Athletes in boardrooms:Evidence from the world

International audienceThis study examines the relation between the athletic experience of board directors and corporate outcomes. We predict that athletes’ attributes, such as physical fitness, mental resilience, leadership, and team-working skills, enhance their monitoring role. Using a large sample from 71 countries, we find that athletic experience is associated with better firm performance. The benefits are more pronounced when the experience is of team sports and confrontational sports, and for firms experiencing financial crisis. The results remain consistent when we instrument the athletic experience of directors with the number of Olympic medals won and Olympic sports participated in by the country in question at the previous Olympic Games

Ownership structure and risk-taking:Comparative evidence from private and state-controlled banks in China

This study examines the impact of ownership structure on Chinese banks\u27 risk-taking behaviours. We classify the Chinese commercial banks into three categories based on the types of controlling shareholder, and find that banks controlled by the government (GCBs) tend to take more risks than those controlled by state-owned enterprises (SOECBs) or private investors (PCBs). This is attributed to the severe political intervention and weak incentives to follow prudent bank management practices for GCBs. We also find that the results are more pronounced among banks with concentrated ownership presumably because the large controlling power helps to enhance the monitoring of the management and promotes prudent operating procedures. Our findings have important implications for the ongoing reform in the Chinese banking sector

The impact of foreign bank penetration on the domestic banking sector:New evidence from China

This study proposes a foreign bank branch networks index (FBBNI) to capture bank-level exposure to competition from foreign banks in terms of geographical proximity. The index takes account of the rapidly expanding branch networks of both foreign and domestic banks in China. Based on data from a sample of three types of Chinese commercial banks from 2002 to 2011, we find that exposure to the branch networks of foreign banks is associated with improved profitability at domestic banks, higher efficiency, and increased non-interest income, consistent with knowledge transfer from foreign banks. These relationships are most pronounced for joint-stock domestic banks presumably because their ownership structure fosters knowledge transfer

Evaluating the performance of Chinese commercial banks:A comparative analysis of different types of banks

This paper examines the cost and profit efficiency of four types of Chinese commercial banks over the period from 2002 to 2013. We find that the cost and profit efficiencies improved across all types of Chinese domestic banks in general and the banks are more profit-efficient than cost efficient. Foreign banks are the most cost efficient but the least profit efficient. The profit efficiency gap between foreign banks and domestic banks has widened after the World Trade Organization transition period (2007–2013). Ownership structure, market competition, bank size, and listing status are the main determinants of the efficiency of Chinese banks. We also find a causal relationship between efficiency and SROE by using the panel auto regression method. The evidence from the shadow return on equity (SROE) suggests that policy makers should be cautious of the adjustment costs imposed by the recapitalization process, which offsets the efficiency gains

Transcriptome Analysis and Ultrastructure Observation Reveal that Hawthorn Fruit Softening Is due to Cellulose/Hemicellulose Degradation

Softening, a common phenomenon in many fruits, is a well coordinated and genetically determined process. However, the process of flesh softening during ripening has rarely been described in hawthorn. In this study, we found that ‘Ruanrou Shanlihong 3 Hao’ fruits became softer during ripening, whereas ‘Qiu JinXing’ fruits remained hard. At late developmental stages, the firmness of ‘Ruanrou Shanlihong 3 Hao’ fruits rapidly declined, and that of ‘Qiu JinXing’ fruits remained essentially unchanged. According to transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the middle lamella of ‘Qiu JinXing’ and ‘Ruanrou Shanlihong 3 Hao’ fruit flesh was largely degraded as the fruits matured. Microfilaments in ‘Qiu JinXing’ flesh were arranged close together and were deep in color, whereas those in ‘Ruanrou Shanlihong 3 Hao’ fruit flesh were arranged loosely, partially degraded and light in color. RNA-Seq analysis yielded approximately 46.72 Gb of clean data and 72,837 unigenes. Galactose metabolism and pentose and glucuronate interconversions are involved in cell wall metabolism, play an important role in hawthorn texture. We identified 85 unigenes related to the cell wall between hard- and soft-fleshed hawthorn fruits. Based on data analysis and real-time PCR, we suggest that β-GAL and PE4 have important functions in early fruit softening. The genes Ffase, Gns, α-GAL, PE63, XTH and CWP, which are involved in cell wall degradation, are responsible for the different textures of hawthorn fruits. Thus, we hypothesize that the different textures of ‘Qiu JinXing’ and ‘Ruanrou Shanlihong 3 Hao’ fruits at maturity mainly result from cellulose/hemicelluloses degradation rather than from lamella degradation. Overall, we propose that different types of hydrolytic enzymes in cells interact to degrade the cell wall, resulting in ultramicroscopic Structure changes in the cell wall and, consequently, fruit softening. These results provide fundamental insight regarding the mechanisms by which hawthorn fruits acquire different textures and also lay a solid foundation for further research

San Bruno, puerta a los cerros: arquitectura como vínculo entre el ciudadano y su entorno natural

Artículo de gradoSe realiza un proyecto urbano a escala de tres barrios: Egipto, El Parejo y La Peña. igualmente se realiza un proyecto urbano a menor escala en el sector San Bruno (Egipto) y un proyecto arquitectónico dentro de este, en la entrada a los Cerros Orientales de Bogotá, se propone una casa del árbol.1. INTRODUCCIÓN 1.1 DISPOSITIVOS DE APROPIACIÓN DEMOCRATICA 2. METODOLOGÍA 3. RESULTADOS 3.1 ETAPAS DE DESARROLLO 3.2 BARRIO EGIPTO, EL PAREJO Y LA PEÑA 3.3 SECTOR SAN BRUNO 3.4 MEMORIA Y ACCESIBILIDAD 3.5 BOSQUE DE COLUMNAS 3.5.1 ACTIVA 3.5.2 PASIVA 3.5.3 PRODUCTIVA 4. LA CASA DEL ARBOL 5. DISCUSIÓN 6. CONCLUSION 7. REFERENCIAS 8. ANEXOSPregradoArquitect

Gait Cycle-Inspired Learning Strategy for Continuous Prediction of Knee Joint Trajectory from sEMG

Predicting lower limb motion intent is vital for controlling exoskeleton robots and prosthetic limbs. Surface electromyography (sEMG) attracts increasing attention in recent years as it enables ahead-of-time prediction of motion intentions before actual movement. However, the estimation performance of human joint trajectory remains a challenging problem due to the inter- and intra-subject variations. The former is related to physiological differences (such as height and weight) and preferred walking patterns of individuals, while the latter is mainly caused by irregular and gait-irrelevant muscle activity. This paper proposes a model integrating two gait cycle-inspired learning strategies to mitigate the challenge for predicting human knee joint trajectory. The first strategy is to decouple knee joint angles into motion patterns and amplitudes former exhibit low variability while latter show high variability among individuals. By learning through separate network entities, the model manages to capture both the common and personalized gait features. In the second, muscle principal activation masks are extracted from gait cycles in a prolonged walk. These masks are used to filter out components unrelated to walking from raw sEMG and provide auxiliary guidance to capture more gait-related features. Experimental results indicate that our model could predict knee angles with the average root mean square error (RMSE) of 3.03(0.49) degrees and 50ms ahead of time. To our knowledge this is the best performance in relevant literatures that has been reported, with reduced RMSE by at least 9.5%

Molecular Analysis of Evolution and Origins of Cultivated Hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) and Related Species in China

Hawthorn is of high economic value owing to its medicinal properties and health benefits. Crataegus is a member of the Rosaceae family; the genus has a complicated taxonomic history, and several theories on its origin have been proposed. In this study, 53 accessions from seven Crataegus taxa native to China and accessions of exotic Crataegus species (two from Europe and one from North America) were analyzed by specific locus amplified fragment sequencing (SLAF-seq). In total, 933,450 single-nucleotide polymorphisms were identified after filtering and used to investigate the species’ genomic evolution. Phylogenetic trees derived from nuclear simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and SLAF-seq data showed the same topology, in which Crataegus maximowiczii and Crataegus sanguineae formed a closely related cluster that was clearly separated from the cluster composed of Crataegus hupehensis, Crataegus pinnatifida, Crataegus pinnatifida var. major, Crataegus bretschneideri and Crataegus scabrifolia. Phylogenetic and structure analysis indicated that the seven Chinese Crataegus taxa had two separate speciation events. Plants that evolved the southwestern route shared the genepool with the European species, whereas plants along the northeastern route shared the genepool with the North American species. TreeMix genetic analysis revealed that C. bretschneideri may have a hybrid origin. This study provides valuable information on the origins of Chinese Crataegus and suggests an evolutionary model for the main Crataegus species that native to China

«Querer ser mãe ... um longo caminho a percorrer!» Um caso da consulta GEMF (Grupo de Estudos de Morte Fetal)

A perda de uma criança «in utero)) pode ser uma experiência trágica para a mulher. O objectivo deste artigo é tentar abordar esta questão e examinar os resultados do apoio psicológico numa futura gravidez após um ou mais insucessos por Morte fetal, dando como exemplo a análise de um caso clínico.ABSTRACT: The loss of a child «in utero» can be a tragic experience. The purpose of the present article is to examine the effectiveness of psychological intervention in the adjustment to a fetal death and to a pregnancy after a fetal death, focusing on a clinical case.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio