98 research outputs found
Repeated Multimarket Contact with Private Monitoring: A Belief-Free Approach
This paper studies repeated games where two players play multiple duopolistic
games simultaneously (multimarket contact). A key assumption is that each
player receives a noisy and private signal about the other's actions (private
monitoring or observation errors). There has been no game-theoretic support
that multimarket contact facilitates collusion or not, in the sense that more
collusive equilibria in terms of per-market profits exist than those under a
benchmark case of one market. An equilibrium candidate under the benchmark case
is belief-free strategies. We are the first to construct a non-trivial class of
strategies that exhibits the effect of multimarket contact from the
perspectives of simplicity and mild punishment. Strategies must be simple
because firms in a cartel must coordinate each other with no communication.
Punishment must be mild to an extent that it does not hurt even the minimum
required profits in the cartel. We thus focus on two-state automaton strategies
such that the players are cooperative in at least one market even when he or
she punishes a traitor. Furthermore, we identify an additional condition
(partial indifference), under which the collusive equilibrium yields the
optimal payoff.Comment: Accepted for the 9th Intl. Symp. on Algorithmic Game Theory; An
extended version was accepted at the Thirty-Fourth AAAI Conference on
Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-20
Surface Tension and Parachor Measurement of Low-Global Warming Potential Working Fluid cis-1-Chloro-2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (R1224yd(Z))
This article presents the accurate surface tension measurement of cis-1-chloro-2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (R1224yd(Z), (Z)–CF3CF═CHCl), over the temperature range 266–340 K. The measurement was performed using the differential capillary rise. The expanded uncertainty at 95% confidence was estimated to be within 0.19 mN·m–1. Based on the measured data, the van der Waals-type correlation expressing the temperature dependence was obtained as σ = 57.02 (1 – T/428.69)1.265 [mN·m–1]. In addition, the parachor [PR1224yd(Z)] was determined as 207. The surface tension values predicted by Miller and Thodos (Ind. Eng. Chem. Fund.,1963,2.1, 78), Miqueu et al. (Fluid Ph. Equilibria,2000,172, 169), and Di Nicola et al. (Int. J. Thermophys.,2011,34, 2243), as well as those obtained using the parachor method, were in good agreement with the measurement data
AL amyloidosis with non-amyloid forming monoclonal immunoglobulin deposition; a case mimicking AHL amyloidosis
BackgroundImmunoglobulin heavy-and-light-chain amyloidosis (AHL amyloidosis) is a newly established disease entity where both the immunoglobulin heavy-chain and light-chain compose amyloid fibrils. The immunoglobulins responsible for the amyloid fibrils are generally identified by immunostaining and/or laser microdissection-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LMD-LC-MS/MS). However, both techniques do not biochemically differentiate immunoglobulins that formed amyloid fibrils from non-responsible immunoglobulins.Case presentationWe herein report a case of 67-year-old female patient with renal amyloidosis due to lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma secreting monoclonal immunoglobulin M (IgM)-kappa. Renal immunostaining monotypically positive for IgM-kappa and LMD-LC-MS/MS identification of mu heavy-chain and kappa light-chain were consistent with the diagnosis of AHL amyloidosis. In order to confirm that both the immunoglobulin heavy-chain and light-chain were forming amyloid fibrils, we performed LC-MS/MS of renal amyloid fibrils isolated by the traditional amyloid purification method. The additional LC-MS/MS identified kappa light-chain only without any heavy-chain component. These results were suggestive that amyloid fibrils were composed by kappa light-chain only and that the mu heavy-chain identified by immunostaining and LMD-LC-MS/MS was derived from the non-specific co-deposition of monoclonal IgM-kappa.ConclusionThe case was AL amyloidosis with non-amyloid forming monoclonal immunoglobulin deposition. While immunostaining and LMD-LC-MS/MS are irreplaceable techniques to classify amyloidosis, confident exclusion of the present condition should be required to diagnose AHL amyloidosis
Ganglioside GM3 is essential for the structural integrity and function of cochlear hair cells
Abstract GM3 synthase (ST3GAL5) is the first biosynthetic enzyme of a-and b-series gangliosides. Patients with GM3 synthase deficiency suffer severe neurological disability and deafness. Eight children (ages 4.1 ± 2.3 years) homozygous for ST3GAL5 c.694C>T had no detectable GM3 (a-series) or GD3 (b-series) in plasma. Their auditory function was characterized by the absence of middle ear muscle reflexes, distortion product otoacoustic emissions and cochlear microphonics, as well as abnormal auditory brainstem responses and cortical auditory-evoked potentials. In St3gal5 −/− mice, stereocilia of outer hair cells showed signs of degeneration as early as postnatal Day 3 (P3); thereafter, blebs devoid of actin or tubulin appeared at the region of vestigial kinocilia, suggesting impaired vesicular trafficking. Stereocilia of St3gal5 −/− inner hair cells were fused by P17, and protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor Q, normally linked to myosin VI at the tapered base of stereocilia, was maldistributed along the cell membrane. B4galnt1 −/− (GM2 synthase-deficient) mice expressing only GM3 and GD3 gangliosides had normal auditory structure and function. Thus, GM3-dependent membrane microdomains might be essential for the proper organization and maintenance of stereocilia in auditory hair cells
Harmonizing solubility measurement to lower inter-laboratory variance – progress of consortium of biopharmaceutical tools (CoBiTo) in Japan
The purpose of the present study was to harmonize the protocol of equilibrium solubility measurements for poorly water-soluble drugs to lower inter-laboratory variance. The “mandatory” and “recommended” procedures for the shake-flask method were harmonized based on the knowledge and experiences of each company and information from the literature. The solubility of model drugs was measured by the harmonized protocol (HP) and the non-harmonized proprietary protocol of each company (nonHP). Albendazole, griseofulvin, dipyridamole, and glibenclamide were used as model drugs. When using the nonHP, the solubility values showed large inter-laboratory variance. In contrast, inter-laboratory variance was markedly reduced when using the HP
Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population
Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (P interaction = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications
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