SciDev.Net

FOUR50 is building a network of experts, activists and enthusiasts committed to preventing the epidemic of chronic disease and raising awareness about its devastating consequences. It aims to do this by focusing on the 3 risk factors (poor diet, lack of physical activity, tobacco use) that lead to four chronic diseases (CVD, diabetes, chronic lung diseases and some cancers) contributing to more than 50% of deaths worldwide.

This is a virtual library of Latin American social science papers maintained by the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO). It provides open and free access to more than 4,000 full-text books, periodical articles and other documents, in Spanish.

This is a portal to the websites of associations that aim to advance our understanding of oncology and how to better treat patients with cancer, both in the developed and developing worlds.

Each partner association is represented in the portal with a website describing and providing information relating to the organisation, its structure, news, research projects, activities, membership, resource information, selected links, and so on.

Cancerworld also hosts the Cancer Media Service, operated by the European School of Oncology and aimed at journalists. The independent service aims to put cancer research into context, which it does by publishing well written and easy-to-read summaries of the latest cancer research. Perhaps even more useful is its list of resources for journalists that includes links to several medical dictionaries and cancer organisations worldwide.

Knowledge for Development is a web-based source of information on science and technology for agriculture and rural development in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. It promotes collaboration between agricultural research and development scientists and technologists in ACP countries, and facilitates dialogue between ACP and European communities with the aim of strengthening policy formulation on science and technology issues.

This website contains a number of useful documents on biofuels and biotechnology in ACP countries.

The WHO Global InfoBase has, for the first time, assembled in one place, country-level risk factor data stratified by age and sex, with complete source and survey information. The current version of the InfoBase contains over 130,000 data points from more than 2,800 sources. Currently the InfoBase contains reports on 180 out of 192 WHO Member States. A unique feature is that each record can be linked back to all its survey information, including the primary source.

The database is updated daily and provides users with comparable country-level mortality, mean systolic blood pressure, mean body mass index, and overweight/obesity data. A search function allows users to customise their data search based on specific criteria, and shows data in text tables and graphs.