A report of the fisheries catch assessment survey in the Ugandan waters of Lake Victoria for the March 2007 survey

This report presents findings of the CAS conducted in the Ugandan waters of Lake Victoria in March 2007. The results of the previous seven CASs conducted under the same programme in July/August/September/November 2005, and March/August/December 2006 are included to show the emerging trends.

Monthly patterns in physico-chemical conditions and fish catch in the immediate vicinity of the Bujagali hydropower construction site 29th September - 28th October 2007

The specific objectives were to: WATER QUALITY 1. To measure the water physical variables as indicators of environmental conditions in the upstream and downstream transects of Kalange (1) and Buyala (2), respectively, 2. To determine the concentrations of total suspended solids as a major constituent likely to be released into the waters at any time during the construction activities, by comparing the concentrations at the two transects. FISH CATCH 1. To follow up trends in fish catch as construction activity progresses, and to precision of the estimate; 2. To estimate the prevailing fish catch rates, total fish catches and the total value of the fish catch to the local fishers at the two transects.

Bibliometric analysis of biological invasions research during the period of 1991 to 2007

The objective of this study is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of all biological invasions-related publications in the Science Citation Index (SCI) from 1991 to 2007. The indicator citation per publication (CPP) was used to evaluate the impact of articles, journals, and institutions. In the 3323 articles published in 521 journals, 7261 authors from 1905 institutions of 100 countries participated. As the most productive country of biological invasions research, the US will benefit from more collaboration between institutions, countries, and continents. In addition, analysis of keywords was applied to reveal research trends.

Bibliometric analysis of nicotine research in China during the period of 1991 to 2007

With the widespread exposure of people to nicotine through recreational use of tobacco products, research into nicotine has attracted increasing attention. Tobacco smoking is by far the most important cause of lung cancer. As the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco products, China bears a large proportion of the global burden of smoking-related disease; therefore, information on nicotine publications should be collected to formulate future research policy. In the present study, we investigated nicotine-related research articles published by Chinese authors that were indexed in the Science Citation Index (SCI) from 1991 to 2007. An indicator "citations per publication" (CPP) was used in the study to evaluate the impact of journals, articles, and institutes. The quantity of publications has increased at a quicker pace than the worldwide trend. Article visibility, measured as the frequency of being cited, also increased during the period. However, the overall quality of articles, based on the impact factor of journals publishing those articles, dropped behind the worldwide average level. There has been an increase in international collaboration, mainly with researchers in the USA. The average CPP of international co-authorship articles was higher than that of single country publications. Besides the USA, nicotine research in China will benefit from more collaboration with Taiwan, England, and Germany. Some 110 of 264 articles were published by a single institute, and the top six institutes were compared from various angles. Seventy-two subject categories were covered, and trends (in terms of both quantity and quality) of nicotine research in China were compared with worldwide trends. In addition, analysis of keywords in both nicotine and lung cancer research fields was applied to indicate research interests. Mutual cooperation among multiple disciplines needs further strengthening.

First report of two Balantidium species from the Chinese giant salamander, Andrias davidianus: Balantidium sinensis Nie 1935 and Balantidium andianusis n. sp.

Two ciliated protozoa, Balantidium sinensis Nie 1935 and Balantidium andianusi n. sp., were isolated from the feces of a wild Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) captured from the mountainous area of Shiyan, Hubei Province, Central China in October 2006. It is the first report of Balantidium species inhabiting Cryptobranchoidea amphibians. The occurrence of B. sinensis in A. davidianus should be a new record because the type specimens were first discovered and named by Nie in 1935 from Rana nigromaculata and Rana plancyi. For the lack of enough descriptions of taxonomic features in the previous report, it was re-described in detail and compared with Nie's type specimens and B. giganteum to complete the morphological descriptions in the present work. B. andianusi n. sp. was considered to be a new species based on its unique morphological characteristics, especially the high length/width ratio of the vestibulum (8:1). Comparisons were also made among Balantidium species that were found from urodele amphibians.

ON PARADICRANOPHORUS-ACULEATUS (NEISTWESTNOVA-SHADINA, 1935) WITH REMARKS ON ALL OTHER SPECIES OF THE GENUS (ROTIFERA, DICRANOPHORIDAE)

In 1934, the rotifer Paradicranophorus aculeatus was discovered by NEISTWESTNOVA-SHADINA in the River Oka near Murom (Russia). She described it as a Dicranophorus species. In 1958, the rheophilic rotifer was rediscovered in the Polish River Grabia by PAWLOWSKI. This paper reports a third occurence in three samples from the Yun Nan Luoxiao River in China, allowing additional studies of this rare species.