TOP 25 Hottest Articles, October-December 2007

View ScienceDirect the TOP 25 Hottest Articles, October-December 2007 per subject area:

* Agricultural and Biological Sciences

-->The fathead minnow in aquatic toxicology: Past, present and future

* Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

* Chemical Engineering

* Chemistry

* Computer Science

* Earth and Planetary Sciences

-->Do evolution and ecology need the Gaia hypothesis?

-->Australian gold exploration 1976-2003

-->Exploration and discovery of Australia's copper, nickel, lead and zinc resources 1976-2005

* Energy

-->Progress and recent trends in biofuels

-->Possible methods for biodiesel

-->Transparent conductors as solar energy materials: A panoramic review production

-->Importance of biodiesel as transportation fuel

-->A prospective study of bioenergy use in Mexico

-->The car and fuel of the future

-->Public policy and biofuels: The way forward?

-->Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel demand and solar energy conversion efficiency in European bioethanol production for automotive purposes

-->The energy-climate challenge: Recent trends in CO"2 emissions from fuel combustion

* Engineering

* Environmental Science

-->Soil erosion and the global carbon budget

-->The multitude and diversity of environmental carcinogens

-->A comparative study of the production of ethyl esters from vegetable oils as a biodiesel fuel optimization by factorial design

* Immunology and Microbiology

* Materials Science

* Mathematics

* Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science

* Physics and Astronomy

* Social Sciences

-->Is Globalization Reducing Poverty and Inequality?

World Wide Telescope: New Astronomy Software from Microsoft

WorldWide Telescope (WWT)

Software giant Microsoft is now reaching for the stars with the release of its WorldWide Telescope (WorldWideTelescope.org)

* Want to see the same images that scientists at NASA use for their research or perform your own research with those images?

* Or do you want to see the Earth from the same perspective that astronauts see as they descend to Earth?

WorldWide Telescope is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground- and space-based telescopes to enable seamless exploration of the universe.

Features:

- Exploring the Sky: Within WorldWide Telescope, you can explore deeply into the sky discovering stars, planets, constellations and rich panoramas. You navigate the same way for each — select a view, select the imagery and explore the images in the field of view.

- Zoom and Pan: WorldWide Telescope supports zooming and panning on objects in the sky. As you move through the sky, thumbnails of celestial objects in that constellation display in the navigation pane below the field of view.

- Orientation in the Sky: WorldWide Telescope provides two mechanisms to orient you in the sky. The first is the Sky Ball which represents the field of view with a flat yellow plane. The plane expands and contracts as you zoom into and out of the sky. The other mechanism is the Constellation Overview which represents the size of the field of view in relation to the constellation boundary. You also can orient yourself by selecting your city as the default sky view.

- Collections: WorldWide Telescope includes a rich set of collections of the deep sky objects including constellations, the solar system, images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Spitzer Space Telescope, Sky Surveys, the Messier Catalog, named stars and more.

- Guided tours: A number of expert-created guided tours of the sky, objects in space and collections of celestial objects are built into WorldWide Telescope. Users can create their own tours and share them with others. Slide-based tours are similar to a PowerPoint slide show. Creating tours can be as simple as showing images of deep sky objects or places on the Earth that you have visited. Or it can be as immersive as combining images with art and music to illustrate and enhance your tour. You also can add common license art and music to complement your tour.

- Research the Sky: Using the Finder Scope, it is easy to identify and research objects in the deep sky. The Finder Scope opens a wealth of data and image resources to use when researching the deep sky objects in Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data (SIMBAD), Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), Wikipedia, NASA and the Internet.

Read more on: Microsoft Launches Astronomy Software

The first step is to download and install WWT itself from WorldWideTelescope.org. It took me 30 min to download the software, but of course it depends on the speed of the Internet.

For those who enjoyed the night sky, WorldWide Telescope is one more option (remember Google Sky was launched 2 months ago?) to explore the Universe.

NRF Ratings per Institution

Summary of valid ratings per institution in all disciplines: 2006

Celebrating Astronomy Day in Pictures

Celebrate the Astronomy Day, 10th of May by looking at these and more pictures @

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Picture 1: Galaxies Collide in NGC 3256; Picture 2: Shaping NGC 6188; Picture 3: The Tarantula Zone

Open Access Journals Collection (Beta): South African Journals

Open Access Journals Collection (Beta)

Welcome to the beta version of Sabinet's Full Open Access Journal Collection.

The collection currently comprises 44 South African journals, which may be searched individually, and provides immediate access to the PDF versions of 6 000+ full-text articles.

Of the journals in the collection, 14 appear on the Approved South African Journals list, the ISI list, or the IBSS list. New journal titles and issues are added to the collection on an ongoing basis. Some journals also contain metadata records (including abstracts) for older articles where full text is not available.

Publishers who would like to make their journals available as Open Access journals, are welcome to contact us. We would also value any feedback on the Sabinet Full Open Access Journal Collection.

Some useful journals for Sciences are:

* Bulletin of Statistics (business)

* Journal for New Generation Sciences

* South African Journal of Chemical Engineering

* Water SA

* Water Wheel

PLEASE NOTE:

All these OPEN ACCESS journals are already available to UJ through SA E-Publications database.

Chaiten Volcano: Images

It could be the scene from a movie: huge plumes of ash and gas rising during a ferocious volcanic eruption, sparking off a dazzling lightning storm; lightning bolts thundering to life inside and out of the hot cloud. However, this is the reality down on the ground for the people living near the Chaiten Volcano, southern Chile, who have been evacuated since the volcano erupted on Friday. Activity continues to increase, producing these terrifying, yet mesmerizing scenes… UK's Daily Mail.

WHAT A PICTURES!

RefWorks: New Developments

RefWorks has just released three new features:

1. Write-N-Cite III for Windows with Offline Capabilities
RefWorks is pleased to inform you that Write-N-Cite III for Windows is now available for downloading. This optional plug-in provides you with single document formatting (and unformatting) as well as the ability to write and format a paper completely offline! Simply
* download your RefWorks database from within Write-N-Cite while online, then

* feel free to disconnect from the internet

Full Write-N-Cite functionality is available – inserting temporary citation placeholders, viewing reference information, using the citation editor – even formatting your paper in the output style you choose. All without accessing the internet.
Download the new Write-N-Cite III for Windows from within your RefWorks account by selecting:
* Tools,

* Write-N-Cite.

(Current WNC for Windows users can use WNC III on old documents, however, the documents must be converted to a WNC III format which can be done within WNC III.)

HELP!
For details on using Write-N-Cite III for Windows online, see the RefWorks Basics tutorial section

Using Write-N-Cite III for Windows or see the online help section Working with Write-N-Cite III for Windows. For details on working offline, see the online help section Writing Your Paper Offline and the Advanced Features Tutorial on Working Offline.

2. Write-N-Cite v2.5 for Mac
The latest Mac version of Write-N-Cite is fully available. This Write-N-Cite for Mac version 2.5 works with Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac and the Leopard operating system and has the same features as the current Write-N-Cite for Mac (citation editing, two document format, etc.).
Download the new version from within your RefWorks account by selecting: Tools, Write-N-Cite.

3. Attachment Feature
RefWorks has made it’s attachment feature available to all users at UJ and users receive 100 MB of default storage space each.
Now it’s even easier to store your research documents along with your references!

You can attach any type of file – the only requirement is that you have the software necessary to view the attachment.

HELP!

For information on how to attach files to references, see the online help section

Adding References Manually or review the RefWorks Basics tutorial section Entering References Manually.

Lumifi: Research Search Engine

Lumifi is a research focused search engine and service that uses a different approach to regular search engine in terms they focus in context and not freshness, so the relevance is not affected by the date of the data called into a query.

You can use Lumifi as a personal research service so you can save your searches, analyze that search and even analyze documents you upload and if you want to make it a collaborative effort or a group effort you can do so by connecting with others using the service or invite them to use the service.

Use the Lumifi Widget for any research topic of interest.

Lumifi Research Widget

Search directly for any research topic

Encyclopedia Britannica WebShare: Free access

NEW: Encyclopedia Britannica WebShare

Encyclopedia Britannica launched in April a new, competitive to Wikipidia program, called Britannica Webshare . It provides free access to articles if you are a “web publisher.” The definition of a web publisher is rather squishy: “This program is intended for people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, webmasters, or writers. We reserve the right to deny participation to anyone who in our judgment doesn’t qualify.” "Basically, you sign up, tell them about your site URL and a description, and they review it and decide if you’ll get in.”

As a blogger I have registered on Monday, the "UJ Science Librarian blog" for a free access to the full-text articles. I haven't received yet an official e-mail confirmation, but today I have been granted a full-text access to the content. I have put number of subject widgets on the blog, from where you can search the encyclopedic entries. If you click on "all articles" you will view the different entries in alphabetical order. If you click on "full article" option you will view the full article on that specific entry.

According to "widgets blog" post (20/4/08) the "online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica is a good thing for academic research and what can be the opposite of the Wikipedia".

You can link to the full content of a Britannica entry, without having to have a paid subscription. The Webshare programme offers topic clusters and widgets to bloggers and other web publishers which can be embed on the blog ( see on the left side of this blog). Widgets (also known as gadgets) are miniature objects or applications that contain dynamic content, which can be easily embedded on your own Web site or a customizable homepage.
According to "WebProNews" blog post (21/4/2008) “Britannica’s conversational and lay content style, plus embedded video and other content on the same page give you a rich multimedia experience”

WebShare seems to be something best described as a rough release. Britannica, in a brief news piece on its site describing the debut, announces that the company has “‘soft-launched’ the WebShare site” and further states that “a ‘hard launch’ of the initiative is being planned.

This free access to Encyclopedia Britannica will be a good addition to the subscribed online encyclopedias (AccessScience, Oxford Reference Online, etc.). There are number of inconveniences while you are reading the articles ( I will leave you to find it for yourself), but I hope they will not prevent you for searching. I hope the undergraduates will make a use of these articles.

Ask me if you have any probles or questions.

Click on: http://www.britannica.com/bps/home to access Encyclopedia Britannica full-text

Open Source PDF Creator

PDF Creator: Instead of paying for a program that can generate PDF files: use this convenient tool instead. It easily creates PDFs from any Windows program ( Power Points, Publisher, Word, etc.)

I have found this Open Source PDF Creator on Monday and decided to download it. I always have the need to convert documents in PDF and every time I run to our IT for assistance. But, now I can do it myself and it very convenient to have it.

To download start with the following steps:

* Click on the "green" Download PDF Creator

* Scroll down the page and Click on: Download (PDF Creator - Dec 2007 release)

* Then select the file to download from the Table

Once downloaded the PDF Creator will appear as a PRINT option. Once you click on PRINT (the original document), select "PDF Creator" option to convert the document in PDF. It will ask you to save the new document and then the conversion will start. It tooks seconds for the document to be converted. It is very easily done and will save you a lot of memory space, if your document is originally big.

I hope this will be a good solution to those who do not have PDF option on their computers.

The Latest from Science Online Magazine

The latest from Science Online Magazine:
2 May 2008Vol 320, Issue 5876, Pages 569-700: Table of Contents
* News of the Week
- ENDANGERED SPECIES: Spotted Owl Recovery Plan Flawed, Review Panel Finds
- GLOBAL WARMING: Mother Nature Cools the Greenhouse, but Hotter Times Still Lie Ahead
- PALEOECOLOGY: Fossils Help Figure Out Food Webs Old and New
* News Focus
- NEIL TUROK PROFILE: Wishing for an African Einstein
- NEIL TUROK PROFILE: An African Showcase for Math Studies
- AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS MEETING: Tuberculosis Jumped From Humans to Cows, Not Vice Versa
* Books
- A listing of books received at Science during the week ended April 25, 2008
* Policy Forum
- ECONOMICS: Linking Natural Resources to Slow Growth and More Conflict
* Immunology
- IMMUNOLOGY: How Frustration Leads to Inflammation
- CHEMISTRY: Synchronized Self-Assembly
- ECOLOGY: How Reefs Respond to Mass Coral Spawning
- PHYSICS: A Unified Picture of Laser Physics
- MOLECULAR BIOLOGY: The Paradox of Silent Heterochromatin
* Review
- Structure and Dynamics of Earth's Lower Mantle
* Reports
- Strong Interactions in Multimode Random Lasers
- Silica-on-Silicon Waveguide Quantum Circuits
- Marine Polyphosphate: A Key Player in Geologic Phosphorus Sequestration
- Expanding Oxygen-Minimum Zones in the Tropical Oceans
- In Vivo Imaging of Membrane-Associated Glycans in Developing Zebrafish

- A Haptoglobin-Hemoglobin Receptor Conveys Innate Immunity to Trypanosoma brucei in Humans. A lipoprotein in human blood protects against an African parasite by binding to a parasite receptor and triggering uptake of the lipoprotein, which contains a toxic component

25 April 2008Vol 320, Issue 5875, Pages 421-551, Special Issue: Plant Genomes
Table of Contents
* News
- GM Crops: A World View
- Tough Lessons From Golden Rice
- Is the Drought Over for Pharming?
- Sowing the Seeds for High-Energy Plants
* Perspectives
- Genome-Enabled Approaches Shed New Light on Plant Metabolism
- Genomic Plasticity and the Diversity of Polyploid Plants
- Selection on Major Components of Angiosperm Genomes
- Synteny and Collinearity in Plant Genomes
- The Epigenetic Landscape of Plants
- Extending Genomics to Natural Communities and Ecosystems
- From Genotype to Phenotype: Systems Biology Meets Natural Variation
* News of the Week
- CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS: New Superconductors Propel Chinese Physicists to Forefront
- GEOCHEMISTRY: Two Geologic Clocks Finally Keeping the Same Time
* News Focus
- CONSERVATION BIOLOGY: A Renowned Field Station Rises From the Ashes
* Books
- A listing of books received at Science during the week ended April 18, 2008
* Policy Forum
- ECOLOGY: Harvesting Data from Genetically Engineered Crops
* Education Forum
- LEARNING THEORY: The Advantage of Abstract Examples in Learning Math
* Perspectives
- PLANETARY SCIENCE: Identifying Ancient Asteroids
- CELL BIOLOGY: A One-Sided Signal
- CLIMATE CHANGE: Carbon Crucible
- CELL BIOLOGY: RNA Metabolism and Oncogenesis
* Research Article
- Synchronizing Rock Clocks of Earth History

Australian Research Repositories Online

Through ARROW Discovery Service you can search 143,587 Australian research outputs, including theses; reprints; post prints; journal articles; book chapters, etc.

The ARROW Discovery Service searches simultaneously across the contents of Australian university research repositories. The list of currently participating universities, and the number of outputs currently in each repository are listed.

For more information about the service, visit the About page. To view the most frequently accessed research items, and most popular creators, visit the Statistics page. Or to view the contents of an institution’s repository listed as a tag cloud, visit the Tag cloud page (once you click on a specific tag, you can delimite the result list per: Institution, Subject, Years, Type, Authors).

Use also the ADVANCED SEARCH option.

Nature Magazine: Latest issues

Whats new in the latest two issues of Nature Magazine:
Volume 453 Number 7191 pp1-132, 1 May 2008

* News
- Sediment cores reveal Antarctica's warmer past p13
- Warming Antarctic waters begin to cool p15
* News Features
- Stem cells: The 3-billion-dollar question p18
Can a state do what a country cannot, and transform the way stem-cell research is funded?
- Physics: Quantum all the way p22
How does our classical world emerge from the counter intuitive principles of quantum theory? Can we even be sure that the world doesn't 'go quantum' when no one is watching?
* Commentaries
- Science teaching must evolve p31
Evolutionary theory, study and knowledge moved on dramatically in the latter half of the twentieth century, but school teaching, curricula and teacher training are still in the primeval soup era, says Andrew Moore.
* Books Reviews
- Exemplary epidemiology p34
Mark Woolhouse reviews Modeling Infectious Diseases in Humans and Animals
* News and Views
- Climate change: Natural ups and downs p43
The effects of global warming over the coming decades will be modified by shorter-term climate variability. Finding ways to incorporate these variations will give us a better grip on what kind of climate change to expect.
- Quantum physics: The squeeze goes on p45
After 20 years of hard labour, squeezed states — light and matter whose quantum fluctuations have been arduously suppressed below standard levels of quantum noise — are coming of age and are ripe for application.
- Immunology: T cells hang in the balance p46
Equally important as the immune system's function in fighting invaders is its ability to tolerate self. But environmental toxins could shift the equilibrium between these activities one way or the other.
- Networks: Teasing out the missing links p47
Focusing on the hierarchical structure inherent in social and biological networks might provide a smart way to find missing connections that are not revealed in the raw data — which could be useful in a range of contexts.
- Astrophysics: Rays from the dark p48
The origin of the cosmic rays that bombard Earth has troubled physicists for nigh on a century. Supernova remnants are a favoured source — but we should keep our minds open to alternatives
* Articles
- Advancing decadal-scale climate prediction in the North Atlantic sector p84
- Origin of a 'Southern Hemisphere' geochemical signature in the Arctic upper mantle p89
- Genome-wide screen reveals APC-associated RNAs enriched in cell protrusions p115

Volume 452 Number 7190 pp913-1032, 24 April 2008

*News
- Swiss 'dignity' law is threat to plant biology p919
Government ethics committee guidelines could halt techniques such as hybridization of roses.

- Biologists initiate plan to map human proteome p920
Project aims to characterize all human proteins.

* News Features

- Biomedical science: Betting the bank p926
Lyle Palmer has plans for a "ludicrously ambitious" gene–disease research project.

- Atmospheric physics: Heating up the heavens p930
Battling rumours of death beams and mind control, an ionosphere research facility in Alaska finally brings science to the fore.

* Books Review

- Technological twist on taxonomy p939
Kevin Kelly reviews Systematics as Cyberscience: Computers, Change, and Continuity in Science by Christine Hine.

* News and Views

- Optics: Light reined in p942
Light always travels at the same speed in a vacuum, no more, no less. But in materials, there's room for manoeuvre: tweak the right material in the right way, and exciting optoelectronic properties result.

- 50 & 100 Years Ago p943

Of the many craters on the Earth known to have been produced by fallen meteors, a few have left no signs of the meteor which caused them, apart from the huge holes created in the Earth's crust. Large meteorite fragments have been found in or near most craters.

- Oceanography: Bottom of the top of the world p945

The floor of the Arctic Ocean comes into sharper focus with the publication of an improved version of a bathymetric chart first released in provisional form in 1999, and as version 1 in 2001. Accurate mapping of the ocean bottom is essential for modelling deep ocean circulation

- Astrophysics: Exhaust inspection p945
What do you see if you peer into the exhaust of a jet engine larger than our Solar System?

- Gene transcription: Two worlds merged p946
Why would two distant genes — on separate chromosomes and from different nuclear locations — unite in response to signals for gene expression?

* Articles

-The genome of the model beetle and pest Tribolium castaneum p949

Tribolium castaneum is a member of the most species-rich eukaryotic order, a powerful model organism for the study of generalized insect development, and an important pest of stored agricultural products. We describe its genome sequence here.

- Crystal structures of DNA/RNA repair enzymes AlkB and ABH2 bound to dsDNA p961

- Mountain pine beetle and forest carbon feedback to climate change p987

- The draft genome of the transgenic tropical fruit tree papaya (Carica papaya Linnaeus) p991

- Upper intestinal lipids trigger a gut–brain–liver axis to regulate glucose production p1012

- Crystal structure of the repressor and a model for pairwise cooperative operator binding p1022

RSS Awareness Day: 1st of May 2008

1st of May has been named RSS Awareness Day. A very good initiative, as many people still don't know "What is RSS" and "How to use the RSS feeds" to keep up with the latest information, such as news feeds, journals' table of content, newsletters feeds, websites of interest, etc.

What is RSS?
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format used to deliver information from websites and pages that get updated regularly. An RSS document (which is called feed) contains either a summary or the full content from a website.
The main benefit of RSS is that it enables people to stay connected with their favorite websites without having to visit them. Once you subscribe to a particular RSS feed, you will automatically receive updates from the website that publishes the feed, whenever they release new content.

To read more CLICK on the TITLE of this post.