"US-Mexico Border" Neighborhood Added to NLM's® Tox Town

[Editor's Note: This Technical Note is a reprint of an announcement published on NLM-Tox-Enviro-Health-L, an e-mail announcement list available from the NLM Division of Specialized Information Services. To subscribe to this list, please see //sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/envirolistserv.html.]

A "US-Mexico Border" neighborhood has been added to Tox Town. Users can now explore a border community to learn about air pollution, drinking water quality, workplace hazards, pesticides, rats and snakes, lead poisoning, backyard trash burning, and many other environmental concerns that may affect one's health. New locations to explore in the border scene are an auto shop, tienda (corner store), maquiladora (factory), crop fields, stormwater and sewage systems, illegal dumps and tire piles, and a colonia. Colonias are border communities that lack paved roads, running water, and waste disposal, and are home to over 400,000 people in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

The U.S.-Mexico border region shares many of the same environmental health concerns that can be found anywhere in the U.S., but also has unique concerns and issues because of its geography, economic development, and lack of municipal services in some locations. The United States, Mexico, state, local, and tribal governments are working together to promote better environmental health in the region through programs such as the U.S.-Mexico Border Environmental Program: Border 2012, //www.epa.gov/usmexicoborder/.

NLM® Highlights Hurricane Katrina Information

The National Library of Medicine has compiled a new Hurricane Katrina Web page on toxic chemical and environmental health information resources for health workers and the interested public. Links are provided to information on chemicals that may be released as a result of the Katrina disaster and on environmental health concerns following the wind and flood damage.

The page includes a link to WISER, the Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders. First responders may download the WISER set of information on 400 toxic chemicals and hazardous materials to a Palm, Pocket PC, or laptop/desktop computer that uses Microsoft Windows®. WISER is designed to help identify unknown substances and gives ready access to basic emergency haz-mat information.

Links to TOXMAP identify and map locations of facilities that use or transport significant levels of toxic chemicals, and lists the chemicals for each facility. Maps are included for the Katrina-affected states as well as for New Orleans, Biloxi, and Gulfport.

In addition, MedlinePlus® contains various Health Topic pages with disaster-related information that may be useful in dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The following Health Topics are available:

• Coping with Disasters
• Disasters and Emergency Preparedness
• Drinking Water
• Food Contamination and poisoning
• Food Safety
• Diarrhea
• Molds

For additional assistance, submit questions to Customer Service at: Contact NLM or call 1-888-FIND-NLM (1-888-346-3656).

To contact Specialized Information Services for toxicology and environmental health information, please submit your questions to: tehip@teh.nlm.nih.gov.

NLM® Announces a New Version of the PubMed® Tutorial

The National Library of Medicine is pleased to release a new version of the PubMed Tutorial. As always, the tutorial is available from the PubMed sidebar.

This new version incorporates changes to PubMed through February 2005 including the My NCBI feature. Please see PubMed’s New/Noteworthy to view a list of recent changes.

Papers of Nobel Laureate Salvador E. Luria Added to Profiles in Science®

The papers of bacteriologist and Nobel Laureate Salvador E. Luria are the most recent collection added to the NLM Profiles in Science Web site, dedicated to the lives and works of prominent 20th century biomedical scientists.

The online exhibit features correspondence, published and unpublished articles and monographs, photographs, lectures, speeches, and laboratory notebooks from Luria's files. An introductory exhibit section places Luria's achievements in historical context.

Salvador Edward Luria (1912-1991) was an Italian-born bacteriologist whose pioneering work on bacterial viruses (bacteriophage) with Max Delbrück demonstrated that bacterial resistance to phage infection occurred through genetic mutation, and that bacteria were suitable subjects for genetics research. He was a founding member of the informal "phage group" of early molecular biologists working on problems of gene structure and function. His subsequent work included discovering the phenomenon of bacterial restriction and modification of phage DNA by means of enzymes, and elucidating the mechanisms by which certain proteins operate within bacterial cell membranes.

The collection can be accessed from the Profiles in Science homepage Profiles in Science.

Gene Symbol will be Removed from the PubMed® Citation Display

Gene Symbol, which is no longer maintained on PubMed citations, is the abbreviated gene name on citations processed from about 1991 to 1995. This field will be removed from the PubMed Citation display, but will continue to display on the MEDLINE and XML displays.

New Feature for OLDMEDLINE

NLM® is embarking on a project to map the OLDMEDLINE subject headings, found in the PubMed® Other Term [OT] field, to current MeSH®. The original subject headings will be retained in the OT field. NLM expects to have a large percentage of this project completed for the new 2006 PubMed system in mid-December 2005.

New Books Added to NCBI Bookshelf

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has recently added five new books to the Bookshelf:

Clinical Methods: The History, Physical, and Laboratory Examinations. 3rd ed.
Walker, H.K.; Hall, W.D.; Hurst, J.W., editors
Stoneham (MA): Butterworth Publishers; c1990.
Available from: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?call=bv.View..ShowTOC&rid=cm.TOC&depth=2

GeneReviews.
Editor-in-chief: Pagon, Roberta A. Associate editors: Cassidy, Suzanne B.; Bird, Thomas C.; Feldman, Gerald L.; Smith, Richard J.H.; Dolan, Cynthia R. Technical editor: Baskin, Patricia K.
Seattle (WA): University of Washington; 1993-2005.
Available from: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?call=bv.View..ShowTOC&rid=gene.TOC

Health, United States, 2004.
Atlanta (GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2004.
Available from: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?call=bv.View..ShowTOC&rid=healthus04.TOC

Imitators of Epilepsy. 2nd ed.
Kaplan, Peter W.; Fisher, Robert S., editors
New York: Demos Medical Publishing; c2005.
Available from: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?call=bv.View..ShowTOC&rid=imitepil.TOC&depth=2

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Board Review.
Cuccurullo, Sara J., editor
New York: Demos Medical Publishing, Inc.; c2004.
Available from: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=physmedrehab.TOC

Spinal Cord Medicine: Principles and Practice.
Lin, Vernon W., editor
New York: Demos Medical Publishing, Inc.; c2003.
Available from: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?call=bv.View..ShowTOC&rid=spinalcord.TOC&depth=2

The books in Bookshelf may be searched directly from the Bookshelf site, via links from the Links pull-down menu from relevant PubMed® citations, or through the Entrez Global query feature.

New Design for ALTBIB (Bibliography on Alternatives to the Use of Live Vertebrates in Biomedical Research and Testing)

[This Technical Note is a reprint of an announcement published on NLM-Tox-Enviro-Health-L, an e-mail announcement list available from the NLM Division of Specialized Information Services. To subscribe to this list, please see //sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/envirolistserv.html.]

Obtaining relevant information on animal alternatives from MEDLINE® /PubMed® can be challenging. For this reason, the NLM® now offers automated MEDLINE/PubMed filtered searches for relevant citations. Users can also further limit their search (via checkboxes) to citations with the "Animal Use Alternatives" MeSH® term, to the PubMed Toxicology Subset, and to citations published after 2000 (//toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/altbib.html).

For information prior to 2001, users can search ALTBIB, NLM's bibliographic collection on alternatives to animal testing. It includes citations from published articles, books, book chapters, and technical reports from 1992 to 2001. The bibliography contains citations on methods, tests, assays, and procedures that may be useful in establishing alternatives to the use of intact vertebrates.

In 2001, MEDLINE incorporated several enhancements to facilitate the information retrieval of animal alternatives literature, such as adding MeSH main headings on the animal alternatives subjects and indexing more journals relevant to animal alternatives. Since the introduction of these new enhancements, ALTBIB has not been updated.

SAMHSA/CSAT Treatment Improvement Protocol Added to NCBI Bookshelf

One new SAMHSA/CSAT Treatment Improvement Protocol has been added to HSTAT, Health Services/Technology Assessment Text. HSTAT is a free, Web-based resource of full-text documents that provide health information and support health care decision making. HSTAT is part of the NCBI Bookshelf.

44. TIP 44. Substance Abuse Treatment for Adults in the Criminal Justice System

The books in Bookshelf may be searched directly from the Bookshelf site, via links from the Links pull-down menu from relevant PubMed® citations, or through the Entrez Global query feature.

New Version of NLM Gateway Released

A new version of the NLM Gateway was released on October 4, 2005. It introduces enhanced searching for TOXLINE® Special and the Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB®). It also includes the implementation of a new search process for only the data stored within the Gateway: the Meeting Abstracts and Health Services Research Projects (HSRProj) collections.

For additional details on Gateway’s new version, please see What's New on the NLM Gateway features bar.

Choosing a Display Name for the Filter Tab in PubMed® to Represent Your Library Holdings

Libraries that participate in LinkOut can now choose a display name for the filter tab which represents their library holdings in PubMed. If libraries don't select a display name, their LinkOut Name Abbreviation will display. See My NCBI Help for information about filters selection.

To do this:

1. Sign in to the Library Submission Utility.
2. Click on Edit Identity in the blue sidebar menu.
3. Enter the name you would like to appear on the filter tab under "Display Name." Display Name can be up to 60 characters.
4. Click Update Identity.

Changes made in the Library Submission Utility will appear in PubMed after 2 PM ET the next business day.

Please send questions and comments to lib-linkout@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

NLM Gateway Adds Five New Searchable Resources

The [This link was removed because it is no longer relevent] NLM Gateway will implement searching of five additional toxicological resources on or about October 19, 2005. Users will now be able to search:

• Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology Database (DART®)
• Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System (CCRIS)
• Genetic Toxicology Data Bank (GENE-TOX)
• Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)
• International Toxicity Estimates for Risk (ITER)

NLM is pleased to provide simultaneous searching and access to the data in these collections in addition to those in the 15 collections that the NLM Gateway currently searches.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at gateway@nlm.nih.gov.

Change to Health Services Research Queries Filters in PubMed®

PubMed’s My NCBI Filters include selections for Health Services Research Queries. These selections will be modified to match the searches provided on the National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology Web page. A filter for Qualitative Research will be added and Clinical Practice will be removed. Please see the recent article, Qualitative Research Added to the Health Services Research (HSR) Search Filters. NLM Tech Bull. 2005 May-Jun;(344):e6. for additional information.

2006 MeSH® Now Available

The MeSH Browser now has an optional link to 2006 MeSH. 2006 MeSH is also available for download in XML and ASCII formats. Also available for 2006 from the same MeSH download page are: Pharmacologic Actions, New Headings with Scope Notes, MeSH Replaced Headings, and MeSH MN (tree number) Changes. 2006 MeSH in MARC format is expected later in 2005.

The default year in the MeSH Browser remains 2005 MeSH for now, but the alternate link provides access to 2006 MeSH. The MeSH Section will continue to provide access via the MeSH Browser for two years of the vocabulary: the current year and an alternate year. Sometime in November or December, the default year will change to 2006 MeSH and the alternate link will provide access to the 2005 MeSH.

New PubMed® Filter Coming to My NCBI

A new PubMed filter will soon be added to the My NCBI Filters feature. The new filter, English & Humans, will group search results that match both English language and the MeSH heading Humans. The new filter combines two existing filters, English and Humans (which will remain available individually), and can be selected on the My NCBI PubMed Filters Quick Pick menu. My NCBI Filters groups search results by areas of interest. You can have up to five active filters using My NCBI. For more information about My NCBI Filters, see the NLM Technical Bulletin article, My NCBI Replaces the Cubby: Includes Automatic E-mailing of Search Updates and Filters. NLM Tech Bull. 2005 Jan-Feb;(342):e3..

AHRQ Evidence Report Added to NCBI Bookshelf

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has recently added a new AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) Evidence Report to the HSTAT collection on the Bookshelf. HSTAT, Health Services/ Technology Assessment Text, is a free, Web-based resource of full-text documents that provide health information and support health care decision making.

112. The Use of Episiotomy in Obstetrical Care: A Systematic Review: Summary

The books in Bookshelf may be searched directly from the Bookshelf site, via links from the Links pull-down menu from relevant PubMed® citations, or through the Entrez Global query feature.