In the first part of the dissertation, I investigate the nature of retail coupons, a popular tool for non-price competition. The widely expressed view that coupons are primarily a tool to allow price discrimination has received mixed empirical supports. I depart from the static framework of the price discrimination theory...
We first introduce the concept of copulas and advocate its use for multivariate option pricing. We focus on four types of bivariate options: basket, rainbow-max, rainbow-min, and spread options. We derive expressions for these options as a function of the copula. We then construct pricing bounds for these bivariate options...
The T-box transcription factor, Tbx5, is involved in heart development and congenital disease. For example mutations in human TBX5 lead to Holt-Oram syndrome, a disease characterized by a range of heart and arm malformations. Tbx5 gene activity has been perturbed in several animal models including the chicken, mouse, and zebrafish....
Most organisms use rhythms of sunlight to synchronize their activity to the environment. These rhythms of activity are called circadian rhythms. The rhythms persist with near 24 hour periods when external synchronizing cues are absent. In mammals, the circadian clock is generated at the molecular level by a transcriptional/translational feedback...
This thesis contributes in two ways. First it describes a new framework for the systematic design of collective behaviors and solves a key stability issue under this design framework. In this thesis we apply this framework to solve three tasks in the swarm robotics field: connectivity maintenance, formation control and...
Sufficient vocal fold superficial hydration is indispensable to maintain normal vocal function and protect vocal fold epithelium against invasion of pathogenic agents. Vocal fold surface hydration is probably regulated by its electrophysiological properties. We hypothesized that the tight junction (TJ)-related paracellular barrier contributes to the maintenance of those properties. Therefore,...
Solder joint integrity is recognized as a key issue in the reliability of flip chip and ball grid arrays in integrated circuit packages. Significant reductions in the solder-joint interconnect size results in both the increased volume fraction of brittle intermetallics in the joint and joule heating and electromigration failure due...
T-cell activation is an essential step of the immune response, yet the cellular and molecular events underlying this complex process are not fully understood. Significantly, a comparative genome-scale transcriptional analysis of two T-cell subsets and the natural-mixed CD3+ population remains unexplored. Using microarrays, we investigated the temporal global transcriptional profile...
The genetic information in DNA is transcribed to mRNA and then translated to proteins, which form the building blocks of life. Translation, or protein synthesis, is hence a central cellular process. Decades of experimentation have elucidated a vast wealth of molecular information about discrete translation steps, but the sheer complexity...
The studies in this thesis are directed towards defining the signaling mechanisms that regulate astrogliosis after SCI and towards developing potential therapeutic techniques for modifying this process. The central hypothesis is that alteration of the extracellular milieu after SCI can limit the deleterious effects of glial scar formation and enhance...