Cost leadership and pricing in conspicuous goods markets

We study competitive positioning and pricing strategies in markets with negative consumption externalities. Negative consumption externality is modeled as a decrease in preference for a product as more consumers purchase the same product. Using a two stage Hotelling type model, we show that a cost leader prices higher than the cost disadvantaged firm when the magnitude of negative consumption externality in the market is below a threshold otherwise the cost leader prices lower than the cost disadvantaged firm. Also, increase in population density decreases price differential between the cost leader and the cost disadvantaged firm.Negative Consumption Externalities, Cost Leadership, Conspicuous Goods, Pricing, Hotelling Models

Positioning and Pricing in a Variety Seeking Market

We study competitive positioning and pricing strategies in markets where consumers seek variety. Variety seeking behavior is modeled as a decrease in the willingness to pay for the product purchased on the previous purchase occasion. Using a three-stage Hotelling-type model, we show that the presence of variety seeking consumers reduces product differentiation offered in equilibrium, thereby explaining some otherwise counterintuitive findings in empirical research. We find that firms charge higher prices in Period 1 and lower prices in Period 2. The lower price in Period 2 represents the price incentive that firms need to offer to prevent the variety seeking consumers from switching. Furthermore, we find that the observed switching in a market may not fully capture the true magnitude of the underlying variety seeking tendencies among consumers. Finally, we show that the presence of variety seeking consumers leads to lower firm profits and a higher consumer surplus. Surplus increases for variety seeking consumers as well as regular consumers. Therefore, the presence of variety seeking consumers benefits everyone in the market

Differentiation, Niche and Cost Leadership Strategies: A Hotelling Based Analysis

Costs are an important determinant of prices charged by firms. The primary purpose of this paper is to study the impact of costs associated with differentiation and niche strategies on firm’s positioning and pricing decisions in a horizontally differentiated market. We analyze both sequential and simultaneous entry cases. In the sequential case, the cost of differentiation is an additional cost incurred by the second entrant and it depends on the degree of differentiation between itself and the first mover. The cost of following a niche strategy is a market level cost affecting both firms whereby firms incur a positive or negative cost if they want to make a niche product. Our analysis provide some surprising results, explains some conflicting empirical observations documented in previous research, and may also be useful for further empirical research in this area by providing sharper predictions about the impact of various types of costs on market outcomes. For example, we find that under some circumstances the cost disadvantaged firm can enjoy higher price-cost margins compared to the cost leader thereby suggesting that higher costs are a blessing in disguise. We also show analytically that a firm following differentiated or niche strategies charges a higher price than the cost leader if the cost of differentiated or niche strategy is sufficiently high and vice versa

Teledentistry: A Systematic Review of Clinical Outcomes, Utilization and Costs

Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review is to identify clinical outcomes, health care utilization and costs associated with teledentistry. Relevant databases were searched for articles on teledentistry published until March 2012, reference lists examined and key journals hand searched. Of a possible 58 articles, 19 studies met the inclusion criteria. Clinical outcomes were generally improved following a teledentistry intervention and satisfaction with teledentistry was consistently high. The few studies examining health care utilization reported mixed findings, but preliminary evidence suggests cost savings for health care facilities. There is a consistent trend in the literature supporting the efficacy and effectiveness of teledentistry. Further research is needed to identify the effectiveness, efficiency, utilization and costs of teledentistry as it could provide the key to improving access to care

Estimation of the effects of music therapy on the anxiety and patient’s perception during an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy procedure: a randomised controlled trial

Background: An upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy procedure is an invasive medical procedure that is used in diagnosis and treatment of various intestinal disorders. Patients posted for upper GI endoscopy procedures often experience significant levels of pre-procedural fear, anxiety and discomfort during the procedure which can negatively affect cooperation levels during the procedure with the attending doctor. A very few studies have explored the beneficial effects of music therapy in this regard and so our study was planned.Methods: A prospective randomised controlled trial was conducted with a sample of 54 patients who were enrolled for this study. They were randomly divided into two groups - group 1 consisting of 27 patients, receiving a music therapy intervention and group 2 consisting of 27 patients who served as a control group. Group 1 received a receptive music therapy intervention in the form vocal, relaxing, improvisational music with patient preferred chants for fifteen minutes before and during the endoscopy procedure. Group 2 did not receive a music therapy intervention.Results: The results indicated that the post intervention, state-anxiety levels was significantly lower in the music therapy group compared to the control group with (p=0.001). Patients’ cooperation levels during the procedure with the attending doctor was significantly higher in the music therapy group than in the control group (p=0.001).Conclusions: Repeated music therapy intervention is highly beneficial in reducing state anxiety levels and improving cooperation levels during the GI endoscopy procedure

Security/Privacy in Health Care Monitoring Using Wireless Sensor Networks

Advancements in wireless sensor technology have led to increasing the involvement of Wireless Sensors Network (WSN) in health care domain. This paper analyzes the security issues and finds the possible techniques to minimize the effect of the threats, especially the privacy, on the sensitive patient’s data. The data that is transmitted through the cloud is vulnerable to various security attacks. One of the primary security threats is privacy. Data privacy aims at protecting the sensitive information and not revealing this information to the unauthorized entities. This is achieved using anonymization which includes Generalization and Suppression techniques

Analgesic, Anti-Inflammatory, and GC-MS Studies on Castanospermum australe

The present study was aimed to evaluate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties of Castanospermum australe and to profile phytochemicals by GC-MS. The ethanolic extracts were prepared by successive solvent extraction using Soxhlet apparatus. The analgesic activity was analyzed by hot plate method and acetic acid-induced writhing test whereas anti-inflammatory study was done by carrageenan induced paw oedema model. The acute toxicity study revealed that ethanol extracts of leaf and bark of C. australe were safe even at a higher dose of 2000 mg/kg whereas ethanol extract of seed was toxic at the same dose. In both hot plate method (5.85 s) and acetic acid-induced writhing test (57%), the leaf ethanol extract exhibited significant analgesic activity (P<0.001) at a dose of 400 mg/kg. The anti-inflammatory activity of leaf extract was exhibited by the reduction in paw linear diameter by 64.76% at 400 mg/kg in carrageenan induced paw oedema. The GC-MS analysis of the ethanol extract of leaf revealed sixteen major compounds of which 1,7-dimethyl-4,10-dioxa-1,7-diazacyclododecane, (+)-N-methylephedrine, and permethylspermine were found to be pharmaceutically and the most important. These findings justify that C. australe can be a valuable natural analgesic and anti-inflammatory source which seemed to provide potential phytotherapeutics against various ailments

EFFICACY OF SHORT TERM VIDEO EEG IN DETECTING PSYCHOGENIC NON-EPILEPTIC SEIZURES

Background: Short term video Electroencephalography (SVEEG) is a non-invasive diagnostic procedure typically last for about 1-5 hours. SVEEG can be utilize to differentiate epileptic from Psychogenic Non-epileptic Seizures (PNES). Objective: To assess the yield of short term video EEG in detecting PNES. Methods: Retrospective analysis of short term video EEG in a tertiary level hospital. Patient history, provisional diagnosis, previous EEG and imaging reports were tabulated. Various short term video EEG findings like epileptiform abnormalities, PNES and other non-epileptic events were analyzed in detail. According to the provisional diagnosis formed two groups; Suspecting NEE and suspecting seizure disorders. Change in the provisional diagnosis after SVEEGs were also studied. Results: A total of 417 SVEEGs analyzed: 34(8.2%) patients developed events to suggest PNES, 16(3.8%) patients had other non-epileptic events; 96(23%) showed interictal epileptiform discharges, 15 (3.6%) showed seizures and 90(21.6%) patients showed non specific EEG abnormalities. Around 60% SVEEGs were conclusive. Conclusion: A diagnostic event was recorded during SVEEG in majority of patients in the PNES group. SVEEG is a cost effective and useful diagnostic procedure; especially to identify non-epileptic events

Meloidogyne graminicola (Golden and Birchfield): Threat to Rice Production

Abstract Meloidogyne graminicola (Golden and Birchfield