Multi-criteria media mix decision model for advertising multiple product with segment specific and mass media

Judicious media planning decisions are crucial for successful advertising of products. Media planners extensively use mathematical models supplemented with market research and expert opinion to devise the media plans. Media planning models discussed in the literature largely focus on single products with limited studies related to the multi-product media planning. In this paper we propose a media planning model to allocate limited advertising budget among multiple products advertised in a segmented market and determine the number of advertisements to be given in different media. The proposed model is formulated considering both segment specific and mass media vehicles to maximize the total advertising reach for each product. The model also incorporates the cross product effect of advertising of one product on the other. The proposed formulation is a multi-objective linear integer programming model and interactive linear integer goal programming is discussed to solve the model. A real life case study is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed model

Neurological deficit following spinal anaesthesia for caesarean section: an anesthetist’s nightmare

Neurological deterioration after regional anaesthesia, though extremely rare has been reported worldwide. A number of mechanisms like intraspinal hematoma, meningitis, cauda equina syndrome, etc. have been attributed to this dreadful complication. We present a case of a 26 year old female with no past medical history who was posted for emergency caesarean section. After an uneventful surgery under a subarachnoid block, the patient was discharged on the third day. However, on tenth postoperative day, the patient presented in casualty with bilateral lower limb weakness and backache. What was initially thought of being a rare post-operative complication of spinal anaesthesia was found to be an incidental intradural lesion on subsequent evaluation. Even a thorough pre-anaesthetic checkup may not prevent the occurrence of such incidents postoperatively

A Rare Manifestation of Cysticercosis Infestation

There are many causes of urticaria, which may vary from infections to malignancy. Among the infections, infestations by cysticercosis (larval stage of the tapeworm called Taenia solium) is an important cause. The present report is of forty four years old female who presented with urticaria and swelling on face. The swelling was later diagnosed as cysticercosis by noninvasive ultrasonography. The urticaria subsided after the treatment of cysticercosis. We report this case for rarity of its presentation. Key words: cysticercosis, chronic urticaria, Taenia solium, ultrasonograph

Effect of repeat purchase and dynamic market size on diffusion of an innovative technological consumer product in a segmented market

This study develops diffusion models for technological consumer products under the marketing environment when a product is marketed in a segmented market and observes two distinctive promotional strategies of mass and differentiated promotion; an under explored study area. Mass promotion strategy creates a spectrum effect in market with an aim to create wider product awareness and influence the market size. Whereas the differentiated promotion strategy plays major role in external influence component in the respective segment and target for adoption by the current potential segment. Previous studies on segmented diffusion models assumed only first time purchase and constant market size which may yield underestimated results and fail to give appropriate insight of the diffusion process. The study develops and validates generalized diffusion models for segmented market incorporating the repurchase behaviour of the adopter population and dynamic potential market size considerations. Performance of the proposed models is analysed on real life data for a new product marketed in four segments and compared with the previous study

Alewife Systems Memo 31

Adaptive graph computations for the study of the evolution of genomes are being conducted on a CM-2 Connection Machine and on the Alewife Simulator. The relative merits of the two different architectures of these machines should be examined in order to determine what types of simulations are more suitable for each. 1 Introduction. Natural selection acting upon the total combination of genes of an organism (the entire genotype), is a predominant cause of organic evolution. Through selection, the fitness of organisms increases leading to greater and greater adaptation, which is the hallmark of evolution. The genotype of an organism can consist of up to about 10 5 individual genes, each at a particular position or "locus." J. B. S. Haldane (1931) observed that if selection involved m loci, and there were 2 possible genic types or "alleles" at each locus, the possible genotypes of any organism could be represented as the vertices of an m\Gammadimensional hypercube (with 2 m vertices)...

Birds as surrogates for biodiversity: an analysis of a data set from southern Quebec

Surrogacy analysis consists of determining a set of biotic or environmental parameters which can be rapidly assessed in the field and reliably used to prioritize places for biodiversity conservation. Whether adequate surrogate sets exist remains an open and relatively unexplored question though its solution is central to the aims of conservation biology. This paper analyses the surrogacy problem by prioritizing places using surrogate lists and comparing these results with those obtained by using more comprehensive species lists. More specifically, it explores (i) the possibility of using bird distributions, which are often easily available, as surrogates for species at risk (endangered and threatened species), which are presumed to be an important component of biodiversity; and (ii) the methodological question of how spatial scale influences surrogate success. The data set analysed, from southern Québec, is one of the most complete biotic data sets available at the regional scale. Contrary to some previous analyses, the results obtained suggest that the surrogacy problem is potentially solvable. [Garson J, Aggarwal A and Sarkar S 2002 Birds as surrogates for biodiversity: an analysis of a data set from southern Québec; J. Biosci. (Suppl. 2) 27 347–360] 1