Political career concerns and bank lending in China

This study examines how politician\u27s career concerns affect the bank loans using a sample of bank branches at the county-level in China. We use politician tenure to measure an important dimension of the politician incentives to intervene in the local economy, which is determined by their career concerns about perceived promotion probability. We find that there is a curvilinear relationship between politician tenure and bank loans (i.e., reversed U-shape). We also construct a promotion pressure index and document a positive relationship between this promotion index and bank loans. These results are more significant for banks located in counties with underdeveloped institutions or weak government capacity, and those with political ties. These results support the view that politicians have strong incentives to utilize local banks to promote local economic growth if it is also consistent with their private goals, especially in the environment with significant government ownership in banking systems

Thermal conductivity characterisation of shallow ground via correlations with geophysical parameters

Thermal conductivity is an important physical property of geological formations. For example, a comprehensive assessment of the thermal conductivity variations in the shallow ground surrounding a heat exchanger borehole can be used to determine the installation parameters of a ground-source heat pump. However, in some locations, it is not possible to measure thermal conductivity directly. One of the most common methods to indirectly infer thermal conductivity is to establish correlations between thermal conductivity and various geophysical parameters. By utilising test data acquired from drilling sites and ascertaining the corresponding geophysical parameters via non-invasive geophysical methods, such correlations can be obtained. At 11 test sites, the thermal conductivities were measured in situ via thermal response testing, and the corresponding values for the S-wave velocity and density were calculated using the Microtremor survey method (MSM). The correlations between the thermal conductivity, S-wave velocity, and density in the tested shallow ground were built by exponential fitting. By utilising the established correlations, two-dimensional (2D) cross-sections along the microtremor survey line were created to illustrate the thermal conductivity variations in the shallow ground. These results demonstrate that this approach can be used to infer the thermal conductivities of areas that cannot be tested directly

An improved volumetric method of geothermal resources assessment for shallow ground combining geophysical data

Assessment of available heat capacity in the shallow ground is important to the development of ground source or geothermal heat pumps. A new volumetric method-based approach is proposed for evaluating shallow geothermal potential by combining microtremor survey results. Parameters such as thickness of clay and sandy gravel layers can be achieved by processing the microtremor filed data. The study area was divided into grids based on the different exploration sites. The heat present in each small unit was calculated using the revised volumetric method. This division into small units improved the accuracy of assessment of the geothermal potential and helped plot the distribution map of the available heat amount, which indicated optimal locations for development and utilization of shallow geothermal resources. Jimo, China was used as an example to depict the calculation flow. Since the microtremor survey method can identify the thickness of clay, sandy gravel, and fresh bedrock layers in shallow ground, the amount of shallow geothermal resources present above fresh bedrock was calculated. In Jimo, the amount of exploitable geothermal resources, using the traditional volumetric method, was found to be 4.92 x 10(12) kJ. The proposed calculation method not only provided a higher corresponding value of 6.96 x 10(12) kJ but also showed the regions with the highest potential of shallow geothermal resources. Hence, this approach provides an alternative method for geothermal potential assessment which can be used globally. (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Window-assisted nanosphere lithography for vacuum micro-nano-electronics

Development of vacuum micro-nano-electronics is quite important for combining the advantages of vacuum tubes and solid-state devices but limited by the prevailing fabricating techniques which are expensive, time consuming and low-throughput. In this work, window-assisted nanosphere lithography (NSL) technique was proposed and enabled the low-cost and high-efficiency fabrication of nanostructures for vacuum micro-nano-electronic devices, thus allowing potential applications in many areas. As a demonstration, we fabricated high-density field emitter arrays which can be used as cold cathodes in vacuum micro-nano-electronic devices by using the window-assisted NSL technique. The details of the fabricating process have been investigated. This work provided a new and feasible idea for fabricating nanostructure arrays for vacuum micro-nano-electronic devices, which would spawn the development of vacuum micro-nano-electronics

Heritability of growth traits in the Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer)

Growth is an economically important trait in aquaculture. To improve growth trait of the Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer) we have been carrying out, since 2004, a selective breeding program. This study focuses on growth traits in the F2 fish generation, comprised of offspring from 23 mass crosses from 383 F1 brooders. Using genotyping analysis for 10 microsatellites from both brood stock and progeny we have reconstructed the pedigree of each mass-cross. For F2 generation at 90 days post hatch (dph), we have recorded body weight (BW) for 12,117 individuals and total length (TL), standard length (SL) and condition factor (Ktl and Ksl) for 3530 individuals; and all five traits for 2136 individuals at 270 dph. At 90 dph the average BW was 46.88 ± 20.95 g. Combining pedigree information, recorded growth traits and Restricted Maximum Likelihood method, we have estimated that the narrow sense heritability (h2) in F1 fish for BW, TL, SL, Ktl and Ksl was at, 90 dph, 0.12 ± 0.03, 0.11 ± 0.03, 0.10 ± 0.03, 0.20 ± 0.04 and 0.11 ± 0.03, respectively and, at 270 dph, 0.34 ± 0.07, 0.32 ± 0.07, 0.30 ± 0.06, 0.13 ± 0.04 and 0.11 ± 0.04, respectively. At 90 dph the realised heritability for BW was 0.13. Comparing with F1 generation, the growth performance of F2 fish was increased by 14.4%. Heritability of growth traits will be useful for future genetic improvement programmes of the Asian seabass.NRF (Natl Research Foundation, S’pore)Published versio

Anlotinib as a maintenance treatment for advanced soft tissue sarcoma after first-line chemotherapy (ALTER-S006): a multicentre, open-label, single-arm, phase 2 trialResearch in context

Summary: Background: No standard maintenance treatment has been obtained to prolong the response duration of soft tissue sarcoma (STS) after first-line chemotherapy. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of anlotinib as a maintenance treatment after chemotherapy in STS. Methods: In this multicentre, open-label, single-arm phase 2 trial, patients with advanced STS who achieved partial response or stable disease after first-line anthracycline-based chemotherapy were enrolled between April 2019 and January 2022. All patients received anlotinib as a maintenance treatment. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS) of anlotinib maintenance treatment. Other endpoints included overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR) and safety. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03890068. Findings: At the data cut-off date (August 8, 2022), 49 patients were enrolled, including 17 with liposarcoma (35%) and 15 with leiomyosarcoma (31%). After a median follow-up of 17.1 months (IQR 9.0–27.2), the median PFS from the beginning of maintenance treatment was 9.1 months (95% CI 5.7–12.5), and the median OS was not reached, and the 1-year OS rate for anlotinib maintenance treatment was 98.0%. The best ORR and DCR were 16% (8/49, 95% CI 7–30) and 94% (46/49, 95% CI 83–99), respectively. Most of the treatment-related adverse events were grade 1–2. Of the grade 3–4 adverse events, the most common were hypertension (10%) and hand-foot syndrome reaction (6%). Interpretation: Postchemotherapy maintenance treatment with anlotinib exhibits promising efficacy and tolerable toxicity in patients with advanced STS. Funding: Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., the National Key Research and Development Program of China, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China

Seismic Target Classification Using a Wavelet Packet Manifold in Unattended Ground Sensors Systems

One of the most challenging problems in target classification is the extraction of a robust feature, which can effectively represent a specific type of targets. The use of seismic signals in unattended ground sensor (UGS) systems makes this problem more complicated, because the seismic target signal is non-stationary, geology-dependent and with high-dimensional feature space. This paper proposes a new feature extraction algorithm, called wavelet packet manifold (WPM), by addressing the neighborhood preserving embedding (NPE) algorithm of manifold learning on the wavelet packet node energy (WPNE) of seismic signals. By combining non-stationary information and low-dimensional manifold information, WPM provides a more robust representation for seismic target classification. By using a K nearest neighbors classifier on the WPM signature, the algorithm of wavelet packet manifold classification (WPMC) is proposed. Experimental results show that the proposed WPMC can not only reduce feature dimensionality, but also improve the classification accuracy up to 95.03%. Moreover, compared with state-of-the-art methods, WPMC is more suitable for UGS in terms of recognition ratio and computational complexity

Genomic Basis of Striking Fin Shapes and Colors in the Fighting Fish

10.1093/molbev/msab110Molecular Biology and Evolution3883383-339