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

The Art of Humorous Song: Examining Humorous Songs Through the Lens of Selected Song Sets

The Art of Humorous Song: Examining Humorous Songs Through the Lens of Selected Song Set

Why Beginning Teachers Persist in the Profession and the Impact of Induction and Mentoring

With 46% of new teachers leaving the profession within the first five years, many states have mandated induction programs. This study sought to understand what beginning teachers in rural Maine perceive as the greatest factors impacting their persistence in education, and the perceived impact of induction and mentoring on their persistence. A mixed-methods approach yielded findings that indicated the greatest perceived factors are: working with students, collaborating with peers, and administrative support. Induction and mentoring perceptions were both positive and negative. Recommendations are directed at school leaders who must support teachers by providing time for collaboration and networking, and implementing purposeful induction and mentoring activities.(1 As cited in Andrews, Gilbert & Martin, 2012

Life cycle cost analysis for joint elimination retrofits and thermal loading on Colorado bridges

2017 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Bridge expansion joints are a particularly troublesome component of bridges and many Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are looking for a solution to deteriorating expansion joints on highway bridges. Bridge expansion joints create a break in the structural continuity of a bridge allowing clogging gravels and corroding chlorides to enter. They are designed to absorb thermal movements of the bridge between two bridge elements. There are three main issues regarding expansion joint: maintenance, knowledge about thermal movements, and costs. In order to prevent deterioration due to expansion joints the joints must be cleaned regularly and replaced promptly after failure. However, most DOTs do not have the personnel, time or resources to maintain expansion joints in their districts which leads to bridge deterioration. Other similar maintenance and component issues have been addressed using a Life Cycle Cost Analysis. For this to be used on expansion joints the three main issues of thermal knowledge, maintenance, and costs must first be addressed. The main goal of this project is to help transportation agencies make better decisions about bridge expansion joints. The specific objectives of this study are to 1) expand understanding of thermal loading effects on bridge expansion joints and 2) conduct a LCCA for joint elimination and retrofits for bridges in Colorado. These objectives were accomplished utilizing data from in field instrumentation and finite element models. The study has been developed jointly between the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and researchers at Colorado State University Three main tasks were conducted to achieve the objectives: 1) collect and analyze long-term thermal loading data from existing bridges to assess thermal loading impacts on joints; 2) perform a parametric study using a calibrated finite element model to further understanding of joint behavior and retrofit options under thermal loads; 3) perform a LCCA for bridge expansion joint retrofitting including impacts on bridge superstructure. The significance of this work includes the results of the data collection and analysis, the parametric study, and the LCCA findings. The preliminary data on the concrete bridge C-17-AT presented in this thesis only accounts for mid-winter temperatures. However, these limited observations do imply that if CDOT is interested in removing an expansion joint, the bridge superstructure and retrofit option would need to support the movement of the bridge. The parametric study and data analysis of thermal gradients indicate a stark need for further research into thermal gradients experienced by bridges. Finally, the LCCA concluded that a retrofit continuous bridge design would provide the most cost effective design by decreasing joint replacement costs and pier cap corrosion

six interviews

UID/EAT/00693/2013Com o objetivo de analisar a presença ou a ausência de Ansiedade de Performance Musical (APM) em duos instrumentais con- solidados, seis entrevistas semiestruturadas com membros de três duos instrumentais de música de câmara de longa duração (violino e piano; violoncelo e piano; piano a 4 mãos) foram conduzidas. A análise mostrou que a APM é um pouco comum a todos os músicos, mas que a formação de duo foi considerada um lugar seguro ou de refúgio quando com- parado ao lugar da performance solo. As causas da APM na performance em duo, para os entrevistados, foram relacionadas à família e ao ambiente em que foram criados. Além disso, a relutância em falar sobre APM entre os membros dos duos prevaleceu, e a falta de um sistema educacional para promover o conhecimento e auxiliar no desenvolvimento de estratégias de enfrentamento foi observada. Diferentes atitudes foram observadas através das diferenças de gerações dos duos, no que diz respeito à resolução do problema da APM. No entanto, todos concordaram que uma atitude psicossomática positiva e um estilo de vida saudável, juntamente com a aplicação das técnicas de respiração e concentração, são meios e eficazes para combater os problemas da APM. Em relação às suas percepções de desempenho com o parceiro regular em um duo de longo prazo (“duo consolidado”), em oposição a um parceiro ocasional em um duo de curto prazo (“duo ocasional”), todos concordaram com a satisfação preferencial do duo de longo prazo, apreciando nele “outra percepção, outra poesia”.publishersversionpublishe

Cytological characterization and allelism testing of anther developmental mutants identified in a screen of maize male sterile lines.

Proper regulation of anther differentiation is crucial for producing functional pollen, and defects in or absence of any anther cell type result in male sterility. To deepen understanding of processes required to establish premeiotic cell fate and differentiation of somatic support cell layers a cytological screen of maize male-sterile mutants has been conducted which yielded 42 new mutants including 22 mutants with premeiotic cytological defects (increasing this class fivefold), 7 mutants with postmeiotic defects, and 13 mutants with irregular meiosis. Allelism tests with known and new mutants confirmed new alleles of four premeiotic developmental mutants, including two novel alleles of msca1 and single new alleles of ms32, ms8, and ocl4, and two alleles of the postmeiotic ms45. An allelic pair of newly described mutants was found. Premeiotic mutants are now classified into four categories: anther identity defects, abnormal anther structure, locular wall defects and premature degradation of cell layers, and/or microsporocyte collapse. The range of mutant phenotypic classes is discussed in comparison with developmental genetic investigation of anther development in rice and Arabidopsis to highlight similarities and differences between grasses and eudicots and within the grasses

Automated Crowdturfing Attacks and Defenses in Online Review Systems

Malicious crowdsourcing forums are gaining traction as sources of spreading misinformation online, but are limited by the costs of hiring and managing human workers. In this paper, we identify a new class of attacks that leverage deep learning language models (Recurrent Neural Networks or RNNs) to automate the generation of fake online reviews for products and services. Not only are these attacks cheap and therefore more scalable, but they can control rate of content output to eliminate the signature burstiness that makes crowdsourced campaigns easy to detect. Using Yelp reviews as an example platform, we show how a two phased review generation and customization attack can produce reviews that are indistinguishable by state-of-the-art statistical detectors. We conduct a survey-based user study to show these reviews not only evade human detection, but also score high on "usefulness" metrics by users. Finally, we develop novel automated defenses against these attacks, by leveraging the lossy transformation introduced by the RNN training and generation cycle. We consider countermeasures against our mechanisms, show that they produce unattractive cost-benefit tradeoffs for attackers, and that they can be further curtailed by simple constraints imposed by online service providers