Short Takes – 10-15-24

'Shocking': Bird-Flu Infected Cattle Dumped at California Roadside. Newsweek.com article. Pull quote: “Raudabaugh added, "There are so many cattle passing away from avian influenza that the rendering trucks are backed up, which is why [the cattle] had been left there for a period of time."” Bird flu had a relatively low death rate in cows, apparently something has changed.

Photoswitch brings energy storage and a cool efficiency boost to photovoltaics. ChemistryWorld.com article. Pull quote: “They added the norbornadiene Most system to a standard commercial silicon solar cell and found that the Most system decreased the heating of the photovoltaic device under simulated sunlight by 8°C, thus increasing the efficiency from 12.4% to 12.6%. Moth-Poulsen highlights that as the efficiencies of these silicon solar cells are only around 12% in the first place these increases are significant. Furthermore, the same photoswitching that absorbs energy and keeps the solar cell cool, harvests and stores energy too, giving the hybrid system a total efficiency of 14.9%. ‘The future vision of this is that you can take a solar cell, photovoltaic, and then you could retrofit the Most system,’ Moth Poulsen tells Chemistry World.”

Electronic Signatures, Forms and Storage for Drug and Alcohol Testing Records. Federal Register PHMSA notice of proposed rulemaking. Summary: “DOT is required by statute to amend its regulations to authorize, to the extent practicable, the use of electronic signatures or digital signatures executed to electronic forms instead of traditional handwritten signatures executed on paper forms. This rulemaking also responds to an April 2, 2020, petition for rulemaking from DISA Global Solutions, Inc. (DISA), requesting that DOT regulations be amended to allow the use of an electronic version of the alcohol testing form (ATF) for DOT-authorized alcohol testing. The proposed regulatory amendments are expected to provide additional flexibility and reduced costs for the industry while maintaining the integrity and confidentiality requirements of the drug and alcohol testing regulations. In addition, DOT proposes to amend the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) regulation for conformity and to make other miscellaneous technical changes and corrections.” Comments due by December 16^th, 2024.

Fatal Chemical Leak at Pemex Refinery Raises Safety Concerns. ChemicalProcessing.com article. Pull quote: “Metzger said chemical companies in the region do not have much motivation to change. TCEQ, the state’s environmental agency has issued fines for about 10% of clean-air law violations annually, he said. Also, when penalties are imposed, they tend to be minimal, he added.” Hard to downplay environmentalist’s concerns when the latest incident killed 2 employees.

Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Program. Federal Register DOD final rule. Summary: “With this final rule, DoD establishes the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Program in order to verify contractors have implemented required security measures necessary to safeguard Federal Contract Information (FCI) and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). The mechanisms discussed in this rule will allow the Department to confirm a defense contractor or subcontractor has implemented the security requirements for a specified CMMC level and is maintaining that status (meaning level and assessment type) across the contract period of performance. This rule will be updated as needed, using the appropriate rulemaking process, to address evolving cybersecurity standards, requirements, threats, and other relevant changes.”

UK sanctions Russian troops for deploying chemical weapons in Ukraine. ChemistryWorld.com article. Pull quote: “In an announcement [link added] published on 8 October, the UK government said Russian forces had openly admitted to using hazardous chemical weapons, with widespread use of riot control agents and multiple reports of the use of the choking agent chloropicrin – a highly irritating chemical discovered in the 1840s – on the battlefield.”

Trump ground game undercut by slow internet that crashes app. TheGuardian.com article. Pull quote: “But the Trump campaign and the Elon Musk-backed America Pac, which is now doing an outsized portion of the Trump ground game, use a management app called Campaign Sidekick that struggles in areas with slow internet and means canvassers have to use an offline version [with numerous problems].” Trump’s slow play of rural internet support has come back to bite his campaign.

Guidance: Framing Software Component Transparency: Establishing a Common Software Bill of Materials (SBOM). CSB.gov release. Pull quote: “Today, CISA published the Framing Software Component Transparency, created by the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) Tooling & Implementation Working Group, one of the five SBOM community-driven workstreams facilitated by CISA. CISA’s community-driven working groups publish documents and reports to advance and refine SBOM and ultimately promote adoption. This resource serves as the detailed foundation of SBOM, defining SBOM concepts and related terms and offering an updated baseline of how software components are to be represented. This document serves as a guide on the processes around SBOM creation.”