Pharmaceutical Targeting: Dynamics of Doctor’s Innovative Tendency and The Degree of Doctor-Patient Relationship

The pharmaceutical firm’s detailing effort of a new drug plays an important role but the pharmaceutical salespeople often find hard time achieving what they initially planned to deliver. Hence, they will need to target their messages to the right group of physicians to perform an efficient detailing. Controlling for other factors, physician’s latent innovative tendency in drug prescription and the unobserved degree of doctor-patient relationship would be important considerations. An econometric model is set up to make inference about the doctor’s innovative tendency and the degree of doctor-patient relationship. Using a national survey about the physicians’ profile, their past treatments and the prescription intentions of a new drug, such model is estimated. The study further discusses managerial implications about how the firm can use the estimated values of doctor’s latent innovative tendency and the unobserved degree of doctor-patient relationship for their detailing effort

Correlation between Subjective Nasal Patency and Intranasal Airflow Distribution

Objectives (1) Analyze the relationship between intranasal airflow distribution and subjective nasal patency in healthy and nasal airway obstruction (NAO) cohorts using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). (2) Determine whether intranasal airflow distribution is an important objective measure of airflow sensation that should be considered in future NAO virtual surgery planning. Study Design Cross-sectional. Setting Academic tertiary medical center and academic dental clinic. Subjects and Methods Three-dimensional models of nasal anatomy were created based on computed tomography scans of 15 patients with NAO and 15 healthy subjects and used to run CFD simulations of nasal airflow and mucosal cooling. Subjective nasal patency was quantified with a visual analog scale (VAS) and the Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE). Regional distribution of nasal airflow (inferior, middle, and superior) was quantified in coronal cross sections in the narrowest nasal cavity. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to quantify the correlation between subjective scores and regional airflows. Results Healthy subjects had significantly higher middle airflow than patients with NAO. Subjective nasal patency had no correlation with inferior and superior airflows but a high correlation with middle airflow (|r| = 0.64 and |r| = 0.76 for VAS and NOSE, respectively). Anterior septal deviations tended to shift airflow inferiorly, reducing middle airflow and reducing mucosal cooling in some patients with NAO. Conclusion Reduced middle airflow correlates with the sensation of nasal obstruction, possibly due to a reduction in mucosal cooling in this region. Further research is needed to elucidate the role of intranasal airflow distribution in the sensation of nasal airflow

Objective Measures in Aesthetic and Functional Nasal Surgery: Perspectives on Nasal Form and Function

The outcomes of aesthetic and functional nasal surgery are difficult to assess objectively due to the intricate balance between nasal form and function. Despite historical emphasis on patient-reported subjective measures, objective measures are gaining importance in both research and the current outcomes-driven healthcare environment. Objective measures presently available have several shortcomings which limit their routine clinical use. In particular, the low correlation between objective and subjective measures poses a major challenge. However, advances in computer, imaging, and bioengineering technology are now setting the stage for the development of innovative objective assessment tools for nasal surgery that can potentially address some of the current limitations. Assessment of nasal form following aesthetic surgery is evolving from two-dimensional analysis to more sophisticated three-dimensional analysis. Similarly, assessment of nasal function is evolving with the introduction of computational fluid dynamics techniques, which allow for a detailed description of the biophysics of nasal airflow. In this paper, we present an overview of objective measures in both aesthetic and functional nasal surgery and discuss future trends and applications that have the potential to change the way we assess nasal form and function

The influence of incorporating a forecutter on the performance of offshore pipeline ploughs

AbstractInstallation of offshore pipelines in the seabed can be efficiently achieved using pipeline ploughs. Increased efficiency may be achievable through incorporating a smaller forecutter in advance of the main plough share. Currently guidance is limited and conflicting as to the advantages or disadvantages of incorporating a forecutter. To investigate the effect of forecutter inclusion model tests were undertaken at 1/50th scale under laboratory conditions in sand beds prepared at different relative densities in both dry and saturated conditions. Dry sand tests were used to determine the effect of the forecutter on the static or passive components of plough tow force. The currently adopted passive pressure coefficient (Cs) did not appear to vary with relative density to the same degree as previously suggested and the forecutter increased the magnitude of the passive or static resistance to ploughing. Saturated tests were used to determine the effects of the forecutter on the rate dependant component of ploughing resistance and allow verification of a dimensionless form of rate effect representation. The forecutter acts to reduce the rate effect component of plough tow force in both fine sand (low permeability) and to a lesser extent in medium sand (higher permeability). In fine and silty sands, however, incorporating a forecutter would seem highly beneficial at all ploughing depths and soil densities but in medium sand (higher permeability) the benefits of incorporation are limited to an operating window at shallower trench depths and lower relative density

Role of Virtual Surgery in Preoperative Planning: Assessing the Individual Components of Functional Nasal Airway Surgery

There are often multiple anatomic factors that contribute to nasal obstruction, creating difficulty in deciding which components to address for a successful outcome. The purpose of this pilot study is to demonstrate the effect of individual components of functional nasal airway surgery in a patient with multifactorial obstruction and discuss the potential benefit of computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-aided virtual surgery

Toward Personalized Nasal Surgery Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

To evaluate whether virtual surgery (VS) performed on 3D nasal airway models can predict post-surgical, biophysical parameters obtained by computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Chemical Abundances Of Stars In The Halo (CASH) Project. I. The Lithium-, s-, And r-Enhanced Metal-Poor Giant HKII 17435-00532

We present the first detailed abundance analysis of the metal-poor giant HKII 17435-00532. This star was observed as part of the University of Texas long-term project Chemical Abundances of Stars in the Halo ( CASH). A spectrum was obtained with the High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS) on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope with a resolving power of R similar to 15,000. Our analysis reveals that this star may be located on the red giant branch, red horizontal branch, or early asymptotic giant branch. We find that this metal-poor (Fe/H = -2.2) star has an unusually high lithium abundance [log epsilon(Li) +2.1], mild carbon (C/Fe = +0.7) and sodium (]Na/Fe] = +0.6) enhancement, as well as enhancement of both s-process ([Ba/Fe] = +0.8) and r-process ([Eu/Fe] = +0.5) material. The high Li abundance can be explained by self-enrichment through extra mixing that connects the convective envelope with the outer regions of the H-burning shell. If so, HKII 17435-00532 is the most metal-poor star in which this short-lived phase of Li enrichment has been observed. The Na and n-capture enrichment can be explained by mass transfer from a companion that passed through the thermally pulsing AGB phase of evolution with only a small initial enrichment of r-process material present in the birth cloud. Despite the current nondetection of radial velocity variations (over similar to 180 days), it is possible that HKII 17435 - 00532 is in a long-period or highly inclined binary system, similar to other stars with similar n-capture enrichment patterns.NASA AAS Small Research Grant ProgramGALEX GI 05-GALEX05-27Italian MIUR-PRIN06 ProjectNSF AST 06-07708, AST04-06784, AST 07-0776, PHY 02-15783JINA AST 07-07447Astronom

The Role of Attention-Deficit/hyperactivity Disorder in the Association between Verbal Ability and Conduct Disorder

Although there is clear evidence that low verbal ability is a risk factor for conduct disorder (CD), some researchers have questioned whether this association is due to the common comorbidity between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and CD. The present study examined the association among verbal ability, ADHD, and CD in a genetically informative sample in order to examine the role of genes and/or environmental influences shared in common with ADHD on the covariation between verbal ability and CD. Participants were 2744 adolescents from the Center for Antisocial Drug Dependence (CADD), and included 360 monozygotic (MZ) female twin pairs, 221 dizygotic (DZ) female twin pairs, 297 MZ male twin pairs, 220 DZ male twin pairs, and 274 opposite-sex DZ twin pairs. The Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC-IV) was used to assess lifetime symptoms of ADHD and CD. Verbal ability was assessed via the Vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale III (WAIS-III) for individuals over the age of 16 and the Vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children III (WISC-III) for individuals under the age of 16. There was a small but significant negative covariance between verbal ability and CD and between verbal ability and ADHD. Results also suggest that the covariation between verbal ability and CD is due to influences shared in common with ADHD