Safeguards System Research Articles

Two hundred and fifty years since the publication of On Crimes and Punishments: The currency of Cesare Beccaria’s thought

This essay highlights three aspects of the extraordinarily current relevance of Cesare Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments in the 250th year since its publication. The first aspect concerns criminal law, which Beccaria founded anew as a system of individual safeguards against the arbitrariness and excess of punishment – a normative model still largely to be realized today. The second aspect consists in the constituent character of Beccaria’s thought. Together with other Enlightenment thinkers, he paved the way for the political doctrine of limited public powers – the doctrine that would usher in, well beyond the boundaries of criminal law, the contemporary and still largely unaccomplished constitutionalism of legal safeguards and fundamental human rights. The third aspect of Beccaria’s relevance consists in the critical and propositional role he assigned to philosophical reflection vis-à-vis positive law, on the ground of its axiological foundations and a militant defence of the values inherent in the legal artifice.

Double-strand break repair-adox: Restoration of suppressed double-strand break repair during mitosis induces genomic instability.

Double-strand breaks (DSBs) are one of the severest types of DNA damage. Unrepaired DSBs easily induce cell death and chromosome aberrations. To maintain genomic stability, cells have checkpoint and DSB repair systems to respond to DNA damage throughout most of the cell cycle. The failure of this process often results in apoptosis or genomic instability, such as aneuploidy, deletion, or translocation. Therefore, DSB repair is essential for maintenance of genomic stability. During mitosis, however, cells seem to suppress the DNA damage response and proceed to the next G1 phase, even if there are unrepaired DSBs. The biological significance of this suppression is not known. In this review, we summarize recent studies of mitotic DSB repair and discuss the mechanisms of suppression of DSB repair during mitosis. DSB repair, which maintains genomic integrity in other phases of the cell cycle, is rather toxic to cells during mitosis, often resulting in chromosome missegregation and aberration. Cells have multiple safeguards to prevent genomic instability during mitosis: inhibition of 53BP1 or BRCA1 localization to DSB sites, which is important to promote non-homologous end joining or homologous recombination, respectively, and also modulation of the non-homologous end joining core complex to inhibit DSB repair. We discuss how DSBs during mitosis are toxic and the multiple safeguard systems that suppress genomic instability.

Multi-Level Policy Dialogues, Processes, and Actions: Challenges and Opportunities for National REDD+ Safeguards Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV)

REDD+ social safeguards have gained increasing attention in numerous forums. This paper reviews the evolution of multi-level policy dialogues, processes, and actions related to REDD+ social safeguards (e.g., Cancun Safeguards 1–5) among policy makers, civil society organizations, and within the media in Brazil, Indonesia and Tanzania, three countries with well advanced REDD+ programs. We find that progress on core aspects of social safeguards is uneven across the three countries. Brazil is by far the most advanced having drafted a REDD+ social safeguards policy. Both Brazil and Indonesia have benefited from progress made by strong sub-national entities in the operationalization of REDD+ safeguards including free prior and informed consent (FPIC), participation, and benefit sharing. Tanzania has weakly articulated how social safeguards will be operationalized and has a more top-down approach. We conclude that in all three countries, measuring, reporting and verifying progress on social safeguards is likely to be a complex issue. Stakeholders with vested interests in REDD+ social safeguards operate in polycentric rather than nested systems, suggesting that aggregation of information from local to national-scale will be a challenge. However, polycentric systems are also likely to support more transparent and comprehensive safeguards systems. Clear direction from the international community and financing for REDD+ safeguard MRV is essential if REDD+ social safeguards are to be meaningfully integrated into forest-based climate mitigation strategies.

Safeguard System on the Quality of Excellent Engineers Training

Based on literature research, this study proposed a topic on the safeguard system of quality of excellent engineers training. Four safeguard elements of training quality are elaborated, namely, faculty building (premise), collaboration with enterprises (key point), governmental support (guarantee) and the participation of students (basis). Likewise, basic knowledge structure, engineering capability training and engineering accomplishment cultivation are safeguard elements of training quality. Meanwhile, the construction of collaboration, control of practice, improvement of safeguard mechanism and the fulfillment of participating members are safeguard conditions of training quality. It is concluded that Excellence Program can be achieved and effective by constructing the safeguard system of training quality and serious process control.

Fine-Grained Localization for Multiple Transceiver-Free Objects by using RF-Based Technologies

In traditional radio-based localization methods, the target object has to carry a transmitter (e.g., active RFID), a receiver (e.g., 802.11 × detector), or a transceiver (e.g., sensor node). However, in some applications, such as safe guard systems, it is not possible to meet this precondition. In this paper, we propose a model of signal dynamics to allow the tracking of a transceiver-free object. Based on radio signal strength indicator (RSSI), which is readily available in wireless communication, three centralized tracking algorithms, and one distributed tracking algorithm are proposed to eliminate noise behaviors and improve accuracy. The midpoint and intersection algorithms can be applied to track a single object without calibration, while the best-cover algorithm has higher tracking accuracy but requires calibration. The probabilistic cover algorithm is based on distributed dynamic clustering. It can dramatically improve the localization accuracy when multiple objects are present. Our experimental test-bed is a grid sensor array based on MICA2 sensor nodes. The experimental results show that the localization accuracy for single object can reach about 0.8 m and for multiple objects is about 1 m.

Protecting the mobile enterprise

Corporate smartphones, which process tasks previously done on secured PCs, now require the same protection against snooping and malware - and security providers are lining up to provide intermediate safeguard systems.

Toward Gene and Cell Therapies Employing Human Artificial Chromosomes in Conjunction with Stem Cells

Various Stem cells including induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are expected to contribute to the development of regenerative medicines. Human artificial chromosome (HAC) vectors have no limits with respect to the size of inserts, and are independently maintained from host chromosomes. HACs could be promising vectors that will contribute to gene and cell therapy in the future. Various applications and methods have been developed using HAC vectors; however, in this review we introduce current research focused towards gene and cell therapy of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and hemophilia A using stem cells. In addition, HAC vectors to generate iPSCs, with a safeguard system to eliminate tumorigenic cells are proposed.

Brasil – Argentina e o Sistema Regional de Salvaguardas Nucleares / Argentina and the Nuclear Safeguards Regional System

In 2011, the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC), created to administer the Common System of Accounting and Control of Nuclear Material (CSAC) has completed twenty years of existence. ABACC and the Quadripartite Agreement established with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are a special system of safeguards that presents itself as an important example of regional contribution to global nuclear proliferation. The paper presents some considerations about the process of understanding between Brazil and Argentina that resulted in the creation of ABACC, indicates succinctly some theoretical explanations of international relations for this process and, from some features of the Agency, relates how the ABACC experience could support nuclear weapons free zones. Keywords: Brazil; Argentine; ABACC. Received on September 1, 2013 / Accepted on September 18, 2013.

The Importance of Safeguards Culture

International safeguards is the system of measures put in place by the International Atomic Energy Agency and states to ensure nuclear programs remain dedicated to peaceful purposes. This international safeguards system consists of agreements, inspections, and evaluations that have never considered the safeguards culture of a state or facility. Neither a common definition nor an understanding of safeguards culture is internationally recognized. This article provides an analysis of the concept of safeguards culture and gauges its value to the international safeguards community. The authors explore distinctions among safeguards culture, safeguards compliance, and safeguards performance, and suggest possible indicators of safeguards culture and methods to promote a strong, positive safeguards culture.

Strategic Path for Developing China’s Low-Carbon Energy

Low-carbon economy influences all aspects of a country. Therefore, every country must faces up to low-carbon economy actively, not excepting China. It is universally acknowledged that low-carbon economy is based on the perfect energy system. However, in general, China’s energy situation is now facing a grim situation. On the base of energy situation analysis, this paper considers that the perfect energy system is the foundation of China’s low-carbon economy, energy conservation and energy efficiency improvement are the most effective ways to develop low-carbon economy in China, development and application of new and renewable energies is the key of optimizing energy structure and raising energy reserves, furthermore proposes the safeguard system and incentive mechanisms of new energy industries. Finally, this paper constructs a systematic framework of China’s renewable energy development. Only by speeding up these steps consistently can renewable energy be successful in China.

Compliance with Treaties in the Context of Nuclear Non-proliferation: Assessing Claims in the Case of Iran

The controversy over the Iranian nuclear programme is probably one of most sensitive contemporary instances of a situation involving legal issues related to compliance and enforcement of non-proliferation treaty obligations. The allegations put forward against Iran in this context are rarely formulated or substantiated in legal terms, nor grounded in a clearly identifiable legal basis or framework. This article aims at the identification of the specific international obligations that Iran would have breached or failed to comply with, whether contained in the NPT or in other non-proliferation agreements, and at the evaluation of the criteria or standards under which the occurrence of a failure or a breach of treaty commitments by Iran is to be assessed. It begins with an overview of the instruments comprising the safeguards system established pursuant to the NPT and monitored by the IAEA, then provides an account of the treatment by the IAEA of the Iranian nuclear program since 2002, which led the IAEA to declare that Iran was in non-compliance with its safeguards agreement, before assessing the IAEA’s findings, in light of relevant rules pertaining to both general international law and the NPT/IAEA legal framework for nuclear safeguards as lex specialis.

RASS: A Real-Time, Accurate, and Scalable System for Tracking Transceiver-Free Objects

Transceiver-free object tracking is to trace a moving object that does not carry any communication device in an environment with some monitoring nodes predeployed. Among all the tracking technologies, RF-based technology is an emerging research field facing many challenges. Although we proposed the original idea, until now there is no method achieving scalability without sacrificing latency and accuracy. In this paper, we put forward a real-time tracking system RASS, which can achieve this goal and is promising in the applications like the safeguard system. Our basic idea is to divide the tracking field into different areas, with adjacent areas using different communication channels. So, the interference among different areas can be prevented. For each area, three communicating nodes are deployed on the ceiling as a regular triangle to monitor this area. In each triangle area, we use a Support Vector Regression (SVR) model to locate the object. This model simulates the relationship between the signal dynamics caused by the object and the object position. It not only considers the ideal case of signal dynamics caused by the object, but also utilizes their irregular information. As a result, it can reach the tracking accuracy to around 1 m by just using three nodes in a triangle area with 4 m in each side. The experiments show that the tracking latency of the proposed RASS system is bounded by only about 0.26 m. Our system scales well to a large deployment field without sacrificing the latency and accuracy.

The Campaign Finance Safeguards of Federalism

This article provides the first systematic account of the relationship between campaign finance and federalism. Federalism — a fundamental characteristic of the constitutional structure — depends for its stability on political mechanisms. States and their advocates and representatives in Congress, federal agencies, political parties, intergovernmental lobbying groups, and other political forums work together to check federal interference with state governments. Entire normative theories of federalism depend on the assumption that this system of political safeguards is working effectively in the background. But the federalism and constitutional theory literatures lack a rigorous account of the effects of dramatic political change on pro-federalism political dynamics. Building that account is particularly timely now. Political safeguards work only if states retain significant political influence. But, as recent elections vividly demonstrate, Citizens United has created a new class of political operators — of which Super PACs are emblematic — whose potential political influence may be limitless. This article’s thesis is that Super PACs have the capacity to undermine all conventional political safeguards of federalism, pushing states far enough down the hierarchy of political influence to dramatically reshape the our system of government. This highlights the underappreciated extent to which Citizens United may have long-term structural consequences other than its effects on democratic representation. These developments have significant normative implications for federalism theory — at a minimum, they require reexamining the common assumption, central to numerous normative claims, that national political process is a durable channel for state self-defense. They also suggest new normative claims concerning campaign finance doctrine. If sustaining federalism is a compelling governmental interest, then federalism problems may justify new campaign spending restrictions despite the First Amendment and the reasoning of Citizens United, which otherwise appear to preclude further reforms.

Revisiting Statistical Aspects of Nuclear Material Accounting

Nuclear material accounting (NMA) is the only safeguards system whose benefits are routinely quantified. Process monitoring (PM) is another safeguards system that is increasingly used, and one challenge is how to quantify its benefit. This paper considers PM in the role of enabling frequent NMA, which is referred to as near-real-time accounting (NRTA). We quantify NRTA benefits using period-driven and data-driven testing. Period-driven testing makes a decision to alarm or not at fixed periods. Data-driven testing decides as the data arrives whether to alarm or continue testing. The difference between period-driven and datad-riven viewpoints is illustrated by using one-year and two-year periods. For both one-year and two-year periods, period-driven NMA using once-per-year cumulative material unaccounted for (CUMUF) testing is compared to more frequent Shewhart and joint sequential cusum testing using either MUF or standardized, independently transformed MUF (SITMUF) data. We show that the data-driven viewpoint is appropriate for NRTA and that it can be used to compare safeguards effectiveness. In addition to providing period-driven and data-driven viewpoints, new features include assessing the impact of uncertainty in the estimated covariance matrix of the MUF sequence and the impact of both random and systematic measurement errors.

Safeguard System of Henggang Depot and Cover Property of Shenzhen Metro

In recent years, urban rail transit construction asks for the safety of project with strict requests, because of its difficulty, high risk and complexity characteristics. Henggang metro depot possess double using garage , DC1500 contact rail system, and cover property on the top of the garage, thus it will face greater challenge in safety management. According to above characteristics, this research puts forward the system security goals, principles, and establishes a set of safeguard system, which includes three aspects: the legal laws and regulations, the organization construction, and the technical method. The safeguard system will play an important and guiding role in government standard formation and metro-property development mode promotion in other cities.

Prospects for the introduction of wide area monitoring using environmental sampling for proliferation detection

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is committed to strengthening and streamlining the overall effectiveness of the IAEA safeguards system within the context of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The IAEA has investigated the use of environmental monitoring techniques and a variety of techniques were studied as part of extensive field trials. The efficacy of long-range monitoring depends on the availability of mobile signature isotopes or compounds and on the ability to distinguish the nuclear signatures from background signals and attribute them to a source. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) also requires a variety of environmental sampling and analysis techniques. This paper serves as a scientific basis to start discussions of environmental sampling techniques that could be considered for wide-area monitoring for the detection of undeclared nuclear activities within the NPT or for the possible future use within the CTBT.

Legalizing Therapeutic Homicide and Assisted Suicide: A Tour of Carter V. Canada

The trajectory of the trial was determined by the unchallenged fundamental premise that suicide can be a rational and moral act, and that the sole purpose of the law against assisted suicide is to prevent suicides by vulnerable people in moments of weakness, who might be tempted to commit suicide that is not rational and moral. The only issue was whether or not safeguards could be designed to permit legitimate access to assisted suicide, while preventing the vulnerable from accessing it in moments of weakness. It was not thought reasonable to demand that a system of safeguards be 100% effective. A different standard was required. The standard chosen was the current regime of end-of-life practices, since the outcome of a mistake in this regime (‘death before one’s time’) is the same as the outcome of a mistake in regulating assisted suicide. Patient safety in end-of-life care is currently ensured by the principle of informed consent, assessment of patient competence, and the use of legal substitute decision-makers for incompetent patients. Since these measures are considered sufficient for the purposes of withholding, withdrawing or refusing treatment, it was decided that they should be sufficient for the regulation of assisted suicide for competent adults. The burden of proof was on the defendant governments to prove that this could not be done. The text of the ruling indicates that they provided evidence of risk, but failed to prove that safeguards cannot be effective. Madam Justice Smith does not rely on any part of the ethical discussion in Part VII of the ruling in reaching her conclusion about the constitutional validity of the law against assisted suicide. The discussion of ethics in Part VII is a judicial soliloquy that is likely to capture the attention of readers, but it is likely to distract them from the pith and core of the judgement and contribute to rather than minimize confusion and controversy. In legal argument, keeping prudent silence about morality, philosophy or religion does not produce a morally neutral judicial forum. It simply allows dominant moral or philosophical beliefs to set the parameters for argument and adjudication. However, in the case of conscientious objection to participation in assisted suicide or therapeutic homicide, an appeal to freedom of conscience or religion must make direct reference to the beliefs of the objector about the moral nature of the act to which he objects.

Using layer of protection analysis to understand necessary safeguards for steam boiler operation

Most chemical process plants, petrochemical facilities, and electrical power utilities rely on steam boilers to provide motive power, electricity, and process steam for operations. Safe operation, startup, and shutdown of these boilers require many levels of operational/controls safeguards. The design and selection of safeguards is often guided by the original design of the boiler, equipment manufacturers, internal company standards, and recognized authoritative standards. In the United States, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has promulgated NFPA 85 Boiler and Combustion Systems Hazards Code. This prescriptive code identifies necessary safeguards along with “listing” and “labeling” requirements for some components used as safeguards; however, the Safety Integrity Levels for the multiple safeguard systems have not been quantified. In this article, we use Layer of Protection Analysis methods along with generally accepted probabilities and frequencies of failures to provide a quantitative framework for an owner, operator, or manufacturer to use in designing or evaluating the multiple safeguards necessary for safe steam boiler operation. As part of the analysis, we have provided case studies of boiler failures with a discussion of how additional layers of protection may be either ineffective or missing. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 2012

Open Source Information Acquisition and Analysis in the International Atomic Energy Agency Department of Safeguards

Acquisition and analysis of open source information plays an increasingly important role in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards system. The Agency’s focal point for open source information collection and analysis is the Division of Information Management (SGIM) within the IAEA’s Department of Safeguards. In parallel, with the approval of the Model Additional Protocol in 1997, a new center of information acquisition and analysis expertise was created within SGIM. By acquiring software, developing databases, retraining existing staff, and hiring new staff with diverse analytical skills, SGIM, in collaboration with other Divisions within the Department of Safeguards, is proactively contributing to the future implementation of safeguards that are fully information driven. Open source information support is now integrated with core safeguards processes and activities, and has become an effective tool in the work of the Department of Safeguards.This paper provides an overview of progress realized through the acquisition and use of open source information in several thematic areas: evaluation of additional protocol declarations; support to the state evaluation process; in-depth investigation of safeguards issues, including assisting inspections and complementary access; research on illicit nuclear procurement networks and trafficking; and monitoring nuclear developments.Demands for open source information have steadily grown and will likely continue to grow in the future. Coupled with the enormous growth and accessibility in the volume and sources of information, new challenges are presented, both technical and analytical. This paper discusses actions taken and future plans for multisource and multidisciplinary analytic integration to strengthen confidence in safeguards conclusions, especially regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material or activities.

Safeguardability analysis for an engineering scale pyroprocess facility

A qualitative safeguardability analysis was undertaken to investigate the safeguards system and draw recommendations for enhancing the performance of the safeguards system for an engineering-scale pyroprocess model facility. The analysis utilized INPRO proliferation resistance (PR) assessment methodologies including diversion pathway analysis. Uranium and transuranic metal (U/TRU) products emit high neutrons and gamma-rays, which are strong enough to be detected by the passive non-destructive assay (NDA) measurements and the hot-cells can role as inherently robust containments. Even though the product materials could be attractive, the abrupt diversion of U/TRU ingots through the selected pathway from the model facility will be reasonably difficult and detectable by applying the appropriate safeguards measures. For the design features to support safeguards implementation of the facility, more effective utilization of the inherent containment and enhancement of portal monitoring as well as focusing on the accounting material flow into and out of the system will make it possible to satisfy the safeguards goal.