Aviation security and terrorism: a review of the economic issues

Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the passage of the Aviation and Transportation Act mandated a substantial increase in resources devoted to aviation security. This paper summarizes the specific changes stemming from this legislation. In addition, the paper examines the economic issues underlying the regulation and provision of aviation security. The fact that security at one airport can affect the well being of those at other airports and elsewhere, an example of a network externality (spillover), provides an economic justification for governmental involvement in aviation security. A fundamental question is whether the federal role should be restricted to setting and monitoring security standards or whether the role should also include the financing and implementation of security. A controversial change is that the federal government has assumed responsibility from the airlines and airports for the actual provision of aviation security. Proponents of this change argue that, relative to private provision, public provision reduces the incentives to reduce quality through cost reductions. On the other hand, a public agency might not provide security services efficiently because it can operate in a more-or-less monopolistic way. Furthermore, a public agency might provide an excessive amount of security and incur unnecessary expenses because it is likely to be judged on its security record and not on all the attributes encompassed by air transportation services for consumers. Thus, economic theory does not provide a clear answer to what is likely to be a continuing source of controversy - the appropriate scope of governmental involvement in aviation security.Economic conditions ; War - Economic aspects

Aviation security and terrorism: a review of the economic issues

Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the passage of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act mandated a substantial increase in resources devoted to aviation security. This paper summarizes the specific changes stemming from this legislation. In addition, the paper examines the economic issues underlying the regulation and provision of aviation security. The fact that security at one airport can affect the well being of those at other airports and elsewhere, an example of a network externality (spillover), provides an economic justification for governmental involvement in aviation security. A fundamental question is whether the federal role should be restricted to setting and monitoring security standards or whether the role should also include the financing and implementation of security. A controversial change is that the federal government has assumed responsibility from the airlines and airports for the actual provision of aviation security. Proponents of this change argue that, relative to private provision, public provision reduces the incentives to reduce quality through cost reductions. On the other hand, a public agency might not provide security services efficiently because it can operate in a more-or-less monopolistic way. Furthermore, a public agency might provide an excessive amount of security and incur unnecessary expenses because it is likely to be judged on its security record and not on all the attributes encompassed by air transportation services for consumers. Thus, economic theory does not provide a clear answer to what is likely to be a continuing source of controversy - the appropriate scope of governmental involvement in aviation security.Economic conditions ; War - Economic aspects

Sensitive Coverage Saves Lives: Improving media portrayal of suicidal behaviour

The report outlines the results of consultations with journalists, suicide prevention agencies and mental health groups conducted by the journalism ethics charity MediaWise. It makes recommendations for action by media organisations and suicide prevention agencies

Relativistic Quantum Games in Noninertial Frames

We study the influence of Unruh effect on quantum non-zero sum games. In particular, we investigate the quantum Prisoners' Dilemma both for entangled and unentangled initial states and show that the acceleration of the noninertial frames disturbs the symmetry of the game. It is shown that for maximally entangled initial state, the classical strategy C (cooperation) becomes the dominant strategy. Our investigation shows that any quantum strategy does no better for any player against the classical strategies. The miracle move of Eisert et al (1999 Phys. Rev. Lett. 83 3077) is no more a superior move. We show that the dilemma like situation is resolved in favor of one player or the other.Comment: 8 Pages, 2 figures, 2 table

Wakefield damping for the CLIC crab cavity

A crab cavity is required in the CLIC to allow effective head-on collision of bunches at the IP. A high operating frequency is preferred as the deflection voltage required for a given rotation angle and the RF phase tolerance for a crab cavity are inversely proportional to the operating frequency. The short bunch spacing of the CLIC scheme and the high sensitivity of the crab cavity to dipole kicks demand very high damping of the inter-bunch wakes, the major contributor to the luminosity loss of colliding bunches. This paper investigates the nature of the wakefields in the CLIC crab cavity and the possibility of using various damping schemes to suppress them effectively

Perspectives on organic light-emitting diodes for display applications

Herein, we describe a number of key issues that concern the commercialization of organic light-emitting diodes for display applications. We will firstly outline the historical and market contexts that show the potential for organic electronics as a viable display technology. Next, we will discuss the chemical structures for a range of both small-molecular and polymer organic semiconducting compounds, and how the electronic properties are governed thereof. Also we will briefly discuss various common film deposition and device fabrication strategies. Then, we will describe two factors that are highly relevant for commercially viable organic light-emitting diodes, namely charge balance, and device degradation. Finally, we will outline some methods for achieving the high-volume throughput of organic electronics via well-established technologies that are used in the printing industr