The Agent Institute: Develop an Infrastructure for Agent-Based Research and Development for the State of Maine

This award provides support to establish The Agent Institute (AI), an organization anticipated to become self-sustaining and generally enhance research and development for the State of Maine. The AI will promote interactions between industry and foster computer-technology research, specifically in software development and software-hardware relationships in the area of robotics. Industrial applications in extreme or hazardous environments will be emphasized because agent-based systems are designed to read/sense environmental information, make decisions, and take actions based on the information sensed and processed. The award provides an initial two years of salary support to hire an executive director and an administrative assistant. These individuals will be responsible for developing a series of workshops designed to bring researchers and developers with interests and expertise in agent-based systems together in collaborative projects. Education and outreach efforts will also be part of the AI\u27s mission to bring knowledge about this area to K-12 educators and schools with the goal of encouraging students toward careers in agent-based systems and high technology in general

Experiences with Establishment of a Multi-University Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cyber Defense

The National Security Agency (NSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in response to an unmet workforce need for cybersecurity program graduates, jointly sponsor a program by which a post-secondary education institution may achieve recognition as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cyber Defense (CAE IA/CD). The program identifies standards, criteria, and an evaluation process. Many individual institutions have achieved recognition. The University of Maine System, composed of seven universities, is the first multi-university entity to achieve the CAE IA/CD recognition. The purpose of this paper is to share the key challenges, opportunities, and experiences that contributed to this achievement, and offer recommendations

Differential information in large games with strategic complementarities

We study equilibrium in large games of strategic complementarities (GSC) with differential information. We define an appropriate notion of distributional Bayesian Nash equilibrium and prove its existence. Furthermore, we characterize order-theoretic properties of the equilibrium set, provide monotone comparative statics for ordered perturbations of the space of games, and provide explicit algorithms for computing extremal equilibria. We complement the paper with new results on the existence of Bayesian Nash equilibrium in the sense of Balder and Rustichini (J Econ Theory 62(2):385–393, 1994) or Kim and Yannelis (J Econ Theory 77(2):330–353, 1997) for large GSC and provide an analogous characterization of the equilibrium set as in the case of distributional Bayesian Nash equilibrium. Finally, we apply our results to riot games, beauty contests, and common value auctions. In all cases, standard existence and comparative statics tools in the theory of supermodular games for finite numbers of agents do not apply in general, and new constructions are required

Survey of Supercomputer Cluster Security Issues

Abstract- The authors believe that providing security for supercomputer clusters is different from providing security for stand-alone PCs. The types of programs that supercomputer clusters run and the sort of data available on supercomputer clusters are fundamentally different from the programs and data found on stand-alone PCs. This situation might attract a different type of attacker with different goals and different tactics. This paper discusses the results of a questionnaire sent out to many supercomputer clusters in the United States and relates them to a literature search that was also undertaken. These results suggest approaches that can be taken to further secure supercomputer clusters

Method and Apparatus for Performing Hashing Operations using Galois Field Multiplication

The invention comprises a method and apparatus for performing a hashing operation on an N bit number under control of a prespecified N bit hashing constant which comprises performing N/K finite field partial multiplications of the object to be hashed by the hashing constant, utilizing K logic and combinatorial circuits all of which operate in parallel to completely evaluate the number in N/K operations. Another feature of the present invention is that the hashing constant loaded into the system may be changed at will with a resultant changing of the hashing characteristics to suit a particular class of objects to be hashed. This is done by a select operation. In the select operation, the hashing constant is sequentially loaded into said K logic and combinatorial circuits, each of which comprises a feedback shift register (FSR), said feedback shift registers being so configured that at the end of K operational sequences each of said feedback shift registers contains said hashing constant shifted and permuted in accordance with the particular feedback configuration of said register, a number of bits proportional to its location in the sequence of feedback shift registers, such that the hashing constant in the shift register FSRi will be shifted in a predetermined direction (i-1) N/K bit positions. Each of the operational sequences referred to above comprises a hashing sequence which includes N/K shifts of the feedback shift registers

Parasites in peril: abundance of batflies (Diptera: Nycteribiidae) declines along an urbanisation gradient

Urbanisation has a wide range of impacts on biodiversity, but its effects on parasitic arthropods, particularly those of bats, remain poorly studied. Ectoparasites of the large-footed myotis (Myotis macropus) in eastern Australia were sampled from 10 roost sites across an urban gradient. In total, 265 bats were examined and 447 ectoparasites were collected, comprising three species of Hippoboscoidea: Basilia hamsmithi (Nycteribiidae), Penicillidia setosala (Nycteribiidae), Brachytarsina amboinensis (Streblidae), and an acarine, Spinturnix novaehollandiae (Mesostigmata, Spinturnicidae). Degree of urbanisation was found to have a significant effect on the abundance of the batfly B. hamsmithi but had no significant effect on the abundance of the wing mite S. novaehollandiae. We hypothesise that this is due to differences in the life history of these two species and the advantage components of these differences confer in exploiting variations in host roost habits. The prevalence of the batfly B. hamsmithi was high in urban sites but comparatively low in suburban and non-urban sites. Mass, sex, and body condition were found to have no significant impact on either the parasite load or the chance of infestation. Both P. setosala and B. amboinensis were recorded from M. macropus for the first time, though only in small numbers. They were associated with mixed-species roosts in a suburban site and are evidence of parasite spillover between sympatric bat species.</p

The Schützenberger Group of an H-class in the Semigroup of Binary Relations

K. A. Zaretskii has associated a lattice V(α) with each binary relation α, and he has shown that Hα is isomorphic with the group of all automorphisms of V(α) if Hα is a group. This result is extended in this paper by showing that for any binary relation α, the Schützenberger group Γ (Hα) is isomorphic with the group of all automorphisms of V(α)