Optimal Auction Design for Flexible Consumers

We study the problem of designing revenue-maximizing auctions for allocating multiple goods to flexible consumers. In our model, each consumer is interested in a subset of goods known as its flexibility set and wants to consume one good from this set. A consumer's flexibility set and its utility from consuming a good from its flexibility set are its private information. We focus on the case of nested flexibility sets --- each consumer's flexibility set can be one of $k$ nested sets. We provide several examples where such nested flexibility sets may arise. We characterize the allocation rule for an incentive compatible, individually rational and revenue-maximizing auction as the solution to an integer program. The corresponding payment rule is described by an integral equation. We then leverage the nestedness of flexibility sets to simplify the optimal auction and provide a complete characterization of allocations and payments in terms of simple thresholds.Comment: 13 page

Optimal Mechanism Design with Flexible Consumers and Costly Supply

The problem of designing a profit-maximizing, Bayesian incentive compatible and individually rational mechanism with flexible consumers and costly heterogeneous supply is considered. In our setup, each consumer is associated with a flexibility set that describes the subset of goods the consumer is equally interested in. Each consumer wants to consume one good from its flexibility set. The flexibility set of a consumer and the utility it gets from consuming a good from its flexibility set are its private information. We adopt the flexibility model of [1] and focus on the case of nested flexibility sets -- each consumer's flexibility set can be one of k nested sets. Examples of settings with this inherent nested structure are provided. On the supply side, we assume that the seller has an initial stock of free supply but it can purchase more goods for each of the nested sets at fixed exogenous prices. We characterize the allocation and purchase rules for a profit-maximizing, Bayesian incentive compatible and individually rational mechanism as the solution to an integer program. The optimal payment function is pinned down by the optimal allocation rule in the form of an integral equation. We show that the nestedness of flexibility sets can be exploited to obtain a simple description of the optimal allocations, purchases and payments in terms of thresholds that can be computed through a straightforward iterative procedure.Comment: 8 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1607.0252

A science metric study of Iranian published articles about oral health-related quality of life

BACKGROUND AND AIM: A new perspective on health suggested that the ultimate goal of dental care, namely good oral hygiene, should no longer merely is seen as the absence of caries or periodontal disease; a patient's mental and social well-being should be considered as well. The concept of oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) captures the aim of this new perspective. The present article aimed to describe the published studies carried out to date in Iran on OHRQoL. METHODS: After adequate searching, 28 articles were reviewed published up to beginning 2013. RESULTS: Among the reviewed articles, there were 9 studies in which the OHRQoL questionnaires have been validated in Farsi, 15 studies in which the OHRQoL has been evaluated in a specific group of patients and 4 were interventional studies. CONCLUSION: Further precise studies are necessary in this regard in Iran especially in the field of intervention. KEYWORDS: Oral Health, Quality of Life, Ira

Functional Testing Approaches for "BIFST-able" tlm_fifo

Evolution of Electronic System Level design methodologies, allows a wider use of Transaction-Level Modeling (TLM). TLM is a high-level approach to modeling digital systems that emphasizes on separating communications among modules from the details of functional units. This paper explores different functional testing approaches for the implementation of Built-in Functional Self Test facilities in the TLM primitive channel tlm_fifo. In particular, it focuses on three different test approaches based on a finite state machine model of tlm_fifo, functional fault models, and march tests respectivel

Analysis of System-Failure Rate Caused by Soft-Errors using a UML-Based Systematic Methodology in an SoC

This paper proposes an analytical method to assess the soft-error rate (SER) in the early stages of a System-on-Chip (SoC) platform-based design methodology. The proposed method gets an executable UML (Unified Modeling Language) model of the SoC and the raw soft- error rate of different parts of the platform as its inputs. Soft-errors on the design are modeled by disturbances on the value of attributes in the classes of the UML model and disturbances on opcodes of software cores. The Dynamic behavior of each core is used to determine the propagation probability of each variable disturbance to the core outputs. Furthermore, the SER and the execution time of each core in the SoC and a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) that determines the severity of each failure mode in the SoC are used to compute the System-Failure Rate (SFR) of the So

Plug & Test at System Level via Testable TLM Primitives

With the evolution of Electronic System Level (ESL) design methodologies, we are experiencing an extensive use of Transaction-Level Modeling (TLM). TLM is a high-level approach to modeling digital systems where details of the communication among modules are separated from the those of the implementation of functional units. This paper represents a first step toward the automatic insertion of testing capabilities at the transaction level by definition of testable TLM primitives. The use of testable TLM primitives should help designers to easily get testable transaction level descriptions implementing what we call a "Plug & Test" design methodology. The proposed approach is intended to work both with hardware and software implementations. In particular, in this paper we will focus on the design of a testable FIFO communication channel to show how designers are given the freedom of trading-off complexity, testability levels, and cos

Molecular markers as an indicator in the malignant potential of oral lichen planus: A systematic review

ACKGROUND AND AIM: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic, autoimmune, inflammatory disease. The progression of OLP to oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has generated a longstanding controversy about the details of this malignant transformation potential. This study aimed to do a systematic review on the molecular markers related to the malignant transformation of OLP. METHODS: We searched the databases PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus, Cochrane and Thomson Reuters Web of Science (1990-2015) with the MeSH key words of: (“oral lichenoid reaction”, “oral lichenoid lesion”, “oral lichenoid eruption”, “oral lichen planus” “lichen planus”, “lichenoid”) AND (“malignant transformation”, “premalignant character”, “cancerization”, “pre-neoplasm”, “squamous cell carcinoma”). The reviewers screened the identified publications in three steps according to title, abstract and full text, extracted all the investigated markers in screened articles and finally classified the markers according to the frequency. Extracted data were saved in Excel software. RESULTS: Out of 570 articles, 66 were finally enrolled in the study. The most frequent evaluated markers were p53, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), Ki67, B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), Bax, p21, and caspase-3. CONCLUSION: The present study concluded that there were some documented evidences for association between malignant transformation of OLP and seven molecular markers (p53, COX-2, Ki67, Bcl-2, Bax, p21, and caspase-3). KEYWORDS: Biomarkers; Tumor; Gene Expression; Oral Lichen Planu

Assessment of oral health-related quality of life: Comparison of two measurement tools

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Development of patient-based outcome measures has enhanced our ability to assess the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). Present study aimed to compare the performance of the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI) and the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14) as two methods of assessment of oral health-related quality of life. METHODS: In this cross-sectional survey, a sample of 400 healthy participants which were 18-65 years old was recruited in Kerman School of Dentistry, Iran. Main measurement tools were the validated Persian version of GOHAI and OHIP- 14 questionnaires. Data were collected by means of personal interview. Internal consistency and discriminant validity were carried out to compare the two measures. RESULTS: The internal consistencies of both tools were acceptable and Pearson’s correlation coefficient between the scores was 0.739. Both measures discriminated between dentate subjects over and under 25 natural teeth and wearing removable dentures or not, both also showed significant associations with dental attendance, self-rated oral health and satisfaction with oral health status. CONCLUSION: Both GOHAI and OHIP-14 are appropriate instruments with equal power for survey of OHRQoL on under-elderly population. KEYWORDS: Oral Health, Quality of Life; Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL); Oral Health Impact Profile- 14 (OHIP-14); Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI