A war is forever: The long-run effects of early exposure to World War II on trust

This paper examines the long-term effect of conflict on trust by using changes in places and timing of combats during World War II. We focus on the pre-school period, an important life stage for the formation of trust and an age where war exposure may persist throughout life. We find robust evidence that individuals exposed to combats in the first six years of life display lower trust and social engagement well into adulthood. In light of the well-known relationship between trust and collective action, our results lend credence to the theory that violent conflict inhibits well-functioning government in long run

Open Orbits in Satellite Dynamics

Recent investigations into the effects of a constant atmospheric drag force on an essentially circular satellite orbit have led to an analytical expression for the resulting orbit, which is obviously not exactly circular, but so close to it that profitable simplifications can be made in its derivation. In the present paper several of the resulting type orbits are analyzed and compared

Perfect and Imperfect Collinearity in Multibody Gyro Systems

The behaviour of multibody gyroscopic systems is governed by the collinearity principle. In the present paper the collinearity principle is stated and its origin, history and applications are discussed. It is then used in two examples of spacecraft with momentum wheels to demonstrate its validity and applicability

Angular Momentum Collinearization of an Elastic Gyro with Hysteresis

In the present paper it is shown in some detail how the energy dissipation in a deforming elastic gyro leads to a collinearization of the angular momenta, according to the collinearity principle

Galactic Contraction and the Collinearity Principle

In a spiral galaxy there is not only a Kepler force acting on an individual star but also a transverse pail opposing the motion. The relatively small transverse pall is due to the atmospheric drag exerted by interstellar gas (hydrogen, cosmic dust). It is also shown that the arms of a spiral galaxy consist of Ward spirals, that there is an orbital energy loss for each individual star in a contracting galaxy, and that the size of the Ward spiral observed can be used to predict the speed of the galaxy’s contracting. For inside the galaxy’s central sphere it is shown that the path of a star describes a logarithmic spiral and that there is an associated orbital energy loss

A Note on Hohmann Transfer Velocity Kicks

A Hohmann transfer is a well-known spacecraft manoeuvre, initiated by a horizontal velocity kick Δv1, which effects a change from an original, say, circular orbit to the Hohmann transfer ellipse in its perigee, and completed by a second horizontal velocity kick Δv2 in the apogee, to eflect a change from the transfer ellipse to a final, say, larger circular orbit.A velocity kick as mentioned above is apparently instantaneous, and free of any side effects, a very idealized concept, which, as it turns out, isfar removedfrom reality.Recent investigations into Ward spirals have shed some light into how velocity changes can be brought about. It is shown that a vertical impulse component must be present to accompany a horizontal impulse in order to assure that the altitude remains constant during a horizontal velocity change

Planet Absorption by a Gas Giant

There is mounting evidence of many extra-solar planetary systems in our galaxy, consisting typically of a Sun-like star and Jupiter-like planets on highly elliptic orbits. These systems are characterised by a dearth of smaller Earth-like planets. The present paper describes the swallowing-up of a small rock dwarf by a large gas giant, and shows that this behaviour is as predicted by the collinearity principle

Let us buy sustainable! The impact of cash mobs on sustainable consumption: Experimental results

Cash mob is a practice where groups of people gather at local shops to buy a given product (usually with a strong sustainable feature) and make their decisions visible to the general public. With our paper we aim to assess the effectiveness of the cash mob as a behavioural tool and provide a better understanding of the behavioural triggers of consumers’ decision making process. We run a laboratory experiment where we mimic sustainable consumption and the cash mob treatment is embedded in a sequential game structure with/without an environmental frame. We find that the cash mob treatment has a positive gross effect, that is, the share of sustainable consumers is significantly higher in treated sessions. We also document a significant effect of expectations about the number of those eliciting a sustainable behaviour depending on participants’ previous choices. Our results suggest that cash mob-like mechanisms can help to solve social dilemmas like sustainable consumption with entirely private solutions (not based on punishment like taxes but on positive action), and with no costs for government budgets

Ballistic accretion on a point seed

We carefully discuss the two-dimensional ballistic aggregation process. Studying the microscopic discrete process, we theoretically derive the probability density function describing the single-particle accretion. Using this function, we describe the properties of the “fan”, obtained for ballistic aggregation on the single seed, and we predict its mean density and its opening angle. We discuss the shadowing effect on a microscopic scale, between the single particles and, on a larger scale, between grown structures, deriving the columnar microstructure direction law. Comparisons with numerical experiments are shown

Nudging and corporate environmental responsibility: a natural field experiment

We devise a "nudging" natural field experiment to test the impact of a simple form of advertising on environmentally responsible products with/without the increase of the responsible product price. We find that the simple use of a small shelf poster explaining the importance of buying a green product (with/without a concurring price increase) generates significant changes in market shares for some of the product classes for both food and non-food products. Part of the effect is generated by the reduced price elasticity of consumers to the poster-plus-price-increase treatment