The Zircon, April 6, 2016 [Spoof Issue]

https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/dordt_diamond/1770/thumbnail.jp

The Montclarion, October 07, 2004

Student Newspaper of Montclair State Universityhttps://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/montclarion/2163/thumbnail.jp

Allocating patrolling resources to effectively thwart intelligent attackers

This thesis considers the allocation of patrolling resources deployed in an effort to thwart intelligent attackers, who are committing malicious acts at unknown locations which take a specified length of time to complete. This thesis considers patrolling games which depend on three parameters; a graph, a game length and an attack length. For patrolling games, the graph models the locations and how they are connected, the game length corresponds to the time-horizon in which two players, known as the patroller and attacker, act and the attack length is the time it takes an attacker to complete their malicious act. This thesis defines patrolling games (as first seen in [16]) and explains its known properties and how such games are solved. While any patrolling game can be solved by a linear program (LP) when the number of locations or game length is small, this becomes infeasible when either of these parameters are of moderate size. Therefore, strategies are often evaluated by knowing an opponent’s response and with this, patroller and attacker strategies give lower and upper bounds on the optimal value. Moreover, when tight bounds are given by strategies these are optimal strategies. This thesis states known strategies giving these bounds and classes for which patrolling games have been solved. Firstly, this thesis introduces new techniques which can be used to evaluate strategies, by reducing the strategy space for best responses from an opponent. Extensions to known strategies are developed and their respective bounds are given using known results. In addition we develop a patroller improvement program (PIP) which improves current patroller strategies by considering which locations are currently under performing. Secondly, these general techniques and strategies are applied to find solutions to a certain class of patrolling games which are not previously solved. In particular, classes of the patrolling game are solved when the graph is multipartite or is an extension of a star graph. Thirdly, this thesis conjectures that a developed patroller strategy known as the random minimal full-node cycle is optimal for a large class of patrolling games, when the graph is a tree. Intuitive reasoning behind the conjecture is given along with computational evidence, showing the conjecture holds when the number of locations in the graph is less than 9. Finally, this thesis looks at three extensions to the scenario modelled by the patrolling game. One extension models varying distances between locations rather than assuming locations are a unitary distance apart. Another extension allows the time needed for an attacker to complete their malicious act to vary depending on the vulnerability of the location. For the final extension of multiple players we look at four variants depending on how multiple attackers succeed in the extension. In each extension we find some properties of the game and show that it possible to relate # extensions to the classic patrolling game in order to find the value and optimal strategies for certain classes of such games

MacArthur's Defense of the Philippines in the Perspective of the United States Press

When war exploded over the Pacific on 7 December 1941, the average American knew little of the Pacific world and its peoples. Although tension in the Pacific between the United States and Japan had heightened during the summer and fall of 1941, few Americans, including the press, envisioned a shooting war between the two disputants. While diplomatic messages continued through official channels, including a personal message from President Roosevelt to Emperor Hirohito, the American public was shocked into reality by the stunning news that Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. Although momentarily shaken out of its complacency, the American public and some of the press, for the most part, believed that Japan could be defeated in a short time. But within a month this view had to be rejected, for suddenly, in quick succession, America suffered the humiliating loss of Manila, of Cavite, our largest naval base in the Philippines, and the island of Luzon. The one exception was Bataan where MacArthur’s forces had dug in for a heroic stand against the enemy. The magnificent defense of Bataan by MacArthur and his beleaguered and outnumbered forces provided a ray of hope in an otherwise sad story of defeats during the early months of the Pacific war. The whole country took the general and his men unto their hearts. While the editorials of almost all the newspapers viewed MacArthur’s defense of the Philippines as gallant throughout, they had serious misgivings about administration leadership and were highly critical of its conduct of the war in the Pacific. When the Allied cause in the Pacific reached a new low in February, the American press began to demand that MacArthur be ordered out of the Philippines to lead a unified Allied effort in the Pacific. When the administration failed to act and sent troops to Great Britain instead, the editorials of the American press became very critical. And when Bataan and Corregidor fell the editorial denunciations against the administration reached new heights. This thesis is a study of how the United States press viewed, analyzed, and reported the epochal events in the Philippines during the period 8 December 1941 to 8 May 1942. It examines the military plans and the political and national factors that had great significance for MacArthur's defense of the Philippines as well as the Allied efforts in the Pacific to halt the Japanese juggernaut. This work is based on the interpretation of information gathered primarily from about sixty-five newspapers, from examination of other source material pertinent to the subject, and from several personal interviews

Tabloidization in the Modern American Press: A Textual Analysis and Assessment of Newspaper and Tabloid Coverage of the “Runaway Bride” Case

The media have extensive power in that they represent the primary, and often the only, source of information about many important events and topics. Media can define which events are important, as well as how media consumers should understand these events. The current trend towards tabloidization, or sensationalism, in today’s American media, has caused an uproar among media traditionalists, primarily in the fields of news and print media. This study seeks to examine the actual influence of tabloidization in newspaper media. My primary research question is as follows: Do tabloid newspapers in the United States set the agenda for more mainstream newspapers? An ethnographic textual analysis will be done of tabloid and newspaper coverage of a recent nationwide story about an Atlanta-area woman running away from town days before her wedding, the “Runaway Bride” saga, in order to compare how the story was covered in tabloid and mainstream newspapers

Allocating patrolling resources to effectively thwart intelligent attackers

This thesis considers the allocation of patrolling resources deployed in an effort to thwart intelligent attackers, who are committing malicious acts at unknown locations which take a specified length of time to complete. This thesis considers patrolling games which depend on three parameters; a graph, a game length and an attack length. For patrolling games, the graph models the locations and how they are connected, the game length corresponds to the time-horizon in which two players, known as the patroller and attacker, act and the attack length is the time it takes an attacker to complete their malicious act. This thesis defines patrolling games (as first seen in [16]) and explains its known properties and how such games are solved. While any patrolling game can be solved by a linear program (LP) when the number of locations or game length is small, this becomes infeasible when either of these parameters are of moderate size. Therefore, strategies are often evaluated by knowing an opponent’s response and with this, patroller and attacker strategies give lower and upper bounds on the optimal value. Moreover, when tight bounds are given by strategies these are optimal strategies. This thesis states known strategies giving these bounds and classes for which patrolling games have been solved. Firstly, this thesis introduces new techniques which can be used to evaluate strategies, by reducing the strategy space for best responses from an opponent. Extensions to known strategies are developed and their respective bounds are given using known results. In addition we develop a patroller improvement program (PIP) which improves current patroller strategies by considering which locations are currently under performing. Secondly, these general techniques and strategies are applied to find solutions to a certain class of patrolling games which are not previously solved. In particular, classes of the patrolling game are solved when the graph is multipartite or is an extension of a star graph. Thirdly, this thesis conjectures that a developed patroller strategy known as the random minimal full-node cycle is optimal for a large class of patrolling games, when the graph is a tree. Intuitive reasoning behind the conjecture is given along with computational evidence, showing the conjecture holds when the number of locations in the graph is less than 9. Finally, this thesis looks at three extensions to the scenario modelled by the patrolling game. One extension models varying distances between locations rather than assuming locations are a unitary distance apart. Another extension allows the time needed for an attacker to complete their malicious act to vary depending on the vulnerability of the location. For the final extension of multiple players we look at four variants depending on how multiple attackers succeed in the extension. In each extension we find some properties of the game and show that it possible to relate # extensions to the classic patrolling game in order to find the value and optimal strategies for certain classes of such games