This study explores the way imperfect information affects chess gameplay in players with different skill levels. To explore the effects of removing information from a perfect system we used both chess and a variant of chess known as dark chess or fog of war chess. With a sample size of eight players organised into four pairs, we gathered both quantitative data from the moves made in the chess matches and qualitative data from interviews with the participants. The findings of this research may be useful to chess enthusiasts and players who wish to study perfect and imperfect information systems in games, as well as game designers and game researchers who are studying the effects of hidden information on gameplay and strategy. Our findings show no relation between ratings and performance in dark chess but instead show a relation between strategies chosen by players and the outcome of dark chess games.

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The forefront of game playing Artificial Intelligence (AI) has for the better part of 21st century been using an algorithm called Alpha-Beta Pruning (Alpha-Beta). In 2017, DeepMind launched a new AI, based on the algorithm Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), which defeated the former Alpha-Beta based chess AI champion Stockfish. This accomplishment fueled up more excitement and interest for using MCTS to develop more complex and better performing game playing AI.This paper aims to compare the strengths of MCTS and Alpha-Beta by allowing them to play against each other in a classic game with no available robust AI - the Fox Game.The results showed an evident victory for the Alpha-Beta AI. Therefore, Alpha-Beta is the better suited algorithm for developing a simple AI for the Fox Game. Further optimizations would enhance the performance of both algorithms but it is unclear which of the algorithms would benefit from it the most. / Framkanten av Artificiell Intelligens (AI) som spelar spel har i större delen av 2000-talet använt sig av en algorithm vid namn Alpha-Beta-beskärning (Alpha-Beta). Denna bedrift höjde intresset för att använda MCTS i syfte att utveckla mer komplexa och bättre spelande AI.Denna rapport har som mål att jämföra styrkor hos MCTS och Alpha-Beta genom att låta dem spela mot varandra i ett klassiskt spel utan någon tillgänglig AI - Rävspelet. Resultaten visade på en klar seger för Alpha-Beta AI:n. Därför är Alpha-Beta den bättre lämpade algoritmen för att skapa en simpel AI. Fler optimiseringar hade förbättrat spelstyrkan hos bägge algoritmerna med det är oklart vilken av algoritmerna som hade gynnat mest utav det. / Kandidatexjobb i elektroteknik 2022, KTH, Stockholm

This thesis is composed of two economic evaluations: one trial-based study and one model-based study. In a recent study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases in 2011, a team of OUCRU investigators found that immediate antiretroviral therapy (ART) was not associated with improved 9-month survival in HIV-associated TBM patients (HR, 1.12; 95% CI, .81 to–1.55; P = .50). An economic evaluation of this clinical trial was conducted to examine the cost-effectiveness of immediate ART (initiate ART within 1 week of study entry) versus deferred ART (initiate ART after 2 months of TB treatment) in HIV-associated TBM patients. Over 9 months, immediate ART was not different from deferred ART in terms of costs and QALYs gained. Late initiation of ART during TB and HIV treatment for HIV-positive TBM patients proved to be the most cost-effective strategy. Increasing resistance of Plasmodium falciparum malaria to artemisinin is posing a major threat to the global effort to eliminate malaria. Artesmisinin combination therapies (ACT) are currently known as the most efficacious first-line therapies to treat uncomplicated malaria. However, resistance to both artemisinin and partner drugs is developing and this could result in increasing morbidity, mortality, and economic costs. One strategy advocated for delaying the development of resistance to the ACTs is the wide-scale deployment of multiple first-line therapies. A previous modeling study examined that the use of multiple first-line therapies (MFT) reduced the long-term treatment failures compared with strategies in which a single first-line ACT was recommended. Motivated by observed results of the published modelling study in the Lancet, the cost-effectiveness of the MFT versus the single first-line therapies was assessed in settings of different transmission intensities, treatment coverages and fitness cost of resistance using a previously developed model of the dynamics of malaria and a literature –based cost estimate of changing antimalarial drug policy at national level. This study demonstrates that the MFT strategies outperform the single first-line strategies in terms of costs and benefits across the wide range of epidemiological and economic scenarios considered. The second analysis of the thesis is not only internationally relevant but also with a focus towards healthcare practice in Vietnam. These two studies add significant new cost-effectiveness evidence in Vietnam. This thesis presents the first trial-based economic evaluation in Vietnam considers patient-health outcome measures as the participants have cognitive limitations (tuberculous meningitis), dealing with missing data along with the potential ways to handle this common problem by the use of multiple imputation, and the issues of censored costs data. Having identified these issues would support the decision makers or stakeholders including the pharmaceutical industry to devise a new guideline on how to implement a well-design trial-based economic evaluation in Vietnam in the future. Another novelty of this thesis is the introduction of the detailed of costing of drug regimens change in which the economic evaluations considering the drug policy change often do not include. This cost could be substantial to the healthcare system for retraining the staff and publishing the new guidelines. This thesis will document the costs incurred by the Vietnamese government by changing the first-line treatment of malaria, from single first-line therapy (ACT) to multiple first-line therapies.