Computational Results for Extensive-Form Adversarial Team Games

We provide, to the best of our knowledge, the first computational study of extensive-form adversarial team games. These games are sequential, zero-sum games in which a team of players, sharing the same utility function, faces an adversary. We define three different scenarios according to the communication capabilities of the team. In the first, the teammates can communicate and correlate their actions both before and during the play. In the second, they can only communicate before the play. In the third, no communication is possible at all. We define the most suitable solution concepts, and we study the inefficiency caused by partial or null communication, showing that the inefficiency can be arbitrarily large in the size of the game tree. Furthermore, we study the computational complexity of the equilibrium-finding problem in the three scenarios mentioned above, and we provide, for each of the three scenarios, an exact algorithm. Finally, we empirically evaluate the scalability of the algorithms in random games and the inefficiency caused by partial or null communication

Dialogo filosofico e arte della conversazione. La retorica dell’empirismo

From a historical point of view, the 18th century art of conversation is a lens through which one can read aspects of an era strongly characterized by social renewals, educational ambitions and aspirations for that civic humanism that modeled intellectual works no less than social reforms. Questioning the nature, ways and purposes of the conversation probably produces - as evidenced by the critical literature on the subject - intellectual acquisitions of a more general order, not unrelated to metaphysical options, ethical norms, aesthetic standards, ideological hypotheses

The Myth of Lot in Genesis 19 and its Implications in Sexual Education During the Middle Ages

An accurate understanding of sexual relations described in Lot's parable in Genesis 19 constitutes an interesting key to the analysis of this episode and to its exegetic interpretation throughout the Middle Age. In this essay we will focus on two distinct moments of the account: first, the attempted rape of Lot's divine guests by the populace of Sodom, then destroyed by God's anger; second, the incestuous intercourses between Lot and his daughters in a remote cave, far from the burning cities of the Dead Sea's plain. By comparing this passage with similar episodes in the Old Testament, we will try to explain those topoi in their historical and geographical context, by stressing the ethnic and genealogical background of this episode. Then, we will show different readings by exegetes of all the revealed religions during the Middle Age. Finally, supported by textual and iconographical analysis, we will study the social and cultural implications of such readings in response to these violent behaviours and to the role played by facts and characters.Uma compreensão precisa das relações sexuais descritas na parábola de Ló, no Genesis 19, constitui uma chave interessant e para a análise deste episódio e para sua compreensão exegética durante a Idade Média. Neste artigo focaremos em dois momentos distintos deste relato: primeiro, a tentativa de estupro dos hóspedes divinos de Ló pelo populacho de Sodoma, sendo assim destruídos pela cólera de Deus; em segundo lugar, o in tercurso incestuoso entre Ló e suas filhas em uma caverna remota, longe das cidades quem queimavam na planície do Mar Morto. Através da comparação com alguns episódios paralelos do Velho Testamento, tentaremos explicar estes topoi em seu contexto histórico e geográfico, reiterando o pano de fundo étnico e genealógico deste episódio. Então, mostraremos diferentes leituras de exegetas de todas as religiões reveladas durante a Idade Media. Finalmente, aportados em uma análise textual e iconográfica, estudaremos as implicações sociais e culturais de tais leituras em resposta a estes comportamentos violentos e ao papel exercido por estes fatos e personagens

Le oscillazioni del gusto. Teoria e prassi del giudizio estetico in età moderna

il saggio approfondisce la dinamica fluttuante fra teorie e pratiche estetiche, a partire dalla difficoltà di rendere consequenziali gli enunciati teoretici intorno al gusto e le loro applicazioni critiche nel campo dell'arte

O mito de Ló em Gênesis 19 e suas implicações na educação sexual durante a Idade Média

An accurate understanding of sexual relations described in Lot’s parable in Genesis 19 constitutes an interesting key to the analysis of this episode and to its exegetic interpretation throughout the Middle Age. In this essay we will focus on two distinct moments of the account: first, the attempted rape of Lot’s divine guests by the populace of Sodom, then destroyed by God’s anger; second, the incestuous intercourses between Lot and his daughters in a remote cave, far from the burning cities of the Dead Sea’s plain. By comparing this passage with similar episodes in the Old Testament, we will try to explain those topoi in their historical and geographical context, by stressing the ethnic and genealogical background of this episode. Then, we will show different readings by exegetes of all the revealed religions during the Middle Age. Finally, supported by textual and iconographical analysis, we will study the social and cultural implications of such readings in response to these violent behaviours and to the role played by facts and characters.Uma compreensão precisa das relações sexuais descritas na parábola de Ló, no Genesis 19, constitui uma chave interessant e para a análise deste episódio e para sua compreensão exegética durante a Idade Média. Neste artigo focaremos em dois momentos distintos deste relato: primeiro, a tentativa de estupro dos hóspedes divinos de Ló pelo populacho de Sodoma, sendo assim destruídos pela cólera de Deus; em segundo lugar, o in tercurso incestuoso entre Ló e suas filhas em uma caverna remota, longe das cidades quem queimavam na planície do Mar Morto. Através da comparação com alguns episódios paralelos do Velho Testamento, tentaremos explicar estes topoi em seu contexto histórico e geográfico, reiterando o pano de fundo étnico e genealógico deste episódio. Então, mostraremos diferentes leituras de exegetas de todas as religiões reveladas durante a Idade Media. Finalmente, aportados em uma análise textual e iconográfica, estudaremos as implicações sociais e culturais de tais leituras em resposta a estes comportamentos violentos e ao papel exercido por estes fatos e personagens

The Cryogenic AntiCoincidence detector for ATHENA X-IFU: a scientific assessment of the observational capabilities in the hard X-ray band

ATHENA is a large X-ray observatory, planned to be launched by ESA in 2028 towards an L2 orbit. One of the two instruments of the payload is the X-IFU: a cryogenic spectrometer based on a large array of TES microcalorimeters, able to perform integral field spectrography in the 0.2-12 keV band (2.5 eV FWHM at 6 keV). The X-IFU sensitivity is highly degraded by the particle background expected in the L2 orbit, which is induced by primary protons of both galactic and solar origin, and mostly by secondary electrons. To reduce the particle background level and enable the mission science goals, the instrument incorporates a Cryogenic AntiCoincidence detector (CryoAC). It is a 4 pixel TES based detector, placed <1 mm below the main array. In this paper we report a scientific assessment of the CryoAC observational capabilities in the hard X-ray band (E>10 keV). The aim of the study has been to understand if the present detector design can be improved in order to enlarge the X-IFU scientific capability on an energy band wider than the TES array. This is beyond the CryoAC baseline, being this instrument aimed to operate as anticoincidence particle detector and not conceived to perform X-ray observations.Comment: Accepted for publication on Experimental Astronom

Unique Phosphorylation of Protein Kinase C-α in PC12 Cells Induces Resistance to Translocation and Down-regulation

Cell exposure to phorbol ester stimulates translocation and activation of protein kinase C (PKC), ultimately followed by its down-regulation. Upon activation, PKC-alpha, the best studied isotype of the PKC family, undergoes changes in its phosphorylation state. With a two-dimensional immunoblot procedure we have previously shown the existence in PC12 cells of several multiply phosphorylated forms of PKC-alpha, whose number increases in response to phorbol esters (Gatti, A., Wang, X., and Robinson, P. J. (1996) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1313, 111-118). Using the same experimental system, here we report that besides the predominant pool of 80-kDa PKC-alpha forms that respond to phorbol ester by translocating to the cell membranes and down-regulating, there is a small pool of cytosolic 82-kDa PKC-alpha forms that are characterized by a more acidic pI and by an unique resistance to phorbol ester-mediated translocation and down-regulation. The appearance of similarly slower migrating and more acidic PKC-alpha forms is reproduced upon in vitro autophosphorylation in the presence of phosphatidylserine and phorbol ester, but not in the presence of calcium. These results suggest that site-specific transphosphorylation or autophosphorylation of this kinase may regulate its subcellular localization and susceptibility to down-regulation

Persuading Voters: It's Easy to Whisper, It's Hard to Speak Loud

We focus on the following natural question: is it possible to influence the outcome of a voting process through the strategic provision of information to voters who update their beliefs rationally? We investigate whether it is computationally tractable to design a signaling scheme maximizing the probability with which the sender's preferred candidate is elected. We focus on the model recently introduced by Arieli and Babichenko (2019) (i.e., without inter-agent externalities), and consider, as explanatory examples, $k$-voting rule and plurality voting. There is a sharp contrast between the case in which private signals are allowed and the more restrictive setting in which only public signals are allowed. In the former, we show that an optimal signaling scheme can be computed efficiently both under a $k$-voting rule and plurality voting. In establishing these results, we provide two general (i.e., applicable to settings beyond voting) contributions. Specifically, we extend a well known result by Dughmi and Xu (2017) to more general settings, and prove that, when the sender's utility function is anonymous, computing an optimal signaling scheme is fixed parameter tractable w.r.t. the number of receivers' actions. In the public signaling case, we show that the sender's optimal expected return cannot be approximated to within any factor under a $k$-voting rule. This negative result easily extends to plurality voting and problems where utility functions are anonymous