Gaming and Aggressive Tendencies: The Effects of Conflict Simulations on Behavior and Political Decision-Making

Simulations and war games have seen increasing use not only in the military, but various other agencies throughout the United States Federal Government as well. There seems to be a gap in the relevant literature examining if there are any effects on foreign policy decision-making after participating in these games, however. I deployed a survey at a local paintball place, to test for any noticeable effect on people\u27s foreign policy preferences after they take part in a conflict simulation. The results of my research demonstrated a greater need to examine the effects of conflict simulations on decision-making processes. Some of the changes included a willingness to utilize a more militant foreign policy when dealing with a situation such as the Arab Spring, or having a more aggressive emotional state after participating in a conflict simulation

Sequential deformation of plains along Tessera boundaries on Venus: Evidence from Alpha Regio

Tesserae are regions of elevated terrain characterized by two or more sets of ridges and grooves that intersect orthogonally. Tesserae comprise 15-20 percent of the surface of Venus, but the nature of their formation and evolution is not well understood; processes proposed to account for their characteristics are many and varied. Two types of tessera boundaries have been described: type 1 are generally embayed by plains; and type 2 boundaries are characterized by being linear at the 100-km scale and often associated with steep scarps or tectonic features. Margins such as the western edge of Alpha have been described as type 2. Some of the tessera have boundaries that display deformation of both the edge of the tessera and the adjoining plains. This study focuses on the western edge of Alpha Regio in an effort to characterize on occurrence of this type of boundary and assess the implications of the style in general. Using Magellan SAR imagery, lineament lengths, orientations, and spacing were measured for ten 50 x 60 km areas spanning 500 km of the western boundary. Structural characteristics and orientations were compared to stratigraphic units in order to assess the sequence and style of deformation

The reactions of l-chloro-l-nitro propane in anhydrous liquid ammonia

In 1939 Seigle and Hass were successful in preparing numerous dinitro paraffins such as 2, 3-dimethyl-2, 3-dinitro butane and 2, 3-dimethyl-2, 3-dinitro pentane by the reaction of salts of nitroparaffins with halonitroparaffins. They were unable to do so however, in the cases where primary nitro compounds were involved. More recently, in an unpublished work Sottysiak believed that he prepared the 2, 3-dimethyl-2, 3-dinitro butane by a Wurtz reaction in liquid ammonia, in which 2-nitro-2-chloro propane was reduced by sodium. Because of the strong reducing properties of a solution of sodium in anhydrous liquid ammonia, it was hoped that the 3, 4-dinitro hexane could be prepared in this manner. Sodium, when added to the nitro alkanes evolves hydrogen to form the sodium salt of the pseudo acid. A similar reaction was expected when the chloro-nitro propane was added to the liquid ammonia, but this should not affect the Wurtz reaction

Accessory Adrenal Cortical Bodies in the Pig

It is a well known fact that laboratory animals not injected with adrenal cortical extracts may survive the removal of both adrenal glands because of accessory adrenal cortical tissue which is usually located in close approximation to the kidneys

A Dynamic, New Age of Political Participation

For Virginians, the new millennium marked more than the passage of a symbolic moment in time. We wrote history, dawning a dynamic, new age of political freedom and progress in the Commonwealth

Moving Virginia Into the Forefront of Innovation and Progress

It is a great honor to write the Foreword to the University of Richmond Law Review\u27s Annual Survey of Virginia Law for the second successive year. The University of Richmond has consistently been one of the finest institutions of higher education not only in Virginia, but throughout the United States. The Law School shares that proud tradition, and so does this Survey, which is now in its seventeenth year of publication

Explaining and predicting suggested relationships between human social capital, citizen political trust, and citizen political engagement

The United States of America was built on the foundation of a representative democracy. Citizens engage in various political activities to elect representation to create policies and programs that may benefit individuals, groups of individuals, and special interests. A citizen’s type of political engagement and level of political engagement may be influenced by the individual and group resources a citizen possesses, as well as the citizen’s level of trust in government to respond to their individual or group needs. This study contributes to the literature on political engagement by suggesting factors that predict political engagement in the United States. The goal of this study was to explore predictors of political engagement in the United States. Data from the National Politics Survey 2004 was used to analyze and interpret findings related to the nine hypotheses in this study. Survey items were selected from the survey to measure political trust, social capital, and political engagement. Citizen level of trust in the national government was used to measure political trust. Individual and group resource variables such as income, educational level, ethnic mix of friends, ethnic mix of neighborhood, closeness of ideas and interests to people, and maintaining or blending cultures were used to measure social capital. Three dependent variables were used to measure political engagement; voting, talking to others to persuade them to vote for or against a party or candidate, and attending a political rally in support of a particular candidate. Each dependent variable was measured separately against the independent variables in a hierarchical regression analysis. The results indicated that certain Socioeconomic Status variables, social capital variables, and the political trust variable failed to meaningfully predict citizen political engagement related to voting and attending political meetings or rallies, and had minimal meaningful predictability to talking to others to persuade citizens to vote for a specific party or candidate. The results also indicated noteworthy biases in the dataset that contributed to the model’s inability to meaningfully predict political engagement based on the variables suggested in this study

Match Stability with a Costly and Flexible Number of Positions

One of the primary objectives of two-sided matching systems is to facilitate the pairing of two groups of agents in a manner that eliminates any incentive for pair deviation. Such challenges are quite prevalent and can have significant and long-lasting ramifications for participants, including students applying to colleges. While much of the existing research in this field addresses the problem using fixed quotas, real-world applications, like college admissions, demonstrate that this is not always applicable. We introduce the concept of slot stability, recognizing the potential motivation for organizations to modify their quotas after the matching process. We propose two algorithms designed to create stable and slot stable matches by employing flexible, endogenous quotas to address this issue. Additionally, we demonstrate that our algorithm aligns with the concerns raised by colleges implementing waitlist systems, effectively mitigating behaviors that can lead to unstable outcomes