Safety first: towards responsible arms and ammunition management in DRC's Equateur and Nord-Oubangui Provinces

This Knowledge Note provides an insight into current realities, behaviour and practices in arms and ammunition storage sites in north-western DR Congo. Tailored recommendations for strengthening ammunition and weapons safety by improving physical security measures and renovating infrastructural facilities are a central focus of this report and the corresponding technical studies. In light of these technical findings, and on the basis of on-site observations as well as interviews with community members and armed forces personnel, this Knowledge Note emphasises the importance of factoring in the socio-economic and humanitarian context of the weapons and ammunition storage sites. Through a range of case studies, an analysis of relevant legislative frameworks and how communication is channeled through relevant physical security and stockpile management (PSSM) authorities as well as an examination of the difficulty of translating existing PSSM knowledge into action, the study highlights some of the behavioural practices - and challenges - that underlie the development of an effective PSSM culture. The objective of this Knowledge Note is to help order and prioritize some of these factors, identifying how the national government of the DRC can enhance its efforts to establish a more responsible culture of PSSM-related practices. By highlighting areas of work where targeted interventions would be most useful, the recommendations of this baseline study aim to help guide ongoing regional and national efforts to implement more responsible PSSMrelated practices in a limited resource environment

Una descripción geométrica de la coherencia espacial y un principio similar al de Babinet para explicar la visibilidad de franjas

The concept of spatial coherence is usually hard to comprehend the first time that it is studied. We propose here a fully intuitive geometric description that does not contain mathematical difficulties, and permits one to understand how a Young’s fringe stationary system is obtained with a source not spatially coherent. It is based in a very simple experiment that permits the detection of spatial coherence in a scene. Experimental results are shown. Using this approach, a Babinet-­‐like principle for the visibility of the Young’s fringes is proposed and experimentally demonstrated.El concepto de coherencia espacial es, usualmente, difícil de comprender la primera vez que es abordado. Nosotros proponemos en este trabajo una descripción geométrica totalmente intuitiva, que no contiene dificultades matemáticas y permite entender cómo un sistema estacionario de franjas de Young es obtenido utilizando una fuente de luz espacialmente incoherente. Este método está basado en un experimento muy simple que permite la detección de la coherencia espacial en una escena, de la que se muestran los resultados experimentales obtenidos. Mediante el uso de esta aproximación, un principio similar al de Babinet es propuesto y experimentalmente demostrado, a fin de explicar la visibilidad de las franjas de Young.Facultad de Ingenierí

An introductory approach to the concept of spatial coherence

The concept of spatial coherence is usually hard to be understood the first time that it is studied. We propose here a geometric description that does not contain mathematical difficulties and permits to understand how a Young's Fringes system is obtained with a source not spatially coherent. It is based in a very simple experiment that permits the detection of spatial coherence in a scene. Experimental results are shown.Unidad de Investigación y Desarrollo Optim

Characterization of dynamic speckle sequences using principal component analysis and image descriptors

Speckle is being used as a characterization tool for the analysis of the dynamic of slow varying phenomena occurring in biological and industrial samples. The retrieved data takes the form of a sequence of speckle images. The analysis of these images should reveal the inner dynamic of the biological or physical process taking place in the sample. Very recently, it has been shown that principal component analysis is able to split the original data set in a collection of classes. These classes can be related with the dynamic of the observed phenomena. At the same time, statistical descriptors of biospeckle images have been used to retrieve information on the characteristics of the sample. These statistical descriptors can be calculated in almost real time and provide a fast monitoring of the sample. On the other hand, principal component analysis requires longer computation time but the results contain more information related with spatial-temporal pattern that can be identified with physical process. This contribution merges both descriptions and uses principal component analysis as a pre-processing tool to obtain a collection of filtered images where a simpler statistical descriptor can be calculated. The method has been applied to slow-varying biological and industrial processe

La sécurité avant tout: vers une gestion responsable des stocks d'armes et de munitions dans les provinces de l'Équateur et du Nord-Oubangui en RDC

Cette Knowledge Note fournit un aperçu des réalités, comportements et pratiques actuels dans les dépôts d’armes et de munitions du nord-ouest de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC). Le rapport et les études techniques correspondantes sont centrés sur des recommandations sur mesure visant à renforcer la sûreté des armes et des munitions en améliorant les mesures de sécurité physique et en rénovant les infrastructures. A la lumière de ces conclusions techniques et sur la base d’observations de terrain ainsi que d’entretiens avec les membres des communautés et le personnel des forces armées, cette Knowledge Note met l’accent sur l’importance de la prise en compte du contexte socioéconomique et humanitaire des sites de stockage d’armes et de munitions. A travers une série d’études de cas, une analyse des cadres législatifs pertinents et de la façon dont la communication entre les autorités chargées de la sécurité physique et de gestion des stocks (PSSM) fonctionne ainsi qu’un examen de la difficulté à traduire en action les connaissances en PSSM existantes, l’étude souligne certaines des pratiques comportementales - et défis - qui sont à la base du développement d’une culture efficace de la PSSM. L’objectif de cette Knowledge Note est d’aider à ordonner et établir des priorités parmi certains de ces facteurs en identifiant comment le gouvernement national de la RDC peut améliorer ses efforts afin d’établir une culture plus responsable des pratiques liées à la PSSM. En mettant l’accent sur les domaines de travail où des interventions ciblées seraient les plus utiles, les recommandations de cette étude de base visent à aider à orienter les efforts nationaux et régionaux en cours pour la mise en œuvre de pratiques en matière de PSSM dans un environnement aux ressources limitées

Dynamic Speckle Laser technique for the characterization of electrotechnical-porcelain

This work analyzes the quality of two types of commercial electro-technical-porcelain using textural and physical-chemical methods: BET surface area and pore size by gas adsorption, X-ray powder diffraction; Electronic Microscopy and Energy dispersive X-ray analysis, Infrared Spectroscopy and their water adsorption capacity by the Dynamic Speckle Laser technique. Experimental results showed the evolution of the speckle patterns during hydro-adsorption process, permitting to discriminate different behavior for each material. It was determined that it is possible to correlate changes in the speckle patterns with the porosity and chemical composition of materials

Characterization of spatial-temporal patterns in dynamic speckle sequences using principal component analysis

Speckle is being used as a characterization tool for the analysis of the dynamics of slow-varying phenomena occurring in biological and industrial samples at the surface or near-surface regions. The retrieved data take the form of a sequence of speckle images. These images contain information about the inner dynamics of the biological or physical process taking place in the sample. Principal component analysis (PCA) is able to split the original data set into a collection of classes. These classes are related to processes showing different dynamics. In addition, statistical descriptors of speckle images are used to retrieve information on the characteristics of the sample. These statistical descriptors can be calculated in almost real time and provide a fast monitoring of the sample. On the other hand, PCA requires a longer computation time, but the results contain more information related to spatial-temporal patterns associated to the process under analysis. This contribution merges both descriptions and uses PCA as a preprocessing tool to obtain a collection of filtered images, where statistical descriptors are evaluated on each of them. The method applies to slow-varying biological and industrial processes.Facultad de IngenieríaCentro de Investigaciones Óptica

Characterization of spatial-temporal patterns in dynamic speckle sequences using principal component analysis

Speckle is being used as a characterization tool for the analysis of the dynamics of slow-varying phenomena occurring in biological and industrial samples at the surface or near-surface regions. The retrieved data take the form of a sequence of speckle images. These images contain information about the inner dynamics of the biological or physical process taking place in the sample. Principal component analysis (PCA) is able to split the original data set into a collection of classes. These classes are related to processes showing different dynamics. In addition, statistical descriptors of speckle images are used to retrieve information on the characteristics of the sample. These statistical descriptors can be calculated in almost real time and provide a fast monitoring of the sample. On the other hand, PCA requires a longer computation time, but the results contain more information related to spatial-temporal patterns associated to the process under analysis. This contribution merges both descriptions and uses PCA as a preprocessing tool to obtain a collection of filtered images, where statistical descriptors are evaluated on each of them. The method applies to slow-varying biological and industrial processes.Facultad de IngenieríaCentro de Investigaciones Óptica