Search

Why is it so difficult to find the right people to work in aviation security jobs and retain them, especially post-COVID-19? And how can we make these jobs attractive (again)? While this paper focuses on security screeners, most of the points can be extrapolated to aviation security staff, and airport staff in general. This paper takes the view that most of the reasons why we are facing staff shortages in airports were already present before the pandemic but were accelerated and amplified by it, with an additional worsening factor due to the unexpectedly quick and steep restart in passenger flights. It discusses the 'old' mindset and the fact that it cannot continue to prevail and should be replaced by a more positive, quality-oriented, human-centric one. To substantiate these opinions, the paper uses the findings of a European Union (EU)-funded project on skills and labour shortages intelligence (the INTEL project1) led by the Private Security Social Partners, illustrated by three business cases and various sources of information on best practice in attracting the younger generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to analyze effective teamwork at security checkpoints by investigating how security crews communicate in different (routine and threat) situations. Background: Working at an airport security screening checkpoint is challenging. Although tasks and processes are highly regulated and standardized due to legal requirements, security screeners must be trained to deal with unforeseen threat situations involving high levels of uncertainty. Therefore, security crews need to engage in flexible and adaptive coordination according to the situation and circumstances. Method: We conducted a field study with 20 airport security screening crews comprising 100 security screeners. Teamwork in terms of interaction between crew members was measured, differentiating between proactive "push" communication and information on request representing "pull" communication. Furthermore, non-task related communication was assessed. Results: While crews showed non-task related communication more in routine situations, both task-related "push" and "pull" communication occurred more in threat situations. In terms of team performance, we could show significant positive effects of proactive "push" communication and non-task related interaction in threat situations. Conclusion: Our results underscore the specific setting of airport security screening and the challenges that arise for teamwork. This study investigates professional screeners and passengers in the field. In contrast to other high-risk areas, security crews are confronted with a third party that complicates coordination strategies considered effective in previous studies. Application: Our findings recommend situation-specific communication strategies for practical training for airport security screening crews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, automation has become increasingly integrated into knowledge work environments, i.e., jobs that require specialized skills for task completion. Some research has shown that automation may reduce cognitive workload. However, other work reports that increasing automation does not always lower cognitive workload. These conflicting results suggest that further investigation is needed to identify factors that influence the relationship between automation use and cognitive workload. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate how two potential moderators, task complexity and age, influence that relationship. A total of 24 younger and 24 middle-aged adults performed an object identification task that resembled a baggage scanning procedure conducted by airport security personnel. The task was manipulated by varying the level of automation (4 increasing levels) that provided support in identifying objects of interest as well as the complexity of task (two types: component and coordinative). In addition, participants completed a pattern identification and sorting memory task, which helped emulate a knowledge work environment. Performance (i.e., object identification accuracy, average completion time, pattern identification accuracy, and sorting memory task accuracy) and subjective workload (NASA-RTLX score) measures were recorded. Participants also rated the usability of the automation. Overall, results showed that while the use of automation was associated with reduced cognitive workload, both types of task complexity negatively affected this relationship such that increased complexity was associated with a decrease in accuracy. Age did not moderate the relationship between automation and cognitive workload, but there were qualitative differences in terms of how the two age groups perceived the utility and usability of the automated systems. Knowledge generated from this research has implications for the design of future human-automation systems and can be used to inform interface design that is tailored to the needs and preferences of different users and use cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise in global travel has led to an increased need for heightened security measures at airports. Despite the best efforts of airport security officers, in the past year, hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and thousands of agricultural invasive species have found their way into the country, posing a severe threat to public safety and the environment. Moreover, human threats pose a significant risk to civil aviation, reinforcing the need for advanced security technology. In response to these challenges, NOSI (Novel Odor Sensing Intelligence) and ROSI (Reconnaissance Operations Security Intelligence), intelligence surveillance systems consisting of semi-autonomous controller-responder robots, were developed as a proof of concept to supplement the efforts of security and K-9 (police dogs) operators at airports. NOSI is equipped with multi-channel gas sensors for odor detection, enabling it to identify illegal drugs and invasive species in the baggage handling process, while ROSI is equipped with computer vision to identify individuals already in the government's database of persons of interest. These coordinated robots also provide travelers with important information pertaining to their journey and allow them to trigger emergency alerts. The robots were tested in a custom-designed test bed that replicated both the behind-the-scenes baggage handling and front-office customer service operations of an airport, thus simulating a realistic airport-like setting. Based on design criteria, NOSI and ROSI demonstrated success rates of 73.4 percent and 69.8 percent, respectively. Improvements in areas of robot stability, sensor accuracy, and feature expansion were documented for further development. In conclusion, the NOSI and ROSI framework can enhance the efficiency and accuracy of airport infrastructure monitoring and supplement the capabilities of human and K9 operators. Overall, this approach can potentially revolutionize operations in various infrastructures and represents the future of human-robot collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture and human factors in aviation environment are not new concepts. They have been primary components of the aviation safety system and have become fundamental to the operations of air carriers. Their significance in ensuring safe aviation practices is widely recognised and accepted today. These concepts have been seamlessly integrated into the organisational DNA of aviation safety, shaping core principles and practices. In contrast, aviation security has historically lagged behind, often seen merely as a component of the broader safety framework. Over the years, safety and security have evolved separately, reflecting their distinct natures. While aviation safety has reached a high level of maturity, aviation security is now in a position where it must catch up. Current aviation security staff recruitment and retention challenges need to be addressed by creating better strategy for future recruitment, professionalisation of security workforce and improved airport environment. Embedding strong and effective security culture, consideration of human factors and their impact on staff performance and development of mission valence can positively affect airport working environment, leading to better staff retention and positive perception of aviation security roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author's personal experience with airport security and the humiliation and violence faced by Naga people. The author reflects on the association of nakedness with savagery and how it perpetuates violence against their community. They also explore the history of colonization and its impact on Naga people, including the display of their corporeal remains in museums. The author concludes by expressing a desire to bring back their ancestors' remains and restore them to their homeland. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Advancements in airport screening measures in response to 9/11 have resulted in increased false alarm rates for patients with orthopedic and metal implants. With the implementation of millimeter-wave scanning technology, it is important to assess the changes in airport screening experiences of patients who underwent total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA). Methods: Here, 197 patients with prior anatomic and reverse TSA completed between 2013 and 2020 responded to a questionnaire regarding their experiences with airport travel screening after their operation. Of these patients, 86 (44%) stated that they had traveled by plane, while 111 (56%) had not. The questionnaire addressed several measures including the number of domestic and international flights following the operation, number of false alarm screenings by the millimeter-wave scanner, patient body habitus, and presence of additional metal implants. Results: A total of 53 patients (62%) responded "yes" to false screening alarms due to shoulder arthroplasty. The odds of a false screening alarm for patients with other metal implants was 5.87 times that of a false screening alarm for patients with no other metal implants (P<0.1). Of a reported 662 flights, 303 (45.8%) resulted in false screening alarms. Greater body mass index was not significantly lower in patients who experienced false screening alarms (P=0.30). Conclusions: Patients with anatomic and reverse TSA trigger false alarms with millimeter-wave scanners during airport screening at rates consistent with prior reports following 9/11. Patient education on the possibility of false alarms during airport screening is important until improvements in implant identification are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated explosive detection systems for cabin baggage screening (EDSCB) highlight areas in X-ray images of passenger bags that could contain explosive material. Several countries have implemented EDSCB so that passengers can leave personal electronic devices in their cabin baggage. This increases checkpoint efficiency, but also task difficulty for screeners. We used this case to investigate whether the benefits of decision support systems depend on task difficulty. 100 professional screeners conducted a simulated baggage screening task. They had to detect prohibited articles built into personal electronic devices that were screened either separately (low task difficulty) or inside baggage (high task difficulty). Results showed that EDSCB increased the detection of bombs built into personal electronic devices when screened separately. When electronics were left inside the baggage, operators ignored many EDSCB alarms, and many bombs were missed. Moreover, screeners missed most unalarmed explosives because they over-relied on the EDSCB's judgment. We recommend that when EDSCB indicates that the bag might contain an explosive, baggage should always be examined further in a secondary search using explosive trace detection, manual opening of bags and other means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to educate airport operators in how to be better prepared for an active threat incident. The paper does not discuss preventative measures but focuses on lessons learned from a real-life incident that took place in 2017. Information included is derived from a detailed after-action report that focuses on mitigating strategies, communication methods, employee training, and business resumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Preventing, detecting, and responding to substandard and falsified vaccines is of critical importance for ensuring the safety, efficacy, and public trust in vaccines. This is of heightened importance in context of public health crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, in which extreme world-wide shortages of vaccines provided a fertile ground for exploitation by falsifiers. Here, a proof-of-concept study explored the feasibility of using a handheld Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) device to authenticate COVID-19 vaccines through rapid analysis of unopened vaccine vials. The results show that SORS can verify the chemical identity of dominant excipients non-invasively through vaccine vial walls. The ability of SORS to identify potentially falsified COVID-19 vaccines was demonstrated by measurement of surrogates for falsified vaccines contained in vaccine vials. In all cases studied, the SORS technique was able to differentiate between surrogate samples from the genuine COVISHIELD™ vaccine. The genuine vaccines tested included samples from six batches across two manufacturing sites to account for any potential variations between batches or manufacturing sites. Batch and manufacturing site variations were insignificant. In conjunction with existing security features, for example on labels and packaging, SORS provided an intrinsic molecular fingerprint of the dominant excipients of the vaccines. The technique could be extended to other COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 vaccines, as well as other liquid medicines. As handheld and portable SORS devices are commercially available and widely used for other purposes, such as airport security, they are rapidly deployable non-invasive screening tools for vaccine authentication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the study of the impact of the level of training of security control operators (SCOs) at airports on the energy consumption of the passenger baggage control process. With the constant growing emphasis on security at airports, the intensification of training processes for security personnel, especially those dealing with baggage control, has become very dynamic. An essential aspect in times of sustainable development is optimizing all kinds of processes (including training processes) to reduce energy consumption. The analysis of the demand for energy used to conduct this type of training and the impact of the operator's training level on the energy consumption of the control process are entirely ignored and have not been the subject of research by scientists so far. Therefore, this is a research gap that the authors are trying to fill in this article. The impact of safety system operator training levels on ensuring optimal energy efficiency was critically analyzed. The added value of the article is the authors' model assessing the influence of the level of training of the SCO on the energy consumption of the control process. The effects of the frequency, duration and level of operator training on energy consumption rates were investigated. The authors' activities aimed to identify the most energy-efficient approaches to training without compromising its quality and, thus, the safety of passengers. The article discusses potential strategies for minimizing energy use and draws conclusions that can help airport administrations and training providers adopt sustainable and energy-efficient training practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aviation industry has faced the formidable and unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020. This is of particular interest, given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air travel, which has potentially influenced passenger' perceptions of airport services on offer. By applying the construal level theory, this study used structural equation modelling to examine the perceptions of airport services' attributes among airport passengers before and during the COVID-19 era. The findings of this study showed significant differences among airport passengers regarding the perceptions of or preference for attributes within specific airport service categories (e.g., security, passport and personal ID control, and wayfinding) before and during the COVID-19 era. This study provides practical guidance and insights for airport managers to develop suitable airport services and products for passengers in different operating environments, and to cope better with passengers' needs in the post-COVID-19 era and in response to any future pandemics. • Explore changes in preferences of airport service attributes pre- and amid COVID-19. • Airport services related to COVID-19 are far more important. • Airport environments are important among different types of travellers. • Practical implications for improving airport services and products are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Dutch public discourse promotes a self‐image of the Netherlands as 'innocently' post‐racial, a place where distinctions are drawn based on cultural differences rather than bodily characteristics. However, this innocence is called into question when groups or individuals, who culturally, legally and linguistically 'fit' within the Netherlands, are still racialised to the point of not being recognised as properly Dutch. This paper uses a feminist approach to autoethnography and critical discourse analysis to explore the author's racialised/racialising experiences of Dutch airport security, and how these experiences are both informed by and themselves re‐inform wider enactments of normative raciolinguistic ideologies. Drawing on theorisations of the links among language, embodiment and (self‐)surveillance by Sara Ahmed and Samy Alim, this paper argues that although markers of citizenship and linguistic ability can be fluidly employed and engaged with, raciolinguistic categorisation is still heavily influenced by bodily appearance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Walker's most interesting arguments examine pre-2001 counterterrorism policy and intelligence, including the shortcomings that made September 11th possible. J. Samuel Walker's new book focuses on why the United States failed to prevent the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as the experiences of that day and the U.S. policy response. [Extracted from the article]

Detecting detonators is a challenging task because they can be easily mis-classified as being a harmless organic mass, especially in high baggage throughput scenarios. Of particular interest is the focus on automated security X-ray analysis for detonators detection. The complex security scenarios require increasingly advanced combinations of computer-assisted vision. We propose an extensive set of experiments to evaluate the ability of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models to detect detonators, when the quality of the input images has been altered through manipulation. We leverage recent advances in the field of wavelet transforms and established CNN architectures—as both of these can be used for object detection. Various methods of image manipulation are used and further, the performance of detection is evaluated. Both raw X-ray images and manipulated images with the Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE), wavelet transform-based methods and the mixed CLAHE RGB-wavelet method were analyzed. The results showed that a significant number of operations, such as: edges enhancements, altered color information or different frequency components provided by wavelet transforms, can be used to differentiate between almost similar features. It was found that the wavelet-based CNN achieved the higher detection performance. Overall, this performance illustrates the potential for a combined use of the manipulation methods and deep CNNs for airport security applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Next-generation wireless communication requires high-performance antennas that can support high-speed data transmission while meeting the requirements for low weight, low cost, and low profile. This article introduces a graphene-based wideband microstrip patch antenna at 2.96 THz resonant frequency for terahertz application. The proposed antenna is mounted on a polyimide substrate with dielectric constant of 3.5. The periodic arrangement of photonic band gap structure has been etched on the polyimide substrate to enhance radiation characteristics. The result of this research has been investigated in respect of reflection coefficient (S11), gain, voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR), radiation efficiency, and radiation pattern for both E and H plane. The proposed antenna achieved minimal return loss of icrostrip50.98 dB, VSWR of 1.022, Gain of 5.40 dB, and impedance bandwidth of 797 GHz at 2.96 THz resonant frequency. All the simulation has been carried out by using EM simulator CST microwave studio with the finite integration technique. The proposed antenna has many applications are medical imaging, airport security analysis, explosive detection, material characterization, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When looking for a certain object or person, individuals often engage in collaborative visual search, i.e., they search together by coordinating their behavior. For instance, when parents are looking for their child on a busy playground, they might search collaboratively by dividing the search area. This type of labor division in collaborative visual search could be beneficial not only in daily life, but also in professional life (e.g., at airport security screening, lifeguarding, or diagnostic radiology). To better understand the mechanisms underlying this type of collaborative behavior, as well as its benefits and costs, researchers have studied visual search scenarios in the laboratory. The aim of this review article is to provide a brief overview of the results of these studies. Are individuals faster if they search together compared to alone? And if so, should they simply search in parallel, or will they benefit from agreeing on a specific labor division? How should they divide the search space, and how to communicate this division? Should a consensus be reached (target present or absent?) before ending the search? We address these and further key questions, focusing on the aspect of labor division. In conclusion, we integrate the reviewed findings into an applied context, point out which questions still remain, and put forward suggestions for future research. We hope that this review can serve not only as a theoretical foundation for basic research but also as a practical inspiration for applied research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In I Imperial Steam i , Stafford makes a valuable contribution to the study of technology and its implications for cultures of empire and modernity. Imperial Steam: Modernity on the Sea Route to India, 1837-74 by Jonathan Stafford (review) Imperial Steam: Modernity on the Sea Route to India, 1837-74 By Jonathan Stafford. [Extracted from the article]

Working at security checkpoints is a challenge in teamwork. Although most processes are individual tasks — such as baggage screenings and body searches — threat situations require the sudden and effective coordination of all crew members. However, security screening crews are constantly surrounded by passengers, making communication among members difficult. Despite their obvious practical benefits, scientific studies investigating teamwork in the security checkpoint environment are lacking. This paper presents a qualitative study aimed at obtaining insight into what represents good teamwork in the specific setting of the security checkpoint and how it can be promoted. A particular focus is placed on security crew leaders, who often work as both crew members and supervisors, making their tasks particularly challenging. Twenty interviews were conducted, ten with security screeners and ten with crew leaders. Two independent raters transcribed and analysed the interviews using qualitative content analysis. The results revealed six dimensions essential for effective teamwork at the security checkpoint: clear task distribution, communication, mutual support, proactive work behaviour, interpersonal relationships and as few instructions as possible. Additionally, ways in which crew leaders can support teamwork were identified, categorised into individual prerequisites, task-oriented behaviours and relationship-oriented behaviours. The findings should raise awareness of the importance of effective teamwork in the challenging environment of airport security checkpoints and provide recommendations for security professionals and practitioners to promote teamwork, thus making screening crews more effective and safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Security at airports represents a major risk exposure. Poorly paid and underappreciated staff are tasked with controlling critical access points to ground and airside facilities. This paper describes a review of security services at a major North American airport, based on interviews conducted with management and personnel of a contracted service provider. It also evaluates service quality, contract compliance and the business processes involved in the delivery of those services. The review identified significant problems with staff turnover, training and performance; all factors that could lead to compromised security. It also examined the value received for money spent on delivering security services, considering their: (i) economy; (ii) efficiency and (iii) effectiveness. While this review was confined to a single airport, it is expected that the methodology adopted, as well as the problems noted, will apply to other aviation facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For this reason, for many years, the European Union's transport policy has been promoting more energy-efficient transport systems, such as rail and waterborne transport. Conclusions To summarize the analyzed publications, it is worth emphasizing that the research described in the publications covered all transport branches, but articles on rail and air transport systems dominated. Transport plays an important role in the economy of a given country or region. The energy demand of transport systems strongly depends on the transport branch under examination and the type of transported cargo. [Extracted from the article]

The drone market's growth poses a serious threat to the negligent, illicit, or non-cooperative use of drones, especially in airports and their surroundings. Effective protection of an airport against drone intrusions should guarantee mandatory safety levels but should also rely on a resilience-driven operational concept aimed at managing the intrusions without necessarily implying the closure of the airport. The concept faces both safety-related and security-related threats and is based on the definitions of: (i) new roles and responsibilities; (ii) a set of operational phases, accomplished by means of specific technological building blocks; (iii) a new operational procedure blending smoothly with existing aerodrome procedures in place. The paper investigates the evaluation of such a resilience-driven operational concept tailored to drone-intrusion features, airport features, and current operations. The proposed concept was evaluated by applying it to a concrete case study related to Milan Malpensa Airport. The evaluation was carried out by real-time simulations and event tree analysis, exploiting the implementation of specific simulation tools and the assessment of resilience-oriented metrics. The achieved results show the effectiveness of the proposed operational concept and elicit further requirements for future counter-drone systems in airports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing number of passengers moving through airports worldwide, security inspection duty arrangements are becoming more and more important, and planning more and more difficult. To design a good aviation police manpower supply plan, the planner not only has to consider operating costs but also the variation and uncertainty of manpower demands encountered in actual operations. This study adopts mathematical programming techniques to construct a stochastic aviation police manpower supply model for airport security inspection duties. The mathematical programming software CPLEX is used to solve the model directly. The effectiveness of the proposed model is evaluated in a case study performed using the relevant data collected from the Taiwan Aviation Police Bureau with some reasonable assumptions. Different strategies are tested. The results demonstrate that the proposed model could be a useful and practical planning support tool for decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal detectors became ubiquitous throughout the United States after their use in airports during the late-1960s and early 1970s when they were installed to address hijackings. While earlier perceptions of the technology's invasiveness prevented the metal detector's deployment in the United States beyond jails and prisons, security officials came to identify the device as a means to address the carceral-security state's legitimacy crises and square mass surveillance with demands for civil and political rights. Those designing and implementing the first airport security program understood hijackings as elements of global rebellions against U.S. empire and drew from policing efforts at home and abroad in their efforts to securitize airports. Officials and courts argued that the universality and objectivity of the machine that determined potential danger solely through the presence of metal removed individual police discretion and was thus race-neutral. Claims of the technology's novelty not only obscured its carceral and counterinsurgent origins but helped propel the metal detector's deployment to new spaces including public schools and workplaces. The metal detector reproduced existing class and racial hierarchies and strengthened police discretionary authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weakly supervised pose estimation can be used to assist unsupervised body part segmentation and concealed item detection. The accuracy of pose estimation is essential for precise body part segmentation and accurate concealed item detection. In this paper, we show how poses obtained from an RGB pretrained 2D pose detector can be modified for the backscatter image domain. The 2D poses are refined using RANSAC bundle adjustment to minimize the projection loss in 3D. Furthermore, we show how 2D poses can be optimized using a newly proposed 3D-to-2D pose correction network weakly supervised with pose prior regularizers and multi-view pose and posture consistency losses. The optimized 2D poses are used to segment human body parts. We then train a body-part-aware anomaly detection network to detect foreign (concealed threat) objects on segmented body parts. Our work is applied to the TSA passenger screening dataset containing millimeter wave scan images of airport travelers annotated with only binary labels that indicate whether a foreign object is concealed on a body part. Our proposed approach significantly improves the detection accuracy of TSA 2D backscatter images in existing works with a state-of-the-art performance of 97% F1-score, 0.0559 log-loss on the TSA-PSD test-set, and a 74% reduction in 2D pose error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years, aviation security has turned into a vital domain as foreign object debris (FOD) on the airport paved path possesses an enormous possible threat to airplanes at the time of takeoff and landing. Hence, FOD's precise identification remains significant for assuring airplane flight security. The material features of FOD remain the very critical criteria for comprehending the destruction rate endured by an airplane. Nevertheless, the most frequent identification systems miss an efficient methodology for automated material identification. This study proffers a new FOD technique centered on transfer learning and also a mainstream deep convolutional neural network. For object detection (OD), this embraces the spatial pyramid pooling network with ResNet101 (SPPN-RN101), which assists in concatenating the local features upon disparate scales within a similar convolution layer with fewer position errors while identifying little objects. Additionally, Softmax with Adam Optimizer in CNN enhances the training speed with greater identification accuracy. This study presents FOD's image dataset called FOD in Airports (FODA). In addition to the bounding boxes' principal annotations for OD, FODA gives labeled environmental scenarios. Consequently, every annotation instance has been additionally classified into three light-level classes (bright, dim, and dark) and two weather classes (dry and wet). The proffered SPPN-ResNet101 paradigm is correlated to the former methodologies, and the simulation outcomes exhibit that the proffered study executes an AP medium of 0.55 for the COCO metric, 0.97 AP for the pascal metric, and 0.83 MAP of pascal metric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a significant number of songs with a 'broken motif ', that they are seen as their own category or type of song. But to what extent is the idea of two young people splitting an object and keeping half each, seen as declaration of their undying love? And to what extent are the practical means of recognition after a period of separation, in a world preceding the camera and lacking (for most) even a portrait of one's nearest and dearest? Since the advent of advanced software coupled with heightened security at airports and the use of CCTV in crime work, much research has been done and continues to be done on facial (and body) recognition by machines. Comparatively little has been done on the ability, or lack, of humans to recognise even those who were previously close to them after the passing of medium to long periods of time. The present study was ignited by an event in my own family within the current millennium, where upon arrival at their doorstep a son was not recognised by his parents after a space of around 10 years (in the former's middle age). To what extent is this extreme? Is it possible that the relatively large number of 'broken token' folksongs suggests evidence that loss/lack of recognition of others once romantically closely engaged with was a 'common' or 'usual' phenomenon, or is it maybe just a great theme for a story? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast detection of hazardous objects in millimeter-wave personnel screening can increase the operating efficiency of secure environments. In airports, accurate automatic detection and classification of body-worn objects can reduce the number of pat-downs while keeping the transportation environment safe and secure. Since many benign objects, such as paper and leather, are lossy materials, being able to characterize them and set them aside from the secondary checks will significantly reduce the screening process time. In this article, we introduce an effective image-processing-based method for characterizing lossy materials that might be concealed under clothing at checkpoints. The method has been combined with a modified version of the previously developed algorithm that can be used specifically to characterize lossless materials. The proposed algorithm can automatically distinguish lossless materials from lossy ones and calculate their thickness and permittivities. Starting from the radar reconstructed image showing a cross section of the body, we extract the nominal body contour using the Fourier series, separate body, and object responses, categorize the object as lossy or lossless based on the depression and protrusion of the body contour, and, finally, predict possible values for the object’s permittivity and thickness. Our resulting classification is good, implying fewer nuisance alarms at checkpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the protection of human biometrics has witnessed an exponential growth. Fingerprint recognition has been utilized for cell phone authentication, biometric passports, and airport security. To improve the fingerprint recognition process, different approaches have been proposed. To keep biometrics away from hacking attempts, non-invertible transformations or encryption algorithms have been proposed to provide cancelable biometric templates for biometric protection. This paper presents a scheme that depends on chaos-based image encryption with different chaotic maps. The chaotic maps are used instead of the simple random number generator to overcome the loss of randomness in the case of a large number of images. To preserve the authentication performance, we should convolve the training images with random kernels to build the encrypted biometric templates. We can obtain different templates from the same biometrics by varying the chaotic map used to generate the convolution kernels. A comparative study is introduced between the used chaotic maps to determine the one, which gives the best performance. The simulation experiments reveal that the enhanced quadratic map 3 achieves the lowest error probability of 3.861% in the cancelable fingerprint recognition system. The cancelable fingerprint recognition system based on this chaotic map achieves the largest probability of detection of 96.139%, with an Equal Error Rate (EER) of 0.593. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Context: Previous research on rates of spinal detection showed a low frequency of patients (5%) experienced delays and additional screening going through airport security. With continuous technology advances in screenings and the rise in cobalt chrome implantation, updated data on patient experiences was needed.Purpose: 1) Assess the rates of detection and additional screening by traditional metal detectors and full body scanners in patients with metal spinal implants, 2) Compare the rates of detection of various metal types (Titanium and cobalt-chrome, titanium only, and stainless steel) STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective PATIENT SAMPLE: All spine surgical follow-ups over survey period.Outcome Measures: Self-reported open questionnaire; frequency of airport screening, patients' feelings and attitudes towards screening.Methods: Patients were surveyed in the outpatient setting on exposure to metal detectors (Traditional and full-body scanners) after spinal surgery with metallic implants at a single institution. A total of 182 patients were identified and consented. The medical records were reviewed for details on implant material and location.Results: Mean age at surgery was 53 years (range=12-88) with a mean 5.9 levels fused (range 2-20). Mean time from surgery to survey was 34 months (range=2-351) and number of airport screenings was 5.8 (range=0-54). The most common implants were titanium/cobalt-chrome (Ti/CoCr) (n=96, 53%) and titanium only (n=72, 40%). Overall, 40% of patients reported a detector alert at an airport requiring processing delay and additional screening: 86% from full body scanners, 54% from traditional metal detectors, and 41% of patients reporting both. Full body scanners were more likely to detect implants compared to traditional metal detectors (OR 5.1, p<.0001). No significant difference in number of screenings between patients who set off detectors and patients who did not (p=.185). Twenty percent of patients reported trouble at non-airport locations with detectors due to their spinal implants, with 70% of these patients reporting additional manual screenings. There was no correlation between levels spanned by the construct and number of times detected by traditional metal detectors or full body scanners, and no significant difference between levels spanned by constructs, or construct locations, in patients who set off detectors and those who did not. There was no significant difference between Ti/CoCr vs. titanium or other constructs in positive screenings. Subanalysis of fusions <5 levels demonstrated Ti/CoCr implants did not have an impact on positive screenings vs. other metal types (OR 0.88, p=.756). Interestingly, there was a significant difference in age and the positive screenings (p=.0025). Patients 60+ years of age had statistically significant greater positive screening than patients 0 to 40 years and 41 to 60 years. This data raises the possibility the presence of total joint arthroplasties (Mean age of patients with arthroplasty 65.5 years, range 50-88) likely play a significant role in the frequency of positive screenings.Conclusions: 40% of patients had their spinal implants detected at airports and 20% reported detections at other non-airport locations. Full body scanners detect spinal implants more frequently compared to traditional metal detectors (86% vs. 54% of detections, respectively). There was no difference in rate of airport and non-airport detection in patients with cobalt chrome implants compared to other materials. The presence of total joint arthroplasties likely has a significant contribution to the detector alerts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian Ocean Region is geo‐strategically placed at the helm of global power politics owing to its vital Sea Lines of Communications. For both littoral and foreign nations, who seeks to use this region to maintain their strategic game, Indian Ocean acts as strategic backwaters. However, in the process of geopolitical rivalry, certain crucial maritime security concerns, beyond the traditional military threats, are overlooked. Based on reports of climate change, this study examines certain concerns, which are collectively termed as Non‐Traditional maritime security threats. These threats, such as rise in sea levels, ocean acidification and unregulated fishing are not merely environmental threats, but are security threats as well. These threats are compounding at a high rate and negligence of the same possibly will result in a catastrophe that may not only affect the political economy of Indian Ocean littoral nations, but also of the global economy. This is essentially because Indian Ocean caters as the trade arteries of global trade, as more than 80% of global energy trade passing over the region. This study further argues that the littoral nations of the region are pre‐occupied in a geopolitical struggle for power, which limits the scope of any efficient region‐wide, climate‐security cooperation. Finally, this study concludes that at the regional strategic policy consultations, maritime security should be inclusive of these Non‐Traditional maritime concerns also, which could act as an impetus for betterment of inter‐regional relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the speed of passenger screening while preserving the effective capability to detect more sophisticated threats, airport security imaging systems must be able to accurately characterize concealed body-worn objects. In addition to improving the passenger experience, this system capability will enhance airport security for the traveling public. This article presents a real-time, fully automatic algorithm for the wideband millimeter-wave (mm-wave) radar reconstruction of the nominal human body contours, even in the presence of an affixed weak dielectric object or when a portion of the body cross section is not captured by the imaging scanner. The algorithm extracts the main contours from a noisy collection of 3-D reconstructed reflectivity and approximates the nominal human body cross section via fitting a low-order angular Fourier series. This important step is essential for precise characterization of concealed body-worn explosives. A ranking algorithm is developed as a metric for the nominal body reconstruction accuracy. We verify the developed algorithm by applying it to the actual images of the high definition–advanced imaging technology (HD-AIT) system, a laboratory prototype mm-wave scanning system developed recently by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The reconstructed body contours may be used to estimate the electric permittivity of the concealed person-worn objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been considerable scholarly interest regarding the notion of exceptionality, i.e. how and under what conditions extraordinary powers and measures are justified in the name of security. Exceptional threats are now omnipresent in the security discourse of the aviation and maritime industries, and this influences the everyday working environment. Taking Norwegian airport and port security as its point of departure, this article analyzes how security and policing agencies perceive, experience, and respond to the exceptional as part of their everyday practice. Drawing on extensive interview material with security agencies, it reveals how agencies construct strategies to cope with the consequences of exceptionality that arise from heightened (in)security and vulnerability. This article demonstrates that instrumental logic in risk management is one crucial strategy, but evidence also reveals the importance of the human dimension in security practices, as the emotional aspect of security consciousness is a part of the everyday life of security agencies. Closely associated with this is the emergence of mechanisms of active resistance that provide excitement and alleviate boredom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the Beijing-Tianjin regional comprehensive transportation system, the flow of air passengers between multiple airports in the region is more frequent. The fundamental reason for the flow of air passengers is that there are differences in the level of service quality provided by airports and airlines in the region. Passengers' choice intention is the consumption and purchase decision of passengers on aviation services. By constructing a Logit model, this paper analyzes the degree of influence on the travel choice intention of air passengers in the Beijing-Tianjin region from five aspects: individual passenger demographic characteristics, travel purpose, ground transportation characteristics, airport operation capacity, and airport soft power. Passengers can effectively predict the choice of air travel mode in the Beijing-Tianjin region. The results show that Beijing Capital Airport is favored by business travelers; Beijing Daxing International Airport is favored by travelers because of its fast security check-through speed; for Tianjin Binhai International Airport, the convenience of getting in and out of the airport by car and the speed of airport security check-through are two significant factors. Indicators do not affect the selection of airports; reasonable follow-up arrangements when airport flights are delayed are the only significant but negatively correlated factor; the research design results provide new ideas for the analysis of passenger travel mode selection behavior in multiple airport areas, enriching the data-driven research on transportation choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflecting on the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can see that, even though we have faced war, terror attacks, extreme nature and weather events, economic depressions and more, none of them affected global economies, our freedom of travel, our personal and mental health as fast and as deeply as the COVID-19 pandemic. Once considered a local event to China, it rapidly spread across the globe within a few months, bringing travel between countries to a halt and interfering catastrophically with the aviation industry. Airports and airlines soon discovered that not only were they on the brink of bankruptcy, they also needed furlough their employees, shut down terminals and fleets and, in race to establish new methodologies for public health demands to try to regain some aviation and commerce activity. The airport security sector also suffered, losing manpower, struggling with infected employees, involving staff in safety related duties which were not part of their job description and seeing new stakeholders to set the 'new security' agenda for their home court. Focus was diverted from counter-terrorism. Obviously, due to the circumstances, direct operation and development budgets were frozen or re-allocated, so work plans and an array of improvements are now under consideration. The most agile airports set up innovation labs to identy updated technological solutions in supporting daily efforts, especially with the public demand for contactless travel. Soon, some regulators began to introduce regulations, and are trying to set the industry to work on gold standards and platforms, pursuing governmental official confidence that will, in time, translate into authorisation to operate safe travels (especially on international routes, as in some countries domestic traffic has a reasonable volume). This paper analyses civil aviation actors and vectors throughout the pandemic, and offers predictions for the near future trends, especially for aviation security directors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an ethnographic research at Václav Havel Airport Prague, this article explores how contemporary airport security might by studied using an ANT-inspired approach. Security provision can be understood as a set of chains of translation that produces security and threat. Incoming actors, whose statuses are initially indeterminate, are translated into secure or threatening ones. This framing enables the uncovering of division and movement as the logics guide the system performance. The use of this perspective enables us to explicate the system's functioning in practice, including its inherent challenges and social consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian airport infrastructure arises under the government management, through a public company created especially for it: the Brazilian Airports Infrastructure Company (Infraero). This management model thrived until the early 2000s, when the concessions of Brazilian airports to the private sector started. Since the Brazilian Intelligence System (SISBIN) was created in 1999, Infraero has been under a federal government's cabinet with a seat at the system. After the concessions' processes started, though, some of the main airports in the country are not under SISBIN's formal umbrella anymore. This paper uses a SWOT matrix to analyze the scenario that comes out after of the migration of the airport management to the private sector under the Intelligence activity's scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial aviation is vital to the economic health of the global economy. Commercial aviation as a global entity should be an international critical infrastructure that constantly safeguards and protects from malicious threats, including cybersecurity threat actors (Nobles, 2019). The international aviation industry needs a comprehensive cybersecurity defense plan to prevent cyber-based threats from negatively impacting civil aviation. Critical components of the global aviation systems consist of airport operations, air traffic management, ground operations, airline operations, unmanned systems, operations (Kessler, Craiger, & Haass, 2018), aviation maintenance, airport security (physical security), and cargo and logistics. The existing aviation infrastructure was designed, engineered, and implemented without forbearance on cybersecurity (Kessler, Craiger, & Haass, 2018). The lack of international cyber governance impedes the enforcement of cybersecurity policies; therefore, requiring a global-based alliance to create standards and best practices for evaluating and managing cybersecurity risks (Urban, 2017), especially in commercial aviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Airport security screening is a visual inspection task comprising search and decision. Problem solving is used to support decision making. However, it is not well understood. This study investigated how airport security screeners employ problem solving during x-ray screening, and how strategies change with experience. Thirty-nine professional security screeners were observed performing x-ray screening in the field at an Australian International Airport. Video and eye-tracking data were collected and analysed to explore activity phases and problem-solving strategies. Less-experienced screeners performed more problem solving and preferred problem-solving strategies that rely on visual examination without decision support or that defer decision making, compared to more-experienced screeners, who performed efficient and independent strategies. Findings also show that screeners need more time to develop problem-solving skills than visual scanning skills. Screeners would benefit from problem-solving support tools and intensified training and mentorship within the first six months of experience to advance problem-solving competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Airport security check is a crucial part of air travel, and the efficiency of this process directly impacts the overall airport experience. This article presents a study on the modelling and simulation of movement of departure passengers during security check at airport terminals, with a particular emphasis on elucidating microscopic properties such as passenger flow patterns, individual movement dynamics and especially queuing phenomena. In order to solve the unreasonable path problem caused by direct application of cellular automata model, we propose an improved cellular automata model in which a new concept of horizontal restrain floor field is innovatively introduced. Considering the factors of spatial distance, number of queuing people and potential queuing people, a checkpoint selection probability model is embedded into the CA model. The results show that the queuing behavior of passengers is influenced by various factors from three aspects: (i) selection strategy of checkpoint, (ii) spatial layout of inspection area, (iii) arrival interval and verification time. The findings of this study can be used by airport operators to have better understanding of departure passengers' movements at a micro level, improve the efficiency of the security check process and enhance the airport experience for passengers. Some measures can be taken to reduce the queue waiting time, such as personnel guidance, information signage, planning wider entrance and more queue lanes, replacing the manual verification with ticket inspection machines and so on. ● Introducing a novel horizontal floor field to improve the FFCA model. ● Incorporating a checkpoint selection probability model into the imoroved FFCA model. ● Exploring various factors' impact on security check effeciency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the prevalence of a target influence how it is perceived and categorized? A substantial body of work, mostly in visual search, shows that a higher proportion of targets are missed when prevalence is low. This classic low prevalence effect (LPE) involves a shift to a more conservative decision criterion that makes it less likely that observers will call an ambiguous item a target. In contrast, Levari et al. (Science, 360[6396], 1465–1467, 2018) recently reported the opposite effect in a simple categorization task. In their hands, at low prevalence, observers adopted a more liberal criterion, making observers more likely to label ambiguous dots on a blue–purple continuum "blue." They called this "prevalence-induced concept change" (PICC). Here, we report that the presence or absence of feedback is critical. With feedback, observers become more conservative at low prevalence, as in the LPE. Without feedback, they become more liberal, identifying a wider range of stimuli as targets, as in Levari's PICC studies. Stimuli from a shape continuum ranging from rounded ("Bouba") to bumpy ("Kiki") shapes produced similar results. Other variables: response type (2AFC vs. go/no-go), color (blue–purple vs. red–green), and stimuli type (solid color vs. texture) did not influence the criterion shifts. Understanding these effects of prevalence and ways they can be controlled illuminates the context-specific nature of perceptual decisions and may be useful in socially important, low prevalence tasks like cancer screening, airport security, and disease diagnosis in pathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas "professional vision" has been mostly analyzed in apprenticeship and other settings where knowledge is made explicit or reflected upon, I focus on how expertise tacitly plays out in task-oriented interaction among practitioners. The paper considers orientation both to the coworker's (recipient design) and one's own (expressive order) expertise in the collaborative accomplishment of airport security work. I show how screeners recruit action from colleagues in largely underspecified ways, based on shared access to the visibility field and expected professional vision. Requesting is tacitly accomplished via "highlighting," which also accounts for one's request. Accepting is silently achieved via locomotion, which also serves as a display of understanding. Embodied action is systematically preferred to verbal one. Talk is employed in larger proportions when the domain of scrutiny is not equally accessible to interactants, and when "face-work" is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]