Cooperative International Direct Marketing: An Alternative for Asian-Pacific Countries to Increase Exports to Industrial Market Economies

Exporters from Asian-Pacific Countries can successfully establish marketing presence in Industrial Market Economies by directly marketing products in these country markets. Direct marketing potential in Industrial Marketing Economies can be determined by examining two critical factors: the direct marketing infrastructure and emerging environmental changes. Although the resource requirement for direct marketing is quite substantial, exporters, who combine their resources to engage in cooperative international direct marketing, will find it easier to establish marketing presence in Industrial Market Economics

Challenges in compression testing of 3D angle-interlocked woven-glass fabric-reinforced polymeric composites.

This paper describes the challenges in using testing standards such as D6641/D6641M-14, for determination of compressive strength of 3D angle interlocked glass fabric reinforced polymeric composites (3D-FRPC). It makes use of both experimental investigation and finite element analysis. The experimental investigation involved testing both 2D and 3D-FRPC using ASTM D6641/D6641M-14 and subsequent scanning electron microscopic imaging of failed specimens to reveal the stress state at failure. This was further evaluated using laminate level finite element (FE) analysis. The FE analysis required input of effective orthotropic elastic material properties of 3D-FRPC, which were determined by customizing a recently developed micro-mechanical model. The paper sheds new light on compressive failure of 3D angle interlocked glass fabric composites, as only scarce data is available in literature about this class of materials. It showed that although the tests produce acceptable strength values the internal failure mechanisms change significantly and the standard deviation (SD) and coefficient of variance (COV) of 3D-FRPC comes out to be much higher than that of 2D-FRPC. Moreover, while reporting and using the test data some additional information about the 3D-fabric architecture, such as the direction of angle interlocking fabric needs to be specified. This was because, for 3D angle interlocking of fabric along warp direction, the strength values obtained in the warp and weft direction were significantly different from each other. The study also highlights that due to complex weave architecture it is not possible to achieve comparable volume fractions with 2D and 3D fabric reinforced composites using similar manufacturing parameters for the vacuum assisted resin infusion process. Thus, the normalized compressive strength values (normalized with respect to volume fraction) are the highest for 3D-FRPC when measured along the warp direction, they are at an intermediate level for 2D-FRPC and the lowest for 3D-FRPC, when measured in the weft direction.DelPHE 780 Project grant (DFID UK

Bearing performance and damage characteristics of rein-infused thermoplastic 3D woven composites bolted joints

This paper presents a comprehensive study on the single-bolt single-shear (SBSS) and double-bolt single shear (DBSS) lap joint performance of resin-infused thermoplastic 3D fibre-reinforced composite (FRC) in on-axis (0°and 90°) and off-axis (45°) configurations. The bearing performance and failure mechanisms are compared with thermoset 3D-FRC. The resin-infused thermoplastic 3D-FRC bolted joint shows improved bearing performance in terms of higher ultimate bearing strength, stiffness loss strength, and reduced damage severity than its thermoset counterpart. Additionally, this paper presents a detailed study on the intermediate and final failure mechanisms, obtained from scanning electron microscopy of the interrupted and ultimate bearing tests, to understand damage progression in SBSS and BDSS lap joints at the submicron level. The major damage characteristics of a thermoplastic 3D-FRC bolted joint include plastic deformation and plastic kinking at the hole front tip, which improve the bearing capacity and reduce stress concentration, damage severity, and its deleterious effects

Possible hypocholesterolemic effect of ginger and rosemary oils in rats

Background: Hypercholesterolemia is a major risk factor for development of atherosclerosis. The present study was conducted to evaluate the potential effect of ginger oil alone or combined with rosemary oil as hypocholesterolemic agent in rats fed high fat diet.Materials and methods: Healthy female albino rats (n=80) weighting about (150-180 g) were included in this study divided into two equal groups; Group (I): were fed on the basal diet. Group (I) were divided into 4 subgroups each 10: Group (Ia): negative control. Group (Ib): Rats received i.p 2.5 g/Kg b.w of ginger oil. Group (Ic): rats received i.p 2.5 g/Kg b.w of rosemary oil. Group (Id): Rats received i.p 5 g/Kg b.w mixture of ginger oil and rosemary oil (1:1). The second main groups; Group (II): high fat diet (HFD) were fed on the basal diet plus cholesterol (1%), bile salt (0.25%) and animal fat (15%) to induce hypercholesterolemia for six weeks. Group (II) was divided into 4subgroups: Group (IIa): HFD. Group (IIb): HFD were treated with i.p 2.5 g/Kg b.w ginger oil. Group (IIc): (n=10) HFD were treated with i.p 2.5 g/Kg b.w rosemary oil. Group (IId): (n=10) HFD were treated with i.p 5 g/Kg b.w mixture of oils.Results: It was found that HFD rats showed a significant elevation in glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride, GOT, GPT, alkaline phosphatase and a reduction in serum HDL-c compared with negative control. Treatment with ginger oil, rosemary oil and their mixture modulated the elevation of these parameters. Histopathological examination of the liver tissue of HFD rats showed a lipid deposition and macrophage infiltration and stenosis of hepatic vein. Treatment with mixture oils preserves normal structure of liver.Conclusion: It was concluded that, hypocholesterolemic effect was related to the active oil content as Rosemary oil contain - α-pinene, Camphor, cineole, borneol and Ginger oil contain Linalool, Terpineol ,Borneol , Eucalyptol.Keywords: Ginger Oil, Rosemary Oil, Rats, Hypocholesterolemi

Comparison of Benefit-Risk Assessment Methods for Prospective Monitoring of Newly Marketed Drugs: A Simulation Study

AbstractObjectivesTo compare benefit-risk assessment (BRA) methods for determining whether and when sufficient evidence exists to indicate that one drug is favorable over another in prospective monitoring.MethodsWe simulated prospective monitoring of a new drug (A) versus an alternative drug (B) with respect to two beneficial and three harmful outcomes. We generated data for 1000 iterations of six scenarios and applied four BRA metrics: number needed to treat and number needed to harm (NNT|NNH), incremental net benefit (INB) with maximum acceptable risk, INB with relative-value–adjusted life-years, and INB with quality-adjusted life-years. We determined the proportion of iterations in which the 99% confidence interval for each metric included and excluded the null and we calculated mean time to alerting.ResultsWith no true difference in any outcome between drugs A and B, the proportion of iterations including the null was lowest for INB with relative-value–adjusted life-years (64%) and highest for INB with quality-adjusted life-years (76%). When drug A was more effective and the drugs were equally safe, all metrics indicated net favorability of A in more than 70% of the iterations. When drug A was safer than drug B, NNT|NNH had the highest proportion of iterations indicating net favorability of drug A (65%). Mean time to alerting was similar among methods across the six scenarios.ConclusionsBRA metrics can be useful for identifying net favorability when applied to prospective monitoring of a new drug versus an alternative drug. INB-based approaches similarly outperform unweighted NNT|NNH approaches. Time to alerting was similar across approaches

Bias towards publishing positive results in orthopedic and general surgery: a patient safety issue?

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Effectiveness of e-learning in continuing medical education for occupational physicians

Background Within a clinical context e-learning is comparable to traditional approaches of continuing medical education (CME). However, the occupational health context differs and until now the effect of postgraduate e-learning among occupational physicians (OPs) has not been evaluated

Patient, Physician, and Payment Predictors of Statin Adherence

BACKGROUND: Although many patient, physician, and payment predictors of adherence have been described, knowledge of their relative strength and overall ability to explain adherence is limited. OBJECTIVES: To measure the contributions of patient, physician, and payment predictors in explaining adherence to statins RESEARCH DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study using administrative data SUBJECTS: 14,257 patients insured by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (BCBSNJ) who were newly prescribed a statin cholesterol-lowering medication MEASURES: Adherence to statin medication was measured during the year after the initial prescription, based on proportion of days covered (PDC). The impact of patient, physician, and payment predictors of adherence were evaluated using multivariate logistic regression. The explanatory power of these models was evaluated with C statistics, a measure of the goodness of fit. RESULTS: Overall, 36.4% of patients were fully adherent. Older patient age, male gender, lower neighborhood percent black composition, higher median income, and fewer number of emergency department (ED) visits were significant patient predictors of adherence. Having a statin prescribed by a cardiologist, a patient's primary care physician, or a US medical graduate were significant physician predictors of adherence. Lower copayments also predicted adherence. All of our models had low explanatory power. Multivariate models including patient covariates only had greater explanatory power (C = 0.613) than models with physician variables only (C = 0.566) or copayments only (C = 0.543). A fully specified model had only slightly more explanatory power (C = 0.633) than the model with patient characteristics alone. CONCLUSIONS: Despite relatively comprehensive claims data on patients, physicians, and out-of-pocket costs, our overall ability to explain adherence remains poor. Administrative data likely do not capture many complex mechanisms underlying adherence.Economic

In-flight positional and energy use data set of a DJI Matrice 100 quadcopter for small package delivery

We autonomously direct a small quadcopter package delivery Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or "drone" to take off, fly a specified route, and land for a total of 209 flights while varying a set of operational parameters. The vehicle was equipped with onboard sensors, including GPS, IMU, voltage and current sensors, and an ultrasonic anemometer, to collect high-resolution data on the inertial states, wind speed, and power consumption. Operational parameters, such as commanded ground speed, payload, and cruise altitude, are varied for each flight. This large data set has a total flight time of 10 hours and 45 minutes and was collected from April to October of 2019 covering a total distance of approximately 65 kilometers. The data collected were validated by comparing flights with similar operational parameters. We believe these data will be of great interest to the research and industrial communities, who can use the data to improve UAV designs, safety, and energy efficiency, as well as advance the physical understanding of in-flight operations for package delivery drones.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Scientific Dat