This book reviews recent research advances in sustainable agriculture, with focus on crop production, biodiversity and biofuels in Africa and Asia.

Blockbuster drugs-each of which generates more than a billion dollars a year in revenue-have revolutionized the industry since the early 1980s, when sales of Tagamet alone transformed a minor Philadelphia-based firm into the world's ninth-largest pharmaceutical company. In Blockbuster Drugs, Jie Jack Li tells the fascinating stories behind the discovery and development of these highly lucrative medicines, while also exploring the tumult the industry now faces as the "patent cliff" nears. Having spent most of his career in drug research and development, Li brings an insider's eye to the narrative as he recounts the tales of discovery behind such drugs as Tagamet, Zantac, Claritin, Prilosec, Nexium, Serouquel, Plavix, and Ambien. As he discusses each breakthrough, Li also shows that scientific research is filled with human drama-serendipitous discoveries, sudden insights, tense confrontations. For instance, the author tells of James Black, who persisted in the research that led to Tagamet-and that would ultimately win him a Nobel Prize-despite pressure from top executives to pursue "more profitable" work. The book shows how research behind Prilosec combined creativity, international cooperation, and luck-the turning point being a chance encounter of American and Swedish scientists at a conference in Uppsala. There are also tales of fabulous rewards-George Rieveschl, the chemist who invented Benadryl, made a fortune on royalties-and of unjust desserts. Finally, Li shows that for the world's largest prescription drug manufacturers, recent years have been harrowing, as many popular drugs have come off patent in the U.S. market, meaning hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue. Anyone who enjoys tales of scientific discovery, or is curious about the history behind the prescriptions they take, or wants a revealing inside look at the pharmaceutical industry will find this book well worth reading.

This book offers an in indictment of the nation's drug enforcement approach focusing on the short-sighted policies that often deny patients suffering from chronic pain the medications they need. Pain Control and Drug Policy: A Time for Change focuses on America's national crisis in pain management caused by the widening divergence between the enormous contributions of opioids ("narcotics") to pain management in the clinical setting and the mistaken belief that they are dangerous, highly addictive drugs. After dissecting the strategy and tactics of the War on Drugs from medical, historical, legal, socioeconomic, and geopolitical perspectives, Guy Faguet MD indicts the 40-year-long War on Drugs for having failed to stem the supply of illicit drugs in America despite expenditures of half a trillion dollars, despite violating the basic human right to pain relief of tens of millions of American chronic pain sufferers, and despite fomenting organized crime, government corruption, racial injustice, and social disruption in both the United States and the producer countries. He concludes with a clarion call for the abandonment of the War on Drugs, disbanding the Drug Enforcement Administration, and encouraging Congress to repeal the Controlled Substances Act. As a clinical and research oncologist responsible for the chronic pain management of thousands of cancer patients over the course of his 30-year career, Dr. Faguet knows that the most effective and safest way to manage most cases of chronic pain is with opioids. All modern pain-management textbooks advocate "titration to effect" in cases where opioids help: that is, gradually increasing the dosage until either the pain is acceptably controlled or the side effects begin to outweigh the pain-relief benefits. Yet the vast majority of doctors don't practice what the medical textbooks teach and instead prescribe opioids very reluctantly and conservatively. As a result, only half of all chronic pain sufferers-and fewer than half of all cancer patients-get adequate pain relief from their doctors. Why do physicians radically undertreat pain that is susceptible to opioid analgesics? They fear that if they prescribe Schedule II opioids in accordance with the professional standards of pain management set by such medical bodies as the American Pain Society, they will be investigated by the DEA, stigmatized, prosecuted as criminals, stripped of their licenses, and sent to jail. Visit Guy B. Faguet, MD's website here: www.faguet.net.

The purpose of this book is to provide a broad scope of substance use disorder research and how these findings can impact treatment outcomes. The research and outcomes described in this book represent important principles related to identifying and understanding factors related to substance use disorders. The first section is dedicated to methodology including population-based surveys, basic neuroanatomy, chemistry, molecular biology, behavioral models and brain imaging. The second section utilizes this methodology in research related to opioids, cocaine, marijuana, alcohol and nicotine. The book is aimed at both professionals (academics, clinicians, practitioners) and students or trainees.

"Principles of Clinical Pharmacology" is a successful survey covering the pharmacologic principles underlying the individualization of patient therapy and contemporary drug development. This essential reference continues to focus on the basics of clinical pharmacology for the development, evaluation, and clinical use of pharmaceutical products while also addressing the most recent advances in the field. Written by leading experts in academia, industry, clinical and regulatory settings, the third edition has been thoroughly updated to provide readers with an ideal reference covering the wide range of important topics impacting clinical pharmacology as the discipline plays an increasingly significant role in drug development and regulatory science.

The Third Edition has been endorsed by the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics

* Includes new chapters on imaging and the pharmacogenetic basis of adverse drug reactions. * Offers an expanded regulatory section that addresses US and international issues and guidelines. * Provides extended coverage of earlier chapters on transporters, pharmacogenetics and biomarkers and also illustrates the impact of gender on drug response. * Presents a broadened discussion of clinical trials from Phase 1 to incorporate Phases II and III.

This book sheds light on the major functions of microbial communities in aquaculture ecosystems, showing that by recycling nutrients, degrading organic matter and preventing disease outbreaks, a variety of microbes are truly beneficial to a wide range of aquaculture industries. It discusses how deteriorating environmental quality enables some microbial strains to trigger disease, describes the development of highly sustainable tools to improve water quality, and identifies crucial factors that endanger microbial homeostasis in aquaculture ecosystems. The book also covers post-antibiotic approaches for preventing and treating opportunistic microbial infections based on harnessing environmental and fish-associated microbial communities. Furthermore, it explores how manipulating and engineering these complex microbial communities using bio-agents such as probiotics, phages, natural nutritional additives, or with fine-tuned biofilters will open the door for new ways to develop a more sustainable and cost-effective aquaculture industry. Including an accessible presentation of modern high-throughput sequencing technology to identify host-microbial interactions in aquaculture ecosystems, this book is a valuable resource for scientists, aquaculture and fishery experts, sustainability enthusiasts and scholars in the areas of biology and marine agriculture.

This book provides a comprehensive, organized, and concise overview of xenobiotic metabolic enzymes and their health implications. The subjects addressed are broad in scope with an emphasis on recent advances in research on biochemical and biomedical aspects of these enzymes. The xenobiotics discussed include not just drugs, but also food, smoke, and other environmental chemicals. The subjects covered in this work include: metabolic enzymes and their catalyzed reactions, reactive intermediates generated from metabolic activation, oxidative stress mediated by electrophilic reactive intermediates, bioactivation - mediated cellular and functional damages, activation of Nrf2 - ARE pathway, genetic variations affecting metabolic enzyme expression, enzyme polymorphisms affecting xenobiotic - mediated toxicity, induction of metabolic enzymes for health benefits, and a diversity of metabolic enzyme modulators.

Artificial Neural Network for Drug Design, Delivery and Disposition provides an in-depth look at the use of artificial neural networks (ANN) in pharmaceutical research. With its ability to learn and self-correct in a highly complex environment, this predictive tool has tremendous potential to help researchers more effectively design, develop, and deliver successful drugs. This book illustrates how to use ANN methodologies and models with the intent to treat diseases like breast cancer, cardiac disease, and more. It contains the latest cutting-edge research, an analysis of the benefits of ANN, and relevant industry examples. As such, this book is an essential resource for academic and industry researchers across the pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences.

Microencapsulations may be found in a number of fields like medicine, drug delivery, biosensing, agriculture, catalysis, intelligent microstructures and in many consumer goods. This new edition of Microencapsulation revises chapters to address the newest innovations in fields and adds three new chapters on the uses of microencapsulations in medicine, agriculture, and consumer products.

This is a review of clinical adverse effects on the human immune system that may occur following drug treatments and chemcical exposures. Current and prospective models and assays that can be used to predict these adverse effects in animal toxicity studies or in human beings are described.

This innovative edited collection brings together leading international academics to explore the use of various non-prescription and prescription substances. From a psychosocial perspective, the authors discuss the complex reasons behind their adoption, the ways in which they are misused, and links between use and cognitive enhancement. While studies on substance use to date have examined the aetiology and effects in the context of sporting performance, addiction and recreational use, there has been little work which explores their wider misuse to improve cognitive enhancement. With medical sociology and social psychology at its core, this important volume shows the complex reasons behind the misuse of various substances, how these are connected to contemporary desire for increased mental performance, and why the potential health risks and possibly harmful side effects do not act as deterrents.

The Side Effects of Drugs Annual was first published in 1977. It has been continually published since then, as a yearly update to the voluminous encyclopedia Meyler's Side Effects of Drugs. Each new Annual continues to provide clinicians and medical investigators with a reliable and critical yearly survey of new data and trends in the area of Adverse Drug Reactions and Interactions. An international team of specialists has contributed to the Annuals by selecting critically from each year's writing all that is truly new and informative, by critically interpreting it, and by pointing to whatever is misleading.
*Provides a critical yearly survey of new data and trends
*Includes an essay that describes the modern approach to classifying adverse drug reactions
*Special reviews in this Annual include, among other topics: Antipsychotic drugs and now-onset diabetes mellitus, Treating asthma during pregnancy, and MMR vaccine and autism