Manufacturer's pricing strategies in cooperative and non-cooperative advertising supply chain under retail competition

This article studies the manufacturer's pricing strategy in a supply chain with a single manufacturer and two competing retailers. The manufacturer, as a Stackelberg leader specifies wholesale prices to two retailers who face advertisement dependent demand. Based on this gaming structure, two mathematical models are developed - the cooperative advertising model where manufacturer shares a fraction of retailers' advertising costs and the non-cooperative advertising model where manufacturer does not share any retailer's advertising expenses. The optimal strategies of the manufacturer and retailers are determined and a numerical example is taken to illustrate the theoretical results derived. We show that cooperative advertising policy is beneficial not only for the participating entities but also for the entire supply chain

Statistical Mechanics of DNA Rupture: Theory and Simulations

We study the effects of the shear force on the rupture mechanism on a double stranded DNA. Motivated by recent experiments, we perform the atomistic simulations with explicit solvent to obtain the distributions of extension in hydrogen and covalent bonds below the rupture force. We obtain a significant difference between the atomistic simulations and the existing results in the iterature based on the coarse-grained models (theory and simulations). We discuss the possible reasons and improve the coarse-grained model by incorporating the consequences of semi-microscopic details of the nucleotides in its description. The distributions obtained by the modified model (simulations and theoretical) are qualitatively similar to the one obtained using atomistic simulations.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures. Accepted in J. Chem. Phys. (2013). arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1104.305

IIT-H provides sanitisers for the masses

The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT-H) has been providing nearly 100 litres of hand sanitisers per day to the Sangareddy district administration to fight the spread of coronaviru

Weak phase information from the color suppressed B_d^0 -> D^{*0} K^{*0} modes

The decay channels $B_d^0 \to D^{*0} K^{*0}$ are investigated for extracting weak $CKM$ phase information. These channels are described by color-suppressed tree diagrams only and are free from penguin contributions. The branching ratios for these channels are found to be $\sim \cal O$ $(10^{-5} - 10^{-6})$ which can be measured at the currently running $B$ factories. The method presented here may be well-suited to determine the phase $\gamma$.Comment: 11 pages, revised extensively, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Improvement in maternal child bonding and lactation establishment with antenatal counseling

Background: Breastfeeding (BF) is best food source for infants to improve child health, maternal health and mother-infant bonding. We aimed to assess the effect of antenatal education in increasing the frequency and duration of breast feeding and helpful in increasing the intimacy of mother and child and further improve the maternal and fetal outcomes. Methods: It is a prospective, randomized and interventional study held at tertiary care hospital for 18 months on 200 pregnant females. The counselled group (n=100) received one session of antenatal breastfeeding education, while the non-counselled group received routine antenatal obstetric care with no special intervention applied. Results: It was observed that the mean age and education of the mothers in the counselled as well as non-counselled group was statistically similar. The mean ANC visits, early initiation of BF, mean BSES and exclusive BF, were significantly higher in the counselled group as compared to non-counselled group. Complications are more in non-counselled group mothers. Conclusions: This study results demonstrate that a meaningful breastfeeding support and clinical health education can improve exclusive BF and BF self-efficacy with lowers the risk of complications

Fuzzy production planning models for an unreliable production system with fuzzy production rate and stochastic/fuzzy demand rate

In this article, we consider a single-unit unreliable production system which produces a single item. During a production run, the production process may shift from the in-control state to the out-of-control state at any random time when it produces some defective items. The defective item production rate is assumed to be imprecise and is characterized by a trapezoidal fuzzy number. The production rate is proportional to the demand rate where the proportionality constant is taken to be a fuzzy number. Two production planning models are developed on the basis of fuzzy and stochastic demand patterns. The expected cost per unit time in the fuzzy sense is derived in each model and defuzzified by using the graded mean integration representation method. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the optimal results of the proposed fuzzy models

Asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy screening, risk factors, diagnosis and treatment

Background: Asymptomatic bacteriuria is a frequent pregnancy issue that, if left untreated, increases the risk of premature birth and pyelonephritis. Urine culture is the basis for the diagnosis. In the current study, 200 pregnant women are examined for severe asymptomatic bacteriuria to gain insight into its frequency in emerging nations, to re-evaluate some predisposing factors, and to test for the susceptibility of specific aetiological agents. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnant women as well as to isolate, characterise, and establish the pathogens antibiotic susceptibility patterns. Methods: 200 pregnant women with asymptomatic bacteriuria are included in the study. By using traditional techniques, isolates were located, and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns were established. Results: Significant bacteriuria was detected in 102 individuals (51%) in total. The three most efficient antibiotics against the urine isolates were determined to be Piperacillin-Tazobactam, Amikacin, and Nitrofurantion. Escherichia coli was the most prevalent bacterium, followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae. Conclusions: In the group under study, prenatal patients frequently have asymptomatic bacteriuria. All prenatal patients should have routine urine cultural testing to detect any undetected infections. This action will significantly lessen pregnancy-related maternal and obstetric problems

Type II endometrial cancers: original research on a series

Background: Endometrial carcinoma, which ranks 3rd in India amongst the gynecological malignancies, is of two histological types: I and II. These differ in molecular as well as in clinical and histopathological profiles. Type II is estrogen independent, nonendometrioid, with higher grade histologies, more aggressive and carries an adverse prognosis.Methods: Endometrial carcinomas diagnosed from endometrial biopsies and hysterectomy specimens in the Dept of Gynaec-oncology, AHRCC, Cuttack from November 2009 to January 2015 were included in the study. All specimens were fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin and paraffin embedded for histological examination with hematoxylin and eosin staining. The clinicopathological analysis of the cases of EC was done with an emphasis on morphology.Results: Of a total of 150 cases of EC reported, 20 cases were classified as type II EC (13.33%) as per histology. The age of the patients ranged from 36 to 73 years, with mean age is 61 years. In 11 cases (55%), the myometrial invasion was more than half. the histological type was a clear cell adenocarcinoma in 50% of the cases. All were treated with hysterectomy and chemotherapy.Conclusions: Of the type II EC, serous carcinoma is the most common type. Clinical presentation and prognosis differs in comparison to type I EC, thus the recognition of this type of EC is pivotal

Removal of aqueous benzene in the immobilized batch and continuous packed bed bioreactor by isolated Bacillus sp. M1

Benzene biodegradation was studied in batch and continuous packed bed bioreactors using polyurethane foam (PUF) as packing media by isolated Bacillus sp. M1. The values of optimized process parameters were found to be 800 × 106CFU·mL−1, 400 mg·L−1, 7.0 and 37 °C for inoculum size, substrate concentration, pH and temperature respectively. Continuous packed bed bioreactor (CPBBR) was operated and monitored for 69 days on laboratory scale at various flow rates (10-60 mL·h−1). The steady state removal efficiency was observed more than 90% up to the inlet load of 288 mg·L−1.d−1 and elimination capacity was found to be 91.2-266.4 mg·L−1·day−1. Monod growth model was applied for the removal of benzene and values were found to be (Ks: 215.07 mg·L−1; μmax: 0.314 day−1)