Frontiers of Engineering Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2003 NAE Symposium on Frontiers of Engineering (2004) / Chapter Skim
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Counterterrorism Technologies and Infrastructure Protection
Counterterrorism Technologies and Infrastructure Protection
Pages 75-102
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From page 77... ...
. Enzyme concentrations in the micromolar range are sufficient to degrade nerve agents on contact, and just 10 milligrams of enzyme can degrade as much nerve agent as 1 kilogram of concentrated bleach (a conventional method of degrading nerve agent)
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From page 78... ...
Many species produce enzymes that efficiently degrade nerve agents, although the natural function of these enzymes remains unknown. The class of OP compounds has only been exposed to nature for a few decades, certainly not long enough for natural systems to have evolved enzymes to degrade them.
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From page 79... ...
Synthesis of enzyme-containing polymers involves the covalent immobilization of the enzyme directly into the polymer network via reactive functionalities on the enzyme surface, thus ensuring retention of the enzyme in the polymeric material. Bioplastics prepared in this way exhibit remarkable stability under normally deactivating conditions and, thus, are ideal for the development of the next generation of responsive, smart biomaterials.
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From page 80... ...
The most common kit available today for agent detection, the M256A1, uses enzymes and colored substrates to detect nerve agents. Unfortunately, current continuous enzyme-based sensing is limited by the instability of most enzymes and their sensitivity to changes in the environment.
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Because changes in pH affect the ionization state of amino-acid residues in a protein's structure, every enzyme has an optimal pH at which its catalytic activity is greatest (Figure 1~. As the pH deviates from the optimal level, enzyme activity decreases.
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From page 82... ...
. When both enzymes are present, the pH instantaneously stabilizes at the intersection point, which we call the pH "set point." safe, and environmentally benign method of decontaminating nerve agents, several major hurdles still hinder their use.
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From page 83... ...
Our laboratory has successfully demonstrated using biocatalytic, dynam~c-reaction, equilibrium sensing for the complete decontamination of paraoxon by OPH, using urease-catalyzed urea as a buffering agent (Russell et al., 2002~. Such defense systems present a significant advancement in chemical weapons defense, giving military personnel and emergency response teams the ability to achieve complete decontamination using minimal amounts of buffering matenal.
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From page 84... ...
2002. Catalytic buffers enable positive-response inhibition-based sensing of nerve agents.
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From page 85... ...
However, the full spectrum of potential consequences goes far beyond medical casualties. A well planned biological terrorist attack would strain the public health surveillance systems; it would require that responders make quick, accurate disease identifications and medical diagnoses.
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From page 86... ...
Civilian participants represent functional specialties, including emergency management, law enforcement, firefighting, emergency medical services, the handling and control of hazardous materials, and public health. From its inception, BWIRP maintained an analytical focus on the real-world needs of emergency response professionals.
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From page 87... ...
provided a starting point for cities and states preparing local emergency response plans for bioterrorism. Public health surveillance, the first component of the template, should operate continuously to improve the chances for the quick detection of unusual medical events in the local population.
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From page 88... ...
Cause and population at risk Prophylaxis, treatment, isolation Appropriate emergency response Control of affected area & population Family support services the extreme, even global, mobility of the population, the exchange and coordination of information on the state and federal levels will most likely be necessary to support local planning for mass prophylaxis. Depending on the biological agent, an assessment of residual hazards may be necessary to evaluate risks and mitigation measures to protect the population from further exposure to environmental hazards.
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From page 89... ...
The panel found that the response template, with certain modifications, provides a practical strategy for minimizing the consequences of a bioterrorist attack with a contagious agent. The modifications include: adding contact-tracing to the epidemiological investigation; implementing personal protective measures for criminal investigators; establishing community outreach teams to implement mass immunizations at private homes rather than bringing potentially contagious persons together at public facilities; limiting public gatherings and mass transportation; implementing geographic isolation/quarantining; and establishing more stringent requirements for handling, burying, and disposing of fatalities.
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Department of Agnculture. Indeed, engineers worked side by side with state and local representatives in functional specialties from law enforcement, hazardous spill management, firefighting, and emergency medical services.
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From page 91... ...
1999. I-~ving Lock Ad Stan Agency Response to Tamest Rodents Involving B1~1ogic~ Weapons: team Planing Guide.
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From page 93... ...
Viruses infect PC clients, worms attack network servers, and the Internet dutifully delivers denial-ofservice attack packets to the edges. (For the security concerns of edge hosts, see Wagner, 2003.)
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From page 94... ...
Many companies provide a few firewalls as gateways between the corporate intranet and the Internet, equipped with the rules and filters to enforce the company's security policies. The Internet security expertise, which is scarce and expensive, is situated at a few centralized choke points.
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From page 95... ...
Unauthorized connections that pierce the corporate perimeter may come from business partners, misconfigured gateways, or newly acquired companies. Even if unauthorized connections have been installed for good business reasons, the reason, and the person who understood the reason, may be long gone by the time a problem is identified.
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From page 96... ...
But we are running uncomfortably close to one design limit of IP version 4, the technical description of the Internet and intranets, and their basic protocols. We have only about three billion network addresses to assign to edge hosts, and about half of them are currently accessible on the Internet, and more have been assigned.
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From page 97... ...
Often commercial web services have to connect to sensitive corporate networks (think of FedEx and its shipping database or a server for online banking.) These web sites must be engineered with great care to balance connectivity and security.
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From page 98... ...
. When a network connects or disconnects from the Internet, an announcement is sent toward the core routers; dozens of these routing announcements are generated every minute.
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From page 99... ...
Although routers' operating systems tend to be less well known and not as well understood as those of edge hosts, they have similar weaknesses. Cisco Systems produces most of the Internet routers, and common failures in their software can subject those routers to attack.
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From page 100... ...
One can put up an illegal web server, and traffic to the server can be laundered through random corrupted hosts on the Internet, making the actual location of the server quite difficult to find. CONCLUSION Most hypothesized Internet security problems on the Internet have eventually appeared in practice.
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From page 101... ...
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