The Art of War: Beyond Memory-one Strategies in Population Games

We define a new strategy for population games based on techniques from machine learning and statistical inference that is essentially uninvadable and can successfully invade (significantly more likely than a neutral mutant) essentially all known memory-one strategies for the prisoner's dilemma and other population games, including ALLC (always cooperate), ALLD (always defect), tit-for-tat (TFT), win-stay-lose-shift (WSLS), and zero determinant (ZD) strategies, including extortionate and generous strategies. We will refer to a player using this strategy as an "information player" and the specific implementation as $IP_0$. Such players use the history of play to identify opponent's strategies and respond accordingly, and naturally learn to cooperate with each other.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Comprehensive Detection of Genes Causing a Phenotype using Phenotype Sequencing and Pathway Analysis

Discovering all the genetic causes of a phenotype is an important goal in functional genomics. In this paper we combine an experimental design for multiple independent detections of the genetic causes of a phenotype, with a high-throughput sequencing analysis that maximizes sensitivity for comprehensively identifying them. Testing this approach on a set of 24 mutant strains generated for a metabolic phenotype with many known genetic causes, we show that this pathway-based phenotype sequencing analysis greatly improves sensitivity of detection compared with previous methods, and reveals a wide range of pathways that can cause this phenotype. We demonstrate our approach on a metabolic re-engineering phenotype, the PEP/OAA metabolic node in E. coli, which is crucial to a substantial number of metabolic pathways and under renewed interest for biofuel research. Out of 2157 mutations in these strains, pathway-phenoseq discriminated just five gene groups (12 genes) as statistically significant causes of the phenotype. Experimentally, these five gene groups, and the next two high-scoring pathway-phenoseq groups, either have a clear connection to the PEP metabolite level or offer an alternative path of producing oxaloacetate (OAA), and thus clearly explain the phenotype. These high-scoring gene groups also show strong evidence of positive selection pressure, compared with strictly neutral selection in the rest of the genome

Assessing At-Risk Students\u27 Attitudes Toward The Implementation of Instructional Technology

With the growing trend on the reliance on technology in today\u27s youth, education has also been changing with the implementation of technology in the classroom setting. With immigrant populations increasing in the US, K-12 education must meet the demand in education to not only first generation immigrant students, but also to their reliance on technology. Research has been conducted on at-risk students and the implementation of technology in the classroom, but not so much on what first generation immigrant at-risk students think of the implementation of one computer for every student in the classroom setting and if they find it beneficial to their education. For this study, quantitative data were collected at an alternative school in northeast Texas. All 74 participants were night school students who had previously dropped out of high school and were returning to earn their high school diploma. Statistical analysis indicated that there were statistically significant relationships between the students\u27 reported level of laptop integration in the classroom and their level of reported learning, the students\u27 reported level of laptop proficiency and their reported level of learning, and the relationship between the students\u27 attitude towards learning and their level of reported laptop usage. Based on these results, it was determined that this group of at-risk students in the sample value the implementation of laptops in their classroom setting and see them as an asset to their education

Mediator as Peacemaker: The Case for Activist Transformative-Narrative Mediation

This article proposes an approach to mediation encompassing aspects of both of these takes on mediation, something one might loosely think of as activist transformative-narrative mediation. Essentially, this approach assumes the aspirations and ideology of Professor Gunning\u27s activist take on transformative mediation and achieves those aspirations using techniques from narrative mediation. By employing this approach, mediators can actively assist parties to identify and achieve reconciliation, peace, and justice

"Changing ourselves, changing others" : an analysis of the life stories of participants in a training course for volunteers within a non-governmental organisation in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

Gender-based violence has been recognized as a pressing mental health problem that is prevalent within South African society. Non-governmental organizations play a major role in addressing and highlighting the issue. These organizations make use of volunteers in order to assist in meeting their goals. The modernist perspective has been the dominant investigative mode when research into volunteers has been conducted. However, this study has been conducted with an emphasis on narrative. In its use of this constitutionalist and deconstructive perspective, it examines the identity of the research participants within the dominant social and cultural discourses that story their lives. This presents a major challenge to the modernist framework. In examining the life stories of the participants an emergent nature of identity is noted. Through the process of storying their lives and ascribing meaning to their experiences and understandings, the participants engaged in a process of constructing their identity. This research recognizes that identity is both multi-sited and multi-storied. The emphasis on personal agency enables the participants to restory their lives in the light of challenging prevailing discourses. It is in this process of challenge that they reauthor their lives and are in a position to change their own lives and the lives of others

The Early Parent-Child Relationship and Aggression: The Mediating Role of Language

Multiple theories suggest that the early parent-child relationship plays an important role in development. Past research has shown linkages between parenting style and aggression as well as between language and aggression. Emerging evidence suggests that attachment security is an important predictor of language development. It was hypothesized that there would be an effect of parent-child relationship quality at 36 months on aggression at school entry via language ability at 54 months. To test this hypothesis, path analysis in M-Plus was used. Data for this study were collected as a part of the NICHD, Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,364). Mediation was tested with bootstrapped estimates of indirect effects. The results did not support the hypothesized

Developmental Psychopathology and Childhood Obesity: A Developmental Cascade Model

Childhood obesity is a growing concern for practitioners and researchers. In addition to obesity being a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, children classified as obese are more likely to demonstrate other risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, children classified as obese are more likely to be victims of bullying and discrimination. This dissertation tested a dynamic cascade model of the development of childhood obesity. It was hypothesized that externalizing behaviors and internalizing problems would lead to increased body mass index. This model was tested in Mplus v7 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998) using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. This dissertation used parent report of externalizing behaviors and internalizing behaviors, teacher report of externalizing behaviors, and body mass index to examine several different ways in which developmental psychopathology related to childhood obesity. The results suggested that body mass index predicts the development of internalizing problems in late childhood. However, externalizing behaviors were not directly or indirectly associated with body mass index. These findings suggested that the assessment of children with internalizing problems should include an assessment of their weight and weight related concerns