Thesis (Master's). / Naval Postgraduate School technical report Title from cover. "NPS-OR-99-002." "February 1999." Includes bibliographical references (p. 13).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Montana, 2007. / Title from title screen. Description based on contents viewed Aug. 13, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 47).

Scholars have long debated the causes of late third party state joining in ongoing inter-state wars. This research has generally concluding that peace-time conditions, measured in terms of: third party capabilities; proximity to warring states; and inter-state alliances, are determining factors in the decision to join. However, these studies utilize theories derived from static pre-war measures of capabilities and motivation to explain late joining; indeed, the same measures that fail to predict participation at war's outset. Further, extant research has no explanation for why weak and non-proximate states every participate. Existing theory thus fails to provide a comprehensive explanation of joining behavior. This project contends that a resolution lies the interaction between pre-war conditions and intra-war events. Intra-war events that are allowed to vary on a per battle basis, including change in combat location and alliance entry and exit from combat, reveal new information about the war and its progress, thereby forcing third party states to recalculate their initial decision to abstain in relation to their pre-existing situation. Incorporation of intra-war processes helps to better explain decisions by third party states to join ongoing inter-state wars late in their development, and why states that frequently choose to abstain (e.g., weak states) ever choose to participate. This project is executed using a combination of ex post facto historical case studies, a theory of joining based on pre and intra-war environments, and large-N empirical analysis on all inter-state wars 1823-1988, conducted utilizing a novel collection of event-level data based on inter-state war battles.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2003. / Advisor: K. Dunbabin. Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D. in ENglish)--Vanderbilt University, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 331-344).

Beyond the material consequences, violence can have a great psychological impact on the individual. Violence can cause institutional and interpersonal distrust, and in turn harm economic growth and political stability. As of today, there is more knowledge about the consequences of trust than its determinants, and longitudinal studies are scarce. This paper exploits survey data and disaggregated data on violence from Mexico, a country which since 2007 has experienced a rapid increase in violence. With the use of a Linear Fixed Effects Model, I analyse the impact of municipal level violence on trust in crime-related institutions and in other individuals. I find a significant relationship, robust across different model specifications, between exposure to battles and trust in the federal, state, and municipal police forces. This positive effect is also found for battles involving police forces. Furthermore, I find evidence of a negative relationship between riots and interpersonal trust.

This research deals with a study of the polyhedral structure of three important combinatorial optimization problems, namely, the generalized upper bounding (GUS) constrained knapsack problem, the set partitioning problem, and the quadratic zero-one programming problem, and applies related techniques to solve a practical combinatorial naval defense problem. In Part I of this research effort, we present new results on the polyhedral structure of the foregoing combinatorial optimization problems. First, we characterize a new family of facets for the GUS constrained knapsack polytope. This family of facets is obtained by sequential and simultaneous lifting procedures of minimal GUS cover inequalities. Second, we develop a new family of cutting planes for the set partitioning polytope for deleting any fractional basic feasible solutions to its underlying linear programming relaxation. We also show that all the known classes of valid inequalities belong to this family of cutting planes, and hence, this provides a unifying framework for a broad class of such valid inequalities. Finally, we present a new class of facets for the boolean quadric polytope, obtained by applying a simultaneous lifting procedure. The strong valid inequalities developed in Part I, such as facets and cutting planes, can be implemented for obtaining exact and approximate solutions for various combinatorial optimization problems in the context of a branch-and-cut procedure. In particular, facets and valid cutting planes developed for the GUS constrained knapsack polytope and the set partitioning polytope can be directly used in generating tight linear programming relaxations for a certain scheduling polytope that arises from a combinatorial naval defense problem. Furthermore, these tight formulations are intended not only to develop exact solution algorithms, but also to design powerful heuristics that provide good quality solutions within a reasonable amount of computational effort. Accordingly, in Part ll of this dissertation, we present an application of such polyhedral results in order to construct effective approximate and exact algorithms for solving a naval defense problem. tn this problem, the objective is to schedule a set of illuminators in order to strike a given set of targets using surface-to-air missiles in naval battle-group engagement scenarios. The problem is conceptualized as a production floor shop scheduling problem of minimizing the total weighted flow time subject to time-window job availability and machine-downtime unavailability side constraints. A polynomial-time algorithm is developed for the case when ail the job processing times are equal (and unity without loss of generality) and the data are all integer. For the general case of scheduling jobs with unequal processing times, we develop three alternative formulations and analyze their relative strengths by comparing their respective linear programming relaxations. The special structures inherent in a particular strong zero-one integer programming model of the problem enable us to derive some classes of strong valid inequalities from the facets of the GUB constrained knapsack polytope and the set-packing polytope. Furthermore, these special structures enable us to construct several effective approximate and exact algorithms that provide solutions within specified tolerances of optimality, with an effort that admits real-time processing in the naval battle-group engagement scenario. Computational results are presented using suitable realistic test data. / Ph. D.

Song of Ice and Fire is unarguably one of the most popular fantasy series of all time. Notwithstanding its success, the series has only recently begun to be analyzed critically. George R.R. Martin’s books are often celebrated for breaking many of the tropes common in fantasy literature. Despite this, the series is nonetheless a product of a genre that has been shaped by white, male authors. Using such prominent postcolonial scholars as Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Homi Bhabha, and Albert Memmi, I analyze the five published books of Martin’s series. I argue that although Martin seems to be aware of the theoretical background of postcolonial studies and attempts to present a story sensitive to issues of colonization, the book series fails to present a Western representation of the East outside of orientalist stereotypes and narratives that reinforce imperialism. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 1990. / Thesis Advisor(s): Weir, Maurice D. ; Hughes, Wayne P. Second Reader: Lind, Judith. "September 1990." Description based on title screen as viewed on December 29, 2009. DTIC Identifier(s): Naval warfare, mathematical models, lessons learned. Author(s) subject terms: Naval combat models, combat theory, salvo warfare, human factors in combat models. Includes bibliographical references (p. 98). Also available in print.

Thesis--School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. / "June 2003." Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-103).