DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FOR-PROFIT, NON-PROFIT, AND PUBLIC HOSPITALS IN MEDICAL AND NON-MEDICAL CATEGORIES: COSTS AND OUTSOURCING DECISIONS

The purpose of this study is to measure and compare several potential differences between for-profit, non-profit, and public hospitals in medical and non-medical cost categories. To do this, costs associated with two medical and two non-medical categories for California short-term general care hospitals were broken down into several subsets in order to better understand exactly how and why each category behaves as it does. The results show significant differences for total costs between for-profits and the other hospital types across the board and a difference for outsourcing decisions between for-profits and the other hospital types for the medical categories but not for the non-medical categories

Building a state on shifting sands: An evaluation of the Palestinian National Authority's policy reforms and performance in the West Bank, 2009-2011

Since the inception of the Palestinian National Authority (PA) in 1994, leadership has struggled in its role to create a safe environment conducive to economic and social prosperity, and to negotiate an end to the Israeli occupation and recognition of an independent State of Palestine. Following a violent Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation from 2000 to 2005, the Palestinian legislature crumbled after there was international fallout with the PA over Hamas winning a majority of the legislature seats. Since 2007, Hamas has ruled in the Gaza Strip largely independent of the PA and a Fatah-dominant Palestinian caretaker government has ruled in the West Bank. There have been substantial differences between the trajectory of their economic, geopolitical, legal and social development. In the West Bank, PA leaders unveiled a series of state and institution building plans anchored in a commitment to security that garnered broad international support. This thesis provides a historical account of the development of the PA institutions and the limits of its authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The primary research aim of this thesis is to evaluate the effectiveness of the state and institution building plan, Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State, in the West Bank during the 2009-2011 period in regards to the security landscape, judicial system, and economic development in the West Bank, as well as the attempt to end the occupation and solidify recognition as a sovereign Palestinian state. Underlying pressures on state building in Palestine are identified and this thesis presents a strategy for Palestinian leadership so that when it comes to the negotiating table with Israel, it will be as a respected, organized and united body that has enacted all measures possible to guarantee the degree of peace and prosperity that are within their control. While Palestinians' ultimate aim is statehood recognition and an end to the Israeli occupation, this thesis argues that reforming the Israeli-Palestinian economic framework is a critical first step to advancing Palestinian national interests and state and institution building aims

Expanding the diversity of mycobacteriophages: Insights into genome architecture and evolution

Mycobacteriophages are viruses that infect mycobacterial hosts such as Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. All mycobacteriophages characterized to date are dsDNA tailed phages, and have either siphoviral or myoviral morphotypes. However, their genetic diversity is considerable, and although sixty-two genomes have been sequenced and comparatively analyzed, these likely represent only a small portion of the diversity of the mycobacteriophage population at large. Here we report the isolation, sequencing and comparative genomic analysis of 18 new mycobacteriophages isolated from geographically distinct locations within the United States. Although no clear correlation between location and genome type can be discerned, these genomes expand our knowledge of mycobacteriophage diversity and enhance our understanding of the roles of mobile elements in viral evolution. Expansion of the number of mycobacteriophages grouped within Cluster A provides insights into the basis of immune specificity in these temperate phages, and we also describe a novel example of apparent immunity theft. The isolation and genomic analysis of bacteriophages by freshman college students provides an example of an authentic research experience for novice scientists. © 2011 Hatfull et al

The Role of Transporters in the Pharmacokinetics of Orally Administered Drugs

Drug transporters are recognized as key players in the processes of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination. The localization of uptake and efflux transporters in organs responsible for drug biotransformation and excretion gives transporter proteins a unique gatekeeper function in controlling drug access to metabolizing enzymes and excretory pathways. This review seeks to discuss the influence intestinal and hepatic drug transporters have on pharmacokinetic parameters, including bioavailability, exposure, clearance, volume of distribution, and half-life, for orally dosed drugs. This review also describes in detail the Biopharmaceutics Drug Disposition Classification System (BDDCS) and explains how many of the effects drug transporters exert on oral drug pharmacokinetic parameters can be predicted by this classification scheme

Expanding the diversity of mycobacteriophages: insights into genome architecture and evolution.

Mycobacteriophages are viruses that infect mycobacterial hosts such as Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. All mycobacteriophages characterized to date are dsDNA tailed phages, and have either siphoviral or myoviral morphotypes. However, their genetic diversity is considerable, and although sixty-two genomes have been sequenced and comparatively analyzed, these likely represent only a small portion of the diversity of the mycobacteriophage population at large. Here we report the isolation, sequencing and comparative genomic analysis of 18 new mycobacteriophages isolated from geographically distinct locations within the United States. Although no clear correlation between location and genome type can be discerned, these genomes expand our knowledge of mycobacteriophage diversity and enhance our understanding of the roles of mobile elements in viral evolution. Expansion of the number of mycobacteriophages grouped within Cluster A provides insights into the basis of immune specificity in these temperate phages, and we also describe a novel example of apparent immunity theft. The isolation and genomic analysis of bacteriophages by freshman college students provides an example of an authentic research experience for novice scientists

A performance evaluation of multiple classification models of human PEPT1 inhibitors and non-inhibitors

The human PEPT1 protein is an influx transporter known to influence the ADME profile of several bioactive compounds. A good example is acyclovir, which possesses high safety and selectivity but has a low bioavailability. The l-valyl ester prodrug of this compound is transported by PEPT1, resulting in a three- to four-fold increase in plasma levels. Therefore, knowledge of the Structure–Activity Relationships (SAR) of PEPT1 ligands can enable us to favourably manipulate the ADME properties of promising leads that suffer from low bioavailability. We applied three classification methods (naïve Bayesian classification, recursive partitioning and linear discriminant analysis) together with the descriptors best suited for each method to a large PEPT1 inhibitor/non-inhibitor dataset. This dataset was assembled from literature and was divided into three groups: the ‘inhibitor’ group (Ki≤1 mM, 113 compounds), the ‘unknown’ group (Ki>1 mM and <4.48 mM, 21 compounds) and the ‘non-inhibitor’ group (Ki≥4.48 mM, 69 compounds). The inhibitor and non-inhibitor groups were used to build the models. The Bayesian classification model together with fingerprint descriptors was found to produce the best results. Of a test set of 46 compounds, it correctly classified 89% (concordance). It correctly classified 96% of the inhibitors and 78% of the non-inhibitors. Although the model informs us only about structural requirements for inhibition and not necessarily for transportation, the SAR identified by the Bayesian model support previously published results. In addition, the results were obtained in a short-time span, without the need of three-dimensional configurations and with more compounds than in previous studies