A Survey of Opponent Modeling in Adversarial Domains

Opponent modeling is the ability to use prior knowledge and observations in order to predict the behavior of an opponent. This survey presents a comprehensive overview of existing opponent modeling techniques for adversarial domains, many of which must address stochastic, continuous, or concurrent actions, and sparse, partially observable payoff structures. We discuss all the components of opponent modeling systems, including feature extraction, learning algorithms, and strategy abstractions. These discussions lead us to propose a new form of analysis for describing and predicting the evolution of game states over time. We then introduce a new framework that facilitates method comparison, analyze a representative selection of techniques using the proposed framework, and highlight common trends among recently proposed methods. Finally, we list several open problems and discuss future research directions inspired by AI research on opponent modeling and related research in other disciplines.

Evaluation of Analytical Performances of Magnetic Force-Assisted Electrochemical Sandwich Immunoassay for the Quantification of Carcinoembryonic Antigen

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a biomarker indicated in different cancers, targeted for quantitative analysis via immunoassay. Here we introduce a new technique called magnetic force-assisted electrochemical sandwich immunoassay (MESIA) for determination of CEA level in a drop of human serum using a fully automated point-of-care testing (POCT) device. The analytical performances of the assay are assessed based on precision, accuracy, limit of blank (LoB), limit of detection (LoD) and limit of quantitation (LoQ), linearity, Hook effect, interference, cross-reactivity, and method comparison following the guidelines of the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). The LoD is 0.50 ng/ml. A linear relationship is shown in the range of 0.5–200 ng/ml. A high dose effect is not seen up to approximately 500,000 ng/ml. The recovery range is from 94.7 to 108.9%. The %CV of run-to-run and within-lab variations are less than 2.04 and 4.41% across the CEA concentrations, respectively, whereas reproducibility is 4.45–6.24%. Method comparison shows that the assay correlates well with the reference device (R2 = 0.9884). The assay demonstrates acceptable precision, accuracy, LoB, LoD and LoQ, hook effect, linearity, interference, cross-reactivity, and high correlation with its reference device. Thus, the system is suitable for the quantification of CEA in clinical practices with a POCT manner.

Gender Stereotypes in Teaching Aids on Russian as a Foreign Language for Beginners

The paper brings up the issue of reflecting gender roles in textbooks for international students, investigates which concepts of men and women they can potentially form among foreign students on the basis of these teaching aids. The aim of the present study is to describe the gender roles of men and women in the textbooks of the Russian language for beginners. For that, it was necessary to solve a number of tasks, such as fixing examples of gender-characterized units in teaching aids; creating a system of categories for comparison and comparing the analysis results of all involved textbooks. The following methods of qualitative content analysis, classification method, comparison method were used in the work. Popular textbooks on Russian as a foreign language were taken for the analysis. This study makes it possible to investigate gender roles in Russian culture through the spectacle of the textbooks for foreigners, allowing us to get a new angle on the correlation of gender characteristics. The study can also be used by future textbook authors to further develop textbook characters in terms of their gender roles. The authors of the study conclude that textbook representations convey stereotypic ideas about the roles of men and women, but these images cannot be recognized as corresponding to extra-linguistic reality, which can potentially result in communication failures among foreign students when interacting with Russians.

Method comparison of three serum free light chain assays on the Roche Cobas 6000 c501 chemistry analyzer

Objectives Free light chains (FLC) are important in the diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of therapy response of patients with monoclonal gammopathies. In this study, we performed a method comparison of three FLC assays on the Cobas 6000 c501 chemistry analyzer of Roche Diagnostics. Methods Samples of 119 patients with various monoclonal gammopathies and 26 control patients were measured with the Freelite (The Binding Site), Diazyme (Diazyme Laboratories) and KLoneus (Trimero Diagnostics) FLC assays. A method comparison was performed and reference intervals of the three assays were validated. Results The analysis of the Bland-Altman agreement showed bias between the three FLC assays, ranging from −62.7 to 5.1% for κFLC and between −29.2 to 80.5% for λFLC. The Freelite and Diazyme assays have the highest agreement. The concordance of the FLC-ratio ranges from 41 to 75%, with the highest concordance between the Freelite and KLoneus assays. The FLC-ratio in 25 sera from healthy controls were within the reference ranges of the Freelite and KLoneus assays. The FLC-ratio was elevated in all 25 samples tested with the Diazyme assay. Conclusions The agreement for the free light chains is highest between the Freelite and the Diazyme assay and fair for the KLoneus assay. However, concordance of the FLC-ratio is highest when the Freelite and KLoneus assays were compared. Our data suggest that concordance for the Diazyme assay could be improved by recalibration. Because of absolute differences between the three methods in individual patients, none of the three FLC assays can be used interchangeably.

Racial and Religious Determinants of Terrorism in Western Europe

The gradual rapprochement between peoples, cultures, beliefs involve numerous conflicts with indigenous peoples on ethnic or religious grounds. These conflicts tend to turn into articulation of radical positions and extremist activities. The aim of this study was to analyze the current state of terrorist acts and identify the determinants of terrorism on racial and religious grounds in Western Europe. The statistical method, comparison, graphic analysis, analysis of the Global Index of Terrorism; The European Union reports on the situation and trends of terrorism, as well as the research on terrorism-related issues for 2011-2021, were used as empirical research methods. It is determined that the UK, France, Germany, Greece, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Sweden are subject to the highest risk of terrorist acts. It was proved that the determinants of terrorism are localized in relation to key issues related to the state of the economic sphere, social development, as well as the spiritual and cultural sphere. Emphasis is placed on the need to overcome the problems associated with terrorist activities by formulating a policy of national means of resolving ethnic and racial issues and active international cooperation. Further research will identify key determinants of terrorism in Eastern Europe.

Manufacturing applications of the VIKOR approach: A scoping review

VIKOR is a selecting and sorting technique for addressing problems and optimising multi-criteria decision making in complex systems. This study sought the relevant literature to categorise, analyse, and discuss the content and extent of existing studies that used the VIKOR method for applications in manufacturing. The study examined 84 studies published throughout 2018–2020. The studies were categorised by publication dates, author(s) name, techniques and methods, weighting method, comparison method, description of comparison results (comparing a given method to others), testing applicability, and journal-title. Analyses revealed that approximately 35 of the published studies involving VIKOR were related to its strategic use in manufacturing decisions and applications. In 2019, manufacturing was represented more than any other field among all published VIKOR papers, and Sustainability published more of the VIKOR-related articles than any other journal. Interestingly, the integrated and fuzzy VIKOR methods were used more than the traditional VIKOR method. Furthermore, the review results show that VIKOR is flexible enough to be continuously improved by integrating it with the new multi-criteria decision-making methods. This literature review can guide researchers and practitioners in applying VIKOR in various manufacturing fields.

Analytical Solutions for the Equal Width Equations Containing Generalized Fractional Derivative Using the Efficient Combined Method

In this paper, the efficient combined method based on the homotopy perturbation Sadik transform method (HPSTM) is applied to solve the physical and functional equations containing the Caputo–Prabhakar fractional derivative. The mathematical model of this equation of order μ ∈ 0,1 with λ ∈ ℤ + , θ , σ ∈ ℝ + is presented as follows: D t μ C u x , t + θ u λ x , t u x x , t − σ u x x t x , t = 0 , where for λ = 1 , θ = 1 , σ = 1 s and λ = 2 , θ = 3 , σ = 1 , equations are changed into the equal width and modified equal width equations, respectively. The analytical method which we have used for solving this equation is based on a combination of the homotopy perturbation method and Sadik transform. The convergence and error analysis are discussed in this article. Plots of the analytical results with three examples are presented to show the applicability of this numerical method. Comparison between the obtained absolute errors by the suggested method and other methods is demonstrated.

Study of Dielectric, Polarization Properties of Cyclopentanol and Their Solutions in Cyclopentane by a New Variation Method

Results of calculating the theoretical principles of the variational method for measuring the dielectric parameters of polar liquids: cyclopentanol and its solutions in cyclopentane have been shown in the paper. Their dielectric constant ξ' and dielectric losses ξ'' are calculated. Solutions to the equations were found and a graphical solution method and an automated method for calculating ξ' and ξ'' were developed on the basis of this method. Comparison with the results of other methods revealed that these indicators are at the same time minimal within 1.5–2.0%.