With the current issue, the Journal of Biomedical Informatics is now well into its ninth year since its 2001 transformation from the former Computers and Biomedical Research. We are delighted with the growth of the journal during that time and believe that we have established precisely the kind of unique niche that we sought to pursue when we renamed the journal and developed its current editor...

Bleaching of paper pulp represents a major industrial use of chlorine and could provide an environmentally significant source of atmospheric halocarbons. The related global production of chloroform is estimated at 3 x 105 ton yr -• and there could be additional production associated with atmospheric decomposition of perchloroethylene. Estimates are given for the production of methyl chloride, m...

The EMBO Workshop on 'Lineage Commitments: Emphasis on Embryonic-Extraembryonic Interfaces', held in May 2011, demonstrated that embryonic and extraembryonic tissues play early and significant interacting roles that mutually promote each other's further and correct deployment within the mammalian conceptus. Highlighted here are those presentations that directly addressed embryonic-extraembryoni...

Salinization is the accumulation of water-soluble salts in the soil solum or regolith to a level that impacts on agricultural production, environmental health, and economic welfare. Salt-affected soils occur in more than 100 countries of the world with a variety of extents, nature, and properties. No climatic zone in the world is free from salinization, although the general perception is focuse...

ticular concern are “heavy metals,” which occur naturally in the earth’s crust and are defined in physiochemical terms as metals with a density at least 5 times as great as water. This definition translates into an approximate heavy-metal minimum density of 5, and—in addition to cadmium, lead, and mercury—the metals zinc, copper, iron, cobalt, nickel, tin, manganese, and molybdenum also qualify...