Thesis (M.C.E.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: Ardeshir Faghri, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Buffalo, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-46). Also available online.

Thesis (M. of Strategic Studies)--U.S. Army War College, 2006. / "15 MAR 2006"--Tech. report doc. page. Includes bibliographical references (p. 15-16) Full text document available on public STINET.

Screening individuals for concealed knowledge has traditionally been the purview of professional interrogators investigating a crime. But the ability to detect when a person is hiding important information would be of high value to many other fields and functions. This dissertation proposes design principles for and reports on an implementation and empirical evaluation of a non-invasive, automated system for human screening. The screening system design (termed an automated screening kiosk or ASK) is patterned after a standard interviewing method called the Concealed Information Test (CIT), which is built on theories explaining psychophysiological and behavioral effects of human orienting and defensive responses. As part of testing the ASK proof of concept, I propose and empirically examine alternative indicators of concealed knowledge in a CIT. Specifically, I propose kinesic rigidity as a viable cue, propose and instantiate an automated method for capturing rigidity, and test its viability using a traditional CIT experiment. I also examine oculomotor behavior using a mock security screening experiment using an ASK system design. Participants in this second experiment packed a fake improvised explosive device (IED) in a bag and were screened by an ASK system. Results indicate that the ASK design, if implemented within a highly controlled framework such as the CIT, has potential to overcome barriers to more widespread application of concealed knowledge testing in government and business settings.

Many research groups have conducted the investigation into terahertz technology for various applications over the last decade. THz imaging for security screening has been one of the most important applications because of its superior performance of high resolution and not health hazardous. Due to increasing security requirements, it is desirable to devise a high-speed imaging system with high image quality for concealed weapon detection. Therefore, this thesis presents my research into a low-cost and fast THz imaging system for security application. This research has made a number of contributes to THz imaging, such as proposing the beam scanning imaging approach to reduce the scanning time; developing the simulation method of the scanned imaging system; investigating new reconstruction algorithms; studying the optimal spatial sampling criterion; and verifying the beam scanning scheme in experiment. Firstly, the beam scanning scheme is proposed and evaluated in both simulation and experiment, compared to the widely applied raster scanning scheme. A better mechanic rotation structure is developed to reduce the scanning time consumed and realise a more compact system. Then, a rotary Dragonian multi-reflector antenna subsystem, comprising two rotated reflectors is designed to form a similar synthetic aperture being realised in the raster scanned scheme. Thirdly, the simulation of the THz scanning imaging system is achieved by employing Physical Optics algorithm. The transposed convolution and partial inverse convolution reconstruction algorithms are investigated to speed up the image re-construction. Finally, two THz imaging systems based on the raster and beam scanning schemes are assessed and compared in the experiments. The back-propagation, transposed convolution and partial inverse convolution algorithms are applied in these experiments to reconstruct the images. The proposed beam scanning scheme can be further explored together with antenna arrays to provide a compact, fast and low-cost THz imaging system in the future.

An in-depth study of Advance Passenger Information and Passenger Name Record has never been accomplished prior to the events of September 11 th. It is of great importance to distinguish both of these concepts as they entail different legal consequence. API is to be understood as a data transmission that Border Control Authorities possess in advance in order to facilitate the movements of passengers. It is furthermore imperative that harmonization and inter-operability between States be achieved in order for this system to work. Although the obligations seem to appear for air carriers to be extraneous, the positive impact is greater than the downfalls. / Passenger Name Record access permits authorities to have additional data that could identify individuals requiring more questioning prior to border control clearance. This data does not cause in itself privacy issues other than perhaps the potential retention and manipulation of information that Border Control Authorities may acquire. In essence, bilateral agreements between governments should be sought in order to protect national legislation. / The common goal of the airline industry is to ensure safe and efficient air transport. API and PNR should be viewed as formalities that can facilitate border control clearance and prevent the entrance of potentially high-risk individuals.

No description available.

The events of 9-11 resulted in a slew of policy, procedural, and organizational changes within many government departments as the U.S. government took many steps to enhance security to prevent future terrorist attacks. The emphasis on high threat targets by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other government agencies, such as the White House, the Capitol and Congressional office buildings, major infrastructure and facilities within US cities, airline travel, ports and economic supply chains has generated a great deal of debate and attention. There are however, targets that are considered low risk situated in high threat areas that also provide open access to the public for which security professionals are responsible that should not be overlooked during the War on Terror. The question is how low risk targets in high threat areas should be protected? What resource distribution makes sense? What practices should be applied to achieve security? The purpose of this research is to look at one of these targets, the Smithsonian Institution and how the Smithsonian Institution's Office of Protection Services (SI OPS) responded to the terror attacks of 9-11 and the ongoing threat. Four factors will be examined: (1) the screening process, (2) the budget, (3) the security policy formulation process, and (4) training. The study focus is based on data derived from semi-structured interviews and a review of SI documents. Examining post 9-11 security changes allows one to see how SI OPS has evolved in its attempt to meet both internal security demands and expectations against an external security concern. The findings reveal SI OPS initially underwent significant changes within the four factors in the three years following the attacks of 9-11. However, limited resources and manpower strains have played major roles in the subsequent decline in some of the factors after their initial increases. Although a return to the security levels immediately following 9-11 may not be imminent, it is recommended that OPS management make stronger efforts to communicate with non-security managers and return to more stringent visitor screening procedures. / Ph. D.

No description available.

The aviation industry is undeniably playing a very significant role in our day-to-day life. A vast and inter-connected web of flights ensures swift passenger travel and cargo traffic. However, in the name of security, otherwise intrinsic technicalities tend now not only to hinder on further development of aviation facilitation but also take over and lead towards the exact opposite result. What are the current measures taken by the international community to streamline passenger travel? What are the new initiatives which ought to be implemented? How is the future of aviation facilitation going to look like? How is it going to affect air travel and what legal implications is it rising? Throughout this thesis we will present the legal framework applicable to aviation facilitation and discuss the main initiatives that are being considered by ICAO and IATA in this respect. While Facilitation and Security should be considered as "two faces of the same coin", in reality they appear to "compete" against each other. Hence, we will provide our arguments in support of this theory.