Managing customer relationships: Should managers really focus on the long term?

Researchers and business thought leaders have emphasized that, towards maximizing the lifetime value of customers, firms must manage customer relationships for the long term. In contrast to this recommendation, we demonstrate that firm profits in competitive environments are maximized when managers focus on the short term with respect to their customers. Intuitively, while a long term focus yields more loyal customers, it sharpens short term competition to gain and keep customers to such an extent that overall firm profits are lower than when managers focus on the short term. Further, a short term focus continues to deliver higher profits even when customer loyalty yields a higher share-of-wallet or reduced costs of service from the perspective of the firm. Intuitively, while such revenue enhancement or cost reduction effects enhance the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, they lead to even more intense competition to gain and keep customers in the short term. These findings suggest that the competitive implications of a switch to a long term customer focus must be carefully examined before such a switch is advocated or implemented. Paradoxically, customer lifetime value may be maximized when managers focus on the short term.target pricing; customer equity; price discrimination; customer relationship marketing; customer acquisition; customer retention;

Synthesis, antimicrobial evaluation and QSAR studies of p-amino benzoic acid derivatives

A series of Schiff bases (1-16) and esters (17-27) of p-amino benzoic acid (PABA) was synthesized and its in vitro antimicrobial potential was evaluated by using tube dilution method. Compound 11 was found to be most promising antibacterial agent (pMICbs = 2.11 μM/ml) having antibacterial potential comparable to standard drug norfloxacin (pMICbs = 2.61 μM/ml) and may be taken as a lead compound for the development of novel antibacterial agents. QSAR analysis indicated that electronic parameters, total energy (Te) and energy of lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) were found dominant in explaining the antimicrobial activity of synthesized compounds

Early outcome of surgical intervention in subaxial cervical spine injuries

Background: Sub-axial cervical spine includes the C3 through C7 segments, a very mobile area of the spine with potential for devastating injuries as a result of instability and risk of spinal cord injury. Goal of treatment is to stabilize the spine and decompress when necessary, in order to promote the optimal environment for recovery.Methods: This is a retrospective study of 40 patients with sub-axial cervical spine injury who underwent surgery in this institute from January 2016 to March 2017.Results: Most of the patients were young males with road traffic accident. They underwent cerival traction for reducing translation and surgical management, mostly anterior procedures and in some cases posterior stabilisation.Conclusions: Most of the subaxial spine injuries can be treated by anterior procedures. Preoperative neurological status is an important predictor in postoperative neurological improvement

Tuning phase-stability and short-range order through Al-doping in (CoCrFeMn)100-xAlx high entropy alloys

For (CoCrFeMn)$_{100-x}$Al$_{x}$ high-entropy alloys, we investigate the phase evolution with increasing Al-content (0 $\le$ x $\le$ 20 at.%). From first-principles theory, the Al-doping drives the alloy structurally from FCC to BCC separated by a narrow two-phase region (FCC+BCC), which is well supported by our experiments. We highlight the effect of Al-doping on the formation enthalpy and electronic structure of (CoCrFeMn)$_{100-x}$Al$_{x}$ alloys. As chemical short-range order (SRO) in multicomponent alloys indicates the nascent local order (and entropy changes), as well as expected low-temperature ordering behavior, we use thermodynamic linear-response within density-functional theory to predict SRO and ordering transformation and temperatures inherent in (CoCrFeMn)$_{100-x}$Al$_{x}$. The predictions agree with our present experimental findings, and other reported ones.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, 1 tabl

Synthesis, antimicrobial evaluation and QSAR studies of gallic acid derivatives

AbstractA series of gallic acid derivatives (1–33) was synthesized and characterized by physicochemical and spectral means. The synthesized compounds were evaluated in vitro for their antimicrobial activity against different Gram positive and Gram negative bacterial and fungal strains by the tube dilution method. Results of antimicrobial screening indicated that compound 6 was the most active antimicrobial agent (pMICam=1.92μM/mL). The results of QSAR studies demonstrated that antibacterial, antifungal and overall antimicrobial activities of synthesized gallic acid derivatives were governed by the electronic parameters, cosmic total energy (Cos E.) and nuclear energy (Nu. E.)

See Through the Fog: Curriculum Learning with Progressive Occlusion in Medical Imaging

In recent years, deep learning models have revolutionized medical image interpretation, offering substantial improvements in diagnostic accuracy. However, these models often struggle with challenging images where critical features are partially or fully occluded, which is a common scenario in clinical practice. In this paper, we propose a novel curriculum learning-based approach to train deep learning models to handle occluded medical images effectively. Our method progressively introduces occlusion, starting from clear, unobstructed images and gradually moving to images with increasing occlusion levels. This ordered learning process, akin to human learning, allows the model to first grasp simple, discernable patterns and subsequently build upon this knowledge to understand more complicated, occluded scenarios. Furthermore, we present three novel occlusion synthesis methods, namely Wasserstein Curriculum Learning (WCL), Information Adaptive Learning (IAL), and Geodesic Curriculum Learning (GCL). Our extensive experiments on diverse medical image datasets demonstrate substantial improvements in model robustness and diagnostic accuracy over conventional training methodologies.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Transcending Grids: Point Clouds and Surface Representations Powering Neurological Processing

In healthcare, accurately classifying medical images is vital, but conventional methods often hinge on medical data with a consistent grid structure, which may restrict their overall performance. Recent medical research has been focused on tweaking the architectures to attain better performance without giving due consideration to the representation of data. In this paper, we present a novel approach for transforming grid based data into its higher dimensional representations, leveraging unstructured point cloud data structures. We first generate a sparse point cloud from an image by integrating pixel color information as spatial coordinates. Next, we construct a hypersurface composed of points based on the image dimensions, with each smooth section within this hypersurface symbolizing a specific pixel location. Polygonal face construction is achieved using an adjacency tensor. Finally, a dense point cloud is generated by densely sampling the constructed hypersurface, with a focus on regions of higher detail. The effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated on a publicly accessible brain tumor dataset, achieving significant improvements over existing classification techniques. This methodology allows the extraction of intricate details from the original image, opening up new possibilities for advanced image analysis and processing tasks

Tuning phase-stability and short-range order through AI-doping in (CoCrFeMn)100-xAIx high entropy alloys

For (CoCrFeMn)100−xAlx high-entropy alloys, we investigate the phase evolution with increasing Al content (0≤x≤20 at.%). From first-principles theory, aluminum doping drives the alloy structurally from fcc to bcc separated by a narrow two-phase region (fcc+bcc), which is well supported by our experiments. Using KKR-CPA electronic-structure calculations, we highlight the effect of Al doping on the formation enthalpy (alloy stability) and electronic dispersion of (CoCrFeMn)100−xAlx alloys. As chemical short-range order indicates the nascent local order, and entropy changes, as well as expected low-temperature ordering behavior, we use KKR-CPA-based thermodynamic linear response to predict the chemical ordering behavior of arbitrary complex solid-solution alloys—an ideal approach for predictive design of high-entropy alloys. The predictions agree with our present experimental findings and other reported ones

Synthesis, antimicrobial, anticancer evaluation and QSAR studies of 2/3-bromo-N′-(substituted benzylidene/3-phenylallylidene)benzohydrazides

AbstractIn the present study, a series of 2/3-bromo-N′-(substituted benzylidene/3-phenylallylidene)benzohydrazides was synthesized and evaluated in vitro for its antimicrobial and anticancer potentials. The results of antimicrobial and anticancer study indicated that compounds 3, 15 and 18 (pMICam=1.62μM/ml) were found to be most potent antimicrobial agents and compound 4 (IC50=1.88±0.03μM) was found to be the most potent anticancer agent. The results of QSAR analysis indicated the importance of topological parameters, Balaban index (J) and valence first and second order molecular connectivity indices (1χv and 2χv) in describing antimicrobial activity of the synthesized benzohydrazides

Synthesis, in vitro antimicrobial, anticancer evaluation and QSAR studies of N′-(substituted)-4-(butan-2-lideneamino)benzohydrazides

AbstractA series of N′-(substituted)-4-(butan-2-ylideneamino)benzohydrazides (1–21) was synthesized and characterized by physicochemical as well as spectral means. The synthesized compounds were screened for their in vitro antimicrobial and anticancer potentials. The synthesized compounds displayed higher antifungal potential as compared to antibacterial potential. Besides having good antifungal potential, the synthesized compounds were having appreciable anticancer potential and a number of compounds displayed higher anticancer potential than the standard drug, carboplatin. The results of QSAR studies demonstrated the importance of steric parameter, molar refractivity (MR), topological parameters, third order molecular connectivity index (3χ), Kier’s first order shape index (κ1) in describing the antimicrobial activity of N′-(substituted)-4-(butan-2-ylideneamino)benzohydrazides