We compare the first-price sealed-bid (FPSB) auction and the simultaneous multiple-round auction (SMRA) in an environment based on the recent sale of 900 MHz spectrum in Australia. Three bidders compete for five indivisible items. Bidders can win at most three items and need to obtain at least two to achieve profitable scale, i.e. items are complements. Value complementarities, which are a common feature of spectrum auctions, exacerbate the “fitting problem” and undermine the usual logic for superior price discovery in the SMRA. We find that the FPSB outperforms the SMRA across a range of bidding environments: in terms of efficiency, revenue, and protecting bidders from losses due to the exposure problem. Moreover, the FPSB exhibits superior price discovery and almost always results in competitive (“core”) prices unlike the SMRA, which frequently produces prices that are too low because of demand-reduction or too high because of the exposure problem. We demonstrate the robustness of our findings by considering two-stage variants of the FPSB and SMRA as well as environments in which bidders know their own values but not the distributions from which values are drawn.

Charness and Dufwenberg (Am. Econ. Rev. 101(4):1211–1237, 2011) have recently demonstrated that cheap-talk communication raises efficiency in bilateral contracting situations with adverse selection. We replicate their main finding and extend their design to include competition between agents. We find that communication and competition act as “substitutes:” communication raises efficiency in the absence of competition but not with competition, and competition raises efficiency without communication but lowers efficiency with communication. We briefly review some behavioral theories that have been proposed in this context and show that each can explain some but not all features of the observed data patterns. Our findings highlight the fragility of cheap-talk communication and may serve as a guide to refine existing behavioral theories.

Understanding protein fermentation in the hindgut of pigs is essential due to its implications for health, and ileal digesta is commonly used to study this process in vitro. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of utilising in vitro digested residues as a replacement for ileal digesta in evaluating the protein fermentation potential. In vitro residues from cottonseed meal, maize germ meal, peanut meal, rapeseed cake, rapeseed meal, soyabean meal and sunflower meal were analysed using a modified gas production (GP) technique and curve fitting model to determine their fermentation dynamics and compare with the use of ileal digesta. Significant variations were observed in GP parameters between in vitro digested residues, indicating differences in nitrogen utilisation by fecal microbiota. Soyabean meal and sunflower meal exhibited the highest maximum GP rates (Rmax), with values of 29·5 ± 0·6 and 28·0 ± 1·2 ml/h, respectively, while maize germ meal showed slowest protein utilisation (17·3 ± 0·2 ml/h). A positive relationship was found between the Rmax of in vitro residues and ileal digesta (R2 = 0·85, P < 0·01). However, GP potential (GPs) showed a tendency for a negative relationship (R2 = 0·39, P < 0·1), likely due to narrow observed GPs values and the presence of varied endogenous proteins in ileal digesta. Our results demonstrate the potential of using in vitro digested residues as a substitute for ileal digesta in assessing the fermentation potential of protein ingredients, particularly regarding the rate of protein fermentation.

Although family factors are considered important for children’s language acquisition, the evidence comes primarily from affluent societies. Thus, this study aimed to examine the relations between family factors (family’s socioeconomic status [SES], home literacy activities, access to print resources, and parental beliefs) and children’s vocabulary knowledge in both urban and rural settings in China. Data from 366 children (urban group: 109, 4.85 years; rural group: 257, 4.89 years) were collected. Results showed that whereas family’s SES significantly predicted access to print resources and children’s vocabulary knowledge in the rural group, parental beliefs directly predicted children’s vocabulary knowledge in the urban group. Multigroup analysis showed that the associations of family’s SES and access to print resources with children’s vocabulary knowledge were stronger in the rural group than in the urban group. Our findings highlight the importance of considering contextual settings when conceptualising the role of family factors in children’s language acquisition.

Three new species of Gyrodactylus were identified from the body surface of the Triplophysa species from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Gyrodactylus triplorienchili n. sp. on Triplophysa orientalis in northern Tibet, G. yellochili n. sp. on T. sellaefer and T. scleroptera and G. triplsellachili n. sp. on T. sellaefer and T. robusta in Lanzhou Reach of the Yellow River. The three newly identified species share the nemachili group species’ characteristic of having inturning hamulus roots. Gyrodactylus triplorienchili n. sp. shared a quadrate sickle heel and a thin marginal hook sickle, two morphological traits that set them apart from G. yellochili n. sp. However, they may be identified by the distinct shapes of the sickle base and marginal hook sickle point. Gyrodactylus triplsellachili n. sp. had much larger opisthaptoral hard part size than the other two species. The three new species show relatively low interspecific differences of 2.9–5.3% p-distance for ITS1-5.85-ITS2 rDNA sequences. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the three new species formed a well-supported monophyletic group (bp = 99) with the other nemachili group species.

This study presents observations of coherent modes (CMs) in a spherical tokamak using a microwave interferometer near the midplane. The CMs within the 30–60 kHz frequency range were observed during electron cyclotron resonance heating only, and the frequency of the CMs increased proportionally with the square root of the electron temperature near $R = 0.7m$. Generally, these modes displayed bursting and chirping signatures with strong density rise and fall. Their appearance indicated an increase in the intensity of hard x rays, suggesting a deterioration in energetic electron confinement. Furthermore, the effect of CMs on the intensity of energetic electron-driven whistler waves was observed. They decreased when CMs were present and gradually increased with the decrease in CM intensity. The CMs may influence the intensity of whistler waves by affecting the energetic electron confinement.

Syphilis remains a serious public health problem in mainland China that requires attention, modelling to describe and predict its prevalence patterns can help the government to develop more scientific interventions. The seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model, long short-term memory network (LSTM) model, hybrid SARIMA-LSTM model, and hybrid SARIMA-nonlinear auto-regressive models with exogenous inputs (SARIMA-NARX) model were used to simulate the time series data of the syphilis incidence from January 2004 to November 2023 respectively. Compared to the SARIMA, LSTM, and SARIMA-LSTM models, the median absolute deviation (MAD) value of the SARIMA-NARX model decreases by 352.69%, 4.98%, and 3.73%, respectively. The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) value decreases by 73.7%, 23.46%, and 13.06%, respectively. The root mean square error (RMSE) value decreases by 68.02%, 26.68%, and 23.78%, respectively. The mean absolute error (MAE) value decreases by 70.90%, 23.00%, and 21.80%, respectively. The hybrid SARIMA-NARX and SARIMA-LSTM methods predict syphilis cases more accurately than the basic SARIMA and LSTM methods, so that can be used for governments to develop long-term syphilis prevention and control programs. In addition, the predicted cases still maintain a fairly high level of incidence, so there is an urgent need to develop more comprehensive prevention strategies.

Background: Over the past decade, worldwide stroke incidence has been increasing among young adults (≤65years), which has implications during the most dynamic period of their life. There is a dearth of research exploring young adults stroke patients’ experiences, healthy lifestyle habits, preferences, and recommendations for brain care-related initiatives. The study aimed to gain knowledge and a deeper understanding of young adult stroke patients’ experiences, lifestyle habits, and support needs for brain care-related education and interventions. Methods: A descriptive qualitative study was used. Participants who took part in the quantitative phase of a larger mixed methods study (n=103 that expressed an interest in the qualitative phase, were invited to take part in semi-structured focus groups. Simultaneous data collection and analysis are being conducted. Data are being analyzed using inductive thematic analysis outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006). Results: Findings will be available by May 20, 2024. Conclusions: Study findings will be essential to 1) mobilize an understanding of young adult stroke patients’ lived experience; 2) reconceptualize the current model of stroke care and services that is traditionally geared towards older adults; and 3) inform the development of brain care-related education and interventions to meet the unique needs, priorities, and preferences of young adult stroke patients.

Diets low in vegetables are a main contributor to the health burden experienced by Australians living in rural communities. Given the ubiquity of smartphones and access to the Internet, digital interventions may offer an accessible delivery model for a dietary intervention in rural communities. However, no digital interventions to address low vegetable intake have been co-designed with adults living in rural areas(1). This research aims to describe the co-design of a digital intervention to improve vegetable intake with rural community members and research partners. Active participants in the co-design process were adults ≥18 years living in three rural Australian communities (total n = 57) and research partners (n = 4) representing three local rural governments and one peak non-government health organisation. An iterative co-design process(2) was undertaken to understand the needs (pre-design phase) and ideas (generative phase) of the target population through eight online workshops and a 21-item online community survey between July and December 2021. Prioritisation methods were used to help workshop participants identify the ‘Must-have, Should-have, Could-have, and Won’t-have or will not have right now’ (MoSCoW) features and functions of the digital intervention. Workshops were transcribed and inductively analysed using NVivo. Convergent and divergent themes were identified between the workshops and community survey to identify how to implement the digital intervention in the community. Consensus was reached on a concept for a digital intervention that addressed individual and food environment barriers to vegetable intake, specific to rural communities. Implementation recommendations centred on i) food literacy approaches to improve skills via access to vegetable-rich recipes and healthy eating resources, ii) access to personalisation options and behaviour change support, and iii) improving the community food environment by providing information on and access to local food initiatives. Rural-dwelling adults expressed preferences for personalised intervention features that can enhance food literacy and engagement with community food environments. This co-design process will inform the development of a prototype (evaluation phase) and feasibility testing (post-design phase) of this intervention. The resulting intervention is anticipated to reduce barriers and support enablers, across individual and community levels, to facilitate higher consumption of vegetables among rural Australians. These outcomes have the potential to contribute to improved wellbeing in the short term and reduced chronic disease risk in the long term, decreasing public health inequities.

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The 'field effect' is a concept in pathology that pre-malignant tissue changes forecast health. Spatial transcriptomics could detect these changes earlier than histopathology, suggesting new early cancer screening methods. Knowing how normal tissue damage relates to cancer’s origin and progression may improve long-term outcomes. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We trained DEGAS, our machine learning framework, with prostate cancer data, combining both general cancer patterns and in-depth genetic information from individual tumors. The Tumor Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) shows how gene patterns in tumors relate to patient outcomes, emphasizing the differences between tumors from different patients (intertumor). On the other hand, spatial transcriptomics (ST) shows the genetic variety within a single tumor (intratumor) but has limited samples, making it hard to know which genetic differences are important for treatment. DEGAS bridges these areas by finding tissue sections that resemble those in TCGA profiles and are key indicators of patient survival. DEGAS serves as a valuable tool for generating clinically-important hypotheses. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: DEGAS identified benign-appearing glands in a normal prostate as being highly associated with poor progression-free survival. These glands have transcriptional signatures similar to high-grade prostate cancer. We confirmed this finding in a separate prostate cancer ST dataset. By integrating single cell (SC) data we demonstrated that cells annotated as cancerous in the SC data map to regions of benign glands in the ST dataset. We pinpoint several genes, chiefly Microseminoprotein-β (MSMB, PSP94), where reduced expression is highly correlated with poor progression-free survival. Cell type specific differential expression analysis further revealed that loss of MSMB expression associated with poor outcomes occurs specifically in luminal epithelia, the putative progenitor of prostate cancer. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: DEGAS reveals that normal-appearing tissue can be highly-associated with tumor progression and underscores the importance of the 'field effect' in cancer research. Traditional analysis may miss such nuance, hiding key transitional cell states. Validating gene markers could boost early cancer detection and understanding of metastasis.

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Many providers share patients resulting in networks where clinical information is exchanged, and which can impact the quality and efficiency of care. Here we analyzed the network properties of a primary care service area (PCSA) in Harris County TX, motivating our ongoing analysis of how they are associated with disparities in cancer screening. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Data.All providers (n=731, Medicare 2018) from the PCSA with the most providers in Harris County TX, with gender, specialty, and the number of shared patients. Method. Modeled the data as a network consisting of provider nodes, connected in pairs by edges if they shared >11 patients (an empirically-determined threshold). Analyzed the network structure using (1) modularity maximization and its significance to identify densely-connected communities; (2) degree centralization to measure whether a few providers shared many patients, and betweenness centralization to measure whether a few providers connected densely-connected communities; and (3) chi-squared to measure if pairs of connected providers tended to be of the same gender compared to disconnected provider pairs. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The results (Fig. 1, http://www.skbhavnani.com/DIVA/Images/Fig-1-SNA-Network.jpg [http://www.skbhavnani.com/DIVA/Images/Fig-1-SNA-Network.jpg]) revealed a fragmented network with 120 small components (connected subnetworks, not part of any larger connected subnetwork), and 1 large component. The large component (n=244) had strong and significant modularity (Q=0.73, z=53.13, P<.001) with communities of providers that shared more patients than expected by chance; low degree centralization (dc=0.11) suggesting that no provider dominated patient sharing, in addition to high and significant betweenness centralization (bc=0.5, P<.01) suggesting that a few providers were responsible for connecting the densely-connected communities; and a significant gender bias (X2=10.05, df=1, P< .01) among those that shared patients, versus those that did not. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The analysis revealed a specific type of vulnerability (betweenness) for network fragmentation, and a gender bias in how patients were shared. These results motivated our ongoing analysis on how the network properties are associated with disparity in cancer screening within PCSAs across Texas.