Automatic Filtering and Substantiation of Drug Safety Signals

Drug safety issues pose serious health threats to the population and constitute a major cause of mortality worldwide. Due to the prominent implications to both public health and the pharmaceutical industry, it is of great importance to unravel the molecular mechanisms by which an adverse drug reaction can be potentially elicited. These mechanisms can be investigated by placing the pharmaco-epidemiologically detected adverse drug reaction in an information-rich context and by exploiting all currently available biomedical knowledge to substantiate it. We present a computational framework for the biological annotation of potential adverse drug reactions. First, the proposed framework investigates previous evidences on the drug-event association in the context of biomedical literature (signal filtering). Then, it seeks to provide a biological explanation (signal substantiation) by exploring mechanistic connections that might explain why a drug produces a specific adverse reaction. The mechanistic connections include the activity of the drug, related compounds and drug metabolites on protein targets, the association of protein targets to clinical events, and the annotation of proteins (both protein targets and proteins associated with clinical events) to biological pathways. Hence, the workflows for signal filtering and substantiation integrate modules for literature and database mining, in silico drug-target profiling, and analyses based on gene-disease networks and biological pathways. Application examples of these workflows carried out on selected cases of drug safety signals are discussed. The methodology and workflows presented offer a novel approach to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying adverse drug reactions

Modern macroeconomics and its evolution from a monetarist perspective: An interview with Professor Milton Friedman

An interview with Milton Friedman in 1996 - presents his reflections on some of the important issues surrounding the evolution of, and currrent debates within, modern macroeconomics. A world-renowned economist and prolific author since the 1930s, Milton Friedman has had a considerable impact on macroeconomic theory and policy making. Associated mostly with monetarism and the efficacy of free markets, his work has ranged over a broader area - microeconomics, methodology, consumption function, applied statistics, international economics, monetary theory, history and policy, business cycles and inflation. In the interview discusses Keynes’s General Theory, monetarism, new classical macroeconomics, methodology, economic policy, European union and the monetarist counter-revolution.Economic theory, Economists, Economy, Keynesian school, Milton Friedman, Monetarism

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics

In October 2003 the latest recipients of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics were announced. Since its inception in 1969, 53 economists have been awarded the Prize. A closer look at the biographical details of the Nobel Memorial Laureates—including their broad field of study, citizenship, university affiliation and place of doctoral training—provides some interesting insights into likely future winners. This paper offers a set of criteria which, to date, the overwhelming majority of recipients of the award have to some extent met.

Milton Friedman, 1912–2006

Milton Friedman is best known as the founding father and leading exponent of the monetarist school of macroeconomic thought, and for championing the case for the efficacy of free markets in a wide variety of contexts. Without doubt, Friedman’s ideas have influenced the research agenda of a whole generation of economists as well as those who influence public policy throughout the world. Friedman’s extraordinary gifts of communicating complicated ideas allowed him to become one of the very few economists who are well known outside the economics profession. As well as his many scientific contributions, Friedman sought to communicate his views on a wide range of issues to non-economists. His gift for writing about topics in applied economics, accessible to a mass audience, established Friedman as one of the world’s most famous economists. Throughout his professional academic life, because of his high public profile, the ideas of Milton Friedman certainly aroused strong reactions from both opponents and supporters, and, until very recently, with respect to many of his ideas, he swam against a strong and extremely hostile tide of opinion. However, whatever view is held about Friedman’s libertarian political and economic philosophy, most commentators would agree that his recent passing brings to an end the life of the last great economist guru of the twentieth century. In this paper, Brian Snowdon and Howard Vane review his most influential contributions to economic analysis and political economy.

Interview with Robert A. Mundell

Robert A. Mundell has been Professor of Economics at Columbia University in New York City, New York, since 1974 and University Professor since 2001. In 1999, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science "for his analysis of monetary and fiscal policy under different exchange rate regimes and his analysis of optimum currency areas." We interviewed Professor Mundell at his hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 7, 2006, while attending the annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations.

Economics for business

xiii, 417 tr. ; 25 c

James Tobin, 1918–2002

Professor James Tobin, who died on 11 March 2002, was possibly the most eminent of the world’s ‘Keynesian’ economists. Described by Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson as “the archetype of a late-twentieth century American scholarâ€, Tobin was without doubt one of the most influential economists of his time who inspired a whole generation of students. In this interview, Professor Tobin discusses the progress and development of economics in the second half of the twentieth century.