Join HDIAC Thursday, February 4, from 1200 to 1300 EST for a webinar presentation titled "Understanding and Responding to Biological Threats." Please register in advance for the webinar at: https://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=E050DB83874B31
In recent years, terrorist propaganda campaigns have published materials that extol the merits of attacking the United States and its allies through the use of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high yield explosive weapons. Further, numerous terrorist groups have attempted to develop CBRN weapons and some have employed them through a variety of means. In order to address the operational implications of such events, it is important to be aware of common threat methodologies, be familiar with potential target locations, and understand the ramifications of such attacks. This webinar will focus primarily on the biological threat, as a biological attack against people could be used to cause illness, death, fear, societal disruption, and economic damage; likewise, an attack on agricultural plants and animals could result in economic damage, loss of confidence in the food supply, and possible loss of life. This webinar will provide a “snapshot” of this continuously evolving attack vector and give an overview and assessment of the threat posed by biothreat agents.
Series: HDIAC Webinars
HDIAC offers free webinars on a regular basis with experts in the technical subject areas of Alternative energy, Biometrics, CBRN Defense, Cultural Studies, Critical Infrastructure Protection, Homeland Defense & Security, Medical, and Weapons of Mass Destruction.
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Energy Security
This webinar describes the sophisticated global setting where energy security, national security, and geopolitics intersect. People everywhere want abundant, reliable, clean, and affordable energy. Nation-states have a geopolitical identity and geopolitical aspirations for influence. Energy security is an essential factor in those aspirations. Nation-states can influence developments beyond their borders regarding access to, processing, and transportation of natural resources, such as carbon-based energy and minerals essential for renewable energy development.
This webinar addresses the relationship between energy security/homeland security and unhindered access to energy supplied from domestic or foreign sources, the role of energy transportation at competitive world prices, and the relationship between local and international energy infrastructure.
The Continued Threat of Infectious Diseases to the U.S. Military
The US military is an expeditionary force and constantly engaged in global missions. During deployment, servicemembers are often at risk from infectious diseases which have the potential to make the individual and the unit mission incapable and cause significant morbidity and mortality. Diseases such as malaria, dengue, diarrheal diseases, and many others threaten the force and require medical countermeasures to eliminate or mitigate the risk.
This webinar builds on Dr. Tim Endy's infectious disease webinar in February of 2020 and the HDIAC Infectious Disease State of the Art Report published in April of 2020; in this latest webinar, Dr. Stephen Thomas will explore the historical beginnings of global infectious disease threats. Dr. Thomas will review the epidemiology, clinical presentation, and current status of therapeutic and preventive measures for common threats. Additionally, U.S. military contributions to countermeasure development will be discussed.
Biostasis
This webinar will provide an overview of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s (DARPA) Biostasis program. The Biostasis program aims to extend the time for lifesaving medical treatment, often referred to as “the Golden Hour,” following traumatic injury or acute infection, thus increasing survivability for military personnel operating in far-forward conditions with limited access to medical professionals or trauma centers. To do so, Biostasis is developing novel chemical biology approaches that reversibly and controllably slow biological systems without cold-chain to stabilize and protect their functional capacity until medical intervention is possible.
DNA as a Molecular Engineering Platform for Defense Applications
In this presentation, Dr. Steven Armentrout will describe how DNA nanotechnology is being used to create molecular devices, some less than 100nm in size, for defense applications ranging from nanosensors for pathogen detection to nanocarriers for delivery of drugs, genetic material, and cognitive boosting compounds. He will also show how computer-aided design (CAD) and virtual reality (VR) software, partially developed with DoD funding, is enabling nanoengineers to create, inspect, and edit nanoscale designs with ease and precision. Participants in this webinar will leave with an appreciation of the potential of DNA nanotechnology, its ability to address a variety of nanoengineering challenges, and an awareness of the many potential defense applications to which it can be applied.
The Political, Economic, and Cultural Effects of the United States’ Overseas Military Presence
This webinar discusses the individual, local, and regional factors that shape attitudes toward U.S. military presence within host states. The project leverages survey responses of host-state populations in 14 countries that host the majority of U.S. forces abroad. These surveys help expand our understanding of the behavioral, attitudinal, and demographic determinants of attitudes toward the U.S. military, the American people, and the U.S. government as a whole among the populations of host states.
USAID: Conflict Assessment Framework
In order to best understand the environments where they work, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) uses a diagnostic tool called the Conflict Assessment Framework to analyze national and sub-national conflict. A conflict assessment is a systematic process used to analyze and prioritize the dynamics of peace, conflict, stability, and instability in a given country context. This webinar will provide an overview of the assessment process and methods, as well as provide illustrative examples from previously conducted field assessments.
Agnostic Compact Demilitarization of Chemical Agents (ACDC)
The safe destruction of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and organic precursors is a timely, costly, and significant challenge for the international community. Today, for example, there are no approaches that exploit chemistries that are truly agnostic in terms of the agents that can be processed. Additionally, current approaches require transport of agents from the storage site to a neutralization site, which can add significant cost and time to the destruction process. DARPA's ACDC program explored new technologies for neutralization of bulk stores of CWAs and organic precursors at or near the site of storage. ACDC developed and demonstrated the technologies needed to construct a transportable, prototype system that converts organic compounds into constitutive carbon/nitrogen/phosphorous/sulfur oxides and stable alkali or alkaline earth metal salts. The ACDC system featured chemistries for agent destruction and sequestration of halogens and other components using locally available or easily transportable resources. This webinar describes the DARPA ACDC program and its exploration of neutralization of bulk stores of CWAs and organic precursors at or near the site of storage.
Facial Recognition Performance and Its Measurement
In this webinar, Patrick Grother will describe the fundamentals of face recognition, its evaluation, and the performance results from the four ongoing tracks of the Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT). The session will detail gains from the new generation of algorithms, failure modes, quantification of demographic effects, aging, scalability, and give an overview of limitations and open research topics. Additionally, the session will cover standards for performance and attack detection measurement, face image quality assessment, face-aware capture, and future activities under FRVT.
Department of Homeland Security Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office
The Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Office within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is tasked, by Congress, to coordinate the federal government’s efforts to prevent chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) terrorism within the United States. DHS/CWMD works with many interagency partners, bringing 872 authorities to engage with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments. Its mission is to support the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense & Global Security by developing and overseeing strategies, policies, and their implementation to prevent the proliferation of WMD and WMD-related materials. Strategic goals include anticipating, identifying, and assessing current and emerging WMD threats; strengthening detection and disruption of CBRN threats; and synchronizing homeland counter-WMD with health security planning and execution. This webinar will provide insight into the relationships, capabilities, and authorities that make the DHS/CWMD office a unique and valuable resource.