Performance Issues in U.S.–China Joint Ventures

Based on an in-depth study of U.S.-China joint ventures, this article offers some insights into the performance of such international business relationships. While the conventional literature treats government as an amorphous aspea of the political-legal environment, in this case government is an active participant and influence in the performance of international joint ventures (UVs). It has both a constraining and enabling effect on LJV structure, strategy, and performance. For example, limits can be placed on ownership shares of joint ventures and on prices of the output. At the same time, government can cooperate with LJVs and foreign parent companies by creating partners for foreign parent companies, acting as major customers, and improving financial performance by lowering taxes

Determination, occurrence, and treatment of saccharin in water: A review

Saccharin (SAC) is an emerging contaminant, widely detected in the environment, with potential ecotoxicity risks to aqueous organisms and human beings. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are key sources and sinks of SAC, and play a vital role in eliminating SAC entering the environment. An overview is provided of the potential ecotoxicity of SAC, its occurrence in the aqueous environment, and its degradation performance in WWTPs. SAC treatments, including physical, chemical (mainly advanced oxidation processes AOPs), biological, and hybrid processes, and possible degradation mechanisms are also considered. Of the various SAC removal processes, we find that adsorption-based physical methods exhibit relatively poor performance in terms of SAC removal, whereas chemical methods, especially hydroxy radical-mediated oxidation processes, possess excellent capacities for SAC elimination. Although biological degradation can be efficient at removing SAC, its efficiency depends on oxygen supply and the presence of other co-existing pollutants. Hybrid aerobic biodegradation processes combined with other treatments including AOPs could achieve complete SAC reduction. Furthermore, novel adsorbents, sustainable chemical methods, and bioaugmentation technologies, informed by in-depth studies of degradation mechanisms and the metabolic toxicity of intermediates, are expected further to enhance SAC removal efficiency and enable comprehensive control of SAC potential risks

Constraints on the Higgs boson width from off-shell production and decay to Z-boson pairs

Constraints are presented on the total width of the recently discovered Higgs boson, &#915;H , using its relative on-shell and off-shell production and decay rates to a pair of Z bosons, where one Z boson decays to an electron or muon pair, and the other to an electron, muon, or neutrino pair. The analysis is based on the data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011 and 2012, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 5.1 fb&#8722;1 at a center-of-mass energy s=7 TeV and 19.7 fb&#8722;1 at s=8 TeV . A simultaneous maximum likelihood fit to the measured kinematic distributions near the resonance peak and above the Z-boson pair production threshold leads to an upper limit on the Higgs boson width of &#915;H<22 MeV at a 95% confidence level, which is 5.4 times the expected value in the standard model at the measured mass of mH=125.6 GeV

Search for heavy neutrinos and W bosons with right-handed couplings in proton - proton collisions at \sqrt = 8TeV

A search for heavy, right-handed neutrinos, N&#8467; ( &#8467;=e,&#956; ), and right-handed WR bosons, which arise in the left-right symmetric extensions of the standard model, has been performed by the CMS experiment. The search was based on a sample of two lepton plus two jet events collected in proton&#8211;proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb-1 . For models with strict left-right symmetry, and assuming only one N&#8467; flavor contributes significantly to the WR decay width, the region in the two-dimensional (MWR,MN&#8467;) mass plane excluded at a 95 % confidence level extends to approximately MWR=3.0TeV and covers a large range of neutrino masses below the WR boson mass, depending on the value of MWR . This search significantly extends the (MWR,MN&#8467;) exclusion region beyond previous results. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-014-3149-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Measurement of the t-channel single-top-quark production cross section and of the |Vtb| CKM matrix element in pp collisions at SQR = 8 TeV

Measurements are presented of the t -channel single-top-quark production cross section in proton-proton collisions at s&#8730; = 8 TeV. The results are based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb &#8722;1 recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC. The cross section is measured inclusively, as well as separately for top (t) and antitop (t¯) , in final states with a muon or an electron. The measured inclusive t -channel cross section is &#963; t -ch. = 83 . 6 ± 2 . 3 (stat.) ± 7 . 4 (syst.) pb. The single t and t¯ cross sections are measured to be &#963; t -ch. ( t ) = 53 . 8 ± 1 . 5 (stat.) ± 4 . 4 (syst.) pb and &#963; t -ch. (t¯) = 27 . 6 ± 1 . 3 (stat.) ± 3 . 7 (syst.) pb, respectively. The measured ratio of cross sections is R t -ch. = &#963; t -ch. (t) /&#963; t -ch. (t¯) = 1 . 95 ± 0 . 10 (stat.) ± 0 . 19 (syst.), in agreement with the standard model prediction. The modulus of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element V tb is extracted and, in combination with a previous CMS result at s&#8730; = 7 TeV, a value | V tb | = 0 . 998 ± 0 . 038 (exp.) ± 0 . 016 (theo.) is obtained

IMG 305 - PEMBUNGKUSAN MAKANAN NOV.05.

We discuss the use of Agent-based Modelling for the development and testing of theories about emergent social phenomena in marketing and the social sciences in general. We address both theoretical aspects about the types of phenomena that are suitably addressed with this approach and practical guidelines to help plan and structure the development of a theory about the causes of such a phenomenon in conjunction with a matching ABM. We argue that research about complex social phenomena is still largely fundamental research and therefore an iterative and cyclical development process of both theory and model is to be expected. To better anticipate and manage this process, we provide theoretical and practical guidelines. These may help to identify and structure the domain of candidate explanations for a social phenomenon, and furthermore assist the process of model implementation and subsequent development. The main goal of this paper was to make research on complex social systems more accessible and help anticipate and structure the research process