Cooperation among genetically unrelated individuals is a fundamental aspect of society, but it has been a longstanding puzzle in biological and social sciences. Recently, theoretical studies in biology and economics showed that conditional cooperation-cooperating only with those who have exhibited cooperative behavior-can spread over a society. Furthermore, experimental studies in psychology de...

Current-generation online games typically incorporate a “computer” opponent to train new players to compete against human opponents. The quality of this training depends to a large degree on how similar the computer’s play is to that of an experienced human player. For instance, inhuman weaknesses in computer play encourage new players to develop tactics, prediction rules and playing styles tha...

In Stackelberg games, a “leader” player first chooses a mixed strategy to commit to, then a “follower” player responds based on the observed leader strategy. Notable strides have been made in scaling up the algorithms for such games, but the problem of finding optimal leader strategies spanning multiple rounds of the game, with a Bayesian prior over unknown follower preferences, has been left u...

Over 5 million people in the United States suffer from the complications of heart failure (HF), which is a rapidly expanding health complication. Disorders that contribute to HF include ischemic cardiac disease, cardiomyopathies, and hypertension. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are members of the nuclear receptor family. There are three PPAR isoforms: PPARα, PPARγ, and PPAR...

Pente is a derivative of the Japanese game Go-moku, both of which are normally played with only two players. We extend the game of Pente to three players and study the ability of neuro-evolution via the Enforced Sub-Populations (ESP) algorithm to evolve Pente players for 7 by 7 boards capable of beating pairs of opponents taken from a set of five simple handcoded opponents. We also compare the ...

This paper explores the question of how agent designers perceive and treat their agent’s opponents. In particular, it examines the influence of the opponent’s identity (human vs. automated agent) in negotiations. We empirically demonstrate that when people interact spontaneously they treat human opponents differently than automated agents in the context of equity and fairness considerations. Ho...

Opposition to mass childhood vaccination is a world-wide phenomenon, particularly in industrialised countries. Unfounded claims about vaccination are perpetuated by parental lobby groups and individual spokespeople, some of whom have a medical or scientific background. This article focuses on one such spokesperson who has achieved particular notoriety. Dr. Viera Scheibner is a retired micropala...

Paul's opponents in Galatia are central to the argument of Galatians because the epistle is essentially a response to their threat to the churches of Galatia. Therefore it is not surprising to see that the opponents are mentioned in every chapter (1:6-9; 2:4-5; 3:1; 4:17; 5:10, 12; 6:12-13). Conservative scholars have historically assumed that these foes were Judaizers and have interpreted the ...

The ability to learn and adapt when playing against an adaptive opponent requires the ability to predict the opponent’s behavior. Capturing any changes in the opponent’s behavior during a sequence of plays is critical to achieve positive outcomes in such an environment. We identify two new requirements that we suggest are essential for agents that learn in adaptive environments. These requireme...

Offensive urban combat is one of the most difficult tasks soldiers are called upon to perform (USMC 1998). Urban combat is characterized by building-to-building and room-to-room fighting, and even a vastly outnumbered defensive force can inflict significant casualties on attacking forces. Effective, frequent training is an essential element in reducing casualties in urban combat. However, train...