A taxonomy for piracy incident reporting: Tailored for the test implementation of PIRATES in the Gulf of Guinea

This report is an output of the Pilot Project on Piracy, Maritime Awareness and Risks – Gulf of Guinea, carried out by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission on behalf of EuropeAid. Monthly reports are being produced during the duration of this project. To build a maritime piracy taxonomy for PIRATES, piracy incidents were described by their so called attributes, for instance the “name of the ship” that was attacked or the “location of the piracy incident”. Then, the attributes were grouped together in so called sections, for instance the “name of the ship” belongs to the group “ship details”. The following nine sections were created: 1) As regards identification, the following attributes were created: Reporting entity, Date entered, Incident number, Incident Sort, Incident Type, Status of report, Report last modified. 2) As regards DTG and location, the following attributes were created: Incident date, Incident time, Time zone, Period of day, Country of incident, Position of incident, Location of incident, Area of incident, Latitude and Longitude. 3) As regards the ship details, the following attributes were created: Name of ship, IMO Number, MMSI Number, Call sign, Flag of Ship, Type of ship, Length of ship, DWT of ship and photo of ship. 4) As regards ship circumstances, the following attributes were created: next port, last port and nearest port of ship, status of ship, speed of ship, freeboard of ship, security on board, Citadel/safe room, ships security level, visibility, wind speed and wave height. 5) As regards details of the attack, the following attributes were created: type and number of attackers, type and number of boats, weapons used, violence used, length of attack, attackers arrested, injured or killed, ship entered by and mitigating actions. 6) As regards victim details, there is a possibility to enter the number of victims killed, injured, missing, kidnapped, threatened, taken hostage and/or assaulted. There is a possibility to enter the number of crew on board with EU Citizenship. 7) As regards narrative, there is a possibility to enter a free-format description of the attack. 8) As regards the post-incident details, the following attributes were created: Consequences for victims, Days held in captivity, Ship released on, Ransom paid, Human Shield, Crew Mothership, Vessel raided, Estimated costs and Authorities reported to. 9) As regards photos and reports, a possibility to attach photos and reports of the incident was developed in PIRATES.JRC.G.3-Maritime affair

Maritime Piracy Incident Reporting - A Technical Feasibility Study

To address maritime piracy, the maritime stakeholders in the Gulf of Guinea region need timely and accurate information on piracy incidents, not only to provide accurate and timely information on the safety of shipping, but also for statistics and trends. Furthermore, the sharing of this piracy incident information is essential to support law enforcement agencies in their counter piracy activities. In the Gulf of Guinea region, no formal system of piracy incident reporting exists, and one of the main problems is the lack of good quality information on piracy attacks. Therefore, it is needed to collect and store information on piracy incidents in a (centralized) reporting system. Besides this, no formal system of information exchange exists between States or organizations in the Gulf of Guinea region. Since the ECCAIRS software already provides a reporting environment allowing data collection and data exchange, it was suggested to study from a technical point of view if ECCAIRS could be a suitable system for addressing the above mentioned issues in the Gulf of Guinea region. The feasibility study shows that from a technical point of view the ECCAIRS software is applicable to the maritime piracy domain at very low costs and with a very short development time. The main deliverable of this technical feasibility study is a specific maritime piracy version of ECCAIRS, which is called PIRATES (Piracy Incident Reporting And informaTion Exchange System). It was recommended to (test) implement PIRATES in the Gulf of Guinea region to support the local maritime authorities to enhance their maritime awareness.JRC.G.3-Maritime affair

A structural equation model of cooperative member satisfaction and long-term commitment

The organizational growth of farmer cooperatives is tied to increased heterogeneity in member attitudes and perceptions. To inform possible solutions, a better understanding of the complex interrelationships of member attitudes and perceptions is necessary. Using survey responses from 1,116 members of an organic marketing cooperative in the United States, this paper develops a structural equation model of six factors: organic lifestyle, mission support, participation, trust, satisfaction, and long-term commitment. The final model illustrates nine significant relationships, including satisfaction and long-term commitment. The result suggests the long-term survival or viability of farmer cooperatives is not only dependent on its financial performance but also the utility of its members. In terms of member attitudes and perceptions, trust and mission support may offer the best opportunities for farmer cooperatives to foster member satisfaction and thus address the negative consequences of heterogeneity

Accuracy and the influence of marrow fat on quantitative CT and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry measurements of the femoral neck in vitro

Abstract Bone mineral measurements with quantitative computed tomography (QCT) and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) were compared with chemical analysis (ChA) to determine (1) the accuracy and (2) the influence of bone marrow fat. Total bone mass of 19 human femoral necks in vitro was determined with QCT and DXA before and after defatting. ChA consisted of defatting and decalcification of the femoral neck samples for determination of bone mineral mass (BmM) and amount of fat. The mean BmM was 4.49 g. Mean fat percentage was 37.2% (23.3%–48.5%). QCT, DXA and ChA before and after defatting were all highly correlated (r>0.96,p<0.0001). Before defatting the QCT values were on average 0.35 g less than BmM and the DXA values were on average 0.65 g less than BmM. After defatting, all bone mass values increased; QCT values were on average 0.30 g more than BmM and DXA values were 0.29 g less than BmM. It is concluded that bone mineral measurements of the femoral neck with QCT and DXA are highly correlated with the chemically determined bone mineral mass and that both techniques are influenced by the femoral fat content

Vertebral deformities and functional impairment in men and women

Abstract The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and health effects of vertebral deformities i

Bellcore attack in practice

In this paper we analyze practical aspects of the differential fault attack on RSA published by Boneh, Demillo and Lipton from Bellcore. We focus on the CRT variant, which requires only one faulty signature to be entirely broken provided that no DFA countermeasures are in use. Usually the easiest approach for the attacker is to introduce a fault in one of the two RSA-CRT exponentiations. These are time-consuming and often clearly visible in the power profiles. However, protection of the exponentiations against faults does not always circumvent the Bellcore attack. Our goal is to investigate and classify other possible targets of the attack

Drivers of joint cropland management strategies in agri-food cooperatives

[EN] In several Spanish regions, collective action through production and marketing cooperatives has traditionally concentrated the food supply of small and medium-sized farms. However, many cooperatives are threatened by the risk of abandonment of members' cropland, which reduces their sourcing capacity. In this context, joint cropland management initiatives have become a useful form of social and organizational innovation. This research's contribution is twofold: it examines the relevance of some drivers of this organizational innovation, and it determines the cooperative characteristics or combinations of characteristics that can sufficiently explain the adoption of a joint cropland management strategy. Some cooperatives' features have been a priori identified as related to the achievement of joint cropland initiatives: economic size, social innovation, innovative behavior, and collaborative orientation. The study is mainly based on data from a cooperatives survey, and fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) methodology has been used. The analysis has been completed by surveying cooperatives' managers about their opinions on a joint cropland management strategy's main advantages and drivers. Results indicate that social and economic innovation, size, and propensity to cooperate with other cooperatives are key factors that help create a cooperative profile capable of tackling the challenge of land abandonment and the consequent loss of production.Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain, European Regional Development Fund, European Commission. Project "Strengthening innovation policy in the agri-food sector" (RTI2018-093791-B-C22).Piñeiro, V.; Martinez Gomez, VD.; Melia-Marti, E.; García Alvarez-Coque, JM. (2021). Drivers of joint cropland management strategies in agri-food cooperatives. Journal of Rural Studies. 84:162-173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.04.003S1621738