Further studies of the efficacy of military, commercial and novel skin decontaminants against the chemical warfare agents sulphur mustard, soman and VX

Background/Aims: Following an incident involving toxic chemicals, deployment of countermeasures before the arrival of specialised services at the scene may provide a “therapeutic” window in which to mitigate skin absorption. Methods: Five potential candidates (itaconic acid, N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide, 2-trifluoromethylacrylic acid, fuller's earth and Fast-Act®) previously found effective against a simulant (methyl salicylate) were evaluated against a 10 μL droplet of 14C-sulphur mustard (HD), soman (GD) or VX applied to the surface of porcine skin mounted on static skin diffusion cells. Results: All the decontaminants applied to the skin 5 min post exposure achieved a marked reduction in the amount of 14C contaminant remaining within the skin at 24 h. Itaconic acid significantly (p <.05) reduced the amount of 14C-HD, GD and VX remaining in the skin at 24 h. Additionally, 2-trifluoromethylacrylic acid significantly reduced the amount of 14C-HD, whilst fuller's earth significantly reduced the amounts of 14C-HD and VX recovered within the skin at 24 h. Conclusion: All of the products evaluated in this study performed well in reducing the dermal absorption of all the chemical warfare agents tested.Peer reviewe

A report on an Arts Administration internship in the Quality Seal Amphitheatre at the Louisiana World Exposition, Fall, 1984

On August 20, 1984, I began an internship with the Louisiana World Exposition which continued until November 11, 1984. During the course of that internship, opportunities for applying the principles and practices of arts administration were presented in accounting, contracts, and public relations. I have endeavored to present in the pages that follow an overview of my staff position with the Louisiana World Exposition Amphitheatre, beginning with a look at the Amphitheatre\u27s goals, management structure, and management philosophy. The existence of a basic management problem--that of communication--is discussed, with possible solutions to the problem presented. In concluding this presentation, an effort is made to establish some concrete short-range and long-range effects of the internship. Throughout this paper the term top-level management is used to indicate the source of ideas, impressions that I received, memos, etc. to which no specific upper management name could be attached, but which lines of communication, such as memos, informal conversations, etc., indicated was a management level higher than the manager of the Amphitheatre. With this basic comment in mind, the exploration of the Louisiana World Exposition Liggett and Myers Amphitheatre as an entity in itself begins

Preliminary evaluation of military, commercial and novel skin decontamination products against a chemical warfare agent simulant (methyl salicylate)

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Cutaneous and Ocular Toxicology on 13 August 2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/15569527.2015.1072544.Rapid decontamination is vital to alleviate adverse health effects following dermal exposure to hazardous materials. There is an abundance of materials and products which can be utilised to remove hazardous materials from the skin. In this study, a total of 15 products were evaluated, 10 of which were commercial or military products and 5 were novel (molecular imprinted) polymers. The efficacies of these products were evaluated against a 10µL droplet of 14C-methyl salicylate applied to the surface of porcine skin mounted on static diffusion cells. The current UK military decontaminant (Fuller’s earth) performed well, retaining 83% of the dose over 24 hours and served as a benchmark to compare with the other test products. The five most effective test products were Fuller’s earth (the current UK military decontaminant), Fast-Act® and three novel polymers (based on itaconic acid, 2-trifluoromethylacrylic acid and N,N-methylene bis acrylamide). Five products (medical moist free wipes, 5% FloraFree™ solution, normal baby wipes, baby wipes for sensitive skin and Diphotérine™) enhanced the dermal absorption of 14C-methyl salicylate. Further work is required to establish the performance of the most effective products identified in this study against chemical warfare agents.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The Southern California Attractions Industry

This report examines the competitive environment for attractions in Southern California in order to identify potential market opportunities for an attractions component in the Burbank Towncenter Project. This report used a combination of information sources, including market research materials from the Harrison Price Company, secondary published sources, telephone interviews, and polls

The mitogen-activated protein kinome from Anopheles gambiae: identification, phylogeny and functional characterization of the ERK, JNK and p38 MAP kinases

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Anopheles gambiae </it>is the primary mosquito vector of human malaria parasites in sub-Saharan Africa. To date, three innate immune signaling pathways, including the nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB-dependent Toll and immune deficient (IMD) pathways and the Janus kinase/signal transducers and activators of transcription (Jak-STAT) pathway, have been extensively characterized in <it>An. gambiae</it>. However, in addition to NF-kappaB-dependent signaling, three mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways regulated by JNK, ERK and p38 MAPK are critical mediators of innate immunity in other invertebrates and in mammals. Our understanding of the roles of the MAPK signaling cascades in anopheline innate immunity is limited, so identification of the encoded complement of these proteins, their upstream activators, and phosphorylation profiles in response to relevant immune signals was warranted.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we present the orthologs and phylogeny of 17 <it>An. gambiae </it>MAPKs, two of which were previously unknown and two others that were incompletely annotated. We also provide detailed temporal activation profiles for ERK, JNK, and p38 MAPK in <it>An. gambiae </it>cells <it>in vitro </it>to immune signals that are relevant to malaria parasite infection (human insulin, human transforming growth factor-beta1, hydrogen peroxide) and to bacterial lipopolysaccharide. These activation profiles and possible upstream regulatory pathways are interpreted in light of known MAPK signaling cascades.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The establishment of a MAPK "road map" based on the most advanced mosquito genome annotation can accelerate our understanding of host-pathogen interactions and broader physiology of <it>An. gambiae </it>and other mosquito species. Further, future efforts to develop predictive models of anopheline cell signaling responses, based on iterative construction and refinement of data-based and literature-based knowledge of the MAP kinase cascades and other networked pathways will facilitate identification of the "master signaling regulators" in biomedically important mosquito species.</p

A Mid-Infrared Census of Star Formation Activity in Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey Sources

We present the results of a search for mid-infrared signs of star formation activity in the 1.1 mm sources in the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS). We have correlated the BGPS catalog with available mid-IR Galactic plane catalogs based on the Spitzer Space Telescope GLIMPSE legacy survey and the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) Galactic plane survey. We find that 44% (3,712 of 8,358) of the BGPS sources contain at least one mid-IR source, including 2,457 of 5,067 (49%) within the area where all surveys overlap (10 deg < l < 65 deg). Accounting for chance alignments between the BGPS and mid-IR sources, we conservatively estimate that 20% of the BPGS sources within the area where all surveys overlap show signs of active star formation. We separate the BGPS sources into four groups based on their probability of star formation activity. Extended Green Objects (EGOs) and Red MSX Sources (RMS) make up the highest probability group, while the lowest probability group is comprised of "starless" BGPS sources which were not matched to any mid-IR sources. The mean 1.1 mm flux of each group increases with increasing probability of active star formation. We also find that the "starless" BGPS sources are the most compact, while the sources with the highest probability of star formation activity are on average more extended with large skirts of emission. A subsample of 280 BGPS sources with known distances demonstrates that mass and mean H_2 column density also increase with probability of star formation activity.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Full Table 2 will be available online through Ap

The Modelling of InfraRed Dark Clouds

This paper presents results from modelling 450 micron and 850 micron continuum and HCO+ line observations of three distinct cores of an infrared dark cloud (IRDC) directed toward the W51 GMC. In the sub-mm continuum these cores appear as bright, isolated emission features. One of them coincides with the peak of 8.3 micron extinction as measured by the Midcourse Space Experiment satellite. Detailed radiative transfer codes are applied to constrain the cores' physical conditions to address the key question: Do these IRDC-cores harbour luminous sources? The results of the continuum model, expressed in the $\chi^2$ quality-of-fit parameter, are also constrained by the absence of 100 micron emission from IRAS. For the sub-mm emission peaks this shows that sources of 300 solar luminosities are embedded within the cores. For the extinction peak, the combination of continuum and HCO+ line modelling indicates that a heating source is present as well. Furthermore, the line model provides constraints on the clumpiness of the medium. All three cores have similar masses of about 70-150 solar masses and similar density structures. The extinction peak differs from the other two cores by hosting a much weaker heating source, and the sub-mm emission core at the edge of the IRDC deviates from the other cores by a higher internal clumpiness.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Electronic structure of the strongly hybridized ferromagnet CeFe2

We report on results from high-energy spectroscopic measurements on CeFe2, a system of particular interest due to its anomalous ferromagnetism with an unusually low Curie temperature and small magnetization compared to the other rare earth-iron Laves phase compounds. Our experimental results indicate very strong hybridization of the Ce 4f states with the delocalized band states, mainly the Fe 3d states. In the interpretation and analysis of our measured spectra, we have made use of two different theoretical approaches: The first one is based on the Anderson impurity model, with surface contributions explicitly taken into account. The second method consists of band-structure calculations for bulk CeFe2. The analysis based on the Anderson impurity model gives calculated spectra in good agreement with the whole range of measured spectra, and reveals that the Ce 4f -- Fe 3d hybridization is considerably reduced at the surface, resulting in even stronger hybridization in the bulk than previously thought. The band-structure calculations are ab initio full-potential linear muffin-tin orbital calculations within the local-spin-density approximation of the density functional. The Ce 4f electrons were treated as itinerant band electrons. Interestingly, the Ce 4f partial density of states obtained from the band-structure calculations also agree well with the experimental spectra concerning both the 4f peak position and the 4f bandwidth, if the surface effects are properly taken into account. In addition, results, notably the partial spin magnetic moments, from the band-structure calculations are discussed in some detail and compared to experimental findings and earlier calculations.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. B in December 200