Root canals and retailing. When it comes to merchandising activities in a dental office, dentists are their own worst critics.

As professional service providers continue to face an increasingly competitive environment, marketing becomes a more attractive prospect. One marketing activity that has emerged in recent years is the retailing of products related to one's profession directly from the office. The authors explore the retailing phenomenon from the perspective of dentists and dental patients and find that patients are less critical of the practice than dentists are themselves.

Scanning electron microscopy of stellate cells of mammalian adrenal cortex as revealed by NaOH maceration.

After removal of connective tissues by the NaOH maceration method, adrenal gland stellate cells of monkeys, rats and rabbits were studied by scanning electron microscopy. The stellate cells were situated in the perivascular and interstitial spaces and showed an ovoid cell body with numerous round or flat processes. Through these processes they were in contact with other adjacent stellate cells and thus formed a continuous cellular net around capillaries and parenchymal cells. This net, which probably provides a cellular scaffolding for the gland, may also play additional roles such as capillary contraction and nutrition for adjacent parenchymal cells.

Hospital benefit segmentation.

Market segmentation is an important topic to both health care practitioners and researchers. The authors explore the relative importance that health care consumers attach to various benefits available in a major metropolitan area hospital. The purposes of the study are to test, and provide data to illustrate, the efficacy of one approach to hospital benefit segmentation analysis.