No basis for controversy exists in the naming of a global, strongly negative, uppermost Cambrian carbon isotope (δ13C) excursion. The HERB Event (HERB) has met the standards for chemostratigraphic units (i.e. consistent biostratigraphic brackets, content and concept) since 1992. By comparison, the TOCE excursion morphed through four temporally distinct δ13C events with spike-like nadirs that shifted temporally through the uppermost Cambrian until its synonymization with HERB (2006–12). In 2018, TOCE became a prolonged interval with very early onset and enveloped HERB – meaning five TOCE homonyms have been unambiguously defined and figured. HERB lies in the high-diversity ptychaspid biomere (trilobites) and below the ptychaspid extinction. But, data on it were used in TOCE’s 2006 proposal and in later iterations (2008, 2012) to show it (1) higher, both at and above the ptychaspid extinction; (2) at the level of HERB (2012, 2018); and (3) even extending well below HERB (2018). TOCE fails the recommendations for a formal chemostratigraphic unit. Its relationship to latest Cambrian biotic turnover includes equation with extinction and high-diversity intervals. One TOCE homonym is a synonym, albeit junior, of HERB.

Chemostratigraphic units require consistent definitions and unambiguous names. So-called TOCE (Top of Cambrian Excursion) is used as an uppermost Cambrian δ13Ccarb negative excursion although it was proposed without documentation, is ambiguously defined, and variably correlated into four Laurentian trilobite zones. TOCE, a nihilartikel, is regularly substituted to the exclusion of the earlier named, precisely documented and geochronologically older HERB (Hellnmaria-Red Tops Boundary) Event. HERB allows late Cambrian global correlation; its onset is close to the lowest occurrence of the conodont Eoconodontus notchpeakensis at the base of a proposed replacement (Lawsonian Stage) of Cambrian Stage 10. TOCE must be retired from use and abandoned as a synonym of the HERB Event.

China is expected to become one of the largest markets for prescription drugs in the world and pharmaceutical advertising is becoming increasingly important, particularly in the socially and culturally contested area of mental health. This article briefly explores the background of drug advertising policies in China and the UK and focuses on the distinctive challenges of antidepressant drug regulation. Then, using tools of critical discourse analysis, it examines Chinese antidepressant adverts, and compares them with relevant British adverts. The findings indicate that, relative to the UK, Chinese antidepressant adverts are generally oversimplified, and the critical information concerning the concepts of caution, danger and adverse effects are underrepresented. However, there are many interdependent factors that contribute to the distinctive Chinese antidepressant drug regulatory regime. Hence, Chinese policymakers must maintain a delicate balance between learning from Western regulatory regimes, but also avoiding borrowing too heavily from them.

Innovation in the development of new drugs has to balance the needs of health actors and administrators, the pharmaceutical industry and patients. Differing perspectives on what constitutes an innovation, where research and development should be directed and how new drugs should be evaluated and priced cause ongoing tensions within the regulatory framework. In the current climate, where Europe’s health systems face rising demand for health services and increasingly restricted resources, the efficiency of pharmaceutical regulation and drug development is under even greater scrutiny. How can regulation foster innovation and industry growth while also serving the public health needs of society, and what is the EU’s role in pursuing this objective? Drawing on a provision which formerly existed in Norwegian pharmaceutical legislation, this article explores the potential of a medical need clause (MNC) in addressing these issues. In restricting market authorisations to those drugs that offer an added therapeutic value, might a MNC foster innovation and spending efficiency in Europe’s health systems?

A volcanic tuff 1.0 m above the base of the Triebenreuth Formation in the Franconian Forest provides the first precise and biostratigraphically bracketed date within the traditional Middle Cambrian. The first illustration of fossils from the Triebenreuth Formation in this report and their discussion allow a more highly refined correlation within the Middle Cambrian. A weighted mean 206Pb–238U date of 503.14±0.13/0.25/0.59 Ma on zircons from this subaerial pyroclastic tuff was determined by U–Pb chemical abrasion isotope dilution mass spectrometry (CA-TIMS) techniques. At c. 6.0–7.0 Ma younger than the base of the traditional Middle Cambrian in Avalonia, the new West Gondwanan date from east-central Germany suggests that estimates of 500 Ma for the base of the traditional Upper Cambrian and 497 Ma on the base of the Furongian Series may prove to be too ‘old’. Biostratigraphically well-bracketed dates through most of the Middle Cambrian/Series 3 and below the upper Upper Cambrian/upper Furongian Series do not exist. An earlier determined 494.4±3.8 Ma date from the Southwell Group of Tasmania may actually prove to be a reasonable estimate for the age of the base of the traditional Upper Cambrian. Until high precision dates are determined on the base of the traditional Upper Cambrian and base of the Furongian Series, the rates of biotic replacements and geological developments and the durations of biotic zones in the Middle/Series 3 and Upper Cambrian/Furongian Series remain as ‘best guesses’.

This article examines why, despite similar general interests, institutional positions and political constraints, EU social NGOs find it so difficult to develop co-operative strategies except on the most fundamental issues. To demonstrate these difficulties the article considers the general reasons for and against co-operation between social NGOs and then examines the difficulties and advantages of collective EU social NGO action during the 1998 NGO funding crisis, Red Card protest and civil dialogue. The article argues that there is a fundamental desire for, and are benefits from, close co-operation between the EU social NGOs. However, due to the complex ‘context structure’ within which NGOs must operate, this co-operative impetus is constantly undermined. In conclusion, the article argues that social NGOs will remain weak and insignificant actors until the Commission/Parliament and/or the social NGOs can organise the complex context structure and allow co-operative strategies to emerge.

Near total blood replacement in rats has been accomplished with perfluorochemical (PFC) preparations containing hydroxyethylstarch and electrolytes. F-dimethyladamantane (F-DMA) was used alone or mixed with F-N,N-dimethylcyclohexylmethylamine (F-CHA). These compounds were emulsified to yield particles approximately 150 to 250 nanometers in diameter. The nonionic surfactant, Pluronic F68, was used as the emulsifying agent. Over ninety percent of the rats survived when their hematocrits were taken to 3 volume percent or lower from a pre-perfusion value of about 44 volume percent. In spite of the reduction in total mixed venous oxygen concentration, the oxygen partial pressure rose. During the perfusion the rats breathed 100 percent oxygen, but during the subsequent period this was decreased 10 percent per day. Six to 7 days later the hematocrits had risen to 30 to 40 volume percent. Thereafter the animals continued to develop and grow.

As with many manmade and natural disasters, those involving airports and aircraft give rise to a number of emergency medical situations that require prompt and sometimes drastic responses. The number of casualties can be very large and adequate hospital facilities can be quite distant from the disaster site, even when the latter is at an airport. Obviously, the situation is compounded when the accident has occurred at a remote place or involves a landing on water. Emergency measures are therefore of great importance to minimize loss of life and reduce exacerbations of initial injuries. Fortunately, major disasters are infrequent. This very fact, however, makes it even more impractical at most airports to have on hand at all times a large supply of blood and the facilities for typing and cross-matching rapidly and accurately. No supply of blood, of course, exists on any ordinary aircraft. There are therefore good reasons why artificial preparations capable of carrying oxygen and carbon dixoide and maintaining blood volume have potential usefulness in airport and airplane disasters.

These disasters can involve one or more forms of bodily injury including physical trauma, burns, and asphyxiation (Table 1). All can lead to shock, and some form of emergency treatment is often required to restore blood volume and oxygenation levels. Since any delay in initiating treatment must be avoided, the required materials should be on hand and in a form which allows their being used without delay. Artifical blood replacement preparations (1-4) based on liquid perfluorochemicals have a number of desirable attributes in this regard.