Patenting in the Shadow of Independent Discoveries by Rivals

This paper studies the decision of whether to apply for a patent in a dynamic model in which firms innovate stochastically and independently. In the model, a firm can choose between patenting and maintaining secrecy to protect a successful innovation. I consider a legal environment characterized by imperfect patent protection and no prior user rights. Thus, patenting grants probabilistic protection, and secrecy is effectively maintained until rivals innovate. I show that (1) firms that innovate early are more inclined to choose secrecy, whereas firms that innovate late have a stronger tendency to patent; (2) the incentives to patent increase with the innovation arrival rate; and (3) an increase in the number of firms may cause patenting to occur earlier or later, depending on the strength of patent protection. The socially optimal level of patent protection, which balances the trade-off between the provision of patenting incentives and the avoidance of deadweight loss caused by a monopoly, is lower with a higher innovation arrival rate or a larger number of firms.Patenting decisions; Patents; Secrecy; Independent discoveries

Advance-Purchase Programs: When to Introduce and What to Inform Consumers

We study a two-stage model in which the information processed by consumers at the first stage (advance-purchase stage) is endogenously determined. In the model, the firm decides whether to introduce an advance-purchase program, chooses what attribute information to disclose and determines an advance-purchase price and a retail price. Forward-looking consumers strategically choose, based on the disclosed information, to buy in advance or to make a purchase decision at the second stage (retail stage) when all information is revealed. We characterize the firm's optimal choice on the advance-purchase program and the strategy of information disclosure. In particular, we show that the firm always prefers to introduce the advance-purchase program except when underlying consumer preferences are extremely homogenous. In addition, we find that fully revealing horizontal product information at the advance-purchase stage is never optimal to the firm, but revealing either partial or no product information can be optimal depending on the underlying consumer preferences. Our finding that partial information disclosure is sometimes optimal to the firm is in contrast to the result in the literature of horizontal information provision that a firm maximizes profit by revealing either no or full information to consumers.advance purchase, information disclosure, dynamic pricing

AffinityNet: semi-supervised few-shot learning for disease type prediction

While deep learning has achieved great success in computer vision and many other fields, currently it does not work very well on patient genomic data with the "big p, small N" problem (i.e., a relatively small number of samples with high-dimensional features). In order to make deep learning work with a small amount of training data, we have to design new models that facilitate few-shot learning. Here we present the Affinity Network Model (AffinityNet), a data efficient deep learning model that can learn from a limited number of training examples and generalize well. The backbone of the AffinityNet model consists of stacked k-Nearest-Neighbor (kNN) attention pooling layers. The kNN attention pooling layer is a generalization of the Graph Attention Model (GAM), and can be applied to not only graphs but also any set of objects regardless of whether a graph is given or not. As a new deep learning module, kNN attention pooling layers can be plugged into any neural network model just like convolutional layers. As a simple special case of kNN attention pooling layer, feature attention layer can directly select important features that are useful for classification tasks. Experiments on both synthetic data and cancer genomic data from TCGA projects show that our AffinityNet model has better generalization power than conventional neural network models with little training data. The code is freely available at https://github.com/BeautyOfWeb/AffinityNet .Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Synthesis, characterization and properties of new low-valent palladium and platinum clusters of diarsine and diisocyanide ligands

Les agrégats métalliques de palladium et de platine de basse valence ont été Ie sujet d'intérêts depuis longtemps a cause de leurs propriétés catalytiques et de la présence de liaisons métal-métal intrigantes. Dans ce projet deux ligands assembleurs ont été utilises pour construire ces agrégats, soit Ie dpam (bis(diphenylarsino)methane) et Ie dmb (1,8-diisocyano-p-menthane). En effet, deux sortes d'agrégats (polyèdre et chaîne linéaire) ont été prépares avec succès, et ont été pleinement caractérisés. La réduction directe du Pd(CH3COO)2 dans 1'acetone en présence d'un mélange de dpam, CFsCOOH et de 1'eau, par Ie CO produit 1'agregat [Pd3(dpam)3(Hs-CO)]2+. La structure du cation a été déterminée par la technique de diffraction des rayons-X, et est isostructurale au dérive dppm correspondant. Dans ce cas, la dimension de la cavité formée par les six groupes phényles adoptant la configuration axiale est grande, ou Ie contre anion PF6' se retrouve. Les constantes d'association de cette molécule hôte modifiée ont été obtenues par spectroscopie UV-visible, et ont été comparées avec celles du dérive dppm correspondant connu. Comme prévu, ces constantes d'association sont plus élevées pour la grande cavité (dpam) pour un même système substrat-hôte, ceci montre clairement la conséquence directe de l'augmentation de la dimension de la cavité via l'augmentation de la liaison M-L (Pd-As -2,42 A, Pd-P -2,32 A). Durant ces expériences, on s'aperçoit que l'anion PF6' se lie faiblement au [Pd3(dpam)3(u3- C0)]2+, alors que cela ne survient pas pour l'analogue au dppm. Cet agrégat métallique réagit avec I' pour former Ie compose attendu [Pd3(dpam)3((J.3-CO)(p.3-I)]^ ou une structure bipyramide trigonale est observée. Subséquemment, la présence d'oxygène conduit a une réaction de fragmentation oxydante et Ie complexe Pd2(dpam)2l4 a été isole, et identifie par cristallographie. Dans ce cas les ligands dpam pontent les deux centres Pd (II), et ils ne chélates pas Ie métal tel qu'observé pour les complexes mononucléaires Pd(dppm)X2 (X = Cl, Br, I). La longue distance Pd'-'Pd (3,3896(9) A) indique 1'absence d'interaction Pd'-Pd.Abstract: The low-valent palladium and platinum clusters have been the topic of long standing interest because of their intriguing bonding and excellent catalytic properties. In this project, diarsine (dpam = bis(diphenylarsino)methane) and diisocyanide (dmb = l,8-diisocyano p -menthane) ligands have been used to build the low-valent palladium and platinum clusters, based upon the different purposes. Two kinds of clusters (polyhedral and linear chain clusters) have been successfully synthesized and fully characterized. Direct reduction of Pd(CH[subscript 3]COO)[subscript 2] in acetone by CO in the presence of a mixture of dpam, CF[subscript 3]COOH and water, gave a trinuclear cluster, [Pd[subscript 3](dpam)[subscript 3]([mu subscript 3]-CO)][superscript 2+]. This cluster reacts with I- to give the expected cluster adduct, [Pd[subscript 3](dpam)[subscript 3]([mu subscript 3]-CO)][superscript +], where a trigonal bipyramid structure is observed. But in the presence of O2, an unexpected oxidation-fragmentation reaction occurs and leads to the breakdown to a dinuclear complex, [Pd[subscript 2](dpam)[subscript 2]I[subscript 4]], as identified from X-ray crystallography. The reduction of Pt(dpam)(CF[subscript 3]COO)[superscript 2] by CO in a mixture of methanol and water leads to the preparation of a 58-electron"butterfly" cluster, [Pt[subscript](dpam)[subscript 3]([mu subscript 2]-CO)[subscript 3]([mu subscript 1]-dpam)][superscript 2+], as a CF[subscript 3]COO- salt. This cluster is luminescent at 77K, but not at room temperature. The luminescence is a phosphorescence, and the emission lifetime [Special character omitted] is 3.2 « 0.2 [mu]s. The electronic spectroscopic properties have been rationalized by EHMO computations. The preparation of a tetranuclear platinum complex containing linear metal-metal chain has been achieved by the direct reaction between Pt[subscript 2](dba)[subscript 3]-CHCl3 and an excess of dmb. The air-stable complex, [Pt[subscript 3](dmb)[subscript 4](PPh3)2]Cl[subscript 2] was isolated as a red-orange crystalline solid. This chemistry has been expanded to the polymers containing [M[subscript 4](dmb)[subscript 4] units (M = Pd, Pt). The organometallic polymers, {[Pt[subscript 4](dmb)4]-diphosphine}n (Ph[subscript 2]P-(CH[subscript 2])x-PPh[subscript 2], x = 4, 5, 6; dppb, dppp, dpph, respectively) complexes, have been synthesized. The reaction between {[Pt[subscript 4](dmb)m]Cl2}n and Au(PPh3)2+ led to the preparation of a heterometallic cluster, [Pt[subscript 2]Au[subscript 2](dmb)[subscript 2](PPh[subscript 3])[subscript 4]][superscript 2+], with a rhombic geometry. In this molecule, long Pt-Au([tilde]2.82 êA) and short Au-Au([tilde]2.598 êA) bond lengths were observed. The properties of this complex have also been studied."--Résumé abrégé par UM

Interpersonal bundling

This paper studies a model of interpersonal bundling, in which a monopolist offers a good for sale under a regular price and a group purchase discount if the number of consumers in a group—the bundle size—belongs to some menu of intervals. We find that this is often a profitable selling strategy in response to demand uncertainty, and it can achieve the highest profit among all possible selling mechanisms. We explain how the profitability of interpersonal bundling with a minimum or maximum group size may depend on the nature of uncertainty and on parameters of the market environment, and we discuss strategic issues related to the optimal design and implementation of these bundling schemes. Our analysis sheds light on popular marketing practices such as group purchase discounts, and it offers insights on potential new marketing innovation

Experience Goods and Consumer Search

We introduce a search model where products differ in variety and unobserved quality (`experience goods'), and firms can establish quality reputation. We show that the inability of consumers to observe quality before purchase significantly changes how search frictions affect market performance. In equilibrium, higher search costs hinder consumers' search for better-matched variety and increase price, but can boost firms' investment in product quality. Under plausible conditions, both consumer and total welfare initially increase in search cost, whereas both would monotonically decrease if quality were observable. We apply the analysis to online markets, where low search costs coexist with low-quality products