The rise of competitive e-sports and its increasing popularity with several million players worldwide across various games has sparked an interest in the cognitive abilities associated with it. This study aimed to investigate if there is a relationship between competitive play and an increase in cognitive ability, as measured by performance in cognitive tasks. The research question focuses on whether or not players who dedicate a significant amount of time playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) to compete on a higher level will perform better in cognitive tasks than non-competitive players. In this differential study with a between-group design, a total of 24 participants participated, with 12 in each group. Data for cognitive abilities were measured by performance across a battery of cognitive tests consisting of the Iowa Gambling Task, Inhibition of Return, Multitasking, and the Tower of Hanoi, with the latter acting as a control for general cognitive ability. All data were gathered online. Results show that competitive players performed significantly better in the multitasking task than their non-competitive counterparts. Furthermore, there seems to be no significant difference overall in general cognitive ability or for the other tasks. This finding suggests that the competitive environment of CSGO may be effective for increased performance in some cognitive tasks like multitasking. However, this might not be true regarding other cognitive abilities such as decision-making.

This research seeks to determine if there is a third-person effect in the realm of controversial product advertising. A questionnaire was designed based on previous research and distributed to a convenience sample of college students at the University of Central Florida. Participants were asked to rate their perceived levels of personal offense to product categories as well as the expected levels of other groups of people. The results show that there is indeed a significant third-person effect recognized for all product categories except for racial extremist groups. A first-person effect was shown to be present for the category of racial extremist groups. This research also suggests that a concealed third-person effect may have been present in previous studies of this nature that obtained high levels of offense attributed to the self. Discussions of the findings, implications for marketers and advertisers, limitations to the study, as well as suggestions for future research are also posited.

No description available.

No description available.

Websites are a popular tool in our modern world, used daily by many companies and individuals. However, they are also rife with vulnerabilities, including SQL injection (SQLI) vulnerabilities. SQLI attacks can lead to significant damage to the data stored within web applications and their databases. Due to the dangers posed by these attacks, many countermeasures have been researched and implemented to protect websites against this threat. Various tools have been developed to enhance the process of detecting SQLI vulnerabilities and active SQLI attacks. Many of these tools have integrated machine learning technologies, aiming to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Penetration testing is another valid method of detecting and fixing SQLI vulnerabilities, and there are tools designed to automate this process. Some of these automated exploitation tools have also incorporated machine learning techniques. This research aims to identify design requirements of a SQLI exploitation tool that utilizes Natural Language Generation for attack data. This research also aims to compare this new SQLI exploitation to existing tools. This research integrates various components from existing research projects to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed SQLI exploitation tool. This research establishes a framework for a SQL injection exploitation tool. Additionally, the study successfully tests multiple components of this new tool and compares the accuracy and speed of the new tool to already existing tools.

Many organizations today work with offensive quality development to meet market and society changes in general. In the study, a dive company has been studied based on principles of offensive quality development. The company has a turnover of 80-90 million SEK and have 50 employees. The organization has just begun a change work to anchor quality in their businessmodel. The purpose of the study has been to map the organization's main processes and provide a basis for the continued improvement work. With the help of interviews, observations and workshops, a first draft of a process mapping has been carried out. The study has also used various improvement tools to analyze risks and causes of process mapping. Theories around the cornerstone model and PDSA cycle have been the basis for the structured completion of the survey on the organization. / Många organisationer arbetar idag med offensive kvalitetsutveckling för att möta förändringar på marknaden och samhället i stort. I studien har ett dykarföretag studerats utifrån principer från offensive kvalitetsutveckling. Företaget omsätter cirka 80–90 miljoner och har 50 anställda. Organisationen har precis påbörjat ett förändringsarbete för att förankra kvalitet i verksamheten. Syftet med studien har varit att kartlägga organisationens huvudprocesser samt ta fram ett underlag till det fortsatta förbättringsarbetet. Med hjälp av intervjuer, observationer och workshops har ett första utkast av en processkartläggning kunnat genomföras. Studien har också använt sig av olika förbättringsverktyg för att analysera risker och orsaker med processkartläggning. Teorier kring hörnstensmodellen och PDSA-cykeln har legat till grund för att strukturerat genomföra undersökningen på organisationen.

Depuis le début du vingt-et-unième siècle, la République Populaire de Chine (RPC) est engagée dans une spectaculaire offensive de charme sur le continent africain. Cette stratégie chinoise n’est pas nouvelle et s’inscrit dans le cadre légal fixé par la Déclaration finale de la conférence de Bandung de 1955. Depuis cette date, et davantage depuis la création du FOCAC en 2000, l’importance de l’Afrique dans la quête d’influence globale de la Chine Populaire n’a cessé de croitre, alliant désormais influence économique et influence culturelle. L’Afrique subsaharienne francophone est un terrain propice à l’étude de cette nouvelle stratégie chinoise. Ce cadre spatial nous permet de constater qu’à travers les Instituts Confucius, les médias publics chinois et la médecine chinoise dite « traditionnelle » (MTC), les dirigeants chinois entendent tout mettre en œuvre afin de préserver leurs intérêts économiques en Afrique et faciliter l’intégration de leurs entreprises et communautés diasporiques. Précisons tout de même qu’à travers l’apprentissage du mandarin, les africains parviennent à tirer avantage de ce soft power chinois. Toutefois, la relative intégration des chinois, le caractère propagandiste des IC et médias chinois, ainsi que le recourt par les entreprises chinoises basées en Afrique à de l’importation de main d’œuvre, pratique encore en vigueur aujourd’hui, contribuent à ternir l’image de la Chine Populaire auprès des opinions publiques africaines. En outre, cette percée culturelle chinoise en Afrique subsaharienne francophone a eu un impact notoire sur la diplomatie culturelle du partenaire historique, la France, mais aussi sur la Francophonie. De ce fait, elle contribue à une redéfinition des rapports de forces et a induit l’émergence de partenariats trilatéraux. / Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has embarked in a spectacular charm offensive in Africa. This Chinese strategy is not new and falls within the legal framework established by the Bandung Final Declaration of 1955. Since then, and particularly since the establishing of FOCAC in 2000, the importance of Africa for the Global influence of the People's Republic of China has continued to grow, combining economic influence with cultural influence. Francophone sub-Saharan Africa is a good ground for studying this new Chinese strategy. This space frame allows us to see through the Confucius Institutes, the Chinese public media and the “traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)”, the Chinese leaders intend to make every effort to preserve their economic interests in Africa and facilitate the integration of their businesses and diasporic communities. It should be noted that Africans are able to take advantage of this Chinese soft power. However, the relative integration of Chinese, the propagandist character of IC and the Chinese media, as well as the importation of labor by the Chinese companies’ bases in Africa, contribute to tarnish the image of Popular China among African public opinion. In addition, this Chinese cultural breakthrough in francophone sub-Saharan Africa has had an endless impact on the cultural diplomacy of the historical partner, France, and also on Francophonie. As a result, it contributes to a redefinition of the balance of power and to the emergence of trilateral partnerships.

Formation movement is vital to preserve security among its units during military operations. We plan movement of a military formation over real, or simulated terrain, maximally preserving the relative positions of units in formation while it avoids barriers, and while its units avoid obstacles. Terrain is divided into homogeneous cells (say, squares), and a pair of neighboring cells is adjacent if the formation can transit between these cells while avoiding barriers with sufficient clearance. We induce a graph from these adjacencies, and determine the movement cost on each arc with a fine time-step simulation that finds local movement vectors to preserve relative formation position while avoiding approach too close to barriers or obstacles (this emulates solving differential equations with Euler's method). We then nominate an origin and a destination, select a shortest path, and repeat the time-step simulation over this path to determine the individual positions of each unit as the formation makes its transit. Game designers and robot controllers have published schemes to guide formation movement, but their movements can penetrate barriers, and myopically get caught in cul-de-sacs. By contrast, we guarantee that if a path exists that avoids these pitfalls, we will find it.

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Qualquer disciplina científica que se entenda como tal deve, constantemente, avaliar criticamente o mérito interno de suas abordagens, em termos de sua progressividade e da geração de conhecimento relevante. É exatamente a este tipo de reflexão que o presente trabalho doutoral se propõe, tendo como objeto a teoria das relações internacionais. Trata-se, efetivamente, de um exercício situado na fronteira entre a epistemologia, ou teoria do conhecimento, e a apreciação teórica das dinâmicas da política internacional. Precisamente, propõe-se uma análise do fôlego teórico-científico da vertente estrutural do realismo político, da forma desenvolvida seminalmente por Kenneth Waltz, diante de emendas teóricas incorporadas pelo realismo ofensivo de John Mearsheimer. Como uma tal discussão não pode prescindir de uma referência metateórica, optou-se pela aplicação da Metodologia dos Programas de Pesquisa Científicos desenvolvida por Imre Lakatos. Espera-se com esta investigação trazer três contribuições fundamentais ao estudo teórico das relações internacionais: (i) o delineamento da proposta epistemológica de Lakatos e de seus critérios de aplicação, bem como a discussão de sua adequação às ciências sociais, em geral, e à teoria das relações internacionais, em particular; (ii) sistematizar o realismo estrutural na forma de um programa de pesquisa científico, identificando seu núcleo duro, seu cinturão de proteção de hipóteses auxiliares e suas heurísticas negativa e positiva; e (iii) demonstrar que o realismo ofensivo mearsheimeriano representa uma mudança teórica intraprogramática progressiva no interior do Programa de Pesquisa Científico do Realismo Estrutural. / Any scientific field of research must constantly and critically evaluate its internal developments, in terms of progressiveness and the construction of significant knowledge. That is precisely what the present dissertation is set out to do, regarding the theory of international relations. It is indeed an exercise located at the frontier between epistemology and the theoretical understanding of the international political dynamics. Specifically, the theoretical-scientific depth of structural realism, as seminally developed by Kenneth Waltz, will be analyzed in face of recent theoretical amendments proposed by John Mearsheimer\'s offensive realism. Since such an approach cannot be conducted in the absence of a metatheoretical referential, Imre Lakatos\' Methodology of Scientific Research Programs (MSRP) will be applied. Three main contributions are expected to follow from our study: (i) a clearer understanding of Lakatos\' epistemology proposal and its criteria, as well as a discussion of the adequacy of the MSRP for the social sciences, in general, and the theory of international relations, in particular; (ii) a more systematic approach to structural realism as a scientific research program, identifying its hard core, its protective belt of auxiliary hypothesis and its negative and positive heuristics; and (iii) the appreciation of offensive realism as a progressive theoryshift for the Structural Realist Research Program.