Strategic Manipulation and Information Market Microstructure

This paper presents a model of strategic manipulation in the context of an informational duopoly. The fact that market manipulation by these duopolists may affect their cost and demand structures implies that they can strategically manipulate the market in order to influence the information market equilibrium. This paper derives an equilibrium manipulation and establishes important comparative-static properties that may characterise such markets. The informational duopoly is beset with two types of inefficiency: first, market imperfections drive a wedge between the marginal cost and the market price leading to the usual deadweight loss. Secondly, an act of manipulation raises the marginal cost of production and, thereby, causes further welfare loss in such markets. We provide a complete characterisation of an optimal mechanism that can stem the welfare loss in informational markets. Copyright 2004 University of Adelaide and Flinders University of South Australia and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd..

Surface characterization using atomic force microscopy (AFM) in liquid environments

Liquid imaging provides intrinsic advantages for AFM experiments, particularly for conducting in situ studies of chemical or biochemical reactions. Using liquid media has benefits for improving resolution, since the amount of force applied between the tip and sample can be reduced. Surface changes caused by immersion in different liquids can be investigated, such as for studying electrochemical reactions with different parameters of solvent polarity, pH or ion concentration. Aqueous buffers enable studies of biochemical reactions that simulate physiological conditions, with time-lapse capture of image frames at different intervals. Studies of surface changes throughout the course of self-assembly reactions have been monitored with AFM in liquid media. By injecting new molecules into the sample cell, AFM-based nanofabrication can be accomplished by nanografting protocols. Liquid environments expand the capabilities for scanning probe studies to provide insight for dynamic processes at the molecular-level. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013