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Functional Characterization of Pol-dUT Fusion Enzymes from Pyrococcus Furiosus
No full textAlthough polymerase chain reaction is a powerful technique, often polymerizing errors can jeopardize the whole experiment especially when to study a cloned gene product. Long PCR with conventional Taq DNA polymerases is one such example, where conversion of dCTP to dUTP can increase the error frequency and dUTP incorporation as well. However, using proofreading polymerases for long PCR, the polymerization rate slows down significantly due to incorporation of dUTP during synthesis followed proofreading. To alleviate this problem, now a day we use dUTPase enzyme in the PCR. To have similar effect, our laboratory has designed two fusion enzyme constructs of both a proofreading polymerase and a dUTPase from Pyrococcus furiosus. We are reporting here that both these fusion constructs could remove dUTP from PCR reactions and able to amplify. This project particularly entails successful cloning, expression and purification of a dUTPase enzyme followed by its functional characterization in parallel with the above mentioned fusion enzymes
Developing an Appropriate Staff Mix for Anticoagulation Clinics: Functional Job Analysis Approach
No full textAnticoagulation clinics (ACCs) are specialty clinics that manage patients with blood clotting problems. Since labor costs usually account for a substantial portion of a healthcare organization’s budget, optimizing the number and types of staff required was often the focus, especially for ACCs, where labor-intensive staff-patient interactions occur. A significant portion of tasks performed by clinical pharmacists might be completed by clinical pharmacist technicians, which are less-expensive resources. While nurse staffing models for a hospital inpatient unit are well established, these models are not readily applicable to staffing ACCs. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to develop a framework for determining the right staff mix of clinical pharmacists and clinical pharmacy technicians that increases the efficiency of care delivery process and improves the productivity of ACC staff. A framework is developed and applied to build a semi-automated full-time equivalent (FTE) calculator and compare various staffing scenarios using a simulation model. The FTE calculator provides the right staff mix for a given staff utilization target. Data collected from the ACCs at VA Boston Healthcare System is used to illustrate the FTE calculator and the simulation model. The result of the simulation model can be used by ACC managers to easily determine the number of FTEs of clinical pharmacists and clinical pharmacy technicians required to reach the target utilization and the corresponding staffing cost
Staffing Optimization in Standardized Care Management Processes
No full textThis paper proposes a transformative framework where process improvement (standardisation) and staffing optimisation (integer programming) are integrated to enhance the performance of managed care organisations (MCOs) considering future surging demand. Four models (baseline and optimised for current and future states) are developed and compared using simulation. We find significant differences for all performance metrics between three alternatives and baseline model for current state: (1) optimised model for current state achieves cost reduction (31.71%) and higher staff utilisation (63.14%), without significant capacity increase; and (2) baseline model for future state results in significant capacity gain (2.05%), with less significant cost reduction and utilisation. Furthermore, optimised model for future state obtains largest capacity gain (2.31%), greatest cost reduction (44.43%), and highest utilisation (93.43%). All models result in acceptable average queue length. Additionally, process improvement affects all performance metrics, especially capacity, whereas staffing optimisation influences all other performance metrics than capacity
