Did you know...

Did you know that peanuts are one of the most important oilseed crops of the world? The fatty acid composition of peanuts plays an important role in oil quality and change in temperature affects this fatty acid composition!

You can read more about climate change and its effects on peanut acidity levels in Impact of Climate Change on Oil Fatty Acid Composition of Peanut from vol. 72 no. 4 of the Chilean Journal of Agricultural Research.

You can access more full text articles from the Chilean Journal of Agricultural Research vol. 72 no. 4 here:
http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=cj&year=2012&vol=72&num=04&keys=V72N4

While you're at it, check out articles from the Chilean Journal of Agricultural Research vol. 72 no. 3 too! The issue is accessible here:
http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=cj&year=2012&vol=72&num=03&keys=V72N3

Featured New Issue: East and Central African Journal of Surgery Vol. 17 No. 2

Today we are also featuring vol. 17 no. 12 of the East and Central African Journal of Surgery, updated last week on the Bioline website. One of its articles, Masquelet's Technique for Management of Long Bone Defects: From Experiment to Clinical Application, discusses the treatment of large bone defects using the Masquelet's technique. The Masquelet's technique is based on two principal steps: the formation of induction membrane and cancellous bone grafting.

Vol. 17 no. 12 also includes a study (Burnout Syndrome among Orthopaedic Surgeons in Lagos, Nigeria) on the rate of burnout syndrome among orthopaedic surgeons in Lagos State, Nigeria. 29 surgeons participated in the study by filling out a questionnaire on their demographic details. 

For the results of these studies and other articles from this issue, please go to: http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=js&year=2012&vol=17&num=02&keys=V17N2 

Featured New Issue: African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development Vol. 12 No. 7

We updated a number of new journal issues on the Bioline International website last week! Among them is vol. 12 no. 7 of the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development. One of the articles in this issue (A Comparison of the Kinetics of Mango Drying in Open-Air, Solar, and Forced-Air Dryers) is an investigation of three different drying methods to preserve mangoes. Using these methods can increase the economic potential of the fruit!

Another article (Survey of Postharvest Handling, Preservation and Processing Practices Along the Camel Milk Chain in Isiolo District, Kenya) is a study on the postharvest handling, preservation, and processing practices of camel milk harvested by pastoralists in Isiolo, Kenya. This study collected information on the storage of camel milk as well as problems experienced by milk traders.

For these articles and more from vol. 12 no. 7, please visit:
http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=nd&year=2012&vol=12&num=07&keys=V12N7

African Crop Science Journal - vol. 20 no. 4 and vol. 20 supp. 2

Bioline is happy to announce that vol. 20 no. 4 and vol. 20 supplement 2 of the African Crop Science Society's journal have been uploaded to the Bioline website!

Vol. 20 no. 4 of African Crop Science journal covers a range of topics, including the Effect of Nitrogen on Safflower Physiology and Productivity as well as the Impact of Some Climatic and Phenological Parameters on the Callogenesis and Somatic Embryogenesis Variations in Cocoa. The topic of climate is continued in articles through vol. 20 supplement 2. Bagamba, Bashaasha, Claessens and Antle tackle adaptation strategies in response to climate change in their article, titled Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Strategies for Smallholder Agricultural Systems in Uganda.

Full text PDF articles with abstracts in English and French are available through the following links:

• Vol. 20 no. 4 - http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=cs&year=2012&vol=20&num=04&keys=V20N4
• Vol. 20 supp. 2 - http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=cs&year=2012&vol=20&num=S2&keys=V20NS2

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The African Crop Science Society also recently announced that two fully funded Crop Science PhD studentships are available at Lancaster University:
The Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC), Lancaster University, is pleased to announce a significant number of PhD Studentships for October 2013. LEC forms one of the largest centres for environmental research in Europe. LEC's inter-disciplinary research themes focus on atmospheric science, biodiversity and global change, catchment and aquatic processes, environmental geosciences and the relationships between the environment and society. The excellent research environment and facilities these themes offer provides the setting for our PhD training. LEC has 160 full and part time PhD and Masters by Research students who contribute to a vibrant research environment and the research achievements of LEC. Enquiries and applications from well-qualified applicants who wish to join this thriving research community are welcomed.

LEC is pleased to be offering two BBSRC funded PhDs, which are part of a Doctoral Training Programme in Food Security:

• Benefits of controlled soil drying on crop yields: disentangling nutritional and phytohormonal effects PhD
• Using chemical genetics as a tool to explore nitrogen regulatory pathways in wheat development PhD

Deadline: 22 February

For more information, see: http://www.lec.lancs.ac.uk/postgraduate/pg_news/?article_id=1277

Leslie Chan's Trip to India

Professor Leslie Chan, Director of Bioline International, flew to India in December 2012 to spread the word about Open Access in the cities of Thiruvananthapuram and Mysore. This was his first visit to southern India. Information Consultant and Open Access advocate Subbiah Arunachalam accompanied Prof. Chan on the trip!

Prof. Chan gave two lectures on December 17th: one at the University of Kerala, the other at the National Institute of Interdisciplinary Science & Technology, CSIR. On December 18th, he headed to the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management – Kerala to deliver a talk titled “Opportunities for Knowledge Management and Open Access”, during which he explored the current status of Open Access, the issues it faces today, and how its impact can be measured. Prof. Chan then traveled to the Mysore University Library on December 19th, where he spoke about the essential role of Open Access in the future and growth of scholarly research during his lecture titled “Emerging Trends in Scholarly Communication and Impact Measures in the Open Knowledge Environment”. His travels concluded on December 20th at the SDM Institute for Management Development. This meeting provided a forum for scientists, librarians and academics to discuss their views and ideas with each other.

For detailed information and photos of his trip, as well as slides of his lectures, please visit: http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/leslie-chan-gives-five-talks-in-india

Featured Issue: Revista Colombia Médica Vol. 43 No. 1

In the latest issue of Revista Colombia Médica to be uploaded to Bioline International - one study (Blood pressure by age, gender, height, and socioeconomic level in school populations in Cali, Colombia) in issue 1 of vol. 43 looked at the risk factors for blood pressure in children and adolescents, as several other studies have shown that these risk factors are indicators for cardiovascular diseases in later life. For this study, 2807 students in Cali, Colombia had their blood pressured tested as well as blood chemistry, physical work capacity, oral health, diet, and blood pressure. The study also examined the relationship between blood pressure and age, gender, height, body mass index, socioeconomic status and salt intake.  
 
For more articles from vol. 43, no. 1 of Revista Colombia Médica, visit: http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=oc&year=2012&vol=107&num=04&keys=V107N4

Featured Issue: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz Vol. 107 No. 3, 4 and 5

Today we are featuring Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz vol. 107 no. 3, 4, and 5. Among the articles in no. 3 is one (Prevalence of hepatitis e virus antibodies in individuals exposed to swine in Mato Grosso, Brazil) on a study of participants exposed to swine in Mato, Grosso, Brazil. The study participants were tested for hepatitis E antibodies. Among 310 participants, 8.4% were found to be anti-HEV-positive.

For other articles from this issue, please visit:http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=oc&year=2012&vol=107&num=03&keys=V107N3 
 
No. 4 of vol. 107 includes an article (Evolution of insecticide resistance in non-target black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) from Argentina) on the resistance of black flies to pyrethroids fenvalerate and organophosphate azinphos methyl over a 12-year period, from 1996 to 2008. How many times insecticide is used on the population and how much of it is used at a time were two factors that had to be considered in understanding the evolution of pesticide resistance.
 
For other articles from vol. 107 no. 4, please visit:
http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=oc&year=2012&vol=107&num=04&keys=V107N4 

Finally, we now have vol. 107 no. 5 on the Bioline International website. This issue includes an article (Declining prevalence of hepatitis A virus antibodies among children from low socioeconomic groups reinforces the need for the implementation of hepatitis A vaccination in Brazil) about anti hepatitis A virus (HAV) antibodies tested in children of low socioeconomic status. The study showed that 74.1-90% of children under five are susceptible to HAV infection. It also mentioned that the hepatitis A vaccine currently being offered in the area is too costly for people of low socioeconomic status. The article cries for a call to action for hepatitis A vaccine to be included in the Brazilian National Program for Immunisation.
 
To access this article and others from vol. 107 no. 5, please visit:
http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=oc&year=2012&vol=107&num=04&keys=V107N4

Featured Issue: African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development Vol. 12 No. 5

In the editorial (Drought in the United States of America: How does it affect Africa) of vol. 12 no. 5 of the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development the future world hunger crisis is discussed by the Editor-in-Chief, Ruth Oniang’o. She notes that because America’s economy affects the world so greatly, the 2012 summer drought was felt by the entire world. This is due to an increase in food costs as the result of the drought which pushed aid to the developing world further down the list of America’s priorities. In the wake of this event, Oniang’o gives a call to action for African governments to subsidize their farmers. Subsidies will help offset the effects of the droughts that have been experienced in the continent over many years and will also reduce the reliance on world food aid.

Also in this issue, in the article The Role of the Youth in Enhancing Food Security: The untapped potential, George Ooko also addresses food security and how youth development in the agricultural sub-sector can help its advancement. 

For full text access to these articles, please visit: http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=nd&year=2012&vol=12&num=05&keys=V12N5

Introducing you to the rest of the Bioline Team!

On January 24th we posted about the Bioline Team at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus (UTSC). Today, we would like to introduce you to the other half of the Bioline Team - Sidnei and Luiz at the Reference Center on Environmental Information (CRIA)!

The support of CRIA, based in Brazil, through Sidnei and Luiz's collaboration with the Bioline Team at UTSC is absolutely indispensable to Bioline's operations. Bioline is just one of many projects at CRIA and all server hosting, administration, and server development is provided to Bioline from CRIA on a volunteer basis. We asked Sidnei and Luiz to tell us a little bit more about their work with Bioline...

Sidnei de Souza

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Sidnei de Souza has been with Bioline since the beginning! In fact, Sidnei developed the software to make Bioline available online during its formative years. Bioline's system has existed since 1989 and Sidnei has been responsible for updating the software to cope with the many changes in technology over the years to keep Bioline's archives compatible with new systems. Sidnei has said, "BI is a very low key system in terms of software, but for this reason tends to be very robust!" The Bioline Team at UTSC would like to thank Sidnei for all of his help and guidance over the years.

Luiz Henrique Barione

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CRIA's primary role in Bioline operations is to keep the system up and running, and process updates requested by the team at UTSC. Luiz Henrique Barione is responsible for updating the material sent to CRIA by Bioline staff at UTSC. Luiz then gives feedback to the UTSC team on any potential problems he finds in the files. Luiz also maintains Bioline's access stats, as well as keeping the basic software up to date. Luiz is also responsible for keeping the Bioline hardware in a good shape, making regular backups, and making sure that the connectivity is guaranteed. Thank you, Luiz, for all of your hard work!

Featured Issue: Biokemistri Vol. 24 No. 1 and 2

Biokemistri’s first issue of vol. 24 includes an article (Biochemical and histological changes associated with treatment of malaria and diabetes mellitus in mice with extracts of  Mormodiaca charantia) on the effects of the methanolic extract of Momordica charantia leaves tested on mice infected with malaria. The results showed that haemoglobin and red blood cell count in the mice increased. It also showed that the blood glucose levels of those treated with the extract decreased significantly.

This issue also includes the article Consequences of long-term consumption of water from Nworie River (Owerri, Nigeria) on haematological, hepatic, and renal functions using rat model, which describes the effects of Nworie River water, located in Owerri, Nigeria. The experiment used testing water from Nworie River. One group of test rats drank Nworie River water, while the other test group drank purified Coca-cola bottled water. The results showed that drinking Nworie River water affected the liver adequacy of the test rats. The experiment concluded that Nworie River water also affected their haematological, hepatic and renal function.

For full text access to these and other articles from this issue, go to:
http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=bk&year=2012&vol=24&num=01&keys=V24N1

The second issue of vol. 24 of Biokemistri was posted to the Bioline International website in December 2012. This issue includes another article on water testing, titled Enterotoxicigenicity profile of Escherichia coli, Vibrio, and Salmonella species isolated from well and river water sources in Oproama town in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. This article discusses the well water of Oproama Town in Rivers state, Nigeria, which was tested for Escherichia coli, Vibrio and Salmonella species. The results showed there was a near absence of Escherichia coli, Vibrio and Salmonella, and doubtful toxicity of Salmonella isolate. The article also called for more and continuous testing on the safety of water, as hand-dug wells are the only source of drinking water in this region.

Vol. 24's second issue also includes an article, Toxic effect of carica papaya bark on body weight, haematology, and some biochemical parameters, on the effects of Carica papaya bark consumed by a group of test rats. The results showed that Carica papaya bark had a toxic effect on the body weight, haemotology and biochemical parameters of the test rats. Carica papaya was also used subject of research in another article (Long-term effects of three hypoglycaemic plants (Irvingia gabonensis, Urena lobata and Carica papaya) on the oxidative  status of normal rabbits) to study its long-term effects on the oxidative state of rabbits.

For full text access to these and other articles from this issue, go to: http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=bk&year=2012&vol=24&num=02&keys=V24N2