Intra-Household Effects on Demand for Telephone Service: Empirical Evidence

I present a game-theoretical model to estimate consumption demand, accounting for intra-household interaction among household members. Although multiple Nash equilibria of consumption decisions may exist in a household, model parameters are pointwise identified from household-level data for households with only two members. I propose a semiparametric maximum likelihood estimator and apply it to empirically analyze the subscription decision for cellular phone service in Taiwan. On average, a consumer's probability of subscribing to cellular service rises 35 percentage points when the other household member chooses to subscribe. This result suggests the existence of intra-household network effects on cellular phone consumption. The intra-household effect increases in household income, but decreases in the number of kids and the age difference in a household.consumption externality, multiple Nash equilibria, demand estimation, mobile phone service, cellular phone service, network effect

Are eBay auctions efficient? A model with buyer entries

I use a sequential-auction model to mimic the environment of Internet auction sites, such as eBay. For a sequence of auctions, new buyers may enter the auction site after some of the auctions has completed and only bid for the remaining auctions. Because an incumbent buyer may have revealed their own valuation in earlier auctions while a new entrant do not, their expectations about the future are asymmetric. As a result, a buyer with a lower valuation may win an auction while a buyer with a higher valuation may restrain from bidding higher, resulting an inefficient allocation. On the contrary, selling the multiple items in a single simultaneous auction results in an efficient outcome. The profit from selling all items together in one simultaneous auction is less than that from selling them sequentially.Internet auction, sequential auctions, affiliated private values

Deterministic Dense Coding and Faithful Teleportation with Multipartite Graph States

We proposed novel schemes to perform the deterministic dense coding and faithful teleportation with multipartite graph states. We also find the sufficient and necessary condition of a viable graph state for the proposed scheme. That is, for the associated graph, the reduced adjacency matrix of the Tanner-type subgraph between senders and receivers should be invertible.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure;v2. discussions improve

Multipartite Entanglement Measures and Quantum Criticality from Matrix and Tensor Product States

We compute the multipartite entanglement measures such as the global entanglement of various one- and two-dimensional quantum systems to probe the quantum criticality based on the matrix and tensor product states (MPSs/TPSs). We use infinite time-evolving block decimation (iTEBD) method to find the ground states numerically in the form of MPSs/TPSs, and then evaluate their entanglement measures by the method of tensor renormalization group (TRG). We find these entanglement measures can characterize the quantum phase transitions by their derivative discontinuity right at the critical points in all models considered here. We also comment on the scaling behaviors of the entanglement measures by the ideas of quantum state renormalization group transformations.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figure

Insights from quantitative and mathematical modelling on the proposed 2030 goal for gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT)

Gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT) is a parasitic, vector-borne neglected tropical disease that has historically affected populations across West and Central Africa and can result in death if untreated. Following from the success of recent intervention programmes against gHAT, the World Health Organization (WHO) has defined a 2030 goal of global elimination of transmission (EOT). The key proposed indicator to measure achievement of the goal is to have zero reported cases. Results of previous mathematical modelling and quantitative analyses are brought together to explore both the implications of the proposed indicator and the feasibility of achieving the WHO goal. Whilst the indicator of zero case reporting is clear and measurable, it is an imperfect proxy for EOT and could arise either before or after EOT is achieved. Lagging reporting of infection and imperfect diagnostic specificity could result in case reporting after EOT, whereas the converse could be true due to underreporting, lack of coverage, and cryptic human and animal reservoirs. At the village-scale, the WHO recommendation of continuing active screening until there are three years of zero cases yields a high probability of local EOT, but extrapolating this result to larger spatial scales is complex. Predictive modelling of gHAT has consistently found that EOT by 2030 is unlikely across key endemic regions if current medical-only strategies are not bolstered by improved coverage, reduced time to detection and/or complementary vector control. Unfortunately, projected costs for strategies expected to meet EOT are high in the short term and strategies that are cost-effective in reducing burden are unlikely to result in EOT by 2030. Future modelling work should aim to provide predictions while taking into account uncertainties in stochastic dynamics and infection reservoirs, as well as assessment of multiple spatial scales, reactive strategies, and measurable proxies of EOT

Effectiveness of influenza vaccination in patients with end-stage renal disease receiving hemodialysis: a population-based study.

BackgroundLittle is known on the effectiveness of influenza vaccine in ESRD patients. This study compared the incidence of hospitalization, morbidity, and mortality in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) between cohorts with and without influenza vaccination.MethodsWe used the insurance claims data from 1998 to 2009 in Taiwan to determine the incidence of these events within one year after influenza vaccination in the vaccine (N = 831) and the non-vaccine (N = 3187) cohorts. The vaccine cohort to the non-vaccine cohort incidence rate ratio and hazard ratio (HR) of morbidities and mortality were measured.ResultsThe age-specific analysis showed that the elderly in the vaccine cohort had lower hospitalization rate (100.8 vs. 133.9 per 100 person-years), contributing to an overall HR of 0.81 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.72-0.90). The vaccine cohort also had an adjusted HR of 0.85 [95% CI 0.75-0.96] for heart disease. The corresponding incidence of pneumonia and influenza was 22.4 versus 17.2 per 100 person-years, but with an adjusted HR of 0.80 (95% CI 0.64-1.02). The vaccine cohort had lowered risks than the non-vaccine cohort for intensive care unit (ICU) admission (adjusted HR 0.20, 95% CI 0.12-0.33) and mortality (adjusted HR 0.50, 95% CI 0.41-0.60). The time-dependent Cox model revealed an overall adjusted HR for mortality of 0.30 (95% CI 0.26-0.35) after counting vaccination for multi-years.ConclusionsESRD patients with HD receiving the influenza vaccination could have reduced risks of pneumonia/influenza and other morbidities, ICU stay, hospitalization and death, particularly for the elderly

The 3D-tomography of the nano-clusters formed by Fe-coating and annealing of diamond films for enhancing their surface electron field emitters

[[abstract]]The Fe-coating and H2-annealed processes markedly increased the conductivity and enhanced the surface electron field emission (s-EFE) properties for the diamondfilms. The enhancement on the s-EFE properties for the diamondfilms is presumably owing to the formation of nano-graphite clusters on the surface of the films via the Fe-to-diamond interaction. However, the extent of enhancement varied with the granular structure of the diamondfilms. For the microcrystalline (MCD)films, the s-EFE process can be turned on at (E0)MCD = 1.9 V/μm, achieving a large s-EFE current density of (Je)MCD = 315 μA/cm2 at an applied field of 8.8 V/μm. These s-EFE properties are markedly better than those for Fe-coated/annealed ultrananocrystalline diamond(UNCD)films with (E0)UNCD = 2.0 V/μm and (Je)UNCD = 120 μA/cm2. The transmission electron microscopy showed that the nano-graphite clusters formed an interconnected network for MCDfilms that facilitated the electron transport more markedly, as compared with the isolated nano-graphitic clusters formed at the surface of the UNCDfilms. Therefore, the Fe-coating/annealing processes improved the s-EFE properties for the MCDfilms more markedly than that for the UNCDfilms. The understanding on the distribution of the nano-clusters is of critical importance in elucidating the authentic factor that influences the s-EFE properties of the diamondfilms. Such an understanding is possible only through the 3D-tomographic investigations.[[journaltype]]國外[[ispeerreviewed]]Y[[booktype]]電子版[[countrycodes]]US