Hydrothermal Alteration of Nuclear Melt Glass, Colloid Formation, and Plutonium Mobilization at the Nevada National Security Site, U.S.A

Approximately 2.8 t of plutonium (Pu) has been deposited in the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) subsurface as a result of underground nuclear testing. Most of this Pu is sequestered in nuclear melt glass. However, Pu migration has been observed and attributed to colloid facilitated transport. To identify the mechanisms controlling Pu mobilization, long-term (∼3 year) laboratory nuclear melt glass alteration experiments were performed at 25 to 200 °C to mimic hydrothermal conditions in the vicinity of underground nuclear tests. The clay and zeolite colloids produced in these experiments are similar to those identified in NNSS groundwater. At 200 °C, maximum Pu and colloid concentrations of 30 Bq/L and 150 mg/L, respectively, were observed. However, much lower Pu and colloid concentrations were observed at 25 and 80 °C. These data suggest that Pu concentrations above the drinking water Maximum Contaminant Levels (0.56 Bq/L) may exist during early hydrothermal conditions in the vicinity of underground nuclear tests. However, formation of colloid-associated Pu will tend to decrease with time as nuclear test cavity temperatures decrease. Furthermore, median colloid concentrations in NNSS groundwater (1.8 mg/L) suggest that the high colloid and Pu concentrations observed in our 140 and 200 °C experiments are unlikely to persist in downgradient NNSS groundwater. While our experiments did not span all groundwater and nuclear melt glass conditions that may be present at the NNSS, our results are consistent with the documented low Pu concentrations in NNSS groundwater.

Diversion of Controlled Drugs in Hospitals: A Scoping Review of Contributors and Safeguards

Drug losses and theft from the healthcare system are accelerating; hospitals are pressured to implement safeguards to prevent drug diversion. Thus far, no reviews summarize all known risks and potential safeguards for hospital diversion. Past incidents of hospital drug diversion have impacted patient and staff safety, increased hospital costs, and resulted in infectious disease outbreaks. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science databases and the gray literature for articles published between January 2005 and June 2018. Articles were included if they focused on hospital settings and discussed either: (1) drug security or accounting practices (any drug) or (2) medication errors, healthcare worker substance use disorder, or incident reports (only with reference to controlled drugs). We included 312 articles and extracted four categories of data: (1) article characteristics (eg, author location), (2) article focus (eg, clinical areas discussed), (3) contributors to diversion (eg, factors enabling drug theft), and (4) diversion safeguards. Literature reveals a large number of contributors to drug diversion in all stages of the medication-use process. All health professions and clinical units are at risk. This review provides insights into known methods of diversion and the safeguards hospitals must consider to prevent them. Careful configuration of healthcare technologies and processes in the hospital environment can reduce the opportunity for diversion. These system-based strategies broaden the response to diversion beyond that of individual accountability. Further evidence is urgently needed to address the vulnerabilities outlined in this review and prevent harm.

Australian Medical Professionals, National Security and Administrative Offshore Punishment of Asylum-Seekers: Regulatory Update Including the Medevac Legislation

This article updates how Australia's national security concerns have intersected with the regulation of Australian medical practitioners in the area of mandatory, indefinite, administrative offshore detention of asylum-seekers. It outlines relevant recent decisions of the High Court, including dissenting opinions that such detention represents unconstitutional extra-judicial punishment with a primary deterrence aim. It evaluates recent amendments to the Australian Border Force Act 2015 (Cth) as well as exploring recent relevant legislation and administrative, political and judicial decisions made in both Papua New Guinea and the Republic of Nauru. It considers the Medical Evacuation legislation and the Australian Government's attempts to challenge judicial authority to transfer people off Nauru for medical treatment. The article concludes with an analysis of prospects for further Australian asylum seeker and refugee policy and legislative reform more coherent with basic principles of medical ethics and international human rights.

Structured versus unstructured judgment: DUNDRUM-1 compared to court decisions

BACKGROUND

Criteria to determine in which level of security forensic patients should receive treatment are currently non-existent in Belgium. Courts largely rely on the evaluations of the prison psychiatrists and psychologists to form their decision. None of the few available instruments - e.g., the DUNDRUM-1 - is currently used to provide structured clinical judgment when determining security level.

METHOD

DUNDRUM-1 scores were collected for 150 forensic patients. Security levels according to DUNDRUM-1 assessment were compared to security levels as decided by the court.

RESULTS

There was little agreement between DUNDRUM-1 scores and proposals for secure care made by the court. The DUNDRUM-1 predicted eventual admission to a high security setting, but not a medium security setting.

CONCLUSION

The DUNDRUM-1 is an instrument that can help clinicians and judges to make more reliable and transparent decisions regarding secure care. However, further research with regard to practical applicability is needed.

Information Hazards in Biotechnology

With the advance of biotechnology, biological information, rather than biological materials, is increasingly the object of principal security concern. We argue that both in theory and in practice, existing security approaches in biology are poorly suited to manage hazardous biological information, and use the cases of Mousepox, H5N1 gain of function, and Botulinum toxin H to highlight these ongoing challenges. We suggest that mitigation of these hazards can be improved if one can: (1) anticipate hazard potential before scientific work is performed; (2) consider how much the new information would likely help both good and bad actors; and (3) aim to disclose information in the manner that maximally disadvantages bad actors versus good ones.

Predicting security incidents in high secure male psychiatric care

PURPOSE

The contribution of environmental and organisational factors in predicting security incidents within a high secure male psychiatric setting is considered using a series of connected studies; a systematic literature review comprising 41 studies and five inquiries (Study 1) to identify core themes of likely importance; application of these themes to incident data through assessment of the ward culture, as perceived by 73 male psychiatric patients and 157 staff (Study 2); and detailed examination of noted relevant factors in the form of interpersonal style, meaningful activity and physical environmental characteristics in a study comprising 62 patients and 151 staff (Study 3). It was predicted that security incidents would be identified through inclusion of environmental and organisational factors.

RESULTS

The systematic review demonstrated the importance of accounting for staff characteristics, patient interactions, physical environment and meaningful activity. The subsequent study noted the importance of only specific aspects of the social environment, with the final study demonstrating that incidents were associated with controlling interpersonal styles of staff, lower perceived fairness, and less involvement in off-ward activities. Perception of fair treatment and off-ward activities mediated the staff interpersonal style and security incident relationship.

CONCLUSIONS

The research proposes a preliminary framework - the McKenna Framework for understanding Incidents in Secure Settings (M-FISS) - to explain the occurrence of security incidents in secure psychiatric care.

Decision-making in livestock biosecurity practices amidst environmental and social uncertainty: Evidence from an experimental game

Livestock industries are vulnerable to disease threats, which can cost billions of dollars and have substantial negative social ramifications. Losses are mitigated through increased use of disease-related biosecurity practices, making increased biosecurity an industry goal. Currently, there is no industry-wide standard for sharing information about disease incidence or on-site biosecurity strategies, resulting in uncertainty regarding disease prevalence and biosecurity strategies employed by industry stakeholders. Using an experimental simulation game, with primarily student participants, we examined willingness to invest in biosecurity when confronted with disease outbreak scenarios. We varied the scenarios by changing the information provided about 1) disease incidence and 2) biosecurity strategy or response by production facilities to the threat of disease. Here we show that willingness to invest in biosecurity increases with increased information about disease incidence, but decreases with increased information about biosecurity practices used by nearby facilities. Thus, the type or context of the uncertainty confronting the decision maker may be a major factor influencing behavior. Our findings suggest that policies and practices that encourage greater sharing of disease incidence information should have the greatest benefit for protecting herd health.

High capacity reversible data hiding in MP3 based on Huffman table transformation

In practice, most audio files such as MP3 and AAC are stored and transmitted in the form of compressed files, which can serve as the cover in audio steganography. Currently, the prevailing audio steganography methods are not ideal because of the drawbacks. Some are characterized by low capacity while others are irreversible. In this paper, we propose a method to embed secret messages in MP3 encoding. Our strategy is to hide the information by Huffman table transformation. We extract secret information by analyzing side information. Experimental results show that our method can greatly improve the steganographic capacity with low distortion and high security. Meanwhile, it featured with higher decoding rate and reversible over some state-of-the-art methods.

Effects of Ticket-Checking Failure on Dynamics of Pedestrians at Multi-Exit Inspection Points with Various Layouts

It is of great significance to understand the dynamics and risk level of pedestrians at the multi-exit inspection points, since they are the bottlenecks of pedestrian flow leaving public places, such as subway and railway stations. Microscopic simulations were carried out with a cellular automata model to investigate the effects of ticket-checking failure on pedestrian dynamics when passing through the multi-exit inspection points with parallel, convex and concave layouts. It was found that although ticket-checking failure could reduce the passing efficiency, it also lowers the competitive level between pedestrians and enhances passing safety in the range of medium and high pedestrian density. The competitive level decreases when increasing the probability of ticket-checking failure and the corresponding delay. The probability of ticket-checking failure and the corresponding delay have equivalent effects on passing efficiency and safety, and can be integrated as average delay. A fitted equation was proposed for the dependence of passing efficiency and safety on average delay. With the existence of ticket-checking failure in reality, the concave layout of the multi-exit inspection points gives rise to a much lower competitive level compared with the parallel and convex ones, which would enhance the safety of pedestrians at the exits.

A Hazard Assessment Method for Waterworks Systems Operating in Self-Government Units

Informing users of waterworks systems about the quality of tap water is an obligatory trend. It should be accompanied by studies on the influence of the risk of threats on public health. Waterworks systems, being included in a critical infrastructure of the city, should be subject to special protection in this respect. In the paper, the authors' method of assessing threats to people and property from waterworks systems functioning in self-government units (SGUs), is proposed. Four categories of factors affecting the risk of threat to tap water consumers were assumed: the frequency or the probability of exposure-P, financial losses-C, damages to peoples' health-HL, the degree of the security-S. Based on this, a four-parametric risk matrix was developed. It was assumed that risk is a function of the parameters mentioned above: r = f(P, C, HL, S). For every parameter the five-parametric weight scale was assumed. An example of applying the method is presented. The proposed method should be an important element of water safety plans. It can also be adopted for other municipal systems subject to SGU.

Detecting Bombs in X-Ray Images of Hold Baggage: 2D Versus 3D Imaging

OBJECTIVE

This study compared the visual inspection performance of airport security officers (screeners) when screening hold baggage with state-of-the-art 3D versus older 2D imaging.

BACKGROUND

3D imaging based on computer tomography features better automated detection of explosives and higher baggage throughput than older 2D X-ray imaging technology. Nonetheless, some countries and airports hesitate to implement 3D systems due to their lower image quality and the concern that screeners will need extensive and specific training before they can be allowed to work with 3D imaging.

METHOD

Screeners working with 2D imaging (2D screeners) and screeners working with 3D imaging (3D screeners) conducted a simulated hold baggage screening task with both types of imaging. Differences in image quality of the imaging systems were assessed with the standard procedure for 2D imaging.

RESULTS

Despite lower image quality, screeners' detection performance with 3D imaging was similar to that with 2D imaging. 3D screeners revealed higher detection performance with both types of imaging than 2D screeners.

CONCLUSION

Features of 3D imaging systems (3D image rotation and slicing) seem to compensate for lower image quality. Visual inspection competency acquired with one type of imaging seems to transfer to visual inspection with the other type of imaging.

APPLICATION

Replacing older 2D with newer 3D imaging systems can be recommended. 2D screeners do not need extensive and specific training to achieve comparable detection performance with 3D imaging. Current image quality standards for 2D imaging need revision before they can be applied to 3D imaging.

Localization of Vehicle Back-Up Alarms by Users of Level-Dependent Hearing Protectors under Industrial Noise Conditions Generated at a Forge

The use of hearing protectors in various noisy workplaces is often necessary. For safety reasons, auditory information may be required to correctly localize the direction of an auditory danger signal. The purpose of this study was to verify if the selection of a specific level-dependent hearing protector may be important for the ability to localize a vehicle back-up alarm signal. The laboratory conditions reflected industrial conditions, under which an impulse noise was emitted against a background of continuous noise. A passive mode and a level-dependent mode (maximum and incomplete amplification) were considered. Four different models of level-dependent earmuffs and one model of level-dependent earplugs were included in the tests. The tests enabled differentiation between the individual hearing protectors. The use of earplugs in level-dependent mode did not significantly affect the ability to correctly localize the back-up alarm signal. For the earmuffs, the global assessment of the impact of a mode change revealed that, depending on the model of the earmuffs, the impact may be insignificant, but may also result in considerable impairment of the ability to localize the back-up alarm signal.

Does the Police-Monitored CCTV Scheme Really Matter on Crime Reduction? A Quasi-Experimental Test in Taiwan's Taipei City

Although numerous public closed-circuit television (CCTV) initiatives have been implemented at varying levels in Taiwan's cities and counties, systematic evaluations of these crime reduction efforts have been largely overlooked. To address this void, a quasi-experimental evaluation research project was designed to assess the effect of police-monitored CCTV on crime reduction in Taipei City for a period of 54 months, including data for both before and after camera installation dates. A total of 40 viewsheds within a 100-m (328 feet) radius were selected as research sites to observe variations in four types of crime incidents that became known to police during the January 2008 to June 2012 period. While crime incidents occurring in both the target and control sites were reduced in frequency after CCTV installation, results derived from time-series analysis indicated that the monitoring had no significant effect on the reduction of property crime incidents with the sole exception of robbery. With respect to the effects of comparing target and control sites, the average Crime Reduction Quotient (CRQ) was 0.36, suggesting that CCTV has an overall marginal yet noteworthy influence. Viewed broadly, however, the police-installed CCTV system in Taipei City did not appear to be as efficient as one would expect. Conversely, cameras installed in some observation sites proved to be significantly more effective than cameras in other sites. As a recommendation, future researchers should identify how particular micro-level attributes may lead to CCTV cameras working more effectively, thereby optimizing location choices where monitoring will prove to be most productive.

Limits on transfer learning from photographic image data to X-ray threat detection

BACKGROUND

X-ray imaging is a crucial and ubiquitous tool for detecting threats to transport security, but interpretation of the images presents a logistical bottleneck. Recent advances in Deep Learning image classification offer hope of improving throughput through automation. However, Deep Learning methods require large quantities of labelled training data. While photographic data is cheap and plentiful, comparable training sets are seldom available for the X-ray domain.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether and to what extent it is feasible to exploit the availability of photo data to supplement the training of X-ray threat detectors.

METHODS

A new dataset was collected, consisting of 1901 matched pairs of photo & X-ray images of 501 common objects. Of these, 258 pairs were of 69 objects considered threats in the context of aviation. This data was used to test a variety of transfer learning approaches. A simple model of threat cue availability was developed to understand the limits of this transferability.

RESULTS

Appearance features learned from photos provide a useful basis for training classifiers. Some transfer from the photo to the X-ray domain is possible as ∼40% of danger cues are shared between the modalities, but the effectiveness of this transfer is limited since ∼60% of cues are not.

CONCLUSIONS

Transfer learning is beneficial when X-ray data is very scarce-of the order of tens of training images in our experiments-but provides no significant benefit when hundreds or thousands of X-ray images are available.

Nuclear and Radiological Source Security Culture Assessment of Radioactive Material Users at a University

Securing radioactive sources has become increasingly important given the rising threat of radiological terrorism. While radiation safety has long been established in most applicable industries, the importance of nuclear and radiological source security has lagged behind in nonnuclear material specific industries, such as academic institutions and medical facilities. To evaluate the attitudes and behaviors regarding nuclear security culture, an assessment of nuclear and radiological material practices was developed and conducted on 73 radioactive material users at a university. The survey portion of the assessment was comprised of a series of questions segregated into four categories: policy, enforcement, leadership, and behavior. Nuclear security awareness questions formed a subset of the questionnaire. Users were classified by their radioactive material experience and work classification: student, faculty, or other staff. Of the users surveyed, 9% were also interviewed face-to-face to further expand on their views of nuclear security culture. Results of the assessment showed that students from the work classification group as well as the cohort of radioactive material users with 2-5 y of experience possessed a greater degree of awareness towards nuclear security compared to faculty and other more experienced radioactive material users. Relative to students and faculty, other staff from the work classification group faced some difficulty judging the enforcement of policies, adequacy of inspection, and job performance review related to nuclear security. The response from all three groups emphasized the need to enhance threat-response preparedness and greater communication among stakeholders.

Observations as a way to assess the compliance of veterinary students with biosecurity procedures

In veterinary medicine, biosecurity relies on the implementation and respect of procedures that reduce the risk of the introduction and spread of pathogens. The main objective of the study was to assess the usefulness of observations in estimating the compliance of veterinary students with biosecurity measures implemented in the necropsy room of a Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (n = 122 observations) and in a private slaughterhouse (n = 56 observations) in Belgium, during day sessions of practical work. Checklists compiling the biosecurity rules to apply in both contexts were established (31 rules were considered for the necropsy room and 35 for the slaughterhouse). Observations were performed by a single person to ensure standardisation. The level of compliance with biosecurity rules was intermediate and reached 42% vs. 37% for the necropsy room and the slaughterhouse, respectively. No significant difference was observed between these compliance rates. Increasing staff supervision of students and increasing awareness through education should be encouraged. The follow-up of observations through time could be used to assess the evolution of compliance with biosecurity measures.

Disasters, climate change, and securitisation: the United Nations Security Council and the United Kingdom's security policy

Since climate change was included on the United Nations Security Council's agenda in 2007, there has been much debate about whether or not it has been securitised. This paper starts from the premise that climate change has undergone a partial securitisation-that is, a gradual process wherein political choices are made to frame certain issues in particular ways. Climate change has been reframed from a purely developmental and environmental concern to one that impels foreign policy and security domains. This paper makes a novel contribution to disasters, climate change, and security studies by arguing that explicit and implicit links to natural hazard-related disasters have been employed as part of a gradual process of securitisation, or, more specifically, the partial securitisation of climate change. This is demonstrated by drawing on two cases: United Nations Security Council debates between 2007 and 2017; and the United Kingdom's security policy between 1997 and 2017.

Automation in visual inspection tasks: X-ray luggage screening supported by a system of direct, indirect or adaptable cueing with low and high system reliability

The present study evaluated three automation modes for improving performance in an X-ray luggage screening task. One hundred and forty participants were asked to detect the presence of prohibited items in X-ray images of cabin luggage. Twenty participants conducted this task without automatic support (control group), whereas the others worked with either indirect cues (system indicated the target presence without specifying its location), or direct cues (system pointed out the exact target location) or adaptable automation (participants could freely choose between no cue, direct and indirect cues). Furthermore, automatic support reliability was manipulated (low versus high). The results showed a clear advantage for direct cues regarding detection performance and response time. No benefits were observed for adaptable automation. Finally, high automation reliability led to better performance and higher operator trust. The findings overall confirmed that automatic support systems for luggage screening should be designed such that they provide direct, highly reliable cues.Practitioner summary: The present study confirmed previous findings showing better detection performance in X-ray images of luggage when supported by automation providing direct, highly reliable cues. Furthermore, participants used adaptable automation only to select their preferred level of automation. This behaviour did not provide the benefits expected under adaptable automation.

Automation in airport security X-ray screening of cabin baggage: Examining benefits and possible implementations of automated explosives detection

Bomb attacks on civil aviation make detecting improvised explosive devices and explosive material in passenger baggage a major concern. In the last few years, explosive detection systems for cabin baggage screening (EDSCB) have become available. Although used by a number of airports, most countries have not yet implemented these systems on a wide scale. We investigated the benefits of EDSCB with two different levels of automation currently being discussed by regulators and airport operators: automation as a diagnostic aid with an on-screen alarm resolution by the airport security officer (screener) or EDSCB with an automated decision by the machine. The two experiments reported here tested and compared both scenarios and a condition without automation as baseline. Participants were screeners at two international airports who differed in both years of work experience and familiarity with automation aids. Results showed that experienced screeners were good at detecting improvised explosive devices even without EDSCB. EDSCB increased only their detection of bare explosives. In contrast, screeners with less experience (tenure < 1 year) benefitted substantially from EDSCB in detecting both improvised explosive devices and bare explosives. A comparison of all three conditions showed that automated decision provided better human-machine detection performance than on-screen alarm resolution and no automation. This came at the cost of slightly higher false alarm rates on the human-machine system level, which would still be acceptable from an operational point of view. Results indicate that a wide-scale implementation of EDSCB would increase the detection of explosives in passenger bags and automated decision instead of automation as diagnostic aid with on screen alarm resolution should be considered.

Control or rescue at sea? Aims and limits of border surveillance technologies in the Mediterranean Sea

The matter of boat migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea, seeking to reach Europe, is interchangeably defined as a 'security issue', requiring stricter border controls, and as a humanitarian issue with corresponding rescue and protection requirements. This paper seeks to understand what role various surveillance technologies, such as radar, satellites, and unmanned aerial vehicles, can play in this respect (legally and technically), in comparison to the role that they are assigned (that is, political expectations). To unravel what surveillance technologies can and cannot do vis-à-vis the aims of control and rescue, there is a need to comprehend what information can be collected and what information is needed to fulfil these objectives. The paper contends that there is a mismatch between the information sought to 'control' borders, but which cannot be gathered effectively by or processed using surveillance technologies, and the valuable information needed to perform rescue operations, which these surveillance technologies can supply.

Engaging scientists and veterinarians in strengthening biosecurity systems

The engagement of both scientists and veterinarians in strengthening biosecurity systems is of paramount importance to ensure resilience and sustainability. Such commitment from scientists and veterinarians begins during their university education, is nurtured by the examples set by their mentors, and continues into their careers through professional development and the wisdom gained from experience. Resilient and sustainable biosecurity systems also require an organisational culture that encourages, recognises and rewards scientists and veterinarians who are committed to biosecurity education, research, outreach and preparedness. At present, such involvement is complicated by the range of definitions of biosecurity used in the life sciences and veterinary medicine, and by the various international organisations with biosecurity responsibilities. Biosecurity represents both a public and a private good. However, the priority given to biosecurity education, research, outreach and implementation differs widely among the public, private and academic sectors. The public sector has the broadest engagement and the broadest mandate for biosecurity. The private sector's approach to biosecurity is governed by business decisions and whether or not they produce consumer goods. In the academic sector, although biosecurity education is gaining increased attention in universities, there are disincentives to research in this field. Strategies for encouraging greater involvement from scientists and veterinarians include agreeing on an inclusive definition of biosecurity, developing teaching materials and experiential learning approaches for use in undergraduate curricula and postgraduate professional development, train-the-trainer programmes, increased involvement of government scientists and veterinarians in university education and professional development, and the fostering of public-private-academic partnerships around shared interests in biosecurity education, research, outreach and implementation.