Playing in stochastic environment: from multi-armed bandits to two-player games

Given a zero-sum infinite game we examine the question if players have optimal memoryless deterministic strategies. It turns out that under some general conditions the problem for two-player games can be reduced to the same problem for one-player games which in turn can be reduced to a simpler related problem for multi-armed bandits

The Exploration of Center and Periphery in Two Novels by Michel Houellebecq and Marie NDiaye

This chapter analyzes the textual representation of tensions between center and periphery in two Goncourt Prize-winning novels by French writers, Michel Houellebecq and Marie NDiaye. In La Carte et le territoire (2010), Michel Houellebecq invents a fictional alter ego living outside the periphery of the Francophone world, in Ireland, from where he explores social and cultural developments in contemporary France that he finds disturbing. Embracing his otherness and alienation, he utilizes his marginalization to investigate disturbing and unacceptable aspects of contemporary France in an original auto-fictional narrative. In Trois femmes puissantes (2009), Marie NDiaye explores reality from the perspective of female characters living in Africa who reject their marginalization and forcefully assert their rights to a life in which they will be freed from the powerlessness, exclusion and humiliation that they experience daily. NDiaye invents new narrative strategies through which to express these women\u27s will for empowerment. These two thought-provoking novels present original insights into the experience of northern and southern peripheries, in relation to a problematic center—Paris and France

The EU's current problems are largely of its own making

European integration used to be a jewel in the liberal crown. Integration was not only seen as a quintessential liberal project, but also as a tool for spreading liberal values in Europe and beyond. How can we explain the dramatic decline in support for the Union? In an extract from his new book, Counter-Revolution, Jan Zielonka (University of Oxford) explores some of the reasons why disillusionment set in

Two weak Lambek style calculi: DNL and DNL−∗

The calculus DNL results from the non-associative Lambek calculus NL by splitting the product functor into the right (⊲) and left (⊳) product interacting respectively with the right (/) and left (\) residuation. Unlike NL, sequent antecedents in the Gentzen-style axiomatics of DNL are not phrase structures (i.e., bracketed strings) but functor-argument structures. DNL− is a weaker variant of DNL  restricted to fa-structures of order ≤ 1. When axiomatized by means of introduction/elimination rules for / and \, it shows a perfect analogy to NL which DNL lacks

On values of repeated games with signals

We study the existence of different notions of value in two-person zero-sum repeated games where the state evolves and players receive signals. We provide some examples showing that the limsup value (and the uniform value) may not exist in general. Then we show the existence of the value for any Borel payoff function if the players observe a public signal including the actions played. We also prove two other positive results without assumptions on the signaling structure: the existence of the $\sup$ value in any game and the existence of the uniform value in recursive games with nonnegative payoffs.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-AAP1095 in the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

The linguistic aspects of the elderly people language communication

The main purpose of the herein article is to describe the language and curiosity of the elderly people communication. This article presents basic biological, social and psychological changes occurring together with ageing and their impact on the elderly people linguistic attributions. All enclosed conclusions are supported by professional literature as well as by remarks coming from the field research carried out among people over 60 years old.The main purpose of the herein article is to describe the language and curiosity of the elderly people communication. This article presents basic biological, social and psychological changes occurring together with ageing and their impact on the elderly people linguistic attributions. All enclosed conclusions are supported by professional literature as well as by remarks coming from the field research carried out among people over 60 years old

The Impact of Trust in Technology on the Appraisal of Technostress Creators in a Work-Related Context

Research in technostress examines how and why the use of information and communication technologies causes individuals to experience an imbalance between demands and the ability to meet them. In this paper, the impact of system-like trust and human-like trust on the appraisal of technostress creators in a work-related setting is examined. In order to test the propositions, data on trust, technostress creators, the perception of distress and eustress, and job satisfaction were collected in a web-based survey from 210 employees. Structural equation modeling was performed for data analysis. The results confirm that both, system-like trust and human-like trust, significantly affect the appraisal of technostress creators. In particular, the higher the trust in technology is, the less harmful technostress creators are perceived, which positively impacts job satisfaction

A shared mechanism of muscle wasting in cancer and Huntington's disease.

Skeletal muscle loss and dysfunction in aging and chronic diseases is one of the major causes of mortality in patients, and is relevant for a wide variety of diseases such as neurodegeneration and cancer. Muscle loss is accompanied by changes in gene expression and metabolism that lead to contractile impairment and likely affect whole-body metabolism and function. The changes may be caused by inactivity, inflammation, age-related factors or unbalanced nutrition. Although links with skeletal muscle loss have been found in diseases with disparate aetiologies, for example both in Huntingtons disease (HD) and cancer cachexia, the outcome is a similar impairment and mortality. This short commentary aims to summarize recent achievements in the identification of common mechanisms leading to the skeletal muscle wasting syndrome seen in diseases as different as cancer and HD. The latter is the most common hereditary neurodegenerative disorder and muscle wasting is an important component of its pathology. In addition, possible therapeutic strategies for anti-cachectic treatment will be also discussed in the light of their translation into possible therapeutic approaches for HD