Diversity and distribution of cholix toxin, a novel ADP-ribosylating factor from Vibrio cholerae.

Non-toxigenic non-O1, non-O139 Vibrio cholerae strains isolated from both environmental and clinical settings carry a suite of virulence factors aside from cholera toxin. Among V. cholerae strains isolated from coastal waters of southern California, this includes cholix toxin, an ADP-ribosylating factor that is capable of halting protein synthesis in eukaryotic cells.

The 2005 'Last Chance Bravo' bioterrorism exercise.

The 2005 'Last Chance Bravo' bioterrorism exercise provided a forum for testing advanced technologies in a simulated disaster. The four-day exercise included a 2-day simulated pneumonic plague outbreak, with 50 participants from the Montana Department of Health and Human Services, 20 participants from various hospital organizations and approximately 150 participants from over 40 telemedicine sites. Telephone communications and Web tools supported much of the critical information exchange.

Shadow Bowl 2003: a collaborative exercise in community readiness, agency cooperation, and medical response.

This paper describes a model for homeland security, community readiness, and medical response that was applied during an operational exercise around Super Bowl XXXVII. In addition, it describes the products provided by private companies involved in the exercise and how they would have contributed to a medical disaster had one occurred. The purpose of Shadow Bowl was to demonstrate community readiness and medical response to a mass casualty event.

Spatial patterns of morphological diversity across the Indo-Pacific: analyses using strombid gastropods.

Biological diversity can be measured using various metrics, but existing knowledge of spatial patterns of diversity is largely based on species counts. There is increasing evidence that trends in species richness might not match trends in other biodiversity metrics, such as morphological diversity. Here, we use data from a large group of Indo-Pacific gastropods (family Strombidae) to show that the species richness of a region is a poor predictor of the morphological diversity present there.