Thesis (Ph. D.)--Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Katherine Willoughby, Committee Member ; Juan Rogers, Committee Member ; John Clayton Thomas, Committee Member ; Gregory B. Lewis, Committee Member ; Robert J. Eger, III, Committee Chair.

Thesis (D.P.H.)--University of Michigan.

Dissertation (D.P.H.)--University of Michigan.

This study examines 1) whether the different expenditure mechanisms used by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) invite different sources of influences on the budget process and thus on the expenditure outcomes and 2) whether the frequent use of omnibus appropriations bills since 1996 has changed budget levels of the institutes under the NIH. The NIH uses two major expenditure mechanisms with very different beneficiary groups: the principal investigator-initiated Research Project Grants and Intramural Research. Drawing on theories of motivations of public officials and of political clout of agency heads and considering empirical studies of the effect of omnibus legislation, this study reveals the following: 1) directors with more public service experience are more successful in securing a higher budget for their institutes; 2) while the directors are found to be driven by public service motivation, when it comes to expenditure allocation between two different mechanisms, they behave in a self-interested manner, representing the interests of the institutional sectors where they have developed close relationships; 3) with ever-increasing budgets between 1983 and 2005, the institute directors have chosen to seek higher budgets rather than merely avoid the risk of budget cuts; 4) although the advisory boards are purportedly used to seek private input for the priority setting, they tend to increase intramural more than external research project grant expenditures; 5) the practice of omnibus appropriations bills significantly benefits the institutes under the NIH such that with omnibus legislation the institutes¡¯ total expenditures have more than doubled controlling the other factors; and 6) there are significant differences in the effects of the director¡¯s public experience and the number of advisory boards and their membership both (i) between disease-focused institutes and nondisease institutes and (ii) with and without omnibus legislation. The effects of the director¡¯s public service experience and the advisory boards have more budgetary impact in the general science-focused institutes than in their disease-focused counterparts. The influence of the advisory board and of the institute director¡¯s public service experience on the individual institute¡¯s expenditure level is significantly diminished by the frequent use of omnibus appropriations bills.

From Dar es Salaam to Dartmouth: A Case Study of the Experiences of Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program Fellows at Dartmouth Lisa Purvis, EdD Candidate, MPH, MBA Background The United States (US) is a major host nation to international college students and scholars who study a variety of disciplines (Farrugia & Bhandari, 2014). Beginning in the last decade, the demand for global health training has risen (Kanter, 2008; Kerry, Ndung'u, Walensky, Lees, Kayanjas, & Bangsberg, 2011). Since 2000, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth has been one of 26 US universities participating in a global health training program, funded by the National Institutes of Health, Fogarty International Center's AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP). The Fogarty AITRP annually trains scholars (Fogarty Fellows) and focuses on building HIV/AIDS research and medical capacity in low- and middle-income countries through advanced training. Along with the economic, social, and cultural assets that international students bring, are key challenges in students' transition, assimilation, and acculturation. It has been observed that many of the Dartmouth Fogarty Fellows have experienced issues in matriculating at Dartmouth. Purpose of Research Little data exists on the experiences of international students studying global health in the US. Using a case study of the Fogarty Fellows at Dartmouth, this qualitative research project sought to examine their unique transition and assimilation experiences as international graduate students. A secondary purpose of the case study was to identify ways to improve students' experiences. Berry's theory of acculturation provided the theoretical framework for the project (Berry, 1997). Research Approach A qualitative approach was used, guided by Action Research methodology. Action Research focuses on problem-solving and it is typically defined as a reflective process of progressive problem-solving led by an individual(s), who is part of the community of practice, to address issues and solve problems (Bargal, 2008). Research Methods To gain a fuller understanding of the issues and to identify solutions to problems of acculturation that may already exist, in-depth interviews took place with 22 participants: 1) 10 alumni of the Fogarty Program at Dartmouth College; 2) 5 MPH faculty at Dartmouth; 3) 2 MPH administrators; 4) 4 Dartmouth Fogarty Program administrators; and 5) the Fogarty International Fellows Program Officer at NIH. Field research also took place in Tanzania, the home country of the Fogarty Fellows at Dartmouth, to understand the Tanzanian context. Findings Recommendations for program improvement included formalizing the program at several milestones; providing comprehensive pre-matriculation information; using technology to orient Fellows to their new environment; formal mentoring and networking; cross-cultural training with students; and orienting the faculty to the program and the needs of international students. Colleges and universities need to understand the unique experiences and the student support needs of the international student. Future research at the 25 Fogarty AITRP US-based sites is recommended before implementing any of the Dartmouth-based recommendations.

From fighting microbial infections to preparing for pandemics, Brett Finlay is discovering how the body's own defenses could boost our chances in the battle against infectious diseases.

This study examines the criteria which help academics receive National Institute of Health funds (NIH). The study covers 3,092 NIH recipients and non-recipients in the same department or institute at twenty-four universities. The universities are drawn from those below the top twenty in terms of receipt of NIH funds. With regards to performance, non- recipients have lower performance than recipients. A key determinant of the receipt of NIH funds is individual performance, as measured by the number of articles published and average citations per article in the two years immediately prior to the grant application. Professors receive more NIH money than do associates and assistant professors. Other positive contributors are the field of study, whether the academic has both a PhD. and Medical degree, and has licensed an innovation, been involved in the start of a new business and patented an invention through the university. To the extent that individual performance criteria represent the quality of the research proposal, allocation of NIH funds is based on merit. A Tobit model indicates that being highly cited does not guarantee increasing returns. Likewise, career citations have only a small statistically significant impact. In addition, a negative coefficient associated with the second derivatives of both articles published in 2006-07 and their associated citations indicate diminishing marginal returns.

This study examines 1) whether the different expenditure mechanisms used by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) invite different sources of influences on the budget process and thus on the expenditure outcomes and 2) whether the frequent use of omnibus appropriations bills since 1996 has changed budget levels of the institutes under the NIH. The NIH uses two major expenditure mechanisms with very different beneficiary groups: the principal investigator-initiated Research Project Grants and Intramural Research. Drawing on theories of motivations of public officials and of political clout of agency heads and considering empirical studies of the effect of omnibus legislation, this study reveals the following: 1) directors with more public service experience are more successful in securing a higher budget for their institutes; 2) while the directors are found to be driven by public service motivation, when it comes to expenditure allocation between two different mechanisms, they behave in a self-interested manner, representing the interests of the institutional sectors where they have developed close relationships; 3) with ever-increasing budgets between 1983 and 2005, the institute directors have chosen to seek higher budgets rather than merely avoid the risk of budget cuts; 4) although the advisory boards are purportedly used to seek private input for the priority setting, they tend to increase intramural more than external research project grant expenditures; 5) the practice of omnibus appropriations bills significantly benefits the institutes under the NIH such that with omnibus legislation the institutes' total expenditures have more than doubled controlling the other factors; and 6) there are significant differences in the effects of the director's public experience and the number of advisory boards and their membership both (i) between disease-focused institutes and nondisease institutes and (ii) with and without omnibus legislation. The effects of the director's public service experience and the advisory boards have more budgetary impact in the general science-focused institutes than in their disease-focused counterparts. The influence of the advisory board and of the institute director's public service experience on the individual institute's expenditure level is significantly diminished by the frequent use of omnibus appropriations bills.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The literature corresponding to disordered proteins has been on a rise. As the number of publications increase, the time and effort needed to manually identify the relevant publications and protein information to add to centralized repository (called DisProt) is becoming arduous and critical. Existing search facilities on PubMed can retrieve a seemingly large number of publications based on keywords and does not have any support for ranking them based on the probability of the protein names mentioned in a given abstract being added to DisProt. This thesis explores a novel system of using disorder predictors and context based dictionary methods to quickly identify publications on disordered proteins from the PubMed database. NLProt, which is built around Support Vector Machines, is used to identify protein names and PONDR-FIT which is an Artificial Neural Network based meta- predictor is used for identifying protein disorder. The work done in this thesis is of immediate significance in identifying disordered protein names. We have tested the new system on 100 abstracts from DisProt [these abstracts were found to be relevant to disordered proteins and were added to DisProt manually by the annotators.] This system had an accuracy of 87% on this test set. We then took another 100 recently added abstracts from PubMed and ran our algorithm on them. This time it had an accuracy of 68%. We suggested improvements to increase the accuracy and believe that this system can be applied for identifying disordered proteins from literature.

Pražské nemocnice v letech 1948-1968 Ing. Mgr. Kateřina Murtingerová Summary: This work presents a development of Prague hospitals during 1948 and 1968. The first part of my thesis describes theoretical and historical background of health care provision in the first half of the 20st century and it is focused on development of Czech healthcare system. This part of thesis also includes reform plans and concepts proposed during the first republic and the Second World War, with special attention to Albert and Nedvěd's plans playing a key role in setting of healthcare provision after the year 1948. The second part of this thesis is based on legislative and institutional analysis after the Second World War that was developing hand in hand with social, political, and economic changes in Czechoslovakia. Important part of this capture is also an assessment of the results of health care provision during 1948-1968 from the perspective of the whole country, including structure and availability of hospital care, demographic trends and population health trends, expenditure of health care provision and preventive measures etc. Thesis also includes historical overview of academic environment. The issue of Prague hospitals and hospital care is framed in the context of institutional and legal framework of health care system...