Reply to Catalán : double-proton-transfer dynamics of photo-excited 7-azaindole dimers

The letter by Catalán (1) is concerned with the nature of double-proton transfer in dimers of 7-azaindole (7-AI), and the pertinent issue is whether or not the reaction is concerted. The subject is not new, and, for organic reactions, it has been discussed in the literature for decades. It is now understood that the concerted/consecutive mechanism has to be defined based on the timescale of the vibration motions and the family of coherent trajectories involved (ref. 2 and references therein). For double-proton transfer in isolated dimers, this timescale criterion has been invoked, and, as supported by a variety of time-resolved experiments in several groups and also by theory (ref. 3 and references therein), the conclusion is that the reaction is not concerted on the timescale of the vibrations involved; Catalán and some researchers (see ref. 3) assert that the two protons move in exact concert, maintaining the C_(2h) symmetry at all times

Expanding RTAs, Trade Flows, and the Multinational Enterprise

We test the relationship between the size of regional trade agreements (RTA) and openness by using a gravity equation with multilateral trade factors. Our sample includes eleven RTAs, seven with constant membership and four with expanding membership. Regional trade bias declines with the size of the club; three of the four expanding RTAs have already surpassed their ‘optimal’ size. We also explore the link between openness of the RTA and the geographic strategy of the multinational enterprise. We find strong evidence in favor of the regionalization strategy, which has been enhanced by the presence of RTAs.Trade Blocks, Regional Integration, Multinational Enterprises (MNEs), Plurilateral RTAs, Trade Creation, Trade Diversion

Size of Regional Trade Agreements and Regional Trade Bias

We test the relationship between size of regional trade agreement (RTA) and regional trade bias using a gravity equation on a large sample of 143 countries for the period 1980-2003. We find that regional trade bias declines with the size of the club and that three of the four expanding RTAs have already surpassed their ‘optimal’ sizes. There is no evidence that RTAs have set protection levels against outsiders noncooperatively.RTA, regional trade bias, trade flows

On the Relationship Between RTA Expansion and Openness

We test the relationship between the size of regional trade agreements (RTA) and openness using a gravity equation with multilateral trade factors on a large sample of 143 countries over period 1980-2003. Our sample includes eleven RTAs, seven with constant membership and four with an expanding membership. In the first group, there are more stumbling blocs than building blocs to freer global trade. In the second group, the opposite holds. We also find that regional trade bias declines with the size of the club and that three of the four expanding RTAs have already surpassed their ‘optimal’ size.gravity equation, plurilateral RTAs, size, trade creation, trade diversion

Non-Linear Editor for Text-Based Screencast

Screencasts, where computer screen is broadcast to a large audience on the web, are becoming popular as an online educational tool. Among various types of screencast content, popular are the contents that involve text editing, including computer programming. There are emerging platforms that support such text-based screencasts by recording every character insertion/deletion from the creator and reconstructing its playback on the viewer's screen. However, these platforms lack rich support for creating and editing the screencast itself, mainly due to the difficulty of manipulating recorded text changes; the changes are tightly coupled in sequence, thus modifying arbitrary part of the sequence is not trivial. We present a non-linear editing tool for text-based screencasts. With the proposed selective history rewrite process, our editor allows users to substitute an arbitrary part of a text-based screencast while preserving overall consistency of the rest of the text-based screencast.Comment: To appear in Adjunct Proceedings of the 30th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software & Technology (UIST 2017, Poster

Regional Multinationals and the Korean Comestics Industry

This paper analyzes the market penetration and expansion strategy of cosmetics and toiletries multinational enterprises (MNEs) in South Korea from the perspective of regional strategy as developed recently by Rugman. We find that MNEs have different market entry and expansion strategies in the home region and in the foreign region. Home region MNEs (Japanese MNEs in this case), in general, utilize their firm-specific advantages (FSAs) better than foreign region MNEs (European and MNEs from the Americas in this case). Due to differences in transaction costs, home region MNEs exploit downstream FSAs while foreign region MNEs develop upstream FSAs. Market similarity also leads to a greater incentive to operate in the home region rather than in foreign regions. The home region effect significantly increases the likelihood of entry into foreign markets as the host country’s “diamond” significantly affects the market entry strategies of MNEs.regional strategy, market penetration, cosmetics industry, double diamond, South Korea

Conformally-coupled dark spinor and FRW universe

We study conformal coupling of dark spinor fields to gravity and calculate the energy density and the pressure of the spinor in FRW spacetime. We consider the renormalizable potential of the spinor field. In the cases where the field is proportional to some power of the cosmic scale factor $a(t)$, we determine the Hubble parameter as a function of the scale factor and find analytic solutions for $a(t)$ when the spinor field matter dilutes as the universe expands. We discuss the possibility that both matter- and dark energy-dominated eras of our universe can be described by the dark spinor.Comment: 4 pages, Revised argument in section III, results unchanged. To be published in PR

The Regional Sales of Multinationals in the World Cosmetics Industry

This paper analyzes the regional characteristics and strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the world cosmetics and toiletries industry, based on the new work by Rugman on regional strategy. We test the proposition that MNEs may asymmetrically develop their upstream and downstream firm specific advantages (FSAs). We find that the upstream activities of the MNEs in cosmetics are home region based but that downstream activities are less so. Further, the asymmetry of FSAs in the world cosmetics industry is mainly due to the atypical Asian entry strategies of North American and West European cosmetics MNEs. Two case studies confirm how variations in FSAs can affect regional strategy.regionalism, regional strategy, cosmetics industry, firm specific advantage, Avon, Gucci

The Gravity Equation in International Economics and International Business Research: A Note

This note discusses methodological issues and practical concerns for international economists and international business scholars who apply the gravity equation in their research. The most important message of the note is that this equation should correct for multilateral resistance factors. We propose a relatively low-cost specification and estimation to implement such correction, which is robust in the presence of various endogeneity effects and non-stationary variables. In the presence of zero-values in the dataset, however, the multilateral specification is best estimated with a Poisson maximum likelihood.gravity equation, international trade, foreign direct investment, methodology