Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 102 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-102).

M.Comm. (Accounting) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1953 O8 / Master of Science

The successful completion of the Hiten mission in 1991 provided real-world validation of a class of trajectories defined as ballistic lunar capture transfers. This class of transfers is often considered for missions to the Moon and for tours of the moons of other planets. In this study, the dynamics of the three and four body problems are examined to better explain the mechanisms of low energy transfers in the Earth-Moon system, and to determine their optimality. Families of periodic orbits in the restricted Earth-Sun-spacecraft three body problem are shown to be generating families for low energy transfers between orbits of the Earth. The low energy orbit-to-orbit transfers are shown to require less fuel than optimal direct transfers between the same orbits in the Earth-Sun-spacecraft circular restricted three body problem. The low energy transfers are categorized based on their generating family and the number of flybys in the reference three body trajectory. The practical application of these generating families to spacecraft mission design is demonstrated through a robust nonlinear targeting algorithm for finding Sun-Earth- Moon-spacecraft four body transfers based on startup transfers indentified in the Earth- Sun three body problem. The local optimality of the transfers is examined through use of Lawden’s primer vector theory, and new conditions of optimality for single-impulse-to-capture lunar transfers are established. / text

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This thesis encompasses three essays around criminal behaviour with the first one analysing the impact of programmes aimed at poverty reduction, the second one developing a theoretical model of hysteresis in crime, and the third one empirically investigating the hysteresis hypothesis in crime rates. In the first chapter I investigate the impact of conditional cash transfers (CCT) on crime rates by analysing the Brazilian Bolsa Familia, the largest CCT programme in the world, in a panel data between 2001 and 2008. The related existing economic literature analysing general welfare programmes usually ignores the crucial endogeneity involved in the relationship between crime rates and social welfare policies through poverty, since poorer regions are focused in the distribution of resources. I use the existing temporal heterogeneity in the implementation of the programme across the states to identify the causal impact of CCT programmes on poverty and criminality. The guidelines of the Brazilian programme established that the amount of resources available for each state should be based on the poverty levels in the 2000 Census. However, due to reasons unrelated to poverty levels and crime rates, some states were able to implement the programme to a greater extent more quickly than others. States that reached the level of cash transfer expenditures proposed by the guidelines of the programme more promptly had a more significant reduction in poverty rates. Similar but less robust results are found for crime rates as robbery, theft and kidnapping, while no significant effects were found for homicide and murder, indicating a weak or non-existent relationship between conditional cash transfers and crime. I also develop, to my knowledge, the first theoretical model to explicitly account for hysteresis - a situation where positive exogenous variations in the relevant economic variables have a different effect from negative variations - in both criminal behaviour and crime rates in order to fill the gap between the theoretical predictions and the empirical evidence about the efficiency of policies in reducing crime rates. The majority of the theoretical analyses predict a sharp decrease in crime rates when there are significant improvements in the economic conditions or an increase in the probability of punishment. However, the existing empirical studies have found lower than expected effects on crime rates from variations in variables related to those factors. One important consequence of hysteresis is that the effect on an outcome variable from positive exogenous variations in the determining variables has a different magnitude from negative variations. For example, if hysteresis is present in the criminal behaviour and part of the police force in a city are dismissed in a given year, resulting in an escalation in crime, a reversal of the policy in the following year by readmitting all sacked police officers in an attempt to restore the original crime levels will result in lower crime rates, but higher than the original ones, yielding an asymmetric relationship between police and crime. Hysteresis is considered in a simple framework to model illicit behaviour. At the individual level, if criminal activity is associated with intrinsic sunk costs and learning, then the cost of leaving a criminal career is higher than entering it. At the aggregate level with homogeneous agents, this is translated into a hysteresis effect that will only occur if a specific threshold is surpassed. With heterogeneous agents, this phenomenon is reinforced generating a hysteresis effect that exists for all possible values of the variable affecting the crime decision. There are multiple equilibria at both levels. In the last chapter I empirically investigate the existence of hysteresis in crime rates. To my knowledge, this is the first empirical study to consider the existence of asymmetric effects on crime from variations in the probability of punishment and in the opportunity cost of crime. More specifically, I investigate whether positive variations on variables associated to those factors, respectively police officers and average level of income, are statistically different from negative variations. Using US crime data at the state level between 1977 and 2010, I find that police force size and real average income of unskilled workers have asymmetric effects on most types of crimes. The absolute value of the average impact of positive variations in those variables on property and violent crime rates are statistically smaller than the absolute value of the average effect of negative variations. These effects are robust under several specifications. A closer inspection of the data reveals a relatively monotonic negative relationship between wages and property crime rates, as well as negative variations in police and most crime rates. However, the relationships between positive variations in law enforcement size and most crime rates are non-linear. The magnitude of the observed asymmetries supports the hypothesis of hysteresis in crime, and suggests that no theoretical or empirical analysis would be complete without careful consideration of that important feature in the relationships between crime, police and legal income. These results corroborate the argument that policy makers should be more inclined to set pre-emptive policies rather than mitigating measures.

This thesis examines the EU arms embargo on China as a case-study, analysing the apparent paradox of the EU’s foreign and economic external policy mechanisms internally and the American involvement in the EU’s foreign and economic external policy with regard to China. The thesis firstly introduces the uniqueness of the Chinese arms embargo in contrast to the other 22 arms embargoes issued in EU’s history. In terms of the case-study, the EU’s arms embargo on China did not become a key contentious issue until the initial moves by the EU Commission to lift it surfaced in 2004. The analysis of the EU foreign and economic external policies towards China and the arms embargo focuses on the political, legal, and economic foundations of EC/EU policy and seeks to offer explanations of the evolution of events at EU institutional level, the EU member states’ level, and the wider international level. The thesis examines the evolution of the EC/EU – Chinese relationship. It also examines how the key political issue of the embargo eventually came to become a technical matter, which lost some of its importance to the Chinese. In this evolution, the thesis picks up on Chinese scholars’ fascination with the EU – the relationship between its institutions, and the member states relationship with each other and the EU institutions with regard to the arms embargo. It notes that some Chinese scholars have seen the EU as a potential role model for the developments in China and the region of Asia. The thesis notes the role of the outsider player, the United States of America, which influenced the making and implementation of foreign and economic external policy of the EU. The thesis proves that China is fully aware of the continuous influence exerted by the US onto the EU-Chinese relationship. In sum, the arms embargo is an ideal test case to examine: a) the evolution of the EU’s coherence, consistency and independence and b) the evolution of Chinese thinking about the EU model.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / The Philippine government may use two methods to procure defense articles from the United States, either Foreign Military Sales (FMS) or Direct Commercial Sales (DCS). This thesis examined the differences between FMS and DCS as methods of procurement used by the Philippine government in the acquisition of U.S. defense articles. The study identified the processes involved in using each of the two methods as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each when used within the socioeconomic and political environment of the Philippines. Issues and considerations that influence selection decision are also discussed. DCS may offer the lowest fixed price, timely/earlier delivery, easier countertrade arrangements, and penalty for non-compliance to the provisions of the contract. FMS is preferable because it is a government-to-government sale, provides opportunities for Philippine military training in the United States and enhances interoperability among coalition forces. In addition, FMS allows for financing of defense articles from the U.S. using Foreign Military Financing, thus conserving Philippine government funds. / Lieutenant Colonel, Philippine Army

by Chan Yuen Yan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-[97]). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Transition to a New Monetary System --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2 --- Security and Cryptography --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Electronic Cash: More than an Electronic Medium of Transaction --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Organisation of the Thesis --- p.5 / Chapter 2 --- Cryptographic Primitives --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1 --- One-way Hash Functions --- p.7 / Chapter 2.2 --- The Bit Commitment Protocol --- p.8 / Chapter 2.3 --- Secret Splitting --- p.8 / Chapter 2.4 --- Encryption / Decryption --- p.9 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Symmetric Encryption --- p.10 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Asymmetric Encryption --- p.10 / Chapter 2.5 --- The RSA Public Key Cryptosystem --- p.11 / Chapter 2.6 --- Blind Signature --- p.12 / Chapter 2.7 --- Cut-and-choose procotol --- p.13 / Chapter 2.8 --- The Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem (ECC) --- p.14 / Chapter 2.8.1 --- The Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem --- p.15 / Chapter 2.8.2 --- Cryptographic Applications Implemented by ECC --- p.15 / Chapter 2.8.3 --- Analog of Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange --- p.15 / Chapter 2.8.4 --- Data Encryption [11] --- p.16 / Chapter 2.8.5 --- The ECC Digital Signature --- p.17 / Chapter 3 --- What is Money? --- p.18 / Chapter 3.1 --- Money --- p.18 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- The History of Money [17] --- p.19 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Functions of Money --- p.20 / Chapter 3.2 --- Existing Payment Systems --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Cash Payments --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Payment through Banks --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Using Payment Cards --- p.23 / Chapter 4 --- Electronic Cash --- p.24 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Basic Requirements --- p.24 / Chapter 4.2 --- Basic Model of Electronic Cash --- p.25 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Basic Protocol --- p.26 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Modified Protocol --- p.27 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Double Spending Prevention --- p.30 / Chapter 4.3 --- Examples of Electronic Cash --- p.31 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- eCash --- p.31 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- CAFE --- p.31 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- NetCash --- p.32 / Chapter 4.3.4 --- CyberCash --- p.32 / Chapter 4.3.5 --- Mondex --- p.33 / Chapter 4.4 --- Limitations of Electronic Cash --- p.33 / Chapter 5 --- Micropayments --- p.35 / Chapter 5.1 --- Basic Model of Micropayments --- p.36 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Micropayments generation --- p.37 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Spending --- p.37 / Chapter 5.1.3 --- Redemption --- p.38 / Chapter 5.2 --- Examples of Micropayments --- p.39 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Pay Word --- p.39 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- MicroMint --- p.40 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Millicent --- p.41 / Chapter 5.3 --- Limitations of Micropayments --- p.41 / Chapter 5.4 --- Digital Money - More then a Medium of Transaction --- p.42 / Chapter 6 --- Anonymous Micropayment Tickets --- p.45 / Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.45 / Chapter 6.2 --- Overview of the Systems --- p.46 / Chapter 6.3 --- Elliptic Curve Digital Signature --- p.48 / Chapter 6.4 --- The Micropayment Ticket Protocol --- p.49 / Chapter 6.4.1 --- The Micropayment Ticket --- p.50 / Chapter 6.4.2 --- Payment --- p.51 / Chapter 6.4.3 --- Redemption --- p.52 / Chapter 6.4.4 --- Double Spending --- p.52 / Chapter 6.5 --- Security Analysis --- p.52 / Chapter 6.5.1 --- Conditional Anonymity --- p.53 / Chapter 6.5.2 --- Lost Tickets --- p.53 / Chapter 6.5.3 --- Double Spending --- p.53 / Chapter 6.5.4 --- Collusion with Vendors --- p.53 / Chapter 6.6 --- Efficiency Analysis --- p.55 / Chapter 6.7 --- Conclusion --- p.56 / Chapter 7 --- Anonymous Electronic Voting Systems --- p.57 / Chapter 7.1 --- Introduction --- p.57 / Chapter 7.2 --- The Proposed Electronic Voting System --- p.58 / Chapter 7.2.1 --- The Proposed Election Model --- p.58 / Chapter 7.3 --- Two Cryptographic Protocols --- p.60 / Chapter 7.3.1 --- Protocol One - The Anonymous Authentication Protocol --- p.61 / Chapter 7.3.2 --- Protocol Two - Anonymous Commitment --- p.64 / Chapter 7.4 --- The Electronic Voting Protocol --- p.65 / Chapter 7.4.1 --- The Registration Phase --- p.66 / Chapter 7.4.2 --- The Polling Phase --- p.66 / Chapter 7.4.3 --- Vote-Opening Phase --- p.67 / Chapter 7.5 --- Security Analysis --- p.68 / Chapter 7.5.1 --- Basic Security Requirements --- p.68 / Chapter 7.5.2 --- Receipt-freeness --- p.71 / Chapter 7.5.3 --- Non-transferability of Voting Right --- p.72 / Chapter 7.6 --- Conclusion --- p.72 / Chapter 8 --- Anonymous Internet Access --- p.74 / Chapter 8.1 --- Introduction --- p.74 / Chapter 8.2 --- Privacy Issues of Internet Access Services --- p.75 / Chapter 8.2.1 --- Present Privacy Laws and Policies --- p.75 / Chapter 8.2.2 --- Present Anonymous Internet Services Solutions --- p.76 / Chapter 8.2.3 --- Conditional Anonymous Internet Access Services --- p.76 / Chapter 8.3 --- The Protocol --- p.77 / Chapter 8.3.1 --- ISP issues a new pass to Alice using blind signature [1] scheme --- p.77 / Chapter 8.3.2 --- Account Operations --- p.78 / Chapter 8.4 --- Modified Version with Key Escrow on User Identity --- p.79 / Chapter 8.4.1 --- Getting a new pass --- p.79 / Chapter 8.4.2 --- Account operations --- p.82 / Chapter 8.4.3 --- Identity revocation --- p.83 / Chapter 8.5 --- Security Analysis --- p.83 / Chapter 8.5.1 --- Anonymity --- p.83 / Chapter 8.5.2 --- Masquerade --- p.84 / Chapter 8.5.3 --- Alice cheats --- p.84 / Chapter 8.5.4 --- Stolen pass --- p.84 / Chapter 8.6 --- Efficiency --- p.85 / Chapter 8.6.1 --- Random number generation --- p.85 / Chapter 8.6.2 --- Signing on the pass --- p.86 / Chapter 8.6.3 --- Pass validation --- p.86 / Chapter 8.6.4 --- Identity recovery --- p.87 / Chapter 8.7 --- Conclusion --- p.87 / Chapter 9 --- Conclusion --- p.88 / Bibliography --- p.91