The relationship between succession and intellectual capital with entrepreneurship in hospitals

BACKGROUND

The hospital environment is very dynamic and faces many internal and external changes. Healthcare knowledge and technology are developing at a swift pace. This study investigated the relationship between succession and intellectual capital with entrepreneurship at the Qazvin University of Medical Sciences hospital, Iran.

METHODS

The number of employees working in six hospitals was 2256, and according to Morgan's table, the required number of samples was 331. We distributed three hundred sixty-five questionnaires considering 10% of sample loss. We used a multi-stage stratified sampling method. In the first stage, each hospital was considered a stratum. After that, occupational groups were considered the next stratum within each hospital, and based on the ratio, the required number of samples for each occupational group was randomly selected. We used the Sobel test to investigate the mediating role of intellectual capital and the structural equation model to fit the research model.

RESULTS

Succession aspects, including culturalization, meritocracy, job promotion path, and the role of senior managers, have a positive and significant effect on intellectual capital. Succession is only effective on intellectual capital and does not affect the personnel's entrepreneurship directly or through intellectual capital.

CONCLUSION

Conducting training classes and intervention programs and using localized succession models can create a suitable platform for increasing organizational creativity and entrepreneurship, motivating the hospitals' personnel, and increasing intellectual capital.

Stabilizing effects of calcium alginate microspheres on mycobacterium bovis BCG intended for oral vaccination

In this study, alginate microspheres containing BCG were prepared at a diameter of approximately 10 microm by emulsification-internal gelation of an alginate-BCG solution dispersed in olive oil using a high rate speed stirrer. The stability of BCG was assayed at 4 degrees C showing that the encapsulated BCG was more stable than free BCG at least for 5 weeks; however, BCG in sodium alginate solution was not stable at all. On the other hand, the studies using media with different pH (1.2, 4.4, 6.2, 6.8 and 7.5) have demonstrated that the alginate microspheres are stable in acidic medium for upto 1.5 h without any sign of disintegration. Moreover, BCG incorporated in alginate microspheres demonstrated an almost 9-fold increase in viable bacilli in simulated gastric fluid (SGF) after 1.5 h in comparison with free BCG.

Association of T cells with proliferating cells in lymphoid follicles

Frozen sections of lymph nodes from normal mice were examined by immunofluorescence with anti-T lymphocyte and anti-Ig reagents and by autoradiography following [3H]TdR administration. The scattered T lymphocytes present among B lymphocytes of primary follicles were found to be mostly nonproliferating; the few proliferating cells in primary follicles are therefore predominantly B lymphocytes. More than one-half (56%) of these proliferating B lymphocytes were found to be in direct contact with a T lymphocyte; this incidence is 5-fold higher than that expected by random association. In germinal centers, virtually all proliferating cells were found to be non-T lymphocytes as well. The association of proliferating B cells with T cells may be the result of specific cooperation between these two cell types. These data are discussed in the context of what is known of T/B collaboration and of primary follicles as a possible site of this interaction.