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Database of volatile substances

Based on discussions held at the IABR Conference in Prague in September 2006, IABR has decided to support the creation of a comprehensive database of research on human and animal gases. IABR’s goal is to complete the design, beta testing and refinement of this “volatomics” database by 2009, after which it will be made accessible to both IABR members and the public via the IABR website. The project is being coordinated by Norman Ratcliffe of the University of the West of England (UWE), who conceived this project in 2005 and had already begun working on it with the help of a graduate student, James Kingscott. He is now recruiting other IABR members to assist with either the design phase or the beta testing, or both phases, that will follow in 2009. Other members of the design committee include Anton Amann (Innsbruck), and Martin Pienz (Innsbruck), who has generously agreed to program the database for web-hosting in MySQL format. Please email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it if you are willing to help with either phase.  As currently envisaged, the database will contain data from studies of exhaled breath as well as other sources of endogenously-derived gases, such as skin, urine, faeces and flatulence. Each record in the database will be based on a specific report from some published source, such as a journal, book, conference program, or on-line publication.  Visitors to the IABR website will be able to both search existing records and enter new records using a series of related hierarchical forms which, to simplify data entry, will make extensive use of ‘pull down’ menus and pre-defined lookup tables.  A small number of data fields will be required to insure that all the records in the database contain a minimum of useful information, including: the full reference of the report a link to the report abstract or the full text if available on-line the type of sample studied (breath exhaled from nose, mouth or lung, for example, or headspace of urine, skin, faeces or cultured swab) the methods used to collect the gas sample the types of gas detection instruments used the types of analytical methods used to study the data (such as PCA or factor analysis) the types of subjects and controls, if any the types of diseases studied the chemical names of whichever gases were found to be significantly associated with each of the studied diseases (or a description of the pattern of gases so associated if the analytical method did not involve the identification of specific gases) the type of associations found between the gases and the diseases (higher or lower than controls, for example) the source(s) of funding that were used for the study the source(s) of equipment and software that were donated or loaned for the study  As users enter new records, they will be encouraged - but not required - to enter more detailed information about each of these required fields, such as the make and model of each instrument type and the value of any critical instrument settings. New records, as well as any requests for changes or additions to existing records, will not be posted immediately but will be sent instead to the database manager(s) who will have to review them prior to posting in order to protect the integrity of the dataset. However, all IABR members will be able to directly post blog-lilke comments to any existing record which all other users (including non-members) will be able to see immediately. Most useful for networking among the growing international community of gas researchers will be the optional data collected on the names of all report authors, including their email addresses, phone numbers, institutional affiliations, and geographical location (city and country). As new reports are entered, email notifications will be sent to all the authors, for whom email addresses are available, informing them that their research has been included in the database and inviting them to join IABR if they are still involved in breath gas or related research.  Visitors to the website will be able to search the database by any combination of variables in any of the required and optional fields. Records retrieved from such on-line searches will be displayed in a tabular format that can be printed out and which IABR members (but probably not others) also will be able to download into various formats, including Microsoft Excel and Word.