Research of Microcosmic Affection Factors on Capital Misallocation: A Case of Chinese Listed Companies

With the restrictions of equity financing of Chinese listed companies, debt dimensions are increasing, and the issue of corporate financial structure and financing constraints influence on capital misallocation has become an important practical problem which Chinese listed companies face. This paper is concerned with a model about capital misallocation and its influencing factors of integrated financing, capital operation, and investment performance. We take 7096 observations of 646 Chinese listed companies during fiscal years 2003 to 2014 for A-shares on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchange, for instance, to empirically test the microscopic influencing factors of capital misallocation under different external financing dependence. The study illustrates the following: (1) in descriptive statistics of different industries capital misallocation, more than half of firms experience the circumstance of capital misallocation; (2) although Chinese listed companies are faced with financing constraints, capital market inefficiency, and other issues, most companies still depend on external financing; (3) the main factors that affect capital misallocation of the listed companies are financial liquidity and financial pledgeability; (4) the firms with high innovation abilities generally have stronger profitability, superior financial liquidity, and better financial pledgeability, thus reducing corporate capital misallocation; (5) the Chinese listed companies with large-scale assets and strong profitability easily obtain bank loans and equity financing, while violating the principle of assets matching

Predicting nosocomial lower respiratory tract infections by a risk index based system

Although belonging to one of the most common type of nosocomial infection, there was currently no simple prediction model for lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs). This study aims to develop a risk index based system for predicting nosocomial LRTIs based on data from a large point-prevalence survey. Among the 49328 patients included, the prevalence of nosocomial LRTIs was 1.70% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.64% to 1.76%). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for logistic regression and fisher discriminant analysis were 0.907 (95% CI, 0.897 to 0.917) and 0.902 (95% CI, 0.892 to 0.912), respectively. The constructed risk index based system also displayed excellent discrimination (area under the ROC curve: 0.905 [95% CI, 0.895 to 0.915]) to identify LRTI in internal validation. Six risk levels were generated according to the risk score distribution of study population, ranging from 0 to 5, the corresponding prevalence of nosocomial LRTIs were 0.00%, 0.39%, 3.86%, 12.38%, 28.79% and 44.83%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of prediction were 0.87 and 0.79, respectively, when the best cut-off point of risk score was set to 14. Our study suggested that this newly constructed risk index based system might be applied to boost more rational infection control programs in clinical settings

High prevalence and clonal dissemination of OXA-72-producing Acinetobacter baumannii in a Chinese hospital:a cross sectional study

Background: Carbapenem resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii in China was mainly mediated by OXA-23-like carbapenemases, while OXA-24/40-like carbapenemases were rarely identified. OXA-72 is one variant of OXA-24/40-like carbapenemases. This study aimed to demonstrate the epidemiology and characterizations of OXA-72-producing A. baumannii in a Chinese hospital. Methods: A total of 107 clinical A. calcoaceticus-A. baumannii (Acb) complex isolates were collected in a Chinese hospital during between 2014 and 2016. These isolates were identified using Vitek 2 system and gyrB multiplex PCR. Vitek 2 system was used for antibiotic susceptibility testing. Genes encoding for major classes of carbapenemases were investigated by PCR. Rep-PCR was used for genotyping of all the A. baumannii isolates. The risk factors for carriage of OXA-72-producing or OXA-23-producing A. baumannii were analyzed through univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Results: Of the 107 Acb isolates collected, 101 isolates (94.4%) and 6 isolates (5.6%) were identified as A. baumannii and A. pittii, respectively. 78 A. baumannii isolates (77.2%) were carbapenem resistant and mainly cultured from intensive care unit (ICU). blaOXA-72 and blaOXA-23 genes were identified in 45(57.7%) and 33(42.3%) carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii (CRAB), respectively. Multivariate risk factor analyses showed that prior carbapenem usage and nasogastric intubation were significantly associated with carriage of OXA-72-producing A. baumannii or OXA-23-producing A. baumannii. Rep-PCR analysis showed that 9 and 22 Rep-PCR types were assigned to 78 CRAB isolates and 23 carbapenem-susceptible A. baumannii (CSAB) isolates, respectively. A higher diverstiy of Rep-PCR patterns was observed among OXA-72-producing A. baumannii isolates than OXA-23-producing A. baumannii isolates, but all of them belonged to the same clone complex. MLST analysis suggested that the OXA-72 isolates from this study correspond to CC92/CC2 clone complex. Conclusions: This study demonstrates high prevalence and potential clonal spread of closely related genotypes of OXA-72-producing A. baumannii within a Chinese hospital. Continuous surveillance is necessary to monitor the dissemination of these strains in other healthcare settings to guide infection control policies in order to curb the spread of this bacterium

An invasive species erodes the performance of coastal wetland protected areas

The world has increasingly relied on protected areas (PAs) to rescue highly valued ecosystems from human activities, but whether PAs will fare well with bioinvasions remains unknown. By analyzing three decades of seven of the largest coastal PAs in China, including World Natural Heritage and/or Wetlands of International Importance sites, we show that, although PAs are achieving success in rescuing iconic wetlands and critical shorebird habitats from once widespread reclamation, this success is counteracted by escalating plant invasions. Plant invasions were not only more extensive in PAs than non-PA controls but also undermined PA performance by, without human intervention, irreversibly replacing expansive native wetlands (primarily mudflats) and precluding successional formation of new native marshes. Exotic species are invading PAs globally. This study across large spatiotemporal scales highlights that the consequences of bioinvasions for humanity’s major conservation tool may be more profound, far reaching, and critical for management than currently recognized

Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards interlaboratory study on intensity calibration for x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy instruments using low-density polyethylene

We report the results of a Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards interlaboratory study on the intensity scale calibration of x-ray photoelectron spectrometers using low-density polyethylene (LDPE) as an alternative material to gold, silver, and copper. An improved set of LDPE reference spectra, corrected for different instrument geometries using a quartz-monochromated Al Kα x-ray source, was developed using data provided by participants in this study. Using these new reference spectra, a transmission function was calculated for each dataset that participants provided. When compared to a similar calibration procedure using the NPL reference spectra for gold, the LDPE intensity calibration method achieves an absolute offset of ∼3.0% and a systematic deviation of ±6.5% on average across all participants. For spectra recorded at high pass energies (≥90 eV), values of absolute offset and systematic deviation are ∼5.8% and ±5.7%, respectively, whereas for spectra collected at lower pass energies (<90 eV), values of absolute offset and systematic deviation are ∼4.9% and ±8.8%, respectively; low pass energy spectra perform worse than the global average, in terms of systematic deviations, due to diminished count rates and signal-to-noise ratio. Differences in absolute offset are attributed to the surface roughness of the LDPE induced by sample preparation. We further assess the usability of LDPE as a secondary reference material and comment on its performance in the presence of issues such as variable dark noise, x-ray warm up times, inaccuracy at low count rates, and underlying spectrometer problems. In response to participant feedback and the results of the study, we provide an updated LDPE intensity calibration protocol to address the issues highlighted in the interlaboratory study. We also comment on the lack of implementation of a consistent and traceable intensity calibration method across the community of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) users and, therefore, propose a route to achieving this with the assistance of instrument manufacturers, metrology laboratories, and experts leading to an international standard for XPS intensity scale calibration

Simple hyperchaotic memory system with large topological entropy

The memory elements have been the research hot spot for a long time. However, there is a&nbsp;litter works on the linear memory element. This paper presents a study of a new memory system containing a linear memory element. The study shows that the system not only has two kinds of route to hyperchaos, but also exists many kinds of coexisting attractors in the phase space. Moreover, the system can generate more complex hyperchaotic behaviors. To prove it, we find a new kind of topological horseshoes with two-directional expansions that consist of three disconnected compact sets. This new kind of horseshoes suggests that the topological entropy of the hyperchaotic attractor is larger than other hyperchaotic attractors reported before. For detailed study of the hyperchaotic invariant set, we also demonstrate a method to extract the orbits from the hyperchaotic horseshoes