Perpendicular separations of a binary mixture under van der Waals confinement

We investigated the dynamics of a binary mixture (water and epoxy resin) confined within van der Waals (vdW) walls using molecular dynamics simulations. We discovered a novel phenomenon named perpendicular separations of two phases (PSTP). In the initial stage, central water molecules diffused, subsequently condensing symmetrically within the confinement's mid-plane. In the later stage, as water droplets nucleate and grow, the resin separates perpendicularly into two films due to the action of bubblers and vdW walls, resulting in a hollow nanochannel. The mechanisms and conditions underlying PSTS are discussed. The results indicate that the concentration (C) of resin in the middle region is linearly decreased with temporal power and linearly decreased with time in the very last stage. Our findings could shed light on the manufacture of nanofilms and organic nanochannels, which could help advance bio-detection and energy fields.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Do Warrants Lead the Underlying Stocks and Index Futures?

The lead-lag relation between options and stocks has been a subject of controversy for years with conflicting findings in the literature. In this thesis, we present an intuitive method to examine the lead-lag relation, if any, in the tick-by-tick data of covered warrants and their underlying stocks or underlying index futures. Our method is non-parametric and needs no assumptions which are critical to the regression-based methods. We find that the electronically traded warrants do not lead stocks or index futures; the movements in the warrants' quotes provide little information about the quotes of the underlying stocks or index futures. Instead, our analysis shows that the stocks and index futures lead the warrants. Moreover, if all transaction costs are ignored, we can use the movements of underlying assets' quotes to generate profits by trading warrants that are both statistically and economically significant. However, as soon as the bid-ask spread is accounted for, the profits disappear and sizable losses are incurred instead. These findings are consistent with a central tenet of financial economics: arbitraging two intimately related markets for a profit is not possible in the presence of market frictions

Spillover effects of FDI on innovation in China : an analysis of provincial data

We use the provincial data from 1995 to 2000 to test the impact of inward FDI on innovation activity in China. We found a positive effect of FDI on the number of patent applications filed by the domestic firms. This positive relationship persists when we divide the patents by types (invention, utility model and external design) and when we group the provinces into regions (the coastal, central, and the western regions). This positive spillover effect is much stronger for minor innovations such as external design and utility model, highlighting a demonstration effect of FDI. However, FDI into the coastal region has a negative effect on invention, which indicates a crowding-out effect of imported technology on domestic innovation in that region. The effects of technical development personnel/expenses and the export/output share of FDI firms are also significant and positive