Countering Youth Incarceration: Community Strategies in New Orleans and Cape Town

This research project looks at community-level remedial strategies addressing high youth incarceration and recidivism rates in the cities of Cape Town and New Orleans. Working within a theoretical framework of structural violence, I argue that the dominant discourse of Criminal Justice is based in punitive and retributive methodologies that have severe and long term implications for the psychological and social well being of detained youth, as well as the communities to which they return after imprisonment. My aim was to take a ‘bottom-up’ approach and examine the community-based projects in the two cities, which are developing counter-hegemonic knowledge and practices based on the experiences of youth themselves and their base communities. The findings suggests that there are strong similarities between the community-based methods in Cape Town and New Orleans, in which elements of restorative justice are utilized towards enhancing positive youth agency and civic engagement to reduce recidivism. The thesis contributes to a growing body of research that promotes individual, community and policy development informed by the experiential knowledge of communities who are impacted by the increasing criminalization of youth, and particularly youth of color

Adversarial AI Testcases for Maritime Autonomous Systems

Contemporary maritime operations such as shipping are a vital component constituting global trade and defence. The evolution towards maritime autonomous systems, often providing significant benefits (e.g., cost, physical safety), requires the utilisation of artificial intelligence (AI) to automate the functions of a conventional crew. However, unsecured AI systems can be plagued with vulnerabilities naturally inherent within complex AI models. The adversarial AI threat, primarily only evaluated in a laboratory environment, increases the likelihood of strategic adversarial exploitation and attacks on mission-critical AI, including maritime autonomous systems. This work evaluates AI threats to maritime autonomous systems in situ. The results show that multiple attacks can be used against real-world maritime autonomous systems with a range of lethality. However, the effects of AI attacks vary in a dynamic and complex environment from that proposed in lower entropy laboratory environments. We propose a set of adversarial test examples and demonstrate their use, specifically in the marine environment. The results of this paper highlight security risks and deliver a set of principles to mitigate threats to AI, throughout the AI lifecycle, in an evolving threat landscape.</jats:p

Security and Privacy Issues in Wireless Sensor Networks for Healthcare Applications

The use of wireless sensor networks (WSN) in healthcare applications is growing in a fast pace. Numerous applications such as heart rate monitor, blood pressure monitor and endoscopic capsule are already in use. To address the growing use of sensor technology in this area, a new field known as wireless body area networks (WBAN or simply BAN) has emerged. As most devices and their applications are wireless in nature, security and privacy concerns are among major areas of concern. Due to direct involvement of humans also increases the sensitivity. Whether the data gathered from patients or individuals are obtained with the consent of the person or without it due to the need by the system, misuse or privacy concerns may restrict people from taking advantage of the full benefits from the system. People may not see these devices safe for daily use. There may also possibility of serious social unrest due to the fear that such devices may be used for monitoring and tracking individuals by government agencies or other private organizations. In this paper we discuss these issues and analyze in detail the problems and their possible measures

The U.S.-Russia Joint Threat Assessment of Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear terrorism is a real and urgent threat. Given the potentially catastrophic consequences, even a small probability of terrorists getting and detonating a nuclear bomb is enough to justify urgent action to reduce the risk. Al-Qaeda and North Caucasus terrorist groups have both made statements indicating that they seek nuclear weapons and have attempted to acquire them; these groups are presented together as a case study to assess nuclear terrorism as a present and future threat. (The only other terrorist group known to have systematically sought to get nuclear weapons was the Japanese cult group Aum Shinrikyo.) This study makes the case that it is plausible that a technically sophisticated group could make, deliver, and detonate a crude nuclear bomb if it could obtain sufficient fissile material. The study offers recommendations for actions to reduce this danger

The Responsive Reading Teacher

This paper describes the ways in which a literacy educator attempted to shift her own and pre-service teachers’ mindsets towards the needs of 21st Century literacy learners by employing a pedagogy of discomfort. The focus of the disruption was on contesting normative practices and content while developing and refining novice teachers’ skills in questioning, listening, noticing, and responding to children, as well as explicit teaching and assessing reading for learning in primary school settings

You Your Best Thing”: The Anti-Colonial Power of the Mind in Black and Chicanx American Literature

In the year 1987, two of the most important American writers of the twentieth century, Toni Morrison and Gloria Anzaldúa, published what many consider to be their respective magnum opuses: Morrison’s Beloved and Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. In these groundbreaking texts, Morrison and Anzaldúa boldly confront the complex legacies of American imperialism and slavery, examining the effect colonization has had on their respective communities, ancestors, and selves. In this essay, I argue that literature emerging from marginalized communities within the United States can and should be considered among global postcolonial texts; Morrison and Anzaldúa illustrate the ways in which internalized colonialism harms and perpetuates colonization within their communities. Ultimately, though, they suggest that decolonization is possible through a rejection of these racist, colonialist projections

What Do Endogenous Growth Models Contribute?

Endogenous growth theory is one of the mainstream economics approaches to modelling economic growth. This paper provides a non-technical overview of some key strands of the endogenous growth theory (EGT) literature, providing references to key articles and texts. The intended audience is policy analysts who want to understand the intuition behind EGT models. The paper should be accessible to someone without much economics training.Endogenous Growth, Innovation

What Do Endogenous Growth Models Contribute?

Endogenous growth theory is one of the mainstream economics approaches to modelling economic growth. This paper provides a non-technical overview of some key strands of the endogenous growth theory (EGT) literature, providing references to key articles and texts. The intended audience is policy analysts who want to understand the intuition behind EGT models. The paper should be accessible to someone without much economics training.Endogenous Growth, Innovation

What do Endogenous Growth Models Contribute?

Endogenous growth theory is one of the mainstream economics approaches to modelling economic growth. This paper provides a non-technical overview of some key strands of the endogenous growth theory (EGT) literature, providing references to key articles and texts. The intended audience is policy analysts who want to understand the intuition behind EGT models. The paper should be accessible to someone without much economics training.Endogenous Growth, Innovation

Analysis Of Non-Conventional Radiological Terrorism

Nuclear terrorism has been a risk since the dawn of the first atomic bomb. Though state sponsored nuclear weapons development is of concern for countries, non-state sponsored terrorism with radiological material can be of even greater concern. This stems from the fact that the material is under less stringent or no safeguards and can readily change hands between different terrorist groups or innocent civilians may accidently come into contact with the material. Within this paper an analysis of previous accidents using orphan radiological sources, malicious use of orphan radiological sources, and how these sources could be used by terrorists is analyzed. Literature pertaining to doses received during theoretical dirty bomb attacks is reviewed and compared to potential consequences to the human body. With this review of literature complete, a methodology is created to generate realistic scenarios in which a non-conventional nuclear terrorist attack using radiological material could be carried out. These scenarios are re-created in MCNP models to quantify dose estimates civilians would receive. These scenarios include a source placed under a metro seat, a particulate source distributed in a children’s sandbox, a source placed in a government building waiting room, and a source placed in a bush next to a line at a theme park. These scenarios are designed to analyze changing different aspects of the situation to show how different sources, shielding, time, and placement could affect the dose and effectiveness of a terrorist attack. The scenarios showed that the individuals in the subway model and waiting room models received the highest dose with the sandbox model receiving the third highest dose and the theme park line receiving the lowest dose. These results are later discussed and the potential impact an attack of this type could have to those exposed. This ranges from medical impacts, such as acute radiation sickness, birth defects, increased cancer rates, economic impacts to society, and civil turmoil from a distrustful public. Lastly, a means of countering such an attack is analyzed from detection to prevention. This in total provides a comprehensive review of how an attack could occur, motives for such an attack, the impact of said attack, and how to prevent or mitigate the consequences of the attack