Gathering of Robots in a Grid with Mobile Faults

The gathering of two or more agents in a graph is an important problem in the area of distributed computing and has been extensively studied especially for the fault free scenario. In this paper we consider the mobile agents gathering problem in the presence of an adversarial malicious agent which by occupying an empty node might prevent honest agents from entering this node. The honest agents move in synchronous rounds and at each round an agent can move to an adjacent node only if this node is not occupied by the malicious agent. We model the honest agents as identical finite state automata moving in an anonymous oriented grid topology and having no information about the size of the graph, while the malicious agent is assumed to be arbitrarily fast and to have full knowledge of the locations and the strategy of the honest agents at all times. The agents cannot leave messages at nodes or communicate with each-other unless they meet at a node. Previous studies consider the problem for ring networks and for asynchronous grids, where rendezvous was solved only for the special case of agents starting already in connected configurations. In this paper, we study the problem for synchronous agents in anonymous oriented grid networks for any starting configuration without multiplicities and any number of agents. We first show that rendezvous is impossible for 2 agents even when the agents can see the locations of each-other at all times, while 3 agents can gather if they have global visibility. We then present a universal deterministic algorithm that solves the problem for 4 or more agents having only local visibility and constant memory, in any oriented grid with a malicious mobile adversary

The Late Latin Literary Epigram (Third to Fifth Centuries CE)

This chapter focuses on the late antique Latin epigrams of secular inspiration composed between the third and fifth century ce. It examines the repertoire and authors that have reached us (Carmina XII sapientum, Ausonius, Epigrammata Bobiensia, Claudian, Sidonius Apollinaris, Ennodius) and illustrates the modes of circulation of epigrams, including the use of collections and different literary contexts

Collateral, mutual guarantees and the entrepreneurial orientation of SMEs

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether guarantees characterised by different degrees of relationship lending (particularly referring to collateral and guarantees provided by Mutual Loan Guarantee Institutions) are able to convey some entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions from firms to banks. Design/methodology/approach: Exploiting data from a survey of Austrian and Italian SMEs, the empirical analysis is based on a sample of 328 small business firms. To test the signalling hypothesis, the authors used logistic regressions to assess the explanatory power of EO dimensions on the presence of several types of guarantees. Findings: The analyses suggest that collateral cannot signal any EO dimension, even when controlling for the strength of the bank – firm relationship. Furthermore, SMEs are able to mitigate their financial risk through collateral only in a multiple bank – firm relationship. Lastly, innovativeness, competitive energy and aggressiveness allow SMEs to obtain external guarantees (mutual guarantees, bank guarantees and public guarantees, respectively), helpful in order to promote credit access. Research limitations/implications: The mediation role of collateral and external guarantees on EO – credit access relation should be analysed in future research. Since the role of guarantees can change among different bank lending technologies, further studies should carefully consider lender’s characteristics. Lastly, the use of loan data in respect of the firm data can help to better separate the effect of loan and firm attributes on the collateral. Practical implications: The study suggests how managers and entrepreneurs should manage the financial risk through collateral in different situations (one–to–one and multiple bank – firm relationship). Furthermore, depending on the level of innovativeness, competitive energy and aggressiveness, a firm should request a specific type of external guarantees in order to increment the credit availability, to maximise the possibility of success and to improve its performance. Originality/value: To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to analyse whether EO affects the request for guarantees instead of credit access. This can be helpful especially when the banks involved in the relation apply a transaction lending technology