A dynamic theory of holdup

game theory;investment;bargaining

Know thy enemies : knowledge of rivals' types and its effect on auctions

auctions

Keeping the Listener Engaged: a Dynamic Model of Bayesian Persuasion

We consider a dynamic model of Bayesian persuasion in which information takes time and is costly for the sender to generate and for the receiver to process, and neither player can commit to their future actions. Persuasion may totally collapse in a Markov perfect equilibrium (MPE) of this game. However, for persuasion costs sufficiently small, a version of a folk theorem holds: outcomes that approximate Kamenica and Gentzkow (2011)'s sender-optimal persuasion as well as full revelation and everything in between are obtained in MPE, as the cost vanishes

Autophagy-induced RelB/p52 activation mediates tumour-associated macrophage repolarisation and suppression of hepatocellular carcinoma by natural compound baicalin

Open Access JournalThe plasticity of tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) has implicated an influential role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Repolarisation of TAM towards M1 phenotype characterises an immune-competent microenvironment that favours tumour regression. To investigate the role and mechanism of TAM repolarisation in suppression of HCC by a natural compound baicalin, Orthotopic HCC implantation model was used to investigate the effect of baicalin on HCC; liposome-clodronate was introduced to suppress macrophage populations in mice; bone marrow-derived monocytes (BMDMs) were induced to unpolarised, M1-like, M2-like macrophages and TAM using different conditioned medium. We observed that oral administration of baicalin (50 mg/kg) completely blocked orthotopic growth of implanted HCC. Suppression of HCC by baicalin was diminished when mice macrophage was removed by clodronate treatment. Baicalin induced repolarisation of TAM to M1-like phenotype without specific toxicity to either phenotype of macrophages. Baicalin initiated TAM reprogramming to M1-like macrophage, and promoted pro-inflammatory cytokines production. Co-culturing of HCC cells with baicalin-treated TAMs resulted in reduced proliferation and motility in HCC. Baicalin had minimal effect on derivation of macrophage polarisation factors by HCC cells, while directly induced repolarisation of TAM and M2-like macrophage. This effect was associated with elevated autophagy, and transcriptional activation of RelB/p52 pathway. Suppression of autophagy or RelB abolished skewing of baicalin-treated TAM. Autophagic degradation of TRAF2 in baicalin-treated TAM might be responsible for RelB/p52 activation. Our findings unveil the essential role of TAM repolarisation in suppressive effect of baicalin on HCC, which requires autophagy-associated activation of RelB/p52.published_or_final_versio

Efficiency Guarantees in Auctions with Budgets

In settings where players have a limited access to liquidity, represented in the form of budget constraints, efficiency maximization has proven to be a challenging goal. In particular, the social welfare cannot be approximated by a better factor then the number of players. Therefore, the literature has mainly resorted to Pareto-efficiency as a way to achieve efficiency in such settings. While successful in some important scenarios, in many settings it is known that either exactly one incentive-compatible auction that always outputs a Pareto-efficient solution, or that no truthful mechanism can always guarantee a Pareto-efficient outcome. Traditionally, impossibility results can be avoided by considering approximations. However, Pareto-efficiency is a binary property (is either satisfied or not), which does not allow for approximations. In this paper we propose a new notion of efficiency, called \emph{liquid welfare}. This is the maximum amount of revenue an omniscient seller would be able to extract from a certain instance. We explain the intuition behind this objective function and show that it can be 2-approximated by two different auctions. Moreover, we show that no truthful algorithm can guarantee an approximation factor better than 4/3 with respect to the liquid welfare, and provide a truthful auction that attains this bound in a special case. Importantly, the liquid welfare benchmark also overcomes impossibilities for some settings. While it is impossible to design Pareto-efficient auctions for multi-unit auctions where players have decreasing marginal values, we give a deterministic $O(\log n)$-approximation for the liquid welfare in this setting

Studies of Wilms’ Tumor (WT1) Gene Expression in Adult Acute Leukemias in Singapore

Biomarkers provide certain values for diagnosis, monitor treatment efficacy, or for the development of novel therapeutic approach for particular diseases. Thus, the identification of specific of biomarkers for specific medical problems, including malignant diseases may be valuable in medical practice. In the study, we have used the Wilms’ tumor gene (WT1) as a biomarker to evaluate its expression in local adult patients with newly diagnosed acute leukemia, including both acute myeloid and lymphoid leukemias (AML and ALL)