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      • Medicine
        July 2010

        Considerations for Ensuring Safety and Efficacy of Vaccines and Therapeutic Proteins Manufactured by Using Platform Approaches

        Summary of a Workshop

        by Jeffrey Fox, Marilee Shelton-Davenport, and India Hook-Barnard, Rapporteurs; Board on Life Sciences; Division on Earth and Life Studies; National Research Council

        A major goal of the US Department of Defense (DOD) Transformational Medical Technologies Initiative (TMTI) is to develop countermeasures that will protect military personnel against bioweapons, including specific infectious-disease agents and toxins. An explicit TMTI objective is to respond quickly to such threats by producing an appropriate amount of an effective countermeasure--currently defined as enough material to treat or vaccinate 3 million personnel--within 12 months of identification of a specific threat. DOD officials call for TMTI programs to be up and running by 2014. The National Academies hosted a workshop which brought together scientists from academe, government, and the biotechnology industry to identify and discuss challenges and ideas related to the TMTI's vision of developing countermeasures within a few months after an agent is identified. The workshop focused on manufacturing processes and specifically on the development of "manufacturing platforms"--repeatable components of manufacturing that reduce both development time and risk. An underlying assumption was that demonstrating that integrated platforms can reliably produce safe and efficacious countermeasures might shorten the regulatory approval process. The workshop is summarized in this book.

      • Agriculture & farming
        November 2022

        Plant Biosecurity and Biosafety

        by N.G. Ravichandra

        The major objective of this book is to provide recent developments and updated comprehensive information on various aspects of Plant Biosecurity and Biosafety. This book fulfils the need for a comprehensive book on the fundamental and advanced aspects of Plant Biosecurity and Biosafety. The book explicates essential aspects related to Plant Biosecurity and Biosafety and is conveniently divided into sixteen unique chapters, covering all the updated information and latest developments. The chapters covered include Introduction ; Invasive Alien Species ; Biowarfare, Bioterrorism and Bioethics; Early Warning and Forecasting System ; Emerging Resurgence of Pests and Diseases ; National Regulatory Mechanism and International Agreements Conventions; International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures ; Pest Risk Analysis, Risk Management Models and Pest Information System ; Global Positioning System and Geographic Information System for Plant Biosecurity ; Pest, Disease and Epidemic Management ; Agroterrorism and Biosecurity ; Mitigation Planning and Integrated Approach for Biosecurity ; Biosafety, History, Policies and Regulatory Mechanism ; Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and Its Implications ; Issues related to the Genetically Modified Crops ; Operational Biosafety Practices and Procedures. In addition, Glossary of terms is also furnished to present a list of frequently terms used in Plant Biosecurity and Biosafety. The contents of this book, reflecting an extensive literature search, will be useful particularly for the students, teaching & research faculty and extension personnel in Agricultural and Horticultural Universities, the State Departments of Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry, Sericulture & Fisheries, Plant Protection Organizations, Plant Quarantine Units, Administrators & Policy makers and all those who are interested and concerned with plant biosecurity and biosafety.

      • Children's & young adult fiction & true stories

        The Fourth Horseman

        by Kate Thompson

        Should you believe what you see with your own eyes, even if it can’t be explained? When Laurie is arrested for setting fire to her father’s research lab she’s unsure what to say in her defence. Should she say that she’s an animal rights activist? Or should she tell the whole story, about the mysterious horsemen that she saw in the woods, and the terrifying truth which lay behind their appearance? In the eyes of the police she is a criminal, but Laurie knows that she’s a hero. Kate Thompson is the winner of The Whitbread Children’s Book Award and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, and four times winner of the Irish Children’s Book of the Year Award.

      • Medicine
        October 2002

        Scientific and Policy Considerations in Developing Smallpox Vaccination Options

        A Workshop Report

        by Institute of Medicine of the National Academies

        At the World Health Assembly in May 1980, the World Health Organization declared the world free of smallpox. Smallpox vaccination of civilians is now indicated only for laboratory workers directly involved with smallpox or closely related orthopox viruses. However recent questions raised by the terrorist attacks in fall 2001 have renewed concerns about possible outbreaks of smallpox resulting from its use as a biological weapon. In June 2002, the Institute of Medicine convened a public conference to discuss the scientific, clinical, procedural, and administrative aspects of various immunization strategies. Scientific and Policy Considerations in Developing Smallpox Vaccination Options summarizes the presentations and discussions from this workshop.

      • October 2020

        ALIENATED

        by Simon Spurrier / Chris Wildgoose

        Three teenagers discover an unearthly creature with incredible powers who needs prey to survive - but as they try to use his powers for good, it may be these humans who pose the greatest threat to the world.THREE KIDS CALLED SAM.ONE ALIEN BIOWEAPON.Three teenagers, each an outcast in their own ways, stumble upon an unearthly entity as it’s born. As they bond over this shared secret and the incredible abilities of their new discovery, the trio soon realizes the truth: this creature is dangerous...and in need of prey.But as each of them tries to decide how they can use this newfound power to do some real good in a broken world, they’ll find that the greatest threat to humanity may not come from the stars - but from the truth behind their seemingly good intentions.Eisner Award-nominated writer Simon Spurrier (Sandman Universe, Coda) and acclaimed artist Chris Wildgoose (Batman: Nightwalker) present a subversive coming-of-age story about changing the world - and the lines we’ll cross to get everything we want in it.Collects Alienated #1-6.

      • Medicine
        September 2017

        Enhancing BioWatch Capabilities Through Technology and Collaboration

        Proceedings of a Workshop

        by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Health and Medicine Division, Board on Health Sciences Policy, Standing Committee on Health Threats and Workforce Resilience, Joe Alper

        The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) BioWatch program aims to provide an early indication of an aerosolized biological weapon attack. The first generation of BioWatch air samplers were deployed in 2003. The current version of this technology, referred to as Generation 2 (Gen-2), uses daily manual collection and testing of air filters from each monitor, a process that can take 12 to 36 hours to detect the presence of biological pathogens. Until April 2014, DHS pursued a next-generation autonomous detection technology that aimed to shorten the time from sample collection to detection to less than 6 hours, reduce the cost of analysis, and increase the number of detectable biological pathogens. Because of concerns about the cost and effectiveness of the proposed Generation 3 system (Gen-3), DHS cancelled its acquisition plans for the next-generation surveillance system. In response to the cancellation announcement, Congress asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a review of the program and the proposed system enhancements that would have been incorporated in BioWatch Gen-3. However, Mike Walter, BioWatch Program manager, Office of Health Affairs, DHS, said that DHS did not agree with all of GAO’s characterizations of the BioWatch program efforts described in this review. In response to this, DHS requested that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conduct a workshop to further explore the findings of the 2015 GAO report and discuss the impact these findings may have with regard to the future development of the technical capabilities of the BioWatch program. Workshop participants also discussed existing and possible collaborations between BioWatch, public health laboratories, and other stakeholders that could contribute to the enhancement of biosurveillance capabilities at the federal, state, and local levels. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

      • Fiction
        April 2020

        GREEN MONKEY SYNDROME

        by Andrew Yeh

        Disaster, biological warfare, environmental catastrophe, and resistance to hegemony. No, it’s not a description of 2020; it’s Andrew Yeh’s science fiction collection, GREEN MONKEY SYNDROME. Originally published in 1987 and has never gone out of print, these stories reflect a dystopian future so resonant with our own, it is almost like they came out yesterday.   Set in a fictional East Asia, the four stories narrate the struggles of the tiny island nation of Buron to resist the onslaught of its much bigger neighbor, Garsia, via any means necessary. “Green Monkey Syndrome” describes the disaster of a pathogenic weapon leaked among indigenous tribespeople; “The Gaoka Case” tracks through case files a pharmaceutical offensive designed to take advantage of the enemy’s patriarchal culture; “I Love Thee Winona” and “The Lost Bird” describe campaigns to manipulate disastrous weather patterns and deliver bio-weapons through migrating birds.   These stories, fortified by the author’s own extensive research, paint a picture of transnational warfare and brutal environmental imbalance that will chill the blood of anyone who has been reading this year’s news. Yeh’s surgically precise language and compelling narratives read like 1984 meets BRAVE NEW WORLD meets the front page of the New York Times.

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