Essays on Microeconomic Problems in Multilateral Settings

This thesis consists of three chapters on microeconomic problems in multilateral settings. In the first chapter, I use a model with two local bidders and a global bidder in a simultaneous ascending auction. I find that the simultaneous ascending auction does not allocate two heterogeneous objects efficiently. This result holds with and without resale and is independent of the resale mechanism. Then I use a fixed resale mechanism with take-it-or-leave-it offers after the auction to study the effects of resale on allocation efficiency. In cases where the two local bidders win the objects inefficiently, no resale occurs. Therefore, whenever the simultaneous ascending auction overdiffuses the objects to the local bidders, resale cannot correct this inefficiency. However, whenever the simultaneous ascending auction overconcentrates the objects to the global bidder, the global bidder can resell the objects to the local bidders. The second chapter studies the effects of resale on the efficiency of simultaneous ascending auctions with more general resale mechanisms. In this paper, speculation by the local bidders is allowed in the simultaneous ascending auction. I look for efficient mechanisms in multilateral settings, if they exist given the beliefs, and use these mechanisms as the resale mechanisms after the auction. The simultaneous ascending auction can grossly misallocate the objects by allocating the objects to the speculators but there exist efficient resale mechanisms that can restore full efficiency. In the final chapter, I use a model with a committee and two project sponsors. The committee members decide which one of the two projects to approve. Each project sponsor can choose to disclose information about his project to select committee members. If a committee member receives information from a sponsor, he can choose to investigate the project at a cost to learn his own payoff from the project. After that, the committee members decide which project to implement. As competition between the projects gets stronger, there is more information disclosure from the sponsors

Making full use of a creative economy: Review of the development of Malaysia as a hub for creative content technologies

The global market value of the creative economy is approximate US$1.6 trillion. The main objective of this paper is to perform review to development of Malaysia as a hub for creative content technologies.Malaysia has been identified as one of the top cultural producers among developing countries.Malaysia's digital economy is expected to exceed its target of contribution to the country's gross domestic product of 18 per cent by 2020.Content analysis method was used to analyse the various literatures in this subject matter. The Government provides support such as Malaysia Animation and Creative Content Centre grants and Film in Malaysia Incentive incentives.Successful industry players are fully utilising intellectual property rights and expanding from the success of the animation series to film, and move on to games, licensing and merchandising.Creative Content and Technologies has well-spread development from Cyberjaya to other parts of Malaysia especially Penang, Perak, Sabah and Sarawak.In conclusion, the industry needs the talent of whom with art skills, story writing and directing, as well as TV channel that caters primarily for children.The main contribution of this paper is to provide an alternate study focusing on development and achievement of the creative content and technologies clusters

The emerging web 2.0 social media as a tool to develop engaged audiences for behaviour change in health promotion: an overview

Sharing of health information which is related to health becomes easier with the introduction of new technologies such as Web 2.0 social media networks.Social media networks represent a rather innovative way of online information and knowledge repositories.On the other hand, many non communicable diseases are caused by unhealthy urban lifestyle.Hence, the practice of the healthy lifestyle behaviors should be promoted for sustainability.Besides, in order to cut down the chronic diseases, workplace is one of the key channels for the delivery of interventions among adult populations.Latest development in information and communication technologies (ICT) has given positive influences in health communication.The new technology is believed to be more engaged because it involves visual, audio and animation simultaneously, thus it is more reachable and collaborative.This paper reviews strategies to manage health promotion. Nevertheless, improvement is still needed to achieve successful health promotion.This paper also provides insights of issues and poses future topics of health promotion to consider

Enduring image: Capturing defining moments in crises

In today's media environment, crises are magnified as media events and are rich sites for the inception of images. Particular images, like a photograph or a sound bite are found to endure as representations of defining moments of crises. This study seeks to examine the concept of an enduring image, how it is engendered and how it impacts crisis communication efforts. The study utilizes five case studies of crisis with an inherent enduring image. An enduring image constitutes a prime representation of the accused in a given crisis. These images are loaded with symbolic potential and exhibit a sense of permanence in public consciousness. Understanding the implications of an enduring image can offer insights to organizations on how to better manage one's public and media image during or after a crisis. The study is arguably the first in examining the significance and potency of enduring images in crises

Movement-Modulation of Local Power and Phase Amplitude Coupling in Bilateral Globus Pallidus Interna in Parkinson Disease

There is converging evidence that bilateral basal ganglia motor networks jointly support normal movement behaviors including unilateral movements. The extent and manner in which these networks interact during lateralized movement remains unclear. In this study, simultaneously recorded bilateral Globus Pallidus interna (GPi) local field potentials (LFP) were examined from 19 subjects with idiopathic Parkinson disease (PD), while undergoing awake deep brain stimulation (DBS) implantation. Recordings were carried out during two behavioral states; rest and cued left hand movement (finger tapping). The state-dependent effects on α- β oscillatory power and β phase-encoded phase amplitude coupling (PAC), including symmetrical and assymetrical changes between hemispheres, were identified. Unilateral hand movement resulted in symmetrical oscillatory power suppression within bilateral GPi at α (8–12 Hz) and high β (21–35 Hz) and increase in power of high frequency oscillations (HFO, 200–300 Hz) frequency bands. Asymmetrical attenuation was also observed at both low β (13–20 Hz) and low γ (40–80 Hz) bands within the contralateral GPi (P = 0.009). In addition, unilateral movement effects on PAC were confined to the contralateral GPi with attenuation of both low β-low γ and β-HFO PAC (P < 0.05). Further analysis showed that the lateralized attenuation of low β and low γ power did not correlate with low β-low γ PAC changes. The overall coherence between bilateral GPi was not significantly altered with unilateral movement, however the preferred phase difference in the high β range increased from 0.23 (±1.31) radians during rest to 1.99 (±0.78) radians during movement execution. Together, the present results suggest that unilateral motor control involves bilateral basal ganglia networks with movement features differentially encoded by distinct frequency bands. The lateralization of low β and low γ attenuation with movement suggests that these frequency bands are specific to the motor act whereas symmetrical expression of α, high β, and HFO oscillations best correspond to motor state. The restriction of movement-related PAC modulation to the contralateral GPi indicates that cross-frequency interactions appear to be associated with lateralized movements. Despite no significant movement-related changes in the interhemispheric coherence, the increase in phase difference suggests that the communication between bilateral GPi is altered with unilateral movement

Decapitation in Rats: Latency to Unconsciousness and the ‘Wave of Death’

The question whether decapitation is a humane method of euthanasia in awake animals is being debated. To gather arguments in this debate, obsolete rats were decapitated while recording the EEG, both of awake rats and of anesthetized rats. Following decapitation a fast and global loss of power of the EEG was observed; the power in the 13–100 Hz frequency band, expressing cognitive activity, decreased according to an exponential decay function to half the initial value within 4 seconds. Whereas the pre-decapitation EEG of the anesthetized animals showed a burst suppression pattern quite different from the awake animals, the power in the postdecapitation EEG did not differ between the two groups. This might indicate that either the power of the EEG does not correlate well with consciousness or that consciousness is briefly regained in the anesthetized group after decapitation. Remarkably, after 50 seconds (awake group) or 80 seconds (anesthetized group) following decapitation, a high amplitude slow wave was observed. The EEG before this wave had more power than the signal after the wave. This wave might be due to a simultaneous massive loss of membrane potentials of the neurons. Still functioning ion channels, which keep the membrane potential intact before the wave, might explain the observed power difference. Two conclusions were drawn from this experiment. It is likely that consciousness vanishes within seconds after decapitation, implying that decapitation is a quick and not an inhumane method of euthanasia. It seems that the massive wave which can be recorded approximately one minute after decapitation reflects the ultimate border between life and death. This observation might have implications in the discussions on the appropriate time for organ donation

Rehabilitation of hand function after spinal cord injury using a novel handgrip device: a pilot study

BackgroundActivity-based therapy (ABT) for patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), which consists of repetitive use of muscles above and below the spinal lesion, improves locomotion and arm strength. Less data has been published regarding its effects on hand function. We sought to evaluate the effects of a weekly hand-focused therapy program using a novel handgrip device on grip strength and hand function in a SCI cohort.MethodsPatients with SCI were enrolled in a weekly program that involved activities with the MediSens (Los Angeles, CA) handgrip. These included maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) and a tracking task that required each subject to adjust his/her grip strength according to a pattern displayed on a computer screen. For the latter, performance was measured as mean absolute accuracy (MAA). The Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM) was used to measure each subject's independence prior to and after therapy.ResultsSeventeen patients completed the program with average participation duration of 21.3 weeks. The cohort included patients with American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale (AIS) A (n = 12), AIS B (n = 1), AIS C (n = 2), and AIS D (n = 2) injuries. The average MVC for the cohort increased from 4.1 N to 21.2 N over 20 weeks, but did not reach statistical significance. The average MAA for the cohort increased from 9.01 to 21.7% at the end of the study (p = .02). The cohort's average SCIM at the end of the study was unchanged compared to baseline.ConclusionsA weekly handgrip-based ABT program is feasible and efficacious at increasing hand task performance in subjects with SCI