Fast Approximate Max-n Monte Carlo Tree Search for Ms Pac-Man

We present an application of Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) for the game of Ms Pac-Man. Contrary to most applications of MCTS to date, Ms Pac-Man requires almost real-time decision making and does not have a natural end state. We approached the problem by performing Monte Carlo tree searches on a five player maxn tree representation of the game with limited tree search depth. We performed a number of experiments using both the MCTS game agents (for pacman and ghosts) and agents used in previous work (for ghosts). Performance-wise, our approach gets excellent scores, outperforming previous non-MCTS opponent approaches to the game by up to two orders of magnitude. © 2011 IEEE

Walking Out: The Success of The Edcouch-Elsa Student Walkout of 1968 Through The Media

This study demonstrates how the success of the Edcouch-Elsa walkout of 1968 was brought upon not only by its organization, non-violent tactics, land mark victory in federal court, and support from several of Mexican American organizations. What also aided the student movement in Edcouch-Elsa was the media attention and how it influence the Rio Grande Valley community not only to question the tactics being used towards Mexican American students in the local educational institutions, but also created public discourse over the issues of race, equality, and students’ rights. Using various academic books of the subject, newspaper clippings of the time period, and video sources of the walkout, this study details what transpired during and after the student walkout and how the media portrayed the events

Pan-Asian Sports and the Emergence of Modern Asia, 1913-1974

Stefan Huebner, Pan-Asian Sports and the Emergence of Modern Asia, 1913-1974, Singapur, National University of Singapore Press, 2016, 416 pp

La ciudad moderna y su influencia en el escritor

XXII Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la Facultat de Ciències Humanes i Socials (Any 2017)En el presente artículo se ha tenido como objetivo indagar acerca de la relevancia que ha tenido uno de los elementos mas influyentes de la historia en los escritores a la hora de realizar sus obras. Ese componente será la Ciudad moderna, es decir, la Ciudad industrial, que surge a finales del siglo XVIII y principios del siglo XIX. Para poder comprender la gran relevancia de la ciudad, a lo largo del trabajo entraremos de lleno en las obras de tres escritores, de distintas épocas, pero que tienen en común ese enlace con la Ciudad moderna y, por tanto, la influencia de la metrópolis en estos escritos concretos. Esos tres autores son Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire y Federico García Lorca. Así pues, veremos qué influencia ha tenido la metrópolis en la elaboración de sus escritos

Indigenous Water Governance in the Anthropocene: Non-Conventional Hydrosocial Relations Among the Wayuu of the Guajira Peninsula in Northern Colombia

The dissertation problematizes the supremacy of a global water management regime while discerning and defending local Wayuu hydrosocial relations. The Wayuu relationship with water—considered non-conventional, unsanitary or insecure according to hegemonic Western standards—can also be characterized positively as alternative, resilient, sustainable, adaptive and exceptional. Contemporary water governance presents challenges yet also opportunities for the Wayuu and other Indigenous peoples to (re)assert and (re)establish contextualized and culturally specific practices, traditions and ways of knowing that have been historically silenced by conventional water management. The Wayuu territory, located on the semi-arid Guajira Peninsula in northern Colombia, is widely considered a region suffering from chronic food and water insecurity, aggravated by climate change and exacerbated by widespread corruption and political instability. In response, a conventional approach presumes that the Wayuu are in urgent need of assistance and the solution to the water problem lies in installing waterworks; instructing the Wayuu in acceptable water, sanitation and hygiene behaviors; and instilling good water governance practices. I argue that this common discourse is a representation of reality that uses epistemological assumptions, vested authority, rhetoric and specialized terminology to present a dominant —yet deceptive and partial—depiction of Wayuu–water relations. While some resource management experts are confident that integration is possible between Indigenous and Western knowledge systems, critical social scientists from political ecology and ontological anthropology find bridging initiatives problematic. While political ecology emphasizes the politics and contested nature of water accessibility between different social actors, ontological anthropology underscores the deep ontological divide that impedes mutual understanding and integration of water knowledge systems. Informed by the debates in these fields, I use ethnographic evidence from over 80 Wayuu communities, including survey data, mapping, semi-structured interviews, participant observation and discourse analysis, to explore the (in)commensurability between “non-conventional” Wayuu hydrosocial relations and the dominant conventional water management regime. The dissertation research found that a generalized pattern of failed or faulty water development projects throughout Wayuu territory meant to increase water security often produce water insecurity and increased vulnerability, further exacerbating the precarity caused by anthropogenic climatic change

E-Voting Wasm Cryptography

The Sequent Voting Platform is an open-source E2EV internet voting system currently used in private organisations and non-legally binding elections of public organisations. The system employs standard cryptographic techniques following in the steps of well-established voting schemes proposed in the academic literature. We demo core cryptographic components that are being developed for the next generation of Sequent's platform. The main novelty demonstrated is the execution of (heavyweight) cryptographic operations in the browser, in a performant way. Potential applications of this technique are listed and possible bene ts for security, privacy and veri ability are suggested