Tune Without a Piper

Will paying the piper change the tune?

Most provincial governments are considering or introducing changes to hospital funding. Ten years of rapidly increasing expenditures have left them still facing complaints of waiting lists and waiting times. Activity-based funding (ABF) would supplement traditional negotiated global budgets, reimbursing a predetermined amount for each case treated - essentially, a "fee schedule" - thus providin...

He who pays the piper calls the tune.

Previously instituted policies regarding prosthetic limb provision had been deemed dependable. A follow-up home visit study showed that 18 of 60 patients that had been provided with prostheses, did not make use of them. Analysis showed that three categories of patients made up the large majority of the non-users; double amputees, blind persons and those with psychiatric disorders. In order to a...

He Who Pays The Piper Must Know The Tune

He who pays the piper calls the tune, but he can only succesfully call for a tune that he will recognize upon hearing. Previous models, of two candidates impressing a voter and of firm managers impressing stock speculators, found experts ignoring costly superior information in favor of client preconceptions. Similar result hold when we greatly generalize the agents, choices, information structu...

Paying the piper, calling the tune: implications of changes in reimbursement.

Alkaloids from Piper nigrum and Piper betle

An investigation, on the roots of Piper nigrum and the aerial parts of Piper betle, has yielded several alkaloids. The dried root sample of Piper nigrum was extracted using various solvents in increasing polarity. The dried aerial part of Piper betle was extracted using the Soxhlet extraction method. The alkaloids isolated were pellitorine(1), (E)-1-[3’,4’(Methylenedioxy)cinnamoyl]piperidine(2)...