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The Royal Military Academy (RMA) of Belgium was requested by the Belgium Minister of Defense to study alternatives to destroy WWI chemical munitions in an environmentally safe manner (RMA Study F0016). The RMA arranged for DeMil International to ship one of its transportable Contained Detonation Chamber systems to Poelkapelle so that the RMA could evaluate its potential to destroy these munitions. The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (ACE), (Huntsville, AL) Division and U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center provided technical assistance in this evaluation. The testing was performed from May - June 2001. Shells containing DA, HD, and CG were tested. Air monitoring technologies, including MINICAMS, the CC/MS equipped with a DYNATHERM Thermal Desorption Unit to analyze DAAMS, and the OPFTIR were used onsite during the experiment. Monitoring was applied at the exhaust vent, expansion chamber, detonation chamber, and the perimeter of the system. The CDC performed as designed to contain the blast and overpressure from the explosive treatment of chemical warfare agency (CWA) shells. Treating CWA shells using an oxygen-enriched 'sheet' high explosive was demonstrated; however, residual levels of CWA were observed in the detonation chamber, expansion chamber, and the ductwork leading to/from the bag-house.

Delft University of Technology

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

In a study of 171 patients with various thyroid deseases, circulating immune complexes (CIC), measured by a Clq solid phase radioassay, were detected in 26% of the patients as compared to 8% of the control subjects. CIC were found in 33-55% of the patients with a well defined thyroid autoimmune disorder (Hashimoto's goitre, asymptomatic thyroiditis, spontaneous myxoedema and Graves' disease) and also in the same proportion of patients with diffuse goitre. CIC were correlated to the presence of serum antibodies to microsomal thyroid antigen but not to their titre. No relationship was observed between CIC and the age or sex of the patients and the presence of exophthalmos, or between CIC and the different thyroid function tests or serum anti-thyroglobulin antibodies. CIC were found in untreated patients as well as in those treated with prednisone, methimazole or thyroxine., SCOPUS: ar.j, FLWNO, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Soluble immune complexes were detected by a solid phase Clq binding assay in forty‐two out of 106 well studied asthmatic patients (39.6%) and in eleven out of 145 age‐matched controls (8%; P < 0.01). Clinical significance of immune complexes has been evaluated by comparing the following parameters in patients with and without such complexes: age, sex, duration of disease, IgE‐mediated allergy (RAST, skin test), precipitins (Aspergillus, Candida albicans, Thermoactinomycetes), corticodependency, lung function tests, associated symptoms (hivernal bronchitis, urticaria, eczema, …), desenstization treatment, serum concentration in immunoglobulin in G, A, M and E. Immune complexes were found more frequently in female than in male patients. The prevalence of immune complexes was higher in patients treated by hyposensitization therapy and in cases with precipitating antibodies against thermophilic actinomycetes and Aspergillus. Copyright © 1980, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved, SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Polystyrene microtubes, coated with extracts of either Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (DPT) or grass pollens, were used as the solid‐phase in a radioimmunoassay for the measurement of specific IgG antibodies to the corresponding allergen. Radiolabelled protein A from Staphylococcus aureus (SpA) was used to determine the IgG antibodies attached to the tubes. The binding of IgG from either normal or allergic sera to DPT‐coated tubes was antigen specific and mediated by the Fab fragment of the immunoglobulin. IgG antibodies purified by affinity chromatography from non‐allergic serum competed with IgE antibodies to DPT. IgE antibodies do not significantly interfere with the assay. Indeed, heating a reaginic serum resulted in a striking reduction of the (125I) anti‐IgE binding to allergen‐coated tubes without modifying the (125I)‐SpA binding. Furthermore, filtration of a reaginic serum through Sephacryl S‐200 separated a peak of IgE antibodies, characterized by a high binding of labelled a‐IgE and a low binding of (125I)‐SpA from the peak of IgG antibodies defined by low a‐IgE and high SpA binding. The solid phase method is more sensitive than a double‐antibody technique employing the same DPT extract as labelled antigen. Non‐allergic subjects had less IgG antibodies to DPT or grass pollens than allergic patients. In untreated patients, there was a good correlation between levels of IgG and IgE antibodies to grass pollens but not to DPT. Patients hyposensitized to house dust mite had on the average three times more specific IgG antibodies than untreated cases. Copyright © 1979, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved, SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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