The new release of Reaxys was deployed on Sunday October 18^th 2009.

The feature highlights of this release are:

• Reaxys Alerts. The Reaxys database is updated on a regular basis and each update provides more reactions, more compounds and more data. In order for the user to see whether anything has been changed to a given query profile from one update to another it is now possible to define so-called query alerts:
  -  Displayed in the Results view just below the breadcrumb, the hyperlink “Create Alert” will allow users to activate and further define an alert.
  -  Reaxys will notify the user of the results of an activated alert by e-mail.
  -  The new My Alerts menu will display all the active alerts and their status.
• The Reaxys Results pages will display more hits: the display limit has been extended to 99 hits per page.
• Other improvements:
  -  Query page – Removal of the View Results button: a search will not stop once finished, but will automatically switch to the result page.
  -  Structure Editor – a new version of ChemAxon Marvin sketch (5.2.4) has been implemented.
  -  Synthesis Plans – Removal of unnecessary synthesis plans: users can now close plans which are no longer needed.
  -  Results page – Operators in the Value filters:  it is now possible to use operators in the value filters, i.e. you can enter queries like “>244” in the Mol. Weight filter.

More details about the improvements and fixes implemented, and further information about the Reaxys system and the tested environments, are provided in the About Page. You can access this by clicking the “About Reaxys” hyperlink displayed at the bottom of the Query page.

Listed below is a selection of notable journals in Chemistry subscribed by NTU Library:

1. Analytical Chemistry
2. Green Chemistry
3. Inorganic Chemistry
4. Journal of Biological Chemistry
5. Journal of Computational Chemistry
6. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
7. Journal of Natural Products
8. Journal of Organic Chemistry
9. Journal of Organometallic Chemistry
10. Journal of the American Chemical Society
11. Nature
12. Science

This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath for their studies on the structure and function of the ribosome. Their work focused on atom-by-atom mapping of the protein-making factories within cells.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences credited the laureates in helping researchers with the scientific understanding of life and the development of antibiotics. In their work, they generated three-dimensional models that show how different antibiotics bind to ribosomes.

Notably, Dr Yonath, an Israeli, is only the fourth woman in history to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

For more information regarding the scientific background of the prize-winning research, please click here.

In addition, much of the three scientists’ research is represented in the CAS databases, with more than 200 references to their journal articles since 1980. To learn more, read the latest CAS – Science Connections article at: www.cas.org/newsevents/connections/ribosome.html

There is an increasing trend among database vendors switching their databases from client-based to web-based. A recent article by Susan Harkins and Drew Wutka entitled “10 reasons to turn your access applications into web-based applications” highlights this trend. The 10 reasons listed by them are as follows:

1. Client versus server
2. No client installation
3. Easy cross-platform usage
4. Simplified security
5. Easy use of NT authentication
6. Goodbye to corruption!
7. No version problems
8. Live, behind-the-scenes interface updates
9. Portability
10. More users

Obviously there are many advantages for having web-based access to databases. This is also why NTU Library will be converting two of its Chemistry databases from client-based to solely web-based. The details of the conversion are as follows:

SciFinder
Currently of the 8 seats available, 5 are web-based and the remaining 3 are client-based.
However, the 3 client-based seats will also be converted to web-based seats by the end of the year.

Reaxys
Reaxys is the web version of the CrossFire Database Suite consisting of Beilstein, Gmelin and Patent Chemistry databases. Currently NTU Library subscribes to both Reaxys (web) and CrossFire (client).
However, the client version CrossFire will no longer be available by December 2010.

A new release of Reaxys was deployed on 6th September!

This release focuses on the following points:

1. The Reaxys Query forms have been equipped with the following features:
   -   Copy to reactions tab/copy to substances tab buttons. The structure query window (and the reaction query window resp.) displays a new button allowing to rapidly copy a chemical structure from the reaction query page to the Substance and Properties Query page, and vice versa.
   -   Clear button: it is now possible to delete the content of your structure/reaction box using this new button, without any modification of the other data constraints added to your query.
2. The Reaxys Citations Results page has been redesigned:
   -   Reactions and Substances tabs on Citations View. Results of a bibliographic search are displayed in a new layout, which displays three additional tabs: the Reactions tab lists all the reactions and the Substances (Grid) and Substances (Table) tabs list all the substances related to the given citation hitset.
3. Customization capabilities
   -   Reaxys allows changing the layout of the citation “Full Text” link, e.g. it is possible to add a graphical button representing your internal literature linking service.

More details about the improvements and fixes implemented, and further information about the Reaxys system and the tested environments, are provided in the About Page. You can access this by clicking the “About Reaxys” hyperlink displayed at the bottom of the Query page.

New SciFinder (Web Version) enhancements have been made available since 14th September! These enhancements include new search, analytical, and collaboration tools to help synthetic chemists and other scientists with their work.

Some of the new features include:

• Get similar reactions
• Limit reaction searches by select solvents
• Sort reaction answer sets (e.g., by number of steps, percentage yield, publication year, or similarity)
• Export physical property data to Microsoft Excel
• Tag references with helpful descriptive user-defined terms
• Add comments to references for sharing information and insights with colleagues
• Link to other SciFinder users within your research site to share both research comments and tagged references

Some features from the client version also made available in the web version include:

• Variable number of answers per page
• Variable number of columns per page – structure scale
• Customizable abstract display
• Combine Keep Me Posted results
• Next/Previous detail

New content enhancements include:

• View ¹³C-NMR Predicted Spectra for 25 million substances

In addition, several performance and usability improvements have been included in the enhancement.

For training and support resources, please visit www.cas.org

Journal of Chemical Education (JCE), which used to be available only on campus, is now available off-site! JCE is published by the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society. It is a chemistry education academic journal offering a wide array of interesting articles and activities useful in both the classroom and laboratory. In fact, a large number of articles featured in JCE are geared toward undergraduate education. One interesting feature of JCE is the monthly theme which offers a cluster of articles on a given sub-discipline such as analytical chemistry or electrochemistry. This is in addition to non-themed content.

There are 2 ways to access this journal:
1. Click on the “Free E-Journal Titles” link on the library’s E-Journals page.
2. Alternatively, go to the journal website directly and apply the full text @NTU Library bookmarklet.

Full text @NTU Library is a web browser bookmarklet that allows NTU staff and students to seamlessly retrieve full text articles or e-books subscribed by NTU Library while surfing the internet. Please click here for more information about full text @NTU Library.