The evil of good is better: Making the case for basic life support transport for penetrating trauma victims in an urban environment.

Background: Controversy remains over the ideal way to transport penetrating trauma victims in an urban environment. Both advance life support (ALS) and basic life support (BLS) transports are used in most urban centers.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted at an urban Level I trauma center.

Patent term extensions: issues, challenges and implications for pharmaceuticals.

The standard term of a patent is 20 years from the date of filing. However, the time required for a pharmaceutical product to pass through research and development, and clinical trials to obtain regulatory approval can often be more than 10 years. This effectively shortens the life of the patent leaving the patentee with little or no monopoly over the pharmaceutical product by the time it reaches market.

Insect neuronal cultures: an experimental vehicle for studies of physiology, pharmacology and cell interactions.

The current status of insect neuronal cultures is discussed and their contribution to our understanding of the insect nervous system is explored. Neuronal cultures have been developed from a wide range of insect species and from all developmental stages. These have been used to study the morphological development of insect neurones and some of the extrinsic factors that affect this process.

The pharmacological profile of GABA receptors on cultured insect neurones.

Neuronal cultures of the cockroach, Periplaneta americana, were used to study the pharmacological profile of GABA receptors using the whole-cell-voltage clamp technique. The results indicated that insect GABA receptors are linked to a chloride channel that can be activated by both GABA(A) and GABA(C) receptor agonists. The receptors are blocked by GABA(A) chloride channel blockers and some insecticides but not by competitive GABA(A) receptor antagonists.