KickGrass Lawncare is a service that cares for lawns in a large, affluent community. Shawn Overgrowth, the owner, is considering the purchase of new zero-turn riding lawn tractors, which would allow him to expand his business. The tractors cost $6300 each, and he would purchase two of them. Another alternative is to purchase three additional mowers of the current type to add to his current equipment. Those would cost $475 apiece. Or he could face the coming gardening season with his existing equipment. Shawn estimates that in a good growing season, the tractors would allow him to expand his business by $40,000. But if the summer is hot and dry (so lawns don’t grow) or cold and wet (ditto), he’d only be able to add about $15,000 in contracts. If he purchases the mowers, he could expand his business by $10,000 in a good year or by just $5000 in a bad one. And if he spends nothing, he won’t expand his business. In a bad year, his income would contract by about $1000. Construct a payoff table for Shawn’s decision. Don’t forget to include his expenses in the calculations.
> The ______________ standard connects computing devices with a Mini DisplayPort connector.
> Apple developed the ________________ to support file sharing between Macintosh computers on early LANs.
> The service that provides the structure for the World Wide Web, allowing documents to be sent across the Web, is ________________.
> By using an anonymous logon, _____________ allows you to send and receive files from a public site.
> A(n) ______________ is software that enables multiple connections to go to the Internet through one protected PC.
> The most common method used to encrypt information, such as credit card numbers, on the Internet is _______________.
> Internet Explorer is a(n) _____________.
> The time it takes for a packet to travel to its destination and back is called ___________.
> Using UDP port 161, ________________ enables remote management of network devices.
> You can access the Internet by leasing a connection from a(n) ______________.
> The ______________ feature enables devices on 802.11n networks to make multiple simultaneous connections, allowing for a theoretical throughput of 600 Mbps.
> A(n) ____________ FireWire device transfers data at up to 800 Mbps.
> If you need to share an Internet connection or connect to a wired network through your wireless network, you would use ____________.
> The wireless Ethernet standard that runs at speeds up to 54 Mbps but has limited range because it uses the 5-GHz frequency is ___________.
> Of the three common wireless encryption protocols, _____________ is the least secure.
> The 802.11 protocol is more commonly known as ________.
> Computers are in ___________ when they connect directly together without using a WAP.
> The wireless Ethernet standard that operates at a maximum of 54 Mbps on the 2.4-GHz frequency is __________.
> Establishing a unique ____________ or network name helps ensure that only wireless network devices configured similarly are permitted access to the network.
> 802.11 implements________________ , which proactively avoids network packet collisions rather than simply detecting them when they occur.
> A technology for setting up wireless PANs and connecting to some peripherals is called____________.
> When troubleshooting a NIC, you’ll need to crawl behind your computer and look for a __________ , which should be on or blinking.
> While a CD-ROM disc holds about 650 MB of data, a(n) __________ stores from 4.37 GB to 15.9 GB, depending on the number of sides and layers used.
> A(n) _______________ server enables computers to obtain IP addresses automatically.
> Special computers, called ____________ servers, keep databases of IP addresses and their corresponding names.
> A(n) ________ is a device that has at least two IP addresses: one that connects to your LAN’s switch and one that connects to the “next network.”
> A computer on a(n) ______________ network gets a 128-bit address.
> A computer on a(n) ____________ network gets a 32-bit address.
> A NIC uses a value called the __________ to distinguish which part of the IP address identifies the network ID and which part of the address identifies the host.
> The command-line utility called __________ enables one machine to check whether it can communicate with another machine.
> To test a possibly broken Ethernet port, plug in a(n)_____________ .
> HTTP and SSH are both examples of special sharing functions called___________ .
> The central location that all cabling runs to is called the_______________ .
> A(n) ___________ device transfers data at up to 12 Mbps on the universal serial bus.
> All the cabling from individual work areas runs via ____________ to a central location.
> Routers enable multiple LANs to connect into a(n) ____________ . Answer: Routers enable multiple LANs to connect into a(n) wide area network (WAN).
> All NICs have a unique identifier called a(n)______________ .
> Most Ethernet networks have a central box called a(n)_________ .
> Most Ethernet networks use copper UTP wiring, but a(n) _________ enables much greater distance between two hosts.
> The most common Ethernet topology is__________ .
> Ethernet cables typically use a(n) _________ connector.
> A single piece of installed horizontal cabling is called a(n)______________ .
> The _______ version of Ethernet runs at 100 Mbps.
> A(n) ______________ handles the video processing chores in modern systems.
> A virus that changes its signature to prevent detection is called a(n)_______________ .
> Mary’s company routinely labels data according to its sensitivity or potential danger to the company if someone outside accesses the data. This is an example of_____________.
> Aaron, who we met in Exercise 28, tends to be optimistic about business conditions. What is his maximax strategy that would maximize his results?
> Shawn Overgrowth, whom we met in Exercise 27, is an entrepreneur who is optimistic about the growing season. What choice should he make to maximize his return? His assistant, Lance Broadleaf, is very conservative, and argues that KickGrass should minimiz
> Demand and price are related; raising prices typically lowers demand. Many companies understand that if they can segment their market and offer different prices to different segments, they can often capture more revenue. Aaron’sAir is a small commuter ai
> The company in Exercises 14, 22, and 24 could send a team to Saudi Arabia to obtain additional information about the probabilities that oil will increase or decrease in price. They hope that the fact-finding trip would choose between the two alternatives
> The company from Exercises 13, 21, and 23 has the option of hiring an economics consulting firm to predict consumer confidence. The company has already considered that the probability of rising consumer confidence could be as high as 0.70 or as low as 0.
> For the energy investment of Exercise 22 and using both of the probabilities considered in that exercise, find the Expected Value of Perfect Information.
> a) For the advertising strategies of Exercise 21 and using the probability of 0.70 for rising consumer confidence, what is the Expected Value of Perfect Information (EVPI)? b) What is the EVPI if the probability of rising consumer confidence is only 0.40
> a) For the payoff table in Exercise 14, find the investment strategy under the assumption that the probability that the price of oil goes substantially higher is 0.4 and that the probability that it goes substantially lower is 0.2. b) What if those two p
> For the payoff table in Exercise 13, find the action with the highest expected value. a) If forecasters think the probability of rising consumer confidence is 0.70, what is its expected value? b) What action would have the highest expected value if they
> What affects marketing managers’ hourly wages? To find out, mean hourly wages were retrieved from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for two managerial occupations in marketing (Sales managers, Advertising managers) for a random sample
> For the product launch decision of Exercise 12, the economy isn’t looking that good. Your very cautious boss says that he thinks there’s a 60% chance of low sales, and a 30% chance of moderate sales. Which course should the company follow?
> For the decision of Exercise 11, you’ve just learned that you are on the short list and now estimate the chance that you’ll be called for an interview is 0.70. Does that change your choice of actions?
> An analyst for the company in Exercise 12 thinks the probabilities of high, moderate, and low sales are 0.2, 0.5, and 0.3, respectively. In this case calculate the expected value of each action. Which is the best action in this case?
> If you think the probability of being called for an interview is 0.30, calculate the expected value of each action in Exercise 15. Which is the better action in this case?
> Construct a decision tree for the payoff table in Exercise 12.
> Construct a decision tree for the payoff table in Exercise 11.
> An investment bank is thinking of investing in a start-up alternative energy company. They can become a major investor for $6M, a moderate investor for $3M, or a small investor for $1.5M. The worth of their investment in 12 months will depend on how the
> After a series of extensive meetings, several of the key decision-makers for a small marketing firm have produced the following payoff table (expected profit per customer) for various advertising strategies and two possible states of the economy. Cons
> A small company has the technology to develop a new personal data assistant (PDA), but it worries about sales in the crowded market. They estimate that it will cost $600,000 to develop, launch, and market the product. Analysts have produced revenue estim
> You are planning a trip home at the end of the semester and need to make plane reservations soon. However, you’ve just had a preliminary interview with a consulting firm that seemed to go very well. There’s a chance that they will want you to stay for a
> An experiment on laboratory rats finds that rats that are randomly assigned to higher levels of noise take longer to finish a maze than those that try the same maze under less noise. The P-value for the hypothesis of equal means is 60.0001. Are researche
> Major League Baseball (MLB) requires that a ball used in a major league game weigh between 5 and 5.25 oz. (www.MLB.com). Rawlings® is the official supplier of baseballs for MLB. In their production process, do they treat 5 and 5.25 oz. as control or spec
> Instead of one observation outside of 3s from the mean as in Exercise 17, suppose a quality control engineer decides to use only the run chart rule that the system is out of control if 8 observations in a row lie on the same side of the mean. What is the
> Most control charts use three sigmas (standard deviations) to set the upper and lower control limits. For a run chart, what is the probability that an observation would fall beyond 3s from the mean based on random chance variation alone? What assumptions
> In 1980, millions of viewers watched as the number 666 was drawn for the Pick 3 Pennsylvania lottery. Although as likely as any other number, lottery authorities and local bookmakers became suspicious when they noticed that a large number of tickets were
> An observer at the roulette wheel in Monte Carlo notices that there seems to be no pattern to the numbers that come up during an entire evening. Is this an example of special- or common-cause variation? Explain.
> Plastic covers for DVDs must be manufactured with enough precision so that a DVD can properly fit into the cover. Specifically, the diameter of the central plastic piece over which the DVD is placed must not vary more than a certain amount. A manufacture
> The two Gemini observatories (www .gemini.edu) were built and are operated by a partnership of seven countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Chile, Australia, Brazil, and Argentina. Astronomers in each of these countries are able t
> Since 1980, average mortgage interest rates have fluctuated from a low of under 4% to a high of over 14%. Is there a relationship between the amount of money people borrow and the interest rate that’s offered? Here is a scatterplot of T
> The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (www.ofheo.gov) collects data on various aspects of housing costs around the United States. Here is a scatterplot of the Housing Cost Index versus the Median Family Income for each of the 50 states. The
> Here are data relating the carbon footprint (tons of CO2 per year) to the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) highway mileage for 82 family sedans as reported by the U.S. government (www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/byclass.htm). The car with the highest hi
> An observational study finds that the average number of years that people stay married differs by educational level with a P-value 60.0001. The higher the education level, the longer people tend to stay married. Are researchers justified in concluding th
> Here are data that relate Sales at The Home Depot and Housing Starts, for quarters during its period of rapid growth between 1995 and 2004. a) Would Kendall’s t or Pearson correlation be the more appropriate summary? Explain. b) What
> Baseball is big business, and the top salaries have become quite large. The highest salaries (in millions of dollars per season) for each season since 1980 are given in the following table: a) Kendall’s tau for these data is 0.90. Wh
> In a Chance magazine article (Summer 2005), Danielle Vasilescu and Howard Wainer used data from the United Nations Center for Human Settlements to investigate aspects of living conditions for several countries. Among the variables they looked at were the
> A pharmaceutical company tested three formulations of a pain relief medicine for migraine headache sufferers. For the experiment, 27 volunteers were selected and 9 were randomly assigned to one of three drug formulations. The subjects were instructed to
> Cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other (host) birds. The eggs are then adopted and hatched by the host birds. But the potential host birds lay eggs of different sizes. Does the cuckoo change the size of her eggs for different foster species? The nu
> The researchers in Exercise 23 also examined the number of people admitted to emergency rooms for vehicular accidents on 12 Friday evenings (6 each on the 6th and 13th). Is Friday the 13th “unlucky”? Hospital emergen
> In 1993 the British Medical Journal published an article titled, “Is Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health?” Researchers in Britain examined how Friday the 13th affects human behavior. One question was whether people ten
> A local insurance agent was concerned that he might lose customers to online discount insurance sites. To investigate, he randomly selected profiles (type of car, coverage, driving record, etc.) for 10 of his clients and checked online price quotes for t
> When implementing a packaged Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, many companies report that the module they first install is Financial Accounting. Among the measures used to gauge the effectiveness of their ERP system implementation is acceleratio
> A company institutes an exercise break for its workers to see whether this will have any effect on job satisfaction, as measured by a questionnaire that assesses workers’ satisfaction. Scores for 10 randomly selected workers before and
> A student performed an experiment with three different grips to see what effect it might have on the distance of a backhanded Frisbee throw. She tried it with her normal grip, with one finger out, and with the Frisbee inverted. She measured in paces how
> Cornell Professor of Nutrition David Levitsky recruited students from two large sections of an introductory health course to test the validity of the “Freshman 15” theory that students gain 15 pounds their first year.
> American League baseball teams play their games with the designated hitter rule, meaning that pitchers do not bat. The league believes that replacing the pitcher, traditionally a weak hitter, with another player in the batting order produces more runs an
> The table gives the names, dates first awarded, and heights (inches) of major trophies and awards in sports and entertainment. The America’s Cup, awarded for sailing, claims to be the oldest such award. The first five were created in th
> Just before the peak of the financial crisis, home foreclosures were up 47% in March 2008 compared to the previous year (realestate.msn.com; MSN Real Estate, April 2008). The data show home foreclosure rates (as % change from the previous year) for a sam
> A food company is concerned about recent criticism of the sugar content of their children’s cereals. The data show the sugar content (as a percentage of weight) of several national brands of children’s and adults’ cereals. Are children’s cereals really d
> The owner of a small organic food store was concerned about her sales of a specialty yogurt manufactured in Greece. As a result of increasing fuel costs, she recently had to increase its price. To help boost sales, she decided to place the product on a d
> A company is producing and marketing new reading activities for elementary school children that it believes will improve reading comprehension scores. A researcher randomly assigns third graders to an eight-week program in which some will use these activ
> Whether pasteurized or raw, both the European Economic Council (EEC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) require that milk sold to consumers contain no more than 10 coliform bacteria per mL of milk (www.cdfa.ca.gov). Should dairies take thi
> Pole vault technology has evolved considerably since the times of the ancient Greeks and even more recently as new materials have found their way into pole manufacturing. There are currently no regulations on the composition of poles although for safety
> Baseballs used in the major leagues in the United States must adhere to strict standards. One such standard is that the weight must be between 5 and 5.25 ounces. One could look at this standard as a target weight of 5.125 ounces with a tolerance of +/-0.
> “Oil is big business.” A classic example of this is the Texaco-Pennzoil court case, which appeared in the book Making Hard Decisions5 and in a subsequent case study by T. Reilly and N. Sharpe (2001). In 1984, a merger was hammered out between two oil gia
