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Better devices are needed for the detection of aerosolized biological warfare agents. Advances in the ongoing development of one such device, the BioAerosol Mass Spectrometry (BAMS) system, are described here in detail. The system samples individual, micrometer-sized particles directly from the air and analyzes them in real-time without sample preparation or use of reagents. At the core of the BAMS system is a dual-polarity, single-particle mass spectrometer with a laser based desorption and ionization (DI) system. The mass spectra produced by early proof-of-concept instruments were highly variable and contained limited information to differentiate certain types of similar biological particles. The investigation of this variability and subsequent changes to the DI laser system are described. The modifications have reduced the observed variability and thereby increased the usable information content in the spectra. These improvements would have little value without software to analyze and identify the mass spectra. Important improvements have been made to the algorithms that initially processed and analyzed the data. Single particles can be identified with an impressive level of accuracy, but to obtain significant reductions in the overall false alarm rate of the BAMS instrument, alarm decisions must be made dynamically on the basis of multiple analyzed particles. …

A laboratory investigation was undertaken to determine the effect of microbe generated gas bubbles in controlled, saturated sediment columns utilizing a novel technique involving acoustic wave propagation. Specifically, the effect of denitrifying bacteria on saturated flow conditions was evaluated in light of the stimulated production of N{sub 2} gas and the resulting plugging of the pore throats. The propagation of high frequency acoustic waves through the sediment columns was used to locate those regions in the column where gas accumulation occurred. Over a period of six weeks, regions of gas accumulation resulted in the attenuation of acoustic wave energies with the decreases in amplitude typically greater than one order of magnitude.