Competitive Mega-regional Trade Agreements: Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) vs. Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are both mega-regional trade initiatives in the Asia-Pacific that began in the late 2000s. Both are currently still under negotiation, and once concluded, will potentially shape the future of economic integration in the region. This paper seeks to explain why two overlapping yet diverging mega-regional trade deals emerged in the same region at around the same time. The paper posits that there is a direct relationship between the development of the TPP and that of the RCEP. Hence, it seeks to find a theory that best explains the interactive progress of the two “tracks”. By tracing the historical evolution of both agreements, comparing their key features, and studying the motivations and actions of the main players participating in either or both agreements, the author finds that firstly, there is indeed a competitive and mutually stimulating relationship between the TPP and the RCEP. Secondly, the theory that best explains the dynamics between the two proposals is “competitive regionalism”. This recently developed theory not only integrates realist and liberal arguments, but also takes into consideration domestic interests in influencing the mega-regional trade negotiations. Hence, it best accounts for the authors’ observations on the sequencing and patterns of the emerging regional trade arrangements, as well as the motivations and actions of participating states. This paper contributes to the analytical and theoretical literature on economic regionalism in general, and offers insights on the current state of Asia-Pacific economic integration

Study of Team Innovation Performance predictors: The intervening effect of College Students' Entrepreneurial Team Faultlines

Treballs Finals del Màster de Recerca en Empresa, Facultat d'Economia i Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2022-2023, Tutor: Dra. Mercè MachObjective- This paper aims to examine the mechanisms of team innovation climate on team innovation performance, through the mediating role of transactive memory system. And see the moderation effect of identity-based team faultlines & knowledge-based team faultlines on the relationship of transactive memory system and innovation performance. (...) Practical implications- College entrepreneurial leaders should not only look for people with the same profession, technology, background and experience to form a team, but also build a properly differentiated team, selecting some members with different professional backgrounds and experiences to form a team, and avoiding members with too big an age gap to form a team, which will be more helpful to the team's innovation

Vision-aided nonlinear control framework for shake table tests

The structural response under the earthquake excitations can be simulated by scaled-down model shake table tests or full-scale model shake table tests. In this paper, adaptive control theory is used as a nonlinear shake table control algorithm which considers the inherent nonlinearity of the shake table system and the Control-Structural Interaction (CSI) effect that the linear controller cannot consider, such as the Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller. The mass of the specimen can be assumed as an unknown variation and the unknown parameter will be replaced by an estimated value in the proposed control framework. The signal generated by the control law of the adaptive control method will be implemented by a loop-shaping controller. To verify the stability and feasibility of the proposed control framework, a simulation of a bare shake table and experiments with a bare shake table with a two-story frame were carried out. This study randomly selects Earthquake recordings from the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) database. The simulation and experimental results show that the proposed control framework can be effectively used in shake table control.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted in the Canadian Conference - Pacific Conference on Earthquake Engineering 2023, Vancouver, British Columbi

CEO tenure and environmental fraud for listed family firms

This paper examines CEO tenure's impact on the environmental fraud committed by listed Chinese family firms from the year 2012 to 2019. Using a bivariate probit model, we provide robust evidence that CEO tenure is positively related to the environmental fraud commission, indicating that longer-serving CEOs are more likely to violate environmental regulations and to commit fraud in the family firms. Besides, when there is a higher proportion of independent directors, CEO tenure is negatively related to the environmental fraud commission but positively related to fraud detection. Moreover, when there is a greater proportion of family members in senior positions, CEOs with longer tenure are more likely to commit environmental fraud. Our additional analysis finds that compared to non-family professional CEOs, family CEOs are more likely to commit environmental fraud. Overall, our results call for the introduction of CEO tenure limits and the increased recruitment of independent directors in family firms

Quantum Computing Quantum Monte Carlo

Quantum computing and quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) are respectively the state-of-the-art quantum and classical computing methods for understanding many-body quantum systems. Here, we propose a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm that integrates these two methods, inheriting their distinct features in efficient representation and manipulation of quantum states and overcoming their limitations. We first introduce non-stoquasticity indicators (NSIs) and their upper bounds, which measure the sign problem, the most notable limitation of QMC. We show that our algorithm could greatly mitigate the sign problem, which decreases NSIs with the assistance of quantum computing. Meanwhile, the use of quantum Monte Carlo also increases the expressivity of shallow quantum circuits, allowing more accurate computation that is conventionally achievable only with much deeper circuits. We numerically test and verify the method for the N$_2$ molecule (12 qubits) and the Hubbard model (16 qubits). Our work paves the way to solving practical problems with intermediate-scale and early-fault tolerant quantum computers, with potential applications in chemistry, condensed matter physics, materials, high energy physics, etc

A molecular dynamics study of evaporation of multicomponent stationary and moving fuel droplets in multicomponent ambient gases under supercritical conditions

The evaporation of a six-component fuel droplet under supercritical conditions is investigated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The focus here is on effects of multicomponent ambient gases and the relative motion between the droplet and the ambient. The ambient pressure ranges from 8 MPa to 36 MPa and the ambient temperature ranges from 750 K to 3600 K. In the lower range of the temperature and pressure, the average displacement increment (ADI) per fuel atom gradually increases with time and the classic evaporation is observed. In the higher range of the temperature and pressure, the ADI profile has a unimodal distribution with time and the diffusive mixing between the droplet and the ambient gases dominates. Based on the ADI profile of fuel atoms, a criterion (τ0.9P) for mode transition from evaporation to diffusion is proposed. Among the ambient gases investigated, the mode transition is the most difficult in the nitrogen ambient but the easiest in combustion exhaust gases. For multicomponent fuel droplets close to or in diffusion mode, with higher relative velocities, the relative difference between evaporation rates for light/heavy fuel components is reduced. This study demonstrates that supercritical conditions alone are insufficient for mode transition of evaporation

A molecular dynamics study of evaporation mode transition of hydrocarbon fuels under supercritical conditions

The mode transition of evaporation for single- and multi-component hydrocarbon fuels is investigated at the molecular level. This study scrutinizes first the subcritical and supercritical evaporation of nhexadecane droplets and liquid films by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The mode regime map of n-hexadecane droplets is obtained. Then the mode transition of evaporation of a three-component droplet and a six-component droplet is studied. A critical dimensionless number τ 0.9P of 0.5 based on the average displacement increment (ADI) of fuel atoms is used to identify the evaporation mode transition of fuels with any type and number of components. It is found that in the diffusion mode of evaporation, the entropy becomes the dominant factor in the evaporation of fuels, and the disorder of the fuel molecules increases significantly compared with that in the classic evaporation mode. Compared with the case of the quiescent droplet, with increasing relative velocity between the droplet and the ambient gas, the mode transition becomes easier, although this is a non-linear process. Fuel droplets and liquid films with different initial sizes are investigated to understand the size effect. In addition, for the same ambient temperature and pressure, the smaller the normalized specific heat transfer surface area of the fuel is, the easier the mode transition of evaporation is. A correlation was proposed to compare the possibility of mode transition of evaporation for single- and multi-component fuels