bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Empirical Study on the Terrorists' Target Selection: The Turkish Case
Authors: Sahin Bahadir  , Ekici Niyazi
Published: February 2025

Employing a quantitative technique on a large sample size (N=4996), this study aimed to understand spatial and temporal distribution of terrorist incidents in Istanbul, Turkey by a specific focus on targets. Rational choice, crime pattern, social disorganization, and routine activity theories covered the theoretical background. A number of determinants of terrorist incidents were tested on terrorists' target selection. Week days, type of offences, and type of terrorist organizations were found to have an important impact on target selection. Some terrorist groups, several types of offences and weekend days were found to be determinative on specific targets. Theories that were used to examine the relationship between target selection and other variables were statistically supported. In this regard, current study not only made an invaluable contribution to discussed theories in general, but also offered some practical solutions for law enforcement and public administration agencies.
A Spatio-Temporal Crime Prediction Model for Crime Prevention
Authors: Düzgün H. Sebnem  , Polat Esra
Published: February 2025

Development of effective crime prevention strategies requires understanding of the spatial/spatio-temporal occurrences of crime events and then predicting the number, place and time of crime events. In this respect, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) provide efficient tools for analyzing the spatial and spatio-temporal crime events. Similarly developing prediction models for criminal and terrorist activities can directly support crime prevention and counter-terrorism planning, respectively. This study presents a spatio-temporal crime prediction model generated by using time series forecasting with a simple spatial disaggregation approach in GIS. The proposed model is implemented for Bahcelievler and Cankaya Merkez Police Precincts' 2003 crime data obtained from Ankara Police Directorate. Although the proposed crime prediction model is developed for urban crimes, it can be adapted for terrorist activities by using appropriate scales in space and time.
The Relationship Between Childhood Adversity and Physical and Mental Health Problems in the Military: An Overview
Authors: Henriksen Christine A.  , Bolton Shay-Lee  , Afifi Tracie O.  , Stein Murray B.  , Asmundson Gordon J. G.  , Sareen Jitender
Published: February 2025

Childhood adversity is a common occurrence associated with poor physical and mental health outcomes in adulthood. Population-based studies have found exposure to childhood adversity increases the likelihood of adult chronic health conditions, mental disorders, and suicide behavior, with exposure to an increasing number of adversities resulting in a greater likelihood of these outcomes. Preliminary evidence indicates that military personnel may be at a higher likelihood of experiencing adversity, and as such, it is necessary to fully examine the effects of these events among these individuals. Initial research in this area has found an association between childhood adversity and poor physical and mental health outcomes. However, the extant literature is limited by only examining a few types of adversity, investigating a limited number of physical and mental health outcomes, and not examining males and females separately. Moreover, there is still debate over the combined effect of childhood adversity and combat exposure on adult physical and mental health outcomes. Future research will be needed to further investigate these relationships in this unique population.
Behind Pain: Genetics
Authors: Videtič Paska Alja
Published: February 2025

An extensive number of different studies, from animal models to clinical and family studies, support the important role of genetic background and epigenetic factors, besides the effects of environmental milieu, on the variability of pain response. So far, precise mechanisms of pain perception and transmission in the central nervous system have not been fully understood. However, comprehensive data imply that a disinhibition and imbalance of the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine might play key roles. Both neurotransmitters have complex pathways, comprised of numerous receptors, autoreceptors, transporters and enzymes. Recently, it has been shown that clinically relevant inter-individual differences in pain perception and regulation are influenced by a tri-allelic polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene. In the central nervous system there is another important group of proteins, neurotrophins, which regulate cell growth and survival, differentiation, apoptosis, and cytoskeleton restructuring. The dysregulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factors has been found in individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, with chronic pain as one of the common clinical features. Genomics has a promising potential to contribute to advances in the elucidation of pain mechanisms and control. With modern laboratory techniques that enable the identification of candidate genes by linkage mapping, whole-genome association, and single gene association studies, genes responsible for different pain disorders could be isolated in the near future. Knowledge of these genetic factors could further support another important issue – personalized medicine – that could improve the efficacy of pain management and lower adverse event profiles.
National Implementation Measures
Authors: Spector Leonard  , Wieland Beat
Published: February 2025

This chapter is divided into two sections: the implementation of more effective punishments for smugglers of nuclear materials and the sharing of sensitive nuclear security information to the public. In the first section Leonard Spector focuses on enhancing penalties for both state and non-state smugglers of nuclear materials. Spector presents three general categories of nuclear smuggling and provides recent examples, challenges to punishment, and suggested mitigation strategies for each. The first category is fissile material and nuclear-specific commodities transferred by states, for which Spector suggests sanctions, interdictions, and increased safeguards as viable solutions. The second category is fissile material covertly transferred by non-state actors, for which Spector sees offshore interdiction as the preferred mitigation technique. The third and final category is nuclear-specific and dual-use items covertly transferred by non-state actors. Because prosecutions in this category have proved difficult in the past, Spector recommends several alternative solutions to be used in conjunction with the methods already in place. In the second section, Beat Wieland offers a solution to the problem of balancing confidentiality and transparency with respect to nuclear security information. Because of the new challenges to confidentiality brought on by the Internet and more aggressive journalism, it is essential to have a well-prepared information-handling concept before an emergency occurs. Wieland advises that tactful handling of sensitive information is key to preventing a security emergency from developing into an information emergency.
The Sustainability of “Postmodern” University Research
Authors: Ramsden Jeremy J.
Published: February 2025

The type of research that is sought and carried out by most universities today is, essentially, a process of information transfer from the academic realm to the industrial and commercial realm. University administrations see this mode of activity as the only one able to guarantee financial sustainability. The smaller the possibility of reliance on income from fee-paying students undergoing tuition, the greater the degree of dependence on industrial research contracts. The question arises whether this mode is academically sustainable, and if so under what conditions. In this article it is shown that this mode is academically unsustainable and, hence, in the long term financially unsustainable as well. This is because, insidiously, this mode leads to decreasing reliability of the information and, hence, ultimately there will be no demand for it. In other words, universities must either reform, essentially reverting to their traditional role as bastions of independent, objective inquiry, or disappear.
Lecture Notes on Software Model Checking
Authors: Majumdar Rupak
Published: February 2025

This article gives an overview of software model checking, with a focus on model checkers using abstraction and refinement. It grew out of notes accompanying my lectures at the Marktoberdorf Summer School in Summer, 2011.
Formal Security Proofs
Authors: Comon-Lundh Hubert  , Delaune Stéphanie
Published: February 2025

The goal of the lecture is to present some aspects of formal security proofs of protocols. This is a wide area, and there is another lecture (by B. Banchet) on related topics. The idea is therefore to explain in depth one particular technique, that relies on deducibility constraints. We rely mainly on two introductory documents [8,14]. Actually, the current notes are the beginning of [8].
Legal Regulation of the Use of Lethal Force in Counterterrorist Operations: The Law Enforcement and Armed Conflict Paradigms
Authors: Švarc Dominika
Published: February 2025

There are two legal paradigms for the conduct of counterterrorist forces – a law enforcement paradigm and an armed conflict paradigm. Although they share many values, the execution of operations under the two regimes may be different. This article explores those similarities and differences, concluding that the paradigm shift is difficult for even the most experienced officer.
Study and Prognosis of Land Subsidence in Karst Regions Due to Falling Groundwater Levels
Authors: Minasyan R.S.  , Aleksanyan G.M.  , Valyaev A.N.
Published: February 2025

In many countries of the world for water supply in cities and settlements large borehole water intakes were installed and, as a result in these regions, a significant reduction in groundwater levels has occurred. In karst regions this activates land subsidence and other hazardous environmental effects. Karst is a hazardous engineering-geological process that can be especially disastrous for civil, industrial and hydrotechnical constructions. This article discusses the results of engineering-geological, hydrogeological and geophysical complex investigations that were carried out in the northern part of Syria, in the territory of Ras Al Ayn City. Karst processes have been activated during recent years in this area mainly because of human activities. A number of target maps has been drawn for the case study area including the zoning map of the karst risk and, according to the map, the city territory is divided into the three parts. The necessary engineering measures are proposed for ecological remediation of the studied area. The practical test of the proposed design method, developed for forecasting possible activation of karst phenomena, should be considered of especial importance. This proposed method for prognosis of land subsidence is recommended for use in similar physical-geological conditions.
Risk Management, Prediction and Prevention of Flooding Catastrophes in Romania
Authors: Douglas Brian  , Toma Ovidiu
Published: February 2025

To help avert further flooding or other similar catastrophes or man-made disasters, actions need to be taken at all levels in the view to predict, prevent and manage these situations so that human life can be saved along with a reduction in the catastrophic damage (such as loss of human life, animal life and damage to domestic property and personal belongings of families affected, infrastructure, livestock and massive amounts of crops) that extreme flooding causes.
River Pollution Risk Assessment in the South Eastern Part of Ukraine
Authors: Kharytonov Mykola M.  , Sytnik Svitlana A.  , Vagner Anna V.  , Titarenko Olga V.
Published: February 2025

The sources of pollution in the Dnieper and Siversky Donets river basin watershed areas are mining and smelting industries. Industrial wastewater in the above urban areas creates various risks for the environment. The result is that the volumetric share of wastewater in river flows for some rivers (such as Lugan, Vovcha, Samara, and Ingulets) ranges from one third to one half. The environmental state of the water resources of the Siversky Donets watershed area, and for some points of the Dnieper river, is assessed as being catastrophic. Water mineralization in the rivers crossing mining regions is up to 3-4.5g/l. Water in some middle and small rivers do not meet the irrigation requirements because of hazard of alkalinisation for arable lands.
Seismic Hazard Assessment for Southern Caucasus – Eastern Turkey Energy Corridors: The Example of Georgia
Authors: Tsereteli N.  , Tanircan G.  , Safak E.  , Varazanashvili O.  , Chelidze T.  , Gvencadze A.  , Goguadze N.
Published: February 2025

The Southern Caucasus - Eastern Turkey energy corridors are formed by several critical pipelines carrying crude oil and natural gas from Azerbaijan, via Georgia, to Turkey and world markets. The two most important pipelines are the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Crude Oil Pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) Natural Gas Pipeline. At 1,768km, the BTC pipeline is one of the great engineering endeavours of the 21stcentury, It has a capacity to export one billion barrels of oil a day. Damage to a pipeline due to a large earthquake in one of the countries would affect directly and indirectly all the other countries that the pipeline serves, impacting large geographic regions and disrupting global economies. To our knowledge, none of these pipelines has ever been evaluated comprehensively (other than the standard code-based design studies) for their seismic safety and risk. None of the pipelines has any type of seismic monitoring system.
The Suicidal Terrorist Assaults: An Attempt at Analyzing the Theological and Quasitheological Aspects
Authors: Mitrev Angel
Published: February 2025

The article raises questions about the roots of suicide terrorism and its religious legitimation. The author argues that suicide terrorism has been transformed from a tool for provoking fear into powerful modern warfare strategy. However, this transformation is not the result of the implementation of Islam, but mainly a result of its instrumental use.
Stability of Social System under Terrorist Impacts
Authors: Akhmetkhanov R.
Published: February 2025

The social system stability under terrorist impacts is considered from the perspective of nonlinear dynamics of systems and deterministic chaos. The traits of social system dynamics and system stability are determined by the properties of potential functions, i.e. characteristic points on potential hyper surfaces, and by their distribution in configuration space, or by special points in the corresponding phase space. The possibility for the system subjected to minor disturbances to transit from the stable state into the chaos area where its further behavior is unpredictable is shown. The special states of social systems when the system can be withdrawn from the stable state by minor disturbance can now be determined by means of monitoring the system state, analysis of complex quantitative and qualitative indices of strategic risks, and Kondratiev cycles.
Uncertain System Management: The Redundancy as a Risk Mitigation Tool in Societal Technological Systems
Authors: Tavares Varzea
Published: February 2025

After defining Societal Technological Systems (STS) as a class of systems intended to improve the economy, the security, the health and the environment (the well-being) in human societies, and Intentional Disturbance Actions (IDA) as the planned activities intended to weaken or to interrupt the appropriate management and/or performance of such systems, the author investigates the relationship between System Societal Value (SSV), System Exogenous Support (SES) and System Redundancy Level (SRL). A risk assessment is effected concerning to the risk of eventual degradation of System Societal Value, and the System Redundancy Level is selected as a management tool for the mitigation of such a risk. The transfer between Exogenous Support and Redundancy Level is adopted as a procedure for optimizing resources allocation. Finally, the sensitivity characteristics of this relationship and the main proprieties of its optimal configuration are considered.
Technical Approaches To Supply Sea And Off-Shore Oil And Gas Objects Protection From Illegal Actions
Authors: Bochkov A.V.  , Lesnikh V.V.
Published: February 2025

The technical approaches applied during supply sea and off-shore oil and gas objects protection from illegal actions are considered in this article, concepts of base threat for such objects are entered. The questions of rating features of sea and off-shore objects according to risk of commitment of illegal actions are considered and the requirements to levels of their security depending on a category are entered. The importance of the state participation in creation of considered objects protection system and their functioning safety ensuring are noticed.
Basics of Terror Medicine
Authors: Hrečkovski Boris  , Dobson Bob  , Fischer Philipp  , Loades Mark
Published: February 2025

One of society's biggest challenges is to prevent terrorist attacks. Good intelligence will assist with identifying the risks, the terrorist capabilities, and current trends, but it is inevitable that some attacks will succeed. This considered, the need for planning has never been greater—in fact it is essential. Based on this, those involved have a responsibility to plan for numerous potential situations; the planning should include preparedness, response, and recovery activities. After a terrorist attack where there are casualties or mass casualties, in almost all situations we have to deal with the victims. Dealing with mass-casualty incidents is not a daily occurrence for those who would be involved in the chain of survival, and therefore it requires specific organization and protocols. Terror medicine includes medical management from the scene to post-hospital care, as well as a multiagency approach.
Mass-Casualty Planning and Response
Authors: Dobson Robert (Bob)
Published: February 2025

Mass-casualty incidents will always pose challenges to those involved. Every organization has the same goal, and that is to save lives. Research has shown that good preparation and training and an understanding of and respect for the role of all participants in the chain of survival will result in lives being saved. Targeting the avoidable deaths requires well-trained staff to triage patients effectively. Part of that triage is to get the patients to the most appropriate hospital with the most appropriate facilities and medical staff without unnecessary delay. Systems for dealing with mass casualties within the UK have been developed over many years of experience. Can this experience be used by other countries? Most systems around the world have been developed from each country's historical multiagency links; some countries have no multiagency forum and therefore it is questionable how effective they really are. What does the future hold with developing technologies and transport systems giving easy access to worldwide personal travel on a scale never seen before? What about the political, social, and economic impact of natural and manmade disasters? Advanced training such as the Medical Response to Major Incidents (MRMI) course was designed to assist with understanding local capabilities and response. It was also designed to assist and develop networks between emergency responders to maximize cooperation and ultimately to save lives.
Complex Humanitarian Emergencies—An Overview: Controversies and Future Perspectives
Authors: Rossodivita Alessandra  , Ranghieri Massimo  , Guidotti Matteo  , Stikova Elisaveta  , Caruso Antonio
Published: February 2025

Globalization, migration of the population, climate change, and war and other conflicts throughout the world have created an increasingly complex environment for humanitarian aid and international response and relations. In the past two decades, wars and other conflicts have increasingly become an internal problem for fragile nation-states, and these disrupted states often suffer from inequalities in social, economic, and political development, exacerbated by long-term ethnic, religious, and minority conflicts and by the fierce competition for existing resources. In the meantime, these animosities become an international problem to solve. The humanitarian response to war-related crises and disasters has gradually evolved from charitable but uncoordinated efforts into more systematized interventions. Large, multinational organizations have developed significant technical and logistical capacity in responding to the public health needs of large vulnerable populations. The authors analyze the current controversies and future prospects in complex humanitarian emergencies management.
Croatia's State and Medical Authority for Health System Organizations
Authors: Cvitković Ante
Published: February 2025

Information sharing in disasters and emergencies is a challenge in conditions where a rapid alert system does not exist. The role of institutes of public health must be emphasized. The major institute in Croatia is the national one, and it coordinates the work of the second-level (county) institutes. In our paper we will closely describe the organization scheme.
The Military Defeat of Terrorism in Sri Lanka
Authors: Kalansooriya Ranga
Published: February 2025

Sri Lanka added her name to the global books on history by militarily defeating the world's most ruthless terrorist group – the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, commonly known as Tamil Tigers – in May 2009. The Tigers, beside its deadly combat powers in the northern Sri Lankan territories, were trend setters for other terrorist groups in many aspects. Their invention of the suicide jacket is a classic case study. A carefully planned military offensive backed by an undeterred political will destroyed the local structures of the Tigers from top to bottom. Self ego, political miscalculation, overconfidence and reluctance to adapt to situations also contributed to the Tiger defeat. On the global level, the loose Tiger structure without proper leadership could be a threat to the international security mainly by sharing its expertise, skills and capabilities with counterparts in other parts of the world. The loose network is now available for hired services of individuals and other groups. However, as experts argue, every terrorist movement has its own political connotations that need to be addressed at a political level. Once the military aspect of terrorism is diminished – or as it popularly known ‘when the guns are silent’ – one could and should hear the sounds of politics. Does this political noise exist in contemporary post-war Sri Lanka?
Evolutional Aspects of Alzheimer's Disease Pathogenesis
Authors: Braak Heiko  , Del Tredici Kelly
Published: February 2025

Tau lesions (pretangles, neuropil threads, neurofibrillary tangles) that develop in a few types of nerve cells in the brain are essential to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The formation of non-argyrophilic pretangles marks the beginning of the pathological process and is of increasing interest because it is temporally closer to the prevailing conditions that induce the pathological process underlying AD in contrast to late-stage disease. Not all of the pretangle material, however, converts into argyrophilic neurofibrillary lesions. The propensity to develop tau lesions may be related to the exceptionally protracted myelination of late developing portions in the human brain.
Alzheimer's Disease-Related Lesions
Authors: Alafuzoff Irina
Published: February 2025

The invitation to contribute to “Alzheimer's Disease: Advances for a New Century” gave me an opportunity to briefly summarize my personal opinions about how the field of neuropathology has evolved. The goal is to briefly exemplify the changes that have influenced the way we conduct our diagnostic work as well as the way we interpret our results. From an era of histological stains, we have moved to visualization of altered proteins in predicted brain regions; we have also realized that in many aged subjects, not one but a plethora of co-pathologies are seen, and finally, we have become aware that the degenerative process is initiated much earlier than we ever suspected.
Energy Security and Terrorism?
Authors: Çelikpala Mitat
Published: February 2025

Energy security has emerged as an issue of great importance. As well as traditional aspects of energy security, a myriad of new aspects has emerged and continues to emerge such as tight oil and gas markets, increasing prices, alternative energy sources and their role, the threat of terrorism, instability in some exporting and importing countries, geopolitical rivalries, and the increasing need for energy to the economic growth. The concept of energy security is vague. Energy security is an umbrella term that covers many concerns linking energy, economic growth and political power.
Political Contentions in Central Asia and Afghanistan: Regional Dis/Connectedness
Authors: Tiulegenov Medet
Published: February 2025

The article discusses the regional connectedness of political contention in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Countries in the region experienced various levels of political contention during last twenty years. Besides, these political contentions have developed significant cross-border effects. The article lays out the extent to which countries in the region have economic, social and informational connectedness, and then discusses political volatility in each of them. Using the theoretical framework of the social movements literature, emphasizing the concepts of resource mobilization, opportunity structures and framing, the article discusses whether various social movements and actors in the region are connected primarily along the militant and religious dimensions or not. The article claims that most of the contentions in the region have mainly external rather than diffusion effects. This explains the instances of cross-border consequences of contentious actions throughout the region.
Recent Advances in the Treatment of Comorbid PTSD and Substance Use Disorder
Authors: Sofuoglu Mehmet  , Rosenheck Robert  , Petrakis Ismene
Published: February 2025

Comorbidity between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorder (SUD) is common. As a result, the development of integrated treatments addressing both PTSD and SUD are needed. Although there are effective pharmacotherapies for the treatment of PTSD and SUD, there are no proven medications that will treat both conditions. We have conducted two clinical trials testing the safety and efficacy of medication treatments for comorbid PTSD and alcohol dependence (AD). In a 12-week clinical trial enrolling 254 patients with AD and comorbid psychiatric disorders, we compared four treatment conditions: (1) disulfiram and placebo, (2) naltrexone alone, (3) placebo alone, and (4) disulfiram and naltrexone. Patients with PTSD (n = 93) had fewer heavy drinking days and more consecutive days of abstinence when treated with naltrexone, disulfiram, or combination, as compared to placebo. This study demonstrated the efficacy of both disulfiram and naltrexone for the treatment of AD in individuals with PTSD. In the second 12-week study, a total of 88 predominantly male veterans with current diagnosis of AD and PTSD were randomly assigned one of four groups: paroxetine plus naltrexone; paroxetine plus placebo; desipramine plus naltrexone; desipramine plus placebo. Paroxetine was equivalent to desipramine for the treatment of PTSD symptoms. However, desipramine was superior to paroxetine with respect to study retention and alcohol use outcomes. Naltrexone reduced alcohol craving relative to placebo, but did not improve drinking behavior. This study suggests that norepinephrine uptake inhibitors may have efficacy for the treatment of comborbid PTSD and AD.
Prediction and Recognition of Piracy Efforts Using Collaborative Human-Centric Information Systems
Authors: Bossé Éloi
Published: February 2025

Maritime piracy is a widespread international concern. Over the years, it has been on the rise, with the number of attacks increasing substantially. Vessels are extremely susceptible to hostile boarding. This is favoured by inherent vulnerability due to slowness (tonnage, deep sea vessels, massive size and weight), as well as lack of reporting and law enforcement: ship owners are reluctant to directly address the issue of maritime piracy for commercial reasons. Furthermore, technological improvements have resulted in smaller crews on (larger) vessels. The main objective of this paper is to set the scene for discussions on prediction, recognition and deterrence of maritime piracy through the use of collaborative human-centric information support systems. Collaborative human-centric information support systems can significantly improve the ability of every nation to predict and prevent an incident or to rapidly recognize its nature and extent for an effective collective response. Inherent to the concept of collaborative information support systems are: human system integration concepts, cognitive systems engineering methodologies, collaborative environment technologies, knowledge exploitation and data/information mining technologies instantiated into human-centred (where the human is an integrated part of the system) decision support (collaborative information systems) concepts/approaches. Operating in the crisis management and anti-piracy program environment, decision makers at all levels (e.g., incident commanders) and their staff can use collaborative humancentric information support capabilities.
Closed-loop Information Fusion and Resource Management in INFORM Lab
Authors: Guitouni Adel  , Valin Pierre
Published: February 2025

In Part 1 of these lectures, the INFORM Lab testbed was described with respect to its general architecture, OODA nodes, multi-layer plug-and-play architecture, and general multi-agent framework based on John Boyd's OODA loop. Part 2 demonstrates some promising results from a non-cooperative scenario involving complex behaviour between multiple ships trying to hide their motives, as would be the case in a piracy scenario. The flexibility of the testbed is also demonstrated.
Determining the Consistency of Information between Multiple Subsystems used in Maritime Domain Awareness
Authors: St-Hilaire Marie-Odette  , Isenor Anthony W.
Published: February 2025

Multiple public web sites can be used to obtain ship-related information that is relevant to Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). However, the quality or timeliness of this information can be suspect. In this paper, a software application, called the consistency application, is presented for the comparison of ship-related information from multiple data sources. The consistency application allows a user to compare the information from these multiple data sources and generate a comparison score for the specific ship information supplied by the data source, and also for the data source as a unit. This allows the user to assess the consistency of the information provided from the data source, as compared to other sources. The consistency application presently links four MDA-related information sources.
A Practical Approach to the Development of Ontology-Based Information Fusion Systems
Authors: Gómez-Romero Juan  , Serrano Miguel A.  , Patricio Miguel A.  , Molina José M.
Published: February 2025

Ontology-based representations are gaining momentum among other alternatives for implementing the knowledge model of high-level fusion applications. In this paper, we provide an introduction to the theoretical foundations of ontology-based knowledge representation and reasoning, with a particular focus on the issues that appear in maritime security, where heterogeneous regulations, information sources, users, and systems are involved. We also present some current approaches and existing technologies for high-level fusion, based on ontological representations. Unfortunately, current tools for the practical implementation of ontology-based systems are not fully standardized or even prepared to work together in medium-scale systems. Accordingly, we discuss different alternatives to face problems such as spatial and temporal knowledge representation or uncertainty management. To illustrate the conclusions drawn from this research, an ontology-based semantic tracking system is briefly presented. Results and latent capabilities of this framework are shown at the end of the paper, where we also envision future opportunities for this kind of application.
Transport Group (Ocean Shipping) Report: Ad-Hoc Working Group on Counter Piracy
Authors: Méndez Colunga Julio
Published: February 2025

Since 2008, the sea-jacking of a larger number of merchant ships has put greater focus and pressure on the international community. NATO's Planning Board for Ocean Shipping (PBOS) Transport Group (TG) undertook the task of updating an existing report by collecting input from a number of international agencies involved in maritime security and producing the report summarised in this chapter.
An Empirical Study of the Impact of Reliability Values on Threat Assessment
Authors: Borrion Hervé  , Gaballa Mohamed  , Wapshott Charles  , Johnson Shane D.  , Harvey Nigel
Published: February 2025

This article presents two empirical studies investigating the extent to which intelligence analysts are able to integrate new information about the reliability of intelligence sources into their judgment. The first study used a limited number of pieces of intelligence, and binomial reliability values. The second study included a larger number of sources, and reliability values distributed on a 5-point scale. A comparative analysis of the results suggests that analysts are less likely to significantly modify their judgment if they are faced with a large amount of information to analyse, possibly showing the vulnerability of analysts' to heuristic biases in this case.
Model-Driven Engineering and Model Transformation: for Fun and Profit
Authors: Paige Richard F.  , Kolovos Dimitrios S.
Published: February 2025

Model-Driven Engineering is a discipline based around the use of structured and precise models to support engineering processes. These models are expressed in languages that are, by definition or construction, supported by tools. The tools enable construction of sound (well-formed) models, analysis of models, transformation of models, and many other tasks. In this series of lectures, we will study the principles of Model-Driven Engineering, the construction process of models, and will investigate the different kinds of model transformations that underpin engineering processes. We will also consider how using Model-Driven Engineering and model transformations both helps and hinders the process of building dependable software systems, in terms of challenges associated with managing dependencies and verification.
Critical Infrastructure Aspects Of Energy Security: Azerbaijan And Regional Context
Authors: Aslanbayli Bakhtiyar
Published: February 2025

Following its independence from the Soviet Union, in 1990s Azerbaijan started to implement an independent oil and gas strategy, which led to an extraordinary amount of international investment flowing into the oil and gas sector. Today, Azerbaijan's best in class energy infrastructure is critical not only for country itself and the South Caucasus and Caspian regions, but also for the Europe, where some of the final consumers are. NATO could be important in the protection of energy resources and their transportation routes in the region. Increased level of NATO-Azerbaijan relations from cooperation in the frame of the Partnership for Peace (PfP) program to the execution of Individual Security Agreement would be in the mutual interest of the parties, as well as in the interest of energy consumers in Euro-Atlantic region.
New Realities In South Caucasus And The Problems of Energy Security After The Russia – Georgia War 2008
Authors: Zhgenti Konstantin
Published: February 2025

The analyses in this report started with the question: “Was the 2008 Russia-Georgia war an Energy war, or energy was an important, but only one of the reasons of this war?”. For the past decade before the war Georgia has been championed as a reliable country through which new pipelines, safely controlled by Western companies, could bypass both Russia and Iran. On the face of it, the war has made a mockery of that claim. But war ended with a few damages for the regions energy infrastructure and the new question arise – will the so-called “New Realities” in the region, whose recognition Russia is insistently demanding, help to ensure future Energy Security in the Black Sea and even wider region?
Critical Role of the Caspian Gas for Achieving the Desirable Energy Mix in the EU or Why the Southern Corridor Requires Two Entry Points into the EU to Reach the Needed Strategic Magnitude
Authors: Vashakmadze Giorgi
Published: February 2025

The article provides rationales to the notion that the share of gas in the future EU energy mix is to be determined, among other factors also by the prospects of diversification of ‘pipeline gas’ supply and the resulting perception about the stability of supply and prices in future. The best, if not the only source of such diversification is the Caspian gas supply, but in order to serve for the purpose it needs to be of a strategic magnitude. EU has started to look for diversification options to mitigate thedominant supplier effect on the market, but with problems accumulating with ‘Nabucco only’ approach, EU have switched to more complex and comprehensive multi-project ‘Southern Corridor’ scheme with stated strategic goals of delivering 45-90 bcm of gas annually. An important difference of the new approach is the introduction of notion about the synergy and risk reduction effect of having routes across Turkey and across the Black Sea in parallel. Consequently separate sets of competing projects have been identified for both directions: along with well-known projects via Turkey, the Black sea projects like White Stream, AGRI and Bulgarian CNG project has been given political and financial support by the EC or in latter cases by White Stream has been included in the TEN scheme and was granted the status of a EU priority project of the Common Interest. Numerous factors, expected and unexpected have hindered the progress in the past years, but the path taken lately provides for securing success. That includes MS mandate for EC for negotiating trance-Caspian pipeline solution, identifying TCGP as a major Southern Corridor project, the CDC developments. Suggested TANAP development has planted confidence on finally launching a project via Turkey, absence of which was also preventing a start of advanced development of the Black Sea route. Implications for Black Sea area energy security discussed, exploring the role of NATO.
Strategic Communications and Defense against Terrorism
Authors: Sütalan Zeynep
Published: February 2025

Strategic Communications (StratCom) is a relatively new term which has almost become a buzzword in the political and military environments in the United States as well as NATO. It lacks an agreed definition, but is generally associated with ‘winning the hearts and minds of the people.’ It rests upon the awareness that current wars are fought or operations take place among the people and thus the human factor is important. Therefore, understanding, interacting, blending and communicating with the public is necessary. StratCom is the synchronization of all communication and information related efforts towards a target audience to create, strengthen or preserve an opinion and attitude(s) to the advantage of the operation conducted or policy implemented. Within this framework, this article discusses what StratCom is about and what its features and principles are. Then it seeks to explain the NATO approaches to StratCom and what kind of efforts has been made within the Alliance in this vein. The article finally focuses on the case of Afghanistan to elaborate on NATO-led ISAF efforts in terms of Strat Com.
Crisis Management of the Republic of Macedonia
Authors: Mitrevska Marina
Published: February 2025

Professor Marina Mitrevska explained the development of the model of crisis management in the Republic of Macedonia. She made retrospective of the Macedonian challenges until now and the way they were handled. Also she was speaking about the normative solutions for the Macedonian crisis management and the perspective that they offer for the regional cooperation. She also underlines Macedonian experience in the process of realization of the crisis management concept.
Development of Regional Capacities for Civilian Emergencies seen in the initiative spirit of NATO “Smart Defence”
Authors: Lleshi Abazz
Published: February 2025

Brigadier General Abaz LLESHI in his presentation highlighted the Development of regional capacities for civilian emergencies seen in the initiative of the NATO Smart Defense. He continued with past regional cooperation and the experience from it and the need for increase cooperation in order to achieve more. He put the focus on five directions for regional collaboration in common interest: Fast and mutual coordination and information; Knowledge of natural dangers and scientific study and planning to avoid the consequences; Common trainings and experience exchange; Creation of common capacities and reciprocal support with forces and equipments, based on plans of mutual help and collaboration; The improvement and strength of special structures for emergencies in support of population and civilian authorities like is Regional Support Brigade in Albania..
Practical Issues Facing Businesses in the Implementation of Critical Infrastructure Protection
Authors: Black Patrick
Published: February 2025

This article discusses the concept of critical infrastructure protection (CIP) from an international business standpoint. Governments and their agencies need to recognize that international businesses, by their very nature, have resilience embedded into their systems, processes, manning and skillsets. Therefore, businesses may not be as keen to protect a particular asset when an alternative is available, often in another country or on another continent. The decisions made by businesses to invest in protection is made based on risk assessment and may result in only a select number of points being protected in order to provide cost-effective protection of the whole system. CIP will also move as business models and processes change in relations to changing business conditions. Lastly, private-public partnerships can help national governments and agencies improve effectiveness and to align solutions with business financial tolerances and better understand the business models.
Boolean Satisfiability: Solvers and Extensions
Authors: Weissenbacher Georg  , Subramanyan Pramod  , Malik Sharad
Published: February 2025

Contemporary satisfiability solvers are the corner-stone of many successful applications in domains such as automated verification and artificial intelligence. The impressive advances of SAT solvers, achieved by clever engineering and sophisticated algorithms, enable us to tackle Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) problem instances with millions of variables – which was previously conceived as a hopeless problem. We provide an introduction to contemporary SAT-solving algorithms, covering the fundamental techniques that made this revolution possible. Further, we present a number of extensions of the SAT problem, such as the enumeration of all satisfying assignments (ALL-SAT) and determining the maximum number of clauses that can be satisfied by an assignment (MAX-SAT). We demonstrate how SAT solvers can be leveraged to solve these problems. We conclude the chapter with an overview of applications of SAT solvers and their extensions in automated verification.
Leadership and Right-Wing Extremist Violence: Case Studies from the Czech Territory
Authors: Mareš Miroslav
Published: February 2025

This text includes three case studies of leadership related to right-wing extremist violence on Czech territory in various historical eras. The first analyses the terrorist campaign of Vlajka (The Flag) at the end of the 1930s, the second racist skinhead murderers from Písek in 1993 and the third the structures which organized racist anti-Roma riots in Northern Bohemia in 2008. The specifics of actions carried out by a compact organisation with a formal leader and actions organized by informal subcultural local milieu with a local leader are explained, as well as multilevel” drivers of ethnic riots.
Local Search for Hop-Constrained Directed Steiner Tree Problem with Application to UAV-Based Multi-Target Surveillance
Authors: Burdakov Oleg  , Doherty Patrick  , Kvarnström Jonas
Published: February 2025

We consider the directed Steiner tree problem (DSTP) with a constraint on the total number of arcs (hops) in the tree. This problem is known to be NP-hard, and therefore, only heuristics can be applied in the case of its large-scale instances.
On Data Clustering: Exact and Approximate Solutions
Authors: Festa Paola
Published: February 2025

Cluster analysis aims at finding subsets (clusters) of a given set of entities, which are homogeneous and/or well separated. In the last decades, cluster analysis started playing an important role in a wide and heterogeneous range of applications involving different scientific research communities, including genetics, biology, biochemistry, mathematics, and computer science among others. This paper overviews the main types of clustering and criteria for homogeneity or separation, as well as the most popular solution techniques.
A Hybrid Metaheuristic for the Maximum k-Plex Problem
Authors: Gujjula Krishna Reddy  , Ayalur Seshadrinathan Krishnan  , Meisami Amirhossein
Published: February 2025

Social network analysis is an area of research that is gathering interest and importance since the turn of the century, especially with increased technology proliferation. Graph theory is predominantly being used in the analysis of social networks. The maximum k-plex problem, which belongs to the category of clique relaxation problems has been studied by researchers in this field. This problem is known to be NP-hard. This paper proposes an amalgamation of a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure and tabu search metaheuristic to solve the problem. The performance of the proposed hybrid metaheuristic is tested on well-known instances of graphs and the computational results are reported.
Strengthening Cyber Security Policy by Means of End-Users Dedicated Training
Authors: Margarov Gevorg
Published: February 2025

This article is devoted to problems of end-users dedicated training based on the latest methods and practice of endpoint security. Aims and objectives of endpoint security training are revealed. The basic ideas of security and privacy when using social networking services in the training are considered. It is concluded that endpoint security will continue to hold the attention of almost all enterprises, but most important in this list will be the education sector.
Toward Effective National Cyber Security Strategy: The Path Forward For Macedonia
Authors: Hadji-Janev Metodi
Published: February 2025

Cyberspace has become the dominant place for social, economic and political activities in the region of South East Europe (SEE). However like in the rest of the World the growing dependence of the cyberspace in the SEE in general and in Macedonia in specific has not been matched by a parallel focus on security. This article explains why Macedonian government needs to consider concrete strategic guidance for cyber security. The main argument of the article is that future cyber security strategy must have a comprehensive approach addressing cyber crime; cyber defense; intelligence and counterintelligence, critical information infrastructure protection and crisis management; and cyber diplomacy and cyber governance. Given that most of the SEE countries share the same history and political, social and security dynamics with small adjustments the findings and recommendation could be applicable to the rest of the SEE countries.