| 1. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(författare)
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SEARCHES FOR EXTENDED AND POINT-LIKE NEUTRINO SOURCES WITH FOUR YEARS OF ICECUBE DATA
- 2014
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 796:2, s. 109-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present results on searches for point-like sources of neutrinos using four years of IceCube data, including the first year of data from the completed 86 string detector. The total livetime of the combined data set is 1373 days. For an E-2 spectrum, the observed 90% C. L. flux upper limits are similar to 10(-12) TeV-1 cm(-2) s(-1) for energies between 1 TeV and 1 PeV in the northern sky and similar to 10(-11) TeV-1 cm(-2) s(-1) for energies between 100 TeV and 100 PeV in the southern sky. This represents a 40% improvement compared to previous publications, resulting from both the additional year of data and the introduction of improved reconstructions. In addition, we present the first results from an all-sky search for extended sources of neutrinos. We update the results of searches for neutrino emission from stacked catalogs of sources and test five new catalogs; two of Galactic supernova remnants and three of active galactic nuclei. In all cases, the data are compatible with the background-only hypothesis, and upper limits on the flux of muon neutrinos are reported for the sources considered.
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| 2. |
- 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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| 3. |
- 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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| 4. |
- Knutsson, R., et al.
(författare)
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Accidental and deliberate microbiological contamination in the feed and food chains - How biotraceability may improve the response to bioterrorism
- 2011
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Ingår i: International Journal of Food Microbiology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-1605 .- 1879-3460. ; 145:SUPPL. 1, s. S123-S128
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A next frontier of the global food safety agenda has to consider a broad spectrum of bio-risks, such as accidental and intentional contaminations in the food and feed chain. In this article, the background for the research needs related to biotraceability and response to bioterrorism incidents are outlined. Given the current scale of international trade any response need to be considered in an international context. Biotraceability (e.g. the ability to use downstream information to point to processes or within a particular food chain that can be identified as the source of undesirable agents) is crucial in any food-born outbreak and particular in the response to bioterrorism events. In the later case, tested and proven biotraceability improves the following: (i) international collaboration of validated tracing tools and detection methods, (ii) multi-disciplinary expertise and collaboration in the field of food microbiology and conceptual modeling of the food chain, (iii) sampling as a key step in biotracing (iv) optimized sample preparation procedures, including laboratory work in Biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) laboratories, (v) biomarker discovery for relevant tracing and tracking applications, and (vi) high-throughput sequencing using bio-informatic platforms to speed up the characterization of the biological agent. By applying biotraceability, the response phase during a bioterrorism event may be shortened and is facilitated for tracing the origin of biological agent contamination. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.
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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. |
- 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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| 7. |
- 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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| 8. |
- Lanata, N., et al.
(författare)
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Orbital selectivity in Hund's metals: The iron chalcogenides
- 2013
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Ingår i: Physical Review B. - : American Physical Society. - 1098-0121 .- 1550-235X. ; 87:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We show that electron correlations lead to a bad metallic state in chalcogenides FeSe and FeTe despite the intermediate value of the Hubbard repulsion U and Hund’s rule coupling J. The evolution of the quasi particle weight Z as a function of the interaction terms reveals a clear crossover at U ≃ 2.5 eV. In the weak coupling limit Z decreases for all correlated d orbitals as a function of U and beyond the crossover coupling they become weakly dependent on U while strongly depend on J. A marked orbital dependence of the Z’s emerges even if in general the orbital-selective Mott transition only occurs for relatively large values of U. This two-stage reduction of the quasi particle coherence due to the combined effect of Hubbard U and the Hund’s J, suggests that the iron-based superconductors can be referred to as Hund’s correlated metals.
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