Estimating household purchase rates for consumer nondurable goods

Understanding the purchase rates of households for frequently purchased packaged goods is an important element in developing effective marketing strategies. Previous researchers have attempted to estimate these rates by assuming that the time between purchases is a random variable that follows some common parametric probability distribution such as the exponential or Weibull distribution. Recent research has shown that for many frequently purchased packaged goods, the interpurchase times cannot be adequately described by these commonly used probability distributions. In this study we demonstrate how household purchase rates can be estimated in a robust manner using a generalized semiparametric approach that obviates the need for specifying a parametric form for the distribution of interpurchase times. The motivation being that often there is no theory of household purchase behaviour that specifies a priori the probability distribution underlying the interpurchase times. Our empirical results indicate that, for the data analysed, the household purchase rates exhibit a regular pattern that cannot be recovered by probability distributions often used in previous research. Further, marketing actions taken by sellers do indeed influence household purchase behaviour.     

Temporal Instability of Acoustic Wave in a Semiconductor Plasma Medium under Momentum Mismatched Condition

Physics of the Solid State - Temporal instability of acoustic wave is investigated in an infinite semiconductor plasma using classical hydrodynamic approach. We consider a homogeneous semiconductor...     

Numerical analysis for bulk-arrival queueing systems: Root-finding and steady-state probabilities inGI r /M/1 queues

Queueing theorists have presented, as solutions to many queueing models, probability generating functions in which state probabilities are expressed as functions of the roots of characteristic equations, evaluation of the roots in particular cases being left to the reader. Many users have complained that such solutions are inadequate. Some queueing theorists, in particular Neuts [6], rather than use Rouché's theorem to count roots and an equation-solver to find them, have developed new algorithms to solve queueing problems numerically, without explicit calculation of roots. Powell [7] has shown that in many bulk service queues arising in transportation models, characteristic equations can be solved and state probabilities can be found without serious difficulty, even when the number of roots to be found is large. We have slightly modified Powell's method, and have extended his work to cover a number of bulk-service queues discussed by Chaudhry et al. [1] and a number of bulk-arrival queues discussed in the present paper.     

Focusing effects in the synthetic aperture radar imaging of ocean waves

We derive the properties of the image obtained for an ocean wave whose cross-section may be given byσ _w(x,y,y) and surface profile byh(x,y,t).σ _w andh are functions representing the wave phenomena, but whose exact properties are determined by the ocean wave surface properties, for an ocean wavelength ofλ _w, heightH, and orbital frequency ω. We calculate the effect of defocusing of the wave image due to its temporal motion, and derive both the resolution of the radar system if no focus compensation is provided in the processor and the necessary distance the azimuth telescope has to be moved to provide diffraction-limited imaging. We illustrate these results for data taken by the JPL synthetic aperture radar over Hurricane Gloria on September 30, 1976, and the ERIM radar over Marineland, Florida, on December 15, 1975. This paper presents the results of one phase of research carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under Contract NAS 7-100, sponsored by the special programs office and the Seesat program office under Mr. F.C. Williams and Mr. S.W. McCandless of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.     

Lattice instability in Hf1-x Ta x V2 compounds

The temperature dependence of the electric quadrupole interaction frequency _l ^o , experienced by the¹⁸¹Ta probe occupying Hf site in the compounds Hf_1-xTa_xV₂ has been measured for x=0.06, 0.10 and 0.20 in the temperature region between 8.5 K to 296 K. The measurements show lattice transformation in all the three compounds below 120 K.     

High energy muon-nucleon inelastic scattering at lowq 2

The inelastic interactions of 150 GeV positive muons produced at Fermi Laboratory have been studied in nuclear emulsion. Secondary particles produced in these interactions have been identified, the energy spectra and angular distributions for pions and protons are given. The inclusive pionproduction reaction is studied and the relative shape ofp _t ² distribution is discussed. The average charged multiplicity relations are determined as a function of different parameters and are compared with the multiplicities produced in pure hadronic interactions. The integral cross sections have been measured and are compared with the first and second powers of 1/(1+q ²/m _p ² ) forσ _exp(q ²,v), the quantity commonly called the “virtualphoton-nucleon total cross section”. The values of the structure function νW ₂ are calculated for 0.02≤q ²≤0.5. The present data are compared with other muon data at the same energy.     

Dielectric behaviour of alkaline earth oxides and sulphides

Dielectric behaviour of MgO, CaO, SrO, BaO, SrS and BaS has been studied on the basis of the shell model and the exchange charge shell model. Values of polarizabilities and effective charge parameter calculated from the two models are compared with experimental data.     

Hadron production near threshold

Final state interaction effects inpp→ pΛK ⁺ andpd →³Heη reactions are explored near threshold to study the sensitivity of the cross-sections to thepΛ potential and theηN scattering matrix. The final state scattering wave functions between Λ andp andη and³He are described rigorously. The Λ production is described by the exchange of one pion and aK-meson between two protons in the incident channel. Theη production is described by a two-step model, where in the first step a pion is produced. This pion then produces anη by interacting with another nucleon     

Bianchi type I inflationary universe in general relativity

In this paper, we have investigated Bianchi type I inflationary universe in the presence of massless scalar field with a flat potential. To get an inflationary solution, we have considered a flat region in which potential V is constant. The inflationary scenario of the model is discussed in detail.