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Recently, antiferroelectric and antiferroelectric‐like materials have regained interest in electronic devices, such as field‐effect transistors, memory, and transducers. Particularly in micro/nano‐electromechanical coupling systems such as actuators, these innovative materials, with their peculiar phase transition between antiferroelectric and ferroelectric phases, show promise in offering large electro‐strain, fast response, and low power consumption devices. However, compared to numerous computational models of ferroelectric actuators, numerical modeling of antiferroelectric and antiferroelectric‐like actuators remains relatively unexplored. In this paper, we propose a phenomenological model of uniaxial antiferroelectric and antiferroelectric‐like actuators based on their switching polarization behavior. Specifically, both the double hysteresis loop of antiferroelectric materials and the pinched hysteresis loop of antiferroelectric‐like materials can be captured by two hyperbolic tangent functions. This allows us to cast a polarization‐dependent strain and piezoelectric tensor into the constitutive laws. The proposed model is then implemented into a finite element framework, in which the voltage‐induced deformation can be solved using the Newton–Raphson procedure. Numerical examples of both antiferroelectric and antiferroelectric‐like actuators are illustrated and compared with experimental data, showing our proposed model can serve as a useful tool for the design and development of antiferroelectric and antiferroelectric‐like actuators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Will increasing employee participation in reward decisions increase new product performance by first increasing a firm's level of market orientation? Literature offers limited insight to the effects of listening to employees regarding reward system design and whether this may influence market orientation implementation and new product performance. This paper provides research to fill the gap by examining the relationship between participation-based reward systems, market orientation, and new product performance. Based on expectancy theory, a conceptual model was developed suggesting that participation-based rewards will increase market orientation by considering employees' desires regarding performance rewards. To test the model, a mixed method was used to collect data. First, in-depth interviews were conducted with managers from 11 different firms to verify the proposed model. Then a multi-industry sample of managers from 290 firms was surveyed to maximize generalizability of the results. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling techniques to simultaneously fit the measurement and structural models. The findings show that market orientation significantly impacts objective new product performance and mediates the relationship between participation-based rewards and objective new product performance. Participation-based rewards positively affect market orientation but surprisingly affect new product performance negatively, while positively moderating the relationship between market orientation and new product performance. The results suggest that managers should include employee input in designing reward systems. However, managers should also be careful of how much input they allow employees in determining their rewards and goals as more input will improve market orientation or responding to information collected by, and disseminated throughout the firm, and that, in turn, will improve some types of new product performance. However, the direct effect of employee input can decrease new product performance suggesting that there may be a trade-off between various success measures of new products developed and introduced by the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Myanmar National AIDS programme's priority is to improve the survival of all people living with HIV by providing anti-retroviral therapy (ART) care. More than 7200 children (aged <15 years) have been enrolled into ART care from 2005 to 2016. A previous study showed that ~11% children on ART care had either died or were lost to follow-up by 60 months. Factors associated with death and lost-to follow-up (adverse outcomes) have not been previously studied., Objectives: To describe the association between demographic and clinical characteristics at enrollment into ART care with adverse outcomes., Methods: Cohort study using records of children enrolled for ART care at Mingalardon Specialist Hospital (main Paediatric ART center in Myanmar) from 2006-2016. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models for analysis., Results: 1,159 children were enrolled for ART care and they contributed a total of 1.45 million person-days of follow-up period. 112 (10%) had an adverse outcome during the follow-up time period (55 deaths, 57 lost to follow-up). Enrollment into the ART care through in-patient care department of the hospital, CD4 Cell count <50/mm3, enrollment during changing ART guidelines (different ART eligibility criteria and preferred ART regimen) were independently associated with higher hazards of adverse outcome. Receiving protease inhibitor-based ART regimen at enrollment was independently associated with lower hazards of adverse outcome. Age, sex, residing in urban or rural areas, WHO clinical stage, having TB at the time of enrollment, receiving cotrimoxazole prophylaxis were not statistically associated with adverse outcomes., Conclusion: Our analysis reconfirms good survival of children on ART care (including those with TB). The characteristics associated with adverse outcomes (other than CD4 cell count<50) are surrogates of some unmeasured underlying health system/ patient related factors that needs further exploration to improve the survival of children on ART care.

Background: A project was implemented in 2010 to improve TB notification and TB screening and diagnostic routines in large general hospitals. The aims of present study was to assess baseline TB screening and diagnostic practices in the three largest general hospitals in Vietnam., Objectives: To assess baseline TB screening and diagnostic practices in the three largest general hospitals in Vietnam., Method: The study had three elements: 1) Focus group discussions with hospital physicians; 2) review of hospital records and structured interviews of people who had a chest X-ray on any indication; and 3) record reviews and structured interviews of people newly diagnosed with TB., Results: The most commonly reported diagnostic pathway for pulmonary TB was chest X-ray followed by sputum-smear microscopy. Among 599 individuals who had a chest X-ray performed, 391 (65.1%) had recorded any abnormality, significantly higher in males (73.8%) than in females (54.7%), (p < 0.001), and the proportion was increasing with age (p <0.001). Among those with abnormal chest X-ray, 245 (69.2%) were investigated with sputum smear microscopy, and 49 (20%) were diagnosed with TB, of which 33 (13.5%) were smear-positive.Of 103 consecutive TB cases enrolled in the study, 92 (90%) had chest X-ray as the initial test. Sixty-three (61.2%) fulfilled the TB suspect criteria based on respiratory symptoms (productive cough >2 weeks)., Conclusion: Chest X-ray is the preferred first test for TB in the largest hospitals in Vietnam. Chest X-ray is a sensitive screening tool for TB, which should be followed by a confirmatory TB test. While the majority of those with chest X-ray abnormalities are investigated with smear-microscopy, the high sputum-smear positivity ratio among them suggests that sputum-smear microscopy is done mainly for persons with quite clear TB signs or symptoms. TB screening and use of confirmatory diagnostic tests on wider indications seem warranted.