New Record for the Endangered Crawling Water Beetle, \u3ci\u3eBrychius Hungerfordi\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Haliplidae) in Michigan Including Water Chemistry Data

We report the discovery of the Federally endangered crawling water beetle, Brychius hungerfordi Spangler, in a new watershed in the northern lower peninsula of MIchigan. The site was found on the Carp River, a lake draining first-order stream. Nine water chemistry parameters were measured from three known locations of B. hungerfordi and from three sites where no B. hungerfordi have been found. Water from sites with known populations of adult beetles showed low soluble reactive phosphorus, but were similar to other similar rivers in northern Michigan

Chinese investments in the EU

China’s investments in the European Union are much lower than what you may expect given the economic size of both entities. These relatively low investments in Europe are a combination of priority and obstacles. The priority for investments is clearly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This regional pattern is heavily influenced by the need to solve the resource shortage in the medium and long term. The investments in Europe and the United States are mostly market seeking investments. Research specifically focused on Chinese M&A abroad comes to the same conclusion. The success rate of Chinese M&A abroad is much lower than what we see with respect to American or European investments abroad. In this paper, we examine why Chinese firms are facing more difficulties in the European Union than in other regions. The paper focuses on Chinese M&A as proxy for total foreign direct investments abroad. By looking at the factors that have been documented as influencing the level of M&A abroad, it becomes clear that Chinese firms in Europe are hindered by many factors. For example, the trade between China and the EU is relatively low, the institutional quality is lower compared to the United States, there is less experience with respect to Europe and relatively many deals relate to State Owned Enterprises (SOE) which makes the deal sensitive. So it is logical that Chinese investments are not very high in Europe. However, the research makes clear that the obstacles for Chinese investments in Europe are disappearing step by step. In that sense, we expect a strong increase of Chinese investments in Europe in the future.FDI, mergers & aquisitions, China, EU

New Distribution Record for the Endangered Crawling Water Beetle Brychius Hungerfordi (Coleoptera: Haliplidae) and Notes on Seasonal Abundance and Food Preferences

The Federally beetle, Brychius hungerfordi, has been discovered at a new location in Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. We also report preliminary data on a seasonal variation in relative abundance and on its possible food plants

On the geometric dilation of closed curves, graphs, and point sets

The detour between two points u and v (on edges or vertices) of an embedded planar graph whose edges are curves is the ratio between the shortest path in in the graph between u and v and their Euclidean distance. The maximum detour over all pairs of points is called the geometric dilation. Ebbers-Baumann, Gruene and Klein have shown that every finite point set is contained in a planar graph whose geometric dilation is at most 1.678, and some point sets require graphs with dilation at least pi/2 = 1.57... We prove a stronger lower bound of 1.00000000001*pi/2 by relating graphs with small dilation to a problem of packing and covering the plane by circular disks. The proof relies on halving pairs, pairs of points dividing a given closed curve C in two parts of equal length, and their minimum and maximum distances h and H. Additionally, we analyze curves of constant halving distance (h=H), examine the relation of h to other geometric quantities and prove some new dilation bounds.Comment: 31 pages, 16 figures. The new version is the extended journal submission; it includes additional material from a conference submission (ref. [6] in the paper

Elektronische overheid niet voor alle burgers eenvoudig

De overheid stimuleert de selfservice van burgers, bedrijven en organisaties door haar diensten elektronisch aan te bieden. Tegelijkertijd zijn er groepen in de samenleving die moeite hebben met het gebruik van de elektronische overheid, de ‘digibeten’. Om deze groep van minder digitaalvaardigen te ondersteunen, is de cursus ‘Werken met de e-overheid’ ontwikkeld en beproefd. De resultaten laten zien dat de cursus voorziet in een behoefte. Daarom wordt nu gestart met de opschaling naar een landelijke aanpak met een lokale uitwerking

Size Estimate of a Local Population of Brychius Hungerfordi (Coleoptera: Haliplidae)

Much of the natural history of the endangered crawling water beetle, Brychius hungerfordi, is unknown. Population estimates have only been surmised. We have measured, using a mark and recapture technique, a localize population of the beetle in a pool on the East Branch of the Maple River, Emmet County, Michigan. The average population during July 2001 was found to be 1052 individuals with a range of 43 (highest estimate – lowest estimate). A three-year study of the relative abundance of the beetle in the same pool suggests that the population has remained relatively constant