Agroterrorism: Threats and Preparedness
The potential of terrorist attacks against agricultural targets (agroterrorism) is increasingly recognized as a national security threat, especially after the events of September 11, 2001. This report focuses primarily on biological weapons (rather than chemical weapons) because biological weapons generally are considered the more potent agroterrorism threat. This report also focuses more on the threat of agroterrorism against agricultural production, rather than on food processing and distribution, although the latter is discussed.
Agroterrorism: Issues of Reality
In the past, deliberate contamination of foods to the U.S. has been committed by badividual criminals, disgruntled employees, or political activists with a narrow agenda. After September 11, 2001, every nation has had to consider a much wider range of food security issues. Food is a global commodity and nearly every country both exports and imports foods. Every nation must consider the security of its domestic production and look beyond its borders to its trading partners to assure the safety of its food supply. In the nearly 2 years since September 11, 2001, many steps have been taken to improve food security. New legislation has been enacted to strengthen the ability of government to respond to terrorist thrests. New relationships have been forged between food security agencies, law enforcement, and the intelligence community. Virtually every segment of the domestic and imported food supply has come under scrutiny in an effort to identify points of wenkness and appropriate protective measures. Gaps in our knowledge about specific agents and food processes have been identified and research to fill these gaps has been initiated. This effort will continue for the foreseeable future and could have a wide range of benefits, including imporvements to food safety, a reduction in product counterfeiting, and a reduction in the gray market food trade. The scale and diversity of the U.S. food supply makes it an attractive target, but at the same time makes it very resilient and responsive to emerging threats.
A Review on Simulated Micro-Gravity Experiment Systems of Space Robot
The characteristics of the simulated micro-gravity experiment system (SMGES) are introduced and the key problems are summarized.Six main realization methods for SMGES are introduced,including the experiment systems based on free falling objects,parabolic flight,air-bearing table,neutral buoyancy,suspension system and hardware-in-loop (HIL) simulator.The application scopes,advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed and compared.Then we propose two realization concepts based on dynamic emulation and kinematic equivalence,and set up an experiment system to test and evaluate the key algorithms for path planning and control of space robot.