Cigarette smokers (n = 387) completed a questionnaire measure of smoking motives, and subgroups of this sample provided external validation information. Seven factors emerged from a principal components' analysis: automatic, sedative, addictive, stimulation, psychosocial, indulgent and sensorimotor manipulation. A higher-order principal components analysis revealed the presence of two second-or...

Serum pharmacological method has generally been used in herb studies. However, preparation of test serum for ex vivo experiment is an intricate process: besides pretreatment (heat or chemicals), it involves the proteolytic cascades of coagulation along with fibrinolysis, complement and kinin systems, as well as platelet and leukocyte activation resulting in release reactions. These processes de...

Hypertension is very common in dialysis patients. The most important cause of hypertension is hypervolemia. Fluid restriction and volume management with standard hemodialysis are effective strategies to achieve dry weight and blood pressure control without use of antihypertensive drugs. If the captopril test is positive, a renin-angiotensin system blocker should be started. The pre-dialysis blo...

pluronic based nano-particulate systems are innovative platforms for delivery of anti-cancer agents. these systems due to their pharmacological properties and suitable physicochemical characteristics are great opportunity for development cancer therapeutics. this mini-review tries to provide a more detailed overview on the currently available pluronic based drug delivery systems. in the section...