21,418 research outputs found
Combinatorial Game Theory: An Introduction to Tree Topplers
The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a new game, Tree Topplers, into the field of Combinatorial Game Theory. Before covering the actual material, a brief background of Combinatorial Game Theory is presented, including how to assign advantage values to combinatorial games, as well as information on another, related game known as Domineering. Please note that this document contains color images so please keep that in mind when printing
Re-establishing an Ecological Discourse in the Debate over the Value of Ecosystems and Biodiversity
The approach of conceptualizing biodiversity and ecosystems as goods and services to be
represented by monetary values in policy is being championed not just by economists, but
also by ecologists and conservation biologists. This new environmental pragmatism is now
being pushed forward internationally under the guise of hardwiring biodiversity and
ecosystems services into finance. This conflicts with the realisation that biodiversity and
ecosystems have multiple incommensurable values. The current trend is to narrowly define a
set of instrumental aspects of ecosystems and biodiversity to be associated with ad hoc
money numbers. We argue that ecosystem science has more to offer the policy debate than
pseudo-economic numbers based on assumptions that do not reflect ecological or social
complexity. Re-establishing the ecological discourse in biodiversity policy implies a crucial
role for biophysical indicators as policy targets e.g., the Nature Index for Norway. Yet there
is a recognisable need to go beyond the traditional ecological approach to create a social
ecological economic discourse. This requires reviving and relating to a range of alternative
ecologically informed discourses (e.g. intrinsic values, deep ecology, ecofeminism) in order
to transform the increasingly dominant and destructive relationship of humans separated from
and domineering over Nature. (author's abstract)Series: SRE - Discussion Paper
New Results for Domineering from Combinatorial Game Theory Endgame Databases
We have constructed endgame databases for all single-component positions up
to 15 squares for Domineering, filled with exact Combinatorial Game Theory
(CGT) values in canonical form. The most important findings are as follows.
First, as an extension of Conway's [8] famous Bridge Splitting Theorem for
Domineering, we state and prove another theorem, dubbed the Bridge Destroying
Theorem for Domineering. Together these two theorems prove very powerful in
determining the CGT values of large positions as the sum of the values of
smaller fragments, but also to compose larger positions with specified values
from smaller fragments. Using the theorems, we then prove that for any dyadic
rational number there exist Domineering positions with that value.
Second, we investigate Domineering positions with infinitesimal CGT values,
in particular ups and downs, tinies and minies, and nimbers. In the databases
we find many positions with single or double up and down values, but no ups and
downs with higher multitudes. However, we prove that such single-component ups
and downs easily can be constructed. Further, we find Domineering positions
with 11 different tinies and minies values. For each we give an example. Next,
for nimbers we find many Domineering positions with values up to *3. This is
surprising, since Drummond-Cole [10] suspected that no *2 and *3 positions in
standard Domineering would exist. We show and characterize many *2 and *3
positions. Finally, we give some Domineering positions with values interesting
for other reasons.
Third, we have investigated the temperature of all positions in our
databases. There appears to be exactly one position with temperature 2 (as
already found before) and no positions with temperature larger than 2. This
supports Berlekamp's conjecture that 2 is the highest possible temperature in
Domineering
11 x 11 Domineering is Solved: The first player wins
We have developed a program called MUDoS (Maastricht University Domineering
Solver) that solves Domineering positions in a very efficient way. This enables
the solution of known positions so far (up to the 10 x 10 board) much quicker
(measured in number of investigated nodes).
More importantly, it enables the solution of the 11 x 11 Domineering board, a
board up till now far out of reach of previous Domineering solvers. The
solution needed the investigation of 259,689,994,008 nodes, using almost half a
year of computation time on a single simple desktop computer. The results show
that under optimal play the first player wins the 11 x 11 Domineering game,
irrespective if Vertical or Horizontal starts the game.
In addition, several other boards hitherto unsolved were solved. Using the
convention that Vertical starts, the 8 x 15, 11 x 9, 12 x 8, 12 x 15, 14 x 8,
and 17 x 6 boards are all won by Vertical, whereas the 6 x 17, 8 x 12, 9 x 11,
and 11 x 10 boards are all won by Horizontal
An update on domineering on rectangular boards
Domineering is a combinatorial game played on a subset of a rectangular grid
between two players. Each board position can be put into one of four outcome
classes based on who the winner will be if both players play optimally. In this
note, we review previous work, establish the outcome classes for several
dimensions of rectangular board, and restrict the outcome class in several
more.Comment: 9 pages. References fixe
Courtship in Drosophila Mosaics: Sex-Specific Foci for Sequential Action Patterns
Mosaic fate mapping is used to locate the foci determining sex-specific steps in the mating behavior of Drosophila. Male performance of following females and displaying wing vibration toward them requires that a focus inside the head be constituted of male tissue, regardless of the sex of the head sense organs, the legs, the wings, or the thoracic ganglion. For attempted copulation to occur, a second focus in the thoracic region must also be male. Courtship by males is induced by a posteriorly located focus in the female, but an anterior female focus determines receptivity to attempted copulation. The interplay of male and female foci in the complex behavioral sequence is delineated
Bridging the gap between critical theory and critique of power? Honneth’s approach to ‘social negativity’
In this paper, I will analyze Axel Honneth’s theory against the background of some of the criticisms that Amy Allen levelled against it. His endeavor seems to partially compromise his ability to identify the domineering forms of power that the subject does not acknowledge consciously and affectively. I will argue that, despite some significant limitations, Honneth’s theory has become increasingly able to analyze social negativity since The struggle for recognition. Also, in both defending Honneth’s methodology and delimiting its scope, I aim to contribute to the debate between two understandings of power: power as ‘domination’ and power as ‘constitution’
The switch operators and push-the-button games: a sequential compound over rulesets
We study operators that combine combinatorial games. This field was initiated
by Sprague-Grundy (1930s), Milnor (1950s) and Berlekamp-Conway-Guy (1970-80s)
via the now classical disjunctive sum operator on (abstract) games. The new
class consists in operators for rulesets, dubbed the switch-operators. The
ordered pair of rulesets (R 1 , R 2) is compatible if, given any position in R
1 , there is a description of how to move in R 2. Given compatible (R 1 , R 2),
we build the push-the-button game R 1 R 2 , where players start by playing
according to the rules R 1 , but at some point during play, one of the players
must switch the rules to R 2 , by pushing the button ". Thus, the game ends
according to the terminal condition of ruleset R 2. We study the pairwise
combinations of the classical rulesets Nim, Wythoff and Euclid. In addition, we
prove that standard periodicity results for Subtraction games transfer to this
setting, and we give partial results for a variation of Domineering, where R 1
is the game where the players put the domino tiles horizontally and R 2 the
game where they play vertically (thus generalizing the octal game 0.07).Comment: Journal of Theoretical Computer Science (TCS), Elsevier, A
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