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In its development of one hundred years, anthropology evolved from travelogues of explorers to in-depth exploration of human from all possible angles. In its every venture, anthropologists were/are always in try to get closer to cultural affairs and dive deeper into human subjectivity. To achieve these purposes a series of theories and methods were developed, which served a lot, but with time it was also felt that readers idea of a research is anchored with and limited within the textual analysis written by the researcher. This dependency on the text was (and still) restricting the researcher to convey an actual image of the studied phenomenon, and also confining the readers from exploring their subjective self in finding meaning. The emergence of using visual aids in anthropology during the 90s opened a pathway for the researcher to make their researched visible to the audience. This visibility opens up many scopes of interpretation that are hitherto invisible. Though, researchers of other disciplines started the use of visual way before anthropologists. But its efficiency in transmitting meaning soon pulled the attention of anthropological social researchers. Since then, visual in anthropology has evolved in its use and presently one of the frontrunning methods in anthropological research. This article is systematically reviewing the history to present of visual anthropology with reference to theoretical development and practical use of the same. Keywords: visual anthropology, photograph, ethnography, movies, photovoice

The immune system must be able to respond to a myriad of different threats, each requiring a distinct type of response. Here, we demonstrate that the cytoplasmic lysine deacetylase HDAC7 in macrophages is a metabolic switch that triages danger signals to enable the most appropriate immune response. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and soluble signals indicating distal or far-away danger trigger HDAC7-dependent glycolysis and proinflammatory IL-1β production. In contrast, HDAC7 initiates the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) for NADPH and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in response to the more proximal threat of nearby bacteria, as exemplified by studies on uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). HDAC7-mediated PPP engagement via 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGD) generates NADPH for antimicrobial ROS production, as well as D-ribulose-5-phosphate (RL5P) that both synergizes with ROS for UPEC killing and suppresses selective inflammatory responses. This dual functionality of the HDAC7-6PGD-RL5P axis prioritizes responses to proximal threats. Our findings thus reveal that the PPP metabolite RL5P has both antimicrobial and immunomodulatory activities and that engagement of enzymes in catabolic versus anabolic metabolic pathways triages responses to different types of danger for generation of inflammatory versus antimicrobial responses, respectively.

TLRs reprogram macrophage metabolism, enhancing glycolysis and promoting flux through the tricarboxylic acid cycle to enable histone acetylation and inflammatory gene expression. The histone deacetylase (HDAC) family of lysine deacetylases regulates both TLR-inducible glycolysis and inflammatory responses. Here, we show that the TLR4 agonist LPS, as well as agonists of other TLRs, rapidly increase enzymatic activity of the class IIa HDAC family (HDAC4, 5, 7, 9) in both primary human and murine macrophages. This response was abrogated in murine macrophages deficient in histone deacetylase 7 (Hdac7), highlighting a selective role for this specific lysine deacetylase during immediate macrophage activation. With the exception of the TLR3 agonist polyI:C, TLR-inducible activation of Hdac7 enzymatic activity required the MyD88 adaptor protein. The rapid glycolysis response, as assessed by extracellular acidification rate, was attenuated in Hdac7-deficient mouse macrophages responding to submaximal LPS concentrations. Surprisingly however, reconstitution of these cells with either wild-type or an enzyme-dead mutant of Hdac7 enhanced LPS-inducible glycolysis, whereas only the former promoted production of the inflammatory mediators Il-1β and Ccl2. Thus, Hdac7 enzymatic activity is required for TLR-inducible production of specific inflammatory mediators, whereas it acts in an enzyme-independent fashion to reprogram metabolism in macrophages responding to submaximal LPS concentrations. Hdac7 is thus a bifurcation point for regulated metabolism and inflammatory responses in macrophages. Taken together with existing literature, our findings support a model in which submaximal and maximal activation of macrophages via TLR4 instruct glycolysis through distinct mechanisms, leading to divergent biological responses.

Increasingly, robots are decision makers in manufacturing, finance, medicine, and other areas, but the technology may not be trusted enough for reasons such as gaps between expectation and competency, challenges in explainable AI, users’ exposure level to the technology, etc. To investigate the trust issues between users and robots, the authors employed in this study, the case of robots making decisions in football (or “soccer” as it is known in the US) games as referees. More specifically, we presented a study on how the appearance of a human and three robotic linesmen (as presented in a study by Malle et al.) impacts fans’ trust and preference for them. Our online study with 104 participants finds a positive correlation between “Trust” and “Preference” for humanoid and human linesmen, but not for “AI” and “mechanical” linesmen. Although no significant trust differences were observed for different types of linesmen, participants do prefer human linesman to mechanical and humanoid linesmen. Our qualitative study further validated these quantitative findings by probing possible reasons for people’s preference: when the appearance of a linesman is not humanlike, people focus less on the trust issues but more on other reasons for their linesman preference such as efficiency, stability, and minimal robot design. These findings provide important insights for the design of trustworthy decision-making robots which are increasingly integrated to more and more aspects of our everyday lives.

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are bursts of electromagnetic energy released when supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies violently disrupt stars that pass too close. TDEs provide a new window to study accretion onto supermassive black holes; in some cases, this accretion leads to launching of a relativistic jet, but the necessary conditions are not fully understood. Here, we report the optical discovery of AT2022cmc, a rapidly fading source located at redshift z=1.19325. Observations of a bright counterpart at other wavelengths, including X-rays, sub-millimeter, and radio, supports the interpretation of AT2022cmc as a jetted TDE containing a synchrotron ``afterglow.'' Using 4 years of Zwicky Transient Facility survey data, we calculated a rate of 0.02 ^{+ 0.04 }_{- 0.01 } Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1} for jetted TDEs based on the luminous, fast-fading red component, thus providing a measurement complementary to the rates derived from X--ray and radio observations (Brown et al., 2015), confirming that ~1% of TDEs have on-axis jets. Forthcoming observations of AT2022cmc could resolve the jet through high-resolution imaging, while optical surveys have the potential to unveil a population of cosmological flares of the AT2022cmc class.

Undernutrition and ageing may have a significant effect on body composition. A cross sectional study was conducted to explore the age-related variations among different anthropometric and body composition characteristics amongst the adult Kheria Sabar males of Purulia district of West Bengal. From fifteen villages, 304 apparently healthy adult males aged 18–60 years were selected at random. Subjects were categorized into four age groups and standard anthropometric measurements were used like height (HT), weight (WT), mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) and skinfolds of biceps (BSF), triceps (TSF) and sub-scapular (SSSF) region. Derived variables of body mass index (BMI), per cent body fat (PBF), fat mass (FM), fat-free mass (FFM), fat mass index (FMI) and fat-free mass index (FFMI) were also calculated. Majority of the variables were found to be inversely correlated with age. Positive (HT, WT, MUAC, BMI, FFM and FFMI) and negative (FM and FMI) significant differences were observed across different age groups. It was also observed that the frequency of undernutrition (62.6%) was the highest among the elderly people with 47.6% overall prevalence. This study clearly indicates that among the undernourished individuals, older people were more vulnerable to malnutrition and thus immediate nutritional intervention is required.

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) catalyse removal of acetyl groups from lysine residues on both histone and non-histone proteins to control numerous cellular processes. Of the 11 zinc-dependent classical HDACs, HDAC4, 5, 7 and 9 are class IIa HDAC enzymes that regulate cellular and developmental processes through both enzymatic and non-enzymatic mechanisms. Over the last two decades, HDAC7 has been associated with key roles in numerous physiological and pathological processes. Molecular, cellular, in vivo and disease association studies have revealed that HDAC7 acts through multiple mechanisms to control biological processes in immune cells, osteoclasts, muscle, the endothelium and epithelium. This HDAC protein regulates gene expression, cell proliferation, cell differentiation and cell survival and consequently controls development, angiogenesis, immune functions, inflammation and metabolism. This review focuses on the cell biology of HDAC7, including the regulation of its cellular localisation and molecular mechanisms of action, as well as its associative and causal links with cancer and inflammatory, metabolic and fibrotic diseases. We also review the development status of small molecule inhibitors targeting HDAC7 and their potential for intervention in different disease contexts.

Lip print pattern (LPP) is unique to each individual. For decades, forensic experts have used LPP for personal identification to solve criminal cases. However, studies investigating ethnic variation in LPP are scanty. Our study wanted to investigate variation in LPP between two ethnic groups, Oraon tribals and Bengalee Hindus, residing in West Bengal, India. A total of 280 participants included 112 Oraons and168 Bengalee Hindus of both. Prints were taken using dark shaded lipstick and transparent cellophane tape and recorded into white A4 sheet. Prints were divided into four quadrants and examined by magnifying glass. For analysis of results, classification of Suzuki and Tsuchihashi was followed. A p value of 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. It was observed that Type II pattern was dominant in first and second quadrants in both ethnic groups, irrespective of sex. Combination of Type II+III was found to be the most common pattern in males among both Oraons (16.2%) and Bengalee Hindus (12.2%) whereas in females Type II pattern (25.0%) among Oraons and Type III pattern among Bengalee Hindus (11.4%) was the most common. Chi square test showed statistically significant difference among females (p

Background: Undernutrition, particularly Chronic Energy Deficiency (CED), among tribal males is a major health problem in India. In the recent years, prevalence of Hypertension (HT) is increasing among them. Our cross sectional study assessed the nutritional status as well as prevalence of HT and compare the association of different anthropometric and blood pressure (BP) variables with age among Sabar adult males of Purulia District, West Bengal, India. Research Methods: Measurements of height, weight, hip and waist circumferences, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and pulse rate of 215 adults aged 18-63 years were taken following standard procedure and calibrated machines. Body Mass Index (BMI), Waist-Hip Ratio (WHR), Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHtR), Conicity Index (CI) and Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) were calculated. The ANOVA and Chi Square tests and correlation analysis were performed to test for significant differences and association between variables. Statistical significant was set at 0.05. Results: The coexistence of high prevalence of undernutrition based on BMI (CED = 47.0%) and HT (37.7%) among adult male Sabars was observed. Conclusion: Paradoxically, there existed a high prevalence of CED and HT among Sabar men. Further research is required to fully understand the mechanism behind this paradox. Apparently, this population seems to suffer from a double burden of high CED and HT. Similar studies should also be undertaken among other tribal populations (both men and women) to determine whether such a paradox exists among them.

We examine a two-player game with two-armed exponential bandits a la (Keller et al. in Econometrica 73:39–68, 2005), where players operate different technologies for exploring the risky option. We characterise the set of Markov perfect equilibria and show that there always exists an equilibrium in which the player with the inferior technology uses a cut-off strategy. All Markov perfect equilibria imply the same amount of experimentation but differ with respect to the expected speed of the resolution of uncertainty. If and only if the degree of asymmetry between the players is high enough, there exists a Markov perfect equilibrium in which both players use cut-off strategies. Whenever this equilibrium exists, it welfare dominates all other equilibria. This contrasts with the case of symmetric players, where there never exists a Markov perfect equilibrium in cut-off strategies.

We analyze a model where the government has to decide whether to impose a lockdown in a country to prevent the spread of a possibly virulent disease. If the government decides to impose a lockdown, it has to determine its intensity, timing and duration. We find that there are two competing effects that push the decision in opposite directions. An early lockdown is beneficial not only to slow down the spread of the disease, but creates beneficial habit formation (such as social distancing, developing hygienic habits) that persists even after the lockdown is lifted. Against this benefit of an early lockdown, there is a cost from loss of information about the virulence and spread of the disease in the population in addition to a direct cost to the economy. Based on the prior probability of the disease being virulent, we characterize the timing, intensity and duration of a lockdown with the above mentioned tradeoffs. Specifically, we show that as the precision of learning goes up, a government tends to delay the imposition of lockdown. Conversely, if the habit formation parameter is very strong, a government is likely to impose an early lockdown., Highlights • We characterize the trade-offs involved in a lockdown of a nation. • Lockdown prevents disease propagation and induces changes in population habits. • Early lockdown leads to benefits from habit formation but impedes learning. • Strength of learning versus habit changes determines optimal lockdown policy. • Policy also depends on the strength of the economic loss and public backlash

In a recent paper by Yu (arXiv:2008.05633, 2020), higher order derivatives of self-intersection local time of fractional Brownian motion were defined, and existence over certain regions of the Hurst parameter $H$ was proved. Utilizing the Wiener chaos expansion, we provide new proofs of Yu's results, and show how a Varadhan-type renormalization can be used to extend the range of convergence for the even derivatives.

Immune cells are armed with Toll-like receptors (TLRs) for sensing and responding to pathogens and other danger cues. The role of extracellular-signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (Erk1/2) in TLR signaling remains enigmatic, with both pro- and anti-inflammatory functions described. We reveal here that the immune-specific transmembrane adaptor SCIMP is a direct scaffold for Erk1/2 in TLR pathways, with high-resolution, live-cell imaging revealing that SCIMP guides the spatial and temporal recruitment of Erk2 to membrane ruffles and macropinosomes for pro-inflammatory TLR4 signaling. SCIMP-deficient mice display defects in Erk1/2 recruitment to TLR4, c-Fos activation, and pro-inflammatory cytokine production, with these effects being phenocopied by Erk1/2 signaling inhibition. Our findings thus delineate a selective role for SCIMP as a key scaffold for the membrane recruitment of Erk1/2 kinase to initiate TLR-mediated pro-inflammatory responses in macrophages.

We study a model of decentralised bilateral interactions in a small market where one of the sellers has private information about her value. In addition to this seller with private information, there are two identical buyers and another seller, whose valuation is commonly known to be in between the two possible valuations of the seller with private information. We consider an infinite horizon game with simultaneous one-sided offers and simultaneous responses. We construct one particular PBE of the game and show that, as the discount factor goes to 1, prices in all transactions converge to the same value. We then show that this is the case with any stationary equilibrium of the game. That is, the asymptotic outcome is unique across all stationary equilibria.

Chatterjee and Das (2017) recently examined a model of a small market with two homogeneous buyers and two heterogeneous sellers with one of the sellers having private information. They show that as agents become patient enough, for any prior belief about the type of the privately informed seller, in any stationary equilibrium, prices in all transactions converge to the highest possible valuation of the informed seller. In the model, it was assumed that the privately informed seller’s type is distributed on a two-point support. In this note, we argue that the asymptotic uniqueness result also holds when the privately informed seller’s valuation is distributed on a continuous support. This shows the robustness of the uniqueness result obtained in Chatterjee and Das (2017).

With age, hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) undergo changes in function, including reduced regenerative potential and loss of quiescence, which is accompanied by a significant expansion of the stem cell pool that can lead to haematological disorders. Elevated metabolic activity has been implicated in driving the HSC ageing phenotype. Here we show that nicotinamide riboside (NR), a form of vitamin B3, restores youthful metabolic capacity by modifying mitochondrial function in multiple ways including reduced expression of nuclear encoded metabolic pathway genes, damping of mitochondrial stress and a decrease in mitochondrial mass and network-size. Metabolic restoration is dependent on continuous NR supplementation and accompanied by a shift of the aged transcriptome towards the young HSC state, more youthful bone marrow cellular composition and an improved regenerative capacity in a transplant setting. Consequently, NR administration could support healthy ageing by re-establishing a more youthful hematopoietic system.

The human gut microbiome contributes to a broad range of biochemical and metabolic functions that directly or indirectly affect human system. Numerous factors such as age, geographical location, genetic makeup, and individual health status significantly influence the diversity, stability, and relative abundance of the gut microbiome. Of the mentioned factors, geographical location and dietary practices appears to explain a significant portion of microbiome variation. On the other hand tribal people living in geographically isolated areas and dependent on their traditional food sources are considered as having relatively unadulterated gut as their guts are least colonized by Western diet. The Western diet — low in fiber and high in refined sugars — is basically wiping out species of bacteria from our intestines. That's the conclusion Smits (2017) and his team reached after analyzing the Hadza microbiome at one stage of their year long study. The trend was clear: The further away people's diets are from a Western diet, the greater the variety of microbes they tend to have in their guts. And that includes bacteria that are missing from American guts.''So whether it's people in Africa, Papua New Guinea or South America, communities that live a traditional lifestyle have common gut microbes — ones that we all lack in the industrialized world. In this work we present a pilot study data of the gut microbiome of an ethnic tribe of West Bengal, India, originating from Dravidian descent - the Savars. These are nomadic tribes and are still dependent on hunting and gathering for their livelihood. We identified a healthy family and have analysed their stool samples for gut microbial profiles. Keywords: Savars, Gut microbial profiles, Transitional microbiome

Design fixation refers to blind adherence to a set of ideas, which can limit the output of conceptual design. Engineering designers tend to fixate on features of pre-existing solutions and consequently generate designs with similar features. The objective of this study is to leverage functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the brain activity of engineering designers during conceptual design in order to understand whether/where design fixation can be detected in a person’s brain when solving design problems. Design solutions indicated that fixation effects were detectable at a statistically significant level. fMRI results show increased activation in areas associated with visuospatial processing when comparing ideation activities using an Example solution to No Example solution. Activation was found in the right inferior temporal gyrus, left middle occipital gyrus, and right superior parietal lobule regions. The left lingual and superior frontal gyri were found to be less active in the example condition; these gyri are close in proximity to the prefrontal cortex, associated with creative output. The spatial patterns of activation provide evidence that a shift in mental resources can occur when a designer becomes fixated. For designers, the timing of ideation relative to the timing of benchmarking existing solutions should be considered.

The adverse effects of the Novel Corona Virus or COVID – 19 on countries like United States of America, Italy, and Spain depicts how fast this virus can spread due to our irresponsible living habits. Till date, social distancing is the only solution to prevent the communal outspread of this pandemic. Other than fighting Corona, Government’s primary concern is to ensure proper food security for every citizen through Public Distribution System. But crowd management at such Fair Price Shops is a hectic job for the administration. Hence in this paper, we look forward to discussing a unique method of Public Distribution with the help of an Android App, named Hatey Bazarey, specially designed for Ration Dealers. Through this method, we aim to provide home delivery service of the lower-priced items as well as to keep a detailed record of the distributed items in a digital platform.

Engineering education in India facing challenges from very past ages, but the most recent calls of Industry 4.0 may cause huge disruption for the ongoing education system. This change will not cause greater transparency or accountability of the education system, but it will reflect the role of universities, colleges on higher education, and also how people learn. Industry 4.0 described as an automation process for manufacturing in a smart way. So the time has arrived to create a new wave of the education system that only solve bookish problems but can educate the people to solve global issues. This study will discuss the problems of engineering education in India and the required change in the educational process to meet the new millennium needs of Industry 4.0.

Broad-spectrum histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) are used clinically as anticancer agents, and more isoform-selective HDACi have been sought to modulate other conditions, including chronic inflammatory diseases. Mouse studies suggest that HDACi downregulate immune responses and may compromise host defense. However, their effects on human macrophage antimicrobial responses are largely unknown. Here, we show that overnight pretreatment of human macrophages with HDACi prior to challenge with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium or Escherichia coli results in significantly reduced intramacrophage bacterial loads, which likely reflect the fact that this treatment regime impairs phagocytosis. In contrast, cotreatment of human macrophages with HDACi at the time of bacterial challenge did not impair phagocytosis; instead, HDACi cotreatment actually promoted clearance of intracellular S . Typhimurium and E. coli . Mechanistically, treatment of human macrophages with HDACi at the time of bacterial infection enhanced mitochondrial reactive oxygen species generation by these cells. The capacity of HDACi to promote the clearance of intracellular bacteria from human macrophages was abrogated when cells were pretreated with MitoTracker Red CMXRos, which perturbs mitochondrial function. The HDAC6-selective inhibitor tubastatin A promoted bacterial clearance from human macrophages, whereas the class I HDAC inhibitor MS-275, which inhibits HDAC1 to -3, had no effect on intracellular bacterial loads. These data are consistent with HDAC6 and/or related HDACs constraining mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production from human macrophages during bacterial challenge. Our findings suggest that, whereas long-term HDACi treatment regimes may potentially compromise host defense, selective HDAC inhibitors may have applications in treating acute bacterial infections.

Summary: Histone deacetylases (HDACs) drive innate immune cell-mediated inflammation. Here we identify class IIa HDACs as key molecular links between Toll-like receptor (TLR)-inducible aerobic glycolysis and macrophage inflammatory responses. A proteomic screen identified the glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase M isoform 2 (Pkm2) as a partner of proinflammatory Hdac7 in murine macrophages. Myeloid-specific Hdac7 overexpression in transgenic mice amplifies lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-inducible lactate and promotes a glycolysis-associated inflammatory signature. Conversely, pharmacological or genetic targeting of Hdac7 and other class IIa HDACs attenuates LPS-inducible glycolysis and accompanying inflammatory responses in macrophages. We show that an Hdac7-Pkm2 complex acts as an immunometabolism signaling hub, whereby Pkm2 deacetylation at lysine 433 licenses its proinflammatory functions. Disrupting this complex suppresses inflammatory responses in vitro and in vivo. Class IIa HDACs are thus pivotal intermediates connecting TLR-inducible glycolysis to inflammation via Pkm2. : Das Gupta et al. show that HDAC7 and other class IIa HDAC enzymes control macrophage metabolism. They initiate TLR-inducible glycolysis in these cells and interact with the glycolytic enzyme PKM2 to drive inflammatory responses in vitro and in vivo. Class IIa HDAC inhibitors may have potential for attenuating immunometabolism-linked inflammation. Keywords: glycolysis, histone deacetylases, immunometabolism, inflammation, lysine acetylation, macrophage, post-translational modification, pyruvate kinase, toll-like receptor

Regulated cellular metabolism has emerged as a fundamental process controlling macrophage functions, but there is still much to uncover about the precise signaling mechanisms involved. Lysine acetylation regulates the activity, stability, and/or localization of metabolic enzymes, as well as inflammatory responses, in macrophages. Two protein families, the classical zinc-dependent histone deacetylases (HDACs) and the NAD-dependent HDACs (sirtuins, SIRTs), mediate lysine deacetylation. We describe here mechanisms by which classical HDACs and SIRTs directly regulate specific glycolytic enzymes, as well as evidence that links these protein deacetylases to the regulation of glycolysis-related genes. In these contexts, we discuss HDACs and SIRTs as key control points for regulating immunometabolism and inflammatory outputs from macrophages.

For over a last few decades tattoo is gaining lots of attention especially in the field of body modification within the younger generation in our society But generally the most important aspect is overlooked while having a tattoo i e the health risks and the awareness related to tattoo Researchers have stated that many diseases can be transmitted through tattooing if proper hygiene is not maintained The present study has been carried on in the metropolitan city Kolkata of West Bengal which seeks to understand the present awareness scenario regarding tattoo in India A qualitative study using in depth interview is performed with the individuals including tattoo artists and tattoo owners from two tattoo studios The study suggests that no proper legal certification of tattoo artist and tattoo parlors in India In most cases low quality of ink were used and no proper sterilization was there Unaware of such factors people having craved for getting a cheap tattoo results health risk

Head and neck cancer is more common in males and is a disease of older age group. Yet it may occur in young female patients, a rare and different group of patients. India has the world's highest incidence of head and neck neoplasms in women. Here we share our experience of head and neck malignancy in young females forming baseline data and stimulating further study on possible ways of prevention.

Background: For successful management of acute appendicitis, early diagnosis and intervention is needed. Incorrect diagnosis may allow significantly increased morbidity and mortality. Several studies across the globe shows that Modified Alvarado Scoring System (MASS) does not need high end instrument and can be done in emergency situation for accessing acute appendicitis and reducing the chances of unnecessary surgery. To access the efficacy of MASS for diagnosis of acute appendicitis in remote areas with primary health care facilities, present study was done at Siliguri of Darjeeling district of West Bengal which was 580 km distant from state capital (Kolkata).Methods: A cross sectional study over a period of 16 months was conducted among the patients admitted at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital suspected to have acute appendicitis. The diagnosis was confirmed by histopathological examination. Written consent was obtained from the patients before commencement of the study. MASS was applied to the patients and the results were compared with histopathological findings. Appropriate statistical analysis has been done by SPSS (version 16.0).Results: A total of 75 patients (44 males and 31 females) were considered. The sensitivity and specificity of MASS in this study were 75.86% (71.43% for males and 80% for females) and 82.61% (80% for males and 87.5% for females) respectively. Study revealed statistically significant (p

In this paper, I examine the effect of introducing heterogeneity between players in a model of strategic experimentation. I consider a two-armed bandit problem in continuous time with one safe arm and a risky arm. There are two players and each has an access to such a bandit. A player using the safe arm experiences a safe flow payoff. The risky arm can either be good or bad. A bad risky arm is worse than the safe arm and the good risky arm is better than the safe arm. Players start with a common prior about the probability of the risky arm being good. At a time point, a player can choose only one of the arms. I show that if the degree of heterogeneity between the players is high enough, then there exists a unique Markov perfect equilibrium in simple cut-off strategies. The non-cooperative equilibrium in the heterogeneous model in terms of welfare, always gets a higher rank than any non-cooperative equilibrium of a homogeneous players model with same or more amount of experimentation in the benchmark.

This paper considers a two-armed bandit problem with one safe arm and one risky arm. The risky arm if good, can potentially experience two kinds of arrivals. One is publicly observable and the other is private to the agent who experiences it. The safe arm experiences publicly observable arrivals according to a given intensity. Private arrivals yield no payoff. Only the first publicly observed arrival(in any of the arms) yields a payo of 1 unit. Players start with a common prior about the quality of the risky arm. It has been shown that in a particular kind symmetric equilibrium, conditional on no arrival players tend to experiment too much along the risky arm if they start with too high a prior and experiment too less if they start with a low prior.

This paper analyses a two-player game of strategic experimentation with two-armed bandits.At least one of the arms is risky in the sense that it may not yield a lumpsum payoff. There is payoff externality between the players and they differ in their ability to learn across the risky arm. Either player has to decide in a continous time regarding which arm to use. Two alternative settings are analysed. The first setting has two risky arms which are perfectly negatively correlated. The other one has one safe arm and one risky arm. I show that in equilibrium (Markovian) there is always too much of duplication which implies that with respect to a social planner's solution, risky arms are explored excessively.

We study a model of decentralised bilateral interactions in a small market where one of the sellers has private information about her value. There are two identical buyers and another seller, whose valuation is commonly known to be in between the two possible valuations of the informed seller. We consider two in?nite horizon games, with public and private simultaneous one-sided o¤ers respectively and simultaneous responses. We show that there is a stationary perfect Bayes?equilibrium for both models such that prices in all transactions converge to the same value as the discount factor goes to 1.

Macrophages have central roles in danger detection, inflammation and host defense, and consequently, these cells are intimately linked to most disease processes. Major advances in our understanding of the development and function of macrophages have recently come to light. For example, it is now clear that tissue-resident macrophages can be derived from either blood monocytes or through local proliferation of phagocytes that are originally seeded during embryonic development. Metabolic state has also emerged as a major control point for macrophage activation phenotypes. Herein, we review recent literature linking the histone deacetylase (HDAC) family of enzymes to macrophage development and activation, particularly in relation to these recent developments. There has been considerable interest in potential therapeutic applications for small molecule inhibitors of HDACs (HDACi), not only for cancer, but also for inflammatory and infectious diseases. However, the enormous range of molecular and cellular processes that are controlled by different HDAC enzymes presents a potential stumbling block to clinical development. We therefore present examples of how classical HDACs control macrophage functions, roles of specific HDACs in these processes and approaches for selective targeting of drugs, such as HDACi, to macrophages. Development of selective inhibitors of macrophage-expressed HDACs and/or selective delivery of pan HDACi to macrophages may provide avenues for enhancing efficacy of HDACi in therapeutic applications, while limiting unwanted side effects.

We review three recently proposed scan statistic methods for multivariate pattern detection. Each method models the relationship between multiple observed and hidden variables using a Bayesian network structure, drawing inferences about the underlying pattern type and the affected subset of the data. We first discuss the multivariate Bayesian scan statistic (MBSS) proposed by Neill and Cooper (2008). MBSS is a stream-based event surveillance framework that detects and characterizes events given the aggregate counts for multiple data streams. Next, we describe the agent-based Bayesian scan statistic (ABSS) proposed by Jiang et al. (2008). ABSS performs event detection and characterization given individual-level data for each agent in a population. Finally, we review the anomalous group detection (AGD) method proposed by Das, Schneider, and Neill (2008). AGD is a general pattern detection approach which learns a Bayesian network structure from data and detects anomalous groups of records.