Proliferation Prospects

The non-use of chemical and biological weapons during the Gulf War will doubtless prompt further debate. Non-use by the Iraqis has neither diminished concern about these weapons, nor indicated that nations possessing chemical and biological weapons would abandon their capabilities and refrain from their use in future. Had either of these assumptions 

Operationally, too, the US conventional superiority, especially in air power, thwarted any tactical use of chemical weaponry and blunted the impact of all Iraqi weapons (other than the mines laid at sea). It exposed the chasm in training, doctrine, equipment and leadership between the US armed services and a military force, then popularly known as the world s 

Finally, the Pentagon is absolutely right to warn that potential adversaries will study the lessons of the Gulf War as closely as the West has done. Some may be deterred by the punishment that Iraq suffered, but others may seek to avoid Saddam s mistakes of timing and passivity in the face of an enemy build-up. At the very least, intervention forces, if despatched into a crisis or war within the Third World, cannot assume that they will profit from a five-month preparatory period in which to accumulate 

An approximate comparison between the number of conventional (HE) and chemical rockets launched from multi-barrel launchers to achieve a level of casualties of about 50-60 per cent, using 6 multi-barrel rocket launchers, with observed fire in neutral wind speed conditions of 3 metres per second. 

Note These figures assume that all attacked soldiers have individual respirator protection available which will be donned when attacked. 

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Only two short-term prospective studies on the effect of soy on the breast have been performed to date. The first reported the effects of two weeks of soy supplementation on the breast of women who were due to have surgery for either benign or malignant breast disease (Hargreaves, 1999). Soy had no adverse effects on any histological index of proliferation. However, a rise of pS2 protein and lowering of apolipoprotein D was observed in the nipple aspirate of women taking soy compared with controls. (A similar effect has... 

The metanephric mesenchyme has an extremely high rate of proliferation. The metanephros doubles in size every 8 h during the first 5 days. In the prospective renal cortex, the expression of PCNA, a marker for S-phase, occurs in a majority of cells. The proliferation rate is slowed significantly in BMP-7 knockouts (described above) and BF-2 knockouts. BF-2 is a transcription factor in the medullary stroma. It is likely that it controls the synthesis of a soluble growth factor that stimulates mesenchyme proliferation, but the identity of that factor is unknown. 

Hall, P A and Woods, A. (1990) Immunohistochemical markers of cell proliferation Achievements, problems and prospects. Cell Tissue Kinet 23, 531-549... 

In human studies, flaxseed consumption has had positive impacts on carcinogenesis and parallel observations from animal studies. A doubleblind, placebo-controlled, prospective clinical trial involving 39 women, newly diagnosed with breast tumors, was completed to evaluate the effect of flaxseed consumption on tumor growth (Thompson et al., 2000). Subjects given flaxseed (25 g/day) diets had reduced tumor cell proliferation and c-erB-2 expression, and an increased apoptosis index compared with women who ate whole-wheat muffins. 

Sebeok, T.A. 2001. Biosemiotics its roots, proliferation and prospects. Semiotica, 134, 61-78. 

The Recent Proliferation of Misfolding Diseases and Prospects for Effective Therapies... 

Our threat assessment focuses attention on former Soviet NBC facilities that are of greater concern with regard to proliferation because they have a concentration of weapons-critical expertise and are experiencing substantial economic distress with limited prospects for improvement. For illustrative purposes, the list above provides some examples of NBC facilities in which Type I through Type V personnel could have increased incentives for undertaking illicit knowledge transfer of proliferation-critical expertise (e g., weapons-critical or other enabling information). 

Fear of grave consequences. The prospect of being considered a traitor or enemy of the people weighs heavily on a specialist who may be deciding to proliferate. This fear is in part a vestige of the Soviet era. 

Food, food products, "snack foods" and the like are advertised and promoted as never before. The current proliferation of claims is likely to increase even more with the prospective increase in functional foods, fortified foods, food supplements and the like. 

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