Two Essays on Corporate Reorganization under Chapter 11

This dissertation studies Chapter 11 reorganization from two different angles. It consists of two essays. The first essay investigates how different parties bargain during reorganization to settle the claims against the debtor. Specifically, I study bankrupt firms\u27 performance during reorganization to investigate whether management engages in moral hazard activities to pressure creditors to forgive more debt. I find that bankrupt firms perform worse during reorganization than non-bankrupt firms with similar characteristics. I also find that increased alignment of interests between shareholders and management contributes to longer reorganization periods, higher reorganization expenses, and worse firm performance during reorganization. These findings suggest moral hazard problems during reorganization. The second essay examines the efficacy of Chapter 11 reorganization. In this essay, I investigate two interrelated issues by studying post-emergence performance of bankrupt firms. The first issue concerns the choice between reorganization and liquidation. Specifically, I examine whether most firms that actually reorganize under Chapter 11 are the ones that should be reorganized as opposed to liquidated. I find that the performance of bankrupt firms is significantly improved after reorganization. This result indicates that Chapter 11 is generally able to screen out firms that cannot be rehabilitated and therefore should be liquidated. The second issue concerns how bankrupt firms are restructured. I find that debt-equity exchange specified in reorganization plans contributes to the improvement of post-emergence performance of bankrupt firms, but absolute priority rule (APR) deviation of equity does not. This result suggests that debt-equity exchange tends to reflect the beneficial recontracting among different parties to rehabilitate bankrupt firms. The rehabilitation is consistent with the common interests of all parties. However, APR deviation may result from the conflicts of interests, which do not contribute to performance improvement. The first essay largely concentrates on how conflicts of interests influence a debtor’s behavior during reorganization, whereas the second one focuses on how conflicts of interests, together with common interests, affect a debtor’s choice between reorganization and liquidation and how they influence the debtor’s performance after reorganization. Together, the two essays contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of Chapter 11 reorganization

Methylated DNMT1 and E2F1 Are Targeted for Proteolysis by L3MBTL3 and CRL4DCAF5 Ubiquitin Ligase

Many non-histone proteins are lysine methylated and a novel function of this modification is to trigger the proteolysis of methylated proteins. Here, we report that the methylated lysine 142 of DNMT1, a major DNA methyltransferase that preserves epigenetic inheritance of DNA methylation patterns during DNA replication, is demethylated by LSD1. A novel methyl-binding protein, L3MBTL3, binds the K142-methylated DNMT1 and recruits a novel CRL4DCAF5 ubiquitin ligase to degrade DNMT1. Both LSD1 and PHF20L1 act primarily in S phase to prevent DNMT1 degradation by L3MBTL3-CRL4DCAF5. Mouse L3MBTL3/MBT-1 deletion causes accumulation of DNMT1 protein, increased genomic DNA methylation, and late embryonic lethality. DNMT1 contains a consensus methylation motif shared by many non-histone proteins including E2F1, a key transcription factor for S phase. We show that the methylation-dependent E2F1 degradation is also controlled by L3MBTL3-CRL4DCAF5. Our studies elucidate for the first time a novel mechanism by which the stability of many methylated non-histone proteins are regulated

General GAN-generated image detection by data augmentation in fingerprint domain

In this work, we investigate improving the generalizability of GAN-generated image detectors by performing data augmentation in the fingerprint domain. Specifically, we first separate the fingerprints and contents of the GAN-generated images using an autoencoder based GAN fingerprint extractor, followed by random perturbations of the fingerprints. Then the original fingerprints are substituted with the perturbed fingerprints and added to the original contents, to produce images that are visually invariant but with distinct fingerprints. The perturbed images can successfully imitate images generated by different GANs to improve the generalization of the detectors, which is demonstrated by the spectra visualization. To our knowledge, we are the first to conduct data augmentation in the fingerprint domain. Our work explores a novel prospect that is distinct from previous works on spatial and frequency domain augmentation. Extensive cross-GAN experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our method compared to the state-of-the-art methods in detecting fake images generated by unknown GANs

Genomics-assisted breeding - A revolutionary strategy for crop improvement

Food shortages arise more frequently owing to unpredictable crop yield losses caused by biotic and abiotic stresses. With advances in molecular biology and marker technology, a new era of molecular breeding has emerged that has greatly accelerated the pace of plant breeding. High-throughput genotyping technology and phenotyping platforms have enabled large-scale marker-trait association analysis, such as genome-wide association studies, to precisely dissect the genetic architecture of plant traits. Large-scale mapping of agronomically important quantitative trait loci, gene cloning and characterization, mining of elite alleles/haplotypes, exploitation of natural variations, and genomic selection have paved the way towards genomics-assisted breeding (GAB). With the availability of more and more informative genomic datasets, GAB would become a promising technique to expedite the breeding cycle for crop improvement

Does Role-Playing Chatbots Capture the Character Personalities? Assessing Personality Traits for Role-Playing Chatbots

The emergence of large-scale pretrained language models has revolutionized the capabilities of new AI application, especially in the realm of crafting chatbots with distinct personas. Given the "stimulus-response" nature of chatbots, this paper unveils an innovative open-ended interview-style approach for personality assessment on role-playing chatbots, which offers a richer comprehension of their intrinsic personalities. We conduct personality assessments on 32 role-playing chatbots created by the ChatHaruhi library, across both the Big Five and MBTI dimensions, and measure their alignment with human perception. Evaluation results underscore that modern role-playing chatbots based on LLMs can effectively portray personality traits of corresponding characters, with an alignment rate of 82.8% compared with human-perceived personalities. Besides, we also suggest potential strategies for shaping chatbots' personalities. Hence, this paper serves as a cornerstone study for role-playing chatbots that intersects computational linguistics and psychology. Our resources are available at https://github.com/LC1332/Chat-Haruhi-SuzumiyaComment: A Personality Traits Test Over ChatHaruh

Construction and characterization of an infectious clone of coxsackievirus A16

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Coxsackievirus A16 (CVA16) is a member of the <it>Enterovirus </it>genus of the <it>Picornaviridae </it>family and it is a major etiological agent of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD), which is a common illness affecting children. CVA16 possesses a single-stranded positive-sense RNA genome containing approximately 7410 bases. Current understanding of the replication, structure and virulence determinants of CVA16 is very limited, partly due to difficulties in directly manipulating its RNA genome.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two overlapping cDNA fragments were amplified by RT-PCR from the genome of the shzh05-1 strain of CVA16, encompassing the nucleotide regions 1-4392 and 4381-7410, respectively. These two fragments were then joined <it>via </it>a native <it>Xba</it>I site to yield a full-length cDNA. A T7 promoter and poly(A) tail were added to the 5' and 3' ends, respectively, forming a full CVA16 cDNA clone. Transfection of RD cells <it>in vitro </it>with RNA transcribed directly from the cDNA clone allowed the recovery of infectious virus in culture. The CVA16 virus recovered from these cultures was functionally and genetically identical to its parent strain.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We report the first construction and characterization of an infectious cDNA clone of CVA16. The availability of this infectious clone will greatly enhance future virological investigations and vaccine development for CVA16.</p

Synthesis, Crystal Structure and Biological Activity of Two Triketone-Containing Quinoxalines as HPPD Inhibitors

Two new triketone-containing quinoxaline derivatives were designed by fragment splicing strategy and synthesized using 3,4-diaminobenzoic acid and substituted cyclohexanedione as starting materials. Both compounds were characterized by IR, 1H and 13C NMR, HRMS and X-ray diffraction. 3-Hydroxy-5-methyl-2-(quinoxaline-6-carbonyl)cyclohex-2-en-1-one (6a) crystallized in the triclinic system, space group Pī, a = 7.9829(2) Å, b = 8.1462(2) Å, c = 10.7057(3) Å, α = 84.3590(10)°, β = 89.7760(10)°, γ = 87.4190(10)°, Z = 2, V = 692.12(3) Å3, F(000) = 296, Dc = 1.335 Mg/m3, m(MoKa) = 0.095 mm–1, R = 0.0683 and wR= 0.1983. 3-Hydroxy-5,5-dimethyl-2-(3-ethoxyquinoxaline-6-carbonyl)cyclohex-2-en-1-one (6b) crystallized in the monoclinic system, space group P21/c, a = 10.1554(6) Å, b = 9.6491(6) Å, c = 17.7645(10) Å, β = 90.784(2)°, Z = 4, V = 1740.59(18) Å3, F(000) = 720, Dc = 1.299 Mg/m3, m(MoKa) = 0.092 mm–1, R = 0.0462 and wR = 0.1235. Physicochemical property comparison and ADMET prediction showed that compound 6a had similar properties to the commercial herbicide mesotrione. Molecular docking results showed that the interactions between 6a and AtHPPD were similar to mesotrione. Moreover, the extended aromatic ring system and the additional alkyl form more interactions with the surrounding residues. Examination of AtHPPD inhibition and herbicidal activity showed that 6a had similar inhibition values to mesotrione and had a superior inhibitory effect on Echinochloa crus-galli

Design and characterization of protein-quercetin bioactive nanoparticles

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The synthesis of bioactive nanoparticles with precise molecular level control is a major challenge in bionanotechnology. Understanding the nature of the interactions between the active components and transport biomaterials is thus essential for the rational formulation of bio-nanocarriers. The current study presents a single molecule of bovine serum albumin (BSA), lysozyme (Lys), or myoglobin (Mb) used to load hydrophobic drugs such as quercetin (Q) and other flavonoids.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Induced by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), BSA, Lys, and Mb formed spherical nanocarriers with sizes less than 70 nm. After loading Q, the size was further reduced by 30%. The adsorption of Q on protein is mainly hydrophobic, and is related to the synergy of Trp residues with the molecular environment of the proteins. Seven Q molecules could be entrapped by one Lys molecule, 9 by one Mb, and 11 by one BSA. The controlled releasing measurements indicate that these bioactive nanoparticles have long-term antioxidant protection effects on the activity of Q in both acidic and neutral conditions. The antioxidant activity evaluation indicates that the activity of Q is not hindered by the formation of protein nanoparticles. Other flavonoids, such as kaempferol and rutin, were also investigated.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>BSA exhibits the most remarkable abilities of loading, controlled release, and antioxidant protection of active drugs, indicating that such type of bionanoparticles is very promising in the field of bionanotechnology.</p