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Rare events are understood to be events occurring once in a while but with dramatic consequences. Their occurrence cannot be predicted precisely, only a probability might be estimated, for example from past experiences. However, it might be rather misleading to attempt to describe them by distribution curves that apply for frequent or repeated observations, such as the Gaussian bell shape. Alternative distributions have been introduced to characterise the intervals at which a certain event may occur. It is the aim of technical safety and public security to prevent adverse events. Detectable indications that are typical for their course and are observable have to be identified before an incident occurs. Since they should be characteristic for such cases, they themselves also constitute rare events. The problem encountered in any detection system is that nothing is perfect. As in medical diagnostics, true indications may be missed or false test responses may pretend to be something that does not exist. Balancing missed indications with false positive calls is achieved with the aid of the so-called receiver operating characteristics (ROC). However, with the aid of Bayes’ inference it can be shown that identifying signs of a rarely occurring indication is like looking for a needle in a haystack, even with an excellent detection Approach with a low miss rate and an even lower probability of false calls. The inclusion of additionally available information may lead to a more effective search strategy. When employing imaging methods for detecting flaws or illicit items, the identification of rare indications can be impeded by blurring noise or overlapping items. The identification of the features sought can be supported by including information on their typical characteristics
by regularisation algorithms. The strategy of such an approach is demonstrated in a simplified example with a plain geometric figure (circle) corrupted with structural noise. The shape of the original figure was clearly recovered. In general, search strategies should aim at an indication typical for the event to be prevented; otherwise, alternative approaches have to be considered, including, perhaps, serendipity.
As a matter of fact, avoiding unexpected events with an undesired outcome is an element of survival strategies.
Such events are encountered unexpectedly mainly because they occur rarely. Both, safety and security measures are the main pillars to prevent them by appropriate inspections. Common tools in both areas e.g. are radiological technologies enabling an insight into objects to detect suspicious features without even touching them. Since any of these measures is linked to efforts, costs or even obstructions of ongoing processes, it needs a rationale to invest into an appropriate activity. A putative objection to take action in this direction always could be the question 'when and how often it could happen'. This gave rise to find approaches how to define 'rare events' and how to deal with them. Since they entail both, the frequency of occurrence and the unpleasantness of the possible outcome make them to have something in common with the definition of risk: a combination of the probability of occurrence of harm and the severity of that harm. Tackling putative consequences is one side of the coin whereas understanding the rareness of an event is the other, an aspect that worries but not always fully understood.
As a first step in approaching the subject 'rare events', the putative occurrence rate is considered in terms of probability distribution functions or their cumulative ones, resp. The problems of estimating an incidence of such an event will be tackled subsequently with the problem of assessing the reliability of diagnostic measures.
Any numeric approach of dealing with rare events inevitably remains an ill defined or 'ill-posed' problem that needs additional information for a reasonably satisfying solution. Ways to ease this situation can be found in utilizing additional information, also commonly called prior knowledge, that might be introduced via the Bayesian inference or by regularization algorithms. Simplified models will demonstrate how to apply such tools.
As a consequence, there are ways helping to avoid unexpected ad 'surprises' by taking adequate measures in due time upon the correct perception of certain indications.
EFNDT working group 5 'NDT technology for public security and safety', two areas with the same aim
(2014)
It is a quite common and understandable wish to make the world a safer place. This entails both freedom from danger, and thus encompasses both, safety and security. However, it is a trivial fact that public security and technical safety are commitments to distinct social entities that might be quite understandable due to the various kinds of threats. On the other hand, it is a common justifiable interest to have effective methodologies to detect them in time, i.e., before something disastrous might happen. It is rather obvious that particularly non-destructive inspection technologies, namely radiological methods, are applied in both areas. As a logical consequence, sharing the technical knowledge and experiences could be of benefit for both of them. However, the different areas of activities cleave the information exchange between them. In order to overcome this gap, the EFNDT Working Group 5 'NDT Technology for Public Security and Safety' (EFNDT WG 5) has taken an initiative to bring together actors of both areas of activities, symbolized as building a 'bridge'. The activities of the EFNDT WG 5 range from identifying features exhibiting certain threats that are detectable with available NDT technologies, adapting and improving them according to their specified applications and to search for alternative technologies or ways of applications where deemed to be applicable. Successful exchanges of information and experiences have been achieved in recent workshops, where also new ideas have been raised for future common projects. This kind of work is far from being completed; it is more or less at its beginning. In future workshops it is intended to follow up these ideas and to pave the way for future common interdisciplinary projects. Therefore, all groups involved in such projects are welcome, not only researchers and NDT-specialists, but also all endusers of the respective technologies as well as theoreticians for risk assessment, performance evaluation, modelling, statistics etc. All the addressed areas are deemed to play an important role in making the world a safer place, cooperatively.
Wooden artworks residing in churches for centuries inevitably suffered from decaying processes such as Wood worm infestation. About 100 years ago, this process was ceased with a polluting coal tar extract 'Carbolineum', a treatment usually applied to railway sleepers. Nowadays, this lead to undesired effects not only of causing dark stains on the surface of the treated sculptures but also in unimpaired release of traces of harmful substances into the atmosphere perceptible as the typical smell of coal tar oil. To resolve this problem, the knowledge of the internal structure could provide a support for this effort. As an example, sculptures from an epitaph in a church in northern Germany were subjected to X-ray and neutron computed tomography (CT). The purpose of using neutrons was to get information about the distribution of the impregnant Carbolineum. It consists of a mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which should increase the absorption of neutrons. In contrast, X-rays are rather poorly absorbed by such substances as compared to the wood matrix. All radiographic approaches
revealed traces of previous conservation measures that were not always documented in detail. Comparing the neutron images with those from the X-ray interrogation some differences became obvious indicating varied material compositions. Nails e.g. were clearly visible in the X-ray images rather than in the neutron ones. Some less visibly stained parts of the sculptures correspond with obviously replaced materials in the inside. These results will be used to identify ways how to treat the infested artworks.
The baroque epitaph Reyer (1704) at the St. Laurentius church in Tönning was treated with carbolineum as a wood preservation agent in 1903. The subsequent constant migration of carbolineum through the layers of paint to the surface has had a detrimental effect on the aesthetic appearance of the epitaph. Carbolineum is an oily, water-insoluble, flammable, dark brown mixture of coal tar oil components. Due to its content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), which are classified as carcinogenic and harmful to the environment, the use of carbolineum has been forbidden. The aim of the project is to develop an exemplary Conservation treatment (hat will reduce the toxic contents of the historical wooden object. The new method should be applicable to similar objects that are also contaminated with carbolineum. The historic carbolineum was identified by the GC-MS method and the X-Ray computed tomography revealed the biological wood damage and previous restoration measures. Several decontamination methods such as the extraction with supercritical C02, with dichloromethane vapour/fluids, with 1,3-dioxolane or with petrol ether by vaccum impregnation were investigated. This project is founded by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU).
For the radiographic investigation of large cargo Containers the energies of conventional Xray tubes are inadequately for certain layer thicknesses. In that case the high energy radiation sources like electron accelerators and gamma radiators (60CO) are adequate for the non invasive inspection of large Containers because of the high penetration through thick materials. Multiple imaging even enables to distinguish between different materials. The main challenging task in air and sea cargo Container inspection is to improve the detectability of contraband and dangerous materials which are hidden in the heterogeneously packed Containers by detailed analysis of cluttered radiographic images. So it is to be expected that objects of organic substances like certain explosives or their precursors are hard to identify behind thick walls of heavy metal objects such as engine-blocks with flat bottom holes. The primary aim here is to investigate the detectability of dangerous materials (typically of light elements) in cargo Containers using high energy X-ray digital radiography.
Die Arbeitsgruppe 5 der Europäischen Föderation für Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung (EFNDT Working Group 5 'Public Security and Safety', EFNDT WG 5) verfolgt weiterhin das Ziel, organisatorisch weit auseinanderliegende Zuständigkeiten und Arbeitsgebiete zusammenzuführen, die weitgehend mit gleichen, zumindest ähnlichen Prinzipien und Methoden arbeiten. Auf der Suche nach neuen Wegen stoßen beide Seiten auf Gemeinsamkeiten. Dies gilt auch für neue Ansätze und Bewertungsmethoden von Techniken, mit denen Risiken vermindert werden sollen. Hierzu hat in Berlin ein Workshop im Oktober 2012 stattgefunden, auf dem parallele Projekte zur Container- und Frachtsicherheit zusammengeführt werden konnten. Herausgestellt wurde die Komplementarität der laufenden Projekte, gemeinsame Aspekte sollen künftig auch zusammen bearbeitet werden. Darüber hinaus wurden neue Methoden und Vorgehensweisen vorgestellt, aber auch die Sichtweise der Europäischen Kommission mit ihren Vorstellungen zu einem europäischen Markt für Sicherheitstechnik dargestellt. Angesprochen wurden bestehende und vorgeschlagene europaweite Regulierungen und das europäische Referenznetz zum Schutz kritischer Infrastrukturen (ERNCIP), welches ein Netzwerk von Laboratorien für den Test von Sicherheitstechnik zum Ziel hat. Auf technischem Sektor standen Methoden im Vordergrund, mit denen die Gesamtmenge eines Gefahrstoffes wie z. B. Sprengstoff erkannt werden kann, und nicht nur Spuren als indirekter Hinweis. Die Arbeitsgruppe konnte somit erstmalig ein neutrales Forum für parallel laufende Projekte zur öffentlichen Sicherheit zur Verfügung stellen. Die auf den Workshops 2010 bis 2012 in Berlin gehaltenen Vorträge sind auf der Webseite des EFNDT WG 5 im geschützten Bereich zu finden. Nicht alles davon ist geeignet, es der allgemeinen Öffentlichkeit zugänglich zu machen. Deshalb sind alle Vorträge aus den Workshops in einem passwortgeschützten Verzeichnis abgelegt. Die Erteilung des Passwortes erfolgt über den Convenor der Arbeitsgruppe durch die EFNDT. Eine Erweiterung dieser Struktur zu einem Austauschforum ist vorgeschlagen. Zur Teilnahme daran sind nicht nur Mitglieder in den Gesellschaften für zerstörungsfreie Prüfung eingeladen, sondern auch diejenigen, die in den Anwendungsgebieten zur öffentlichen Sicherheit tätig sind.
Radiological inspections, in general, are the nondestructive testing (NDT) methods to detect the bulk of explosives in large objects. In contrast to personal luggage, cargo or building components constitute a complexity that may significantly hinder the detection of a threat by conventional X-ray transmission radiography. In this article, a novel X-ray backscatter technique is presented for detecting suspicious objects in a densely packed large object with only a single sided access. It consists of an X-ray backscatter camera with a special twisted slit collimator for imaging backscattering objects. The new X-ray backscatter camera is not only imaging the objects based on their densities but also by including the influences of surrounding objects. This unique feature of the X-ray backscatter camera provides new insights in identifying the internal features of the inspected object. Experimental mock-ups were designed imitating containers with threats among a complex packing as they may be encountered in reality. We investigated the dependence of the quality of the X-ray backscatter image on (a) the exposure time, (b) multiple exposures, (c) the distance between object and slit camera, and (d) the width of the slit. At the end, the significant advantages of the presented X-ray backscatter camera in the context of aviation and port security are discussed.
Zur Durchstrahlung großer, dichter Objekte reichen die Energien, die mit normalen Röntgenröhren erzielt werden können, ab gewissen Schichtdicken nicht mehr aus. Als hochenergetische Strahlenquellen stehen Kobalt-60 und Elektronenbeschleuniger zur Verfügung. Als Einschränkung der Hochenergieradiografie ist der geringere Kontrast besonders beim Vorhandensein leichterer Objekte umgeben von Körpern bestehend aus schweren Elementen anzusehen. Es ist daher zu erwarten, dass Objekte aus organischen Substanzen hinter dicken Schwermetallwänden oder in Bohrungen von Metallblöcken schwer zu erkennen sind. Im Unterschied zu einem Gammastrahler wie Kobalt-60 mit den beiden Spektrallinien um 1,3 MeV besitzt die Bremsstrahlung aus einem Beschleuniger einen wesentlichen Anteil an niederenergetischer Strahlung, der fließend zu höheren Energien übergeht. Es wird hier untersucht, welche Signaturen von leichten Materialien in einer Umgebung aus Schwermetall bis zu welcher Dicke und bis zu welchem Komplexitätsgrad erkennbar sind. Mit einem Betatron (JME X-ray Betatron 7,5 MeV) und einem Matrixdetektor (Perkin Elmer XRD 1621) wurden Aufnahmen von unterschiedlichen leichten Objekten angefertigt, die zunehmend in eine Umgebung aus Schwermetallen gestellt wurden. Mit unterschiedlichen Energieeinstellungen wurde untersucht, inwieweit eine Materialerkennung hinter welcher Abschirmung möglich ist. Die experimentellen Ergebnisse werden mit Simulationen verglichen, die mit einer Software zur Modellierung von Durchstrahlungsverfahren (aRTist) erzeugt wurden. Dabei wird dem Problem der Aufhärtung bei Anwendung von Bremsstrahlung Rechnung getragen. Die Ergebnisse können sowohl zur Erkennung von Fremdkörpern in Maschinen oder Pumpen als auch zur Überprüfung von Frachtladungen im Bereich der öffentlichen Sicherheit und bei Zollkontrollen dienen.
Der große praktische Vorteil der Rückstreuradiografie allgemein ist, dass kein Bilddetektor am Objekt auf der der Strahlenquelle gegenüberliegenden Seite aufgestellt werden muss. Dieses ist immer dann gegeben, wenn sich das Untersuchungsobjekt in oder an einer Wand befindet oder es so groß ist, dass eine Durchstrahlung aufgrund der zu durchdringenden Schichtdicken nicht infrage kommt. Von der üblichen Methode, das Objekt mit einem wandernden ausgeblendeten Einzelstrahl ('Bleistiftstrahl') abzutasten und die gesamte rückgestreute Strahlung großflächig zu registrieren, unterscheidet sich das hier verwendete Verfahren grundsätzlich. Das Objekt wird voll von einem (unkollimierten) Kegelstrahl angestrahlt. Das Bild wird mit einer Kamera aus absorbierendem Material (Wolfram, Blei) aufgenommen, die einen Matrixdetektor als Bildempfänger enthält. Die 'Optik' besteht aus einer besonders geformten Schlitzblende, die nach einem erweiterten Lochkameraprinzip arbeitet, das auch dickere Blendenmaterialschichten zulässt. Die voneinander unabhängige Positionierung von Kamera und Strahlenquellen erlaubt unterschiedliche Einstrahlgeometrien, die verschiedene Ergebnisbilder liefern. So erscheint ein komplexer Gegenstand vor einer rückstreuenden Wand völlig anders, als wenn er frei im Raum steht. Röntgenrückstreubilder müssen deshalb abhängig von ihrer 'Ausleuchtung' mit der Röntgenstrahlung und näheren Umgebung interpretiert werden.