The first automated negotiating agents competition (ANAC 2010)

Motivated by the challenges of bilateral negotiations between people and automated agents we organized the first automated negotiating agents competition (ANAC 2010). The purpose of the competition is to facilitate the research in the area bilateral multi-issue closed negotiation. The competition was based on the Genius environment, which is a General Environment for Negotiation with Intelligent multi-purpose Usage Simulation. The first competition was held in conjunction with the Ninth International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS-10) and was comprised of seven teams. This paper presents an overview of the competition, as well as general and contrasting approaches towards negotiation strategies that were adopted by the participants of the competition. Based on analysis in post--tournament experiments, the paper also attempts to provide some insights with regard to effective approaches towards the design of negotiation strategies

Management and Service-aware Networking Architectures (MANA) for Future Internet Position Paper: System Functions, Capabilities and Requirements

Future Internet (FI) research and development threads have recently been gaining momentum all over the world and as such the international race to create a new generation Internet is in full swing: GENI, Asia Future Internet, Future Internet Forum Korea, European Union Future Internet Assembly (FIA). This is a position paper identifying the research orientation with a time horizon of 10 years, together with the key challenges for the capabilities in the Management and Service-aware Networking Architectures (MANA) part of the Future Internet (FI) allowing for parallel and federated Internet(s)

Temperature Dependent Piezoelectric Properties of Lead-Free (1-x)K0.6Na0.4NbO3–xBiFeO3 Ceramics

(1-x)K0.4Na0.6NbO3–xBiFeO3 lead-free piezoelectric ceramics were successfully prepared in a single perovskite phase using the conventional solid-state synthesis. Relative permittivity (εr) as a function of temperature indicated that small additions of BiFeO3 not only broadened and lowered the cubic to tetragonal phase transition (TC) but also shifted the tetragonal to orthorhombic phase transition (TO–T) toward room temperature (RT). Ceramics with x = 1 mol.% showed optimum properties with small and large signal piezoelectric coefficient, d33 = 182 pC/N and d∗33 = 250 pm/V, respectively, electromechanical coupling coefficient, kp = 50%, and TC = 355°C. kp varied by ∼5% from RT to 90°C, while d∗33 showed a variation of ∼15% from RT to 75°C, indicating that piezoelectric properties were stable with temperature in the orthorhombic phase field. However, above the onset of TO–T, the properties monotonically degraded in the tetragonal phase field as TC was approached

Counting dependent and independent strings

The paper gives estimations for the sizes of the the following sets: (1) the set of strings that have a given dependency with a fixed string, (2) the set of strings that are pairwise \alpha independent, (3) the set of strings that are mutually \alpha independent. The relevant definitions are as follows: C(x) is the Kolmogorov complexity of the string x. A string y has \alpha -dependency with a string x if C(y) - C(y|x) \geq \alpha. A set of strings {x_1, \ldots, x_t} is pairwise \alpha-independent if for all i different from j, C(x_i) - C(x_i | x_j) \leq \alpha. A tuple of strings (x_1, \ldots, x_t) is mutually \alpha-independent if C(x_{\pi(1)} \ldots x_{\pi(t)}) \geq C(x_1) + \ldots + C(x_t) - \alpha, for every permutation \pi of [t]

Parallel Repetition of Entangled Games with Exponential Decay via the Superposed Information Cost

In a two-player game, two cooperating but non communicating players, Alice and Bob, receive inputs taken from a probability distribution. Each of them produces an output and they win the game if they satisfy some predicate on their inputs/outputs. The entangled value $\omega^*(G)$ of a game $G$ is the maximum probability that Alice and Bob can win the game if they are allowed to share an entangled state prior to receiving their inputs. The $n$-fold parallel repetition $G^n$ of $G$ consists of $n$ instances of $G$ where the players receive all the inputs at the same time and produce all the outputs at the same time. They win $G^n$ if they win each instance of $G$. In this paper we show that for any game $G$ such that $\omega^*(G) = 1 - \varepsilon < 1$, $\omega^*(G^n)$ decreases exponentially in $n$. First, for any game $G$ on the uniform distribution, we show that $\omega^*(G^n) = (1 - \varepsilon^2)^{\Omega\left(\frac{n}{\log(|I||O|)} - |\log(\varepsilon)|\right)}$, where $|I|$ and $|O|$ are the sizes of the input and output sets. From this result, we show that for any entangled game $G$, $\omega^*(G^n) \le (1 - \varepsilon^2)^{\Omega(\frac{n}{Q\log(|I||O|)} - \frac{|\log(\varepsilon)|}{Q})}$ where $p$ is the input distribution of $G$ and $Q= \frac{|I|^2 \max_{xy} p_{xy}^2 }{\min_{xy} p_{xy} }$. This implies parallel repetition with exponential decay as long as $\min_{xy} \{p_{xy}\} \neq 0$ for general games. To prove this parallel repetition, we introduce the concept of \emph{Superposed Information Cost} for entangled games which is inspired from the information cost used in communication complexity.Comment: In the first version of this paper we presented a different, stronger Corollary 1 but due to an error in the proof we had to modify it in the second version. This third version is a minor update. We correct some typos and re-introduce a proof accidentally commented out in the second versio

Other‐Sacrificing Options

I argue that you can be permitted to discount the interests of your adversaries even though doing so would be impartially suboptimal. This means that, in addition to the kinds of moral options that the literature traditionally recognises, there exist what I call other-sacrificing options. I explore the idea that you cannot discount the interests of your adversaries as much as you can favour the interests of your intimates; if this is correct, then there is an asymmetry between negative partiality toward your adversaries and positive partiality toward your intimates

Wide bandwidth LFM transmission through a wavelength-controlled photonic true time delay device

We demonstrate for the first time high quality wide bandwidth (600 MHz) LFM transmission through a wavelength-controlled photonic true time delay device with bandwidth-limited resolution and peak sidelobe level below -37 dB at 5 GHz

A quantitative model of technology transfer and technological "catch-up"

"#2379"--handwritten on coverIncludes bibliographical reference

Proposed experiment for the quantum "Guess my number" protocol

An experimental realization of the entanglement-assisted "Guess my number" protocol for the reduction of communication complexity, introduced by Steane and van Dam, would require producing and detecting three-qubit GHZ states with an efficiency eta > 0.70, which would require single photon detectors of efficiency sigma > 0.89. We propose a modification of the protocol which can be translated into a real experiment using present-day technology. In the proposed experiment, the quantum reduction of the multi-party communication complexity would require an efficiency eta > 0.05, achievable with detectors of sigma > 0.47, for four parties, and eta > 0.17 (sigma > 0.55) for three parties.Comment: REVTeX4, 4 pages, 1 figur