Using Customer Relationship Trajectories to Segment Customers and Predict Profitability

A central premise of relationship marketing theory is that economic benefits flow fromretaining customers. However, the early research focus on the duration of the relationship may obscure other important aspects of the interactions with the customer that drive profitability. Borrowing from the branding literature, where different types of customer relationships have been described (but not empirically examined), we study the patterns of business customers’ buying behavior, or trajectories that characterize customer-firm relationships over time, and their impact on profitability. We develop a finite mixture model relating customer relationship trajectories to profitability over a three year period. Our analysis yields five segments, or types of customer-firm relationships, for this dataset. We find key determinants of profitability vary across types of customer relationship. Interestingly, in none of these segments does duration predict profitability.marketing ;

Examining the Nonlinear Effects in Satisfaction-Loyalty-Behavioral Intentions Model

Extant research has widely investigated linear functional forms in satisfaction and loyalty models. Though complex nonlinear nature of satisfaction loyalty link is suggested by several researchers, few attempts have been made to empirically examine nonlinearity. Moreover, researchers have used divergent functional forms to model nonlinearity and their findings are often inconclusive. In this study we use nonlinear form to describe the relationship between satisfaction, attitudinal loyalty, purchase loyalty and customer behavioral intentions such as willingness to pay more and external and internal complaining responses in the context of business-to-consumer ecommerce. We find modest empirical support for nonlinear effects in the relationship. Results support nonlinearity only in the case of attitudinal loyalty to internal complaining response link. Results also present evidence about the mediating role of attitudinal loyalty in the relationship between satisfaction, purchase loyalty, willingness to pay more and internal complaining responses.

Beyond HCAHPS: Analysis of patients’ comments provides an expanded view of their hospital experiences

An important concern for health care professionals is that standardized patient surveys may not fully capture all the topics that are important to patients. As a result, health care professionals may not have a complete picture of what their patients experience. The purpose of this research is to utilize a state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing technique to make sense of patients’ solicited, unstructured comments to gain a deeper and broader understanding of their experiences in the hospital. We analyzed a large dataset of inpatient survey responses (48,592 patients generating 65,998 comments) by a patient experience survey vendor for an eleven-hospital health care system in a large Midwest US city. Comments were first analyzed by Top2Vec algorithm in Python and more than 650 groupings of comments were then reduced into 20 sub-domains within 4 topic domains to better understand patient feedback on their hospital experience. We find distinct domains in the textual data that are not completely captured by survey domains. Furthermore, these domains match components of a hierarchical model of health service quality: interpersonal, technical, environmental, and administrative quality. Our findings broaden and deepen understanding of domains on standardized surveys. That is, completely new issues that are not measured in structured surveys are found in patient comments, and even when patient comments can be assigned to specific domains (e.g., nurse communication, discharge, etc.) found in standardized surveys, novel sub-topics provide a more nuanced understanding of patients’ hospital experiences. Novel sub-topics found in patient comments include clinicians’ diagnostic skill, compassionate care, team coordination, transfer processes, roommates, and others. Health care organizations should utilize state-of-the-art methods to mine insights from patient comments, and ensure they have processes, resources, and capabilities needed to translate insights into action. Experience Framework This article is associated with the Policy & Measurement lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework. (https://www.theberylinstitute.org/ExperienceFramework). Access other PXJ articles related to this lens. Access other resources related to this lens

Magnetic and luminescent multifunctional nanohybrid: Fe3O4@CaF2:Tb3+: A facile synthesis and characterization

31-35In the present study, bi-functional hybrid nanomaterial has been synthesized and characterized via facile method and characterized. The synthesized nanomaterial shows both magnetic and luminescent properties which are confirmed by VSM (vibrating sample magnetometer), UV-Vis spectra and the photoluminescence emission spectra. For the magnetic phase, i.e., nanocrystalline magnetite, Fe3O4 is used as the core which is then functionalized using polyethylene glycol (PEG) and for the luminescent phase, polyethylenimine (PEI) functionalized CaF2 doped with Tb3+is used as the emitter. Wherein, both PEG and PEI serve the dual purpose of functionalization as well as stabilization by steric repulsion. The structure and morphology of the synthesized bifunctional hybrid nanomaterial are studied with the help of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray powder diffraction

Magnetic and luminescent multifunctional nanohybrid: Fe3O4@CaF2:Tb3+: A facile synthesis and characterization

In the present study, bi-functional hybrid nanomaterial has been synthesized and characterized via facile method and characterized. The synthesized nanomaterial shows both magnetic and luminescent properties which are confirmed by VSM (vibrating sample magnetometer), UV-Vis spectra and the photoluminescence emission spectra. For the magnetic phase, i.e., nanocrystalline magnetite, Fe3O4 is used as the core which is then functionalized using polyethylene glycol (PEG) and for the luminescent phase, polyethylenimine (PEI) functionalized CaF2 doped with Tb3+is used as the emitter. Wherein, both PEG and PEI serve the dual purpose of functionalization as well as stabilization by steric repulsion. The structure and morphology of the synthesized bifunctional hybrid nanomaterial are studied with the help of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray powder diffraction

Occult breast primary malignancy presenting as isolated axillary lymph node metastasis — early detection of primary site by 18F-FDG PET/CT

Breast cancer patients rarely present with isolated axillary lymph node metastasis without any clinical or radiological evidence of primary tumor. Identification of the primary site of tumor helps in planning appropriate patient management which has definite impact on patient’s survival. We present here a case of 30-year-old female who presented with isolated right axillary lymph node metastasis with no evidence of primary tumor clinically. Conventional imaging modalities were negative for primary site. She underwent whole body 18F-Flurodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) and it contributed significantly in early detection of occult primary tumor in right breast

Hybrid SPECT-CT with 99mTc-labeled red blood cell in a case of blue rubber bleb nevus syndrome: added value over planar scintigraphy

Blue rubber bleb nevus syndrome (BRBNS) is a rare vascular anomaly syndrome consisting of multifocal venous malformations most commonly involving the skin, soft tissues, and gastrointestinal tract. The gastrointestinal lesions of BRBNS are the most clinically relevant malformations and carry a significant potential for serious bleeding. William Bennet Bean first coined the term “BRBNS” in 1958, and only 200 cases have been described since then (1). A few reports have described the use of 99mechnetium (99mTc)-labeled red blood cell (RBC) planar scintigraphy in BRBNS patients to localize the site of bleeding (2–5). To the best of our knowledge, however, the role of single-photon emission computed tomography-computed tomography (SPECT-CT) in examining such patients has not been evaluated. Here, we report the value of 99mTc-labeled RBC hybrid SPECT-CT over planar scintigraphy alone in a patient with BRBNS

Preoperative characterization of indeterminate large adrenal masses with dual tracer PET-CT using fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose and gallium-68-DOTANOC: initial results

PURPOSEWe aimed to evaluate the usefulness of dual tracer positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) with flourine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) and gallium-68 [1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid]-1-NaI3-octreotide (68Ga-DOTANOC) in preoperative characterization of large indeterminate adrenal masses.MATERIALS AND METHODSTen patients (four males, six females; median age, 35 years) with indeterminate, large (≥4 cm) adrenal masses were included in this prospective study. All patients underwent both 18F-FDG PET-CT and 68Ga-DOTANOC PET-CT within one week. Images were evaluated both visually and semi-quantitatively, with standardized uptake value (SUVmax) and SUVratio (SUVmax) of tumor/SUVmax) of mediastinum). Based on differential uptake pattern on 18F-FDG and 68Ga-DOTANOC, lesions were classified as cortical (18F-FDG>68Ga-DOTANOC), medullary (68Ga-DOTANOC>18F-FDG), or indeterminate (18F-FDG=68Ga-DOTANOC). Histopathology was taken as reference standard. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to find a cut-off of SUVmax) and SUVratio to differentiate cortical and medullary lesions.RESULTSOn histopathology, eight lesions were adrenocortical carcinomas, one was benign pheochromocytoma, and one was malignant pheochromocytoma. Visually, 18F-FDG PET-CT was positive in all ten lesions, while 68Ga-DOTANOC PET-CT was positive in two, both of which were pheochromocytomas. On SUVmax) based analysis, nine lesions were cortical and one was medullary. On ROC analysis, a SUVmax) cut-off of > 2.3 was obtained for 18F-FDG PET-CT and 3.6 for 68Ga-DOTANOC PET-CT for differentiating adrenal cortical and medullary lesions. The cut-off for SUVratio was 4.5 on 18F-FDG PET-CT and 11.1 on 68Ga-DOTANOC PET-CT.CONCLUSIONThese preliminary results demonstrate that dual tracer PET-CT using 18F-FDG and 68Ga-DOTANOC could be informative in the preoperative characterization of large indeterminate adrenal masses

Primary penile lymphoma: the use of PET-CT for accurate staging and response monitoring

Primary penile lymphoma is an extremely rare neoplasm. We present a case of 63-year-old man with painless diffuse pe- nile swelling and retention of urine. Biopsy from the penile swelling demonstrated CD20+ diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Staging was performed using fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) and revealed a FDG avid penile mass with enlarged and FDG avid multiple inguinal and aortocaval lymph nodes. A follow-up FDG PET-CT scan after eight cycles of combina- tion chemotherapy showed complete remission of the dis- ease. Thus, FDG PET-CT should be integrated in management protocols of rare primary penile lymphoma

Genetic affinities of the Jewish populations of India

Due to the lack of written records or inscription, the origin and affiliation of Indian Jewish populations with other world populations remain contentious. Previous genetic studies have found evidence for a minor shared ancestry of Indian Jewish with Middle Eastern (Jewish) populations. However, these studies (relied on limited individuals), haven’t explored the detailed temporal and spatial admixture process of Indian Jewish populations with the local Indian populations. Here, using large sample size with combination of high resolution biparental (autosomal) and uniparental markers (Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA), we reconstructed genetic history of Indian Jewish by investigating the patterns of genetic diversity. Consistent with the previous observations, we detected minor Middle Eastern specific ancestry component among Indian Jewish communities, but virtually negligible in their local neighbouring Indian populations. The temporal test of admixture suggested that the first admixture of migrant Jewish populations from Middle East to South India (Cochin) occurred during fifth century. Overall, we concluded that the Jewish migration and admixture in India left a record in their genomes, which can link them to the ‘Jewish Diaspora’