This dissertation consists of three essays studying the theory of dynamic contest. This analysis mainly focuses on how the outcome and the optimal design in a dynamic contest varies on contest technology, heterogeneous players, contest architecture, and bias instruments. The first chapter outlines the dissertation by briefly discussing the motivations, methods, and main findings in the following chapters. Chapter 2 considers a situation in which two groups compete in a series of battles with complete information. Each group has multiple heterogeneous players. The group who first wins a predetermined number of battles wins a prize which is a public good for the winning group. A discriminatory state-dependent contest success function will be employed in each battle. We found that in the subgame perfect Nash equilibrium (equilibria), the lower valuation players can only exert effort in earlier battles, while the higher valuation players may exert effort throughout the entire series of battles. The typical discouragement effect in a multi-battle contest is mitigated when players compete as a group. We also provide two types of optimal contest designs that can fully resolve the free-rider problem in group contests. Chapter 3 investigates optimal contest design with multiple heterogeneous players. We allow the contest designer to have one or multiple/mixed objectives, which includes the following parts: the total effort; the winner's effort; the maximal effort; and the winning probability of the strongest player. We provide a one-size-fits-all contest design that is optimal given any objective function. In the optimal contest, the designer will have one of the weaker players exhaust the strongest in the contest with infinite battles. We obtain the required conditions on different contest frameworks (e.g., all-pay auctions and lottery contests) and bias instruments (e.g., head starts and multiplicative bias). This means the contest designer has multiple alternatives to design the optimal contest. The last chapter investigates a situation where two players compete in a series of sequential battles to win a prize. A player can obtain certain points by winning a single battle, and the available points may vary across the battles. The player who first obtains predetermined points wins the prize. We fully characterize the subgame perfect Nash equilibrium by describing the indifference continuation value interval. We found that when two players are symmetric, they only compete in the separating battle. In the general case, we found that winning a battle may not create any momentum when the weight of the battle is small. A small enough adjustment of a battle's weight will not change both players' incentive to win the battle. Increasing (or decreasing) a battle's weight weakly increases (or weakly decreases) both players' incentive to win. / Doctor of Philosophy / A contest in economics is defined as a situation in which players exert positive effort to win a prize. The effort can be money, time, energy, or any resource that is used in a competition. The prize can be monetary or other perks from winning a competition. In this dissertation, we explore dynamic multi-battle contests where the winner is not decided by one single competition but by a series of sequential competitions. For example, the US presidential primary begins sometime in January or February and ends about mid-June and candidates will compete in different states during the time. In NBA finals, the winner is decided by a best-of-seven contest. The team that first wins four games becomes the champion. In the second chapter, we explore multi-battle group contest in which each group has multiple heterogeneous players. The group who first wins a certain number of battles wins a prize. The prize is a public good within the winning group so players in the winning group can enjoy the prize regardless their effort. We found that players with high prize valuation will be discouraged in earlier battles due to high expected effort in later battles. This may make high-value players only exert effort in later and more decisive battles. The low-value players will exert effort in earlier battles and will free rider on high-value players in later battles. We also provide the optimal contest design that can fully resolve the free-rider problem. In the optimal contest design, the designer should completely balance two groups in every battle. In the third chapter, we explore the optimal contest design in the multi-battle contests with multiple heterogeneous players. The contest designer can have one or multiple/mixed objectives. We found a "one size fits all" multi-battle contest design that is optimal for various objective functions. In the optimal contest design, the designer should give different advantages to the strongest player and one of the weaker players. More specifically, the weaker player is easier to win each battle, while the strongest player needs to win fewer battles. This overturns the conventional wisdom that the advantage should be only given to the weaker players. In the fourth quarter, we explore the multi-battle contest that in which each battle has a different weight, that is, some battles may more or less important than others. We found that when a battle's weight is small, players may feel indifference between winning or losing the battle. Therefore, winning such battles will not create any momentum, and players tend to give up those battles by exerting no effort. We also found that when we increase or decrease a battle's weight, if the adjustment is small, it will not change players' incentive to win a battle. However, if the adjustment is large enough, it will increase or decrease players' incentive to win in the same direction.

Denna undersökning utfördes för att ta reda på hur spelare upplever de grafiska stilarna i relation till Battle Royale-genren inom spel. De grafiska stilarna ifråga är realistisk och stiliserad stil. Två likadana 3D-modeller skapades med skillnaden att ena är realistisk medan den andra är stiliserad. Dessa användes i en intervju-undersökning 3D-modeller för att besvara frågan. Undersökningen visar att respondenterna upplever de grafiska stilarna annorlunda från varandra men att de ser på stiliserad stil som den mest genreanpassade stilen för Battle Royale-genren. Undersökningen visar även på en svag tendens bland yngre deltagare att se stiliserad stil som genreanpassad samt att manliga deltagare prioriterade att den grafiska stil ska hjälpa dem prestera bättre i spelet. Denna undersökning utfördes på en liten testgrupp och den kvalitativa metoden kan ses som subjektiv. Vidare forskning kan generalisera området med en kvantitativ undersökning.

U.S. naval expansion is considered to be inevitable. When it is discussed at all, especially in recent scholarly works, it merits at most a few paragraphs briefly mentioning that in the late nineteenth century the United States constructed a modern navy. It is portrayed as if U.S. leaders mostly favored greatly expanding the nation’s naval power and that little to no serious opposition existed among government leaders. Naval expansion, however, fundamentally altered U.S. foreign policy. It represented one of the most significant shifts in the Gilded Age, an era often thought of as a forgettable period in U.S. politics with no major political events taking place. If anything, naval expansion should be the single most discussed political decision to come out of this period and President Benjamin Harrison should be remembered for his role in this development. After all, there are few presidential actions from this period that continue to greatly affect U.S. policy today, and Harrison and his fellow naval expansionists deserve more than a footnote in history.

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Aerodynamic analysis is an important area of survivability studies. There is a desire to be able to predict the aerodynamic effects of a given damage scenario on an aircraft wing with minimal wind tunnel testing or computational simulations. Due to the limited nature of previous studies, this has not generally been possible. The original contribution of this thesis is a predictive technique developed to estimate the aerodynamic effects of a simulated battle damage hole on an aircraft wing, resulting from a range of attack directions. This technique was successfully validated against experimental data. Testing under two-dimensional conditions was undertaken on a NASA LS(1)-0417MOD aerofoil at a Reynolds number of 500,000. This project simulates the effect of attack direction by varying the offset between upper and lower surface damage holes in both chordwise and spanwise directions. Damage was modelled using circular holes. Lift, drag and pitching moment coefficients were measured and supplemented with surface flow visualisation and surface pressure measurements. Coefficient increments, defined as the difference between the damage cases and a datum undamaged case were used to quantify the effects of the damage, with the performance qualified in terms of weak and strong jets. Weak jets were found to have little effect on the flow and aerodynamic properties, while strong jets caused significant disruption. The effects increased in magnitude with hole size, incidence and proximity of the upper surface hole to the pressure peak. Spanwise offset on the holes had little effect on the jet strength but introduced asymmetry into the surface flow. This effect was found to be due to the behaviour of the flow within the cavity. Three-dimensional testing was undertaken at a Reynolds number of 1,000,000 on a half wing model in order to investigate any changes in the aerodynamic characteristics of the damage when applied to a more representative aircraft wing. The higher Reynolds number exploited the larger wind tunnel working section and provided a value more representative of typical unmanned aerial vehicles. As the damage was moved towards the tip its effects were lessened and the transition from weak jet to strong jet delayed. Spanwise pressure variation from the tip also introduced asymmetry into the jet s surface flow features. Plotting coefficient increments for all attack directions against the pressure coefficient difference between upper and lower surfaces from an undamaged wing, across the equivalent damage hole region highlighted significant trends, which were used as the basis of a predictive technique for a range of hole sizes and attack directions. The validity of the technique was assessed by predicting a previously untested damage case and comparing it against subsequent wind tunnel tests. The results from this validation proved encouraging.

Cette thèse se propose d'offrir un commentaire linguistique, philologique, rhétorique des vers 49-396 [ = 1-348 Petsch.] du livre V, qui est le livre de la bataille d’Antonia Castra, et une analyse de l'œuvre, qui montre in primis son importance littéraire. Le cœur de ma thèse est l'édition du texte latin présenté selon une nouvelle numérotation et avec quelques différences par rapport au texte de Diggle-Goodyear (Cambridge 1970). Une importante découverte philologique nous a permis d'établir le véritable incipit du livre V de la Iohannis, jusqu’à présent reconnu traditionnellement dans en un endroit déterminé par une conjecture de G. Loewe, accueillie par l'édition Petschenig et après Diggle-Goodyear. Dans une riche introduction divisée en deux sections et qui précède le commentaire, on parle de la tradition du texte et on encadre historiquement l'activité du poète. Après, nous décrivons les formes d'écriture épique du livre V de la Iohannis, livre par excellence de la Bataille, entre histoire et clichés littéraires (furor bellicus comme Erinys, cohortationes des généraux aristiai, similitudes conduisent à la même idée de guerre sainte, dans une lignée héroïque et mythologique). / Subject of this thesis is the commentary to Coripp. Ioh 5*,49-396 [=5,1-348 Petsch.], that is the description of Antonia Castra’s battle. My intention is to offer a study on Corippus’ work, where first is clear its literary importance. The heart of my thesis is the edition of the Latin text that is based on a new numbering of the verses and with some differences compared with the Diggle-Goodyear’s edition (Cambridge 1970). A very important philological discovery has allowed us to establish the real beginning of Iohannis’ book V, traditionally recognized until Diggle-Goodyear in a point determined by a G. Loewe's conjecture. In a rich introduction, divided into two sections and which precedes the commentary, we talk about the tradition of the Iohannis, through the Trivultianus 686, the only surviving manuscript, and we introduce the poet's historical background. After that, we describe the epic shapes of the book V, the very book of the Battle, between concrete history and literary stereotypes (furor bellicus like Erinys, generals’ cohortationes, aristiai, similies lead us to the same idea of “crusade” ante litteram, following an heroic and mythologic line).

This dissertation examines a series of nine paintings depicting the battles of Alexander Farnese in Flanders created by the Cuzco School of Painters in eighteenth-century Peru. This research asks why and how paintings depicting sixteenth-century European battles were meaningful in the eighteenth century. Due to an absence of archival documentation on the authorship, production and patronage of the series, the research method is contextual. Starting with a formal and iconographic analysis of the paintings centered on a comparison between the paintings and the engravings upon which they are based, differences in the use of space and the conspicuousness of individual elements representing opposing forces are studied. These issues are then regarded contextually by way of an examination of the visual characteristics of the Cuzco School, the history behind the creation of the original engravings and the political and social circumstances extant at the time of the creation of the paintings. Building on previous scholarship, this research shows that attribution to the Cuzco School of painters is likely correct given the formal qualities of the paintings. It is possible that the stylistic characteristics of the Cuzco School, which became very popular, served as a marker of place within the Empire in colonial America. One of the main contributions of the dissertation is the identification of a seventeenth-century biography of Alexander Farnese, De Bello Bélgico as the book in which the engravings that served as the sources for the paintings were published. These engravings served as the basis for all of the depictions of Alexander in colonial Latin America. Finally, the paintings were created during the reign of the first Bourbon king of Spain and served to foster a sense of continuity at a time of transition. The series would have been meaningful in eighteenth- century Chile due to its militarization, which continued throughout the colonial period. The use of space and the clarity with which opposing forces are depicted in the paintings left no moral, military or political ambiguities regarding the mission of the greater Spanish Empire.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / The U.S. Army uses a Unit Readiness Index to track the combat readiness of systems. The Unit Readiness Index relies on the accuracy of automated and manual testing of the hardware and related software of the Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) that comprise the system. These tests are based on a GO/NOGO scenario. When an LRU fails, vehicle commanders, and commanders up the chain of command, can override the failure and continue with a mission. Overriding the NOGO recommendations produces a false combat readiness status for the unit, and creates a number of problems related to unit combat decisions as well as logistical support. This thesis introduces a new process for more effectively tracking combat readiness. It outlines some of the problems associated with the current GO/NOGO scenario and examines the current tests, artifacts and data available from the current process. It proposes an additional Report process and shows how this new process will eliminate the readiness tracking problems associated with the GO/NOGO scenario. It also presents the design of a Vehicle Database and Master Fault Database to support the proposed process, and presents several sample reports generated from this Master Fault Database. / Civilian, United States Army RDECOM - TARDEC

Although scholars have explored women’s public resistance in occupied cities during the Civil War, few have explored women in occupied New Orleans. Studies have been limited to the rambunctious activities of women in the city streets, armed with sharp tongues. The use of private spaces, specifically religious spaces, as a platform for protest, has not been explored. By analyzing the events surrounding the closure of an uptown church on October of 1862, known as “The Battle of Saint Paul’s,” this thesis will address Confederate female activism and protest to Union occupation in New Orleans. It will do so by examining competing press accounts as well as a song inspired by the event. For its female members, the church was the last community-held space in the city. The women of St. Paul’s fought Union control of the only public space that afforded them a degree of autonomy within occupied New Orleans.