Public/private partnerships with hazardous material motor carriers creating incentives to increase Security Through Assessed Risk (STAR)

CHDS State/LocalOn September 11, 2001, terrorists used commercial airliners as weapons of terror inside the United States, and America's approach to security was forever changed. While commercial airliners were the weapons of choice on that day, the 9/11 Commission recognized that Al Qaeda and other groups had, prior to the use of airlines, used suicide vehicles, namely, truck bombs, to commit terrorist acts. The threat from hazmat trucks continues today. There can be no doubt that terrorists are interested in using hazmat trucks as weapons within the borders of the United States. In 2004, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's visit to Iraq was punctuated by a fuel-truck attack that burned a section of Baghdad. More recently, terrorists in Iraq have used chlorine-based truck bombs repeatedly as a weapon in the Iraq war. The Department of Transportation (DOT) recognizes that hazmat trucks are "dangerous and ready-made weapons" and are "especially attractive" to terrorists. Stephen Gale, a University of Pennsylvania professor and terrorism expert, agrees that hazmat trucks are essentially ready-made bombs that are "tailor-made" for terrorists to conduct an attack at the lowest cost and with the greatest impact. In fact, terrorism experts consider trucks to be one of the best tools a terrorist can use to breach security measures and carry explosives since the U.S. airline industry significantly increased security procedures. The ability of the government to secure every hazardous materials motor carrier against terrorist attack is severely limited, yet the potential that hazardous materials trucks will be used in terrorist attacks is great. Therefore, it is important to consider whether the security of hazardous materials motor carriers can be improved voluntarily and quickly by realigning existing resources and instituting a plan that leverages market forces and other incentives. This thesis introduces a unique voluntary incentive-based program, Security Through Assessed Risk (STAR) that can be used to increase security for a vast number of presently under protected hazardous materials motor carriers. It explains how TSA can leverage existing resources as well as successful ideas from both private sector and governmental programs to rapidly and significantly enhance the security of hazardous materials motor carriers.http://archive.org/details/publicprivatepar109453867Director, Sensitive Security Information Office, Transportation Security Administration author (civilian)

Manuka-type honeys can eradicate biofilms produced by Staphylococcus aureus strains with different biofilm-forming abilities

Chronic wounds are a major global health problem. Their management is difficult and costly, and the development of antibiotic resistance by both planktonic and biofilm-associated bacteria necessitates the use of alternative wound treatments. Honey is now being revisited as an alternative treatment due to its broad-spectrum antibacterial activity and the inability of bacteria to develop resistance to it. Many previous antibacterial studies have used honeys that are not well characterized, even in terms of quantifying the levels of the major antibacterial components present, making it difficult to build an evidence base for the efficacy of honey as an antibiofilm agent in chronic wound treatment. Here we show that a range of well-characterized New Zealand manuka-type honeys, in which two principle antibacterial components, methylglyoxal and hydrogen peroxide, were quantified, can eradicate biofilms of a range of Staphylococcus aureus strains that differ widely in their biofilm-forming abilities. Using crystal violet and viability assays, along with confocal laser scanning imaging, we demonstrate that in all S. aureus strains, including methicillin-resistant strains, the manuka-type honeys showed significantly higher anti-biofilm activity than clover honey and an isotonic sugar solution.We observed higher anti-biofilm activity as the proportion of manuka-derived honey, and thus methylglyoxal, in a honey blend increased. However, methylglyoxal on its own, or with sugar, was not able to effectively eradicate S. aureus biofilms.We also demonstrate that honey was able to penetrate through the biofilm matrix and kill the embedded cells in some cases. As has been reported for antibiotics, sub-inhibitory concentrations of honey improved biofilm formation by some S. aureus strains, however, biofilm cell suspensions recovered after honey treatment did not develop resistance towards manukatype honeys. New Zealand manuka-type honeys, at the concentrations they can be applied in wound dressings are highly active in both preventing S. aureus biofilm formation and in their eradication, and do not result in bacteria becoming resistant. Methylglyoxal requires other components in manuka-type honeys for this antibiofilm activity. Our findings support the use of well-defined manuka-type honeys as a topical anti-biofilm treatment for the effective management of wound healing. © 2014 Lu et al

North American blastomycosis

North American blastomycosis (Gilchrist's disease) in a granulomatous, infectious disease caused by the fungus, Blastomyces dermatitidis (Gilchrist and Stokes, 1898). The malady, in its cutaneous form, was first described by Gilchrist1 in 1894. A few years later, together with Stokes, he was able to isolate and culture that causative organisms which he designated as B. dermatitibis.23 The first description of the disease in its systemic form was made by Walker and Montgomery4 in 1902.The first reports by Gilchrist were followed by an era of confusion during which the disease was confounded with other entities, particularly cryptococcosis and candidiasis, all caused by morphologically similar budding organisms. Nineteen new names were suggested for the causative fungus. During the last two decades, however, a clearer picture of the disease process has emerged, particularly as a result of studies by the Duke Medical School group, headed by Smith, Martin, and Conant. Numerous clinical and laboratory reports have contributed significantly to a fuller understanding of the disease, but there are still some fundamental question to be answered. Excellent review articles on North American blastomycosis are available.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32504/1/0000592.pd

An Investigation Of The Immediate And Delayed Recall Of Information By Males And Females Using Three Presentation Formats: Narrative Only, Narrative With Inserted Related Graphs, And Graphs Only

This study investigated the immediate and delayed recall of information by males and females using three different formats: narrative only, narrative with inserted related graphs, and graphs only. The subjects included 62 male and 88 female college students (N = 150), enrolled in the subjects areas of Geography, Politics and Public Affairs, Communications and Education at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The subjects were randomly assigned to experimental materials and to one of two test conditions: immediate or delayed recall. Three pilot studies determined topic interest, attention to graphs, and passage dependency of test questions. The test materials were constructed on the topic of employment, which was determined by the first pilot study to be a subject to neither high nor low interest to the participants.Split-halves analysis of the test results produced a Pearson Product-Moment Correlation of.75. The data were analyzed using ANOVA and Tukey\u27s Post Hoc Test of Honestly Significant Differences; the alpha level was set at $p\u3c.05.$ The major findings were: (1) The narrative only format scores were significantly higher than the graphs only format scores. (2) The narrative with inserted related graphs format scores were significantly higher than the graphs only format scores. (3) The poorest achievement for both males and females was on the graphs only format in both the immediate and delayed conditions. (4) There were no interactions.The results of this study suggest that graphs should be accompanied by a relevant explanation in textual material containing statistical information. Time and format were ascertained to be important factors in the retention of statistical data; this research found the narrative only format to be the best method for delivering statistical information that is to be used immediately. The results also suggest that in both the immediate and delayed conditions males will perform better than females in processing statistical data presented in the formats contained in this study. Another inference that can be made is that the narrative with inserted related graphs format may be as efficacious as the narrative only format in its ability to facilitate information retention. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.

Development of surrogate cell adhesion receptors and their use in investigating the binding and triggering functions of cellular interaction molecules in macrophage-mediated cytotoxicity

Palmitate-derivatized antibodies were used as surrogate (cell adhesion) receptors (SR) to elucidate the role of junctional avidity as a regulatory mechanism in the selection of a target cell for antibody-independent and antibody-dependent macrophage-mediated cytotoxicity. SR molecules were incorporated into the membranes of macrophage populations at defined states of differentiation. The lipid anchor of SR precludes direct physical interactions between SR and intracellular signaling elements, enabling SR to promote effector-target cell conjugation without transmitting activation signals across the effector cell plasma membrane.FcR-independent SR mediated interactions between chicken erythrocyte (CE) targets and cells of the P388D1 M$\phi$ cell line, although unable to promote CE ingestion, resulted in efficient extracellular CE lysis. Similarly, M$\phi$ explanted from the peritoneal cavities of mice following 3-4 days of thioglycollate-induced peritonitis, which are in an intermediate stage of differentiation, exhibited significant SR mediated lysis of the CE targets. In contrast to P388D1 cells, however, the peritoneal exudate M$\phi$ (PEM) also exhibited efficient SR dependent CE internalization. These results demonstrate that a state of macrophage differentiation exists in which functional triggers of cytotoxicity are expressed on the effector cell surface but are ineffectual in initiating an attack on a target cell due to their inability to contribute sufficiently to the binding energy required to form stable effector-target cell interactions. The observation that PEM harvested within 1-2 days of thioglycollate induction, which are in a relatively quiescent state of activation, exhibited significantly diminished SR mediated lytic and phagocytic activities while able to effect efficient FcR-dependent effector function demonstrates that at this differentiation state in which macrophages do not express CE-specific post-binding function triggering receptors for either phagocytosis or extracellular lysis, FcR have required functions in both target cell recognition and effector cell triggering. In total, these results establish SR as a highly useful system for dissecting the requirements for productive interactions between two cells by uncoupling the attachment stage from post-binding biochemical sequelae