An Analysis of the Causes and Effects of the Out-of-Control Merger and Acquisition of Subsidiaries—A Case Study of the Great Wall of Culture Company

The phenomenon of out-of-control of subsidiaries after mergers and acquisitions is becoming more and more prominent. Effective control of subsidiaries is the most important issue that needs to be paid attention to. How to reasonably and effectively control subsidiaries has become the focus of theoretical and practical research. Taking the acquisition of Jade Education by Great Wall of Culture as an example, this paper analyzes the causes of losing control after the acquisition and analyzes the impact of losing control subsidiaries on the enterprise by means of event research and financial index analysis. The study found that the main reasons for the out-of-control of subsidiaries are unreasonable performance commitment, excessive decentralization caused by cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and out-of-control caused by blind mergers and acquisitions. Moreover, the out-of-control subsidiaries are no longer included in the scope of consolidated statements, which has a significant impact on the operating conditions of enterprises. In order to prevent the subsidiaries from losing control, it is suggested to carefully select the target for merger and acquisition, conduct due diligence on the target enterprise before merger and acquisition, reasonably delegate decision-making power and enrich and improve the performance commitment agreement

Sensitivity Evaluation of AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant Best Estimation Model

The best estimation process of AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) requires proper selections of parameters and models so as to obtain the most accurate results compared with the actual design parameters. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and evaluate the influences of these parameters and modeling approaches quantitatively and qualitatively. Based on the best estimate thermal-hydraulic system code RELAP5/MOD3.2, sensitivity analysis has been performed on core partition methods, parameters, and model selections in AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant, like the core channel number, pressurizer node number, feedwater temperature, and so forth. The results show that core channel number, core channel node number, and the pressurizer node number have apparent influences on the coolant temperature variation and pressure drop through the reactor. The feedwater temperature is a sensitive factor to the Steam Generator (SG) outlet temperature and the Steam Generator outlet pressure. In addition, the cross-flow model nearly has no effects on the coolant temperature variation and pressure drop in the reactor, in both the steady state and the loss of power transient. Furthermore, some fittest parameters with which the most accurate results could be obtained have been put forward for the nuclear system simulation

Intermediate pyrolysis of organic fraction of municipal solid waste and rheological study of the pyrolysis oil for potential use as bio-bitumen

This work presents a study on intermediate pyrolysis of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and characterisation of organic liquid product (pyrolysis oils) with particular focus on aging and rheological characteristics. The feedstock was a real municipal waste sample received from a local waste treatment plant. Shredded into small particles, it contained a high amount of moisture (51.2%) and ash (17.4%). A pilot-scale intermediate pyrolysis system was used to process the material. The process mass balance showed that the yield pyrolysis oil was 10.6%. GC-MS and FTIR experiments showed that the accelerated aging (80 °C for 24 h) did not cause an obvious change in the liquid chemical composition, but led to a significant reduction in the solids and moisture contents. The dynamic viscosity tests demonstrated that the intermediate pyrolysis oil derived from OFMSW is a non-Newtonian fluid. The dynamic viscosity of the pyrolysis oil reduced with the increase of temperature or shear rate, which can be modelled by WLF function and the Carreau model, respectively. A shear rate-temperature superposition method was proposed to construct the viscosity master curve at a wide range of shear rate, where WLF function was employed to model the shear rate-temperature shift factor. The accelerated aging caused an obvious reduction in dynamic viscosity, resulting from the decomposition of the semisolid organic agglomerates in the solids content during the aging of the OFMSW intermediate pyrolysis oil. The relatively high viscosity and reduced viscosity after aging of the OFMSW pyrolysis oil has indicated its potential for application as a substitute of the light fraction in the bitumen for road construction

Evaluation of the differences of myocardial fibers between acute and chronic myocardial infarction: Application of diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging in a rhesus monkey model

Objective: To understand microstructural changes after myocardial infarction (MI), we evaluated myocardial fibers of rhesus monkeys during acute or chronic MI, and identified the differences of myocardial fibers between acute and chronic MI. Materials and Methods: Six fixed hearts of rhesus monkeys with left anterior descending coronary artery ligation for 1 hour or 84 days were scanned by diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), fractional anisotropy (FA) and helix angle (HA). Results: Comparing with acute MI monkeys (FA: 0.59 +/- 0.02; ADC: 5.0 +/- 0.6 x 10(-4) mm(2)/s; HA: 94.5 +/- 4.4 degrees), chronic MI monkeys showed remarkably decreased FA value (0.26 +/- 0.03), increased ADC value (7.8 +/- 0.8 x 10(-4)mm(2)/s), decreased HA transmural range (49.5 +/- 4.6 degrees) and serious defects on endocardium in infarcted regions. The HA in infarcted regions shifted to more components of negative left-handed helix in chronic MI monkeys (-38.3 +/- 5.0 degrees-11.2 +/- 4.3 degrees) than in acute MI monkeys (-41.4 +/- 5.1 degrees-53.1 +/- 3.7 degrees), but the HA in remote regions shifted to more components of positive right-handed helix in chronic MI monkeys (-43.8 +/- 2.7 degrees-66.5 +/- 4.9 degrees) than in acute MI monkeys (-59.5 +/- 3.4 degrees-64.9 +/- 4.3 degrees). Conclusion: Diffusion tensor MRI method helps to quantify differences of mechanical microstructure and water diffusion of myocardial fibers between acute and chronic MI monkey's models.National Natural Science Foundation of China [81130027, 81301196]SCI(E)[email protected]

Liver Toxicity of Rare Ginsenosides in Rats after 13 Weeks of Oral Exposure

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the hepatotoxicity of rare ginsenosides in rats after 90 days of oral administration using heat-transformed rare ginsenosides as the primary material. Methods: A total of 48 male and female rats were randomly assigned into four groups: High-dose rare ginsenosides (600 mg/kg), medium-dose rare ginsenosides (200 mg/kg), low-dose rare ginsenosides (60 mg/kg), and a blank control group. After 90 days of oral gavage treatment, ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS) was employed for metabolomic analysis of rat serum and flow cytometry analysis of liver apoptosis to evaluate the potential liver damage comprehensively in rats. Results: A significant difference in hepatocyte apoptotic rate was observed between the high-dose group and the control group in both male and female rats (P0.05). However, 23 differential metabolites, such as histidine, glutamate, proline and arginine were identified in the serum of female rats in the high-dose group, affecting the histidine and urea cycle metabolic pathways and causing hyperammonemia and liver damage. Ten differential metabolites affecting the alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid metabolic pathways were found in male rats, such as linoleic acid and arachidonic acid. High concentrations of arachidonic acid showed inflammatory and toxic effects, which could be absorbed into the portal vein system through blood and cause liver damage. Conclusion: High-dose rare ginsenosides mainly cause slight liver damage in male and female rats mainly due to the changes of histidine, α-linolenic acid and linoleic acid metabolic pathways. Hence, no adverse liver effects were observed at doses less than 200 mg/kg in both male and female rats

Carbapenemase-Producing Escherichia coli among Humans and Backyard Animals

Background: The rapidly increasing dissemination of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in both humans and animals poses a global threat to public health. However, the transmission of CRE between humans and animals has not yet been well studied. Objectives: We investigated the prevalence, risk factors, and drivers of CRE transmission between humans and their backyard animals in rural China. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive sampling strategy in 12 villages in Shandong, China. Using the household [residents and their backyard animals (farm and companion animals)] as a single surveillance unit, we assessed the prevalence of CRE at the household level and examined the factors associated with CRE carriage through a detailed questionnaire. Genetic relationships among human- and animal-derived CRE were assessed using whole-genome sequencing–based molecular methods. Results: A total of 88 New Delhi metallo-β-lactamases –type carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli (NDM-EC), including 17 from humans, 44 from pigs, 12 from chickens, 1 from cattle, and 2 from dogs, were isolated from 65 of the 746 households examined. The remaining 12 NDM-EC were from flies in the immediate backyard environment. The NDM-EC colonization in households was significantly associated with a) the number of species of backyard animals raised/kept in the same household, and b) the use of human and/or animal feces as fertilizer. Discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) revealed that a large proportion of the core genomes of the NDM-EC belonged to strains from hosts other than their own, and several human isolates shared closely related core single-nucleotide polymorphisms and blaNDM genetic contexts with isolates from backyard animals. Conclusions: To our knowledge, we are the first to report evidence of direct transmission of NDM-EC between humans and animals. Given the rise of NDM-EC in community and hospital infections, combating NDM-EC transmission in backyard farm systems is needed. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP525

SPOC learner's final grade prediction based on a novel sampling batch normalization embedded neural network method

Recent years have witnessed the rapid growth of Small Private Online Courses (SPOC) which is able to highly customized and personalized to adapt variable educational requests, in which machine learning techniques are explored to summarize and predict the learner's performance, mostly focus on the final grade. However, the problem is that the final grade of learners on SPOC is generally seriously imbalance which handicaps the training of prediction model. To solve this problem, a sampling batch normalization embedded deep neural network (SBNEDNN) method is developed in this paper. First, a combined indicator is defined to measure the distribution of the data, then a rule is established to guide the sampling process. Second, the batch normalization (BN) modified layers are embedded into full connected neural network to solve the data imbalanced problem. Experimental results with other three deep learning methods demonstrates the superiority of the proposed method.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, ICAIS 202