The Power of Commitment

History has seen many examples of the lone man — like Christ, Luther, Gandhi, or Hitler — who without initial wealth or position, succeeds in changing the behavior of an entire society, for good or for ill. Whence comes this power. No doubt such leaders have possessed extraordinary ability, and have formulated original ideas with great appeal which others could readily follow. But there is another striking similarity among these leaders; namely their single-minded devotion to their, ideals, and their uncompromising attitude toward those who opposed them, no matter what the personal cost. There is hardly any need to document this facet of their personalities, so widely is it known. But we cannot help recalling Gandhi’s threat to starve himself to death if the fighting between Hindus and Muslims did not stop. Indeed the whole-hearted commitment of these leaders to their ideals was often reflected in their followers’ commitment to them. The purpose of this paper is to show how significant is the power to make commitments, perhaps in the name of some ideal

On Finitely Repeated Games and Pseudo-Nash Equilibria

In this paper we propose a pseudo-Nash equilibrium for N -person games in which very simply we allow play in the last period to be arbitrary, but otherwise it must conform to the (perfect) Nash optimality criterion

On Finitely Repeated Games and Pseudo-Nash Equilibria

In this paper we propose a pseudo-Nash equilibrium for N-person games in which very simply we allow play in the last period to be arbitrary, but otherwise it must conform to the (perfect) Nash optimality criterion.Pseudo-Nash equilibrium, arbitrary last period play, overlapping generations economies, Radner's definition, "crazy equilibrium"

The Power of Commitment

History has seen many examples of the lone man ñ like Christ, Luther, Gandhi, or Hitler -- who without initial wealth or position, succeeds in changing the behavior of an entire society, for good or for ill. Whence comes this power. No doubt such leaders have possessed extraordinary ability, and have formulated original ideas with great appeal which others could readily follow. But there is another striking similarity among these leaders; namely their single-minded devotion to their, ideals, and their uncompromising attitude toward those who opposed them, no matter what the personal cost. There is hardly any need to document this facet of their personalities, so widely is it known. But we cannot help recalling Gandhi's threat to starve himself to death if the fighting between Hindus and Muslims did not stop. Indeed the whole-hearted commitment of these leaders to their ideals was often reflected in their followers' commitment to them. The purpose of this paper is to show how significant is the power to make commitments, perhaps in the name of some ideal.Commitment credible threat, repeated games, game theory

A Microcantilever-based Gas Flow Sensor for Flow Rate and Direction Detection

The purpose of this paper is to apply characteristics of residual stress that causes cantilever beams to bend for manufacturing a micro-structured gas flow sensor. This study uses a silicon wafer deposited silicon nitride layers, reassembled the gas flow sensor with four cantilever beams that perpendicular to each other and manufactured piezoresistive structure on each micro-cantilever by MEMS technologies, respectively. When the cantilever beams are formed after etching the silicon wafer, it bends up a little due to the released residual stress induced in the previous fabrication process. As air flows through the sensor upstream and downstream beam deformation was made, thus the airflow direction can be determined through comparing the resistance variation between different cantilever beams. The flow rate can also be measured by calculating the total resistance variations on the four cantilevers.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/16838

Accelerated colorimetric immunosensingusing surface-modified porous monolithsand gold nanoparticles

A rapid and sensitive immunoassay platform integrating polymerized monoliths and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) has been developed. The porous monoliths are photopolymerized in situ within a silica capillary and serve as solid support for high-mass transport and high-density capture antibody immobilization to create a shorter diffusion length for antibody–antigen interactions, resulting in a rapid assay and low reagent consumption. AuNPs are modified with detection antibodies and are utilized as signals for colorimetric immunoassays without the need for enzyme, substrate and sophisticated equipment for quantitative measurements. This platform has been verified by performing a human IgG sandwich immunoassay with a detection limit of 0.1 ng ml−1. In addition, a single assay can be completed in 1 h, which is more efficient than traditional immunoassays that require several hours to complete

A dynamic model of auctions with buy-it-now: theory and evidence

In the ascending-price auctions with Yahoo!-type buy-it-now (BIN), we characterize and derive the closed-form solution for the optimal bidding strategy of the bidder and the optimal BIN price of the seller when they are both risk-averse. The seller is shown to be strictly better o with the BIN option, while the bidders are better o only when their valuation is greater than a threshold value. The theory also implies that the expected transaction price is higher in an auction with an optimal BIN price than one without a BIN. This prediction is conrmed by our data collected from Taiwan's Yahoo! auctions of Nikon digital cameras

A dynamic model of auctions with buy-it-now: theory and evidence

In the ascending-price auctions with Yahoo!-type buy-it-now (BIN), we characterize and derive the closed-form solution for the optimal bidding strategy of the bidder and the optimal BIN price of the seller when they are both risk-averse. The seller is shown to be strictly better o with the BIN option, while the bidders are better o only when their valuation is greater than a threshold value. The theory also implies that the expected transaction price is higher in an auction with an optimal BIN price than one without a BIN. This prediction is conrmed by our data collected from Taiwan's Yahoo! auctions of Nikon digital cameras

Clinical Impacts of Delayed Diagnosis of Hirschsprung’s Disease in Newborn Infants

BackgroundAsian infants are at a higher risk of having Hirschsprung’s disease (HD). Although HD is surgically correctable, serious and even lethal complications such as Hirschsprung’s-associated enterocolitis (HAEC) can still occur. The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factors of HAEC, and the clinical impacts of delayed diagnosis of HD in newborn infants.Patients and methodsBy review of medical charts in a medical center in Taiwan, 51 cases of neonates with HD between 2002 and 2009 were collected. Patients were divided into two groups based on the time of initial diagnosis: Group I, diagnosis made within 1 week after birth, and Group II after 1 week. Clinical features including demographic distribution, presenting features of HD, short-term and long-term complications related to HD were compared between the two groups of patients.ResultsThere were 25 patients in Group I and 19 in Group II. Group II patients had more severe clinical signs and symptoms of HAEC than Group I patients. The incidence of preoperative HAEC was 12% in Group I and 63% in Group II (adjusted odds ratio = 12.81, confidence interval = 2.60–62.97). Patients with preoperative HAEC were more likely to develop adhesive bowel obstruction after operation (33% vs. 3%, p = 0.013) and failure to thrive (33% vs. 3%, p = 0.013). Also, patients with long-segment or total colonic aganglionosis were at risk of developing both postoperative HAEC (85% vs. 29%, p = 0.001) and failure to thrive (39% vs. 3%, p = 0.002).ConclusionIn our study, we found that delayed diagnosis of HD beyond 1 week after birth significantly increases the risk of serious complications in neonatal patients. Patients with long-segment or total colonic aganglionosis have higher risk of postoperative HAEC and failure to thrive. Patients with preoperative HAEC are more likely to have adhesive bowel obstruction and failure to thrive

Risk Analysis of Cargos Damages for Aquatic Products of Refrigerated Containers: Shipping Operators’ Perspective in Taiwan

As the development of refrigerated container, transportation of aquatic products is growing rapidly in recent years. It is very important to avoid cargos damages for aquatic products of refrigerated containers, while the shipping operators are running this scope of business. Hence, the risk issue of adopting various improvement strategies would be important for the container shipping operators. In the light of this, the main purpose of this paper is to analyze the risks of cargos damages for aquatic products of refrigerated containers based on the container shipping operators’ perspective in Taiwan. We use four risk assessment procedures - risk identification, risk analysis and evaluation, risk strategies, and risk treatment - as the research method in this paper. The risk factors are generated from literature review and experts interviewing. Then, three dimensions with nineteen risk factors are preliminary identified. We used these risk factors to proceed with the empirical study via questionnaires. Three points of empirical results are presented. At first, the top factor of perceived risk as well as of risk severity is ‘container data setting errors.’ Secondly, the top factor of risk frequency is ‘lack of the goods’ pre-cooling themselves.’ Thirdly, three risk factors are classified into the low-risk area, whereas sixteen risk factors are placed on the medium-risk area. There is no risk factor fix on the high-risk area. Furthermore, three risk strategies - risk prevention, risk reduction, and risk transfer - are suggested to adopt by different risk factors