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The management by objectives method has become highly used in health management. In this context, the blood transfusion and haemovigilance service has been chosen for a pilot study by the Head Department of the Ibn Sina Hospital in Rabat. This study was conducted from 2009 to 2011, in four steps. The first one consisted in preparing human resources (information and training), identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the service and the identification and classification of the service's users. The second step was the elaboration of the terms of the contract, which helped to determine two main strategic objectives: to strengthen the activities of the service and move towards the "status of reference." Each strategic objective had been declined in operational objectives, then in actions and the means required for the implementation of each action. The third step was the implementation of each action (service, head department) so as to comply with the terms of the contract as well as to meet the deadlines. Based on assessment committees, the last step consisted in the evaluation process. This evaluation was performed using monitoring indicators and showed that management by objectives enabled the Service to reach the "clinical governance level", to optimize its human and financial resources and to reach the level of "national laboratory of reference in histocompatibility". The scope of this paper is to describe the four steps of this pilot study and to explain the usefulness of the management by objectives method in health management.

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BACKGROUND: The aim of our study has to evaluate the antiproliferative effect of polyphenols and sterols extracted from the virgin argan oil on three human prostatic cell lines (DU145, LNCaP, and PC3). METHODS: Cytotoxicity, anti-proliferative effects and nuclear morphological changes of cells were analyzed after treatment with sterols and polyphenols. The results were compared to 2-methoxyestradiol (2ME(2)) as positive control. RESULTS: Polyphenols and sterols of virgin argan oil and 2ME(2) exhibited a dose-response cytotoxic effect and antiproliferative action on the three tested cell lines. The antiproliferative effect of polyphenols was similar for the DU145 and LNCaP cell lines; the GI(50) (defined as the concentration inhibiting growth by 50% in comparison with the control) was respectively 73 and 70microg/ml. The antiproliferative effect of sterols was 46 and 60microg/ml as GI(50) for the DU145 and LNCaP cell lines. For the PC3 cell line, the best antiproliferative effect was obtained by argan sterols with GI(50)=43microg/ml. On the other hand, the nuclear morphology analyses have shown an increased proportion of pro-apoptotic of nuclei in LNCaP cell treated with IC(50) of polyphenols or sterols compared to control cells. Our results show for the first time the antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic effects of polyphenols and sterols extracted from virgin argan oil and confirm the antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic effects of 2ME(2) on prostate cancer cell lines. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that argan oil may be interesting in the development of new strategies for prostate cancer prevention.

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The aim of our study is to evaluate the antiproliferative effect of tocopherols obtained from alimentary virgin argan oil extracted from the endemic argan tree of Morocco and of saponins extracted from argan press cake on three human prostatic cell lines (DU145, LNCaP, and PC3). The results were compared to 2-methoxyestradiol as antiproliferative drug candidates. Cytotoxicity and antiproliferative effects were investigated after cells' treatment with tocopherols and saponins compared to 2-Methoxyoestradiol as the positive control. Tocopherols and saponins extracted from argan tree and 2-methoxyestradiol exhibit a dose-response cytotoxic effect and an antiproliferative action on the tested cell lines. The best antiproliferative effect of tocopherols is obtained with DU145 and LNCaP cell lines (28 microg/ml and 32 microg/ml, respectively, as GI50). The saponins fraction displayed the best antiproliferative effect on the PC3 cell line with 18 microg/ml as GI50. Our results confirm the antiproliferative effect of 2-methoxyestradiol and show for the first time the antiproliferative effect of tocopherols and saponins extracted from the argan tree on hormone-dependent and hormone-independent prostate cancer cell lines. These data suggest that argan oil is of potential interest in developing new strategies for prostate cancer prevention.

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AIM: To evaluate whether the consumption of virgin argan oil (VAO) is associated with a change in serum lipids and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease in healthy Moroccans. METHODS: Sixty volunteers consumed butter (25 g/day) during 2 weeks (stabilization period) and were randomly divided into two groups: the treatment group received 25 g/day of VAO during 3 weeks (intervention period), and the control group received 25 g/day of extra virgin olive oil (EVO). Throughout the study, weight, blood pressure, and daily food intake were measured. Serum total cholesterol and low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and apolipoproteins A-I and B were measured at the end of each diet period. RESULTS: Analysis of food intake showed that the daily diet is isocaloric for the butter regimen (2,537 +/- 244 kcal/day) as well as for the VAO and EVO regimens (2,561+/- 246 and 2,560 +/- 253 kcal/day, respectively). Analysis of the lipid intake showed a reduction in saturated fatty acids with VAO and EVO regimens (27 +/- 1.4 and 26.4 +/- 3.4%, respectively) as compared with the stabilization period (41.6 +/- 2.4%). The analysis of serum lipids showed a significant increase in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein A-I in both VAO group (8.4%, p = 0.012, and 5.2%, p = 0.027, respectively) and EVO group (17.3%, p = 0.001, and 5.9%, p = 0.036, respectively). However, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein B (13.8%, p = 0.037, and 7.8%, p = 0.039, respectively) decreased significantly only in EVO group as compared with the stabilization period, while triglycerides decreased significantly by 17.5% (p = 0.039) only in VAO group. CONCLUSION: These results confirm the cholesterol-lowering effect of EVO and show for the first time the triglyceride-lowering effect of VAO in men.

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We report a case of intrapericardial paraganglioma accidentally discovered during surgery for mixed mitral valve disease. The 6 cm tumor was located in the aorta-caval groove, adherent to the roof of the left atrium and compressing the superior vena cava. A biopsy of the mass established the histological diagnosis of a non pressor secreting paraganglioma. The tumor was resected 2 months after the original mitral valve surgery. The patient made an uneventful recovery and remains well 2 years after surgery.

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The stability of the upper branch of shear traveling waves in two-dimensional Poiseuille flow, when the total flux through the channel is held constant, is considered. Taking into account the length of the periodic channel, perturbations of the same wave number (superharmonic), and different wave number (subharmonic) of the uniform wave trains are imposed. We mainly consider channels long enough to contain M=4 and M=8 basic wavelengths. In these cases, subharmonic bifurcations are found to be dominant except in a small region of parameters. From this type of bifurcation, we show that if the wave number is decreased, the periodic train of finite amplitude waves evolves continuously towards the stable localized wave packets obtained in long channels by other authors and whose existence has been associated to the vicinity of an inverted Hopf bifurcation. Depending on the basic wave number of the periodic train destabilized, different types of solutions for a given length of the channel can be obtained. Furthermore, for moderate Reynolds numbers, configurations of linearly stable wave trains exist, provided that their basic wave number is alpha approximately 1.5.