The Computational Difficulty of Bribery in Qualitative Coalitional Games

Qualitative coalitional games (QCG) are representations of coalitional games in which self interested agents, each with their own individual goals, group together in order to achieve a set of goals which satisfy all the agents within that group. In such a representation, it is the strategy of the agents to find the best coalition to join. Previous work into QCGs has investigated the computational complexity of determining which is the best coalition to join. We plan to expand on this work by investigating the computational complexity of computing agent power in QCGs as well as by showing that insincere strategies, particularly bribery, are possible when the envy-freeness assumption is removed but that it is computationally difficult to identify the best agents to bribe.Bribery, Coalition Formation, Computational Complexity

Introduction to the Special Issue: The AgentLink III Technical Forums

This article introduces the special issue of ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems devoted to research papers arising from the three Technical Forum Group meetings held in 2004 and 2005 that were organized and sponsored by the European FP6 Coordination Action AgentLink III

Using the World-Wide Web to Facilitate Communications of Non-Destructive Evaluation

The high reliability required for Aeronautical components is a major reason for extensive Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation. Here at Langley Research Center (LaRC), there are highly trained and certified personal to conduct such testing to prevent hazards from occurring in the workplace and on the research projects for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The purpose of my studies was to develop a communication source to educate others of the services and equipment offered here. This was accomplished by creating documents that are accessible to all in the industry via the World Wide Web

Stereoscopy On The Silver Screen: The Analyticon And Early Cinema In Edinburgh, Scotland

The Modern Marvel Company was incorporated in Edinburgh in 1897, with a remit to educate and entertainment. Building on the wider popularisation of science and radical changes in pedagogy, the company exploited various optical technologies to fulfil an ideal of universal education. The cinematograph and the Analyticon regularly shared the same bill; the latter was a stereoscopic technology built upon the principle of polarised light that depended upon a silver screen to work. Within the context of Edinburgh, stereoscopy directed shaped the ideological and aesthetic character of early cinema. This paper adopts tropes of traditional technological history by detailing the Analyticon’s technical workings, but it also adopts the principles of New Cinema History by situating this technology within a nuanced social context. In doing so, this paper offers a fuller understanding of early cinema’s aesthetic, social and cultural significance in Edinburgh, and its relationship with the wider visual culture of the 1890s