The Changing Nature of Sino-Foreign Business Relationships, 1842-1941

During the second half of the nineteenth century, foreign business enterprises relied considerably upon the service of compradors to extend their economic interests in the Chinese economy. Utilised initially to overcome the barriers presented by language difficulties, compradors were employed by western firms to undertake a variety of tasks covering both supervisory and co-ordination functions. With the growth of industrial interest by foreign businesses during the twentieth century, however, the comprador system fell into disrepute and during the 1930s was largely abandoned.This paper employs research based on primary source materials to trace this institutional transition for two specific cases. The Kailan Mining Administration (KMA), whose origins are to be found as an Anglo-Belgian free-standing company, took control of both the Kaiping and Lanchow coal mines in 1912. In order to expand its sales, the company employed the services of the comprador Liu Hongsheng who successfully built up the company’s market around Shanghai. In doing so, however, Liu became an important force in coal distribution in his own right, leading to tensions that were resolved through the creation of a joint venture operation called the Kailan Sales Administration (KSA) in 1925.British-American Tobacco (BAT) was set up in 1902 to administer the foreign markets of the American Tobacco Company and Britain’s Imperial Tobacco Company. In China, a distribution system was created using many Chinese collaborators of whom two were of particular importance. Wu Ting Seng, a member of the Chinese gentry, played a crucial intermediating role for the western company in a variety of its dealings with the Chinese. Cheang Park Chew, on the other hand, was an influential Cantonese merchant whom BAT used to distribute its goods throughout the Shanghai region. In both cases, BAT chose to alter the institutional arrangements with these collaborators from the contractual form to joint venture partnerships, unsuccessfully in the case of Wu, but with phenomenal success in the case of Cheang’s mercantile enterprise, the Wing Tai Vo Tobacco Corporation

Auditory system comparisons between sand cats and other felid species : acoustic input admittance of ears and auditory brainstem responses

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-82).The sand cat, one species of the cat family, is found only in deserts and has unusually large ear canals and middle-ear air cavities. Recent work has shown that sand cat ears absorb acoustic power at low frequencies (<1 kHz) better than those of domestic cats (Huang et al. 2002). In this thesis, we test this hypothesis by comparing acoustic input- admittance, which determines acoustic power absorption, and thresholds of auditory- brainstem responses. In a zoo, measurements were made in 37 ears of 23 anesthetized specimens, including sand cats and five other felid species. Sand cats have lower mean thresholds at frequencies between 0.25 and 5 kHz by 6-9 dB than other felid species measured. However, the mean power absorption does not differ significantly. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that sand-cat hearing is unusually sensitive, but this specialization is not associated with increased power absorbed at the tympanic membrane.by Howard F. Chan.M.Eng

Surviving and Thriving in the New World of Web Aggregators

This paper examines the development of aggregators, entities that collect information from a wide range of sources, with or without prior arrangements, and add value through post-aggregation services. New Web-page extraction tools, context sensitive mediators, and agent technologies have greatly reduced the barriers to constructing aggregators. We predict that aggregators will soon emerge in industries where they were not formerly present. Through studying over a hundred existing and emerging aggregators, we present a model for understanding the aggregator's strategic interaction with the incumbent. We also suggest different business models as possible aggregator entry points into an industry and describe their impact

Generating Function for Particle-Number Probability Distribution in Directed Percolation

We derive a generic expression for the generating function (GF) of the particle-number probability distribution (PNPD) for a simple reaction diffusion model that belongs to the directed percolation universality class. Starting with a single particle on a lattice, we show that the GF of the PNPD can be written as an infinite series of cumulants taken at zero momentum. This series can be summed up into a complete form at the level of a mean-field approximation. Using the renormalization group techniques, we determine logarithmic corrections for the GF at the upper critical dimension. We also find the critical scaling form for the PNPD and check its universality numerically in one dimension. The critical scaling function is found to be universal up to two non-universal metric factors.Comment: (v1,2) 8 pages, 5 figures; one-loop calculation corrected in response to criticism received from Hans-Karl Janssen, (v3) content as publishe

A Terbium Chlorobismuthate(III) Double Salt: Synthesis, Structure, and Photophysical Properties

We report on the structure and luminescence of a double salt trivalent rare earth ion acceptor, Tb3+, with octahedral [BiCl6]3– donor clusters. The novel TbBiCl6·14H2O (1) was prepared from aqueous BiOCl and TbCl3·6H2O. The crystal structure of compound 1 exhibits isolated [BiCl6]3– and [Tb(OH2)8]3+ clusters. Luminescence data show energy transfer from octahedral chlorobismuthate(III) clusters to rare earth metal ions. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations show distinctly different emission pathways at high and low excitation energies

On upper bounds for infinite Prandtl number convection with or without rotation

Bounds for the bulk heat transport in Rayleigh–Benard convection for an infinite Prandtl number fluid are derived from the primitive equations. The enhancement of heat transport beyond the minimal conduction value (the Nusselt number Nu) is bounded in terms of the nondimensional temperature difference across the layer (the Rayleigh number Ra) according to Nu ⩽ cRa2/5,Nu⩽cRa2/5, where c<1c<1 is an absolute constant. This rigorous upper limit is uniform in the rotation rate when a Coriolis force, corresponding to the rotating convection problem, is included. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70609/2/JMAPAQ-42-2-784-1.pd