Mentor modeling: the internalization of modeled professional thinking in an epistemic game

Players of epistemic games – computer games that simulate professional practica – have been shown to develop epistemic frames: a profession's particular way of seeing and solving problems. This study examined the interactions between players and mentors in one epistemic game, Urban Science. Using a new method called epistemic network analysis, we explored how players develop epistemic frames through playing the game. Our results show that players imitate and internalize the professional way of thinking that the mentors model, suggesting that mentors can effectively model epistemic frames, and that epistemic network analysis is a useful way to chart the development of learning through mentoring relationships.     

Tradeoffs in process strategy games with application in the WDM reconfiguration problem

We consider a variant of the graph searching games that models the routing reconfiguration problem in WDM networks. In the digraph processing game, a team of agents aims at processing, or clearing, the vertices of a digraph D. We are interested in two different measures: (1) the total number of agents used, and (2) the total number of vertices occupied by an agent during the processing of D. These measures, respectively, correspond to the maximum number of simultaneous connections interrupted and to the total number of interruptions during a routing reconfiguration in a WDM network.Previous works have studied the problem of independently minimizing each of these parameters. In particular, the corresponding minimization problems are APX-hard, and the first one is known not to be in APX. In this paper, we give several complexity results and study tradeoffs between these conflicting objectives. In particular, we show that minimizing one of these parameters while the other is constrained is NP-complete. Then, we prove that there exist some digraphs for which minimizing one of these objectives arbitrarily impairs the quality of the solution for the other one. We show that such bad tradeoffs may happen even for a basic class of digraphs. On the other hand, we exhibit classes of graphs for which good tradeoffs can be achieved. We finally detail the relationship between this game and the routing reconfiguration problem. In particular, we prove that any instance of the processing game, i.e. any digraph, corresponds to an instance of the routing reconfiguration problem.     

Specifications for decidable hybrid games

We introduce STORMED hybrid games (SHG), a generalization of STORMED hybrid systems, Vladimerou et al. (2008) [33], which have natural specifications that allow rich continuous dynamics and various decidable properties. We solve the control problem for SHG using a reduction to bisimulation on finite game graphs. This generalizes to a greater family of games, which includes o-minimal hybrid games, Bouyer et al. (2006) [6]. We also solve the optimal-cost reachability problem for Weighted SHG and prove decidability of WCTL for Weighted STORMED hybrid systems.     

Dynamic Network User Equilibrium with State-Dependent Time Lags

This paper recasts the Friesz et al. (1993) measure theoretic model of dynamic network user equibrium as a controlled variational inequality problem involving Riemann integrals. This restatement is done to make the model and its foundations accessible to a wider audience by removing the need to have a background in functional analysis. Our exposition is dependent on previously unavailable necessary conditions for optimal control problems with state-dependent time lags. These necessary conditions, derived in an Appendix, are employed to show that a particular variational inequality control problem has solutions that are dynamic network user equilibria. Our analysis also shows that use of proper flow propagation constraints obviates the need to explicitly employ the arc exit time functions that have complicated numerical implementations of the Friesz et al. (1993) model heretofore. We close by describing the computational implications of numerically determining dynamic user equilibria from formulations based on state-dependent time lags.     

Pattern Analysis and Analogy in Shogi: Predicting Shogi Moves from Prior Experience

As a research paradigm, pattern analysis has been shown to be an effective tool for analyzing complex game situations in both chess and go. We extend the prior pattern analysis research in chess to the domain of shogi. Shogi is computationally more complex than chess and should realize greater benefits than the chess domain from pattern recognition and pattern exploitation research. The IAM program, which has accurately predicted up to 28% of the moves for a specific chess player, is redesigned to operate in the domain of shogi. Results similar to those achieved for the domain of chess are achieved in shogi. Received 25 February 1999 / Revised 1 October 1999 / Accepted in revised form 2 February 2000     

一种网络休闲游戏模型和协议的实现

在分析常见的网络游戏模型的基础上,提出了一种适合于网络休闲游戏的服务器组模型,并基于客户端设计了一种网络休闲游戏的游戏协议,最后给出了协议的实现方案。     

Capturing Global Youth: Mobile Gaming in the U.S., Spain,and the Czech Republic

We adapt the technology acceptance model (TAM) to examine the factors influencing mobile gaming adoption among “global youth.” Our model replaces usefulness with convenience, incorporating visual appeal and escapism as antecedents of fun, and perceived novelty and economic value as antecedents of convenience. Questionnaire surveys were conducted in the U.S., Spain, and the Czech Republic, producing 432 usable responses. In the structural model assessment with the pooled sample, convenience exercises greater effects on attitude toward mobile games than fun, suggesting that the most important driver is probably the capability of being used flexibly at any time and in any place, rather than mere enjoyment. Tests of latent means suggest that most dimensions are perceived more strongly in the Czech Republic.     

A ship motion simulation system

In this article, efficient computational models for ship motions are presented. These models are used to simulate ship movements in real time. Compared with traditional approaches, our method possesses the ability to cope with different ship shapes, engines, and sea conditions without the loss of efficiency. Based on our models, we create a ship motion simulation system for both entertainment and educational applications. Our system assists users to learn the motions of a ship encountering waves, currents, and winds. Users can adjust engine powers, rudders, and other ship facilities via a graphical user interface to create their own ship models. They can also change the environment by altering wave frequencies, wave amplitudes, wave directions, currents, and winds. Therefore, numerous combinations of ships and the environment are generated and the learning becomes more amusing. In our system, a ship is treated as a rigid body floating on the sea surface. Its motions compose of 6 degrees of freedom: pitch, heave, roll, surge, sway, and yaw. These motions are divided into two categories. The first three movements are induced by sea waves, and the last three ones are caused by propellers, rudders, currents, and winds. Based on Newton’s laws and other basic physics motion models, we deduce algorithms to compute the magnitudes of the motions. Our methods can be carried out in real time and possess high fidelity. According to ship theory, the net effects of external forces on the ship hull depend on the ship shape. Therefore, the behaviors of the ship are influenced by its shape. To enhance our physics models, we classify ships into three basic types. They are flat ships, thin ships, and slender ships. Each type of ship is associated with some predefined parameters to specify their characteristics. Users can tune ship behaviors by varying the parameters even though they have only a little knowledge of ship theory.     

Virtual rights? Property in online game objects and characters

The new industry of Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) brings together two sets of fictions: the interactive stories of shared computer games and the legal devices of intellectual property. In these virtual worlds, scarcity need not exist, but players tend to prefer the competition it creates. This leads to the development of property rights within the game world and players trading real money for virtual objects, ‘land’ and characters. This new phenomenon brings with it familiar legal problems such as theft, fraud and ownership disputes. Game creators also challenge the right of the players to claim ownership outside the game world. The volume and value of the items traded make real money trading an important area of current interest for intellectual property lawyers. Something is being traded, but does it fit neatly into existing conceptions of property rights and who owns it? Analysing the novel problems that result from various theoretical perspectives (utilitarianism, labour-desert theory and personality theory) leads to the conclusion that with time, we will see the development of property rights for players in online games. This connects with a growing understanding that the traditional conception of copyright law dealing with creative work generated by the solitary author is becoming less appropriate in the new creative spaces that information and communications technology brings, where individuals are both consumer and producer. In virtual worlds, new forms of intellectual property, and perhaps even new rights, are taking shape.     

An Adaptive Version of the Boost by Majority Algorithm

We propose a new boosting algorithm. This boosting algorithm is an adaptive version of the boost by majority algorithm and combines bounded goals of the boost by majority algorithm with the adaptivity of AdaBoost.The method used for making boost-by-majority adaptive is to consider the limit in which each of the boosting iterations makes an infinitesimally small contribution to the process as a whole. This limit can be modeled using the differential equations that govern Brownian motion. The new boosting algorithm, named BrownBoost, is based on finding solutions to these differential equations.The paper describes two methods for finding approximate solutions to the differential equations. The first is a method that results in a provably polynomial time algorithm. The second method, based on the Newton-Raphson minimization procedure, is much more efficient in practice but is not known to be polynomial.