Chinas International Financing Strategies

In order to finance rapid economic growth in the 1990’s, Chinese companies tried different strategies for raising capital in international capital markets.  The strategies ranged from the use of depository receipts to listings on major stock exchanges.  The lessons learned from the experiences of the Chinese companies could be valuable for managers from many other countries seeking to raise capital in international capital markets and to investors seeking some foreign investments for their portfolios.  In addition, there are many implications for researchers in international business and economics fields, such as: regulatory policies regarding overseas listings (registration procedures, foreign exchange control), initial public offering (IPO) processes for foreign companies, investment returns with and without international financing, efforts to narrow the differences between accounting standards, international investment banking and accounting services, and World Trade Organization (WTO) changes.  While Chinese companies have been active in many capital markets, the focus of this study is upon the activities of Chinese companies in American capital markets

Franchising In China: The Case Of Medicine Shoppe

As franchising becomes more favorable in China, both foreign and local franchisers and franchisees will benefit from the successful business model developed by Medicine Shoppe

Implications Of Mixed Results With Cointegration Models In International Studies

While cointegration models have been used extensively in many fields (such as in testing for stock market predictability), there have been mixed results from using cointegration models in international studies.  For example, one study attempted to regress the levels of the general stock market price indexes of Norway, Mexico, Venezuela, and of Oman on the levels of interest rate and oil prices variables during the period 1992 to 1999.  Attempts to explain mixed results have included distinguishing developed markets versus less developed markets and differences in the volatilities of markets. Another approach has been attempts to improve cointegration methods.  Some studies have included both bivariate and multivariate methods of cointegration.  Others have employed augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root tests of the residuals.  The extent of mixed results in international studies has implications for earlier studies in single countries.  It is possible that many earlier studies in business and in economics will need to be replicated using newer techniques developed by international researchers.  The purpose of this study is to explain the attempts to improve cointegration methods, the mixed results in international studies, and the implications for earlier studies relying upon cointegration models

Dense sampling of bird diversity increases power of comparative genomics

Whole-genome sequencing projects are increasingly populating the tree of life and characterizing biodiversity(1-4). Sparse taxon sampling has previously been proposed to confound phylogenetic inference(5), and captures only a fraction of the genomic diversity. Here we report a substantial step towards the dense representation of avian phylogenetic and molecular diversity, by analysing 363 genomes from 92.4% of bird families-including 267 newly sequenced genomes produced for phase II of the Bird 10,000 Genomes (B10K) Project. We use this comparative genome dataset in combination with a pipeline that leverages a reference-free whole-genome alignment to identify orthologous regions in greater numbers than has previously been possible and to recognize genomic novelties in particular bird lineages. The densely sampled alignment provides a single-base-pair map of selection, has more than doubled the fraction of bases that are confidently predicted to be under conservation and reveals extensive patterns of weak selection in predominantly non-coding DNA. Our results demonstrate that increasing the diversity of genomes used in comparative studies can reveal more shared and lineage-specific variation, and improve the investigation of genomic characteristics. We anticipate that this genomic resource will offer new perspectives on evolutionary processes in cross-species comparative analyses and assist in efforts to conserve species. A dataset of the genomes of 363 species from the Bird 10,000 Genomes Project shows increased power to detect shared and lineage-specific variation, demonstrating the importance of phylogenetically diverse taxon sampling in whole-genome sequencing.Peer reviewe

Author Correction: Dense sampling of bird diversity increases power of comparative genomics

In Supplementary Table 1 of this Article, 23 samples (B10K-DU-029-32, B10K-DU-029-33, B10K-DU-029-36 to B10K-DU-029-44, B10K-DU- 029-46, B10K-DU-029-47, B10K-DU-029-49 to B10K-DU-029-53, B10K-DU- 029-75 to B10K-DU-029-77, B10K-DU-029-80, and B10K-DU-030-03; styled in boldface in the revised table) were assigned to the incorrect institution. Supplementary Table 1 has been amended to reflect the correct source institution for these samples, and associated data (tissue, museum ID/source specimen ID, site, state/province, latitude, longitude, date collected and sex) have been updated accordingly. The original table is provided as Supplementary Information to this Amendment, and the original Article has been corrected online