scholarly journals The use of rapid diagnostic kits for the rapid presumptive identification of bioterrorist agents

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
John Bates

The events of 11 September 2001 and the subsequent US anthrax mail attacks placed enormous pressure on emergency response agencies to be able to rapidly assess the potential risk of an incident as a possible case of bioterrorism. In response to this perceived need to rapidly identify bioterrorist agents in the field, a number of hand-held ?tickets? appeared in the market and were promoted heavily to emergency response personnel. These included products from Tetracore (Guardian Bio-Threat Alert System), Alexis, Sigma-Aldrich (BADD ? Biowarfare Agent Detection Device) and RAMP. This brief discussion will examine the current knowledge on such devices and their applications for the detection of bioterrorist agents.

Author(s):  
Fakrulradzi Idris ◽  
Norlezah Hashim ◽  
Ahmad Fauzan Kadmin ◽  
Lee Boon Yee

Fire detection systems are designed to discover fires and allow the safe evacuation of occupants as well as protecting the safety of emergency response personnel. This paper describes the design and development of a fire detection and alert system. Temperature and flame sensors are used to indicate the occurrence of fire. This work consists of two parts, which are transmitter and receiver, both using ZigBee wireless technology. Arduino Uno is used as the microcontroller at the transmitter part to control the sensor nodes and give alert when over temperature and flame are detected. At the transmitter, the collected data from the sensors are transmitted by an XBee module operated as router node. At the receiver side, an XBee coordinator module which is attached to a computer using USB to serial communication captured the data for further processing. In addition, an interactive and user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) is developed. LabVIEW software is used to design the GUI which displays and analyze the possibility of fire happening. The system can display the fire location and provides early warning to allow occupants to escape the building safely.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 669-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua H. Williams ◽  
Timothy Griffin ◽  
Danielle Miller ◽  
John Wooldredge

Although there is some limited research on the effectiveness of the America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) Alert system, to date, there has been no research specifically examining the viability of prospective AMBER Alert issuance criteria. Using data acquired from various media accounts of 446 AMBER Alerts issued in the United States and Canada, we examine how well “peripheral harm” (harm to someone other than the abducted child during the course of the abduction) predicts subsequent harm to the abducted child. Counterintuitively (from the perspective of AMBER Alert issuance decision making), peripheral harm or threat is negatively associated with harm to the victim in cases involving an AMBER Alert. Furthermore, this negative finding is spurious, and is primarily driven by the fact that, disproportionately, the abductors who commit “peripheral harm” in AMBER alert cases are parents and other family members of the child who are presumably unlikely to harm child relatives despite whatever violence they might commit (or threaten) against others. We discuss the implications for the use of peripheral harm as an AMBER Alert issuance criterion, the empirical evaluation of the system, and the public discourse surrounding the AMBER Alert system and its relationship to child protection in general.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-14
Author(s):  
Kesavakumar Sivalingam ◽  
Siva Priya Thiagarajah ◽  
Azwan Mahmud

Accident detection and alert systems that can pinpoint the whereabouts of an accident are crucial to ensure the concerned authorities are informed instantaneously about the occurrence of an accident, in order for the deployment of emergency response to save lives in the least amount of time. A 3G incorporated accident detection system, known as Life Case is designed to discover the accidents between automobiles and, send the timestamp, and the actual position of an accident, to a developed android application built using Android Studio, via a cloud database. The alert message is presented using Google Maps which helps user to save plenty of time through easy navigation feature towards the accident location. Life Case measures the acceleration of an automobile during a collision using the Theory of Inelastic Collision.


1999 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 435-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary J. Powers

The term ‘optimum nutrition’ has evolved from a perceived need to base recommendations for nutrient intakes firmly in the context of function. It follows that ‘optimum nutritional status’ for individual nutrients should be defined in terms of biochemical or physiological markers having some functional value but also showing an appropriate relationship to nutrient intake. The present short review considers the current position regarding such markers for riboflavin, pyridoxine and niacin. It is concluded that whilst there are several biochemical measures which respond to changes in intake of each of these vitamins, no single measure is wholly satisfactory as a marker of optimum status.


2019 ◽  
Vol 476 (20) ◽  
pp. 2981-3018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petar H. Lambrev ◽  
Parveen Akhtar

Abstract The light reactions of photosynthesis are hosted and regulated by the chloroplast thylakoid membrane (TM) — the central structural component of the photosynthetic apparatus of plants and algae. The two-dimensional and three-dimensional arrangement of the lipid–protein assemblies, aka macroorganisation, and its dynamic responses to the fluctuating physiological environment, aka flexibility, are the subject of this review. An emphasis is given on the information obtainable by spectroscopic approaches, especially circular dichroism (CD). We briefly summarise the current knowledge of the composition and three-dimensional architecture of the granal TMs in plants and the supramolecular organisation of Photosystem II and light-harvesting complex II therein. We next acquaint the non-specialist reader with the fundamentals of CD spectroscopy, recent advances such as anisotropic CD, and applications for studying the structure and macroorganisation of photosynthetic complexes and membranes. Special attention is given to the structural and functional flexibility of light-harvesting complex II in vitro as revealed by CD and fluorescence spectroscopy. We give an account of the dynamic changes in membrane macroorganisation associated with the light-adaptation of the photosynthetic apparatus and the regulation of the excitation energy flow by state transitions and non-photochemical quenching.


2002 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 117-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart M. Haslam ◽  
David Gems ◽  
Howard R. Morris ◽  
Anne Dell

There is no doubt that the immense amount of information that is being generated by the initial sequencing and secondary interrogation of various genomes will change the face of glycobiological research. However, a major area of concern is that detailed structural knowledge of the ultimate products of genes that are identified as being involved in glycoconjugate biosynthesis is still limited. This is illustrated clearly by the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, which was the first multicellular organism to have its entire genome sequenced. To date, only limited structural data on the glycosylated molecules of this organism have been reported. Our laboratory is addressing this problem by performing detailed MS structural characterization of the N-linked glycans of C. elegans; high-mannose structures dominate, with only minor amounts of complex-type structures. Novel, highly fucosylated truncated structures are also present which are difucosylated on the proximal N-acetylglucosamine of the chitobiose core as well as containing unusual Fucα1–2Gal1–2Man as peripheral structures. The implications of these results in terms of the identification of ligands for genomically predicted lectins and potential glycosyltransferases are discussed in this chapter. Current knowledge on the glycomes of other model organisms such as Dictyostelium discoideum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Drosophila melanogaster is also discussed briefly.


2006 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 109-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Stockdale ◽  
Michael Bruno ◽  
Helder Ferreira ◽  
Elisa Garcia-Wilson ◽  
Nicola Wiechens ◽  
...  

In the 30 years since the discovery of the nucleosome, our picture of it has come into sharp focus. The recent high-resolution structures have provided a wealth of insight into the function of the nucleosome, but they are inherently static. Our current knowledge of how nucleosomes can be reconfigured dynamically is at a much earlier stage. Here, recent advances in the understanding of chromatin structure and dynamics are highlighted. The ways in which different modes of nucleosome reconfiguration are likely to influence each other are discussed, and some of the factors likely to regulate the dynamic properties of nucleosomes are considered.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 429-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Gago ◽  
Danilo M. Daloso ◽  
Marc Carriquí ◽  
Miquel Nadal ◽  
Melanie Morales ◽  
...  

Besides stomata, the photosynthetic CO2 pathway also involves the transport of CO2 from the sub-stomatal air spaces inside to the carboxylation sites in the chloroplast stroma, where Rubisco is located. This pathway is far to be a simple and direct way, formed by series of consecutive barriers that the CO2 should cross to be finally assimilated in photosynthesis, known as the mesophyll conductance (gm). Therefore, the gm reflects the pathway through different air, water and biophysical barriers within the leaf tissues and cell structures. Currently, it is known that gm can impose the same level of limitation (or even higher depending of the conditions) to photosynthesis than the wider known stomata or biochemistry. In this mini-review, we are focused on each of the gm determinants to summarize the current knowledge on the mechanisms driving gm from anatomical to metabolic and biochemical perspectives. Special attention deserve the latest studies demonstrating the importance of the molecular mechanisms driving anatomical traits as cell wall and the chloroplast surface exposed to the mesophyll airspaces (Sc/S) that significantly constrain gm. However, even considering these recent discoveries, still is poorly understood the mechanisms about signaling pathways linking the environment a/biotic stressors with gm responses. Thus, considering the main role of gm as a major driver of the CO2 availability at the carboxylation sites, future studies into these aspects will help us to understand photosynthesis responses in a global change framework.


1984 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-57
Author(s):  
Sandra Q. Miller ◽  
Charles L. Madison

The purpose of this article is to show how one urban school district dealt with a perceived need to improve its effectiveness in diagnosing and treating voice disorders. The local school district established semiannual voice clinics. Students aged 5-18 were referred, screened, and selected for the clinics if they appeared to have a chronic voice problem. The specific procedures used in setting up the voice clinics and the subsequent changes made over a 10-year period are presented.


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