Essays in Economic Theory

This dissertation looks at models in which agents make decisions under various economic frictions, and examines the role of their preferences. The first two chapters analytically characterize an infinite-horizon open economy under the friction of a stock collateral constraint, whereby borrowing is limited by the value of capital assets available. The model that is considered allows for general subjective discounting of households and fully variable productivity. The third chapter looks at a model of an ambiguity-averse benevolent mediator tasked with choosing a price contract at which a risk neutral buyer and seller transact an indivisible good under the friction of unquantifiable uncertainty of their reservation values. The first chapter establishes that it is possible for households to enjoy the allocation they would obtain absent a stock collateral constraint under a condition that relates to their patience; this condition requires a long-run depression when agents are impatient relative to the market, and allows for an economic expansion when agents are more patient relative to the market. When this condition is not met, households are tightly constrained at least once and experience debt deleveraging in all periods and deflation of asset prices in periods preceding the constrained period relative to their unconstrained allocation. Households also ration their consumption more when they expect to be more tightly constrained in the future. The second chapter is a sequel to the first chapter and shows that under constant output, agents who are impatient relative to the market can face two and three-period cycles in consumption, debt, and asset prices. Further, large initial debt can lead to multiple equilibria. The third chapter considers a mediator who plays a Stackelberg game against Nature to maximize the distributionally worst-case expected weighted Nash product subject to known mean and boundary constraints on buyer and seller reservation values. We study the role of bargaining power and show that relative to what the buyer and seller themselves would choose when equipped with the mediator's information, the mediator's price contract has a shallow dependency on bargaining power, which is only exacerbated by the possibility of dependent buyer and seller values. Comparative statics results are obtained

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PREDICTING HARDWARE FAILURES OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES USING ONBOARD SENSORS AND DEVICE LIFECYCLE DATA

Techniques herein provide a capability to predict failures of hardware by using onboard sensors and provide for the ability to move from detection to prediction for hardware failures. In turn, such techniques can help to reduce downtime due to marginal hardware and improves network availability. The techniques can also help to reduce unnecessary maintenance and changes related to replacing hardware that has not failed, which can lead to business efficiencies for both customers and vendors and may become even more important in a Network-As-A-Service (NAAS) context in which both sides are paid by the vendor

Oral Ornaments: An Overview

Nowadays, people desire to look attractive and have become very alert about their appearance and smile. Since the face is most exposed part of our body, and mouth a prominent feature, teeth are getting enormous share of attention. Intraoral jewellery has currently gained popularity and is slowly becoming a craze, but this fashion trend is also associated with some significant health issues. These ornaments though are said to enhance beauty cause problems such as increase pain, infection, scar formation, tooth fractures, metal hyper-sensitivity reactions, localized periodontal disease, speech impediment, and nerve damage. This review draws special attention to the prevalence, complications, and side effects of dental jewellery in humans. Here we suggest people must be aware of all the risks associated with wearing dental jewellery, and they should undergo dental check-ups regularly

GATA2 Mediates Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone-Induced Transcriptional Activation of the Thyrotropin β Gene

Thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) activates not only the secretion of thyrotropin (TSH) but also the transcription of TSHβ and α-glycoprotein (αGSU) subunit genes. TSHβ expression is maintained by two transcription factors, Pit1 and GATA2, and is negatively regulated by thyroid hormone (T3). Our prior studies suggest that the main activator of the TSHβ gene is GATA2, not Pit1 or unliganded T3 receptor (TR). In previous studies on the mechanism of TRH-induced activation of the TSHβ gene, the involvements of Pit1 and TR have been investigated, but the role of GATA2 has not been clarified. Using kidney-derived CV1 cells and pituitary-derived GH3 and TαT1 cells, we demonstrate here that TRH signaling enhances GATA2-dependent activation of the TSHβ promoter and that TRH-induced activity is abolished by amino acid substitution in the GATA2-Zn finger domain or mutation of GATA-responsive element in the TSHβ gene. In CV1 cells transfected with TRH receptor expression plasmid, GATA2-dependent transactivation of αGSU and endothelin-1 promoters was enhanced by TRH. In the gel shift assay, TRH signal potentiated the DNA-binding capacity of GATA2. While inhibition by T3 is dominant over TRH-induced activation, unliganded TR or the putative negative T3-responsive element are not required for TRH-induced stimulation. Studies using GH3 cells showed that TRH-induced activity of the TSHβ promoter depends on protein kinase C but not the mitogen-activated protein kinase, suggesting that the signaling pathway is different from that in the prolactin gene. These results indicate that GATA2 is the principal mediator of the TRH signaling pathway in TSHβ expression

Data

Data from experiments 1 and