Threat Assessment Teams for Institutions of Higher Education: A Review of Key Ideas and Practices for Professional Counselors

This review of literature provides a comprehensive account of the instigative factors, history, and evolution of threat assessment teams (TATs) for target-based violence in institutions of higher education (IHEs). Through examining diverse approaches to threat assessment, this review investigates the most effective criteria for creating protocols to identify and manage threats of target-based violence. The objective is to provide a greater understanding of the precursors and warning signs to threats of violence, including an understanding of what psychosocial factors impel students to enact mass murder, so that TATs can implement preventative strategies to school violence. The generalized findings of the majority of studies point to the necessity for a multi-disciplinary team referencing fact-based predictors of violence, yet applying an individualized and preventative approach to each case of suspected violence.

Threat Assessment in Community Colleges

Threat assessment and management in higher education is still in the early stages of development. Little is noted in the research literature about the practices of threat assessment teams in this environment, particularly in community colleges. To fill this knowledge gap, a random national sample of 15% (n = 148) of public community colleges were surveyed as to: (a) threat assessment practices, (b) continuing education needs, and (c) training delivery preferences. Lead threat assessment practitioners were surveyed from those institutions. A total of 113 participants returned a completed survey. This number represented a return rate of 76%. A post hoc power analysis reported an actual power (i.e., 1-β error probability) of 0.84. The professional breakdown of respondents was law enforcement/security (n = 52), college administration (n = 55) and other (n = 6). The vast majority (73%) of the community colleges operated with a formalized threat assessment team, yet 67% of respondents reported fewer than 40 hours of threat assessment training. The leading types of team composition were: (a) employees only (57%), and (b) mix of employees and outside personnel (32%). Most college threat assessment teams addressed more than just students as threat sources (69%). The top continuing education needs reported ranged from legal implications to advanced training of threat assessment and management. Inferential statistical analyses revealed that, in reference to their professional background, threat assessment practitioners similarly rank their: (a) continuing education needs, and (b) training delivery preferences (i.e., in person vs. online). Implications for both research and practice were discussed.

Differential Effects of Exercise on fMRI of the Midbrain Ascending Arousal Network Nuclei in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Gulf War Illness (GWI) in a Model of Postexertional Malaise (PEM)

Background: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Gulf War Illness (GWI) and control subjects underwent fMRI during difficult cognitive tests performed before and after submaximal exercise provocation (Washington 2020). Exercise caused increased activation in ME/CFS but decreased activation for GWI in the dorsal midbrain, left Rolandic operculum and right middle insula. Midbrain and isthmus nuclei participate in threat assessment, attention, cognition, mood, pain, sleep, and autonomic dysfunction. Methods: Activated midbrain nuclei were inferred by a re-analysis of data from 31 control, 36 ME/CFS and 78 GWI subjects using a seed region approach and the Harvard Ascending Arousal Network. Results: Before exercise, control and GWI subjects showed greater activation during cognition than ME/CFS in the left pedunculotegmental nucleus. Post exercise, ME/CFS subjects showed greater activation than GWI ones for midline periaqueductal gray, dorsal and median raphe, and right midbrain reticular formation, parabrachial complex and locus coeruleus. The change between days (delta) was positive for ME/CFS but negative for GWI, indicating reciprocal patterns of activation. The controls had no changes. Conclusions: Exercise caused the opposite effects with increased activation in ME/CFS but decreased activation in GWI, indicating different pathophysiological responses to exertion and mechanisms of disease. Midbrain and isthmus nuclei contribute to postexertional malaise in ME/CFS and GWI.

Modelling and Optimisation of UHF band EW Based WTA Problem within the Scope of Threat Assessment

The classical weapon target allocation (WTA) problem has been evaluated within the scope of electronic warfare (EW) threat assessment with an electromagnetic effect-based jammer- tactical radio engagement approach. As different from the literature, optimum allocation of non-directional jammers operating at different operating UHF frequencies under constraints to RF emitters is aimed in this study. The values of the targets are modelled using an original threat assessment algorithm developed that takes into account operating frequencies, jamming distance, and weather conditions. The computed jammer-target effect matrix has been solved under different scenarios according to the efficiency and cost constraints. It is seen at the end of the simulations that the allocation results for EW applications largely depend on the effect ratio used. The better results are taken in the case of under 0.5 effect ratio. Finally, jammer-radio allocation problem specified at the suggested model is solved successfully and effectively.

Impacted Whether They Know It or Not

In the past 20 years, schools have been increasingly exposed to school shootings in which many of the victims are targeted at random. Despite recent progress in coping with school crises such as suicide, accidental death, and targeted violence, the advent of random-type school shootings has left mental health, education, law enforcement, and other professionals struggling to deal with this type of traumatic event in terms of its aftermath and its prevention. In this chapter, a systems-oriented approach—rather than an individually-focused approach to traumatic events—the Traumatic Event Systems (TES) model, is proposed to increase the understanding and the effectiveness of professionals in responding to the aftermath of school shootings. The companion model, the Violence Threat Risk Assessment (VTRA), is proposed with a trauma-informed threat assessment practice that creates a nexus between prior trauma and future violence potential through an understanding of the “trauma-violence continuum.”

Wearable screen-printed SERS array sensor on fire-retardant fibre gloves for on-site environmental emergency monitoring

Glove-based wearable sensors can offer the potential ability to fast and on-site environmental threat assessment, which is crucial for timely and informed incident management. In this work, an on-demand surface-enhanced...

SDAE+Bi-LSTM-Based Situation Awareness Algorithm for the CAN Bus of Intelligent Connected Vehicles

With a deep connection to the internet, the controller area network (CAN) bus of intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs) has suffered many network attacks. A deep situation awareness method is urgently needed to judge whether network attacks will occur in the future. However, traditional shallow methods cannot extract deep features from CAN data with noise to accurately detect attacks. To solve these problems, we developed a SDAE+Bi-LSTM based situation awareness algorithm for the CAN bus of ICVs, simply called SDBL. Firstly, the stacked denoising auto-encoder (SDAE) model was used to compress the CAN data with noise and extract the deep spatial features at a certain time, to reduce the impact of noise. Secondly, a bidirectional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) model was further built to capture the periodic features from two directions to enhance the accuracy of the future situation prediction. Finally, a threat assessment model was constructed to evaluate the risk level of the CAN bus. Extensive experiments also verified the improved performance of our SDBL algorithm.

Addressing Russian Threat. Changes to Defence Policies of the Nordic States After 2014

The substantial deterioration of the security environment after Russian aggression against Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 was a catalyst for significant changes in the Nordic states’ approach to security and defence. Common perceptions of the Russian threat focused defence policies of the Nordic states around rebuilding total defence capabilities, which would combine military and civilian efforts. Besides these efforts to reinforce national capacity to defend against an armed attack, the Nordic states increased regional security and defence cooperation, along with cooperation with NATO, the EU and the United States. The article explores the developments in defence policies of the Nordic states that were a result of changes in the security environment caused by Russian aggression against Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. It tries to discuss differences in national threat assessment, and then compare and contrast unique national approaches to defence policies that were adopted by the Nordic states. The conclusion conceptualizes unique features of the Nordic approach to defence stemming from the common threat to their security.

Current issues of cyber threat risk assessment: analysis of foreign experience

The article considers topical issues of cyber threat risk assessment. It contains an analysis of the Law “On Basic Principles for providing of Cyber Security of Ukraine”, the Cyber Security Strategy of Ukraine and other legislative acts for providing on cyber security. The main approaches to determining the assessment of cyber threats are considered. The best examples of foreign practice of cyber threat risk assessment are analyzed, the most effective national systems of their assessment are revealed. It is concluded that multi-level risk and threat assessment systems are most effective when the relevant analysis is conducted at both the national and regional and/or local levels.