can catch me, you can shower with me.† His eyes scroll my body as he sucks his lip ring in between his teeth. â€Å"Is that a challenge, pretty girl?† I try not to smile as I exit the garage into the sunlight, but it's too much and my lips turn upward. I take off toward my house and his footsteps head after me. I jump the fence gracefully, but by the time I reach the back door, his arms are circling my waist. He spins me around and picks me up effortlessly. Hooking my legs around his waist, he opens the door and gets us into the kitchen. He glances around the room and cocks an eyebrow. â€Å"Is Lila here?† I shake my head slowly. â€Å"She's with Ethan.† â€Å"What about your dad?† â€Å"He went to work.† His aqua eyes darken and I can't help but kiss him. I feel him walking, traveling somewhere as our tongues entwine together. I run my fingers through his hair grabbing onto as much of him as possible, shutting my fear away and basking in the moment. Without breaking his lips away from mine, he carries me into the downstairs bathroom. When I hear the shower water turn on, I pull my lips away from his. Before I can ask what he's doing, he sets me down underneath the warm water. I let out a scream as my clothes are drenched. â€Å"See, this way you're washing your clothes and taking a shower at the same time.† He grins and tips the showerhead down so it hits more of me. I seize the front of his T-shirt and yank him forward, so he stumbles into the running water. He braces his hands on the walls, and water sprays over his hair and drips down his face. I smile at him innocently and allow the water to stream down my body. â€Å"Now you're all clean too.† He shakes his head, then shoves away from the wall and jumps all the way into the shower with me. He shuts the curtain and seals us inside the steam. His jeans and T-shirt are sopping wet and beads of water drip into his eyes. I run my hand across his forehead over a spot of grease and then through his hair. He aims the shower head down on me and I tip my head back into the flow. He combs his fingers through my hair sensually and his other hand comes down on the wall behind me as he gathers some of my hair into his hand. Pulling at the roots, he leads me toward him for a deep, watery kiss. Steam surrounds us and makes the passion inside my body ignite. Panic starts screaming inside my head, but I tell it to shut up and suck the water off his lips as I find the bottom of his shirt to lift it over his head. He pulls back and helps me out, slipping it off and tossing it to the side, instantly reuniting his lips with mine. My fingers trace along the lines of his muscles and the pattern of the tattoo on his rib cage; the lyrics to the first song he ever wrote. His hands explore my hips, my waist, then up my shirt. Finally, I just take it off for him and then he unhooks my bra. Our bare chests crash together as we continue to kiss underneath the hot water. Minutes later, the rest of our clothes are in a pile by our feet and I can hardly think straight. The way he touches me, kisses me – nothing has ever felt like this before. He sucks on my breast and licks the water off my skin on my bare stomach, continuing to go down until his tongue finds the right spot. I fall back against the wall as a scream claws up my throat and I lose total control over my body. This time I don't mind. Micha After Ella comes apart, I turn the water off and grab a towel off the hook. She raises her arms above her head, keeping her eyes on me as I wrap the towel around her. â€Å"What?† I ask her, because I can tell she's thinking deeply about something. â€Å"Nothing.† She shrugs casually, but her cheeks turn a little pink. â€Å"It's just that if I would have known all along that it felt that good, I probably wouldn't have fought it so hard.† â€Å"Well, I'm glad you think I'm that good,† I tease her snatching another towel and tying it around my waist. She nibbles on her lip apprehensively as she crosses her arms and rests back against the wall. â€Å"Alright, pretty girl,† I demand. â€Å"What are you thinking about?† She lets her lip pop free. â€Å"It just doesn't seem fair that I'm the one that gets to have all the fun.† I try not to get too excited, because let's face it, she's a runner. â€Å"I'm sure I'll have plenty of fun by myself later.† She reaches forward hesitantly and yanks the towel off my waist. â€Å"That was smooth,† I say, gripping the edge of the counter, fighting to stay calm. Her eyes travel over my body. â€Å"I learned from the best.† She runs her fingers softly along my swollen cock, making me harder than I already am. â€Å"Fuck, Ella,† I say, leaning back against the door and letting go. Ella I have no idea what the hell came over me and I'm not going to over analyze it. I can finally breathe again and that's all that matters. Letting things take their course might be exactly what we both need. Micha wraps a towel around his waist looking happier than I've ever seen him. He kisses me, sucking my bottom lip gently into his mouth, before pulling away and staring into my eyes. â€Å"You're so beautiful.† Smiling, I stare down at our wet clothes balled up in the corner. â€Å"Now what do we do?† He licks his lips and braces his hands on the wall, trapping my head between his arms. â€Å"We could do it again.† I swat his chest, pretending that he's being silly, even though I do want to do it again. â€Å"I mean how do we get out of here? Our clothes are soaking wet and I'm not putting mine back on.† He shrugs and leans away. â€Å"No one's home so keep the towel on you and run upstairs.† I eye over his lean chest. â€Å"Yeah, but what about you?† â€Å"You can go get me some clothes after you get dressed†¦ if you want to.† His lips tug into a flirty grin. I start to say something, but the back door slams shut and Lila and Ethan's voices float from the kitchen. â€Å"Well, there goes that plan,† Micha says with laughter in his tone. I tighten the towel around me and we wait for them to leave, but after a while, it's clear they're not going anywhere. â€Å"I'll go out there,† Micha says and heads for the door. I pull him back by the arm. â€Å"You're in a towel.† â€Å"Obviously.† â€Å"But they'll see you and know something was up.† He cocks his head to the side, his eyes scrutinizing me. â€Å"Is that a bad thing?† I hug my arms around myself. â€Å"No, it's just that†¦ what are we going to tell them we were doing?† â€Å"I'm sure they'll figure it out,† he says. â€Å"Why is this upsetting you?† â€Å"It's not,† I reply, deciding to just be honest. â€Å"It's just that†¦ this is like the realest thing I've had in a long time and it scares me a bit.† He tucks a strand of my damp hair out of my eyes. â€Å"I know it does, but you'll be okay – we'll be okay.† I nod quickly and then move away from the wall, straightening my shoulders. â€Å"Are you coming back after you change?† He plants a kiss on my forehead. â€Å"Where else would I go?† I move out of his way and he walks out the door in his towel, like he's not embarrassed at all. He leaves the door cracked behind him and seconds later I hear the sound of Lila's shocked voice followed by the laughter of Ethan. A few seconds later footsteps head my way. â€Å"Oh Ella,† Lila says through the crack in the door. â€Å"Can I come in?† Holding the towel on, I open the door about half way. â€Å"Could you go get me some clothes, please? Mine are soaking wet.† She covers her mouth, stifling her laughter. â€Å"Sure. I'll be right back.† She comes back with a pair of red shorts and a grey tank top. I get dressed and we meet Micha and Ethan out in the garage. Micha's wearing a pair of loose fitted jeans and his favorite Pink Floyd t-shirt, and he tries not to smirk when he sees me, but Ethan doesn't hold back. â€Å"Have fun this morning?† he asks me and I punch him in the arm. â€Å"Ow,† he fakes hurt and then glances down at the engine. â€Å"Dude, you ripped this thing to shit. What the fuck did you do to it?† â€Å"I took it down to Taylor Bay and drag raced it,† he says with a shrug. â€Å"I guess I pushed it too hard.† â€Å"Then where'd the dents come from?† I question, peering underneath the hood. â€Å"I had an unfortunate run in with another car,† he says, with a twinkle in his eye as he captures my gaze. â€Å"But I still won.† Ethan sighs and slams the hood shut. â€Å"Get in and we'll take it to the shop.† We pile into the car and Micha drives it up on the grass to maneuver it around Ethan's truck parked in the center of the driveway. We drive down the road toward the shop holding hands over the console, listening to Lila and Ethan chat about their day, something so simple, but so meaningful. When Micha pauses at a stop sign, Mikey's cherry red Camaro rolls up to the side of us. He points at Micha's car and then one of his friends mockingly waves. â€Å"Fucking asshole,† Ethan mutters from the backseat. I roll down the window. â€Å"Is there a problem?† Mikey laughs and aims a finger at the hood. â€Å"What'd ya do to that poor thing? It sounds like it's dying.† â€Å"It sounds a lot better than your piece of shit car on a good day,† I retort, sitting up and sticking my head out the window. â€Å"Ella,† Lila says from the backseat, shocked. â€Å"Let her go,† Ethan says. â€Å"She's very entertaining when she gets this way.† Mikey's greasy black hair shines in the sun as he pokes his head out of the car. â€Å"You can keep talking, but it ain't going to do no good since you're both too chicken shit to race me. You guys proved that at the last race.† â€Å"Only because your small size was unimpressive,† I say with an innocent bat of my eyelashes. That pisses him off. He jumps out of the car and Micha pulls me back in and leans over the console, resting an arm around my shoulder protectively, knowing that Mikey's the kind of guy that would hit a girl. Mikey glances up the street before crouching down next to the door. â€Å"If you two think you're so tough then prove it,† he says with a venomous tone. â€Å"The Back Road, nine o'clock.† â€Å"I'm pretty sure she already explained to you that your car isn't worth our time,† Micha says evenly. â€Å"So back the fuck off and get back in your car.† â€Å"The Back Road, nine o'clock,† he repeats slowly before backing away and climbing into his car. â€Å"And I'm sure with the noises your car's making, it should be a pretty fair race.† He revs his engine, proving something, before speeding off through the intersection, leaving tire marks on the asphalt. â€Å"What a jerk,† Lila says from the backseat. â€Å"Getting in your face like that – who does that?† I turn to Micha with a guilty face. â€Å"I'm sorry.† He delicately sketches his finger along my lips and sighs. â€Å"It's okay. We'll figure something out†¦ Besides you can make it up to me later.† â€Å"We can't fix your car that fast, man.† Ethan leans over the console, shoving the sleeves of his black shirt up to his elbows, revealing several tattoos on his arms. â€Å"It's nowhere close to being in racing condition.† â€Å"I know,† Micha replies and starts driving again. â€Å"I guess we'll just have to go in there blind.† â€Å"It could fall apart if you push it too hard,† Ethan cautions. â€Å"Then you'd be back to square one with it.† â€Å"Wait a minute.† Lila holds up her hands in front of her. â€Å"You guys aren't seriously going to race him, are you?† â€Å"We have to,† Ethan and Micha say at the same time. Lila glances at me for an explanation. â€Å"Why?† Ethan slumps back in the seat and brings his knee up as he turns to Lila. â€Å"It's how things work around here. If we don't, then we'll get hounded for it for the rest of our lives.† â€Å"Okay†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Lila says jolting in the seat as the car hits a pothole. â€Å"What's wrong with that?† Ethan rifles for a way to explain it to her, brushing his dark hair out of his eyes. â€Å"It'd be like getting picked on every day in school by everyone in the school.† Lila tucks her hands under her legs. â€Å"That doesn't sound very fun.† â€Å"Exactly, so you can understand why we have to race.† He folds his arms and directs his attention back to Micha. â€Å"Go to the shop, man and we'll see what we can get fixed before it's time to go.†

Julia’s Food Booth

(A) Formulate and solve an LP model for this case The objective here is to maximize the profit. Profit is calculated for each variable by subtracting cost from the selling price. The decision variables used are X1 for pizza slices, X2 for hotdog, and X3 for BBQ sandwich.X1 (pizza) X2 (hotdog) X3 (sandwich) Sales Price 1.50 1.50 2.25 Cost 0.75 0.45 0.90 Profit 0.75 1.05 1.35*For Pizza Slice: Cost/Slice = $6/8 = $0.75 cost per slice Maximize Z = 0.75 X1 + 1.05 X2 + 1.35 X3 Constraints: Budget: 0.75X1 + 0.45X2 + 0.90X3 ≠¤ 1500 Oven Space: 24X1 + 16X2 + 25X3 ≠¤ 55,296 in2 The calculation for the oven space is as follows: Pizza slice total space required for a 14 * 14 pizza = 196 in2. Since there are eight slices, we divide 196 by eight, and this gives us approx. 24 in2 per slice. The total dimension of the oven is the dimension of the oven shelf, 36 in * 48 in = 1728 in2, multiplied by 16 shelves = 27,648 in2,  which is multiplied by 2, before kickoff and during the halftime, giving a total space of 55,296 in 2.(B) Evaluate the prospect of borrowing money before the first game. The shadow price or dual value is $1.50 for each additional dollar Julia would increase her profit, if she borrows some money. However, the upper limit of the sensitivity range is $1,658.88, so she should only borrow $158.77 and her additional profit would be $238.32 or a total profit of $2488.32.(C) Evaluate the prospect of paying a friend $100/game to assist. Yes, she should hire her friend for $100/game for it is almost impossible for her to prepare all the food in such a short time. In order for Julia to prepare the hotdogs and barbeque sandwiches she would need the additional help. With Julia being able to borrow the extra $158.88 she would be able to pay her friend.(D) Analyze the impact of uncertainties on the model.The impact of uncertainties such as weather (to sunny, rainy, or cold), competition, increase in food cost, and the attendance at each of the six games could r educe the demand for the items sold by Julia. If it is raining or cold then there may not be as many patrons at the games and if it is to hot people may not want to eat before or during the games. The higher the uncertainties the demand shifts, therefore the solution of the LP model will change and so does her profit. She will not be able to produce a $1000 profit under high uncertainty.