A resilient buffer allocation scheme in active queue management: a stochastic cooperative game theoretic approach

During the last decade, a plentiful number of active queue management schemes have been proposed, but their main objectives are simply allocating the buffer resource to all flows evenly, or protecting responsive flows from being degraded by unresponsive flows. However, the sending rates of the responsive flows can be determined diversely, and not all unresponsive flows have aggressively high sending rates. Furthermore, it is rational to reserve a portion of the buffer resource for certain privileged traffic. Grounded by these evidences, in this paper, we present a resilient active queue management algorithm, named Prior‐Core‐based Buffer Allocation considering diverse congestion control algorithms, fair‐unresponsive flows, and some privileged traffic. Our approach is based on stochastic cooperative game theory, where the payoffs yielded by cooperation are described by random variables, and the core is defined only over the distribution of these random payoffs; the core in this situation is called the prior‐core. As a result, it is shown that our buffer allocation, yielded by the prior‐core, achieves completely fair allocation for those flows whose requirement does not exceed the fair‐share regardless of the responsiveness, whereas aggressive flows are restricted according to availability of the buffer; all these are verified through ns‐2 simulation experiments. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stochastic characterization of the spectrum sharing game in ad-hoc networks

This work focuses on infrastructure-less ad hoc wireless networks where multiple transmitter/receiver pairs share the same radio resources (spectrum); transmitters have to choose how to split a total power budget across orthogonal spectrum bands with the goal to maximize their sum rate under cumulative interference from concurrent transmissions. We start off by introducing and characterizing the non-cooperative game among transmitter/receiver pairs when the network topology is deterministically given. The corresponding Nash equilibria are derived, highlighting their dependency on the topological parameters (distances between wireless nodes, propagation model, and background noise power). The analysis is then extended to the case of random network topologies drawn from a given spatial stochastic process. Tools of stochastic geometry are leveraged to derive a statistical characterization of the equilibria of the spectrum sharing game. Finally, a distributed algorithm is proposed to let the players of the spectrum sharing game converge to equilibria conditions. Numerical simulations show that the proposed algorithm drives the users to stable points that are close to the equilibria of the game requiring limited information exchange among nodes.     

Office of Technology Assessment: History,implementation, and participatory critique

The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), which was created by the Technology Assignment Act of 1972, was—and still remains even after its abolishment in 1995—a unique congressional agency. OTA provided members of Congress with their own means of understanding and evaluating complex science and technology matters—of which there are no shortages. It spurred an entire literature of academic research both about OTA and the idea of technology assessment more generally. Understanding the legislative history and implementation of the Technology Assessment Act is crucial not just for scholarship, though. OTA was a blueprint for institutionalizing politically accountable technology assessment. Even as technologies advance at rapid rates, OTA still offers valuable lessons that scholars and policy-makers alike ought to glean. This paper places OTA in a contemporary context of (institutionalized) technology assessment. It contributes to a better understanding of OTA's origins by tracing its lineage to a set of federal reports beginning in 1929. It then analyzes OTA's response to pragmatic implementation questions of how to strike a balance between speed, depth, scope, and temporal focus. Lastly, it uses a public values framework to critique OTA's failure to adequately incorporate participatory elements into its processes.     

Cognitive abilities,digital games and arithmetic performance enhancement: A study comparing the effects of a math game and paper exercises

Besides entertainment, games have shown to have the potential to impact a broader variety of cognitive abilities. Research has consistently shown that several aspects in cognition such as visual short-memory, multitasking and spatial skills can be enhanced by game play. In a previous study, it was found that playing Monkey Tales, a game aimed at training arithmetic skills, helped second grade pupils to increase their accuracy in mental calculation as compared to paper exercises. In this follow up study we explore whether traditional methods and game training differ in terms of the cognitive processes that both are able to impact. We incorporated standardized measures of working memory and visuo-motor skills. Additionally, the mathematics game was modified and its contents extracted to allow precise comparison between the gaming and paper exercises condition. Thus each single math exercise, type of question (e.g., multiple choice), quantity and order was perfectly matched in the game training and the traditional training conditions. Gains in arithmetical performance, and self-reported measures of enjoyment were also investigated. We found some evidence suggesting that arithmetic performance enhancement induced by game play and paper exercises differ not only in terms of enjoyment but also of working memory capacity improvements.     

A stochastic evolutionary coalition game model of secure and dependable virtual service in Sensor-Cloud

Various intrusion detection systems (IDSs) have been proposed in recent years to provide safe and reliable services in cloud computing. However, few of them have considered the existence of service attackers who can adapt their attacking strategies to the topology-varying environment and service providers’ strategies. In this paper, we investigate the security and dependability mechanism when service providers are facing service attacks of software and hardware, and propose a stochastic evolutionary coalition game (SECG) framework for secure and reliable defenses in virtual sensor services. At each stage of the game, service providers observe the resource availability, the quality of service (QoS), and the attackers’ strategies from cloud monitoring systems (CMSs) and IDSs. According to these observations, they will decide how evolutionary coalitions should be dynamically formed for reliable virtual-sensor-service composites to deliver data and how to adaptively defend in the face of uncertain attack strategies. Using the evolutionary coalition game, virtual-sensor-service nodes can form a reliable service composite by a reliability update function. With the Markov chain constructed, virtual-sensor-service nodes can gradually learn the optimal strategy and evolutionary coalition structure through the minimax-Q learning, which maximizes the expected sum of discounted payoffs defined as QoS for virtual-sensor-service composites. The proposed SECG strategy in the virtual-sensor-service attack-defense game is shown to achieve much better performance than strategies obtained from the evolutionary coalition game or stochastic game, which only maximizes each stage's payoff and optimizes a defense strategy of stochastic evolutionary, since it successfully accommodates the environment dynamics and the strategic behavior of the service attackers.     

建筑工业化发展的多群体演化博弈与仿真研究

新型建筑工业化具有高质量、低消耗、可循环发展等特征，其推广已上升到国家战略层面。利用演化博弈方法，建立“政府-开发商-银行” 的三方动态演化博弈模型，进行各博弈主体策略的演化稳定性分析，并针对初始状态、奖惩力度、借贷风险和开发成本等对演化结果的影响进行动态仿真。在此基础上， 考虑开发商群体的网络拓扑特征对演化真实性的影响，引入复杂网络理论， 以无标度网络为载体描述开发商个体的连接偏好和决策机制，构建政府监管下的建筑工业化扩散模型，并通过仿真深入研究相关因素对扩散深度的影响作用，最后结合仿真结果给出相应对策建议。     

Green synthesis of porous Ni-silicate catalyst for hydrogen generation via ammonia decomposition

A simple synthetic method without organic template is proposed for the synthesis of Ni-silicate. The resulting Ni-phyllosilicates are reconstructed by hydrothermal treatment to a porous structure with a high surface area (552 m² g⁻¹). Notably, the residual filtrate has a Ni²⁺ ion content of less than 0.1 ppm, and therefore satisfies the effluent standard in Taiwan (<1.0 ppm). As a result, it can be disposed of directly without the need for additional treatment. The effects of the pH value and hydrothermal treatment time on the structure, morphology, and surface area of the Ni-silicate composites have been investigated. When applied to hydrogen production, the mesoporous Ni-silicate shows a high catalytic capability (>99%) toward ammonia decomposition at a temperature of 400°C. Overall, the proposed synthetic method is facile and easily extendable to the production of other metal-silicate materials for hydrogen generation.     

调水工程水源区与受水区利益演化博弈分析

水源区和受水区是调水工程水质保障与需求的两大利益主体,二者存在利益博弈关系。以水权为基础,在市场机制影响下,采用演化博弈方法,分析水源区和受水区两大利益主体的策略空间,建立大型调水工程水源区-受水区在市场机制作用下的演化博弈模型,确定利益主体在水源区环境保护中的行为决策关系,认为保障调水工程水源地水质的关键因素为水源区实施保护能否提高其综合社会经济效益,水源区要求的生态补偿形式和程度是否超过了受水区自身既得利益;根据演化博弈结果得出(保护,补偿)实现工程综合效益可持续的唯一决策方案,由此提出明确划分水权、加强生态补偿费用核算、加大生态补偿保障力度和补偿方式多元化等建议,以促进(保护,补偿)策略稳步实现。