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T McDaniels

Publications and source records attributed to T McDaniels.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Characterizing perception of ecological risk.

Relatively little attention has been paid to the role of human perception and judgment in ecological risk management. This paper attempts to characterize perceived ecological risk, using the psychometric paradigm developed in the domain of human health risk perception. The research began by eliciting a set of scale characteristics and risk items (e.g., technologies, actions, events, beliefs) from focus group participants. Participants in the main study were 68 university students who completed a survey instrument that elicited ratings for each of 65 items on 30 characteristic scales and one scale regarding general risk to natural environments. The results are presented in terms of mean responses over individuals for each scale and item combination. Factor analyses show that five factors characterize the judgment data. These have been termed: impact on species, human benefits, impact on humans, avoidability, and knowledge of impacts. The factor results correspond with initial expectations and provide a plausible characterization of judgments regarding ecological risk. Some comparisons of mean responses for selected individual items are also presented.

Ecology↗

Expression of human immunodeficiency virus antigens in an attenuated Salmonella typhi vector vaccine.

Human immunodeficiency virus is known to enter the host at parenteral and mucosal sites and consequently an effective vaccine should stimulate immunity at both routes of entry. One approach toward stimulating HIV-specific mucosal and systemic immunity is the use of candidate live oral Salmonella typhi vector vaccine, strain CVD 908, which has been shown to stimulate mucosal and systemic immunity in volunteers. Using recombinant DNA techniques we constructed an expression cassette which comprises the lpp promoter (Plpp) and sequences encoding recombinant gp120 (rgp120). When the Plpp-rgp120 expression cassette is integrated into the chromosome of CVD 908 in the delta aroC allele, high levels of recombinant gp120 expression are observed. It is likely that effective immunity against HIV in humans will require immunization with multiple HIV antigens. Hence, a second expression cassette encoding two additional HIV antigens with vaccine potential, p24 (a HIV-1 gag gene product) and Nef (a putative regulator of HIV-1 gene expression) has been constructed. We plan to integrate the p24-Nef-encoding expression cassette into the aroD locus in the chromosome of CVD 908 delta aroC::rgp120 in a stable manner to produce a CVD 908-HIV vector vaccine that expresses multiple HIV antigens.

AIDS Vaccines↗