The potential of open source information in supporting Acquisition Pathway Analysis to design IAEA State Level Approaches

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards designed to deter nuclear proliferation are constantly evolving to respond to new challenges. Within its State Level Concept, the IAEA envisions an objective-based and information-driven approach for designing and implementing State Level Approaches (SLAs), using all available measures to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of safeguards. The main Objectives of a SLA are a) to detect undeclared nuclear material or activities in the State, b) to detect undeclared production or processing of nuclear materials in declared facilities or locations outside facilities (LOFs), c) to detect diversion of declared nuclear material in declared facilities or LOFs. Under the SLA, States will be differentiated based upon objective State-Specific Factors that influence the design, planning, conduct and evaluation of safeguards activities. Proposed categories of factors include both technical and legal aspects, spanning from the deployed fuel cycle and the related state's technical capability to the type of safeguards agreements in force and the IAEA experience in implementing safeguards in that state. To design a SLA, the IAEA foresees the use of Acquisition Path Analysis (APA) to identify the plausible routes for acquiring weapons-usable material and to assess their safeguards significance. In order to achieve this goal, APA will have to identify possible acquisition paths, characterize them and eventually prioritise them. This paper will provide an overview of how the use of open source information (here loosely defined as any type of non-classified or proprietary information and including, but not limited to, media sources, government and non-governmental reports and analyses, commercial data, satellite imagery, scientific/technical literature, trade data) can support this activity in the various aspects of a typical APA approach.JRC.E.8-Nuclear securit

Dual Agents : Fungal Macrocidins and Synthetic Analogues with Herbicidal and Antibiofilm Activities

Eight analogues of the bioherbicides macrocidin A (1) and Z (2) with structural variance in the size of the macrocycle, its para- or meta-cyclophane character, and its functional groups were synthesized on two modular routes and tested for herbicidal, antibiotic, and antibiofilm activities. Apart from the lead compounds 1 and 2, the structurally simplified dihydromacrocidin Z (3) and normacrocidin Z (4) showed high herbicidal activity in either thistles, dandelions or in both. The derivatives 2, 3, and dibromide 9 also inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus biofilms by ca 70% when applied at subtoxic concentrations as low as ca 20 µM, which are unlikely to induce bacterial resistance. They also led to the dispersion of preformed biofilms of S. aureus, exceeding a similar effect by microporenic acid A, a known biofilm inhibitor. Compounds 3 and 9 showed no noticeable cytotoxicity against human cancer and endothelial cells at concentrations below 50 µM, making them conceivable candidates for application as anti-biofilm agents in a medicinal context

Open Source Analysis in Support to Nonproliferation and Verification Activities: Using the New Media to Derive Unknown New Information

This paper describes evolving techniques that are synergistically being applied in unique ways to make new information discoveries that might otherwise have likely remained unknown. These techniques leverage multiple freely available open source social media venues, as part of the encompassing “New Media,” to derive cueing information for indications of previously unknown and hence undeclared activity. Because such cueing often relates to physical infrastructure (facilities and equipment), and thus has a strong geo-positional component, it can also be followed-up with open source geospatial visualization tools (“geographic browsers” or “virtual globes”) and commercial satellite imagery (with its ever improving spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions) to significantly expand the nuclear nonproliferation knowledge base as will be shown by way of a review of some recent exemplar cases. The methodological application of such techniques can complement other forms of open source data mining for safeguards purposes to improve the likelihood of the remote detection of undeclared nuclear related facilities and/or activities.JRC.E.8-Nuclear securit

Recent Developments Promoting Open-Source Synergy: Emerging Trends and Their Impact for Nuclear Nonproliferation Analysis

A number of recent developments in open-source information technology are creating new opportunities for data fusion for nuclear nonproliferation verification applications, particularly when some aspect of that information includes a geospatial component. Those developments include enhanced “new media” data mining tools and techniques to derive cueing information for indications of previously unknown and hence undeclared activity, coupled with rapidly expanding commercial satellite imaging capabilities and constellations, and new means to efficiently access them. In just the past year, there has been a significant expansion in the number of tools available in the open source information toolkit to draw from structured and unstructured big data, inter alia news media, social media and trade data. New open-source geospatial tools continue to keep pace, making it increasingly easy to follow-up such derived information having a geospatial context. Commercial satellite imagery has already been proven to be an effective and accepted means for nuclear monitoring, verification, and mission planning for IAEA safeguards purposes; it is still a relatively new “open-source” technology for routine information collection and analysis. Commercial satellite imagery (and its requisite processing and analysis) is continuing to evolve and advance as a result of radically new improvements in terms of spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions from increasingly diverse and rapidly growing international satellite constellations. Improved means of access to this multi-resolution imagery diversity (nearing ubiquity, providing near persistent global surveillance in near-real time) will increasingly also provide a new basis for open-source information augmentation with previously unexpected synergistic effects. This paper reviews some key elements of this open-source (r)evolution, updates earlier work on the subject by these authors, and explains (by way of a few exemplar cases) how this expanding and evolving open-source tool-kit is making it easier, in terms of time and cost, to derive and assess new nuclear nonproliferation relevant information.JRC.E.8-Nuclear securit

Uniform assessment criteria for elements of road infrastructure with regard to sustainability - road and tunnel

Im vorliegenden Forschungsvorhaben wird eine Systematik erarbeitet, mit der in den Phasen der Entwurfs- und Genehmigungsplanung eine Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung für Bauwerke der Straßeninfrastrukturplanung durchgeführt werden kann. Grundlage für die Erarbeitung dieser Systematik stellen die bereits abgeschlossenen Forschungsvorhaben FE 15.0494 "Entwicklung einheitlicher Bewertungskriterien für Infrastrukturprojekte im Hinblick auf Nachhaltigkeit" (GRAUBNER, 2010) und FE 09.0162 "Konzeptionelle Ansätze zur Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung im Lebenszyklus von Elementen der Straßeninfrastruktur" (GRAUBNER, 2012) dar. Im erstgenannten Vorhaben wurde bereits die Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung von Brückenbauwerken vorgenommen. Ziel dieses Vorhabens ist es nun, das bereits vorhandene System auf die Teilbereiche freie Strecke und Tunnel auszuweiten. Die für eine Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung relevanten Kriterien, gliedern sich in die vier Hauptkriteriengruppen ökologische Qualität, ökonomische Qualität, soziokulturelle und funktionale Qualität sowie die technische Qualität. Durch die Fokussierung auf die frühen Projektphasen entfällt, im Gegensatz zur Bewertung der Brückenbauwerke, der Bereich Prozessqualität, bei dem die Nachhaltigkeit des späteren Bauprozesses betrachtet wird. Um das Vorhaben umsetzen zu können, wurde zuerst der für den Teilbereich Brücke bereits vorhandene Kriterienkatalog überarbeitet und ergänzt. Für jedes Kriterium wurde die Relevanz für die Teilbereiche freie Strecke und Tunnel überprüft. Dabei wurden Kriterien zum Teil weiter ausgearbeitet und neue relevante Kriterien ergänzt. Für die Bewertung der Kriterien wird in messbare und nicht messbare Kriterien unterschieden. Für messbare Kriterien lassen sich absolute Werte mittels einer Bewertungsmethode berechnen und bewerten, während nicht messbare Kriterien anhand einer Checkliste oder eines stichpunktartigen Erläuterungsberichts bewertet werden. Weiterführende Bewertungsaspekte werden diskutiert und Ansätze zur Weiterentwicklung der Systematik aufgezeigt. Neben der Zuordnung einzelner Kriterien zu Stakeholdern (Betroffene) werden eine zeitliche Differenzierung (z.B. Zeitpunkt der Entstehung von Kosten, Emissionen, etc.) und die Gegenüberstellung einer monetären Bewertung zur Punktebewertung konzeptionell vorgeschlagen. Das System zielt dabei auf eine relative Bewertung von Bauwerksvarianten (freie Strecke, Brücke, Tunnel) ab.In this research project an assessment system for sustainable buildings of infrastructure planning for the project phases draft and permit planning was developed. This assessment system is based on two accomplished research projects FE 15.0494 "Development of consistent assessment criteria for infrastructure projects with regard to sustainability" (GRAUBNER, 2010) and FE 09.0162 "Conceptual approaches for sustainability assessment in the life-cycle of elements of road infrastructure" (GRAUBNER, 2012). The project FE 15.0494 contains a sustainability assessment for bridges. The objective of our project is to extend the scope of the assessment system to free road and tunnel sections. The four main aspects of sustainability assessment are ecological quality, economical quality, social and functional quality and technical quality. Focusing on the assessment of early project phases the process quality was excluded in contrast to the assessment of bridges, where the sustainability of construction process has to be assessed. At first the criteria catalogue of the bridge section was revised and amended. For each criterion the relevance for the sections free road and tunnel was analyzed and updated. New criteria were included. All criteria were analyzed by classifying them in measurable and non-measurable criteria. For measurable criteria absolute values can be calculated and evaluated according to a given assessment method. Whereas non-measurable criteria are assessed with the help of a checklist or an explanatory report. Further aspects of assessment were discussed as well as approaches for further development for the assessment system were shown. Besides of a classification into stakeholders (person concerned) for each criteria a time depending differentiation (e.g. moment of appearing costs, emissions) as well as a comparison of a monetary assessment with point assessment are conceptually suggested. The concept of the developed sustainability assessment system is based on a relative assessment of various construction solutions (free road, bridge and tunnel sections)

Association of a functional NOS1 promoter repeat with Alzheimer's disease in the VITA cohort

NO synthase, type I (NOS-I) has been suggested to play a role in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The gene encoding NOS-I harbors at least nine alternative first exons; in the promoter region of exon 1f, a polymorphic repeat (NOS1 ex1f-VNTR) has been described which influences gene expression and neuronal transcriptome. We have shown that short alleles of this repeat are associated with AD. Here, we sought to further explore this finding by investigating a longitudinal cohort sample from the Vienna-Transdanube-Aging (VITA) study consisting of 606 subjects enrolled at the age of 75 (of these, genotypes were available for 574 subjects) and followed up for 60 months. The ex1f-VNTR risk genotype was associated with AD in the total sample and at the second follow-up. Thus, either long alleles of NOS1 ex1f-VNTR are protective against disease or conversely, short alleles predispose to earlier onset of disease. As demonstrated, ex1f-VNTR interacted with the apolipoprotein E ε4 risk allele (OR in the presence of both risk alleles 3.63; 95% CI: 1.45-9.12). These findings provide further evidence for an association of NOS1 with AD

Association of a Functional NOS1 Promoter Repeat with Alzheimer's Disease in the VITA Cohort

NO synthase, type I (NOS-I) has been suggested to play a role in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The gene encoding NOS-I harbors at least nine alternative first exons; in the promoter region of exon 1f, a polymorphic repeat (NOS1 ex1f-VNTR) has been described which influences gene expression and neuronal transcriptome. We have shown that short alleles of this repeat are associated with AD. Here, we sought to further explore this finding by investigating a longitudinal cohort sample from the Vienna-Transdanube-Aging (VITA) study consisting of 606 subjects enrolled at the age of 75 (of these, genotypes were available for 574 subjects) and followed up for 60 months. The ex1f-VNTR risk genotype was associated with AD in the total sample and at the second follow-up. Thus, either long alleles of NOS1 ex1f-VNTR are protective against disease or conversely, short alleles predispose to earlier onset of disease. As demonstrated, ex1f-VNTR interacted with the apolipoprotein E ε4 risk allele (OR in the presence of both risk alleles 3.63; 95% CI: 1.45-9.12). These findings provide further evidence for an association of NOS1 with AD

Thermal conductivity measurement of IRIS-TUM fuel plates (disperse U-8wt.%-Mo)

The thermal diffusivity of ground U-8wt.%-Mo powder in an aluminium matrix has been measured in the temperature range of 300°C to 400°C. By means of best estimates for the heat capacity and density of this complex compound a thermal conductivity of about 25 W/mK has been determined.JRC.E.3-Materials researc