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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
51

Maritime shipping container security and the Defense Transportation System: problems and policy in the 21st century

Jankowski, William M. 06 1900 (has links)
Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / The Defense Transportation System (DTS), led by the Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC), depends on the commercial maritime industry to provide movement of supplies and equipment around the world. The maritime shipping container is a critical asset in providing for this logistical support to the war fighter abroad. These 20- or 40-foot containers have become the backbone of the maritime industry, and will continue to proliferate as global commerce continues to expand. While the growth in the use of maritime shipping containers in the 21st century has accelerated the nation's economic trade substantially, it may also have become a significant problem. Containers are an indispensable but vulnerable link in the chain of global trade; approximately 90 percent of the world's cargo moves by container. Because of DoD's dependency on the maritime industry and these containers, it will and must continue to ride the wave of commercial practices, specifically in pursuit of better security throughout the maritime industry. In the wake of September 11, 2001, and with the new threats of WMD, the maritime shipping container may become a weapons delivery system. This thesis documented the need for security improvements for the maritime shipping container in protecting global commerce and DoD cargo shipments. Comprehensive reviews of government reports, books, articles, and Internet based materials, as well as interviews with MTMC personnel, have indicated that DoD is taking a series of measures to meet these challenges. DoD's Defense Transportation System and the commercial maritime industry will be challenged and tested by new policy requirements. MTMC has already adopted new business processes, cargo manifest requirements, and technological innovations that assure customers in-transit visibility and total asset visibility (ITV/TAV), including the Intelligent Road-Rail Information Server (IRRIS) system. / Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy
52

Quantitative vulnerability analysis of electric power networks

Holmgren, Åke J. January 2006 (has links)
Disturbances in the supply of electric power can have serious implications for everyday life as well as for national (homeland) security. A power outage can be initiated by natural disasters, adverse weather, technical failures, human errors, sabotage, terrorism, and acts of war. The vulnerability of a system is described as a sensitivity to threats and hazards, and is measured by P (Q(t) > q), i.e. the probability of at least one disturbance with negative societal consequences Q larger than some critical value q, during a given period of time (0,t]. The aim of the thesis is to present methods for quantitative vulnerability analysis of electric power delivery networks to enable effective strategies for prevention, mitigation, response, and recovery to be developed. Paper I provides a framework for vulnerability assessment of infrastructure systems. The paper discusses concepts and perspectives for developing a methodology for vulnerability analysis, and gives examples related to power systems. Paper II analyzes the vulnerability of power delivery systems by means of statistical analysis of Swedish disturbance data. It is demonstrated that the size of large disturbances follows a power law, and that the occurrence of disturbances can be modeled as a Poisson process. Paper III models electric power delivery systems as graphs. Statistical measures for characterizing the structure of two empirical transmission systems are calculated, and a structural vulnerability analysis is performed, i.e. a study of the connectivity of the graph when vertices and edges are disabled. Paper IV discusses the origin of power laws in complex systems in terms of their structure and the dynamics of disturbance propagation. A branching process is used to model the structure of a power distribution system, and it is shown that the disturbance size in this analytical network model follows a power law. Paper V shows how the interaction between an antagonist and the defender of a power system can be modeled as a game. A numerical example is presented, and it is studied if there exists a dominant defense strategy, and if there is an optimal allocation of resources between protection of components, and recovery. / QC 20100831
53

Border Crossing Modeling and Analysis: A Non-Stationary Dynamic Reallocation Methodology For Terminating Queueing Systems

Moya, Hiram 2012 August 1900 (has links)
The United States international land boundary is a volatile, security intense area. In 2010, the combined trade was $918 billion within North American nations, with 80% transported by commercial trucks. Over 50 million commercial vehicles cross the Texas/Mexico border every year, not including private vehicles and pedestrian traffic, between Brownsville and El Paso, Texas, through one of over 25 major border crossings called "ports of entry" (POE). Recently, securing our southwest border from terrorist interventions, undocumented immigrants, and the illegal flow of drugs and guns has dominated the need to efficiently and effectively process people, goods and traffic. Increasing security and inspection requirements are seriously affecting transit times. Each POE is configured as a multi-commodity, prioritized queueing network which rarely, if ever, operates in steady-state. Therefore, the problem is about finding a balance between a reduction of wait time and its variance, POE operation costs, and the sustainment of a security level. The contribution of the dissertation is three-fold. The first uses queueing theory on the border crossing process to develop a methodology that decreases border wait times without increasing costs or affecting security procedures. The outcome is the development of the Dynamic Reallocation Methodology (DRM). Currently at the POE, inspection stations are fixed and can only inspect one truck type, FAST or Non-FAST program participant. The methodology proposes moveable servers that once a threshold is met, can be switched to service the other type of truck. Particular emphasis is given to inspection (service) times under time-varying arrivals (demands). The second contribution is an analytical model of the POE, to analyze the effects of the DRM. First assuming a Markovian service time, DRM benefits are evaluated. However, field data and other research suggest a general distribution for service time. Therefore, a Coxian k-phased approximation is implemented. The DRM is analyzed under this new baseline using expected number in the system, and cycle times. A variance reduction procedure is also proposed and evaluated under DRM. Results show that queue length and wait time is reduced 10 to 33% depending on load, while increasing FAST wait time by less than three minutes.
54

Building a contingency menu using capabilities-based planning for Homeland Defense and Homeland Security /

Goss, Thomas Joseph, January 2005 (has links) (PDF)
Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, 2005. / Title from title screen (viewed Apr. 12, 2006). "March 2005." Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-72) Also issued in paper format.
55

Développement et applications de détecteurs gazeux à micro-pistes pour la tomographie muonique / Development and applications of micro-pattern gaseous detectors for muon tomography

Bouteille, Simon 11 September 2017 (has links)
Cette thèse décrit les premiers essais de tomographie muonique par absorption et par déviation en utilisant des détecteurs Micromegas à haute granularité. Cette technique d'imagerie utilisant les rayons cosmiques gratuits, sans dangers et disponibles partout a démontré sa capacité à imager des objets de tailles variées. Afin de construire des outils compacts, précis, et portables, utiliser une voie d'électronique pour lire chaque motif de lecture est impossible. Pour éviter ce problème, des détecteurs multiplexés ont été conçus, testés et mis en situation dans différentes conditions. Il a été tiré parti des dernières améliorations concernant le détecteur Micromegas telles que le multiplexage génétique ou la lecture 2D par pistes sous une couche résistive. Les prototypes qui ont été fabriqués ont atteint une résolution de 300µm sur une surface d'un quart de mètre carré en ne nécessitant que 61 voies d'électronique. Grâce à ces détecteurs, des campagnes de prise de données ont été faites, à la fois dans l'environnement semi-contrôlé du centre CEA de Saclay et sur le plateau de Gizeh en Egypte. Ces deux campagnes ont permis d'imager avec succès le château d'eau du CEA Saclay ainsi que la pyramide de Khéops et ce malgré les conditions extrêmes que les télescopes à muon ont endurées. Des variations de température de plusieurs dizaines de Kelvin ont été enregistrées alors que l'acquisition de données se déroulait de manière stable, c'est-à-dire que les variations du gain n'impactaient pas le système d'auto déclenchement. Cette stabilité a été rendue possible grâce à un ajustement des hautes tensions vis à vis des conditions environnementales. Cela constitue la première mondiale concernant le fonctionnement d'un dispositif de reconstruction de trace à base de Micromégas en extérieur. En parallèle des expériences de muographie par déviation ont été menées. Un dispositif imageant des objets de petite taille est capable de distinguer divers matériaux sur une échelle de temps de l'ordre d'une journée. Une plus grande installation a permis d'imager un conteneur entier. La résolution du problème inverse a été faite en utilisant à la fois l'algorithme simple dit du PoCA ainsi que celui de maximisation de vraisemblance proposé par Schultz et son équipe. / This thesis describes the first attempts to perform both absorption and scattering muon tomography using high granularity Micromegas detectors. This imaging technique using the free, available and harmless cosmic ray muons radiation shows great possibilities to study various sized objects. In order to make compact and precise portable devices, using one channel of electronics per readout pattern is not possible. To avoid this problem multiplexed detectors have been designed, extensively tested and used in numerous conditions. Latest developments in Micromegas design have been used such as the genetic multiplexing and the 2D strip readout using a resistive layer. The prototypes made were able to achieve a 300µm resolution at the scale of 50cm while using only 61 channels of electronics. Using these detectors, muography data taking campaigns have been performed both in the semi-controlled environment of the Saclay site of CEA and in the wild of the Giza plateau in Egypt. These two campaigns succeeded in imaging the CEA Saclay water tower and the Khufu's pyramid despite the extreme conditions endured by the Micromegas muon telescopes. Large temperature variations of a few tens of Kelvin have been recorded together with a stable operation i.e. an even gain ensuring a steady self triggering system. This stability was achieved using high voltage variations with respect to the environmental conditions. Together with this very first worldwide operation of a Micromegas-based tracker outside a laboratory, scattering muographies have also been done. A small setup imaging handheld objects performed well in separating various materials in time scales of the order of the day while a bigger 1m² setup allowing the scan of a full container was successfully operated. The inversion of the ill-posed problem of the muon scattering was performed using the crude PoCA method and the maximum likelihood one described by Schultz et al.
56

Mitigating Drone Attacks For Large High-Density Events

Travis L Cline (9739406) 15 December 2020 (has links)
Advances in technology have given rise to the widespread use of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), more commonly known as ‘drones.’ The sUAS market is expected to continue to increase at a rapid pace, with the FAA forecasting around 8,000 registrations monthly (FAA, 2019). High profile drone incidents include use in an attack on the Venezuelan president, an undetected landing on the property of the White House, and use in dropping crude explosives on troops in the Middle East (Gramer, 2017; Grossman, 2018; Wallace & Loffi, 2015). The rate of proliferation and high-performance characteristics of these drones has raised serious concerns for safety in high-density outdoor events. Counter-unmanned aerial systems are currently illegal for all but a few Federal entities within the U.S., leaving private and public entities at risk. This exploratory research investigates several legal facility and patron behavioral interventions to reduce possible casualties during a drone attack by using AnyLogic simulation modeling in an amusement park scenario. Data from this experiment suggest that behavioral interventions implemented 30 seconds before a drone attack can reduce casualties by more than 55%, and up to 62% casualty reductions can be realized with a 60-second implementation time. Testing suggests that venue design considerations, such as a reduction in hard corners, covered high-density areas, and smoother area transitions can synergistically reduce casualties when used in conjunction with a warning system. While casualty mitigation did occur throughout the study, active threat interdiction methods would be necessary to design a system that may prevent casualties overall.
57

Realigning Community Policing in a Homeland Security Era

Titus, Jr., Alfred Stanford 01 January 2017 (has links)
The priority shift from community policing to homeland security in local police departments in the United States has threatened the relationships and successes established by community policing, though little empirical research explored the relationship between funding and implementation of homeland security versus community policing objectives among local law enforcement agencies. Using Karl Popper's conceptualization of the liberal democracy as the framework, the purpose of this descriptive study was to examine how trends in funding and implementation of both community policing and homeland security objectives changed among American law enforcement agencies between 1993 and 2013. Data were acquired from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics dataset held by the Bureau of Justice Statistics for the years 1993 to 2013. The data included information from sample sizes that varied by year: 950 to 2,503 American law enforcement agencies with over 100 sworn officers and a stratified random sample of 831 to 2,145 American law enforcement agencies with fewer than 100 sworn officers. Data were examined using descriptive statistics and findings indicate community policing began as the priority, was scaled back after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when homeland security became the priority, and today local police departments are using strategy integration to maintain national security, public safety, and community relations simultaneously. Positive social change implications stemming from this study include the conveyance that communities are still the priority in policing and recommendations to local police agencies to utilize strategy integration to maintain community policing, regardless of the priority.
58

Stolperstein Terrorismusbekämpfung: Scheitert der europäische Raum der Freiheit, der Sicherheit und des Rechts im Angesicht des internationalen Terrorismus?

Wetzel, Jens 29 January 2014 (has links)
Die EU hat sich verpflichtet einen Raum der Freiheit, der Sicherheit und des Rechts (RFSR) zu errichten. Der Schutz persönlicher Freiheitsrechte, die Wahrung von Rechtsstaatlichkeit und die Gewährung (innerer) Sicherheit sind seither ein zentrales Integrationsziel der Union und wurden im zunehmenden Maße „europäisiert“. Der internationale Terrorismus stellt dabei eine der bedeutendsten Motivationen, aber auch eine der größten Bewährungsproben dar. Gelingt es der EU die Integration im Bereich der inneren Sicherheit weiter voranzutreiben ohne dabei Freiheit und Rechtsstaatlichkeit in den Schatten zu drängen. Dieser Problemstellung wird mit einer exemplarischen Analyse zentraler Antiterrorismusmaßnahmen nach 9/11 nachgegangen.
59

Fortress of Fear and Borders of Control: How the U.S Media Constructs Mexican Immigrants as a National Security Threat

Crews, Chris G. January 2007 (has links)
No description available.
60

Instrumental Development and Implementation of Portable Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry for Homeland Security and Environmental Applications

Anguiano Virgen, Camila 12 1900 (has links)
A rapidly growing topic of great interest is the adaptation of benchtop analytical instrumentation for use in outdoor harsh environments. Some of the areas that stand to benefit from field instrumentation development include government agencies involved with the preservation of the environment and institutions responsible for the safety of the general public. Detection systems are at the forefront of the miniaturization movement as the interest in analyte identification and quantitation appears to only be accessible through the use of analytical instrumentation. Mass spectrometry is a distinguished analytical technique known for its ability to detect the mass-to-charge (m/z) ratios of gas-phase ions of interest. Although these systems have been routinely limited to research lab-based analysis, there has been considerable development of miniaturized and portable mass spectrometry systems. Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry (MIMS) is becoming a common method of sample introduction that is subject to significant development. MIMS allows for minimal sample preparation, continuous sampling, and excludes complicated analyte introduction techniques. Sampling is accomplished using a semipermeable membrane that allows selective analyte passage into the vacuum of the mass spectrometer. MIMS is becoming the preeminent choice of homeland security and environmental monitoring applications with increasing opportunities for the future development of specialized systems. The steadfast development of miniaturized mass spectrometry systems with efficient operation capabilities for a variety of applications gives promise to the further development of MIMS technology as well as other analytical instrumentation.

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