The results support the hypothesised own-price and cross-price effects, showing that DRGs which share similar resources appear to be complements rather substitutes. For-profit hospitals do not appear to be more responsive to DRG profitability, possibly because of their institutional characteristics and bonds with local communities. The key conclusion is that DRG-based payments will encourage a type of ‘product-range’
specialisation, which may improve hospital efficiency in the long GW786034 research buy run. However, further research is needed on how changes in output mix impact patient access and pay-outs of health insurance. Copyright (C) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.”
“Herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) represents one of the most severe infectious diseases of the central nervous system. As effective antiviral drugs are available, early rapid 4-Hydroxytamoxifen and reliable diagnosis has become important. The objective of the present study was to develop a sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
protocol for herpes simplex virus (HSV) antigen detection by assessing the usefulness of hyperimmune sera isolated from HSV-seropositive patients. A total of 52 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and 62 serum samples of HSE patients and non-HSE persons were analyzed. An in-house ELISA protocol utilizing hyperimmune sera was developed for HSV antigen detection. To improve the specificity of the method, protein A was incorporated into the protocol for ELISA. The sensitivity (70% and 90%) of antigen detection was high in CSF and serum samples, respectively, of confirmed HSE patients. However, lower specificity (52.3% and 42.3%), respectively, was obtained, which was improved
by using protein A in the ELISA protocol. The modification in the method yielded good sensitivity (80% and 70%) and specificity (85.7% and 88.4%) of HSV antigen detection in the CSF and sera, respectively, of the HSE and non-HSE groups. The ELISA method utilizing hyperimmune sera along with protein A for HSV antigen detection yielded good sensitivity and specificity in both CSF and www.selleckchem.com/products/birinapant-tl32711.html sera, and hence can be useful for the diagnosis of HSE.”
“Purpose: To develop a flexible pencil beam algorithm for helium ion beam therapy. Dose distributions were calculated using the newly developed pencil beam algorithm and validated using Monte Carlo (MC) methods.\n\nMethods: The algorithm was based on the established theory of fluence weighted elemental pencil beam (PB) kernels. Using a new real-time splitting approach, a minimization routine selects the optimal shape for each sub-beam. Dose depositions along the beam path were determined using a look-up table (LUT). Data for LUT generation were derived from MC simulations in water using GATE 6.1. For materials other than water, dose depositions were calculated by the algorithm using water-equivalent depth scaling.