Future development of focus group method in marketing system

The aim of the article. The article investigates the prospects of development of the focus groups method in the contemporary economy, discussed the theoretical background and features of the this method, identified the new properties and scope of implementation, justified the possibility of focus groups method using as a tool of indirect communication. The results of the analysis. We offer to look at the focus group - a qualitative method of marketing research as a specific tool of marketing communications. What can be used in situations where a certain organization or a product have a negative image and consumers were not much familiar with its functions and features. And then during the focus group using such techniques as personalization, role play and hypothetical scenarios that make the respondent feel the full seriousness of the situation and cause vivid emotions during work . Thus this understanding will remain in the memory of the participant for a long period. And good emotions and memories is always a pleasure to share with your loved ones. Conclusions and directions of further researches. After analysis of the data, we concluded that the method of focus group research can be regarded as a specific tool of marketing communications. It is specific because of certain indications for use such as the need to improve the image of the company, informing consumers about the functions performed by the organization and rapid change of views on the enterprise from the point of view of consumers

Claims-shifting: The problem of parallel reimbursement regimes

Parallel reimbursement regimes, under which providers have some discretion over which payer gets billed for patient treatment, are a common feature of health care markets. In the U.S., the largest such system is under Workers’ Compensation (WC), where the treatment workers with injuries that are not definitively tied to a work accident may be billed either under group health insurance plans or under WC. We document that there is significant reclassification of injuries from group health plans into WC, or “claims shifting”, when the financial incentives to do so are strongest. In particular, we find that injuries to workers enrolled in capitated group health plans (such as HMOs) see a higher incidence of their claims for soft-tissue injuries (which are hard to classify specifically as work related) under WC than under group health, relative to those in non-capitated plans. Such a pattern is not evident for workers with traumatic injuries. Moreover, we find that such reclassification is more common in states with higher WC fees, once again for soft tissue but not traumatic injuries. Our results imply that a significant shift towards capitated reimbursement, or reimbursement reductions, under GH could lead to a large rise in the cost of WC plans

Stability analysis of some integrable Euler equations for SO(n)

A family of special cases of the integrable Euler equations on $so(n)$ introduced by Manakov in 1976 is considered. The equilibrium points are found and their stability is studied. Heteroclinic orbits are constructed that connect unstable equilibria and are given by the orbits of certain 1-parameter subgroups of SO(n). The results are complete in the case $n=4$ and incomplete for $n>4$.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX, minor stylistic changes in v

Further explorations of Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov mass formulas. III: Role of particle-number projection

Starting from HFB-6, we have constructed a new mass table, referred to as HFB-8, including all the 9200 nuclei lying between the two drip lines over the range of Z and N > 6 and Z < 122. It differs from HFB-6 in that the wave function is projected on the exact particle number. Like HFB-6, the isoscalar effective mass is constrained to the value 0.80 M and the pairing is density independent. The rms errors of the mass-data fit is 0.635 MeV, i.e. better than almost all our previous HFB mass formulas. The extrapolations of this new mass formula out to the drip lines do not differ significantly from the previous HFB-6 mass formula.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Antitumor activity of low-dimensional alumina structures

Nano-dimensional materials have recently attracted much attention with respect to their potential role in medicine. Physical mechanisms of interaction of nanoparticles with tumor cells will help to develop new methods for cancer disease treatment. Based on aluminum oxide phases, positively charged low-dimensional structures have different shape: agglomerates of nanosheets, nameplates, cone-shaped nanoaggregates were synthesized with the help of aluminum nanoparticles. The cytotoxicity effect of these low-dimensional structures on A549, HeLa, MDA, PyMT tumor cells was studied. It was shown that agglomerates of nanosheets were more toxic for investigating cell lines. Agglomerates of nanosheets had a medium toxic effect at a concentration of 10?mg/ml while nameplates and cone-shaped nanoaggregates were nontoxic. The toxic effect of agglomerates of nanosheets correlates with their shape, mainly the presence of multiple edges

Comparative analysis of the effect of low-dimensional alumina structures on cell lines L929 and Neuro-2a

The paper presents the toxicity evaluation of nanostructures on the basis of alumina of different shape (nanofibers, nanoplates, nanosheets, nanosheet agglomerates) and with similar physical and chemical properties (particle size, specific surface area, phase composition, and zeta potential). The nanostructures were examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), low-temperature nitrogen adsorption, and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The cytotoxicity of nanostructures was estimated using L929 fibroblast cells and Neuro-2a tumor cells. It has been found that the L929 cells are less subject to the influence of alumina nanoparticles than the Neuro-2a tumor cells. Probably, the differences in the proliferation activity of normal and tumor cells in contact with the synthesized nanostructures are due to a change in the pH of the cell microenvironment

Force dipoles and stable local defects on fluid vesicles

An exact description is provided of an almost spherical fluid vesicle with a fixed area and a fixed enclosed volume locally deformed by external normal forces bringing two nearby points on the surface together symmetrically. The conformal invariance of the two-dimensional bending energy is used to identify the distribution of energy as well as the stress established in the vesicle. While these states are local minima of the energy, this energy is degenerate; there is a zero mode in the energy fluctuation spectrum, associated with area and volume preserving conformal transformations, which breaks the symmetry between the two points. The volume constraint fixes the distance $S$, measured along the surface, between the two points; if it is relaxed, a second zero mode appears, reflecting the independence of the energy on $S$; in the absence of this constraint a pathway opens for the membrane to slip out of the defect. Logarithmic curvature singularities in the surface geometry at the points of contact signal the presence of external forces. The magnitude of these forces varies inversely with $S$ and so diverges as the points merge; the corresponding torques vanish in these defects. The geometry behaves near each of the singularities as a biharmonic monopole, in the region between them as a surface of constant mean curvature, and in distant regions as a biharmonic quadrupole. Comparison of the distribution of stress with the quadratic approximation in the height functions points to shortcomings of the latter representation. Radial tension is accompanied by lateral compression, both near the singularities and far away, with a crossover from tension to compression occurring in the region between them.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figure