Negotiation Via the World Wide Web: A Cross-Cultural Study of Decision Making

INSPIRE is a Web-based system for the support and conduct of negotiation. The primary uses of the system are training and research. Between July 1996 and April 1997, 281 bilateral negotiations were conducted through the system by managers, engineers, and students from over 50 countries. INSPIRE has been used at eight universities and training centers. In research it is being used to study cross-cultural differences in decision making and the use of computer support in negotiation. This paper outlines the system, the negotiation methodology embedded in it, and reports the initial results of the experimental study of the impact of culture on Web-based bilateral negotiation

Negotiation and the Web: Users' Perception and Acceptance

New information technologies invariably provide excellent opportunities for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of decision making and negotiation through the development of novel decision support techniques. Emerging Internet related technologies and, in particular, the World Wide Web provide yet another opportunity for radical change and improvement in the support and practice of negotiations. This view is supported by the results of a cross-cultural experiment that we have been conducting over the past year as part of the InterNeg project, observing computer-assisted international negotiations over the Web. One of the surprises from this experiment is the degree of acceptance that the Web/computer technology achieved among a user base comprising both experienced negotiators and students. In this paper we report our experimental results and suggest the reasons behind and requirements for successful acceptance of Web based negotiation support technology, with the aim of stimulating further exploration of the opportunities held out by these new technologies

Rational Agents, Contract Curves, and Inefficient Compromises Report

Several studies of two-party negotiations have shown that negotiators more often than not reach inefficient compromises. We analyze the circumstances under which rational agents make inefficient compromises and refrain from improving them. We do this by describing and interpreting various negotiation situations and by developing formal constructs and theorems for determining the character of a negotiation situation. Key among these concepts is the notion of opposition. Although opposition is defined in terms of the utility functions, it is more fundamental in the sense that it is more intuitive to decision makers and can be used in contexts in which the parties' utilities are unknown or are partially known. The effects of various rationality assumptions on efficiency and their implications for negotiation support systems are discussed. We argue that the prescriptive/descriptive approach advocated by negotiation analysts lacks sufficient explanatory powers to be effectively used in negotiation support and that negotiation support systems should not constrain the parties to the set of efficient points

Learning Business Negotiations with Web-based Systems: The Case of IIMB

Access to, and the ability to use computer and communication technologies varies widely between countries. It is often lack of proficiency rather than access that creates the barriers between developed and developing countries. The interNeg Web site and its online system INSPIRE and INSS, aim at overcoming these barriers by educating people around the world about decision and negotiation analysis and providing them with an opportunity to use decision support techniques. The systems allow one to conduct simulated negotiations with people from different cultures and solve realistic managerial decision problems. In this paper we present and discuss the limitations of the prevailing methods for teaching decision making and negotiation and present a technological solution that is Internet-based. We present our experiences with using our Web-based decision and negotiation support systems in executive training programs at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB). The discussion of extension to the presented methods and their use in higher education in developing countries concludes the paper

Selección de germoplasma de frejol común (Phaseolus vulgaris) y chicharro (Vigna unguiculata) resistentes a Rhizoctonia solani

Con la finalidad de seleccionar fuentes de resistencia a Rhizoctonia solani entre germoplasmas de frejol común y chicharro, se efectuaron evaluaciones en condiciones de invernadero y campo. En la primera situación, 20 germoplasmas de cada legumiosa fueron evaluados. Las semillas fueron sembradas en suelo esterilizado, previamente infestado con el patógeno, mediante la incorporación de 50 mg de sustrato colonizado (arroz)/kg de suelo.La evaluación de los germoplasmas fue realizada 15 días después de la siembra, mediante una escala de valores numéricos, siendo distribuidas en las categorías de "resistente, moderadamente susceptible (mod. susc.)y susceptible". Tres germoplasmas de frejol (AN 534-534, IPA-5 e IPA-9), se comportaron como resistentes a R. solani, mientras que entre los de chicharro, se observaron reacciones mod. susc y susceptibles. En las condiciones de campo, en las huertas que contenían suelo previamente infestado por el patógeno (10 g/m2 de suelo), se evaluaron 7 germoplasmas de frejol y 13 de chicharro.La severidad de la enfermedad fue evaluada 21 días después de la siembra conforme a la metodología utilizada en inveradero. Todos los germoplasmas de frejol y 3 germoplasamas de chicharro (Corujinha, L101.000-2 y L191.006)se comportaron como mod.susc., mientras que los demás fueron clasificados como susceptibles.Los resultados evidenciaron la dificultad en la obtención de germoplasmas con altos niveles de resistencia a R.solani, indicando la necesidad de la implementaciñon de prácticas integradas que conduzcan al control de la enfermedad, en la cual el uso de germoplasmas con resistencia mod.susc. sería uno de los componente

Influencia de la irrigación en el atizonamiento de las hojas de ñame (Dioscorea cayennensis) por Curvularia eragrostidis en el N.E. de Brasil

El atizonmiento de las hojas(quema), causado por Curvularia eragrostidis, es una de las principales enfermedades del ñame (Dioscorea cayennensis) en elnoreste brasilero. Por esto se analizó el progreso y patrón espacial de la enfermedad en cuatro áreas con plantaciones comerciales de  ñame, dos irrigadas (A y B ) y dos no irrigadas (Cy D), localizadas en ell municipio deAlianca, Estado de Pernambuco, Brasil.En las áreas irrigadas, la cantidad inicial y la máxima severidad de la  enfermedad, fueron superiores a las verificadas en las áreas no irrigadas. Utilizando el modelo de Gompertz, no se verificaron diferencias significativas entre  las tasas de progreso de la enfermedad, siendo idénticas en las áreas A, B, C y ligeramente inferior en el área D. Los valores de área bajo la curva de progreso de la enfermedad fueron superiores en las áreas irrigadas, aunque con pequeña diferencia a lo constatado en el área D. En las áreas B, C y D, las plantas enfermas presentaron un patrón aleatorio, dentro y entre las lineas de plantación  y el área A presentó un patrón agregado, especialmente entre las lineas.Considerando estos resultados, es posible concluir que la irrigación no tuvo influencia significativa en la severidad de la mancha necrótica de las hojas deñame ni en la agregación de plantas enfermas dentro de las áreas de plantación

Dynamics of Crossover from a Chaotic to a Power Law State in Jerky Flow

We study the dynamics of an intriguing crossover from a chaotic to a power law state as a function of strain rate within the context of a recently introduced model which reproduces the crossover. While the chaotic regime has a small set of positive Lyapunov exponents, interestingly, the scaling regime has a power law distribution of null exponents which also exhibits a power law. The slow manifold analysis of the model shows that while a large proportion of dislocations are pinned in the chaotic regime, most of them are pushed to the threshold of unpinning in the scaling regime, thus providing insight into the mechanism of crossover.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. In print in Phy. Rev. E Rapid Communication

Hadrons in AdS/QCD models

We discuss applications of gauge/gravity duality to describe the spectrum of light hadrons. We compare two particular 5-dimensional approaches: a model with an infrared deformed Anti-de Sitter metric and another one based on a dynamical AdS/QCD framework with back-reacted geometry in a dilaton/gravity background. The models break softly the scale invariance in the infrared region and allow mass gap for the field excitations in the gravity description, while keeping the conformal property of the metric close to the four-dimensional boundary. The models provide linear Regge trajectories for light mesons, associated with specially designed infrared gravity properties. We also review the results for the decay widths of the f0's into two pions, as overlap integrals between mesonic string amplitudes, which are in qualitative agreement with data

Improved Holographic QCD

We provide a review to holographic models based on Einstein-dilaton gravity with a potential in 5 dimensions. Such theories, for a judicious choice of potential are very close to the physics of large-N YM theory both at zero and finite temperature. The zero temperature glueball spectra as well as their finite temperature thermodynamic functions compare well with lattice data. The model can be used to calculate transport coefficients, like bulk viscosity, the drag force and jet quenching parameters, relevant for the physics of the Quark-Gluon Plasma.Comment: LatEX, 65 pages, 28 figures, 9 Tables. Based on lectures given at several Schools. To appear in the proceedinds of the 5th Aegean School (Milos, Greece

Heavy quarks in the presence of higher derivative corrections from AdS/CFT

We use the gauge-string duality to study heavy quarks in the presence of higher derivative corrections. These corrections correspond to the finite coupling corrections on the properties of heavy quarks in a hot plasma. In particular, we study the effects of these corrections on the energy loss and the dissociation length of a quark-antiquark pair. We show that the calculated energy loss of heavy quarks through the plasma increases. We also find in general that the dissociation length becomes shorter with the increase of coupling parameters of higher curvature terms.Comment: 22pages, 8 figures, Revised versio