The lncRNA Growth Arrest Specific 5 regulates cell survival via distinct structural modules with independent functions

There is increasing evidence that the architecture of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) just like that of proteins-is hierarchically organized into independently folding sub-modules with distinct functions. Studies characterizing the cellular activities of such modules, however, are rare. The lncRNA growth arrest specific 5 (GAS5) is a key regulator of cell survival in response to stress and nutrient availability. We use SHAPE-MaP to probe the structure of GAS5 and identify three separate structural modules that act independently in leukemic T cells. The 5' terminal module with low secondary structure content affects basal survival and slows the cell cycle, whereas the highly structured core module mediates the effects of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibition on cell growth. These results highlight the central role of GAS5 in regulating cell survival and reveal how a single lncRNA transcript utilizes a modular structure-function relationship to respond to a variety of cellular stresses under various cellular conditions

Strategic customer behavior in a two-stage batch processing system

We consider a two-stage service system with batch processing. More specifically, customers arrive according to a Poisson process at the first stage of the system, where they do not receive any service, but wait until a number K of them are accumulated. Then, these K customers form a batch which is instantaneously transferred to the second stage where the batches are served sequentially, as single units, by a single server. We derive customer equilibrium strategies, regarding the joining/balking dilemma, for the (partially) observable case where the customers are informed upon arrival about the number of present customers at the first stage. We prove the existence and study the uniqueness of equilibrium strategies and give a simple procedure for their computation. Moreover, we juxtapose the customer strategic behavior in this system with the corresponding behavior in the unobservable system and study the effect of information on the resulting social welfare per time unit under equilibrium. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

Equilibrium joining strategies in batch service queueing systems

We consider strategic customers in a Markovian queue with batch services. We derive customer equilibrium strategies, regarding the joining/balking dilemma, in two cases with respect to the information provided upon arrival, unobservable and observable. In contrast to models with single services, a customer's decision to join induces both positive and negative externalities to other customers. This fact leads to an intricate mixture of Follow-The-Crowd and Avoid-The-Crowd behavior and possibly multiple equilibrium strategies. Moreover, we discuss the effects of the two levels of information and the batch size on the strategic behavior of the customers and on the overall social welfare. Finally, we present several numerical experiments that reveal important differences in the strategic behavior of customers in batch service systems, in juxtaposition to single service systems. © 2017 Elsevier B.V

Equilibrium threshold joining strategies in partially observable batch service queueing systems

We study the strategic customer behavior in queueing systems with batch services under incomplete information. In particular, we assume that arriving customers have the opportunity to observe only the number of waiting batches upon arrival and, afterwards, they make their join/balk decisions. We prove that equilibrium strategies always exist within the legitimate class of threshold strategies, but they may not be unique. We also provide an algorithmic scheme for their computation. Moreover, we compare the strategic behavior under this information level with the corresponding behavior in the complete information case. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC