Sequentially Stable Coalition Structures

In this paper, we examine the question of which coalition structures farsighted players form in coalition formation games with externalities. We introduce a stability concept for a coalition structure called a sequentially stable coalition structure. Our concept of domination between two coalition structures is based on a “step-by-step” approach to describe negotiation steps concretely by restricting how coalition structures can change: when one coalition structure is changed to another one, either (i) only one merging of two separate coalitions into a coalition occurs, or (ii) only one breaking up of a coalition into two separate coalitions happens. As applications of our stability notion, we show that the efficient grand coalition structure can be sequentially stable in simple partition function form games and common pool resource games.

Voluntary Participation and Spite in Public Good Provision Experiments: an International Comparison.

This paper studies public good provision in the laboratory using voluntary contribution mechanism, in a cross-cultural experiment conducted in the United States and Japan.EXPERIMENTS ; SOCIAL CHOICE ; PUBLIC GOODS

Who would get Gains from EU's Quantity Restraint on Emissions Trading in the Kyoto Protocol?.

The EU proposal on the quantity restraint of the emissions trading in the Kyoto Protocol aims at reducing the so called hot air that would be generated by the purchase of emissions permits sold by a country whose actual emissions are much lower than the assigned amount. In this paper we show that no quantity restraint of all demanders is not a subgame perfect equilibrium, but quantity restraints with a least one country constitute the equilibria.EXPERIMENTS ; ENVIRONMENT ; NATURAL RESOURCES

Voluntary Participation Game Experiments with a Non-Excludable Public Good: Is Spitefulness a Source of Cooperation?.

Economic theory predicts that it is impossible to have cooperation in finitely repeated games such as a prisoner's dilemma game without communication. In an experiment on a voluntary participation game with a non-excludable public good that is a version of a Hawk-Dove game, we obderved that evolutionary stable strategies did not appear, but cooperation emerged through a transmutation from the Hawk-Dove game to a game where a dominant strategy outcome is Pareto efficient.GAME THEORY ; EXPERIMENTS

Baryons from instantons in holographic QCD

We consider aspects of dynamical baryons in a holographic dual of QCD that is proposed on the basis of a D4/D8-brane configuration. We construct a soliton solution carrying a unit baryon number and show that it is given by an instanton solution of four-dimensional Yang-Mills theory with fixed size. The Chern-Simons term on the flavor D8-branes plays a crucial role of protecting the instanton from collapsing to zero size. By quantizing the collective coordinates of the soliton, we work out the baryon spectra. Negative-parity baryons as well as baryons with higher spins and isospins can be obtained in a simple manner.Comment: 25 pages, v2: references added, minor changes, v3: PTP-style, minor correction

Sequentially Stable Coalition Structures

In this paper, we examine the question of which coalition structures farsighted players form in coalition formation games with externalities. We introduce a stability concept for a coalition structure called a sequentially stable coalition structure. Our concept of domination between two coalition structures is based on a “step-by-step” approach to describe negotiation steps concretely by restricting how coalition structures can change: when one coalition structure is changed to another one, either (i) only one merging of two separate coalitions into a coalition occurs, or (ii) only one breaking up of a coalition into two separate coalitions happens. As applications of our stability notion, we show that the efficient grand coalition structure can be sequentially stable in simple partition function form games and common pool resource games

Afadin requirement for cytokine expressions in keratinocytes during chemically induced inflammation in mice

Afadin is a filamentous actin-binding protein and a mediator of nectin signaling. Nectins are Ig-like cell adhesion molecules, and the nectin family is composed of four members, nectin-1 to nectin-4. Nectins show homophilic and heterophilic interactions with other nectins or proteins on adjacent cells. Nectin signaling induces formation of cell-cell junctions and is required for the development of epithelial tissues, including skin. This study investigated the role of afadin in epithelial tissue development and established epithelium-specific afadin-deficient (CKO) mice. Although showing no obvious abnormality in the skin development and homeostasis, the mice showed the reduced neutrophil infiltration into the epidermis during chemical-induced inflammation with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA). Immunohistochemical and quantitative real-time PCR analyses showed that the expression levels of cytokines including Cxcl2, Il-1{beta} and Tnf-{alpha} were reduced in CKO keratinocytes compared with control keratinocytes during TPA-induced inflammation. Primary-cultured skin keratinocytes from CKO mice also showed reduced expression of these cytokines and weak activation of Rap1 compared with those from control mice after the TPA treatment. These results suggested a remarkable function of afadin, which was able to enhance cytokine expression through Rap1 activation in keratinocytes during inflammation

Steplike Lattice Deformation of Single Crystalline (La0.4_{0.4}Pr0.6_{0.6})1.2_{1.2}Sr1.8_{1.8}Mn2_{2}O7_{7} Bilayered Manganite

We report a steplike lattice transformation of single crystalline (La$_{0.4}$Pr$_{0.6}$)$_{1.2}$Sr$_{1.8}$Mn$_{2}$O$_{7}$bilayered manganite accompanied by both magnetization and magnetoresistive jumps, and examine the ultrasharp nature of the field-induced first-order transition from a paramagnetic insulator to a ferromagnetic metal phase accompanied by a huge decrease in resistance. Our findings support that the abrupt magnetostriction is closely related to an orbital frustration existing in the inhomogeneous paramagnetic insulating phase rather than a martensitic scenario between competing two phases.Comment: 5 pages,4figures, v4: figures are changed, in press in Phys.Rev.Let