This week’s roundup of new products includes a number of informatics and data management software offerings.

Waters Corp. announced version 7.0 of the Waters NuGenesis Scientific Data Management System (SDMS). The new release lets researchers convert data from any analytical software or instrument into the Joint Committee on Atomic and Molecular Physical Data Exchange (JCAMP-DX) format. Version 7.0 also includes several security and management enhancements.

The NuGenesis SDMS software automatically converts mass spectrometer, NMR, chromatography, chemical structure, and other data to JCAMP-DX format, which allows the data to be viewed without the original application that created it. Waters also is offering enhanced electronic signature features and single user authentication through support of Active Directory and LDAP. Additionally, Waters says the 7.0 release offers tighter integration with other Waters applications, including Empower 2, eLab Notebook, MassLynx 4.1, and Waters Analytical Workflow Manager Software.

HP launched a utility computing service called the HP Flexible Computing Club. HP has offered utility computing services in the past. This new offering provides some distinct new services. For example, HP offers a membership service called the HP Flexible Computing Club, which is intended to give first-time users of on-demand services a way to evaluate whether the service it right for their needs. The “club” offering covers startup and consulting fees and includes a 48-hour pilot project.

Other services offered include the Infrastructure Provisioning Service (IPS) and the Infrastructure Provisioning Service plus (IPS+). With IPS, HP provides the computing hardware and a choice of operating systems, and the end-user company provides and manages the applications. The IPS+ service takes the IPS service and adds HP-installed and -managed workload and grid software. An Application Provisioning Service builds on IPS and IPS+, where HP installs key vertical industry application software.

Elsevier MDL released MDL Isentris 1.4, an updated version of its informatics platform. The new release builds on MDL’s ISIS cheminformatics technology and offers enhancements that make it easier for researchers to collect and manage data within workflows. Specifically, new features include simplified data access and the ability to capture and share questions and decision-making processes in re-usable workflows. Elsevier MDL says these new capabilities within Isentris 1.4 help researchers make better R&D decisions and improve productivity.

Thermo Electron Corp. announced Retriever version 3.0, a Web-based data extraction, aggregation, and presentation application. Retriever lets researchers securely share information from laboratory information management systems (LIMS), chromatography data systems (CDS), process information management systems (PIMS), and enterprise resource management systems (ERP). New in version 3.0 is the Thermo Report Designer, which lets researchers create and design reports containing textual, tabular, and graphical data.

Mozilla released Firefox 1.5, an updated version of its open source Web browser. Enhancements and new features include improved pop-up blocking, an improved Live Bookmarks feature that makes it easier to find and subscribe to RSS feeds, and an Automatic Update system that alerts users and prompts them to act when new security updates become available. Firefox 1.5 also has new capabilities (contributed by IBM) that make it easier for mobility- and sight-impaired users to navigate the Web. Firefox 1.5 can be downloaded for free and is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. The software is available in more than fifteen languages (with more to come).

Thomson Scientific launched Web Citation Index, a multi-disciplinary citation index of content from scholarly and subject-based repositories. Thomson Scientific says the Web Citation Index does more than traditional search engines in that it provides a way to discover literature, such as preprints, technical reports, dissertations, and conference proceedings, that is often not covered with a regular Web search engine. Also last week, Thomson Scientific and Thomson ResearchSoft announce EndNote Web, a Web-based bibliographic tool for managing and citing references.

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