What Constitutes the Success or Failure of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in Foreign Markets? A Case Study of Chinese and American MNCs

Scholars have identified multinational corporations (MNCs) as increasingly important and influential actors in international politics. However, mainstream international studies scholarship has failed to explain why MNCs succeed or fail in entering foreign markets. Market entry is a particularly vexing question for U.S. and Chinese firms seeking to compete for each other\u27s consumers. As this study shows, surprising differences in success among U.S. firms in China, as well as Chinese firms in the U.S., suggest that statist and market factors interact with corporate strategies in confounding ways. Through case studies in the internet, automobile and fast food industries, this dissertation builds a theoretical framework that better explains why some MNCs succeed in foreign markets while others fail. Empirical studies show that two contrasting cultures (universalism vs. particularism, individualism vs. collectivism, and rule-based vs. relation-based governance) make it more difficult for Chinese MNCs and American MNCs to adapt to their counterpart\u27s market. Although the study finds some support for the cultural dissimilarity argument, it finds that culture alone is an insufficient explanation. The results suggest that statist and market factors like ownership, sector industry, interest groups, entry mode and choice of location are also determinants of a MNC\u27s success in a foreign market. Based on those findings, the study provides suggestions for both Chinese MNCs and American MNCs seeking to compete in each other\u27s markets

An Exploration into Teachers’ Technological Mathematics Knowledge: Changling Xiwang Elementary School as A Case Study

The role of teachers in educational institutions in this era must at least know the duties of teachers as professional educators, namely educating, teaching, guiding, directing, training, assessing, and evaluating students in early childhood education. The main purpose of this study is to find out how the teacher's ability to explore technological mathematical knowledge is in teaching mathematics in the classroom. The research paradigm adopted in this study is qualitative research. The main sample in this study were 24 teachers who teach at Changling Xiwang Elementary School. This research was carried out from March to May of the 2020/2021 academic year. The results showed that the teacher's perception of technological abilities in teaching technology-based mathematics, the ability of mathematics teachers to teach mathematics, and the ability of technology-assisted mathematics teachers to teach mathematics in class were categorized as good. These results indicate that most of the teacher's abilities are classified as good about using technology in teaching mathematics. The research suggests furthering researchers to be able to develop technology-based learning media, especially in the field of mathematics in teaching mathematics material in the classroom. Teachers in this century are advised to keep up with the times that are filled with facilities based on information and communication technology (ICT)

Spatially and Spectrally Consistent Deep Functional Maps

Cycle consistency has long been exploited as a powerful prior for jointly optimizing maps within a collection of shapes. In this paper, we investigate its utility in the approaches of Deep Functional Maps, which are considered state-of-the-art in non-rigid shape matching. We first justify that under certain conditions, the learned maps, when represented in the spectral domain, are already cycle consistent. Furthermore, we identify the discrepancy that spectrally consistent maps are not necessarily spatially, or point-wise, consistent. In light of this, we present a novel design of unsupervised Deep Functional Maps, which effectively enforces the harmony of learned maps under the spectral and the point-wise representation. By taking advantage of cycle consistency, our framework produces state-of-the-art results in mapping shapes even under significant distortions. Beyond that, by independently estimating maps in both spectral and spatial domains, our method naturally alleviates over-fitting in network training, yielding superior generalization performance and accuracy within an array of challenging tests for both near-isometric and non-isometric datasets. Codes are available at https://github.com/rqhuang88/Spatiallyand-Spectrally-Consistent-Deep-Functional-Maps.Comment: Accepted by ICCV202

An Integrated CMOS/Memristor Bio-Processor for Re-Configurable Neural Signal Processing

This paper proposes a bio-processor for neural signal analysis. The device architecture features an analogue Front-End and a Process Element, the latter can be scaled as an array. Rather than a single dedicated algorithm, the Process Element supports multiple analysis modes, utilising the analogue behaviour of memristors. When used as part of an array structure, each Process Element can be programmed independently and furthermore, the array elements can be electrically interconnected in an arbitrary manner. The device facilitates an inter-network of in-memory computation units, i.e. an inter-network of functions. This supports construction of a system that is highly scalable, re-configurable and thus adaptive. The device enables multi-functional neural recording and processing, for early stage signal exploration. The device has been implemented using a standard 180nm CMOS process with the addition of back-end-of-line (BEOL) memristor deposition. 1 Although targeted at neural signal analysis, the device and the architecture described is considered general purpose and may find application within other disciplines

A screening analysis of the GJB2 c.176 del 16 mutation responsible for hereditary deafness in a Chinese family

AbstractObjectiveTo determine whether a new-born child from a family carrying a deafness gene needs cochlear implantation to avoid dysphonia by screening and sequencing a deafness-related gene.ResultsBoth screening and sequencing results confirmed that the new born child had a normal GJB2 gene despite the fact that she has a brother suffering from hearing loss triggered by an allelic GJB2 c.176 del 16 mutation. We cloned the GJB2 genes derived from their respective blood genomic DNA into GFP fused plasmids and transfected those plasmids into the 293T cell line to test for gene function. While the mutated GJB2 gene (GJB2 c.176 del 16) of her deaf brother was found to be unable to form the gap junction structure between two adjacent cells, the baby girl's GJB2 gene ran into no such problems.ConclusionThe screening and sequencing as well as the GJB2 gene function tests invariably showed results consistent with the ABR tested hearing phenotype, which means that the child, with a normal wild type GJB2 gene, does not need early intervention to prevent her from developing hearing loss and dysphonia at a later stage in life