Acanned food manufacturer has its manufacturing plants in three locations across a state. their product has to be transported to three central distribution centers, which in turn disperse the goods to seventy-two stores across the state. which of the following is most likely to be the objective function in this scenario?
a. decreasing the cost of their raw material sourcing.
b. increasing the number of goods manufactured at the plant.
c. minimizing the quantity of goods distributed across the stores.
d. minimizing the cost of shipping goods from the plant to the store.

The hawthorne works was a large western electric factory with 45,000 employees. during the 1920s and 1930s, hawthorne works was the site of some well-known industrial studies. in one of the studies, researchers investigated the impact of different working conditions on worker productivity. prior to the start of the study, researchers secretly measured workers' productivity for several weeks. then researchers chose two workers, who then chose their own teams. the teams were separated from the general workforce and completed their work in different experiment rooms where the researchers could observe them more easily. over a 5-year period researchers manipulated the structure of the workday for each team (number and duration of breaks and number of hours per shift). for each of these changes in working conditions, the researchers measured the effect on productivity. for some conditions, such as frequent short breaks, workers rebelled by intentionally decreasing productivity. why did the researchers secretly measure the workers' productivity before creating the two treatment groups? a, to create similar treatment groups so that a cause-and-effect relationship could be establishedb, to draw conclusions about the productivity of all workers in the plant based on the test groupsc, to directly control for confounding variablesd, to provide a baseline for measuring worker productivity

John novosel was employed by nationwide insurance company for fifteen years. novosel had been a model employee and, at the time of discharge, was a district claims manager and a candidate for the position of division claims manager. during novosel's fifteenth year of employment, nationwide circulated a memorandum requesting the participation of all employees in an effort to lobby the pennsylvania state legislature for the passage of a certain bill before the body. novosel, who had privately indicated his disagreement with nationwide's political views, refused to lend his support to the lobby, and his employment with nationwide was terminated. novosel brought two separate claims against nationwide, arguing, first, that his discharge for refusing to lobby the state legislature on behalf of nationwide constituted the tort of wrongful discharge in that it was arbitrary, malicious, and contrary to public policy. novosel also contended that nationwide breached an implied contract guaranteeing continued employment so long as his job performance was satisfactory. what decision as to each claim?

Two assets have the following expected returns and standard deviations when the risk-free rate is 5%: asset a e(ra) = 18.5% σa = 20% asset b e(rb) = 15% σb = 27% an investor with a risk aversion of a = 3 would find that on a risk-return basis. a. only asset a is acceptable b. only asset b is acceptable c. neither asset a nor asset b is acceptable d. both asset a and asset b are acceptable