Speculation and Demand Reduction in English Clock Auctions with Resale

Many auctions are followed by a resale market which occurs when the winner of the auction resells the item won to one of the participants from the original auction. The existence of such transactions may initially appear counter intuitive. However, this paper will show that active inter-bidder resale results from payoff maximizing decisions in the auction that take into account the incentives of a resale opportunity. Specifically, I examine how the existence of an inter-bidder resale opportunity impacts bidder behavior in an English clock auction, and to what extent altering the bargaining power of the final buyer and reseller in the resale market determines the strategies followed in the initial auction, in an attempt to understand the existence of these inter-bidder transactions. Theoretical and behavioral analysis is used to develop hypotheses of speculation (bidding above value) and demand reduction (bidding below value) which are directly tested in a controlled experimental setting. While value bidding is a dominant strategy in a standard English clock auction without resale, when resale is allowed, this theoretical claim is weaker. Demand reduction is observed when the bargaining power is shifted to the final buyer in resale and when the bargaining power is shifted toward the reseller, speculation is observed. The revenue achieved in the initial auction depends on the behavior observed in the auction. Regardless of bargaining power, revenue is shown to decrease below what would have been earned in an English auction without resale due to demand reduction. When the reseller has the bargaining power, and speculation is observed, this loss in revenue is somewhat mitigated by increased speculation.Auctions, Resale, Demand Reduction, Speculation, Experimental Economics

An Analysis of Market-Based and Statutory Limited Liability in Second Price Auctions

In auctions where bidders are uncertain of their value and are fully liable for their bids, there exists the potential for losses if bids exceed realized values. Theoretically, bids will be higher if bidders are able to mitigate this downside loss through some form of limited liability. To determine the impact of differing forms of limited liability, this paper theoretically and experimentally examines a second price auction with uncertain private values in three environments: market-based limited liability, statutory limited liability, and full liability. Market-based limited liability is induced through inter-bidder resale following the auction. Statutory limited liability is created through a default penalty option in the event that a bidder would make a loss. Bids are theoretically shown to be higher under resale and the penalty default environments than under full liability. The experimental results confirm more aggressive bidding for resale and the low penalty default treatments, but not by as much as theory predicts. Notably, under the high default penalty bidders are not bidding significantly more than under full liability, despite the theoretical prediction that they should.Auctions, Limited Liability, Resale, Experimental Economics

MALT90 molecular content on high-mass IR-dark clumps

High mass stars form in groups or clusters within massive cores in dense molecular clumps with sizes of 1pc and masses of 200Msun which are important laboratories for high-mass star formation in order to study the initial conditions. We investigate the physical and chemical properties of high-mass clumps in order to better understand the early evolutionary stages and find targets that show star formation signs. We selected the high-mass clumps from ATLASGAL survey that were identified as dark at 8/24$\mu$m wavelengths and used MALT90 data which provides a molecular line set to investigate the physical and chemical conditions in early evolutionary stages. Eleven sources have significant SiO detection (over 3$\sigma$) which usually indicates outflow activities. Thirteen sources are found with blue profiles in both or either HCO$^+$ and/or HNC lines and clump mass infall rates are estimated to be in the range of 0.2E+3 Msunyr$^{-1}$ $-$ 1.8E-2 Msunyr$^{-1}$. The excitation temperature is obtained as <24K for all sources. The column densities for optically thin lines of H$^{13}$CO$^{+}$ and HN$^{13}$C are in the range of 0.4-8.8(E+12) cm$^{-2}$, and 0.9-11.9(E+12) cm$^{-2}$, respectively, while it is in the range of 0.1-7.5(E+14) cm$^{-2}$ for HCO$^{+}$ and HNC lines. The column densities for N$_{2}$H$^{+}$ were ranging between 4.4-275.7(E+12) cm$^{-2}$ as expected from cold dense regions. Large line widths of N$_{2}$H$^{+}$ might indicate turbulence and large line widths of HCO$^{+}$, HNC, and SiO indicate outflow activities. Mean optical depths are 20.32, and 23.19 for optically thick HCO$^{+}$ and HCN lines, and 0.39 and 0.45 for their optically thin isotopologues H$^{13}$CO$^{+}$ and HN$^{13}$C, respectively. This study reveals the physical and chemical properties of 30 high-mass IR-dark clumps and the interesting targets among them based on their emission line morphology and kinematics.Comment: 59 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in A &

Applying Machine Based Decomposition in 2-Machine Flow Shops

The Shifting Bottleneck (SB) heuristic is among the most successful approximation methods for solving the Job Shop problem. It is essentially a machine based decomposition procedure where a series of One Machine Sequencing Problems (OMSPs) are solved. However, such a procedure has been reported to be highly ineffective for the Flow Shop problems (Jain and Meeran 2002). In particular, we show that for the 2-machine Flow Shop problem, the SB heurisitc will deliver the optimal solution in only a small number of instances. We examine the reason behind the failure of the machine based decomposition method for the Flow Shop. An optimal machine based decomposition procedure is formulated for the 2-machine Flow Shop, the time complexity of which is worse than that of the celebrated Johnsons Rule. The contribution of the present study lies in showing that the same machine based decomposition procedures which are so successful in solving complex Job Shops can also be suitably modified to optimally solve the simpler Flow Shops.

Unified Concept of Bottleneck

The term `bottleneck` has been extensively used in operations management literature. Management paradigms like the Theory of Constraints focus on the identification and exploitation of bottlenecks. Yet, we show that the term has not been rigorously defined. We provide a classification of bottleneck definitions available in literature and discuss several myths associated with the concept of bottleneck. The apparent diversity of definitions raises the question whether it is possible to have a single bottleneck definition which has as much applicability in high variety job shops as in mass production environments. The key to the formulation of an unified concept of bottleneck lies in relating the concept of bottleneck to the concept of shadow price of resources. We propose an universally applicable bottleneck definition based on the concept of average shadow price. We discuss the procedure for determination of bottleneck values for diverse production environments. The Law of Diminishing Returns is shown to be a sufficient but not necessary condition for the equivalence of the average and the marginal shadow price. The equivalence of these two prices is proved for several environments. Bottleneck identification is the first step in resource acquisition decisions faced by managers. The definition of bottleneck presented in the paper has the potential to not only reduce ambiguity regarding the meaning of the term but also open a new window to the formulation and analysis of a rich set of problems faced by managers.

Entrepreneurship and Team Participation: An Experimental Study

Entrepreneurs are surprisingly unlikely to have partners. In spite of the obvious advantages to forming partnerships, only a small minority of entrepreneurs (less than 10%, excluding family businesses) have partners. A number of possible explanations exist for this puzzling phenomenon, including an inability to locate suitable partners, fear of free-riding by partners, and a preference for not working in groups. Utilizing a diverse subject population with a high proportion of active entrepreneurs, we use a team production experiment to study whether entrepreneurs prefer to work alone or in a team. The data indicate that entrepreneurs, while no more likely to free-ride on their teammates, are substantially less interested in joining teams. This suggests that efforts to encourage partnership among entrepreneurs may run contrary to the preferences of this group.Entrepreneurship, Teams, Artefactual Field Experiment

Evaluation of quercetin as a potential β-lactamase CTX-M-15 inhibitor via the molecular docking, dynamics simulations, and MMGBSA

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens millions of people around the world and has been declared a global risk by the World Economic Forum. One of the important AMR mechanisms in Enterobacteriaceae is the production of extended-spectrum β-lactamases. The most common ESBL, CTX-M β-lactamases, is spread to the world by CTX-M-15 and CTX-M-14. Sulbactam, clavulanic acid, and tazobactam are first-generation β-lactamase inhibitors and avibactam is a new non-β-lactam β-lactamase inhibitor. We studied that avibactam, sulbactam, clavulanic acid, tazobactam, and quercetin natural flavonoids were docked to target protein CTXM-15. Subsequently, the complexes were simulated using the molecular dynamics simulations method during 100 ns for determining the final binding positions of ligands. Clavulanic acid left CTX-M-15 and other ligands remained in the binding site after the simulation. The estimated binding energies were calculated during 100 ns simulation by the MMGBSA-MMPBSA method. The estimated free binding energies of avibactam, sulbactam, quercetin, tazobactam, and clavulanic acid were sorted as –33.61 kcal/mol, –16.04 kcal/mol, –14 kcal/mol, –12.68 kcal/mol, and –2.95 kcal/mol. As a result of both final binding positions and free binding energy calculations, Quercetin may be evaluated an alternative candidate and a more potent β-lactamases inhibitor for new antimicrobial combinations to CTX-M-15. The results obtained in silico studies are predicted to be a preliminary study for in vitro studies for quercetin and similar bioactive natural compounds. These studies are notable for the discovery of natural compounds that can be used in the treatment of infections caused by β-lactamase-producing pathogens

Next-generation sequencing of plasmid carrying blaOXA-48 in Klebsiella pneumoniae from Turkey

A carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strain was isolated in Turkey in 2012 and blaNDM-1 and blaOXA-48 genes were observed in this strain. The aim of this study was to investigate transferability of plasmid bearing blaOXA-48 in K. pneumoniae and to use whole-genome sequencing in order to understand the genetic context of plasmid. K. pneumoniae strain was used as donor in conjugation experiments. Antibiotic susceptibility profile of selected transconjugant was determined. Plasmid was isolated from transconjugant colony and was named as pKPT. Complete sequencing of the pKPT was conducted using a next-generation sequencing. Annotation of the contigs was performed using the Geneious R9, followed by finding open reading frames (ORFs) with selected web-based tools. BLAST analysis was performed at the NCBI BLAST server to determine genes showing more than 90% similarity with these ORFs. Results of antibiotic susceptibility test showed that transconjugant colony was resistant to ampicillin/ sulbactam, piperacillin, and piperacillin/tazobactam. The pKPT plasmid had a length of 45,217 bp and an average G + C content of 49%. Blast analysis revealed that pKPT was included in the IncL/M incompatibility group. The pKPT was found to contain blaOXA-48 within Tn1999.2 transposon without any other antibiotic resistance gene.Gumushane University: BAP-17 F5119.02.0