6,612 research outputs found
On the Impact of Fair Best Response Dynamics
In this work we completely characterize how the frequency with which each
player participates in the game dynamics affects the possibility of reaching
efficient states, i.e., states with an approximation ratio within a constant
factor from the price of anarchy, within a polynomially bounded number of best
responses. We focus on the well known class of congestion games and we show
that, if each player is allowed to play at least once and at most times
any best responses, states with approximation ratio times the
price of anarchy are reached after best
responses, and that such a bound is essentially tight also after exponentially
many ones. One important consequence of our result is that the fairness among
players is a necessary and sufficient condition for guaranteeing a fast
convergence to efficient states. This answers the important question of the
maximum order of needed to fast obtain efficient states, left open by
[9,10] and [3], in which fast convergence for constant and very slow
convergence for have been shown, respectively. Finally, we show
that the structure of the game implicitly affects its performances. In
particular, we show that in the symmetric setting, in which all players share
the same set of strategies, the game always converges to an efficient state
after a polynomial number of best responses, regardless of the frequency each
player moves with
A selected history of expectation bias in physics
The beliefs of physicists can bias their results towards their expectations
in a number of ways. We survey a variety of historical cases of expectation
bias in observations, experiments, and calculations.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure
Improving Approximate Pure Nash Equilibria in Congestion Games
Congestion games constitute an important class of games to model resource
allocation by different users. As computing an exact or even an approximate
pure Nash equilibrium is in general PLS-complete, Caragiannis et al. (2011)
present a polynomial-time algorithm that computes a ()-approximate pure Nash equilibria for games with linear cost
functions and further results for polynomial cost functions. We show that this
factor can be improved to and further improved results for
polynomial cost functions, by a seemingly simple modification to their
algorithm by allowing for the cost functions used during the best response
dynamics be different from the overall objective function. Interestingly, our
modification to the algorithm also extends to efficiently computing improved
approximate pure Nash equilibria in games with arbitrary non-decreasing
resource cost functions. Additionally, our analysis exhibits an interesting
method to optimally compute universal load dependent taxes and using linear
programming duality prove tight bounds on PoA under universal taxation, e.g,
2.012 for linear congestion games and further results for polynomial cost
functions. Although our approach yield weaker results than that in Bil\`{o} and
Vinci (2016), we remark that our cost functions are locally computable and in
contrast to Bil\`{o} and Vinci (2016) are independent of the actual instance of
the game
On Linear Congestion Games with Altruistic Social Context
We study the issues of existence and inefficiency of pure Nash equilibria in
linear congestion games with altruistic social context, in the spirit of the
model recently proposed by de Keijzer {\em et al.} \cite{DSAB13}. In such a
framework, given a real matrix specifying a particular
social context, each player aims at optimizing a linear combination of the
payoffs of all the players in the game, where, for each player , the
multiplicative coefficient is given by the value . We give a broad
characterization of the social contexts for which pure Nash equilibria are
always guaranteed to exist and provide tight or almost tight bounds on their
prices of anarchy and stability. In some of the considered cases, our
achievements either improve or extend results previously known in the
literature
Caracterização físico-química e reológicas da polpa de cupuaçu congelada (Theobroma grandiflorum Schum).
Cupuaçu, uma das principais e mais consumidas frutas da região amazônica brasileira, pertence à família Sterculiacea, cuja denominação binomial é Theobroma grandiflorum schum. É uma fruta típica da Amazônia, sendo cultivada nos estados do Pará, Maranhão e Tocantins. Esta fruta apresenta crescente utilização no Brasil para o mercado interno e externo, sendo comumente comercializada como polpa congelada. Apesar de sua importância, há poucos dados de caracterização e contaminação da polpa de cupuaçu. Amostras de polpa de cupuaçu foram avaliadas quanto à viscosidade aparente, tensão de cisalhamento, umidade, cinzas, nitrogênio total, extrato etéreo, acidez, sólidos solúveis e pH. Os resultados demonstram a necessidade de aprimorar as boas práticas agrícolas e de fabricação e implantação de sistemas de controle de qualidade para minimização dos riscos associados à contaminação por micro-organismos
Space and Ground Based Pulsation Data of Eta Bootis Explained with Stellar Models Including Turbulence
The space telescope MOST is now providing us with extremely accurate low
frequency p-mode oscillation data for the star Eta Boo. We demonstrate in this
paper that these data, when combined with ground based measurements of the high
frequency p-mode spectrum, can be reproduced with stellar models that include
the effects of turbulence in their outer layers. Without turbulence, the l=0
modes of our models deviate from either the ground based or the space data by
about 1.5-4.0 micro Hz. This discrepancy can be completely removed by including
turbulence in the models and we can exactly match 12 out of 13 MOST frequencies
that we identified as l=0 modes in addition to 13 out of 21 ground based
frequencies within their observational 2 sigma tolerances. The better agreement
between model frequencies and observed ones depends for the most part on the
turbulent kinetic energy which was taken from a 3D convection simulation for
the Sun.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, ApJ in pres
Relationship between quantum decoherence times and solvation dynamics in condensed phase chemical systems
A relationship between the time scales of quantum coherence loss and
short-time solvent response for a solute/bath system is derived for a Gaussian
wave packet approximation for the bath. Decoherence and solvent response times
are shown to be directly proportional to each other, with the proportionality
coefficient given by the ratio of the thermal energy fluctuations to the
fluctuations in the system-bath coupling. The relationship allows the
prediction of decoherence times for condensed phase chemical systems from well
developed experimental methods.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, late
Does working memory training improve dietary self-care in type 2 diabetes mellitus? Results of a double blind randomised controlled trial
Aims: Controlling food intake despite adequate knowledge remains a struggle for many people with type 2 diabetes. The present study investigated whether working memory training can reduce food intake and improve glycaemic control. It also examined training effects on cognition, food cravings, and dietary self-efficacy and self-care.
Methods: In a double-blind multicentre parallel-group randomised controlled trial, adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus were randomly allocated to receive 25 sessions of either active (n = 45) or control (n = 36) working memory training. Assessments at baseline, post-training and 3-month follow-up measured cognition, food intake (primary outcomes), glycaemic control (HbA1c) and cholesterol (secondary outcomes). Semi-structured interviews assessed participants’ experiences of the training.
Results: Intention-to-treat ANOVAs (N = 81) showed improved non-trained updating ability in active compared to control training from pre-test (active M = 34.37, control M = 32.79) to post-test (active M = 31.35, control M = 33.53) and follow-up (active M = 31.81, control M = 32.65; g2 = 0.05). There were no overall effects of training on other measures of cognition, food intake, HbA1c, cholesterol, food cravings and dietary self-efficacy and self-care. In post-hoc analyses, those high in dietary restraint in the active training group showed a greater reduction in fat intake pre to post-test compared to controls. Interviews revealed issues around acceptability and performance of the training.
Conclusions: Transfer of working memory training effects to non-trained behaviour were limited, but do suggest that training may reduce fat intake in those who are already motivated to do so.
Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN22806944
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