Constructivist Character of the Technique of Role-Playing Games and its Autonomizing Values in the Glottodidactic Process

To Augustyn Surdyk numerous assumptions of constructivism and constructionism in the educational context seem to correspond with the idea of autonomisation in foreign language didactics. He presents a comparison of selected aspects of the three theories in question on the example of an innovative communicative technique of Role-Playing Games applied in the process of teaching foreign languages at an advanced level. The conventions of the technique with its simplified rules have been borrowed from popular parlour games and adapted by the author to the conditions of language didactics. The elements of play and simulation incorporated in the technique allow it to be rated among techniques of ludic strategy. (from Preface to the book)

Collocation Games and Their Application to Distributed Resource Management

We introduce Collocation Games as the basis of a general framework for modeling, analyzing, and facilitating the interactions between the various stakeholders in distributed systems in general, and in cloud computing environments in particular. Cloud computing enables fixed-capacity (processing, communication, and storage) resources to be offered by infrastructure providers as commodities for sale at a fixed cost in an open marketplace to independent, rational parties (players) interested in setting up their own applications over the Internet. Virtualization technologies enable the partitioning of such fixed-capacity resources so as to allow each player to dynamically acquire appropriate fractions of the resources for unencumbered use. In such a paradigm, the resource management problem reduces to that of partitioning the entire set of applications (players) into subsets, each of which is assigned to fixed-capacity cloud resources. If the infrastructure and the various applications are under a single administrative domain, this partitioning reduces to an optimization problem whose objective is to minimize the overall deployment cost. In a marketplace, in which the infrastructure provider is interested in maximizing its own profit, and in which each player is interested in minimizing its own cost, it should be evident that a global optimization is precisely the wrong framework. Rather, in this paper we use a game-theoretic framework in which the assignment of players to fixed-capacity resources is the outcome of a strategic "Collocation Game". Although we show that determining the existence of an equilibrium for collocation games in general is NP-hard, we present a number of simplified, practically-motivated variants of the collocation game for which we establish convergence to a Nash Equilibrium, and for which we derive convergence and price of anarchy bounds. In addition to these analytical results, we present an experimental evaluation of implementations of some of these variants for cloud infrastructures consisting of a collection of multidimensional resources of homogeneous or heterogeneous capacities. Experimental results using trace-driven simulations and synthetically generated datasets corroborate our analytical results and also illustrate how collocation games offer a feasible distributed resource management alternative for autonomic/self-organizing systems, in which the adoption of a global optimization approach (centralized or distributed) would be neither practical nor justifiable.

The psychology of immersion and development of a quantitative measure of immersive response in games

This study sets out to investigate the psychology of immersion and the immersive response of individuals in relation to video and computer games. Initially, an exhaustive review of literature is presented, including research into games, player demographics, personality and identity. Play in traditional psychology is also reviewed, as well as previous research into immersion and attempts to define and measure this construct. An online qualitative study was carried out (N=38), and data was analysed using content analysis. A definition of immersion emerged, as well as a classification of two separate types of immersion, namely, vicarious immersion and visceral immersion. A survey study (N=217) verified the discrete nature of these categories and rejected the null hypothesis that there was no difference between individuals' interpretations of vicarious and visceral immersion. The primary aim of this research was to create a quantitative instrument which measures the immersive response as experienced by the player in a single game session. The IMX Questionnaire was developed using data from the initial qualitative study and quantitative survey. Exploratory Factor Analysis was carried out on data from 300 participants for the IMX Version 1, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis was conducted on data from 380 participants on the IMX Version 2. IMX Version 3 was developed from the results of these analyses. This questionnaire was found to have high internal consistency reliability and validity.

Assessing individual risk attitudes using field data from lottery games

We use information from the television game show with the highest guaranteed average payoff in the United States, Hoosier Millionaire, to analyze risktaking in a high-stakes experiment. We characterize gambling decisions under alternative assumptions about contestant behavior and preferences, and derive testable restrictions on individual risk attitudes based on this characterization. We then use an extensive sample of gambling decisions to estimate distributions of risk-aversion parameters consistent with the theoretical restrictions and revealed preferences. We find that although most contestants display risk-averse preferences, the extent of the risk aversion implied by our estimates varies substantially with the stakes involved in the different decisions.

Cannibal Animal Games: A new variant of Tic-Tac-Toe

This paper presents a new partial two-player game, called the cannibal animal game, which is a variant of Tic-Tac-Toe. The game is played on the infinite grid, where in each round a player chooses and occupies free cells. The first player Alice can occupy a cell in each turn and wins if she occupies a set of cells, the union of a subset of which is a translated, reflected and/or rotated copy of a previously agreed upon polyomino P (called an animal). The objective of the second player Bob is to prevent Alice from creating her animal by occupying in each round a translated, reflected and/or rotated copy of P. An animal is a cannibal if Bob has a winning strategy, and a non-cannibal otherwise. This paper presents some new tools, such as the bounding strategy and the punching lemma, to classify animals into cannibals or non-cannibals. We also show that the pairing strategy works for this problem.

Efficient energy distribution in a smart grid using multi-player games

info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedForPublication

Idiotypic games within the immune network.

In this paper, we have considered the problem of selection of available repertoires. With Ab2 as immunogens, we have used the idiotypic cascade to explore potential repertoires. Our results suggest that potential idiotypic repertoires are more or less the same within a species or between different species. A given idiotype "à la Oudin" can become a recurrent one within the same outbred species or within different species. Similarly, an intrastrain crossreactive idiotype can be induced in other strains, even though there is a genetic disparity between these strains. The structural basis of this phenomenon has been explored. We next examined results showing the loss and gain of recurrent idiotypes without any intentional idiotypic manipulation. A recurrent idiotype can be lost in a syngeneic transfer and a private one can become recurrent by changing the genetic background. The change of available idiotypic repertoires at the B cell level has profound influences on the idiotypic repertoires of suppressor T cells. All these results imply that idiotypic games are played by the immune system itself, a strong suggestion that the immune system is a functional idiotypic network.

[Book review] Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour

Tony Mann provides a review of the book: Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, Princeton University Press, 1944.

High electric current density-induced interfacial reactions in micro ball grid array (μBGA) solder joints

The effect of a high electric current density on the interfacial reactions of micro ball grid array solder joints was studied at room temperature and at 150 °C. Four types of phenomena were reported. Along with electromigration-induced interfacial intermetallic compound (IMC) formation, dissolution at the Cu under bump metallization (UBM)/bond pad was also noticed. With a detailed investigation, it was found that the narrow and thin metallization at the component side produced “Joule heating” due to its higher resistance, which in turn was responsible for the rapid dissolution of the Cu UBM/bond pad near to the Cu trace. During an “electromigration test” of a solder joint, the heat generation due to Joule heating and the heat dissipation from the package should be considered carefully. When the heat dissipation fails to compete with the Joule heating, the solder joint melts and molten solder accelerates the interfacial reactions in the solder joint. The presence of a liquid phase was demonstrated from microstructural evidence of solder joints after different current stressing (ranging from 0.3 to 2 A) as well as an in situ observation. Electromigration-induced liquid state diffusion of Cu was found to be responsible for the higher growth rate of the IMC on the anode side.

Multiple reflow study of ball grid array (BGA) solder joints on Au/Ni metallization

This paper evaluates the shearing behavior of ball grid array (BGA) solder joints on Au/Ni/Cu pads of FR4 substrates after multiple reflow soldering. A new Pb-free solder, Sn–3Ag–0.5Cu–8In (SACI), has been compared with Sn–3Ag–0.5Cu (SAC) and Sn–37Pb (SP) solders, in terms of fracture surfaces, shearing forces and microstructures. Three failure modes, ball cut, a combination of solder shear and solder/pad bond separation, and pad lift, are assessed for the different solders and reflow cycles. It is found that the shearing forces of the SP and SAC solder joints tend to increase slightly with an increase in the number of reflow cycles due to diffusion-induced solid solution strengthening of the bulk solder and augmentation of the shearing area. However, the shearing forces of the SACI solder joints decrease slightly after four cycles of reflow, which is ascribed to the thermal degradation of both the solder/intermetallic compound (IMC) and IMC/Ni interfaces. The SACI solder joints yield the highest strengths, whereas the SP solder joints give the smallest values, irrespective of the number of reflow cycles. Thickening of the interfacial IMC layer and coarsening of the dispersing IMC particles within the bulk solders were also observed. Nevertheless, the variation of shearing forces and IMC thickness with different numbers of reflow cycles was not so significant since the Ni under layer acted as an effective diffusion barrier. In addition, the initially-formed IMC layer retarded the further extensive dissolution of the pad material and its interaction with the solder

Shear strength analysis of ball grid array (BGA) solder interfaces

Ball shear test is the most common test method used to assess the reliability of bond strength for ball grid array (BGA) packages. In this work, a combined experimental and numerical study was carried out to realize of BGA solder interface strength. Solder mask defined bond pads on the BGA substrate were used for BGA ball bonding. Different bond pad metallizations and solder alloys were used. Solid state aging at 150degC up to 1000 h has been carried out to change the interfacial microstructure. Cross-sectional studies of the solder-to-bond pad interfaces was conducted by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyzer to investigate the interfacial reaction phenomena. Ball shear tests have been carried out to obtain the mechanical strength of the solder joints and to correlate shear behaviour with the interfacial reaction products. An attempt has been taken to realize experimental findings by Finite Element Analysis (FEA). It was found that intermetallic compound (IMC) formation at the solder interface plays an important role in the BGA solder bond strength. By changing the morphology and the microchemistry of IMCs, the fracture propagation path could be changed and hence, reliability could be improved

The Olympic Games and urban displacement: the case of Beijing

Urban spectacles such as the Olympic Games have been long perceived as being able to impose desired effects in the city that act as host. This kind of urban boost may include the creation of new jobs and revenue for local community, growth in tourism and convention business, improvements to city infrastructure and environment, and the stimulation of broad reform in the social, political and institutional realm. Nevertheless at the other end of the debate, the potentially detrimental impacts of Olympic urban development, particularly on disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, have also been increasingly noticed in recent years and subsequently cited by a number of high profile anti-Olympic groups to campaign against Olympic bids and awards. The common areas of concern over Olympic-related projects include the cost and debts risk, environmental threat, the occurrence of social imbalance, and disruption and disturbance of existing community life. Among these issues, displacement of low income households and squatter communities resulting from Olympic-inspired urban renewal are comparatively under-explored and have emerged as an imperative area for research inquiry. This is particularly the case where many other problems have become less prominent. Changing a city’s demographic landscape, particularly displacing lower income people from the area proposed for a profitable development is a highly contentious matter in its own right. Some see it as a natural and inevitable outgrowth of the process of urban evolution, without which cities cannot move towards a more attractive location for consumption-based business. Others believe it reflects urban crises and conflicts, highlighting the market failures, polarization and injustice. Regardless of perception,these phenomena are visible everywhere in post-industrial cities and particularly cannot be ignored when planning for the Olympic Games and other mega-events. The aim of this paper is to start the process of placing the displacement issue in the context of Olympic preparation and to seek a better understanding of their interrelations. In order to develop a better understanding of this issue in terms of cause, process, influential factors and its implication on planning policy, this paper studies the topic from both theoretic and empirical angles. It portrays various situations where the Olympics may trigger or facilitate displacement in host cities during the preparation of the Games, identifies several major variables that may affect the process and the overall outcome, and explores what could be learnt in generic terms for planning Olympic oriented infrastructure so that ill-effects to the local community can be effectively controlled. The paper concludes that the selection of development sites, the integration of Olympic facilities with the city’s fabric, the diversity of housing type produced for local residents and the dynamics of the new socioeconomic structure.

Performance assessment in serious games: Compensating for the effects of randomness

This paper is about performance assessment in serious games. We conceive serious gaming as a process of player-lead decision taking. Starting from combinatorics and item-response theory we provide an analytical model that makes explicit to what extent observed player performances (decisions) are blurred by chance processes (guessing behaviors). We found large effects both theoretically and practically. In two existing serious games random guess scores were found to explain up to 41% of total scores. Monte Carlo simulation of random game play confirmed the substantial impact of randomness on performance. For valid performance assessments, be it in-game or post-game, the effects of randomness should be included to produce re-calibrated scores that can reasonably be interpreted as the players´ achievements.

Making sense of game based user data: learning analytics in applied games

Digital learning games are useful educational tools with high motivational potential. With the application of games for instruction there comes the need of acknowledging learning game experiences also in the context of educational assessment. Learning analytics provides new opportunities for supporting assessment in and of educational games. We give an overview of current learning analytics methods in this field and reflect on existing challenges. An approach of providing reusable software assets for interaction assessment and evaluation in games is presented. This is part of a broader initiative of making available advanced methodologies and tools for supporting applied game development.