This dissertation studies the competitive dynamics between two non-identical providers competing for customers seeking low-cost and quick service. Providers have generic delay functions where, asdemand received by each provider grows, so does delay in processing customers' requests. Given a pricing or capacity decision by each provider, customers determine the proportion of demand to send to each provider by minimizing generalized cost (monetary cost plus delaycost). This problem is formulated as a bilevel optimization, with providers competing at the upper level subject to the customers' decisions at the lower level. Occurrence of Nash equilibria between the providers is studied.First studied is the providers' problem of making decisions on capacities, while competing for a single customer. Conditions are derived for one provider to claim the entire market share, and for the occurrence of an equilibrium where both providers receive positivedemand. A numerical example in which no equilibrium exists is presented. Both the inelastic and elastic demand cases are studied for this scenario. In a second model, providers make pricing decisions with capacity fixed. Under some assumptions, it is shownthat a Nash equilibrium between providers always exists and a numerical example is presented. These models are then combined, in which providers make capacity decisions where prices equilibrate based on the results from the second model.Two competing customers with demand for a homogeneous product are then introduced, where providers choose prices as they compete for customers. This model is extended to an application along a highway corridor with a high-occupancy/toll (HOT) lane in parallel with a free road and transit line. A government agency chooses the transit service frequency while a private toll operator competes by choosing a toll to charge single-occupancy vehicles who wish to use the HOT lane.This scenario is also modeled as a bilevel program. For the lower level, a new dynamic equilibration process where homogeneous users make mode choice decisions based on previous generalized costs ofusing a particular mode is developed. Two numerical examples are presented showing a unique Nash equilibrium between the providers and an example in which multiple equilibria exist.

Sportinėje veikloje ypač svarbu sportininkus mokinti saviugdos, nes tuomet atletai atskleidžia prigimtinius gebėjimus, mokosi vertinti savo galimybes, stiprinti pasitikėjimą savimi, prisiimti asmeninę, grupinę ir socialinę atsakomybę, suvokti save kaip grupės, bendruomenės, visuomenės narį ir mokytis dalyvauti visuomenės gyvenime. Šioje veikloje mokomasi atrasti saviraiškos būdų realizuoti savo norus, geriau suprasti ir pažinti savo idėjas, patirti savo asmenybės svarbą ir pripažinimą. Saviugda ypač reikšminga paauglystės metais, kai formuojasi charakteris, valia, dorovinės nuostatos, gyvenimo tikslai, didėja protinės ir fizinės galios. Tyrimo tikslas: ištirti elito tenisininkės fizinės saviugdos edukacinio skatinimo galimybes. Tyrimo uždaviniai: Ištirti fizinės saviugdos kokybę įtakojančius veiksnius. Nustatyti elito tenisininkės savistabos rodiklių pokyčius. Ištirti sportininkės rengimo makrociklo sudarymo, remiantis savistabos rodikliais, tendencijas. Išanalizuoti edukacinio skatinimo metodų taikymo metiniame rengimo procese ypatumus. Darbo metodai. Teorinė analizė ir apibendrinimas. Dokumentų analizės metodas. Anketinė apklausa. Statistinė analizė. Tyrimo dalyviai (n=1). Tyrimo etapai. Pirmajame etape, siekiant išsiaiškinti pagrindines mokymo(si) ir sportavimo dermės sąlygas bei pradines tyrimo pozicijas, buvo studijuota pedagoginė, psichologinė, sportinė literatūra. Antrojo etapo metu suformuluota darbo hipotezė, apibrėžti tyrimo uždaviniai, sukurta tyrimo metodika... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In sportive activity, it is very important to teach sportsmen of self-help, as then athletes reveal their natural abilities, learn to appreciate their possibilities, enhance their self-confidence, assume personal, sectional and social responsibility, perceive themselves as members of a group, community, society and learn to participate in society life. This activity teaches to find the ways of self-expression to realise their own wishes, to perceive and acknowledge better their own ideas, to feel the importance and appreciation of their own personality. The self-help is very important in adolescence, when a character, will, moral attitudes, and aims of life are formed, when mental and physical capacity is increasing. The aim of the research: to investigate possibilities of educational promotion of elite tennis player’s physical self-help. The objectives of the research: to investigate factors influencing quality of physical self-help; to ascertain the alterations of the elite tennis player’s introspection indices; to explore the tendencies of creation of the sportswoman’s training macro-cycle with reference to the indices of introspection; to analyse the possibilities of elite tennis player’s educational promotion. The methods of the research: theoretical analysis and generalization, the method of documents’ analysis, questionnaire, statistical analysis. Participants of the research (n=1). Stages of the research: In the first stage, on purpose to ascertain the main... [to full text]

As online gaming becomes more popular, it has also become increasingly important to identify and remove those who leverage automated player systems (bots). Manual bot detection depends on the ability of game administrators to differentiate between bots and normal players. The objective of this thesis was to determine whether expert poker players can differentiate between bot and human players in Texas Hold ‘Em Poker. Participants were deceived into thinking a number of bots and humans were playing in gameplay videos and asked to rate player botness and skill. Results showed that participants made similar observations about player behaviour, yet used these observations to reach differing conclusions about whether a given player was a bot or a human. These results cast doubt on the reliability of manual bot detection systems for online poker, yet also show that experts agree on what constitutes skilled play within such an environment.

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Innovations in computer game interfaces continue to enhance the experience of players. Affective games - those that adapt or incorporate a player’s emotional state - have shown promise in creating exciting and engaging user experiences. However, a dearth of systematic exploration into what types of game elements should adapt to affective state leaves game designers with little guidance on how to incorporate affect into their games. We created an affective game engine, using it to deploy a design probe into how adapting the player’s abilities, the enemy’s abilities, or variables in the environment affects player performance and experience. Our results suggest that affectively adapting games can increase player arousal. Furthermore, we suggest that reducing challenge by adapting non-player characters is a worse design choice than giving players the tools that they need (through enhancing player abilities or a supportive environment) to master greater challenges.

The game of football has transformed from just being a game into a huge economic market attracting investors from all over the world. As clubs spend more and more money on player acquisitions, player registrations (considered intangible assets) now represent a significant part of the total assets of major European football clubs. Due to this, treatment of player registrations has become a significant accounting issue. The purpose is to analyze and compare from the perspective of an investor, how a sample of European football clubs account and disclose values of player registrations. The purpose aim to answer the questions how and what kind of information each club discloses on their financial statements. Also, are current accounting procedures and disclosure harmonized, and do they present a true and fair view of top European clubs financial status. A descriptive case study was the most appropriate as it aims to answer the questions “how” and “why”. A sample selection filter was set in the beginning of the process together with the research questions. The final sample was set to be: Arsenal FC, Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus FC and FC Porto. The purpose of the selection filter was to get a study both fair on economical as well as competitive sports level. Primary data consist of information from annual financial reports, and in order to enhance validity, interviews with professionals have been conducted and used.  Findings show similarities as well as differences in disclosure and treatment of football player registrations. All clubs meet the minimum requirements from IAS 38 and UEFA. However, how and what kind of information each clubs disclose differ substantially and due to lack of valuation models and the possibility to capitalize home-grown players and free agents, the value of player registrations is not presented in a true and fair view.

Coaching and the coaching process are characterised by a number of complex interactions between the coach, the player and the club environment. Yet understanding of the coaching process as a complex, holistic process remains limited. There are 'gaps' in our existing knowledge, particularly in comprehending the dynamic relationship between the coach, player and club environment, and in understanding the implications of these interactions for practice and the coaching process. This research sought to examine and represent the complexity of the coach-player-club environment interface, and to understand some of the ways that they interact to construct and impinge upon the coaching process. The research was conducted on the premise that a sound understanding of the complexity of the coaching process drawing upon empirical research, rather than idealistic 'models', can inform the future development of coaching practice and coach education. Within the framework of ethnography, the research took place over one season and used participant observation, unstructured interviews, semi-structured interviews and group interviews in one Football Association, Premier League Academy. The aim was to explore the coaching process and practical coaching context, as played out in the day-to-day experiences of coaches and youth team players. In addition to the main case-study club, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five coaches working with youth teams at other clubs. The research used concepts from grounded theory and also the work of Pierre Bourdieu to analyse and present the data. In its findings, the study depicts a coaching process that is interdependent and interrelated and highlights complexity in each of the following elements: the club, sessions and games, players and coaches, relationships, and 'attitude'. The dynamism within and between each of these elements is illustrated in the ways that each can facilitate, constrain or even prevent 'effective' practice and the operation of the coaching process. Moreover, the research demonstrates the powerful nature of tradition and culture, highlighting their pervasive influence upon the coaching process and coaching practice. Life at the case study club was characterised by authoritarianism and pressure, and was relentlessly directed towards winning. This backdrop strongly influenced the relationship between coaches and players, and impacted upon the coaching process. Importantly, the research presents evidence to suggest that coach education may be a relatively 'low impact' endeavour in comparison to the coaches' other experiences which are presented as a significant force shaping both coaches' development and practice. To harness this experience and develop coach education, this research suggests that the governing body could consider embracing mentoring as part of coach education and, as part of this, coaches should be encouraged to engage in critical reflection in order to understand how cultural and other forces shape their practice. However, for mentoring to succeed, it must be grounded in a thorough understanding of the culture of football clubs, and the ways coaches draw upon their life experiences in football to direct their own practice and judge the practices and 'worth' of others. Importantly, this research begins to answer some of the criticisms levelled at previous research by examining interaction and complexity within the coaching process in-situ. It highlights the problematic, interrelated and interdependent nature of relationships that construct and influence the coaching process and coaching practice. Importantly, it highlights the important and under-researched link between coaching practice, the coaching process and the immediate and wider social context of football.

A model of learning in a simple game playing context is simulated with the aim of gaining insight into a pattern learning process rather than the subtleties of the particular game. The simulation consists of a model of a learning player able to ask help of a (human) teacher when unable to make its own decisions on the basis of previously learned knowledge. An opponent is provided by either a human player or another example of a simulated player. To begin with, the learning player is new to the game and asks many questions of its teacher. As its playing experience increases, so it relies less on external advice, making more of its own decisions based on advice given in similar game situations encountered previously. The system can be set up to allow fully automated trials between simulated players with varying learning experience in order to compare their performance. The difficulty of conveying to the learning model the intention of the teacher's advice, even in the context of a simple game, highlights more general problems in Artificial Intelligence. The problem is a fundamental difference in the mechanisms of human and computer activity. Having done this work it is possible to conclude that the world of a computer, and the natural world, impose such different constraints that they encourage the development of very different mechanisms.

Although interpersonal communication studies have focused on various aspects of interpersonal relationships, research on the player identity and gendered emotional manipulation in romantic relationships has received little attention. This narrative research inquiry was undertaken to explore perceptions of men and women related to the player identity and gendered emotional manipulation. This investigation used social construction as a theoretical perspective to understand three areas of investigation that include: the existence and relevance of the player identity, the player’s relation to emotionally manipulative behaviour, and the connection between socially constructed gender conventions and the player identity. Hesse-Biber’s (2006) feminist interviewing approach guided semi-structured interviews with six male and six female participants. Respondents reported the existence and relevance of the player identity in romantic relationships today, connecting this identity to emotionally manipulative behaviour, as well as relating this identity to traditional gender conventions. Finally, implications for men and women in romantic relationships today and future areas of research are discussed in light of these findings.

Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.