This paper reports the results of a multi-agent simulation designed to study the emergence and evolution of symbolic communication. The novelty of this model is that it considers some interactional and spatial constraints to this process that have been disregarded by previous research. The model is used to give an account of the implications of differences in the agents’ behavior, which are emb...

A new class of parallel algorithms is introduced that can achieve a complexity of O(n 3 2 ) with respect to the interprocessor communication, in the exact computation of systems with pairwise mutual interactions of all elements. Hitherto, conventional methods exhibit a communicational complexity of O(n). The amount of computation operations is not altered for the new algorithm which can be form...

As traditional oblivious transfer protocols are treated as cryptographic primitives in most cases, they are usually executed without the consideration of possible attacks, e.g., impersonation, replaying, and man-in-the-middle attacks. Therefore, when these protocols are applied in certain applications, such as mental poker game playing and fairly contracts signing, some extra mechanisms must be...

Maintaining student satisfaction and through it retaining students and having them recommend the program to others, is central to the success of any MBA program. This is especially important in distance learning programs because of their high dropout rates. The study shows the centrality of social norms outside the realm of the MBA program in determining three aspects of such satisfaction, name...

Project teams have become an important element in teaching informatics topics. Web-based groupware systems are increasingly used in such teaching settings to help building communicational competence and working with different kinds of material. This kind of educational teamwork and computational support compares well to project work observed in industrial settings. In our paper, we present the ...