Do Civil and Political Repression Really Boost Foreign Direct Investments?

Multinational enterprises are often accused to have a preference for investing in countries in which the working populations' civil and political rights are largely disregarded. This paper presents an empirical investigation of the popular "political repression boosts FDI" hypothesis and arrives at the conclusion that the hypothesis is not supported. On the contrary, multinational enterprises rather appear to be attracted by countries in which civil and political freedom is respected. Our finding thus supports the notion that there is a positive relationship between democracy and economic growth.Foreign direct investment, globalization, globalisation, democracy, freedom

Exotic Higgs boson decay modes as a harbinger of S3S_3 flavor symmetry

Discrete symmetries employed to explain flavor mixing and mass hierarchies can be associated with an enlarged scalar sector which might lead to exotic Higgs decay modes. In this paper, we explore such a possibility in a scenario with $S_3$ flavor symmetry which requires three scalar SU(2) doublets. The spectrum is fixed by minimizing the scalar potential, and we observe that the symmetry of the model leads to tantalizing Higgs decay modes potentially observable at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC).Comment: v2: 7 pages, 5 eps figures, to appear as a Rapid Communication in Physical Review D (Title expanded in journal

Analysis of UV and EUV emission from impacts on the Sun after 2011 June 7 eruptive flare

On 2011 June 7 debris from a large filament eruption fell back to the Sun causing bright ultraviolet (UV) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) splashes across the surface. These impacts may give clues on the process of stellar accretion. The aim is to investigate how the impact emission is influenced by structures in the falling ejecta and at the solar surface. We determine the UV and EUV light curves of a sample of impacts. The ballistic impact velocity is estimated from the ejection and landing times and, where possible, compared with the velocity derived by tracking the downflows in SDO/AIA and STEREO/EUVI images. Estimates of the column density before impact are made from the darkness of the falling plasma in the 193 A channel. The impact velocities were between 230 and 450 km/s. All impacts produced bright EUV emission at the impact site but bright UV was only observed when the impacting fragments reached the chromosphere. There was no clear relation between EUV intensity and kinetic energy. Low UV to EUV intensity ratios (I{UV}/I{EUV}) were seen (i) from impacts of low column-density fragments, (ii) when splashes, produced by some impacts, prevented subsequent fragments from reaching the chromosphere, and (iii) from an impact in an active region. The earliest impacts with the lowest velocity (~250 km/s) had the highest I{UV}/I{EUV}. The I{UV}/I{EUV} decreases with impact velocity, magnetic field at the impact site, and EUV ionising flux. Many of the infalling fragments dissipate above the chromosphere either due to ionisation and trapping in magnetic structures, or to them encountering a splash from an earlier impact. If the same happens in accreting stars then the reduced X-ray compared to optical emission that has been observed is more likely due to absorption by the trailing stream than locally at the impact site.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures To be published in A&

A distributional limit law for the continued fraction digit sum

We consider the continued fraction digits as random variables measured with respect to Lebesgue measure. The logarithmically scaled and normalized fluctuation process of the digit sums converges strongly distributional to a random variable uniformly distributed on the unit interval. For this process normalized linearly we determine a large deviation asymptotic.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Wave damping by monomolecular surface films and their chemical structure. Part I: Variation of the hydrophobic part of carboxylic acid esters

Plunger generated 1.0, 1.3, 1.8, 2.0, 2.3, and 2.5 Hz waves have been used to investigate the direct wave damping effect of carboxylic acid ester surface films…

Wave damping by monomolecular surface films and their chemical structure. Part II: Variation of the hydrophilic part of the film molecules including natural substances

The direct wave attenuation influence of surface active compounds on plunger-generated water waves (1.0, 1.3, 1.8, 2.0, 2.3, and 2.5 Hz) was investigated in the Hamburg wind-wave tunnel by systematic variation of the hydrophilic group. Long-chain alcohols, acids, and amines exhibit a considerable wave damping effect. An additional wave energy dissipation term is active in the presence of carboxylic acid ester (E/Z-isomerization). It is concluded from the experimental results that hydrophobic interactions between the hydrophobic alkyl chains and the adjacent water layer play a dominant role by inducing “ice-like clathrate structures.” Some hydrophilic groups (mono- and di-oxyethylenated alcohols) may also promote formation of these structures, whereas other hydrophilic groups (sodium sulfonates; poly-oxyethylenated alcohols with nglycol ≥ 3) are counteracting against this effect (“structure breakers”), which results in a considerably lower wave attenuation effect. Proteins and triglycerides exhibit no significant wave damping ability, while sterols, and hydrophobized amino acids and carbohydrates in part show wave damping characteristics similar to those of long-chain alcohols. The experimental results are discussed in the framework of theories developed by Cini et al. (1983) and by Lucassen-Reynders and Lucassen (1969) with emphasis upon the so-called “Marangoni-effect,” which appears to be of highly dissipative characte

In-Situ Defect Detection in Laser Powder Bed Fusion by Using Thermography and Optical Tomography—Comparison to Computed Tomography

Among additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, the laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is one of the most important technologies to produce metallic components. The layer-wise build-up of components and the complex process conditions increase the probability of the occurrence of defects. However, due to the iterative nature of its manufacturing process and in contrast to conventional manufacturing technologies such as casting, L-PBF offers unique opportunities for in-situ monitoring. In this study, two cameras were successfully tested simultaneously as a machine manufacturer independent process monitoring setup: a high-frequency infrared camera and a camera for long time exposure, working in the visible and infrared spectrum and equipped with a near infrared filter. An AISI 316L stainless steel specimen with integrated artificial defects has been monitored during the build. The acquired camera data was compared to data obtained by computed tomography. A promising and easy to use examination method for data analysis was developed and correlations between measured signals and defects were identified. Moreover, sources of possible data misinterpretation were specified. Lastly, attempts for automatic data analysis by data integration are presented