Finding People

Looking for someone and need to turn on radar to discover updates? An interesting database to try, which includes much free information for searching people is Radaris.com. For finding someone's phone number, it is one of my favorite databases. Radaris is quick and simple to use, includes a phone number, age, lists of possible relatives, and other related information, which Radaris has gathered and consolidated in one easy-to-view screen.

Although limited to the United States, Radaris uses the byline "know each other," and states that it includes 97% of the people in the U.S.

I have had luck finding friends on Radaris.com by using their nickname and last name or first and last name. I search my own name on occasion and notice how many others have the same name. The database includes entries using my middle initial for my middle name, and also entries using my maiden name as my middle initial. Radaris also consolidates my entries using my maiden name as my middle initial with those having my middle name for my middle initial into "aliases."

Photographs of some of the people found in a name search are included in the hits from the search,
which might be very useful.

Radaris has a large database and turning on the "radar" option for updates on a people search is free. I have not checked out any of their fee options including access to their "premium reports."

Please note that phone numbers found may include current and past telephone numbers and also work-related phone numbers.

BacMet - Bioinformatics Antibacterial Biocide & Metal Resistance Genes Database

BacMet at http://bacmet.biomedicine.gu.se/ is an easy-to-use bioinformatics database including antibacterial biocide- and metal-resistance genes. The database includes an online tutorial at http://bacmet.biomedicine.gu.se/tutorials.html and is produced by the University of Gothenburg in Sweden:

Citation: Pal, C., Bengtsson-Palme, J., Rensing, C., Kristiansson, E., Larsson, DGJ. (2014) BacMet: antibacterial biocide and metal resistance genes database, Nucleic Acids Research, 42, D737-D743. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkt1252

The BacMet database can be searched using any full term or partial term with a wildcard, including  gene names (e.g. copA or cop*), name of biocides (e.g. Triclosan or Triclo*), metals (e.g. Arsenic or Arsen*) or chemical classes (e.g. Acridine or Acrid*). The search results appear in table format with the resistance gene information matching the search term input.

A browse option is included to review the database by metals, biocide, metal resistance genes, biocide resistant genes, etc. 

BacMet offers Quick Search and Adanced Search options and results can be selected to include
"experimentally confirmed" and/or "predicted results," as BacMet consists of two databases:

• Database of manually curated experimentally confirmed resistance genes
• Database of automatically predicted resistance genes based on sequence similarity

Highwire: A Favorite Information Site

HighWire at  http://highwire.stanford.edu is one of my favorite research and information sites, especially since Scirus, an old favorite having a very broad subject scope at Scirus.com, is set to retire at the end of this month, January, 2014!

HighWire has some very useful features including dates when articles in medical journals become free. HighWire enables table of content (TOC) alerts and keeps me up to date on free trials, free titles, free back issues, and pay-per-view options.

If you are a researcher, librarian, or publisher and have not checked out HighWire lately, it is worth taking a look at its huge epublishing platform.

"About HighWire" at  http://highwire.stanford.edu/about/ says:

"Located in Palo Alto, California, HighWire is a division of the Stanford University Libraries. Founded in 1995, with the launch of the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC Online). Science, the Journal of Neuroscience, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) soon joined with HighWire to become pioneers who defined today's online journal."