Peer Reviewed

A critical view on emerging outsourcing business in Asian countries

Tiger conservationists are trying a more business-like approach to saving the threatened species. In a “faking it” style test, a social scientist has fooled a panel of physicist judges into believing that he is an experienced gravitational wave physicist. Weblogs written by scientists are relatively rare, but some of them are proving popular.

The H5N1 virus has entered Nigeria multiple times according to analyses of the virus, which show that the strains in different Nigerian poultry samples are not closely related. The discovery indicates that the virus has entered Nigeria - the first African country known to harbour the strain - in birds travelling from a range of independent sources.

Summaries of newsworthy papers include Astronomy: A sunshade for seeing planets, Neuroscience: Monkey brain 'tuned' for face recognition, Virology: Retroviral invasion of the koala genome, Microscopy: Spot the nanoflaw and Low-temperature physics: Spot the difference

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) push new frontiers in the development of creative technologies.

Peace and Conflict issues dominate the media and the daily lives of people in many parts of the world including Asia. ResearchSEA is running a special section to highlight research on Peace and Conflict. Experts in Peace and Conflict are listed here.

"Bridging the Gap: Engaging a New Generation in the Southern Philippines in Inter-Ethnic Dialogue and Conflict Resolution". "The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and Majority-Minority Relations in the Southern Philippines: Religion, Education, Community and Political Process."

The theory that experimentation with cannabis is harmless and won’t lead to further drug use is challenged in an online publication in Neuropsychopharmacology this week.

Jtst is a Java based automated unit testing tool that addresses many of the issues facing software testing.

The scientists believe that their findings represent an important advance in our understanding of the human brain development and how cells respond to their extracellular environment.

Physicists and chemists have got used to the concept of dual-use research and its implications–that knowledge, technologies and materials, which could be used to construct weapons of mass destructions, are tightly regulated for security purposes. Now, biologists too will have to get to grips with potential limitations on their research.

About 2.1 million Indian children under 5 years of age die each year. In spite of reductions in child mortality rate over the past two decades, the rate remains high at 87 per 1000 live births. The main causes are diarrhoea, pneumonia, and for deaths among the neonates asphyxia, pre-term delivery, sepsis and tetanus.

Both fresh and preserved cortical bone allografts possessed osteoinductive and osteoconductive properties. However, the fresh grafts proved to be superior than the preserved grafts.

Universiti Sains Malaysia researchers have invented a unique and novel system that can produce hydrogen inside a car using waste aluminium metal and sodium hydroxide.

Scientists have found a drug that can be used to control malaria infection. The research, to be reported in the August issue of Nature Chemical Biology, shows that the drug, astemizole, interferes with a key process of the parasite.

This is a summary of the need and rationale to set up a community media forum in Zambia and what neccessited its formation. This articles also itemises the issues that affect community media which have been swept under the carpet for a long time.

An International Journal of Obesity review paper discusses how the amount of sleep a person has, or their exposure to air conditioning may be as important causes of obesity as diet and exercise and a research article shows that ‘Activity genes’ that children are born with influence their physical activity levels more than environmental factors

Summaries of newsworthy papers in Nature dated 29 June 2006

The application and utilization of agricultural and other domestic wastes through fermentation processes and enzymatic conversation are limited due to their low volume systems. Therefore, a good and reproducible solid-state fermentation (SSF) is badly needed.

The main advantages of the desert are intensive sun radiation, wasteland and a very low population density. The main disadvantages are not only scarcity of water resources but also the high salinity, as well as frequently occurring extreme climate conditions.

NATURE AND THE NATURE RESEARCH JOURNALS PRESS RELEASE - For papers that will be published online on 25 June 2006 including Assembly dynamics of microtubules at molecular resolution, New class of cancer therapeutic, Clostridium difficile genome

The fight against tuberculosis, one of the most deadly local endemic diseases, is a very revealing example of the contents, complexity and ambiguity of French health policy in Vietnam.

The orchid Holcoglossum amesianum, which tends to flower in windless drought conditions, defies gravity to twist the male part of its flower into the necessary shape to fertilize the female one; The fossilized remains of two tiny freshwater lampreys in Inner Mongolia, China suggests that lampreys have changed little over the last 100 million years.

Summaries of newsworthy papers in Nature: Thymus bipotent precursor cells found, Cell regeneration in mammalian inner ear, Eavesdropping yields benefits, T-cell link to cancer, The hole story, Cellular spaces fuse into blood vessels, Pump up the bandwidth

New procedures for mapping the regions responsible for controlling gene expression across the entire human genome are described in two papers in the July issue of Nature Methods. The resulting understanding should help researchers understand the genetic problems leading to various diseases.

A circular phase separation tank/system, with inclined coalescence frustums for efficient removal of oil and grease and suspended solids from wastewaters, has been developed and tested.

This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the integration-inclusion programme offered by the Ministry of Education for students with learning difficulties (LD). The ultimate goal is to improve and provide quality education for children with special needs.

Venereology (the study of venereal diseases) today encompasses more than the five classical venereal diseases (syphilis, gonorrhea, chancroid, donovanosis and lymphogranuloma venereum).This article briefly deals with various facets of evolution of venereology in India.

Information Technology in the Caribbean manufacturing firms: An industrial survey

Summaries of newsworthy papers from Nature Research Journals that will be published online on 18 June 2006.