The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2023/24: Ion channels.

The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2023/24 is the sixth in this series of biennial publications. The Concise Guide provides concise overviews, mostly in tabular format, of the key properties of approximately 1800 drug targets, and over 6000 interactions with about 3900 ligands. There is an emphasis on selective pharmacology (where available), plus links to the open access knowledgebase source of drug targets and their ligands (https://www.guidetopharmacology.org/), which provides more detailed views of target and ligand properties. Although the Concise Guide constitutes almost 500 pages, the material presented is substantially reduced compared to information and links presented on the website. It provides a permanent, citable, point-in-time record that will survive database updates. The full contents of this section can be found at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.16178. Ion channels are one of the six major pharmacological targets into which the Guide is divided, with the others being: G protein-coupled receptors, nuclear hormone receptors, catalytic receptors, enzymes and transporters. These are presented with nomenclature guidance and summary information on the best available pharmacological tools, alongside key references and suggestions for further reading. The landscape format of the Concise Guide is designed to facilitate comparison of related targets from material contemporary to mid-2023, and supersedes data presented in the 2021/22, 2019/20, 2017/18, 2015/16 and 2013/14 Concise Guides and previous Guides to Receptors and Channels. It is produced in close conjunction with the Nomenclature and Standards Committee of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (NC-IUPHAR), therefore, providing official IUPHAR classification and nomenclature for human drug targets, where appropriate

A Pre-Landing Assessment of Regolith Properties at the InSight Landing Site

This article discusses relevant physical properties of the regolith at the Mars InSight landing site as understood prior to landing of the spacecraft. InSight will land in the northern lowland plains of Mars, close to the equator, where the regolith is estimated to be ≥3--5 m thick. These investigations of physical properties have relied on data collected from Mars orbital measurements, previously collected lander and rover data, results of studies of data and samples from Apollo lunar missions, laboratory measurements on regolith simulants, and theoretical studies. The investigations include changes in properties with depth and temperature. Mechanical properties investigated include density, grain-size distribution, cohesion, and angle of internal friction. Thermophysical properties include thermal inertia, surface emissivity and albedo, thermal conductivity and diffusivity, and specific heat. Regolith elastic properties not only include parameters that control seismic wave velocities in the immediate vicinity of the Insight lander but also coupling of the lander and other potential noise sources to the InSight broadband seismometer. The related properties include Poisson’s ratio, P- and S-wave velocities, Young’s modulus, and seismic attenuation. Finally, mass diffusivity was investigated to estimate gas movements in the regolith driven by atmospheric pressure changes. Physical properties presented here are all to some degree speculative. However, they form a basis for interpretation of the early data to be returned from the InSight mission.Additional co-authors: Nick Teanby and Sharon Keda

Melting of the glacier base during a small-volume subglacial rhyolite eruption: evidence from Blahnukur, Iceland.

Although observations of recent volcanic eruptions beneath Vatnajokull, Iceland have improved the understanding of ice deformation and meltwater drainage, little is known about the processes that occur at the glacier base. We present observations of the products of a small-volume, effusive subglacial rhyolite eruption at Blahnukur, Torfajokull, Iceland. Lava bodies, typically 7 m long, have unusual conical morphologies and columnar joint orientations that suggest emplacement within cavities melted into the base of a glacier. Cavities appear to have been steep-walled and randomly distributed. These features can be explained by a simple model of conductive heat loss during the ascent of a lava body to the glacier base. The released heat melts a cavity in the overlying ice. The development of vapour-escape pipes in the waterlogged, permeable breccias surrounding the lava allows rapid heat transfer between lava and ice. The formed meltwater percolates into the breccias, recharging the cooling system and leaving a steam-filled cavity. The slow ascent rates of intrusive rhyolitic magma bodies provide ample time for a cavity to be melted in the ice above, even during the final 10 m of ascent to the glacier base. An equilibrium cavity size is calculated at which melting is balanced by creep closure. This is dependent upon the heat input and the difference between glaciostatic and cavity pressure. The cavity sizes inferred from Blahnukur are consistent with a pressure differential of 2-4 MPa, suggesting that the ice was at least 200 m thick. This is consistent with the volcanic stratigraphy, which indicates that the ice exceeded 350 m in thickness. Although this is the first time that a subglacial cavity system of this type has been reconstructed from an ancient volcanic sequence, it shares many characteristics with the modern firn cave system formed by fumarolic melting within the summit crater of Mount Rainier, Washington. At both localities, it appears that localised heating at the glacier base has resulted in heterogeneous melting patterns. Despite the different rheological properties of ice and firn, similar patterns of cavity roof deformation are inferred. The development of low-pressure subglacial cavities in regions of high heat flux may influence the trajectory of rising magma, with manifold implications for eruptive mechanisms and resultant subglacial volcanic landforms

Design and implementation of a program quality assessment tool : three case studies of primary health services in developing countries

The total service quality paradigm has been slow in diffusing to the health service domain, and TQM techniques are even less widely used to govern primary health services in the developing world. This interdisciplinary work analyzes the design of a TQM-based quality assessment tool (PQAT) used to evaluate quality of care in family planning programmes in Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific. It shows how family planning service quality models have failed to keep pace with advances in management theory, introduces the process theory model to overcome the limitations of the variance model, and grounds the tool in the context of quality theory. The paper goes on to report results from field use of the PQAT in three widely varying sites in the Asia Pacific region, and to draw useful conclusions for primary health researchers and practitioners