The pharmaceutical supply of brand and generic medicines in different rural and urban areas of Egypt.

Medicines are an important intervention for protecting public health. While medicines have brand and generic type products, those used for treating non-communicable diseases are used by patients for life. The pharmaceutical market is not a competitive market with asymmetric flow of information. Equal access to both types of medicines is part of equal access to health care in different socioeconomic areas. Patients with non-communicable diseases should own their choice of whether brand or generic medicines for their treatment not the market supply that dictates their consumption. In this thesis, we used data for availability of 39 medicines treating non-communicable diseases selected based on some inclusion criteria. Our hypothesis assumed social equity that presumes equal access to both medicine types in varying rural and urban areas where population having chronic conditions have to acquire their treatments for life. Data was modeled and logistic regression was used. Results were produced using statistical software; both SPSS and R. Primary findings show that rural and urban areas have different pattern of market supply for both brand and generic medicine types. In the same settings of a socioeconomic area, the probability of supply of brand rather than generic medicines increases by the increase in price. Social health insurance coupled by pharmaceutical Track and Trace system and combined pricing mechanisms should be in place to insure equilibrium between market supply and equal access to medicines. Patients with non-communicable diseases in different urban and rural areas in Egypt should be left to consume their medicine type at their choice. Guidelines for promotion of prescription medicines, guidelines for prescribing practices should be in place to improve the market equilibrium

The Transmuted Weibull-Pareto Distribution

A new generalization of the Weibull-Pareto distribution called the transmuted Weibull-Pareto distribution is proposed and studied. Various mathematical properties of this distribution including ordinary and incomplete moments, quantile and generating functions, Bonferroni and Lorenz curves and order statistics are derived. The method of maximum likelihood is used for estimating the model parameters. The flexibility of the new lifetime model is illustrated by means of an application to a real data set

Conversion of Stem Cells to Cancer Stem Cells: Undercurrent of Cancer Initiation

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) also known as cancer-initiating cells (CIC), are responsible for the sustained and uncontrolled growth of malignant tumors and are proposed to play significant roles in metastasis and recurrence. Several hypotheses have proposed that the events in either stem and/or differentiated cells, such as genomic instability, inflammatory microenvironment, cell fusion, and lateral gene transfer, should be considered as the possible origin of CSCs. However, until now, the exact origin of CSC has been obscure. The development of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in 2007, by Yamanaka's group, has been met with much fervency and hailed as a breakthrough discovery by the scientific and research communities, especially in regeneration therapy. The studies on the development of CSC from iPSCs should also open a new page of cancer research, which will help in designing new therapies applicable to CSCs. Currently most reviews have focused on CSCs and CSC niches. However, the insight into the niche before the CSC niche should also be of keen interest. This review introduces the novel concept of cancer initiation introducing the conversion of iPSCs to CSCs and proposes a relationship between the inflammatory microenvironment and cancer initiation as the key concept of the cancer-inducing niche responsible for the development of CSC

On Rough Covexsity Sets

In this paper, we introduced new concepts for surely and possibly , start shaped (convex ) set. Also for rough start shaped ( rough convex) set .We established the neccessary and sufficient conditions for a set to be star shaped (convex ) set or rough starshaped ( rough convex) set . Finally ,we introduced new concepts for star shaped (convex ) relation

Sol–Gel Synthesis of Iron-Doped Sepiolite as a Novel Humidity-Sensing Material

Nowadays, humidity sensors are attracting a great deal of attention, and there are many studies focusing on enhancing their performances. Nevertheless, their fabrication through facile methods at reasonable cost is a significant factor. In this article, a new magnesium silicate nanopowder was successfully synthesized using a simple and low-cost sol–gel method. Subsequently, modified sepiolite was achieved by the substitution of iron ions in the synthesized nanopowders. The specimens were then characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission–scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermogravimetric–differential thermal analysis, infrared spectroscopy, and nitrogen adsorption. Furthermore, humidity sensors were manufactured by screen printing the prepared powders on alumina substrates with interdigitated Pt electrodes. The results showed that the fabricated sensors with modified sepiolite exhibited interesting characteristics for humidity detection

Data mining: a tool for detecting cyclical disturbances in supply networks.

Disturbances in supply chains may be either exogenous or endogenous. The ability automatically to detect, diagnose, and distinguish between the causes of disturbances is of prime importance to decision makers in order to avoid uncertainty. The spectral principal component analysis (SPCA) technique has been utilized to distinguish between real and rogue disturbances in a steel supply network. The data set used was collected from four different business units in the network and consists of 43 variables; each is described by 72 data points. The present paper will utilize the same data set to test an alternative approach to SPCA in detecting the disturbances. The new approach employs statistical data pre-processing, clustering, and classification learning techniques to analyse the supply network data. In particular, the incremental k-means clustering and the RULES-6 classification rule-learning algorithms, developed by the present authors’ team, have been applied to identify important patterns in the data set. Results show that the proposed approach has the capability automatically to detect and characterize network-wide cyclical disturbances and generate hypotheses about their root cause

Similarity Solutions for a Steady MHD Falkner-Skan Flow and Heat Transfer over a Wedge Considering the Effects of Variable Viscosity and Thermal Conductivity

An analysis is carried out to study the Falkner–Skan flow and heat transfer of an incompressible, electrically conducting fluid over a wedge in the presence of variable viscosity and thermal conductivity effects. The similarity solutions are obtained using scaling group of transformations. Furthermore the similarity equations are solved numerically by employing Kellr-Box method. Numerical results of the local skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number as well as the velocity and the temperature profiles are presented for different physical parameters

Kinetic Simulation of He radio frequency capacitive coupled plasma

Radiofrequency capacitively coupled plasma is studied theoretically using a Particle-in-Cell code. For He discharge, the time-averaged sheaths are in the range of few centimeters. The sheath potential, ion, and electron energy and angular distributions, discharge current, and dissipated power depend on the driven potentials and frequencies. Increasing the amplitude of the high radio frequencies increases the bulk density and the sheath potential and, consequently, increases the plasma processing rate. Increasing the intermediate radio frequency amplitude allows a wider sheath with a broad ion energy distribution and a narrower ion angular distribution. Changing the amplitude and the phase shift between driven frequencies provide different energies and angular distribution allowing performing various processes. The interplay between the sheath and bulk dynamics in the intermediate radiofrequency regime and the high-frequency regime may excite harmonics in the discharge current