Hydrophilic Silver Nanoparticles Loaded into Niosomes: Physical-Chemical Characterization in View of Biological Applications.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely used as antibacterial agents and anticancer drugs, but often their low stability limits their mass production and broad applications. The use of niosomes as a carrier to protect and envelop AgNPs gives a new perspective to solve these problems. In this study, AgNPs were functionalized with sodium 3-mercapto-1-propanesulfonate (3MPS) to induce hydrophilic behavior, improving loading in Tween 20 and Span 20 niosomes (NioTw20 and NioSp20, respectively).

The Balanced Scorecard of acute settings: development process, definition of 20 strategic objectives and implementation.

Context: Strategy development and implementation in acute care settings is often restricted by competing challenges, the pace of policy reform and the existence of parallel hierarchies.

Objective: To describe a generic approach to strategy development, illustrate the use of the Balanced Scorecard as a tool to facilitate strategy implementation and demonstrate how to break down strategic goals into measurable elements.

Design: Multi-method approach using three different conceptual models: Health Promoting Hospitals Standards and Strategies, the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Model and the Balanced Scorecard.

Parental preference of prandial insulin aspart compared with preprandial human insulin in a basal-bolus scheme with NPH insulin in a 12-wk crossover study of preschool children with type 1 diabetes.

Objectives: Preprandial insulin injection in preschool children is complicated by irregular eating habits. Postprandial injection of rapid-acting insulin analogs such as insulin aspart (IAsp) offers the convenience of adjusting insulin dose to match food consumed. This trial compared safety and efficacy - including parental treatment satisfaction - of two basal-bolus regimens [IAsp plus Neutral Protein Hagedorn (NPH) insulin vs.

Molecular case report: IgVH analysis in acute humoral and cellular liver allograft rejection suggests a selected accumulation of effector B cells and plasma cells.

Acute cellular (CLR) and humoral liver allograft rejection (HLR) are the most important immunological obstacles to successful liver transplantation. In HLR, serum antibodies play the central pathogenetic role. In CLR, CD3+ T lymphocytes drive the destructive immune response.

Description of B lymphocytes and plasma cells, complement, and chemokines/receptors in acute liver allograft rejection.

Background: Although antibody mechanisms play a pathogenetic role in liver allograft rejection, no data exist on B lymphocytes, plasma cells, complement, and chemokines in rejected liver tissue.

Methods: Liver biopsy specimens from 25 patients with acute allograft rejection (AR) (rejection activity index, RAI score: 1-9) were analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IH) and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and compared with biopsy specimens taken prior to implantation (PI). The number of CD20 and CD138 cells was evaluated, and the presence and abundance of the chemokines macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-3alpha, CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11, CXCL12, and their receptors CCR-6, CXCR3, and CXCR4 were examined.