Biological Warfare Defense Vaccine Research & Development Programs [.pdf]
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/ReportonBiologicalWarfareDefenseVaccineRDPrgras-July2001.pdf
This 190-page .pdf document, dated July 2001 but released online September 7, 2001 by the US Department of Defense (DoD), gives the latest status of biological warfare defense vaccine development. The DoD assembled a panel of experts in the scientific, regulatory, and industrial aspects of vaccine production and in federal procurement to review the topic. They concluded that the scope and complexity of the DoD biological warfare defense vaccine requirements were too great for either the DoD or the pharmaceutical industry to accomplish alone. The first part of this online report is an executive summary from the DoD, followed by the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2001, and finally the independent panel's full report, Department of Defense Acquisition of Vaccine Production, of December 2000. Sections of the dense, 167-page report include financial and personnel resource requirements, policies, findings, and recommendations. [HCS]
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IRIS (Industrial Research and Development Information System) -- NSF [MS Word, Excel]
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/iris/start.htm
The National Science Foundation's Industrial Research and Development Information System (IRIS) houses a database of all of the statistics produced and published from the 1953-1998 cycles of the annual Survey of Industrial Research and Development (R&D). The statistics would be useful to workers in economics or anyone interested in learning about how funds are allocated among research areas. NSF states that the results of the survey are used by government agencies, corporations, and research organizations to determine productivity factors, formulate tax policy, and to investigate company performance. The statistics available in IRIS describe national estimates of the total expenditures on R&D performed within the United States by industrial firms, given in dollar amounts. Tabulations from the survey contain R&D statistics by industry, size of company, source of funds, character of R&D, R&D as a percentage of net sales, and R&D contracted to outside organizations and performed outside of the United States. They also contain estimates of the sales and total employment of R&D-performing companies, employment of R&D scientists and engineers, and statistics by state. Users have a variety of options for searching and browsing the Excel tables and Word documentation in IRIS -- by year, topic, or by measure -- and the resulting tables can display all years combined or just selected years. [HCS]
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Online Directory of ESL Resources
http://www.cal.org/ericcll/ncbe/esldirectory
A boon to teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL), this database of ESL-related educational resources comes from the National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education and the ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics, with funding from the US Department of Education's Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs (OBEMLA) and Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). The database can be searched by entering a keyword or using the hypertext index provided. Index categories are Most Popular, Curriculum and Instruction, and Resource Types. The About page contains helpful information about what is in the database and how best to search. If you are a teacher of ESL and you are looking for lesson plan ideas, English language clubs, conference listings funding opportunities, and more, you must check out this Website. [HCS]
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Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project [.pdf]
http://www.stimson.org/cbw/?SN=CB2001112951
A project of the Henry L. Stimson Center, the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project was launched by Senior Associate, Amy E. Smithson in 1993. The project aims to serve as an "information clearinghouse, watchdog, and problem-solver regarding chemical and biological weapons issues." As such, the site offers a number of resources including information on how much the government is spending on anti-terrorism, how to protect oneself against chemical and biological terrorism, and nonproliferation efforts internationally. The site offers text of legislation, articles, maps of selected countries (especially the United States, Russia, and Iraq), and much more. This should be a very valuable site for both researchers and general readers looking for background material on chemical and biological weapons, their production, and efforts to reduce their threats. [TK]
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Attributes of a Trusted Digital Repository: Meeting the Needs of Research Resources [.pdf]
http://www.rlg.org/longterm/attributes01.pdf
In March 2000, Research Libraries Group and OCLC formed a collaboration to establish attributes of digital repositories for research institutions. These organizations sought to build on the work of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) model and the 1996 report Preserving Digital Information: Report of the Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information (discussed in the June 14, 1996 Scout Report). The current 52-page report attempts to codify understanding of the issues amongst the concerned community (libraries, archives, historical societies, archivists, digital librarians, computer scientists, and the like) and further develop practical, structured approaches toward resolving problems of technology and administration as well as trust and confidence. This report (for public comment) will interest anyone concerned with the future direction of the burgeoning digital record of our culture and the new roles traditional institutions play. [DJS]
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Two New NAP offerings:
Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction: Where Real Science Ends...and Pseudoscience Begins
http://search.nap.edu/books/030907309X/html/
Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10139.html
These two new National Academy Press (NAP) publications should be of interest to a number of our readers. The first takes readers on "a tour of the most notorious instances of pseudoscience and sets the record straight." Ranging through discussions of UFOs, astrology, creationism, ESP, and out-of-body experiences, the book argues for the scientific method and attempts to sort out the differences between "science" and "pseudoscience." The second title, Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions, a short, new report by a committee of the National Research Council, takes a look at global warming trends in the last century. The report predicts a temperature increase of 2.5 to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit (1.4 to 5.8 degrees Celsius) over the next 100 years but emphasizes the uncertainty of predictions and the degree to which human factors have played a role in warming trends. [TK]
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Two New FDA Websites:
Drug Shortages
http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/shortages/
Human Drug Advisory Committees [.pdf]
http://www.fda.gov/cder/audiences/acspage/index.htm
The FDA has just announced two new Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) Websites: Human Drug Advisory Committees and Drug Shortages (the CDER was last mentioned in the July 14, 2000 Scout Report). Both sites should be useful to health care professionals. The first features a list of drugs that are in short supply as well as reasons why they are scarce and advice on how to obtain them. The second site overviews FDA advisory committees' discussions about drugs submitted for approval (including selected transcripts), and supplies briefing documents, notice of upcoming committee meetings, and information on nominating members to advisory committees. [TK]
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New Additions to ERIC Digests Database
http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/index/2001-9-17.html
ERIC Digests Index Page
http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/index/
The latest update to the ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) Digests database (last described in the June 29, 2001 Scout Report) features 28 full-text, short reports aimed at education professionals and the broader education community. Each report includes an overview of an education topic of current interest and offers references for further information. Sample titles include "Newer Technologies for School Security," "Violence in Audio-Visual Media: How Educators Can Respond," and "Civic Knowledge and Engagement at Age 14 in 28 Countries: Results from the IEA Civic Education Study." Users can search the entire ERIC Digests database from the index page. ERIC, part of the National Library of Education (NLE), is a nationwide education information system sponsored by the US Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). [TK]
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