Space Weather and Financial Systems: Findings and Outlook. An event co-organised by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, the UK Civil Contingencies Secretariat and the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Centre 27 June, 2014, London, UK

Space weather can affect both ground-based and space-borne infrastructures, potentially resulting in failures or service disruptions across the globe and causing damage to equipment and systems. With society having become increasingly reliant on the services these infrastructures provide, a more thorough analysis of the risk due to extreme space weather is warranted. Most studies on the impact of space weather on infrastructures focus on the high-voltage power grid, aviation and communication. A less well-known area of potential vulnerability is the impact of space weather on the financial services sector. Elements of this sector’s operations depend on accurate timing, a service which is increasingly provided by space based – and therefore space weather prone - technologies. The Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), for example, is commonly used for deriving time stamps for financial transactions. In order to address this topic, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, the UK Civil Contingencies Secretariat, and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration jointly organised the “Space weather and financial services” workshop in London on 27 June 2014. The half-day workshop was attended by 50 representatives of the financial service industry, insurance, European and US government agencies, regulators, academia and the European Commission. The objectives of the workshop were to discuss the potential impact of extreme space weather on financial services, in particular through the effect on timing systems of a loss of GNSS services, and to raise the awareness of this risk in the sector. This report presents the findings of this workshop.JRC.G.5-Security technology assessmen

International genome-wide meta-analysis identifies new primary biliary cirrhosis risk loci and targetable pathogenic pathways.

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a classical autoimmune liver disease for which effective immunomodulatory therapy is lacking. Here we perform meta-analyses of discovery data sets from genome-wide association studies of European subjects (n=2,764 cases and 10,475 controls) followed by validation genotyping in an independent cohort (n=3,716 cases and 4,261 controls). We discover and validate six previously unknown risk loci for PBC (Pcombined<5 × 10(-8)) and used pathway analysis to identify JAK-STAT/IL12/IL27 signalling and cytokine-cytokine pathways, for which relevant therapies exist

The Seveso II Directive. Guidance and Fine-Tuning.

This paper discusses two activities connected with the "Seveso II" Directive: "fine-tuning", or the further consideration of topics which could not be definitively resolved in the course of agreeing the Directive; and "guidance", or the preparation of non-binding suggestions and interpretations in technical domains where the Directive's provisions require further development. Both activities are carried out primarily in EU Technical Working Groups ("TWGs"). The paper finishes with some personal conclusions about the nature of the process and its results.JRC.(ISIS)-Institute For Systems, Informatics And Safet

The "Seveso II" Directive and the Major Accident Hazards Bureau.

The article discusses the background and contents of the "Seveso" Directives, in particular the recent "Seveso II" Directive. It also presents the activities of the Major Accident Hazards Bureau, concentrating in particular on the functioning and content of the Major Accident Reporting System.JRC.(ISIS)-Institute For Systems, Informatics And Safet

Safety Management Systems under Seveso II. Implementation and Assessment.

The "Seveso II" Directive requires certain establishments holding hazardous substances to implement a Safety Management System (SMS). The paper discusses the origin of this requirement, the guidance drawn up to help companies fulfil it, and the results of its preliminary testing. In implementing and inspecting SMS it is important to identify SMS weaknesses and the safety culture that effects SMS and to evaluate safety performance. The second part of this paper examines the industrial practice in evaluating SMS. Preventive actions to control risks and policy updating within the company through strategic plans are found to be sensitive to the number and type of SMS elements taken into account as indicators. The guidelines and evaluation methods could produce useful results only when safety aspects and system elements are identified and evaluated separately for each installation.JRC.(ISIS)-Institute For Systems, Informatics And Safet

Crime and Abuse in e-Business.

Abstract not availableJRC.G-Institute for the Protection and the Security of the Citizen (Ispra

Identifying a Low-Frequency Oscillation in Galileo IOV Observables

Galileo, the European global navigation satellite system, is in its in-orbit validation phase and the four satellites which have been available for some months now have allowed a preliminary analysis of the system performance. Previous studies have showed that Galileo will be able to provide pseudorange measurements more accurate than those provided by GPS. However, a similar improvement was not found for pseudorange rate observations in the velocity domain. This fact stimulated additional analysis of the velocity domain, and, in particular, an unintended oscillatory component was identified as the main error source in the velocity solution. The magnitude of such oscillation is less than 10 cm/s, and its period is in the order of few minutes. A methodology was developed to identify oscillatory components in the Galileo IOV pseudorange rate observables, and it was verified that the measurements from Galileo IOV PFM and Galileo IOV FM2 are affected by a small oscillatory disturbance. This disturbance stems from the architecture adopted for combining the frequency references provided by the two active clocks present in the Galileo satellites. The issue has been solved in Galileo IOV FM3 and Galileo IOV FM4, and the oscillatory component has been eliminated. We also propose a methodology for removing this unwanted component from the final velocity solution and for determining the performance that Galileo will be able to achieve. The analysis shows that Galileo velocity solution will provide a root-mean-square error of about 8 cm/s even in the limited geometry conditions achieved using only four satellites. This shows the potential of Galileo also in the determination of user velocity.JRC.G.5-Security technology assessmen