Playing Stackelberg Opinion Optimization with Randomized Algorithms for Combinatorial Strategies

From a perspective of designing or engineering for opinion formation games in social networks, the "opinion maximization (or minimization)" problem has been studied mainly for designing subset selecting algorithms. We furthermore define a two-player zero-sum Stackelberg game of competitive opinion optimization by letting the player under study as the first-mover minimize the sum of expressed opinions by doing so-called "internal opinion design", knowing that the other adversarial player as the follower is to maximize the same objective by also conducting her own internal opinion design. We propose for the min player to play the "follow-the-perturbed-leader" algorithm in such Stackelberg game, obtaining losses depending on the other adversarial player's play. Since our strategy of subset selection is combinatorial in nature, the probabilities in a distribution over all the strategies would be too many to be enumerated one by one. Thus, we design a randomized algorithm to produce a (randomized) pure strategy. We show that the strategy output by the randomized algorithm for the min player is essentially an approximate equilibrium strategy against the other adversarial player

AtPAN: an integrated system for reconstructing transcriptional regulatory networks in Arabidopsis thaliana

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Construction of transcriptional regulatory networks (TRNs) is of priority concern in systems biology. Numerous high-throughput approaches, including microarray and next-generation sequencing, are extensively adopted to examine transcriptional expression patterns on the whole-genome scale; those data are helpful in reconstructing TRNs. Identifying transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) in a gene promoter is the initial step in elucidating the transcriptional regulation mechanism. Since transcription factors usually co-regulate a common group of genes by forming regulatory modules with similar TFBSs. Therefore, the combinatorial interactions of transcription factors must be modeled to reconstruct the gene regulatory networks.</p> <p>Description For systems biology applications, this work develops a novel database called <it>Arabidopsis thaliana </it>Promoter Analysis Net (AtPAN), capable of detecting TFBSs and their corresponding transcription factors (TFs) in a promoter or a set of promoters in <it>Arabidopsis</it>. For further analysis, according to the microarray expression data and literature, the co-expressed TFs and their target genes can be retrieved from AtPAN. Additionally, proteins interacting with the co-expressed TFs are also incorporated to reconstruct co-expressed TRNs. Moreover, combinatorial TFs can be detected by the frequency of TFBSs co-occurrence in a group of gene promoters. In addition, TFBSs in the conserved regions between the two input sequences or homologous genes in <it>Arabidopsis </it>and rice are also provided in AtPAN. The output results also suggest conducting wet experiments in the future.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The AtPAN, which has a user-friendly input/output interface and provide graphical view of the TRNs. This novel and creative resource is freely available online at <url>http://AtPAN.itps.ncku.edu.tw/</url>.</p

The Impact of Leadership to Job Satisfaction and Job Performance – An Empirical Study in the Taiwanese Gaming Machine Manufacture Industry Employees

This study is to explore the relationship between leadership, job satisfaction, and job performance in a gaming machine manufacture with social support as moderating variable which is to test whether there is moderating effect causing by social support between leadership and job satisfaction. This study subject is 125 employees from gaming machine manufacture in Taiwan. The results reveal that leadership has significant positive impact on job satisfaction; job satisfaction has significant positive impact on job performance and social support has no moderating effect between leadership and job satisfaction.

A Stage For Social Comparison — The Value Of Information In Virtual Communities

Virtual communities have become significant applica tions for the Internet. Previous studies usually treated virtual communities as places for people to share and exchange information and did not explain the social value of comm unities well. This study treated a virtual community as a stage on which people can present themselves to other users while others can see the shows of people to satisfy their social comparison needs. Based on social co mparison theory, this paper investigated the effects of upward social comparison in virtual communiti es on user satisfaction through the mediations of perceived inspiration and self-improvement. Furthermore, these effects were moderated by individual social comparison orientation. The results of this study should enhance the understanding of the nature and the social value of information in virtual communities

Becoming an interpreter: Exploring the development of interpreters from trainees to practitioners

Interpreting is an ancient activity but interpreter training is, with only decades of history, a fairly new discipline. To respond to the growing population of interpreting learners, and the rising demand for trained interpreters, this study investigates interpreters as learners, exploring the development of interpreters from trainees to practitioners. Research on learning reveals that learning is a knowledge construction process, and that the conventional cognitive approach towards learning has been challenged by the more updated social approach to learning, with differing knowledge claims on teaching and learning styles, as well as the knowledge they produce respectively. This study assumes the existence of ‘working knowledge’, incorporating both theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. To narrow the general understanding on learning down to a specialised area, or so-called professional learning, the knowledge construction process thus equates to the development of expertise in a given field. In the context of learning interpreting, this study investigates how interpreters build their expertise in interpreting. Using Charles Goodwin’s concept of ‘professional vision’ (1994) is a way for interpreters as insiders to communicate their professional working knowledge to outsiders of the interpreting field. Previous work on interpreter education provides a significant account of interpreter training curriculum and rationale, but limited work has been done on the learning experiences of interpreters at different stages. In search of a paradigm which has the potential to understand learning interpreting developmentally, Lave and Wenger’s Communities of Practice (1999) was adopted as the theoretical framework of this study. It was anticipated that the Communities of Practice could provide a more encompassing view of learning. With the Communities of Practice as the theoretical framework, this study investigates how interpreters learn by looking into their mutual engagement, why they want to learn to be interpreters by exploring their joint enterprise, and what shared repertoires are developed in their venture of becoming an interpreter. The data of this study came from four groups of interpreters who had undergone identical interpreter training but were at different stages—student interpreters, graduate-to-be interpreters, novice interpreters and experienced interpreters—were recruited for open-ended interview. Based on an ethnographically-informed research design, narrative presented in the interview setting is the key tool in this study, offering a platform for the researcher to ‘discover and describe’ (Spradley, 1979) the learning experiences of interpreters. The narrative data from interviewing interpreters reveal the characteristics of interpreting learners before training, learning during training, learning at work and explores learning as participation. The findings demonstrate that many interpreting learners are not only language graduates with a practical attitude towards the promising career prospects of interpreting, but have also had related interpreting experiences prior to training, which motivated them to undertake training. Next, the narrative data examined indicate that learning during training can be divided into three primary activities: learning in class with tutors, group practice with peers, and self-study. After training, learning at work takes place within three domains: interpreting practice, the interpreting profession, and working with people. Practically, trainee interpreters increase their background knowledge and develop interpreting skills during training, while practising interpreters apply their interpreting skills at work and develop coping strategies for the demands of their work. The final sets of data examined in this study investigate learning as participation for practising interpreters using the concept of the Communities of Practice, and reveal the existence of a dichotomy between two sub-markets in interpreting, namely the private freelance market and the staff positions in international organisations, especially in terms of the interpreting market as perceived by practising interpreters. The data demonstrates the level of competition in the private market which leads freelance interpreters to undercut and undermine each other, and that the support system seems non-exist in the private market since freelancers do not expect to help each other at all. In contrast, for those staff interpreters working for international organisations, they have a more straightforward career trajectory to follow. Lastly, the development gap between trainees and practitioners is addressed by articulating the professional vision offered by practising interpreters, which include methods for learning interpreting and an effective approach to job-seeking, something novice interpreters are eager to know. From a theoretical perspective, the idea of the Communities of Practice was found to be problematic for two main reasons: Firstly, looking from the view of mobility, there are multiple Communities of Practice in existence in the context of becoming an interpreter: Community of Trainees (CoT), Community of Freelancers (CoF) and Community of Staff Interpreters (CoS), with their own particular features and development trajectories. Secondly, by investigating the idea of identity, the three major characteristics (joint enterprise, mutual engagement and shared repertoire) of the Communities of Practice are missing or only partially evident in CoF and CoS, with only CoT completely following the characteristics outlined by Wenger (1998) and Lave and Wenger (1999). Finally, this study addresses the educational implications for interpreter training. This study fills the knowledge gap between interpreter training, learning interpreting and interpreting practice, contributing to a contextualised understanding of how one becomes an interpreter from a learner’s perspective and outlining how interpreters at different stages of development approach their professional learning