Who drives defense policy : elites or public interest?

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on May 23, 2012).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Katharine FlorosIncludes bibliographical references."July 2011"With a massive budget deficit and an ever-increasing national debt, while Congress and the President almost shut down the federal government over funding for Planned Parenthood in 2011, defense spending seems to be nearly immune to cuts. Scholars think of defense spending in two different ways. The conventional wisdom states that, as voters have little interest in foreign affairs, elites decide foreign and defense policy. On the other hand, public policy researchers emphasize the strong influence of public preference over Congressional budget making. Is defense spending used as a de facto jobs program, or does it truly reflect the needs of the American military? The thesis discusses these questions using a twenty-one year time-series dataset that uses the proposed Pentagon budgets and final Congressional appropriations bills to examine what affects the change in monies given by Congress versus the monies requested by the Pentagon

Exploring the Use of PACE for Multi-Family Buildings in Ramsey County

Report completed by a student enrolled in PA 5721: Energy Systems & Policy, taught by Jennifer Edwards in spring 2019.This project was completed as part of the 2018-2019 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with Ramsey County. The Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Program is a loan program that provides financing for energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy retrofits for commercial, industrial, and multifamily residential properties. PACE helps property owners overcome the challenge of gathering up-front capital for energy improvements, and makes it easier to transfer the cost of the improvements if the owner decides to sell the property. Nationally, PACE has been a successful tool for retrofitting residential properties. Thus far, PACE has not been used to finance any multifamily residential projects in Ramsey County. Ramsey County project lead Mary Lou Egan worked with a student in Jennifer Edwards' PA 5721: Energy Systems and Policy course to investigate the potential use of PACE for multifamily residential projects, using case studies of such projects in other states. The student's final report is available.This project was supported by the Resilient Communities Project (RCP), a program at the University of Minnesota whose mission is to connect communities in Minnesota with U of MN faculty and students to advance community resilience through collaborative, course-based projects. RCP is a program of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA). More information at http://www.rcp.umn.edu

The Effects Of Caffeine On Athletic Performance

Athletes who use caffeine before exercising or competition may be upgrading themselves more than they realize.  Caffeine is classified as a stimulant and is the most commonly used drug in the world.  Caffeine has the same affects that amphetamines and cocaine have, just to a lesser degree.  Caffeine crosses the membranes of all the body’s tissues.  It can exert effects on the central nervous system and the peripheral tissues that result in physiological effects.  Studies have shown that caffeine improves performance in a variety of different activities.  This stimulant has been shown to be a powerful ergogenic aid that is beneficial in athletic training and performance.  Caffeine has been found to increase speed and power, improve the length of training, and assist the athlete in resisting fatigue.  Caffeine has been found to stimulate the brain, which contributes to clearer thinking and ability to concentrate more intensely on the task at hand.  Studies have shown that up to 25% of athlete’s ages 11-18 years old have used caffeine in an effort to increase their athletic performances.  Because of caffeine’s effect on the body and its ability to increase an athlete’s performance, Olympic Committees have debated on whether caffeine should be tested before the Olympic Games

The Disappearing Computer

Computers are with us everywhere and we are aware of their increasing significance for our lives. In parallel, the spread of computers caused a shift in our activities: away from real, physical objects in the environment as the sources of information toward computer monitors as the interfaces to information. This shift had implications for the design of information systems. Computers became primary objects of our attention resulting in an area called 'human-computer interaction.' Today, however, we must ask: Are we actually interested in interacting with computers? Isn't our goal rather to interact with information, to communicate and to collaborate with people? Shouldn't the computer move into the background and disappear

Void Growth in BCC Metals Simulated with Molecular Dynamics using the Finnis-Sinclair Potential

The process of fracture in ductile metals involves the nucleation, growth, and linking of voids. This process takes place both at the low rates involved in typical engineering applications and at the high rates associated with dynamic fracture processes such as spallation. Here we study the growth of a void in a single crystal at high rates using molecular dynamics (MD) based on Finnis-Sinclair interatomic potentials for the body-centred cubic (bcc) metals V, Nb, Mo, Ta, and W. The use of the Finnis-Sinclair potential enables the study of plasticity associated with void growth at the atomic level at room temperature and strain rates from 10^9/s down to 10^6/s and systems as large as 128 million atoms. The atomistic systems are observed to undergo a transition from twinning at the higher end of this range to dislocation flow at the lower end. We analyze the simulations for the specific mechanisms of plasticity associated with void growth as dislocation loops are punched out to accommodate the growing void. We also analyse the process of nucleation and growth of voids in simulations of nanocrystalline Ta expanding at different strain rates. We comment on differences in the plasticity associated with void growth in the bcc metals compared to earlier studies in face-centred cubic (fcc) metals.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figure

Hold-Up and the Use of Performance-Sensitive Debt

We examine whether performance-sensitive debt (PSD) is used to reduce hold-up problems in long-term lending relationships. We find that the use of PSD is more common in the presence of a long-term lending relationship and if the borrower has fewer financing alternatives available. In syndicated deals, however, the presence of a relationship lead arranger reduces the use of PSD, which is consistent with hold-up being of lesser concern in such cases. Further, supporting our hypothesis that hold-up concerns motivate the use of PSD, we find a substitution effect between the use of PSD and the tightness of financial covenants

Review and Analysis of Renewable Energy Options for Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative (MVEC)

Professional paper for the fulfillment of the Master of Science in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy degree.The University of Minnesota (UMN) project team reviewed and analyzed the current and proposed renewable energy programs and opportunities for Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative (MVEC) and gathered survey data from MVEC member-owners to gain an awareness of interest and preferences toward renewable energy options. The team found that MVEC members possess a significant level of interest in new renewable energy opportunities and a willingness to pay for new options. The contract design for a 1 MW Community Solar array may have enough interest to fully support the project, but improvements to contract design may be possible to attract more subscribers and better meet member preferences. Our recommendations address this opportunity for MVEC. Interest in the project originated from conversations between MVEC and faculty at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. MVEC expressed an interest in obtaining a better sense of member interest and preferences for renewable energy programs within the cooperative. This interest helped facilitate a capstone project for Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy graduate students at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs