Alliance Participation and Military Spending

In this dissertation, I examine how military alliance participation impacts military spending. Despite long-standing expectations that alliances affect military spending, we still do not know how. One group of scholars claims that alliance participation often decreases military spending, but another group expects that alliance participation increases military spending. I offer an answer to this longstanding puzzle by explaining when alliance participation increases or decreases military spending. First, I reassess a well known framework for understanding alliances --- the public goods model of alliances. Then, I describe how treaty depth modifies the impact of alliance participation on non-major power military spending. Last, I show that states add depth to alliance treaties to reassure their partners while reducing exposure to entrapment, so democracies often form deep alliances. Taken together, the argument and evidence in this project indicate that efforts to establish credible alliance commitments shape the bargaining leverage of states, which then determines how alliance participation affects military spending. To start, I examine the public goods model of alliances, and find that differences in economic weight do not lead to differences in military spending. As a result, my argument relies on bargaining between alliance members. Then I show that how alliance participation affects military spending depends on state capability and alliance treaty design. Specifically, treaty depth modifies how non-major power military spending responds to alliance participation. Treaty depth refers to the extent of defense cooperation formalized in the alliance through promises like policy coordination and basing rights. When security-seeking non-major powers join deep alliances they usually decrease military spending, because these treaties are more credible. Joining shallow alliances often increases non-major power military spending due credibility concerns and higher allied leverage. Finally, I show that deep alliances are the result of efforts to increase the credibility of alliance commitments while managing the risk of entrapment. I argue that because treaty depth has limited domestic audience costs but reassures allies, democracies often form deep alliances to increase the credibility of their alliances while managing exposure to entrapment. To test this argument, I make two innovations in research design. First, I provide a general and reliable test of the public goods theory of alliances, which is missing from previous research. Then, I build a multilevel model to show how alliance characteristics like treaty depth modify the impact of alliance participation on military spending. Multilevel modeling bridges shortcomings in previous research designs by estimating the unique effect of individual alliances. This modeling strategy could be applied by other scholars of international institutions

The Relationship Between the Functional Movement Screen™ and Countermovement Jump Height

Introduction: Pre-participation measures of functional movement and functional performance are commonly used to gauge injury risk and performance baselines before engaging in activity. Functional movement can be evaluated using the Functional Movement ScreenTM (FMSTM). Performance on the FMSTM has been shown to be related to injury risk by previous researchers. Functional performance can be evaluated with countermovement jump (CMJ) testing; performance on a CMJ demonstrates transferable power to athletic tasks. Performance literature has shown that there are movement factors that influence CMJ height. However, to date a significant relationship between performance on functional movement and functional performance tests has not been found. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the FMSTM total score, scored on a 100-point and 21-point scale, and CMJ height. The secondary purpose of the study was to perform an exploratory analysis examining the relationship of the 21-point live scoring method as well as a 21-point video scoring method of the FMSTM. Methods: This study examined the relationship between functional movement and functional performance of 36 participants. Functional movement was evaluated with the FMSTM. The FMSTM was scored on three scoring scales: 21-point live, 21-point video and 100-point. Functional performance was quantified with CMJ height. Performance height of the CMJ was examined through the use of a Myotest Sport unit. Bivariate Pearson correlations were used to examine the relationships among all tested variables. Results: All FMSTM scoring methods were significantly related to CMJ height. Each of the FMSTM scoring scales were also significantly related to one another. Conclusions: Functional movement appears to be related to functional performance regardless of the scale used to score the FMSTM. Additionally, the strong relationship shown between the scoring scales suggests that the scales evaluate movement patterns similarly. However, more research is needed to better understand the relationship between these two variables. Further research is also needed to determine the validity of the FMSTM scoring scales and identify if the component tests are scored differently on each scale

Case Study on Transition: An American Indian Student with a Learning Disability

In this paper the results of a case study of an American Indian student with a learning disability who successfully transitioned to college will be presented. The student's attitude and behavior were shaped by his culture and his success was positively influenced by family, community, and supports from educational settings

Detection of non-coding RNAs on the basis of predicted secondary structure formation free energy change

BACKGROUND: Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have a multitude of roles in the cell, many of which remain to be discovered. However, it is difficult to detect novel ncRNAs in biochemical screens. To advance biological knowledge, computational methods that can accurately detect ncRNAs in sequenced genomes are therefore desirable. The increasing number of genomic sequences provides a rich dataset for computational comparative sequence analysis and detection of novel ncRNAs. RESULTS: Here, Dynalign, a program for predicting secondary structures common to two RNA sequences on the basis of minimizing folding free energy change, is utilized as a computational ncRNA detection tool. The Dynalign-computed optimal total free energy change, which scores the structural alignment and the free energy change of folding into a common structure for two RNA sequences, is shown to be an effective measure for distinguishing ncRNA from randomized sequences. To make the classification as a ncRNA, the total free energy change of an input sequence pair can either be compared with the total free energy changes of a set of control sequence pairs, or be used in combination with sequence length and nucleotide frequencies as input to a classification support vector machine. The latter method is much faster, but slightly less sensitive at a given specificity. Additionally, the classification support vector machine method is shown to be sensitive and specific on genomic ncRNA screens of two different Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi genome alignments, in which many ncRNAs are known. The Dynalign computational experiments are also compared with two other ncRNA detection programs, RNAz and QRNA. CONCLUSION: The Dynalign-based support vector machine method is more sensitive for known ncRNAs in the test genomic screens than RNAz and QRNA. Additionally, both Dynalign-based methods are more sensitive than RNAz and QRNA at low sequence pair identities. Dynalign can be used as a comparable or more accurate tool than RNAz or QRNA in genomic screens, especially for low-identity regions. Dynalign provides a method for discovering ncRNAs in sequenced genomes that other methods may not identify. Significant improvements in Dynalign runtime have also been achieved

Conceptual Design of a Combat Search and Rescue Surveillance Unmanned Aerial Aircraft

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are becoming more efficient and widely used. The military uses UAV’s because it greatly reduces civilian and combatant deaths and injuries. UAV’s also are used in search and rescue mission to find distress civilians. The team wanted to create an UAV for search and rescue missions and military applications. The aircraft needed to be compact, perform better than other UAV’s, and be low cost. The team did reach a successful aircraft that meet the design requirements. The aircraft was successfully sized around the electronics and allows utilization of additive manufacturing techniques. Project management techniques showed that with utilization of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) chart, the team managed to specifically outline the scope of the project with very limited time

Functional conservation in human and Drosophila of Metazoan ADAR2 involved in RNA editing: loss of ADAR1 in insects

Flies with mutations in the single Drosophila Adar gene encoding an RNA editing enzyme involved in editing 4% of all transcripts have severe locomotion defects and develop age-dependent neurodegeneration. Vertebrates have two ADAR-editing enzymes that are catalytically active; ADAR1 and ADAR2. We show that human ADAR2 rescues Drosophila Adar mutant phenotypes. Neither the short nuclear ADAR1p110 isoform nor the longer interferon-inducible cytoplasmic ADAR1p150 isoform rescue walking defects efficiently, nor do they correctly edit specific sites in Drosophila transcripts. Surprisingly, human ADAR1p110 does suppress age-dependent neurodegeneration in Drosophila Adar mutants whereas ADAR1p150 does not. The single Drosophila Adar gene was previously assumed to represent an evolutionary ancestor of the multiple vertebrate ADARs. The strong functional similarity of human ADAR2 and Drosophila Adar suggests rather that these are true orthologs. By a combination of direct cloning and searching new invertebrate genome sequences we show that distinct ADAR1 and ADAR2 genes were present very early in the Metazoan lineage, both occurring before the split between the Bilateria and Cnidarians. The ADAR1 gene has been lost several times, including during the evolution of insects and crustacea. These data complement our rescue results, supporting the idea that ADAR1 and ADAR2 have evolved highly conserved, distinct functions

The Lived Experience of Paradox:How Individuals Navigate Tensions during the Pandemic Crisis

This is a dialogue and part of an article series involving many authors. </p

Management of retroperitoneal fibrosis with endovascular aneurysm repair in patients refractory to medical management

BackgroundEarly diagnosis and treatment of under-recognized retroperitoneal fibrosis (RPF) are essential before reaching the poorly responsive fibrotic stage. Although most patients respond to medical therapy, relapses and unresponsiveness are common. However, open surgery in medically resistant patients is associated with major adverse clinical events.MethodsThis is a single-centre longitudinal study of optimal medical therapy (OMT) vs. endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) in patients presenting with RPF to our tertiary referral vascular centre. Out of 22,349 aortic referrals, we performed 1,555 aortic interventions over twenty years. Amongst them, 1,006 were EVAR, TEVAR and BEVAR. Seventeen patients (1.09%) had documented peri-aortic RPF.ResultsOut of the 17 RPF patients, 11 received OMT only, while 6 underwent EVAR after the failure of OMT. 82% (n = 14) were male, and the median follow-up was 62.7 months (IQR: 28.2–106). Nine (52%) had immunoglobulin G4-related disease (4 OMT vs. 5 EVAR). EVAR patients had 100% technical success without perioperative mortality. Furthermore, all the EVAR patients were symptom-free following the intervention. Pre-operative aortic RPF index (maximum peri-aortic soft tissue diameter/maximum aortic diameter) was higher in the EVAR than in OMT. However, there was a significant decrement in the aortic RPF index following EVAR (P = 0.04).ConclusionWe believe that when optimal medical therapy fails in RPF, EVAR provides a promising outcome. Further studies are recommended to establish the role of endovascular repair