Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions in an Emerging Market: Recent Experiences in the Cosmetics Sector in China

As the world’s largest emerging market as well as one of the most promising markets, China has attracted increasing attention from foreign companies and has become the largest host destination of foreign direct investment among developing countries. The Chinese cosmetics and beauty industry can be a relatively new but fast-developing sector in recent years. In fact, China has become the fastest growing global beauty and personal care market in Asia and there has been an industry trend of large multinationals buying up domestic Chinese cosmetics brands. The objectives of this paper are then to investigate how foreign firms make the choice of FDI modes of cross-border M&As instead of the greenfield investments in the cosmetics and beauty industry in China and to find out the motives of conducting such M&A activities The theoretical perspective used in this study is mainly based on the eclectic theory for internationalisation decisions and other relevant theories of M&A motives such as the synergy theory, market power theory, valuation theory and empire-building theory. Also, the study draws on knowledge of the specific characteristics of the greenfield investments and cross-border M&As to justify the FDI decision of multinationals in China. A qualitative approach is adopted in this dissertation. Specifically, the multiple-case study is utilized to address the research questions. Two multinational cosmetics corporations, L'Oreal and Johnson & Johnson, are selected as the main research objects. The case study analysis sheds light on how the specific ownership advantages of L'Oreal and J&J shape the FDI choice of cross-border M&As rather than greenfield investments in China and the associated motives. The mutual dependence between the firms’ ownership advantages, their entry mode choices, motives and the location-tied characteristics of the Chinese cosmetics market was also highlighted. It is founded that the surge of M&As in the cosmetics and beauty industry in China is largely stimulated by the shortcut to acquire established brand equity, distribution channels, production plants, to achieve product line extension, quicker market presence, economics of scale, and to preempt rivals. Also, in the specific context of China, the policy adjustments of foreign direct investment by the Chinese government can be another contributing factor

Decoding Taste Information in Human Brain: A Temporal and Spatial Reconstruction Data Augmentation Method Coupled with Taste EEG

For humans, taste is essential for perceiving food's nutrient content or harmful components. The current sensory evaluation of taste mainly relies on artificial sensory evaluation and electronic tongue, but the former has strong subjectivity and poor repeatability, and the latter is not flexible enough. This work proposed a strategy for acquiring and recognizing taste electroencephalogram (EEG), aiming to decode people's objective perception of taste through taste EEG. Firstly, according to the proposed experimental paradigm, the taste EEG of subjects under different taste stimulation was collected. Secondly, to avoid insufficient training of the model due to the small number of taste EEG samples, a Temporal and Spatial Reconstruction Data Augmentation (TSRDA) method was proposed, which effectively augmented the taste EEG by reconstructing the taste EEG's important features in temporal and spatial dimensions. Thirdly, a multi-view channel attention module was introduced into a designed convolutional neural network to extract the important features of the augmented taste EEG. The proposed method has accuracy of 99.56%, F1-score of 99.48%, and kappa of 99.38%, proving the method's ability to distinguish the taste EEG evoked by different taste stimuli successfully. In summary, combining TSRDA with taste EEG technology provides an objective and effective method for sensory evaluation of food taste.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, 30 references, article is being submitte

Probabilistic Compute-in-Memory Design For Efficient Markov Chain Monte Carlo Sampling

Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is a widely used sampling method in modern artificial intelligence and probabilistic computing systems. It involves repetitive random number generations and thus often dominates the latency of probabilistic model computing. Hence, we propose a compute-in-memory (CIM) based MCMC design as a hardware acceleration solution. This work investigates SRAM bitcell stochasticity and proposes a novel ``pseudo-read'' operation, based on which we offer a block-wise random number generation circuit scheme for fast random number generation. Moreover, this work proposes a novel multi-stage exclusive-OR gate (MSXOR) design method to generate strictly uniformly distributed random numbers. The probability error deviating from a uniform distribution is suppressed under $10^{-5}$. Also, this work presents a novel in-memory copy circuit scheme to realize data copy inside a CIM sub-array, significantly reducing the use of R/W circuits for power saving. Evaluated in a commercial 28-nm process development kit, this CIM-based MCMC design generates 4-bit$\sim$32-bit samples with an energy efficiency of $0.53$~pJ/sample and high throughput of up to $166.7$M~samples/s. Compared to conventional processors, the overall energy efficiency improves $5.41\times10^{11}$ to $2.33\times10^{12}$ times

The complete mitochondrial genome of Xizicus (Haploxizicus) maculatus revealed by Next-Generation Sequencing and phylogenetic implication (Orthoptera, Meconematinae)

Xizicus Gorochov, 1993, the quiet-calling katydid, is a diverse genus with 68 species in world, which includes more than 45 species in China, has undergone numerous taxonomic revisions with contradicting conclusions. In this study the complete mitochondrial genome of Xizicus (Haploxizicus) maculatus collected from Hainan for the first time was sequenced using the Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology. The length of whole mitogenome is 16,358 bp and contains the typical gene arrangement, base composition, and codon usage found in other related species. The overall base composition of the mitochondrial genome is 37.0 % A, 32.2 % T, 20.2 % C, and 10.6 % G. All 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) began with typical ATN initiation codon. Nine of the 13 PCGs have a complete termination codon, but the remaining four genes (COI, COIII, ND5, and ND4) terminate with an incomplete T. Phylogenetic analyses are carried out based on the concatenated dataset of 13 PCGs and two rRNAs of Tettigoniidae species available in GenBank. Both Bayesian inference and Maximum Likelihood analyses recovered each subfamily as a monophyletic group. Regardless of the position of Lipotactinae, the relationships among the subfamilies of Tettigoniidae were as follows: ((((Tettigoniinae, Bradyporinae) Meconematinae) Conocephalinae) Hexacentrinae). The topological structure of the phylogeny trees showed that the Xizicus (Haploxizicus) maculatus is closer to Xizicus (Xizicus) fascipes than Xizicus (Eoxizicus) howardi

Mix-of-Show: Decentralized Low-Rank Adaptation for Multi-Concept Customization of Diffusion Models

Public large-scale text-to-image diffusion models, such as Stable Diffusion, have gained significant attention from the community. These models can be easily customized for new concepts using low-rank adaptations (LoRAs). However, the utilization of multiple concept LoRAs to jointly support multiple customized concepts presents a challenge. We refer to this scenario as decentralized multi-concept customization, which involves single-client concept tuning and center-node concept fusion. In this paper, we propose a new framework called Mix-of-Show that addresses the challenges of decentralized multi-concept customization, including concept conflicts resulting from existing single-client LoRA tuning and identity loss during model fusion. Mix-of-Show adopts an embedding-decomposed LoRA (ED-LoRA) for single-client tuning and gradient fusion for the center node to preserve the in-domain essence of single concepts and support theoretically limitless concept fusion. Additionally, we introduce regionally controllable sampling, which extends spatially controllable sampling (e.g., ControlNet and T2I-Adaptor) to address attribute binding and missing object problems in multi-concept sampling. Extensive experiments demonstrate that Mix-of-Show is capable of composing multiple customized concepts with high fidelity, including characters, objects, and scenes

Highly Efficient Broadband Ambient Energy Harvesting System Enhanced by Meta-Lens for Wirelessly Powering Battery-less IoT Devices

Existing Internet of Things (IoT) devices face a significant challenge in terms of power consumption due to their limited battery life. Capturing and utilizing ambient radio frequency (RF) energy emerges as a promising solution for powering low-power sensors and electronic devices, given its unique spatial and temporal distributions. However, the low level of ambient RF power severely hampers the rectenna’s RF-to-direct current (DC) conversion efficiency, making it incapable of generating sufficient DC power. To address this issue and enhance the conversion efficiency of a broadband rectenna at low environmental power levels, this study introduces a novel technique called the meta-lens assisted technique (MAT). This technique leads to a substantial increase in the rectenna’s received RF power by more than 10 dB. As a result, the total conversion efficiency improves by over 30% across a wide frequency band ranging from 2.9 GHz to 3.63 GHz (with a fractional bandwidth of 22.3%), even when the initial RF power received (without the MAT) was as low as -20 dBm, which approaches the real-life ambient RF power level. Notably, the proposed MAT achieves a 40% to 60% efficiency improvement compared to state-of-the-art approaches. These remarkable results demonstrate the promising potential of the MAT rectenna as an alternative for harvesting low-density wireless energy and supporting low-power-required industrial IoT applications

Study on the breakdown characteristics of multiple-reignition secondary arcs on EHV/UHV transmission lines

A long-gap AC arc with a length of more than ten meters (secondary arc) are normally generated at the short-circuit arc channel after a single-phase-to-ground fault. In previous studies, arc breakdowns of secondary arcs have mainly been considered as electrical breakdowns, ignoring the role of heat in the arc channel. Besides, the extinction-reignition theory of secondary arc, i.e., dielectric strength recovery theory, still lack the support of experimental data. In this study, based on the equivalent experiments performed in the laboratory, the influences of compensation degree of transmission lines, initial recovery voltage gradient of air gap, test current, wind speed, and wind direction on the breakdown characteristics of secondary arcs are studied and statistically analyzed. The laws of the transient recovery voltage (TRV) and of the rate of rise of recovery voltage (RRRV) also studied by considering the influencing factors mentioned above. The results of this study will provide a more complete experimental basis for the theory of extinction–reignition of secondary arcs and a deeper understanding of the transient characteristics of arc breakdow

Time-series MODIS Image-based Retrieval and Distribution Analysis of Total Suspended Matter Concentrations in Lake Taihu (China)

Although there has been considerable effort to use remotely sensed images to provide synoptic maps of total suspended matter (TSM), there are limited studies on universal TSM retrieval models. In this paper, we have developed a TSM retrieval model for Lake Taihu using TSM concentrations measured in situ and a time series of quasi-synchronous MODIS 250 m images from 2005. After simple geometric and atmospheric correction, we found a significant relationship (R = 0.8736, N = 166) between in situ measured TSM concentrations and MODIS band normalization difference of band 3 and band 1. From this, we retrieved TSM concentrations in eight regions of Lake Taihu in 2007 and analyzed the characteristic distribution and variation of TSM. Synoptic maps of model-estimated TSM of 2007 showed clear geographical and seasonal variations. TSM in Central Lake and Southern Lakeshore were consistently higher than in other regions, while TSM in East Taihu was generally the lowest among the regions throughout the year. Furthermore, a wide range of TSM concentrations appeared from winter to summer. TSM in winter could be several times that in summer