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PubMed2002

Science at a crossroads.

Science is entering an alliance with the economy that will speed the effect of innovation through society. Despite the slowdown of the 'new economy', a cascade paradigm of innovation appears key to increasing the rate of economic growth. Yet for science to continue to thrive and make this contribution to innovation, it must traverse at least three key crossroads. First, while life sciences have built a strong advocacy model to secure growing federal research funding, the physical sciences (including mathematics and engineering) have not and must now do so to thrive. Second, the drop in the numbers of physical scientists and engineers must be reversed if we are to have the talent to maintain a strong trend of scientific advance. Third, although science advances are increasingly interdisciplinary and occurring in the space between the historic science stovepipes, the organization of federal science support is largely unchanged since the beginning of the cold war. While a decentralized model has value, we must also consider new approaches that encourage deeper cooperation across science sectors and agencies.

Biological Science Disciplines↗
PubMed2004

An evaluation of the Kearny Fallout Meter (KFM), a radiation detector constructed from commonly available household materials.

A radiation detector constructed of common household materials was developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) by Cresson H. Kearny and has been referred to as the Kearny Fallout Meter (KFM). Developed during the height of the Cold War, the KFM was intended to place a radiation meter capable of measuring fallout from nuclear weapons in the hands of every U.S. citizen. Instructions for the construction of the meter, as well as information about radiation health effects, were developed in the form of multi-page newspaper insert. Subsequently, the sensitivity of the meter was refined by a high school teacher, Dr. Paul S. Lombardi, for use in demonstrations about radiation. The meter is currently being marketed for survivalists in light of potential radiation terrorist concerns. The KFM and Lombardi's variation of it are constructed and evaluated for this work. Calibrated tests of the response and variations in response are reported. A critique of the multi-page manual is made. In addition, the suitability of using such a detector, in terms of actual ease of construction and practical sensitivity, is discussed for its use in demonstrations and introductory classes on nuclear topics.

Equipment Design↗
PubMed2000

Developing child abuse prevention, identification, and treatment systems in Eastern Europe.

Although the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989 brought a welcome end to the Cold War, the subsequent reestablishment of independent Eastern European countries revealed a host of problems. Among these was frequent child abuse and neglect, although lack of epidemiological data precluded any accurate estimate of prevalence. In an effort to address the problem of child abuse within this rapidly changing sociopolitical environment, the Children's Mental Health Alliance and the Soros Foundation organized the Eastern European Child Abuse and Child Mental Health Project in 1995. The authors describe the development of this multidisciplinary initiative involving collaboration with professionals from 17 countries in Eastern Europe. They highlight the goals, principles, and major phases of the project, as well as some of the challenges involved in its implementation.

Child↗
PubMed1997

A research note about military-civilian humanitarianism: more questions than answers.

'Military-civilian humanitarianism'--or the coming together of military forces and civilian aid agencies to deal with the human suffering from complex emergencies--has numerous forms, but disenchantment has resulted from the Somalia and Bosnia syndromes. There is little political will at present, but evidence from the immediate post-Cold War era suggests how multilateral military operations could expand or contract in future to the benefit or peril of war victims. Partly a literature review but more importantly a framework for interpreting recent publications, this essay seeks to move beyond exchanging assertions. There is a contextualisation of recent literature; a definition of military-civilian humanitarianism; a discussion of possible military contributions to humanitarian action; a framework to assess the effectiveness of military-civilian humanitarianism; and a preliminary analysis of experience from northern Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Haiti. Caveat lector: At this point in time, there are still 'more questions than answers'.

Altruism↗
PubMed2002

Potential exposures and risks from beryllium-containing products.

Beryllium is the strongest of the lightweight metals. Used primarily in military applications prior to the end of the Cold War, beryllium is finding new applications in many commercial products, including computers, telecommunication equipment, and consumer and automotive electronics. The use of beryllium in nondefense consumer applications is of concern because beryllium is toxic. Inhalation of beryllium dust or vapor causes a chronic lung disease in some individuals at concentrations as low as 0.01 microg/m3 in air. As beryllium enters wider commerce, it is prudent to ask what risks this might present to the general public and to workers downstream of the beryllium materials industry. We address this question by evaluating the potential for beryllium exposure from the manufacturing, use, recycle, and disposal of beryllium-containing products. Combining a market study with a qualitative exposure analysis, we determine which beryllium applications and life cycle phases have the largest exposure potential. Our analysis suggests that use and maintenance of the most common types of beryllium-containing products do not result in any obvious exposures of concern, and that maintenance activities result in greater exposures than product use. Product disposal has potential to present significant individual risks, but uncertainties concerning current and future routes of product disposal make it difficult to be definitive. Overall, additional exposure and dose-response data are needed to evaluate both the health significance of many exposure scenarios, and the adequacy of existing regulations to protect workers and the public. Although public exposures to beryllium and public awareness and concern regarding beryllium risks are currently low, beryllium risks have psychometric qualities that may lead to rapidly heightened public concern.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed2004

The role of risk and future land use in cleanup decisions at the Department Of Energy.

As a result of the legacy of the Cold War, the Departments of Energy and Defense are involved in massive cleanup and remediation projects. While health risk to humans and ecological receptors is perceived to be the basis for remediation, this assumption is rarely examined. In this article, we examine the role of risk and future land-use designations in cleanup decisions, using the Department of Energy's self-assessment of 36 sites. We then discuss the risk-related tools that might be required to address the cleanup challenge. Much of the current cleanup program is driven by compliance with federal and state statutes and regulations, presumably to protect human health and the environment. Compliance, however, is not synonymous with cleanup. Although some of these laws and regulations take risk into account, the lack of site-specific data on exposures and risk scenarios, and the lack of attention to future land use or end states, has often resulted in disconnects between risk and cleanup goals, risk and final end states, and cleanup levels and end state or subsequent land use. Partly, these disconnects result from the need for a range of technical, economic, sociological, and public policy tools to address the issues. A better transfer of information among and within Department of Energy facilities, operations offices, and DOE headquarters is required. Further, linking cleanup decisions and goals with the final end state involves a number of risk tradeoffs, including (1) ecological versus human health, (2) worker versus public health, (3) among competing contaminated areas, (4) among temporal patterns of cleanup, (5) among different ecological receptors (plants vs. animals, one animal vs. another), and (6) among the sites across the DOE complex. For the nation, balancing among risks is essential within sites and among Department of Energy sites, as well as among other remediation sites (such as those of Department of Defense and Superfund sites).

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Socio-economic restructuring and vulnerability to environmental hazards in Bulgaria.

The restructuring of Bulgaria's social, economic and political system includes a change in the way it handles disaster preparation and response. During the Cold War, the entire country drilled regularly in civil defense, which was under the control of the army. A recent decree and pending legislation transfers civil defense from the military to the Council of Ministers, which has developed a national plan for defense against environmental hazards. This research shows that the transformation from command to market economy, plus the country's severe economic crisis, is degrading existing civil defense structures, preventing the implementation of the proposed new organization and increasing the population's vulnerability to hazards. Case studies of a small city, a petrochemical complex, coastal-zone hazards management, earthquake hazards regulation and the Kozloduy nuclear facility demonstrate Bulgaria's increasing vulnerability to environmental hazards.

Bulgaria↗
PubMed1995

The continuing metamorphosis of the humanitarian practitioner: some new colours for an endangered chameleon.

In this article I set out an agenda of good practice for today's humanitarian practitioner. I first outline the distinctive political and conflict-related features of today's complex political emergencies, and the new interventionist strategies of the international community and the United Nations in responding to them. From this description of the new operating environment faced by humanitarian practitioners since the end of the Cold War, I go on to identify a range of key skills required by today's relief workers. These include: informed political analysis; negotiation skills; conflict analysis management and resolution; propaganda monitoring and humanitarian broadcasting; a broader understanding of vulnerability to include notions of political, ethnic, gender and class based vulnerability; human rights monitoring and reporting; military liaison; and personal security and staff welfare. Finally, the article focuses on the moral skills required by today's humanitarian practitioners if they are to work out a new model of humanitarian identity and positioning which supersedes the traditional but devalued notion of neutrality.

Health Occupations↗
PubMed1995

Towards a redefinition of security in Central America: the case of natural disasters.

Over the past 25 years Central America has suffered a number of major disasters: the Managua Earthquake (1972), Hurricane Fifi (1974), the Guatemalan Earthquake (1976), the San Salvador Earthquake (1986) and Hurricane Joan (1988). These events are briefly described, with special reference to their political aspects and implications. Recognition of the political importance of disasters in Central America leads to a questioning of the traditional notion that security is essentially a matter of defending the state from outside aggression. It is suggested that the analysis of disasters should be part of the debate that is currently underway in international relations about redefining the concept of security in the post-Cold War world.

Central America↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Health care in the new Russia: a western perspective.

With the end of the Cold War and establishment of relations with Russia, the opportunity for nurses to meet their Russian colleagues is now available. The authors, with an international group of nurses, visited Russia to learn about their healthcare system and nursing practice. The authors found Russian healthcare system severely lacking in the technology and resources available in other industraialized nations. Within this system, the nurse's role is significantly different from nursing in the American healthcare system. Nurses practice within a system of severe shortages and provide nursing care dependent upon physicians.

Delivery of Health Care↗
PubMed2000

Physiologic determinants of radiation resistance in Deinococcus radiodurans.

Immense volumes of radioactive wastes, which were generated during nuclear weapons production, were disposed of directly in the ground during the Cold War, a period when national security priorities often surmounted concerns over the environment. The bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans is the most radiation-resistant organism known and is currently being engineered for remediation of the toxic metal and organic components of these environmental wastes. Understanding the biotic potential of D. radiodurans and its global physiological integrity in nutritionally restricted radioactive environments is important in development of this organism for in situ bioremediation. We have previously shown that D. radiodurans can grow on rich medium in the presence of continuous radiation (6,000 rads/h) without lethality. In this study we developed a chemically defined minimal medium that can be used to analyze growth of this organism in the presence and in the absence of continuous radiation; whereas cell growth was not affected in the absence of radiation, cells did not grow and were killed in the presence of continuous radiation. Under nutrient-limiting conditions, DNA repair was found to be limited by the metabolic capabilities of D. radiodurans and not by any nutritionally induced defect in genetic repair. The results of our growth studies and analysis of the complete D. radiodurans genomic sequence support the hypothesis that there are several defects in D. radiodurans global metabolic regulation that limit carbon, nitrogen, and DNA metabolism. We identified key nutritional constituents that restore growth of D. radiodurans in nutritionally limiting radioactive environments.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1999

Gallstones: an intestinal disease?

Current evidence suggests that impaired intestinal motility may facilitate gallstone formation by influencing biliary deoxycholate levels or by modulating interdigestive gall bladder motility (fig 2), although a primary intestinal defect in gallstone pathogenesis has not yet been demonstrated. In the cold war period, most interesting events, from a political point of view, occurred at the border between capitalist and communist systems, near the iron curtain. Similarly, the gall bladder and biliary tract can be viewed as the border between liver and intestinal tract, where many interesting things occur with profound impact on both systems. Combined efforts by researchers in the field of hepatology and gastrointestinal motility should brake down the Berlin wall of ignorance of one of the most common diseases in the Western world.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Military perspective on the civilian response to the London bombings July 2005.

With the break up of the Warsaw Pact and changing global relations, current military deployments are becoming smaller and more expeditionary (e.g. Afghanistan, East Timor and Sierra Leone). During the Cold War, the use of weapons of mass effect was highly likely to have been seen on the battlefield. Ironically, the proliferation of CBRN agents and the knowledge of their application, as well as the manufacture of improvised explosive devices, have lead to the targeting of civilian populations by extremist groups. One of the benefits of military clinicians embedded in NHS hospital trusts, as well as a strong reservist cadre, is a greater understanding of the implications and management of asymmetric attacks against the U.K. The experience and skills of military clinicians may be of benefit to NHS trusts while this type of threat exists. Military clinicians are also likely to benefit from the experience that they get in certain NHS posts that provide skills that are readily transferable to military medicine. The events of 7th July highlighted the dynamic use of deployable medical resources and a rapid return to normal service provision. This type of 'Health Resilience' can only be achieved with a combination of effective emergency planning, on scene clinical risk management and clinical leadership.

Communication↗
PubMed1997

Posttraumatic stress disorder associated with peacekeeping duty in Somalia for U.S. military personnel.

OBJECTIVE: The end of the Cold War has marked a period when the U.S. military is asked to secure peace under conditions in which peace is tenuous, yet the need for resolution of the conflict is great. Combat-trained soldiers are highly visible and are exposed to threats to their lives, yet are asked to exhibit restraint and neutrality. The psychiatric consequences of peace-keeping duty under these conflicting and volatile conditions have been underresearched. The authors examined the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with exposure to peacekeeping duty in Somalia. METHOD: A large cohort of active duty personnel deployed to Somalia (N = 3,461) were surveyed approximately 5 months after their return to the United States. A variety of military service characteristics and exposure variables and PTSD symptoms were examined. RESULTS: Eight percent of peacekeepers were found to meet diagnostic criteria for PTSD. PTSD symptom severity was best predicted by the rewards of military service, war zone stress, and frustrations with peacekeeping (e.g., restrictive rules of engagement). CONCLUSIONS: It is likely that the mission in Somalia represents a new paradigm of dangerous military operations for the United States. These data suggest that peacekeeping may be difficult to reconcile for some combat-trained soldiers and can create a risk for PTSD.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Globalisation, complex humanitarian emergencies and health.

A new political economy of conflict has emerged in the aftermath of colonialism and the Cold War. Complex political emergencies have been simmering in the post-colonial world for more than three decades. Intra-country armed conflict, often combined with natural disasters, at present contributes to the displacement of over 20 million people world-wide. The international community remains profoundly uncomfortable with the complex political emergencies of the new era, torn between the respect for national sovereignty upon which the international political system of the United Nations and other agencies is built, and the growth of concern with human rights and a burgeoning International Humanitarian Law. Globalisation may have brought many benefits to some but there are also many losers. The Word Bank and the International Monetary Fund imposed structural adjustment policies to ensure debt repayment and economic restructuring that have resulted in a net reduction in expenditure on health, education and development. A downward spiral has been created of debt, disease, malnutrition, missed education, economic entrapment, poverty, powerlessness, marginalization, migration and instability. Africa's complex political emergencies are particularly virulent and tenacious. Three examples that are among the most serious humanitarian emergencies to have faced the world in recent times--those in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan--are reviewed here in detail. The political evolution of these emergencies and their impact on the health of the affected populations are also explored.

Angola↗
PubMed1999

Chemical and biological weapons: new questions, new answers.

The words "chemical and biological weapons" (CBW) send a shiver down most spines these days. With the end of the Cold War, the possibility of a massive nuclear confrontation appears remote, so today many popular doomsday scenarios center on the aggressive use of chemical or biological warfare by rogue nations or terrorist groups. As exaggerated as some of the accounts are, with CBW cast as the latest unseen, unstoppable enemy, the threat posed by these weapons is all too real, and growing.

Biological Warfare↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evaluation of infection control practices during an AE.

The broadening global commitment of UK military personnel since the end of the Cold War has brought them into contact with a plethora of tropical diseases, some of which require isolation and air transfer to a UK medical facility. This presents a number of challenges to the safe repatriation of patients and attending medical and flight crews. During a recent repatriation of a patient with suspected Lassa fever from West Africa, the team's practices were evaluated and recommendations were made for improvements to future transfers by the deployable air isolator team. Valuable lessons were learned by the team, most notably the need to practice safe isolation procedures in a real working environment. In addition, the team should work on exercises together, thus aiding cohesion prior to deployment.

Aerospace Medicine↗
PubMed1996

Are research subjects adequately protected? A review and discussion of studies conducted by the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments.

In light of information uncovered about human radiation experiments conducted during the Cold War, an important charge for the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments was to assess the current state of protections for human research subjects. This assessment was designed to enhance the Committee's ability to make informed recommendations for the improvement of future policies and practices for the protection of research subjects. The Committee's examination of current protections revealed great improvement over those from the past, yet some problems remain. Although the data collected by the Committee highlight specific areas in need of attention, the Committee's work should be viewed in part as the beginning of a series of ongoing assessments of the adequacy and effectiveness of the protections afforded to human subjects.

Advisory Committees↗