Digital Commons Network^™

National Security: The Social Implications Of The Politics Of Transparency, M G. Michael, Katina Michael

Faculty of Informatics - Papers (Archive)

This special issue of Prometheus is dedicated to the theme of the Social Implications of National Security Measures on Citizens and Business. National security measures can be defined as those technical and non-technical measures that have been initiated as a means to curb breaches in national security, irrespective of whether these might occur by nationals or aliens in or from outside the sovereign state. National security includes such government priorities as maintaining border control, safeguarding against pandemic outbreaks, preventing acts of terror, and even discovering and eliminating identification fraud. Governments worldwide are beginning to implement information and communication security techniques …

Task-Driven Multi-Formation Control For Coordinated Uav/Ugv Isr Missions, Herbert G. Tanner

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

The report describes the development of a theoretical framework for coordination and control of combined teams of UAVs and UGVs for coordinated ISR missions. We consider the mission as a composition of an ordered sequence of subtasks, each to be performed by a different team. We design continuous cooperative controllers that enable each team to perform a given subtask and we develop a discrete strategy for interleaving the action of teams on different subtasks. The overall multi-agent coordination architecture is captured by a hybrid automaton, stability is studied using Lyapunov tools, and performance is evaluated through numerical simulations.

The Nsa Domestic Surveillance Program: An Analysis Of Congressional Oversight During An Era Of One-Party Rule, Tara M. Sugiyama, Marisa Perry

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

On December 16, 2005, the New York Times sounded a fire alarm when it revealed that, in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, President George W Bush had issued a secret executive order permitting the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct warrantless surveillance on individuals to unearth nascent terrorist activity. Congress responded to the disclosure of the NSA domestic surveillance program largely by shirking its oversight duties. This Note argues that when a single party controls both the executive and the legislative branches, the fire-alarm model fails to provide sufficient congressional oversight. Short of future elections altering the balance …

Fixing Fisa For Long War: Regulating Warrantless Surveillance In The Age Of Terrorism, Adam Burton

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “The English poet W.H. Auden once claimed that “Peeping Toms are never praised, like novelists or bird watchers, for the keenness of their observations.” Perhaps Auden would have modified his maxim had he lived in the age of terrorism. A certain degree of government surveillance of even intimate communications is expected, encouraged, and indeed praised when the government’s efforts lead to the prevention of catastrophe. However, it is also expected that the government will minimize these intrusions, will conduct surveillance only on legitimate targets, and will follow the procedural safeguards that the representatives of the people have enacted in …

The Emerging Ethics Of Humancentric Gps Tracking And Monitoring, Katina Michael, Andrew Mcnamee, M G. Michael

Faculty of Informatics - Papers (Archive)

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is increasingly being adopted by private and public enterprise to track and monitor humans for location-based services (LBS). Some of these applications include personal locators for children, the elderly or those suffering from Alzheimer’s or memory loss, and the monitoring of parolees for law enforcement, security or personal protection purposes. The continual miniaturization of the GPS chipset means that receivers can take the form of wristwatches, mini mobiles and bracelets, with the ability to pinpoint the longitude and latitude of a subject 24/7/365. This paper employs usability context analyses to draw out the emerging ethical …

Popular Constitutionalism As Presidential Constitutionalism?, David L. Franklin

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This essay, which focuses on Larry Kramer's book The People Themselves, makes three points. First, although Kramer makes popular constitutionalism the conceptual centerpiece of his book, it's not at all clear what popular constitutionalism is. Kramer's work can be read to embody two very different versions of popular constitutionalism: a populist sensibility model and a departmentalist model. Second, whichever model Kramer has in mind, he has performed a valuable service by reminding us that the meaning of the Constitution is not identical to the doctrines the Supreme Court uses to implement that meaning. Third, popular constitutionalism in 2006 may in …

Development Of A Micropshere-Based Immunoassay For The Detection Of Igm Antibodies To West Nile Virus And St. Louis Encephalitis Virus In Sentinel Chicken Sera, Logan C. Haller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

West Nile virus (WNV) and St. Louis Encephalitis (SLEV) are arthropod-borne viruses belonging to the genus Flavivirus and are classified as significant human pathogens of global epidemiological importance. Since its introduction into the United States in 1999, WNV has spread throughout most of the country and has caused major epidemics of neuroinvasive disease (Hayes and Gubler, 2005). SLEV is endemic to the United States and is maintained in an enzootic transmission cycle in Florida.The Florida Sentinel Chicken Arboviral Surveillance Network was established in 1978 following a widespread rural epidemic of SLEV in central Florida to monitor the activity of arboviruses …

Evaluating Spatial Surveillance: Detection Of Known Outbreaks In Real Data, Ken Kleinman, Allyson Abrams, W. Katherine Yih, Richard Platt, Martin Kulldorff

Public Health Department Faculty Publication Series

Since the anthrax attacks of October 2001 and the SARS outbreaks of recent years, there has been an increasing interest in developing surveillance systems to aid in the early detection of such illness. Systems have been established which do this is by monitoring primary health-care visits, pharmacy sales, absenteeism records, and other non-traditional sources of data. While many resources have been invested in establishing such systems, relatively little effort has as yet been expended in evaluating their performance.

One way to evaluate a given surveillance system is to compare the signals it generates with known outbreaks identified in other systems. …

The Impact Of Institutional Surveillance Technologies On Student Behaviour, Shane Dawson

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Contemporary education institutions are increasingly investing fiscal and human resources to further develop their online infrastructure in order to enhance flexible learning options and the overall student learning experience. Coinciding with the implementation of these technologies has been the centralisation of data and the emergence of online activities that have afforded the capacity for more intimate modes of surveillance by both the institution and education practitioner. This study offers an initial investigation into the impact of such modes of surveillance on student behaviours. Both internal and external students surveyed indicated that their browsing behaviours, the range of topics discussed and …

Anglo-American Privacy And Surveillance, Laura K. Donohue

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The United States’ Terrorism Surveillance Program represents just one of many expansions in surveillance since 9/11, as legal controls previously introduced to protect citizens’ privacy and to prevent the misuse of surveillance powers have been relaxed. What makes the situation qualitatively different now is not just the lowering of the bar: digitization and the rapid advancement of technology mean that the type and volume of information currently available eclipse that of previous generations. The issue is not confined to the United States. Despite the incorporation of the European Convention of Human Rights into British law, the United Kingdom also appears …