| 1. |
- Andersson, M. G., et al.
(författare)
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Separated by a common language : Awareness of term usage differences between languages and disciplines in biopreparedness
- 2013
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Ingår i: Biosecurity and bioterrorism. - : Mary Ann Liebert Inc. - 1538-7135 .- 1557-850X. ; 11:SUPPL. 1, s. S276-S285
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Preparedness for bioterrorism is based on communication between people in organizations who are educated and trained in several disciplines, including law enforcement, health, and science. Various backgrounds, cultures, and vocabularies generate difficulties in understanding and interpretating terms and concepts, which may impair communication. This is especially true in emergency situations, in which the need for clarity and consistency is vital. The EU project AniBioThreat initiated methods and made a rough estimate of the terms and concepts that are crucial for an incident, and a pilot database with key terms and definitions has been constructed. Analysis of collected terms and sources has shown that many of the participating organizations use various international standards in their area of expertise. The same term often represents different concepts in the standards from different sectors, or, alternatively, different terms were used to represent the same or similar concepts. The use of conflicting terminology can be problematic for decision makers and communicators in planning and prevention or when handling an incident. Since the CBRN area has roots in multiple disciplines, each with its own evolving terminology, it may not be realistic to achieve unequivocal communication through a standardized vocabulary and joint definitions for words from common language. We suggest that a communication strategy should include awareness of alternative definitions and ontologies and the ability to talk and write without relying on the implicit knowledge underlying specialized jargon. Consequently, cross-disciplinary communication skills should be part of training of personnel in the CBRN field. In addition, a searchable repository of terms and definitions from relevant organizations and authorities would be a valuable addition to existing glossaries for improving awareness concerning bioterrorism prevention planning. © 2013, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
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| 2. |
- Anniballi, F., et al.
(författare)
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Management of animal botulism outbreaks : From clinical suspicion to practical countermeasures to prevent or minimize outbreaks
- 2013
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Ingår i: Biosecurity and bioterrorism. - : Mary Ann Liebert Inc. - 1538-7135 .- 1557-850X. ; 11:SUPPL. 1, s. S191-S199
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Botulism is a severe neuroparalytic disease that affects humans, all warm-blooded animals, and some fishes. The disease is caused by exposure to toxins produced by Clostridium botulinum and other botulinum toxin-producing clostridia. Botulism in animals represents a severe environmental and economic concern because of its high mortality rate. Moreover, meat or other products from affected animals entering the food chain may result in a public health problem. To this end, early diagnosis is crucial to define and apply appropriate veterinary public health measures. Clinical diagnosis is based on clinical findings eliminating other causes of neuromuscular disorders and on the absence of internal lesions observed during postmortem examination. Since clinical signs alone are often insufficient to make a definitive diagnosis, laboratory confirmation is required. Botulinum antitoxin administration and supportive therapies are used to treat sick animals. Once the diagnosis has been made, euthanasia is frequently advisable. Vaccine administration is subject to health authorities' permission, and it is restricted to a small number of animal species. Several measures can be adopted to prevent or minimize outbreaks. In this article we outline all phases of management of animal botulism outbreaks occurring in wet wild birds, poultry, cattle, horses, and fur farm animals. © 2013, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
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| 3. |
- Bano, Nargis, et al.
(författare)
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Depth-resolved cathodoluminescence study of zinc oxide nanorods catalytically grown on p-type 4H-SiC
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Luminescence. - : Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam.. - 0022-2313 .- 1872-7883. ; 130:6, s. 963-968
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Optical properties of ZnO nanorods (NRs) grown by vapour-liquid-solid (VLS) technique on 4H-p-SiC substrates were probed by cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements at room temperature and at 5 K complemented with electroluminescence. At room temperature the CL spectra for defect related emission intensity was enhanced with the electron beam penetration depth. We observed a variation in defect related green emission along the nanorod axis. This indicates a relatively poor structural quality near the interface between ZnO NRs and p-SiC substrate. We associate the green emission with oxygen vacancies. Analysis of the low-temperature (5 K) emission spectra in the UV region suggests that the synthesized nanorods contain shallow donors and acceptors.
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| 4. |
- Bano, Nargis, et al.
(författare)
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Study of Au/ZnO nanorods Schottky light-emitting diodes grown by low-temperature aqueous chemical method
- 2010
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Ingår i: Applied Physics A. - : Springer Science Business Media. - 0947-8396 .- 1432-0630. ; 100:2, s. 467-472
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- High quality vertically aligned ZnO nanorods (NRs) were grown by low-temperature aqueous chemical technique on 4H-n-SiC substrates. Schottky light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were fabricated. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of Schottky diodes reveal good rectifying behavior. Optical properties of the ZnO nanorods (NRs) were probed by cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements at room temperature complemented with electroluminescence (EL). The room-temperature CL spectra of the ZnO NRs exhibit near band edge (NBE) emission as well as strong deep level emission (DLE) centered at 690 nm. At room temperature the CL spectra intensity of the DLE was enhanced with the increase of the electron beam penetration depth due to the increase of defect concentration at the interface and due to the conversion of self-absorbed UV emission. We observed a variation in the DLE along the nanorod depth. This indicates a relatively lower structural quality near the interface between ZnO NRs and n-SiC substrate. The room-temperature CL spectra of SiC show very weak emission, which confirms that most of the DLE is originating from the ZnO NRs, and SiC has a minute contribution to the emission.
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| 5. |
- Skarin, Hanna, et al.
(författare)
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The workshop on animal botulism in europe
- 2013
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Ingår i: Biosecurity and bioterrorism. - : Mary Ann Liebert Inc. - 1538-7135 .- 1557-850X. ; 11:SUPPL. 1, s. S183-S190
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A workshop on animal botulism was held in Uppsala, Sweden, in June 2012. Its purpose was to explore the current status of the disease in Europe by gathering the European experts in animal botulism and to raise awareness of the disease among veterinarians and others involved in biopreparedness. Animal botulism is underreported and underdiagnosed, but an increasing number of reports, as well as the information gathered from this workshop, show that it is an emerging problem in Europe. The workshop was divided into 4 sessions: animal botulism in Europe, the bacteria behind the disease, detection and diagnostics, and European collaboration and surveillance. An electronic survey was conducted before the workshop to identify the 3 most needed discussion points, which were: prevention, preparedness and outbreak response; detection and diagnostics; and European collaboration and surveillance. The main conclusions drawn from these discussions were that there is an urgent need to replace the mouse bioassay for botulinum toxin detection with an in vitro test and that there is a need for a European network to function as a reference laboratory, which could also organize a European supply of botulinum antitoxin and vaccines. The foundation of such a network was discussed, and the proposals are presented here along with the outcome of discussions and a summary of the workshop itself. © 2013, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
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| 6. |
- Thierry-Jebali, N, et al.
(författare)
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Observation of the generation of stacking faults and active degradation measurements on off-axis and on-axis 4H-SiC PiN diodes
- 2012
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Ingår i: Applied Physics Letters. - : American Institute of Physics (AIP). - 0003-6951 .- 1077-3118. ; 101:22, s. 222111-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PiN diodes have been fabricated on nominally on-axis Si-face 4H-SiC material and their electrical characteristics are compared to PiN diodes processed with exactly the same device process recipe on 8 degrees-off 4H-SiC material. Some diodes had an optical window on the top metal contact to observe the possible stacking faults generation and motion with photo emission microscopy. The diodes were electrically characterized in forward voltage to test their stability. Electrical characterizations demonstrate that there is no noticeable degradation for the diodes processed on on-axis 4H-SiC substrate and with optical characterization the formation of stacking faults was not observed.
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| 7. |
- Woudstra, C., et al.
(författare)
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Animal botulism outcomes in the ani bio threat project
- 2013
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Ingår i: Biosecurity and bioterrorism. - : Mary Ann Liebert Inc. - 1538-7135 .- 1557-850X. ; 11:SUPPL. 1, s. S177-S182
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Botulism disease in both humans and animals is a worldwide concern. Botulinum neurotoxins produced by Clostridium botulinum and other Clostridium species are the most potent biological substances known and are responsible for flaccid paralysis leading to a high mortality rate. Clostridium botulinum and botulinum neurotoxins are considered potential weapons for bioterrorism and have been included in the Australia Group List of Biological Agents. In 2010 the European Commission (DG Justice, Freedom and Security) funded a 3-year project named AniBioThreat to improve the EU's capacity to counter animal bioterrorism threats. A detection portfolio with screening methods for botulism agents and incidents was needed to improve tracking and tracing of accidental and deliberate contamination of the feed and food chain with botulinum neurotoxins and other Clostridia. The complexity of this threat required acquiring new genetic information to better understand the diversity of these Clostridia and develop detection methods targeting both highly specific genetic markers of these Clostridia and the neurotoxins they are able to produce. Several European institutes participating in the AniBioThreat project collaborated on this program to achieve these objectives. Their scientific developments are discussed here. © 2013, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
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| 8. |
- Woudstra, C., et al.
(författare)
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Validation of a real-time PCR based method for detection of clostridium botulinum types C, D and their mosaic variants C-D and D-C in a multicenter collaborative trial
- 2013
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Ingår i: Anaerobe. - : Elsevier BV. - 1075-9964 .- 1095-8274. ; 22, s. 31-37
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Two real-time PCR arrays based on the GeneDisc® cycler platform (Pall-GeneDisc Technologies) were evaluated in a multicenter collaborative trial for their capacity to specifically detect and discriminate Clostridium botulinum types C, D and their mosaic variants C-D and D-C that are associated with avian and mammalian botulism. The GeneDisc® arrays developed as part of the DG Home funded European project 'AnibioThreat' were highly sensitive and specific when tested on pure isolates and naturally contaminated samples (mostly clinical specimen from avian origin). Results of the multicenter collaborative trial involving eight laboratories in five European Countries (two laboratories in France, Italy and The Netherlands, one laboratory in Denmark and Sweden), using DNA extracts issued from 33 pure isolates and 48 naturally contaminated samples associated with animal botulism cases, demonstrated the robustness of these tests. Results showed a concordance among the eight laboratories of 99.4%-100% for both arrays. The reproducibility of the tests was high with a relative standard deviation ranging from 1.1% to 7.1%. Considering the high level of agreement achieved between the laboratories these PCR arrays constitute robust and suitable tools for rapid detection of C.botulinum types C, D and mosaic types C-D and D-C. These are the first tests for C.botulinum C and D that have been evaluated in a European multicenter collaborative trial. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.
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