Over the years a number of excellent books have classified and detailed drug drug interactions into their respective categories, e.g. interactions at plasma protein binding sites; those altering intestinal absorption or bioavailability; those involving hepatic metabolising enzymes; those involving competition or antagonism for receptor sites, and drug interactions modifying excretory mechanisms. Such books have presented extensive tables of interactions and their management. Although of considerable value to clinicians, such publica tions have not, however, been so expressive about the individual mechanisms that underlie these interactions. It is within this sphere of "mechanisms" that this present volume specialises. It deals with mechanisms of in vitro and in vivo, drug-drug, drug food and drug-herbals interactions and those that cause drugs to interfere with diagnostic laboratory tests. We believe that an explanation of the mechanisms of such interactions will enable practitioners to understand more fully the nature of the interactions and thus enable them to manage better their clinical outcome. If mechanisms of interactions are better understood, then it may be pos sible for the researcher to develop meaningful animal/biochemical/tissue cul ture or physicochemical models to which new molecules could be exposed during their development stages. The present position, which largely relies on patients experiencing adverse interactions before they can be established or documented, can hardly be regarded as satisfactory. This present volume is classified into two major parts; firstly, pharmacoki netic drug interactions and, secondly, pharmacodynamic drug interactions.

Not since this author's bestselling Manual of Pharmacologic Calculation has there been an available reference for drug data analysis. Incorporating the most relevant parts of that work, Drug Synergism and Dose-Effect Data Analysis focuses on drug combinations and all the quantitative analyses needed to analyze drug combination dose-effect data and to design experiments with two or more compounds. The book contains the statistical methods, the theory, and the computation algorithms needed to analyze single and combination drug data. Numerous examples accompany a presentation that illustrates the calculations and experimental design considerations for modern drug analysis.

This volume – for pharmacologists, systems biologists, philosophers and historians of medicine – points to investigate new avenues in pharmacology research, by providing a full assessment of the premises underlying a radical shift in the pharmacology paradigm. The pharmaceutical industry is currently facing unparalleled challenges in developing innovative drugs. While drug-developing scientists in the 1990s mostly welcomed the transformation into a target-based approach, two decades of experience shows that this model is failing to boost both drug discovery and efficiency. Selected targets were often not druggable and with poor disease linkage, leading to either high toxicity or poor efficacy. Therefore, a profound rethinking of the current paradigm is needed. Advances in systems biology are revealing a phenotypic robustness and a network structure that strongly suggest that exquisitely selective compounds, compared with multitarget drugs, may exhibit lower than desired clinical efficacy. This appreciation of the role of polypharmacology has significant implications for tackling the two major sources of attrition in drug development, efficacy and toxicity. Integrating network biology and polypharmacology holds the promise of expanding the current opportunity space for druggable targets.

Plasma catalysis is gaining increasing interest for various gas conversion applications, such as CO2 conversion into value-added chemicals and fuels, N2 fixation for the synthesis of NH3 or NOx, methane conversion into higher hydrocarbons or oxygenates. It is also widely used for air pollution control (e.g., VOC remediation). Plasma catalysis allows thermodynamically difficult reactions to proceed at ambient pressure and temperature, due to activation of the gas molecules by energetic electrons created in the plasma. However, plasma is very reactive but not selective, and thus a catalyst is needed to improve the selectivity. In spite of the growing interest in plasma catalysis, the underlying mechanisms of the (possible) synergy between plasma and catalyst are not yet fully understood. Indeed, plasma catalysis is quite complicated, as the plasma will affect the catalyst and vice versa. Moreover, due to the reactive plasma environment, the most suitable catalysts will probably be different from thermal catalysts. More research is needed to better understand the plasma–catalyst interactions, in order to further improve the applications.

In the last decade and a half, great progress has been made in the development of concepts and models for mixture toxicity, both in human and environmental toxicology. However, due to their different protection goals, developments have often progressed in parallel but with little integration. Arguably the first book to clearly link ecotoxicology an

Her dance partner said the pill was called Rapture. And indeed, it catapulted her senses to a new level—initially. Before long, a strange sensation welled up inside her like a slow rush of water. As seconds ticked by, her pulse rate rapidly increased. Believing her heart would pound right out of her body, she grasped her chest. Her mouth suddenly felt as dry as sun-bleached bone. Bile crept up her throat. She gurgled. Eyes now dilated, her vision continued to blur. In an instant, feelings of ecstasy and joy turned to agony and fear. The once-playful and jubilant flight student trembled uncontrollably. “What’s happening to me?” she cried, her voice muted by unthinkable pain. She tried to walk but stumbled. Her esophagus tightened like a coiled spring. Clutching her throat, she gasped for air as if a python had twisted itself around her neck. Color leached from her face, leaving it ashen. As her skin transitioned from pale white to cobalt blue, she collapsed on the floor, eliciting gasps of horror from other dancers. Mercifully, her convulsions did not last long. Robbed of oxygen, her brain simply died, followed quickly by her body. The tainted drug did its work with deadly speed and efficiency. In one monstrous minute of violence, she was gone. She wasn’t his first and would not be his last. The world of a serial killer is striking to behold, staggering to comprehend, and hostile to be in. Just how hostile, a bounty hunter discovered when he was assigned to apprehend what seemed to be a simple fugitive from the law. However, he soon learned that his quarry was no run-of-the-mill escapee. Rather, he was a cold-blooded criminal whose contaminated pills produced a death so horrible even medical examiners were baffled. For the killer, it became a race to stay one step ahead of his pursuer. But for the bounty hunter, the chase took on a life of its own as he ventured into the startling world of pleasure drugs, rave parties, and highly elevated radioactivity. And it all became personal when he discovered that his own niece was killed by the same man he was pursuing.

This book examines the chemistry and mode of action of herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and plant growth regulators. It follows crop protection strategies from early discoveries to the present day, emphasising the biochemical targets of the compounds discussed. Chemistry and Mode of Action of Crop Protection Agents provides an in-depth, yet easy to read and understand, review of the major classes of pesticides, explaining also the basis of their activity and selectivity. Throughout, there are many references to allow the reader to pursue areas of special interest, and each chapter contains questions to ensure that the text has been understood. This is the first book on the mode of action of pesticides to have been published in over ten years, and as such will have a very wide audience. It is aimed primarily at graduate level but will also be relevant to the needs of some sixth form and undergraduate courses, as well as to industrialists and advisors in the field of crop protection.

'Nothing about the evolution of biological complexity makes sense except in the light of synergy.' Peter Corning's new book is being hailed as a major contribution to what is perhaps the greatest shift in our understanding of evolution since The Origin of Species. It's a tour de force that takes us on a synergy-guided tour of the history of life. As Corning puts it, 'life on Earth has been a synergistic phenomenon from the get go.' Corning also shows how synergy has been a key to human evolution, including the rise of complex modern societies. 'Cooperation may have been the vehicle, but synergy was the driver.' As we now face a tipping point and another major transition in evolution, Corning offers us a synergy-based road-map to the future. 'One of the great take-home lessons from the epic of evolution is that cooperation produces synergy, and synergy is the way forward. The arc of evolution bends toward synergy.'Related Link(s)

Presents a modern vision of anaesthesia, integrating technology and knowledge, to change how anaesthesia is taught and practised.