Este trabalho investiga quantitativamente as causas da adesão de países a tratados internacionais de segurança. Mais precisamente, tratados de controle de armamentos. O principal tratado a ser estudado aqui é o Tratado de Não-Proliferação de Armas Nucleares. Primeiramente fiz uma reconstrução racional dos programas realista e liberal das relações internacionais, com enfoque em regimes internacionais. Trata-se de uma abordagem qualitativa, feita com o intuito de subsidiar a pesquisa quantitativa. O cerne do trabalho é a análise econométrica do problema da adesão. Utilizo dados em painel na forma país/ano. Utilizo o universo dos países entre os anos 1968 e 2004. A técnica utilizada é a regressão logística com erro padrão robusto agrupado por país. O principal achado é que democracias aderem mais que autocracias na razão de dois para um. Por fim, temos uma modelagem formal, ainda bastante tentativa, do problema da adesão a tratados de segurança, feita com o intuito de prover uma ferramenta de policy implementation, com base num estudo de caso, qual seja, o da adesão de Índia e Paquistão ao Tratado de Não-Proliferação de Armas Nucleares. A metodologia usada nesta parte é a de desenho de mecanismo. / This study investigates the causes of adhesion to security treaties. The main case of study is the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The rational reconstructions of the liberal and realist research programs inform the quantitative work that follows them. The kernel of this piece is the econometric analysis. I use panel data and cluster robust logits to infer the causes of adhesion of countries to arms control treaties. The main finding is that democracies adhere more than authoritarian domestic regimes with a two to one odds ratio. Finally, I model the strategic situation between India and Pakistan. These two countries are not yet signatories of the NPT. I use mechanism design to come up with a means of promoting better equilibria.

For the last 22 years, systematic rapes and punitive violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were utilized as weapons of war and a control strategy. This quantitative study built upon the ecological model of impact of sexual assault on women's mental health to investigate the relationship between the health impacts and chronic pain and depression among women survivors of sexual rape in eastern DRC. The sample included 156 female rape survivors, between 18-80 years old, and raped between 2010 and 2014 while residing in the conflict area. The research questions focused on the association between fistulas, other sexual rape-related injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), feelings of worthlessness, social rejection, support from family/friends, and chronic pain and depression among women victims of sexual rape in eastern DRC. Results from multinomial logistic regression and ordinal regression tests showed strong links between independent and dependent variables: Fistula was strongly linked with chronic illness over 6 months (p = 0.003), and with upset all the time (p = 0.033); PTSD was associated with chronic illness due to violent rapes (p = 0.004) and sadness (p = 0.000); feelings of worthlessness was related to prolonged illness over 6 months (p = 0.024) and feeling blue (p = 0.006); social rejection was linked to avoidance (p = 0.003); and support from family/friends was associated with prolonged illness over 6 months (p = 0.025) and lack of excitement (p = 0.011). The results of this study could assist health care providers in formulating response strategies for identifying public health priorities in conflict area, addressing health needs, and defining approaches for reducing war-related sexual violence, chronic pain, and depression among rape survivors.

No description available.

Commercial concealed weapon detection systems are large and expensive and are not suitable to be used as a portable system. Currently, new methods of concealed weapon detection are being developed to build small and compact systems. One such method is based upon the natural resonances of objects; however, no such system has made it to the market due to the low quality of the signals used in the detection algorithms. In this thesis, a prototype concealed weapon detection system is developed and tested for operation in a cluttered environment. This system utilizes the late-time portion of a radar return to extract the resonance information of an unknown target. After proper signal processing and clutter suppression, the signals are classified to determine if the object is a threat. Multiple measurements with frequency-sweep and time-domain systems are used to verify the algorithm. Microwave tissue imaging techniques aim to reconstruct the internal dielectric distribution of the tissue and rely on the dielectric contrast between healthy and malignant tissues. This contrast has been shown to be weak, and therefore, the signals are easily susceptible to noise. This thesis proposes and validates a method for signal-to-noise ratio analysis of complex S-parameter data sets that are used for microwave imaging. A study of de-noising and artifact reduction techniques for microwave holographic imaging is also presented. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

This study, framed in the criminal events perspective, investigates situational and contextual factors of violent interpersonal encounters that impact the likelihood of offender weapon usage and, when a weapon is used, the likelihood that it will be a firearm. Furthermore, this study examines the effects that weapons have on levels of victim injury along with other factors that may impact injury independent of weapon use. Three specific topics of interest are addressed: whether or not black offenders were more likely to make use of a firearm, what factors impact firearm use amongst female offenders, and if the findings of Kleck and McElrath (1991), which stated that firearm use largely prevents injury, but when victim injury does occur, it is more likely to be lethal, could be replicated using a more recent and comprehensive source of information. Data were collected from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Findings were that black offenders were more likely to use firearms, but this pattern is essentially limited to black male offenders. Female offenders were more likely to use a firearm against a stranger and during the course of a robbery. Finally, firearm use was associated with a decrease in the likelihood of a victim suffering nonlethal injury, but when injury did occur, firearms significantly increased the chances of victim death. Theoretical and policy implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

As directed energy technology continues to evolve and become a viable weapon alternative, a need exists to investigate the impacts of these applications without a "plug-and-check" method, but rather with an analysis governed by fundamental principles. This thesis examines the transient thermal loads that a high-energy weapon system introduces into a high performance aircraft using fundamental thermodynamic and heat transfer analyses. The high-energy weapon system employed in this research contains power storage, power conditioning equipment, optics, and a solid-state laser. The high-energy weapon system is integrated into the aircraft by a dedicated thermal management system connected to the onboard air and fuel fluid networks. The dedicated thermal management system includes heat exchangers, thermal storage, microchannel coolers, valves, and pumps. Governing equations for the electric directed energy weapon subsystem and thermal management system are formulated for each system component and modeled in Mathwork's Simulink™. System models are integrated into a generic, high-performance aircraft model created as part of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Integrated Vehicle Energy Technology Demonstration (INVENT) program. The aircraft model performs a defined mission profile, firing the directed energy weapon during the high-altitude, transonic cruise segment. When firing a 100-kilowatt directed energy weapon system operating at 16.9% efficiency, large thermal transients quickly heat downstream onboard systems. Real-time heat rejection causes temperature spikes in avionic and environment systems that exceed allowable operation constraints. The addition of thermal storage to the thermal management system mitigates thermal impacts downstream of the directed energy weapon by delaying the time thermal loads are rejected to aircraft, thereby reducing peak and average loads. Although thermal storage is shown to mitigate peak loads in downstream onboard systems, thermal closure is yet to be achieved. This research presents a general and fundamental approach to investigating the thermal impacts of a directed energy weapon system on a high-performance aircraft. Although specific cases are analyzed, this general approach to model development and simulation is conducive to component and system customization for many other cases. Additionally, the supplementation of models with analytical, semi-empirical, and empirical data further tailors model development to each user's need while increasing the potential to enhance accuracy and efficacy. Without the material expenses of a "plug-and-check" method, component and system level modeling of the directed energy weapon system and high-performance aircraft provides valuable insight into the thermal responses of highly-coupled systems. / Master of Science

Master of Science