The development of technology for use in resource-poor countries encounters a specific type of challenge not ordinarily faced in academic science: the technology must be inexpensive and it must work with minimal infrastructure. This challenge is particularly severe when the problems being solved are, by their nature, ones that require high-technology solutions. For these kinds of problems, the ...

The development of vaccines for microorganisms and bacterial toxins with the potential to be used as biowarfare and bioterrorism agents is an important component of the US biodefense program. DVC is developing two vaccines, one against inhalational exposure to botulinum neurotoxins A1 and B1 and a second for Yersinia pestis, with the ultimate goal of licensure by the FDA under the Animal Rule. ...

Deception is virtually ubiquitous in warfare, and should be a central consideration for military operations research. However, studies of agent behaviour simulated have typically neglected to include explicit models deception. This paper proposes that computational model approximates the human deceptive planning process would enable authentic representation strategic deception multi-agent syste...

Smallpox (variola major), and the haemorrhagic fever viruses (filoviruses and arenaviruses) are classified as Category A biowarfare agents by the Centers for Disease Control. Category A agents pose a significant risk to public health and national security because they can be easily disseminated by aerosol, although with the exception of variola, they are not easily transmitted from person to pe...

This paper investigates the autonomous decision-making process of threat detection, classiÞcation, and the selection of alternative countermeasures against threats in electronic warfare settings. We introduce a threat model that represents a speciÞc threat pattern and also present a methodology that compiles the threat into a set of rules using soft computing methods. This methodology, which is...

On the basis of a 14th-century account by the Genoese Gabriele de' Mussi, the Black Death is widely believed to have reached Europe from the Crimea as the result of a biological warfare attack. This is not only of great historical interest but also relevant to current efforts to evaluate the threat of military or terrorist use of biological weapons. Based on published translations of the de' Mu...

The rapid and accurate identification of biological agents is a critical step in the case of bio-terror and biological warfare attacks. Recently, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry has been widely used for the identification of microorganisms. In this study, we describe a method for the rapid and accurate discrimination of Bacillus anthracis spores usin...

Events over the past 15 years have resulted in the promulgation of regulations in the United States to enhance biosecurity by restricting the access to pathogens and toxins (i.e., biological select agents and toxins [BSATs]), which pose a severe threat to human being, animal, or plant health or to animal or plant products, to qualified institutions, laboratories, and scientists. These regulatio...

As one of the most important vesicant agents, the destructive properties of mustards on the skin, eyes and respiratory system, combined with a lack of antidote, makes them effective weapons. Such weapons are inexpensive, easily obtainable and frequently stockpiled. Sulphur mustard (mustard gas) has been used as a chemical warfare agent in at least 10 conflicts. In this article, the use of musta...