Human behaviour: Egalitarian motive and altruistic punishment

Altruistic punishment is a behaviour in which individuals punish others at a cost to themselves in order to provide a public good. Fehr and G?chter present experimental evidence in humans indicating that negative emotions towards non-cooperators motivate punishment, which, in turn, provokes a high degree of cooperation. Using Fehr and G?chter's original data, we provide an alternative analysis of their experiment that suggests that egalitarian motives are more important than motives for punishing non-cooperative behaviour. This finding is consistent with evidence that humans may have an evolutionary incentive to punish the highest earners in order to promote equality, rather than cooperation.     

Homing behaviour of axons in the embryonic vertebrate brain

In embryonic nervous systems, growing axons must often travel long distances through diverse extracellular terrains to reach their postsynaptic partners. In most embryos, axons grow to their appropriate targets along particular tracts or nerves, as though they were following guidance cues confined to specific pathways. For example, in all vertebrates, axons from the retina invariably grow to the tectum along the well-defined optic tract. Yet, transplant experiments demonstrate that retinal axons make tectal projections even though they enter the brain at locations which are distinctly off the optic tract. Only recently has it become possible to label discreet growing projections in the embryonic vertebrate brain. Thus, it is not yet known whether displaced retinal axons grow directly towards the tectum or find it accidently, through random extension. To resolve this question, pioneering axons from normal and transplanted eyes in embryonic Xenopus were labelled using a short-survival horseradish peroxidase (HRP) method, and their orientation during growth was quantitatively assessed. The finding that the ectopic fibres head towards their distant targets implies that guidance cues are not restricted to specific pathways but are distributed throughout the embryonic brain. The significance of this result is discussed with respect to the ontogeny and evolution of the visual pathway.     

资源限制信任协商

提出了资源限制信任协商方法.陌生的双方在建立信任关系时,仅仅交换一次信任书,随后多次交换对称密钥,直到协商完成或者失败.在资源限制信任协商过程中,用Hash函数验证信任书中的属性,用对称密码保护敏感属性.敏感属性是在自己的控制下逐步显示给对方的.资源限制信任协商避免了传统信任协商中双方多次交换信任书,以及多次验证信任书和策略的一致性检验所带来的大量公钥密码操作负担.同时也避免了传统信任协商中双方必须存储多个信任书的问题.因此资源限制信任协商比较适合在计算能力有限的移动设备之间建立信任关系.由于双方交互的信任书是保密的,因此资源限制信任协商能防止传统信任协商存在的中间人攻击问题.     

基于主观信任和推荐的信任模型

研究了分布网络环境中交易实体的信任问题,分析了信任的含义并考虑影响信任行为的外部环境因素,结合主观判断和推荐,构建了一种新型信任模型并引入惩罚机制,建立信任更新协议。