Chinese investments in the EU

China’s investments in the European Union are much lower than what you may expect given the economic size of both entities. These relatively low investments in Europe are a combination of priority and obstacles. The priority for investments is clearly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This regional pattern is heavily influenced by the need to solve the resource shortage in the medium and long term. The investments in Europe and the United States are mostly market seeking investments. Research specifically focused on Chinese M&A abroad comes to the same conclusion. The success rate of Chinese M&A abroad is much lower than what we see with respect to American or European investments abroad. In this paper, we examine why Chinese firms are facing more difficulties in the European Union than in other regions. The paper focuses on Chinese M&A as proxy for total foreign direct investments abroad. By looking at the factors that have been documented as influencing the level of M&A abroad, it becomes clear that Chinese firms in Europe are hindered by many factors. For example, the trade between China and the EU is relatively low, the institutional quality is lower compared to the United States, there is less experience with respect to Europe and relatively many deals relate to State Owned Enterprises (SOE) which makes the deal sensitive. So it is logical that Chinese investments are not very high in Europe. However, the research makes clear that the obstacles for Chinese investments in Europe are disappearing step by step. In that sense, we expect a strong increase of Chinese investments in Europe in the future.FDI, mergers & aquisitions, China, EU

New Distribution Record for the Endangered Crawling Water Beetle Brychius Hungerfordi (Coleoptera: Haliplidae) and Notes on Seasonal Abundance and Food Preferences

The Federally beetle, Brychius hungerfordi, has been discovered at a new location in Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. We also report preliminary data on a seasonal variation in relative abundance and on its possible food plants

On the geometric dilation of closed curves, graphs, and point sets

The detour between two points u and v (on edges or vertices) of an embedded planar graph whose edges are curves is the ratio between the shortest path in in the graph between u and v and their Euclidean distance. The maximum detour over all pairs of points is called the geometric dilation. Ebbers-Baumann, Gruene and Klein have shown that every finite point set is contained in a planar graph whose geometric dilation is at most 1.678, and some point sets require graphs with dilation at least pi/2 = 1.57... We prove a stronger lower bound of 1.00000000001*pi/2 by relating graphs with small dilation to a problem of packing and covering the plane by circular disks. The proof relies on halving pairs, pairs of points dividing a given closed curve C in two parts of equal length, and their minimum and maximum distances h and H. Additionally, we analyze curves of constant halving distance (h=H), examine the relation of h to other geometric quantities and prove some new dilation bounds.Comment: 31 pages, 16 figures. The new version is the extended journal submission; it includes additional material from a conference submission (ref. [6] in the paper

Size Estimate of a Local Population of Brychius Hungerfordi (Coleoptera: Haliplidae)

Much of the natural history of the endangered crawling water beetle, Brychius hungerfordi, is unknown. Population estimates have only been surmised. We have measured, using a mark and recapture technique, a localize population of the beetle in a pool on the East Branch of the Maple River, Emmet County, Michigan. The average population during July 2001 was found to be 1052 individuals with a range of 43 (highest estimate – lowest estimate). A three-year study of the relative abundance of the beetle in the same pool suggests that the population has remained relatively constant

Two-Dimensionalism and the Problem of Informativity

I investigate two intuitions regarding the reference of proper names and natural kind terms that have received significant attention in the philosophy of language, and I discuss the role that they have played in modeling communicative exchanges using the two-dimensional framework in the views defended by Robert Stalnaker, Frank Jackson, and David Chalmers. I call the first intuition the uniform extension intuition: the intuition that proper names and natural kinds refer uniformly across worlds. This means that a proper name uniformly refers to the same individual--namely, the individual to which it refers at the actual world--across all worlds at which refers to anything at all, and a natural kind term uniformly refers to all and only samples of the same kind--namely, the same kind to which it refers at the actual world--across all worlds at which it picks out anything at all. I call the second intuition the contingent extension intuition: had the world turned out differently in the relevant respect(s), the extensions of the relevant expressions would have differed accordingly. This means that, for example, had the kind that we've been calling water turned out to be, say, XYZ, `water' would have referred to XYZ. An attraction of the two-dimensional framework is that it allows us to accommodate both of these intuitions. I argue that using the two-dimensional framework to model communicative exchanges allows for what I call the problem of informativity: the problem of modeling the impact of an assertion on the state of a conversation. I argue that there is a class of assertions for which Stalnaker's, Jackson's, and Chalmers's views do not accurately model the way that the assertion changes the state of the conversation. I offer a general framework of a solution to the problem as it arises on their accounts, and then give two interpretations of that framework: the first serves as a solution for Stalnaker's account, and the second serves as a solution for Jackson's and Chalmers's accounts. I conclude by discussing the consequences for each view of adopting the proposed solution for that account

The Sacrificial Ram

Every January and February, Montana and other western states auction tags to hunt big horn sheep, moose, mountain goats, bears and other big game species to the highest bidder, at a series of hunting shows in Nevada. Some states call them “governor’s tags,” while others like Montana call them auction tags. The purpose of the auctions is to raise funds for state conservation programs meant to keep wildlife populations healthy. In Montana, the funds raised are species specific, meaning that the proceeds from a bighorn sheep tag must be used to help bighorn sheep. Yet, the revenue from these tags raise doesn’t get much publicity, nor do the hunters who buy them. Little investigation has gone into whether the money is used as intended. Across the West, public natural resources have traditionally been used to further a state’s wealth, a corporation’s wealth or an individual’s wealth. At the same time, the U.S. game model is structured around the idea that wildlife belongs to every citizen. Hunting and wildlife are touchy issues that demand transparency from government agencies taking care of the wildlife and the land they roam. The idea of governor’s tags first arose in the 1980s. In the case of Montana, it allows wealthy people to hunt on any public land (or private, if they get permission) in the state during both archery and firearm hunting seasons. They can chase a “dream” animal without having to “draw” in a lottery program or compete with the general pool of hunters during regular hunting season. States and conservationists say they’ve been incorporating the revenue into their yearly operating budgets and wildlife management strategies. Essentially, states are selling their “fatted ram” for the good of their Fish and Game departments. The question becomes, what\u27s the trade-off