Searching for information on toxicological data of chemical substances in selected bibliographic databases--selection of essential databases for toxicological researches.

By using information from printed and online database guides, 18 online bibliographic databases (BD), which cover literature on toxicology were selected from 5 hosts. A search for literature containing information on three selected chemicals was carried out with each of the databases, and the number of documents relevant to toxicology found in them was compared by computer-assisted analysis. Some databases yielded very little information pertinent to toxicology, while others provided a considerable amount. In addition, the databases contained numerous duplicates (references common to more than one database). Most of the relevant documents could be obtained using only 8 of the 18 BDs selected. These databases are: Biosis Previews (BIOSIS), Chemical Abstracts (CA), Chemical Safety Newsbase (CSNB), Excerpta Medica (EMBASE), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Scisearch, Toxicology Information Online (TOXLINE) and the former Toxicology Literature (TOXLIT).

Searching for information on chemical substances in selected biomedical bibliographic databases.

A method was developed which allows effective searching for information on chemical substances in databases. Several searches for chemicals in bibliographic databases were carried out to analyse the method of indexing chemical names. The recall rates of documents were compared to evaluate information resources as well as searching strategies. Recall rates of documents searched with the CAS Nos. were compared to those searched with substance name. It turned out that searching for substances is most specific and fastest with CAS Nos. They should always be used whenever possible. However, this is not sufficient in many BDs, making an additional search using chemical names necessary. Specific search options that have to be considered for each database are reported.

Microcomputer software and interface for control of a microscope scanning stage.

Motorized scanning stages are valuable in microscopy systems that employ digital image analysis and for the development of semiautomatic computer-assisted microscope systems; the development of standard software "tools" to control such stages will facilitate their integration into a variety of computer-based systems. A set of Microsoft BASIC and Turbo PASCAL programs that interfaces a microprocessor-controlled stepper motor microscope stage (MDACE 1000) to an IBM PC or PC-AT or compatible microcomputer via a serial interface (RS-232) is described. These programs can be integrated into other software written in either BASIC or PASCAL, or used via a menu program that directs the routines to control scanning patterns and to locate the microscope stage to a selected area of the slide. Coordinates of significant events on a slide can be stored on a disk file to allow future examination. The software and interface also provide control of a filter wheel in the microscope for use in multicolor fluorescence assays.

Stereophotogrammetry marking and serializing: a simple technique.

A relatively simple, inexpensive, and yet exact, binary code data-back-fiducial marking system may be added to any existing camera by the use of LED illumination of the back of the film through precisely aligned holes in the focal plane pressure plate.