Emerging Threats of Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology

Synthetic biology is a field of biotechnology that is rapidly growing in various applications, such as in medicine, environmental sustainability, and energy production. However these technologies also have unforeseen risks and applications to humans and the environment. This open access book presents discussions on risks and mitigation strategies for these technologies including biosecurity, or the potential of synthetic biology technologies and processes to be deliberately misused for nefarious purposes. The book presents strategies to prevent, mitigate, and recover from ‘dual-use concern’ biosecurity challenges that may be raised by individuals, rogue states, or non-state actors. Several key topics are explored including opportunities to develop more coherent and scalable approaches to govern biosecurity from a laboratory perspective up to the international scale and strategies to prevent potential health and environmental hazards posed by deliberate misuse of synthetic biology without stifling innovation. The book brings together the expertise of top scholars in synthetic biology and biotechnology risk assessment, management, and communication to discuss potential biosecurity governing strategies and offer perspectives for collaboration in oversight and future regulatory guidance

Object Tracking

Object tracking consists in estimation of trajectory of moving objects in the sequence of images. Automation of the computer object tracking is a difficult task. Dynamics of multiple parameters changes representing features and motion of the objects, and temporary partial or full occlusion of the tracked objects have to be considered. This monograph presents the development of object tracking algorithms, methods and systems. Both, state of the art of object tracking methods and also the new trends in research are described in this book. Fourteen chapters are split into two sections. Section 1 presents new theoretical ideas whereas Section 2 presents real-life applications. Despite the variety of topics contained in this monograph it constitutes a consisted knowledge in the field of computer object tracking. The intention of editor was to follow up the very quick progress in the developing of methods as well as extension of the application

Summary Of The Second Army DIS Data Call: Technical Report

Report identifying user requirements, such as operational needs and corresponding functional requirements, so that effective decisions can be made regarding ongoing DIS development and use

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction Issue 22.2 (2018)

FEATURE: Safe and Secure Management of Ammunition in the SPOTLIGHT: IRAQ and SYRIA Field Notes Research and Developmen

Rethinking SEAD: Employment of contemporary Fighter Aircraft Capabilities against an A2/AD-System of Systems of a peer Adversary in Europe

The Russian full scale invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated, how relevant the discussion about a potential NATO article 5 intervention in Europe is. A frequently used term in this context is Anti Access/ Area Denial. While this term is not existent in Russian strategy, the Integrated Air Defense System it encompasses poses a major challenge to NATO’s freedom of movement in case of a conflict. The air power role Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses can provide means to tackle the threat the Russian IADS poses to NATO. This thesis elaborates on NATO’s capabilities to counter the Russian IADS with SEAD capabilities. The topics SEAD and A2/AD are analyses in an extensive literature review. A qualitative small-N study based on subject matter expert interviews is conducted in order to identify, how the way SEAD operations are executed must be adjusted based in the present SEAD capabilities in NAT

Systems engineering approach to ground combat vehicle survivability in urban operations

Ground combat vehicles (GCV) traditionally rely on passive armor to reduce their vulnerability against threats. This is insufficient now, given the increasing gap between threat lethality and passive armor capability and the change in threat scenario from relatively open terrain to urban terrain. This thesis provides an overview of system survivability and discusses the conventional approach to GCV survivability. This thesis then uses a systems engineering approach to guide the subsequent study, which identifies likely threats to GCVs in an urban environment and discusses potential susceptibility reduction techniques and technologies that can counter the threats. This thesis then develops a survivability assessment model (using Imagine That's ExtendSim), which quantifies the different survivability characteristics of a GCV and determines the sets of survivability characteristics to meet the defined survivability requirement. Finally, this thesis demonstrates the use of a decision-making methodology (multi-attribute decision-making) to manage the capability conflicts that arise between survivability and other key platform capabilities. Therefore, this author hopes to help military planners and engineers design more robust, holistic and balanced survivability solutions for GCVs, to provide more flexibility against different types of threats and threat scenarios.http://archive.org/details/systemsengineeri1094550510Senior Engineer, Defence Science & Technology Agency, SingaporeApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Tracking moving objects in surveillance video

The thesis looks at approaches to the detection and tracking of potential objects of interest in surveillance video. The aim was to investigate and develop methods that might be suitable for eventual application through embedded software, running on a fixed-point processor, in analytics capable cameras. The work considers common approaches to object detection and representation, seeking out those that offer the necessary computational economy and the potential to be able to cope with constraints such as low frame rate due to possible limited processor time, or weak chromatic content that can occur in some typical surveillance contexts. The aim is for probabilistic tracking of objects rather than simple concatenation of frame by frame detections. This involves using recursive Bayesian estimation. The particle filter is a technique for implementing such a recursion and so it is examined in the context of both single target and combined multi-target tracking. A detailed examination of the operation of the single target tracking particle filter shows that objects can be tracked successfully using a relatively simple structured grey-scale histogram representation. It is shown that basic components of the particle filter can be simplified without loss in tracking quality. An analysis brings out the relationships between commonly used target representation distance measures and shows that in the context of the particle filter there is little to choose between them. With the correct choice of parameters, the simplest and computationally economic distance measure performs well. The work shows how to make that correct choice. Similarly, it is shown that a simple measurement likelihood function can be used in place of the more ubiquitous Gaussian. The important step of target state estimation is examined. The standard weighted mean approach is rejected, a recently proposed maximum a posteriori approach is shown to be not suitable in the context of the work, and a practical alternative is developed. Two methods are presented for tracker initialization. One of them is a simplification of an existing published method, the other is a novel approach. The aim is to detect trackable objects as they enter the scene, extract trackable features, then actively follow those features through subsequent frames. The multi-target tracking problem is then posed as one of management of multiple independent trackers

Mine Action: Lessons and Challenges

Mine Action: Lessons and Challenges represents the views of selected experts as to what some of the key lessons have been, and what challenges remain for the future. Following an Executive Summary of its main conclusions and findings, this work is laid out in two parts. Part I looks at the core activities — the “pillars” — of mine action: advocacy, victim assistance, mine risk education, demining (survey, marking and clearance of mines and unexploded ordnance) and stockpile destruction. Part II looks at key management issues, specifically, programme coordination and management, information management and capacity development. This work concludes with a thought-provoking assessment of what mine action has actually achieved

Humans in the Loop

From lethal drones to cancer diagnostics, humans are increasingly working with complex and artificially intelligent algorithms to make decisions which affect human lives, raising questions about how best to regulate these “human-in-the-loop” systems. We make four contributions to the discourse. First, contrary to the popular narrative, law is already profoundly and often problematically involved in governing human-in-the-loop systems: it regularly affects whether humans are retained in or removed from the loop. Second, we identify “the MABA-MABA trap,” which occurs when policymakers attempt to address concerns about algorithmic incapacities by inserting a human into a decisionmaking process. Regardless of whether the law governing these systems is old or new, inadvertent or intentional, it rarely accounts for the fact that human-machine systems are more than the sum of their parts: they raise their own problems and require their own distinct regulatory interventions. But how to regulate for success? Our third contribution is to highlight the panoply of roles humans might be expected to play, to assist regulators in understanding and choosing among the options. For our fourth contribution, we draw on legal case studies and synthesize lessons from human factors engineering to suggest regulatory alternatives to the MABA-MABA approach. Namely, rather than carelessly placing a human in the loop, policymakers should regulate the human-in-the-loop system