Impact of Controlling Shareholder Equity Pledge on Corporate Value

As an innovative financing behavior, equity pledge breaks the limit of traditional financing, and broadens the financing channels of companies and major shareholders. This paper comprehensively considers the impact of controlling shareholder equity pledge on corporate value from three research perspectives. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) When the equity pledge is not considered, the cash flow rights and voting rights of the company owned by the controlling shareholder are positively correlated with corporate value. That is, this presents incentive effect, but the existence of the separation of the two powers brings the second type of agency problem and reduces corporate value. (2) When considering the equity pledge, the controlling shareholder’s equity pledge may weaken the incentive effect and strengthen the encroachment effect which causing a reduction of corporate value. (3) Based on the accounting point of view, the controlling shareholder’s equity pledge is negatively correlated with the corporate performance, while the concentration of ownership dilutes this negative effect. (4) The balance of equity weakens the negative effect of the controlling shareholder’s equity pledge on corporate value, thereby reduces the negative impact of the equity pledge

A Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Multi-Criteria Decision Support System for Textile Manufacturing Process Optimization

Textile manufacturing is a typical traditional industry involving high complexity in interconnected processes with limited capacity on the application of modern technologies. Decision-making in this domain generally takes multiple criteria into consideration, which usually arouses more complexity. To address this issue, the present paper proposes a decision support system that combines the intelligent data-based random forest (RF) models and a human knowledge based analytical hierarchical process (AHP) multi-criteria structure in accordance to the objective and the subjective factors of the textile manufacturing process. More importantly, the textile manufacturing process is described as the Markov decision process (MDP) paradigm, and a deep reinforcement learning scheme, the Deep Q-networks (DQN), is employed to optimize it. The effectiveness of this system has been validated in a case study of optimizing a textile ozonation process, showing that it can better master the challenging decision-making tasks in textile manufacturing processes.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2012.0110

How far is brain-inspired artificial intelligence away from brain?

Fueled by the development of neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI), recent advances in the brain-inspired AI have manifested a tipping-point in the collaboration of the two fields. AI began with the inspiration of neuroscience, but has evolved to achieve a remarkable performance with little dependence upon neuroscience. However, in a recent collaboration, research into neurobiological explainability of AI models found that these highly accurate models may resemble the neurobiological representation of the same computational processes in the brain, although these models have been developed in the absence of such neuroscientific references. In this perspective, we review the cooperation and separation between neuroscience and AI, and emphasize on the current advance, that is, a new cooperation, the neurobiological explainability of AI. Under the intertwined development of the two fields, we propose a practical framework to evaluate the brain-likeness of AI models, paving the way for their further improvements

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Recovery of Multicomponent Shale Gas from Single Nanopores

The adsorption of multicomponent gas mixtures in shale formations and their recovery are of great interest to the shale gas industry. Here we report molecular dynamics simulations of the adsorption of methane/ethane mixtures in 2 and 4 nm-wide nanopores and their recovery from these nanopores. Surface adsorption contributes significantly to the storage of methane and ethane inside the pores, and ethane is enriched inside the nanopores in equilibrium with bulk methane–ethane mixtures. The enrichment of ethane is enhanced as the pore is narrowed but is weakened as the pressure increases due to entropic effects. These effects are captured by the ideal adsorbed solution (IAS) theory, but the theory overestimates the adsorption of both gases. Upon opening the mouth of the nanopores to gas baths with lower pressure, both gases enter the bath. The production rates of both gases show only weak deviation from the square root scaling law before the gas diffusion front reaches the dead end of the pores. The ratio of the production rate of ethane and methane is close to their initial mole ratio inside the nanopore despite the fact that the mobility of pure ethane is smaller than that of pure methane inside the pores. Scale analysis and calculation of the Onsager coefficients for the transport of binary mixtures of methane and ethane inside the nanopores suggest that the strong coupling between methane and ethane transport is responsible for the effective recovery of ethane from the nanopores

Transcriptome and Metabolome Analyses Provide Insights into the Flavonoid Accumulation in Peels of Citrus reticulata ‘Chachi’

The quality of Chinese medicinal materials depends on the content of bioactive components, which are affected by the environmental factors of different planting regions. In this research, integrated analysis of the transcriptome and metabolome of C. reticulata ‘Chachi’ was performed in two regions, and three orchards were included in the analysis. In total, only 192 compounds were found in fresh peels, and among 18 differentially accumulated flavonoid metabolites, 15 flavonoids were enriched in peels from the Xinhui planting region. In total, 1228 genes were up-regulated in peels from Xinhui, including the CHS and GST genes, which are involved in the salt stress response. Overall, based on the correlation analysis of flavonoid content and gene expression in peels of C. reticulata ‘Chachi’, we concluded that the authenticity of the GCRP from Xinhui may be closely related to the higher content of naringin and narirutin, and the increase in the content of these may be due to the highly saline environment of the Xinhui region

Restoration of Shallow Lakes in Subtropical and Tropical China: Response of Nutrients and Water Clarity to Biomanipulation by Fish Removal and Submerged Plant Transplantation

Fish removal has been used to restore temperate lakes, and positive effects on ecological state and water clarity have frequently been recorded in many lakes. Recently, a supplementary measure, transplantation of submerged macrophytes after fish removal, has been applied to restore warm Chinese shallow lakes in order to compensate for the expected lack of increasing grazing control of phytoplankton after the biomanipulation. These measures have successfully shifted turbid warm lakes to a clear water state, but little is known about the responses to restoration of key physico-chemical variables. We analyzed the seasonal variation in nutrient concentrations in two subtropical and one tropical biomanipulated shallow Chinese lakes subjected to restoration. In all three lakes, a marked decline occurred in the concentrations of lake total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total suspended solids (TSS), and chlorophyll a (Chl a), while the transparency (SD: WD ratio, Secchi depth to water depth ratio) increased. A clear water state was established, lasting so far for 7 to 23 months, and TN, TP, Chl a, and TSS levels in the three restored lakes decreased to, on average, 49%, 58%, 41%, and 18% of the level prior to restoration and/or the level in a reference lake, respectively, while the annual mean SD: WD ratio exhibited a 1.5-4 fold increase. In conclusion, lake restoration by transplantation of submerged macrophytes after fish removal had major positive effects on the physico-chemical variables in our study lakes. However, continuous control of omnivorous and herbivorous fish biomass is recommended as the fish typically present in warm, shallow lakes to some extent feed on submerged macrophytes, when available

Myeloperoxidase mediated HDL oxidation and HDL proteome changes do not contribute to dysfunctional HDL in Chinese subjects with coronary artery disease

<div><p>High density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels and cholesterol efflux capacity (CEC) are inversely correlated with coronary artery disease (CAD) risk. Myeloperoxidase (MPO) derived oxidants and HDL proteome changes are implicated in HDL dysfunction in subjects with CAD in the United States; however, the effect of MPO on HDL function and HDL proteome in ethnic Chinese population is unknown. We recruited four matched ethnic Chinese groups (20 patients each): subjects with 1) low HDL levels (HDL levels in men <40mg/dL and women <50mg/dL) and non-CAD (identified by coronary angiography or cardiac CT angiography); 2) low HDL and CAD; 3) high HDL (men >50mg/dL; women >60mg/dL) with no CAD; and 4) high HDL with CAD. Serum cytokines, serum MPO levels, serum CEC, MPO-oxidized HDL tyrosine moieties, and HDL proteome were assessed by mass spectrometry individually in the four groups.</p><p>The cytokines, MPO levels, and HDL proteome profiles were not significantly different between the four groups. As expected, CEC was depressed in the entire CAD group but more specifically in the CAD low-HDL group. HDL of CAD subjects had significantly higher 3-nitrotyrosine than non-CAD subjects, but the MPO-specific 3-chlorotyrosine was unchanged; CEC in the CAD low-HDL group did not correlate with either HDL 3-chlorotyrosine or 3-nitrotyrosine levels. Neither 3-chlorotyrosine, which is MPO-specific, nor 3-nitrotyrosine generated from MPO or other reactive nitrogen species was associated with CEC. MPO mediated oxidative stress and HDL proteome composition changes are not the primary cause HDL dysfunction in Chinese subjects with CAD. These studies highlight ethnic differences in HDL dysfunction between United States and Chinese cohorts raising possibility of unique pathways of HDL dysfunction in this cohort.</p></div