The ARGOS decision support system is currently being extended to enable estimation of the consequences of terror attacks involving chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological substances. This paper presents elements of the framework that will be applied in ARGOS to calculate the dose contributions from contaminants dispersed in the atmosphere after a 'dirty bomb' explosion. Conceptual method...

In this paper, we characterize the filtration and deposition profiles of a recombinant analog of Norwalk virus, an important waterborne pathogen, in packed beds of saturated quartz sand under both ‘clean-bed’ and ‘dirty-bed’ conditions. Under clean-bed conditions with NaCl as the electrolyte, the retained Norwalk virus particles decline like a power-law with depth. The power-law decay in retain...

Watermarking systems can employ either informed detection, where the original cover work is required, or blind detection, where it is not required. While early systems used informed detection, recent work has focused on blind detection, because it is considered more challenging and general. Further, recent work on “dirty-paper watermarking” has suggested that informed detection provides no bene...

Early detection of free air in the peritoneal cavity is vital in diagnosis of life-threatening emergencies, and can play a significant role in expediting treatment. We present a series of cases in which bedside ultrasound (US) in the emergency department accurately identified evidence of free intra-peritoneal air and echogenic (dirty) free fluid consistent with a surgical final diagnosis of a p...