Network resilience

Many systems on our planet are known to shift abruptly and irreversibly from one state to another when they are forced across a "tipping point," such as mass extinctions in ecological networks, cascading failures in infrastructure systems, and social convention changes in human and animal networks. Such a regime shift demonstrates a system's resilience that characterizes the ability of a system to adjust its activity to retain its basic functionality in the face of internal disturbances or external environmental changes. In the past 50 years, attention was almost exclusively given to low dimensional systems and calibration of their resilience functions and indicators of early warning signals without considerations for the interactions between the components. Only in recent years, taking advantages of the network theory and lavish real data sets, network scientists have directed their interest to the real-world complex networked multidimensional systems and their resilience function and early warning indicators. This report is devoted to a comprehensive review of resilience function and regime shift of complex systems in different domains, such as ecology, biology, social systems and infrastructure. We cover the related research about empirical observations, experimental studies, mathematical modeling, and theoretical analysis. We also discuss some ambiguous definitions, such as robustness, resilience, and stability.Comment: Review chapter

Safety and Reliability - Safe Societies in a Changing World

The contributions cover a wide range of methodologies and application areas for safety and reliability that contribute to safe societies in a changing world. These methodologies and applications include: - foundations of risk and reliability assessment and management - mathematical methods in reliability and safety - risk assessment - risk management - system reliability - uncertainty analysis - digitalization and big data - prognostics and system health management - occupational safety - accident and incident modeling - maintenance modeling and applications - simulation for safety and reliability analysis - dynamic risk and barrier management - organizational factors and safety culture - human factors and human reliability - resilience engineering - structural reliability - natural hazards - security - economic analysis in risk managemen

COMMUNITY BASED RESOURCE PLANNING - Studies from Zimbabwe and Northern Australia

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Guideline - Building Perimeter Protection: Design Recommendations for Enhanced Security against Terrorist Attacks

The purpose of the current document is to provide guidance to security and law enforcement officials, building/site owners, venue organizers, state organizations, engineers and other stakeholders that are in charge of securing facilities and critical infrastructures against the growing international terrorist threat. The focus of the report narrows down into recommendations for a robust and usable approach for the physical protection of infrastructures against this borderless phenomenon. It addresses shortcomings encountered in the design of such security solutions and aims at producing a simple, self-contained practical guide to enable the selections and installation of elements that are able to stop and/or deter potential terrorist attacks. A detailed analytical procedure is illustrated for identifying the weaknesses of potential terrorist targets and assess the relevant risk for different terrorist tactics. Advice is provided for the introduction of protection measures against both external and internal explosions and design methodologies are presented for minimizing the likelihood for the development of a progressive collapse mechanism. Moreover, specialized perimeter physical protection measures are proposed that may successfully restrict unauthorized vehicle and intruder access, supplemented by the employment of modern digital technologies, such as video surveillance, smart sensors and video analytics. The novel and emerging threat landscape is also addressed, such as the malicious use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, requiring new response strategies that call for the adoption of state-of-the-art counter technologies.JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Building

A cumulative index to the 1973 issues of Aeronautical engineering: A special bibliography

This publication is a cumulative index to the abstracts contained in NASA SP-7037 (28) through NASA SP-7037 (39) of Aeronautical Engineering: A Special Bibliography. NASA SP-7037 and its supplements have been compiled through the cooperative efforts of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This cumulative index includes subject, personal author, corporate source, contract, and report number indexes

The Challenge of Seeing Justice Done in Removal Proceedings

Prosecutorial discretion is a critical part of the administration of immigration law. This Article considers the work and responsibilities of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) trial attorneys, who thus far have not attracted significant scholarly attention, despite playing a large role in the ground-level implementation of immigration law and policy. The Article makes three main contributions. First, I consider whether ICE attorneys have a duty to help ensure that the removal system achieves justice, rather than indiscriminately seek removal in every case and by any means necessary. As I demonstrate, trial attorneys have concrete obligations derived from statutory provisions, case law, and administrative guidance to seek legitimate objectives, take steps to ensure procedural justice, and exercise equitable discretion in appropriate cases. Second, I argue that the removal system lacks serious structural features to ensure these obligations are met, and as a result, prosecutorial discretion and prosecutorial conduct vary significantly across and within jurisdictions. Little prevents ICE attorneys from indiscriminately pursuing enforcement objectives at the expense of seeing justice done. This matters today, more than ever, because of the categorical and categorically unforgiving nature of the modern statutory removal scheme and the risk of erroneous detentions and removals. Third, the Article develops important parallels between ICE attorneys and criminal prosecutors, suggesting that the immigration system might borrow some of the administrative features employed in criminal systems to encourage earlier prosecutorial screening of cases for positive discretion and equalize some of the power asymmetries that can result in unjust outcomes. I sketch the contours of four such reforms that could be readily implemented without the need for congressional action

Environment and development in Ethiopia: proceedings of the symposium of the Forum for Social Studies, Addis Ababa, 15- 16 September 2000

In Ethiopia, a region representing a major world gene center, the various traditional agro-ecosystems constitute major in situ repositories of crop and animal diversity. Effective use of this invaluable resource promotes diversity of diet, source of income, stability of production, reduced pest and disease incidence and a safe and sustainable environment. This is especially true for resource-poor farmers practicing agriculture under low input conditions in marginal environments. There is also a serious threat of losses of diversity which requires major inputs to protect and sustainably utilize it. Farmers' varieties, largely represented by indigenous landraces, are among those suffering such losses. Developing ecologically and culturally based agricultural practices that raise land productivity while conserving and restoring the resource base is critical to ensure long term food and livelihood security of Ethiopia's rapidly growing population. This need becomes more significant as land holdings are becoming smaller and environments are degrading in the small scale farming sector. There is a unique opportunity for intervention in this regard through a fanners' seed promotion strategy which may draw on the experiences in Ethiopia, and other places in Africa