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Bulletin
6-10 August No. 2007.31
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Ayala Corporation CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II visits IRRI
and delivers seminar on the role of business in social problems
 Mr. Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II, chairman and CEO of Ayala Corporation, visited IRRI today, 7 August, to have an overview of the Institute's research activities and facilities, and to deliver a seminar on "The Role of Business in Dealing with Social Problems," at the Havener Auditorium.
He was welcomed by IRRI DG Robert Zeigler, DDG-OSS William Padolina, IRRI Spokesperson Duncan Macintosh, DPPC Mike Jackson, and IRRI Consultant Gelia Castillo.
Dr. Padolina presented and discussed IRRI’s impact in the Philippines and international research agenda, which focused on IRRI's achievements through the years, IRRI's strategic goals and medium-term plan for 2007-09, the Rice Knowledge Bank, conservation of
rice genetic resources in the country, water-saving technologies, and hybrid rice seed production.
 Dr. Zeigler gave a presentation on climate change,
in which he emphasized the need to adapt to the world's fast-changing climate and how this would
affect agriculture, specifically rice farming. He discussed the success of the Sub1 lines, which are tolerant
of flooding.
Dr. Zeigler also mentioned IRRI's long-term experiments on continuous cropping, fertility, and
the rice-maize crop rotation, which can provide key information for developing better rice varieties and trends that can help scientists develop rice lines that will suit the changing environment.
 Dr. Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton (left in photo at left) gave Mr. Zobel de Ayala a tour of the International Rice Genebank. Dr. David Mackill, leader of Program 1--Raising Productivity in Rainfed Environments--Attacking the Roots
of Poverty, and PBGB scientist Hei Leung gave a presentation on The application and impact of the new science of rice genomics.
In his seminar, Mr. Zobel de Ayala discussed corporate social responsibility and the relationships among the private sector, philantrophy, and government.
Click here to listen to his seminar. Click here to follow along with the text of his speech.
Mr. Zobel de Ayala is also vice-chairman of Ayala Land, chairman of the Bank of
the Philippine Islands, chairman of Globe Telecom, and vice-chairman of Manila Water. He was named Management Man of the Year (2006) by the Management Association of the Philippines. He holds a B.A. degree in economics (cum laude) from Harvard College (1981), and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration (1987).
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IRRI rice seed samples and photos featured in Singapore food festival
 IRRI exhibit panels containing more than 70 unique rice seed samples, courtesy of
the T.T. Chang Genetic Resources Center and Seed Health Unit, plus photos, were featured at the Hougang Mall Food Festival, 9-22 July, Singapore.
 The festival, dubbed “Rice Paradise Promotions,” aimed to educate mall shoppers on how rice is grown, the different types of rice, and where rice
is planted in Asia, among others. IRRI videos were also shown during the 2-week celebration.
Before the launch of the exhibit, Ms. Clarisse Lam, advertising & promotions executive, Hougang Mall AsiaMalls Management Pte Ltd. , said, “As Singapore does not have natural resources, it would be a great opportunity to educate our shoppers about the fun facts of rice." Click here to view the food festival flyer. Click here to view news stories that came out in Singapore papers.
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| PBGB Field and Greenhouse Safety Orientation Program for NRS ongoing at IRRI
One hundred twenty-three PBGB staff members are attending a Field and Greenhouse Safety Orientation Program, 7-8 August at D.L. Umali Rooms A, B, and C.
The program aims to refresh the staff members' awareness on the following topics: Safety in the workplace, What to do in the event of an accident, Safety in the use of IRRI field vehicles, Pesticide safety,
and Safety in operating threshing and seed-processing equipment, and
an Actual demonstration of equipment operation.
Resource persons were SSS Senior Manager Glenn Enriquez and Assistant Manager Cristina Andaya; Lito Cabral and Rolly Santos of Transport Services; and Arnold Manza and Tom Clemeno of the Experiment Station. During the short opening program, PBGB Division Head Darshan Brar formally welcomed the participants and guests. Dr. Julie Pua-Ferraz, SSS occupational health and safety consultant; Francia Indira V. Olivar, SSS occupational health and safety nurse; and Lito Vergara of Transport Services also attended.
The Field and Greenhouse Safety Orientation Program was initiated by the Division Management Committee of PBGB and its Division Safety Committee. PBGB has been actively promoting safety in the workplace. Aside from the orientation, PBGB has also started reviewing and consolidating protocol and safety guidelines for all its laboratories, screenhouses, and field operations. A similar orientation for laboratory workers will also be conducted.
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New from CIMMYT
 Brothers on the land
Somewhere between the romance of the Silk Road and the landmines, CIMMYT works as part of the team that is rebuilding the shattered agriculture of Afghanistan. Includes video!
Wheat farmers see infrared
Infrared sensors help better target fertilizer for wheat on large commercial farms in northern Mexico, cutting production costs and reducing nitrogen runoff into coastal seas.
Genebank math
Two decades ago, CIMMYT scientist Jose Crosse began to apply sophisticated statistics and population genetics to the management of seed collections in genebanks. Now, the methodologies developed at CIMMYT for the maintenance and classification of genetic resources are used throughout the world.
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New staff member in IRRI-GMS Office
 Ms. Sonedalinh "Tock" Phoumvongxay joined the IRRI-GMS Vientiane office as secretary effective 15 June.
Tock graduated from the National University of Laos with a B.A. degree in English. Prior to
joining IRRI, she worked at the Vientiane Urban Development Administration Authority as community development officer and as secretary in a water supply and sanitation project of the Ministry of Communication, Transport, Post, and Construction.
Tock will handle arrangements for visitors to IRRI-GMS such as hotel reservations, airport transfers, local transport needs, and appointments with project collaborators. For future travel to Laos, IRRI staff
can contact Tock at sonedalinh@gmail.com, copied to Gary Jahn and Sone Mosky.
Mr. Mosky will be responsible for travel arrangements of the office staff and event logistics such as
for IRRI-organized meetings, conferences, workshops in-country and travel needs of IRRI-sponsored Lao participants going abroad. Mr. Sansai Samountry
will continue to handle financial matters of the office. Staffing and work assignments in the office in Luang Prabang
will remain the same, with Mr. Ouaneheune Phouthachit handling administrative and financial matters, reporting directly to Dr. Ben Samson.
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IRRI badminton season begins tomorrow
The IRRI badminton tournament opens tomorrow, 8 August, 5:30 p.m. at the IRRI courts.
Teams will play a double-round-robin series, with the team having the most wins after two rounds emerging as the champion. In case of a tie for first place at the end of the second round, playoff games will be held.
Games will be played on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The tournament will be adopting the new “rally-point” scoring format, which promises to make the matches more exciting because every rally will automatically earn a point for
both sides. See you there!
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"Rice is Life" exhibit ongoing at Vancouver Museum
 The Vancouver Museum is featuring the "Rice is Life" exhibition from 4 May 2007 to 1 January 2008. The exhibit is "Canada’s first-ever dedicated to rice," according to Dr. Paula Swart, co-creator of the exhibition and curator of Asian Studies at the Museum.
The Vancouver Museum Web site explains that "Rice is Life explores rice's deep significance in societies from all over the globe through history, cultivation, culture, religion, ritual, science, and modern-day challenges of sustainability. The exhibit highlights the cultural underpinnings of the world’s most important food crop – the staple that sustains nearly one-half of all humankind."
The photo below left shows Matthew and Chris Hettel
paying a visit to the exhibition last week (2 August).
Where visitors sign the guestbook, ample supplies of
IRRI's Rice Today magazine are available.
"Cultivated for over 5,000 years in more than 100 countries, on every continent, except Antarctica, rice sustains two-thirds of the world's population. The exhibit explores the agricultural, spiritual, and artistic significance of rice."
The project was developed by the Museum in partnership with the Canadian Society for Asian Arts, with support from the
government of Canada through the Museum's Assistance Program, Department of Canadian Heritage, and through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Click here to go to the exhibit Web site.
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Click here to view the latest news and features about rice
from Web sites worldwide.
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Perlis rice strain to be seed of growth, profit (Malaysia)
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Indonesia sees rice prices remaining stable until yearend amid sufficient supply
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Clearfield rice: Where to from here? (USA)
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Boost for Ghana rice: Parliament approves loan for production
* India, Pak. to jointly prevent patenting of Basmati rice
* Philippines Considering Additional Rice Imports This Year
* Govt move to cut paddy field gas emissions 'misguided'
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Russia hints at lifting ban on Pakistani rice
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POINT OF VIEW/ Takashi Tsuchida: We all have a duty to protect our rice farmers
* State Pulse: Punjab: Farming woes
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Floods Damage Rice Crop In Southern Pakistan - Official
* Tilda feeds hungry new market by selling its packaged rice in India
* And much, much more
A
historic listing of newspaper and
magazine articles and features, audio clips, and
external Web sites dating back to 14 June 1968,
which feature IRRI staff and rice research, can
be found at
www.irri.org/media/articles.asp.
Click here to read about news and events at the TC via its Web site.
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 NEWS ALERT
Click here to read news and feature stories and see more about what's new via the DPPC Web site. |
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The other greenhouse effect: Rising carbon dioxide levels should increase crop yields. But what if their effect on the nutritional
value of our food is less benign?
By Ned Stafford
Source: Nature
 When you step into a commercial greenhouse, the chances are you are stepping into the future. To plants, carbon dioxide is food, and greenhouse operators, knowing this, use it to fatten them up. While today’s atmosphere contains about 380 parts per million of carbon dioxide, commercial greenhouses often contain carbon dioxide concentrations of twice that or more — the sort of concentration that we might expect in the open air at the end of the century. The fact that plants thrive in environments with high levels of CO2 — all other things being equal — seems to offer a silver lining to the otherwise dark clouds of climate change.
Many crop scientists believe that this carbon dioxide fertilization effect will go at least some way toward offsetting the losses in yield to be expected as a result of the higher temperatures, flooding, drought, and rising sea levels that the CO2 greenhouse effect will bring. The fact that many horticulturalists already choose higher CO2 environments for their work underlines this assumption. Click here to read a pdf of the complete article that came out in Nature.
Plant Breeding News features interview with IRRI DG
Click here (then click on section 1.04) to read excerpts of an interview by the editor of Plant Breeding News with Dr. Robert Zeigler on the occasion of the Centennial Celebration of Cornell’s Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, 26-28 July 2007.
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5 August: 2002, the IRRI Training Center launches the Rice Knowledge Bank (RKB).
9 August: 2003, IRRI plant pathologist Hei Leung is named a Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society (APS).
 10 August: 2005, William G. Padolina (photo), IRRI Deputy Director General for Partnerships, is selected as one of the joint winners of the 2005 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Science and Technology Meritorious Award for his “qualifications and significant contributions to the development and application of science and technology in the ASEAN region; 2006, a gene that enables rice to survive complete submergence is identified by a team of researchers at IRRI and announced in today's issue of the journal Nature.
 11 August: 2003, the Malaysian Plant Protection Society (MAPPS) selects K.L. Heong, IRRI entomologist, to receive its inaugural Award of Excellence in Plant Protection; 2004, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agrees to establish formal relations with IRRI, the beginning of the first-ever official ties between the Institute and the world's largest formal grouping of rice-producing nations; 2005, in this issue of Nature, the participants in the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (in which IRRI has played a role, specifically IRRI bioinformatics specialist Richard Bruskiewich, who, as a co-author of the paper provided annotation and analysis), present a map-based, finished quality sequence that covers 95% of the 389-megabase genome.
Click here
to view significant dates throughout
the calendar year.
Click here for the entire year in one pdf file. If you have some dates to add or correct,
please contact Gene Hettel.
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 IT tips & info
Joy of Training
Click here to view the IT Learning Center SharePoint site and have access to learning materials, training schedules, course outlines, Joy of Training tips, and a whole lot more!
IT Training Schedule for August 2007
To register, e-mail IRRI ITLC or call x2656.
 Library corner
New publication by IRRI staff
Rai, M.; Datta, K.; Parkhi, V.; Tan, J.; Oliva, N.; Chawla, H. S.; Datta, S. K. Variable T-DNA linkage configuration affects inheritance of carotenogenic transgenes and carotenoid accumulation in transgenic indica rice. Plant Cell Rep. 26(8): 1221-1231. Aug. 2007.
Newly acquired technical rice literature
(to search the rice database, please click here)
Chen, J. Phospholipase C/diacylglycerol kinase-mediated signalling is required for benzothiadiazole-induced oxidative burst and hypersensitive cell death in rice suspension-cultured cells. Protoplasma 230(1): 13-21. Mar. 2007. Reprint 2007/1403
Concenco, G. Effect of herbicides applied in pre-emergence and water management on rice growth. Planta Daninha 24(2): 295-301. 2006. Reprint 2007/1296
Concenco, G. Rice seedling and plant development as affected by increasing rates of penoxsulam under controlled environments. Planta Daninha 24(1): 131-139. 2006. Reprint 2007/1295
Concenco, G. Weed control in irrigated rice as a function of pre-emergence herbicide rates and irrigation start. Planta Daninha 24(2): 303-309. 2006. Reprint 2007/1297
Dai, S. J. Proteomic analyses of Oryza sativa mature pollen reveal novel proteins associated with pollen germination and tube growth. Proteomics 6(8): 2504-2529. 2006. Reprint 2007/1299
Li, Q. Expression profiling of rice genes in early defense responses to blast and bacterial blight pathogens using cDNA microarray. Physiol. Mol. Plant Pathol. 68(1/3): 51-60. Jan./Mar. 2006. Reprint 2007/1265
Okocha, P. I. Growth and development of rice under low input technology. Trop. Subtrop. Agroecosyst. 4(2): 85-95. 2004. Reprint 2007/1410
Paterson, A. H. Many gene and domain families have convergent fates following independent whole-genome duplication events in Arabidopsis, Oryza, Saccharomyces and Tetraodon. Trends Genet. 22(11): 597-602. Nov. 2006. Reprint 2007/1409
Poleo, C. J. Alternative methods for the control of rodents in rice cultivation. Rev. Dig. CENIAP HOY 11: 7 p., May/Aug. 2006. Reprint 2007/1405
Rehmeyer, C. Organization of chromosome ends in the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae. Nucl. Acids Res. 34(17): 4685-4701. Sept. 2006. Reprint 2007/1263
Rossignol, M. Plant proteome analysis: a 2004-2006 update. Proteomics 6(20): 5529-5548. Oct. 2006. Reprint 2007/1300
Shinano, T. Developmental changes of plant affecting primary photosynthate distribution in rice leaves. Photosynthetica 44(4): 591-598. Dec. 2006. Reprint 2007/1264
Villa, S. C. C. Red rice control in two rice (Oryza sativa) genotypes tolerant to imidazolinone herbicides. Planta Daninha 24(3): 549-555. 2006. Reprint 2007/1298
Xue, L. H. Estimation of soil nitrogen status with canopy reflectance spectra in rice. J. Plant Ecol. 30(4): 675-681. 2006. Reprint 2007/1251
Han, G. X. Soil respiration and its controlling factors in rice fields in the hill region of the central Sichuan Basin. J. Plant Ecol. 30(3): 450-456. 2006. Reprint 2007/1252
Some useful Web resources
Scintilla
Scintilla collects data from hundreds of news outlets, scientific blogs, journals and databases and then makes it easy for users to organize, share, and discover exactly the type of information that they are interested in. For example, one can keep track of life science podcasts, or the latest papers on schizophrenia, DNA methylation, or immunology. Interested in physics blogs? Scintilla can help.
Scenario of the Agriculture Sector in the Philippines
[based on the 2002 census of agriculture]
This Web site features vital statistical tables pertaining to agriculture in the Philippines. Some of the tables included are: Number and area of farms by region, Top 5 temporary crops, Top 5 permanent crops, Number of irrigated farms, etc.
OpenWetWare
OpenWetWare is an effort to promote the sharing of information, know-how, and wisdom among researchers and groups who are working in biology & biological engineering. OWW provides a place for labs, individuals, and groups to organize their own information and collaborate with others easily and efficiently.”
Open-Access Journals
Journal of Applied Sciences Research, Vol. 3, No. 6, June 2007
Research Journal of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 3, May/June 2007
African Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. 2, No. 7, July2007
African Journal of Microbiology Research, Vol. 1, No. 2, July 2007
African Journal of Biochemistry Research, Vol. 1, No. 2, July 2007
Springerlink titles with free-full text access as of 4 August 2007
Table of contents alerts
(for non-subscribed titles only; for e-journals click here; for print and e-journals, search by title from here)
Comprehensive reviews in food science and food safety, Vol. 6, No. 3, July 2007
International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2007
International Journal of Pest Management, Vol. 53, No. 3, July 2007
Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 7, No. 3, July 2007
Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, Vol. 20, No. 7, Nov. 2007
Food Chemistry, Vol. 105, No. 4, 3007
Nutrition Research, Vol. 27, No. 8, Aug 2007
Wetlands ecology and management, Vol. 15, No.5, Oct. 2007
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CGIAR Science Awards 2007
Nominations are now open for the 2007 CGIAR
Science Awards. This year's award categories are:
* CGIAR Science Award for Promising Young Scientist
* CGIAR Science Award for Outstanding Scientist
* CGIAR Science Award for an Outstanding Scientific Support Team
* CGIAR Science Award for Outstanding Partnership
* CGIAR Science Award for an Outstanding Scientific Article
* CGIAR Regional Award for Outstanding Agricultural Technology in
the Asia-Pacific region
* COM+ Communications for Sustainable Development Awards (2 awards)
The COM+ Communications awards will replace the CGIAR Outstanding Communications Award. Issued by COM+, 2 awards will be granted: one for a campaign based on communicating science, and another on climate change. Com+ is a partnership of international organizations and communications professionals from diverse sectors committed to using communications to advance a vision of sustainable development that integrates its three pillars: economic, social, and environmental.
Click here for details on each award, including prize amounts and links to the online nomination forms. The Awards Ceremony will take place during AGM07 and winners will be offered limited travel support to Beijing, China, the venue of the AGM07. The deadline for submitting nominations is 30 September 2007. Queries about the Science Awards should be sent to awards@cgiar.org and queries about the COM+ communications awards should be addressed to Laura Ivers (laivers@worldbank.org).
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5th International Symposium of Rice Functional Genomics
 The 5th International Symposium of Rice Functional Genomics (ISRFG2007) will be held on 15-17 October at at Epochal Tsukuba International Congress Center in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, about 50 km north of Tokyo, Japan.
The symposium aims to bring together rice researchers from all over the world, as well as researchers of other cereal crops, to tackle diverse areas of functional genomics based on structural, comparative, evolutionary, and bioinformatics approaches. This meeting will include several oral sessions, two poster sessions, and evening workshops. Each oral session will include invited speakers and speakers selected from submitted abstracts. For more information, go to the ISRFG 2007 Web site.
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Call for applications: Bioversity International Vavilov-Frankel Fellowships for 2008
The Vavilov-Frankel Fellowships Fund aims to encourage the conservation and use of plant genetic resources in developing countries by awarding fellowships to outstanding young researchers to carry out relevant innovative research at an advanced research institute outside their own country for a period of between three months and one year.
The fellowships are supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), Australia and Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., United States, a DuPont Company.
The closing date for this year’s Fellowships is 5 November 2007. Click here
for announcements, application forms, and guidelines for
preparation of research proposals. If you have any problem
down-loading files or if you would like to have additional
information on the scheme, please contact Elisabetta Rossetti, contact point for the fellowships, at
e.rossetti@cgiar.org.
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ICMSB 2008: Second announcement and call for papers
The 10th International Conference on Molecular Systems Biology (ICMSB 2008) will be held at the University of the Philippines-Diliman Campus, 25-28 February 2008.
This conference is in the tradition of nine previous workshop-style meetings that have focused on theoretical and methodological advances in biological systems analysis, their applications, and their support through novel software development. The themes for ICMSB 2008 will address three timely subjects: dynamical aspects of biological networks; information infrastructure for systems biology; and systems biology, synthetic biology, and
genetic engineering.
Deadline for the submission of extended abstracts for oral presentations is 2 November 2007, and for posters, 10 November 2007. For other information, please visit the ICMSB 2008 Web site.
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Job board
Postdoctoral fellow on biogeography
IRRI
is seeking a postdoctoral fellow to contribute to work on mapping and analyzing the distribution of crop biodiversity. The incumbent will manage a collaborative project to geo-reference all of the locality data in the plant genetic resources database of the CGIAR and analyze these data for rice and a few other crops to estimate the degree to which the existing genetic diversity is conserved in ex situ collections (gap analysis), and to target areas for further collection. Click here for more information.
IRRI seeks postdoctoral fellow on climate and
hydrology of rice
IRRI is looking for a
postdoctoral fellow to analyze regional-scale climate
and hydrological data in relation to rice production.
The incumbent will collect and analyze historical
climate data on typhoons, flooding, and droughts and
relate these to variation in rice production at the
regional level and estimate future incidence of these
weather phenomena and their impact on rice production
using modeling approaches.
Click here to see the full job posting of this
and other IRRI positions being advertised.
ICIPE seeks entomology postdoc
ICIPE, the
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology,
is looking for a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow in
the field of entomology with a strong background in insect
behavior and chemical ecology to join an established
multidisciplinary research program on "push-pull"
strategies for managing stem
borers and striga weed in
cereal crops in Africa.
Click here
for details.
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Rice Genetics Collection now online
The Rice Genetics Collection of past symposia and other selected literature contains nearly 4,400 pages of searchable information on rice genetics and cytogenetics published by IRRI and its partners since 1964. In addition to the five rice genetics symposia held at five-year intervalñs since 1985 (Rice Genetics I-V), the Collection contains classic publications that truly kicked off significant reporting on these subjects in the early 1960s: 
• The Proceedings of the Symposium on Rice Genetics and Cytogenetics, held at IRRI 4-8 February 1963 and published in 1964 by the Elsevier Publishing Company, was the first-ever international conference solely devoted to rice genetics, cytogenetics, and taxonomy.
• The technical bulletin on the Present Knowledge of Rice Genetics and Cytogenetics, written in August 1964 by renowned geneticist T.T. Chang, provided the first effort to bring together in one medium the voluminous multi-language literature on these important subjects.
Also included are 22 issues of the Rice Genetics Newsletter, published under the Rice Genetics Cooperative, beginning in 1984 and going through 2005. These and future issues of the newsletter can be found on the Web as well at www.gramene.org/newsletters/rice_genetics.
Also featured is a 642-page supplement to Rice Genetics IV, Advances in Rice Genetics, published in 2003. Click here to access (on campus internal link only). A CD of this will be available soon.
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ResearchSEA—one-stop center for the research world in Asia IRRI has s ubscribed—on a one-year trial basis—to a new Web site on research and science in Asia, which can be found at
www.researchsea.com. ResearchSEA says it is Asia's first research news portal, a one-stop center where journalists and members of the public can gain access to news and local experts from the research world in Asia.
ResearchSEA aims to get good research into mainstream media for better public understanding of research. IRRI,
via CPS, will use the Web
site for
- Posting press releases and any other information (e.g., workshop announcements, etc.). Listing experts. Posting events such as conferences and workshops.
- Anything else that's helpful.
If you'd like to be listed as an expert, please send your details to Chris Quintana in
CPS. Also contact Chris if you have any other ideas on how IRRI-CPS can use this site.
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Planning for
pandemic flu |
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