International market integration and market interdependence: evidence from China's stock market in the post-WTO accession period

The Chinese government has implemented a series of financial liberalisation policies in stock market after China’s accession into the WTO in 2001. However, it remains somewhat unclear whether and to what extent China’s financial liberalisation has influenced its stock market in the post-WTO accession period. This thesis examines this issue from the perspectives of international market integration and market interdependence. This thesis mainly includes three empirical studies: 1) gauging the degree of market integration by the weak-form measure, 2) measuring the degree of market interdependence by the multi-factor R-squared measure, as well as 3) examining the relationship between these two elements by the MWALD causality test and cointegration analysis. The first empirical study finds that China’s financial liberalisation might have largely decreased the stock market segmentation between China and the world in the period from July 2003 to June 2007, but this process has been interrupted by the global financial crisis in 2008. Meanwhile, only some of China’s financial liberalisation policies might be regarded as effective, such as the QFII programme, the first round of exchange rate reform and the QDII programme. The second empirical study regards that the stock market interdependence between China and the world has experienced three stages. These stages are: 1) the stationary stage from July 2001 to June 2003; 2) the increasing and steady stage from July 2003 to June 2006, which might be thanks to China’s financial liberalisation; as well as 3) an inverted U-shaped stage from July 2006 to December 2009, which might be attributed to China’s economy overheating in 2007 and to its economic stimulus plan in 2008. This third empirical study finds that there has been a unidirectional causal relationship from market integration to market interdependence, and a cointegration relationship between them. Market integration and market interdependence are found to be highly connected but different issues. Market integration is one, but not the only, determinant of market interdependence

Financial liberalisation and international market interdependence: evidence from China’s stock market in the post-WTO accession period

This paper studies China’s stock market with respect to financial liberalization and international market interdependence after its accession to the WTO in 2001. Using the multi-factor R-squared measure, we derive a normalized index to measure the impact of financial liberalization policies on stock market interdependence between China and the world. Some of China’s financial liberalization measures, such as QFII and exchange rate reform, are found to have played an important role in increasing market interdependence. After the US credit crunch in 2007 and the world financial crisis in the following years, some anomalies were observed as China’s stock market was more interdependent of the global market than the US stock market in some specific periods. These anomalies may have been related to the former’s overreaction and economic overheating

Oxidation behavior of two-phase (γ’+β) Ni-Al coatings doped with Dy and Hf

Dy/Hf co-doped two-phase (γ’+β) Ni-Al coatings were prepared by electron beam physical vapour deposition (EB-PVD). Cyclic oxidation behaviour of the coatings were investigated at 1100℃. The addition of 0.1at% Dy or 0.05at% Dy +0.3at% Hf to two-phase (γ’+β) Ni-Al coating significantly improved cyclic oxidation resistance, while addition of 0.5at% Hf to (γ’+β) Ni-Al coating no obvious effect on scale adhesion. The 0.1at% Dy doped and 0.05at% Dy +0.3at% Hf co-doped two-phase (γ’+β) Ni-Al coatings yielded mass gain of 1.24 mg/cm2 and 1.04 mg/cm2 after 100h cyclic oxidation. The Dy/Hf co-doped coating showed even further lower oxidation rate as compared to the corresponding Dy doped. In order to sufficiently exert reactive element effect (REE), extremely low solubility of the reactive element in each phase of the coatings should be guaranteed

A comparative genome analysis of gene expression reveals different regulatory mechanisms between mouse and human embryo pre-implantation development

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pre-implantation development is a crucial step in successful implantation and pregnancy in mammals. It has been studied in depth, but mostly in laboratory animal models. Less is known about the regulatory mechanism involved in the pre-implantation development in humans and about the comparative aspects.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Here, we employed the microarray datasets from the public database library of GEO and applied comparative analysis of genome wide temporal gene expression data based on statistical analysis and functional annotation for both mouse and human, demonstrating the discordance between the regulatory mechanisms of both mouse and human pre-implantation development.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were differences between mouse and human pre-implantation development both in the global gene expression pattern and in the expression changes of individual genes at each stage, including different major transient waves of transcription profiles and some stage-specific genes and significantly related pathways. There also appeared to be different functional changes from one stage to another between mouse and human.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The analysis presented here lead to interesting and complementary conclusions that the regulatory mechanism of human pre-implantation development is not completely the same as the mouse. Not as the fact that 1-cell to 2-cell stage is important for mouse pre-implantation development, the 4-cell stage and 8-cell stage are both essential for human. Unlike in mouse, of which most of pathways found were related to energy, RNA and protein metabolism, the identified pathways in human were mostly disease-related and associated with human pre-implantation embryonic development. All of these suggest that a further comparative analysis should be required for applying the result of mouse expression data to human research or therapy, particularly in pre-implantation developments. Our study provides several potential targets of genes and pathways for studying the regulatory mechanism of human pre-implantation development using mouse model.</p

International market integration and market interdependence: evidence from China's stock market in the post-WTO accession period

The Chinese government has implemented a series of financial liberalisation policies in stock market after China’s accession into the WTO in 2001. However, it remains somewhat unclear whether and to what extent China’s financial liberalisation has influenced its stock market in the post-WTO accession period. This thesis examines this issue from the perspectives of international market integration and market interdependence. This thesis mainly includes three empirical studies: 1) gauging the degree of market integration by the weak-form measure, 2) measuring the degree of market interdependence by the multi-factor R-squared measure, as well as 3) examining the relationship between these two elements by the MWALD causality test and cointegration analysis. The first empirical study finds that China’s financial liberalisation might have largely decreased the stock market segmentation between China and the world in the period from July 2003 to June 2007, but this process has been interrupted by the global financial crisis in 2008. Meanwhile, only some of China’s financial liberalisation policies might be regarded as effective, such as the QFII programme, the first round of exchange rate reform and the QDII programme. The second empirical study regards that the stock market interdependence between China and the world has experienced three stages. These stages are: 1) the stationary stage from July 2001 to June 2003; 2) the increasing and steady stage from July 2003 to June 2006, which might be thanks to China’s financial liberalisation; as well as 3) an inverted U-shaped stage from July 2006 to December 2009, which might be attributed to China’s economy overheating in 2007 and to its economic stimulus plan in 2008. This third empirical study finds that there has been a unidirectional causal relationship from market integration to market interdependence, and a cointegration relationship between them. Market integration and market interdependence are found to be highly connected but different issues. Market integration is one, but not the only, determinant of market interdependence

Microstructure evolution and elemental diffusion behavior near the interface of Cr2AlC and single crystal superalloy DD5 at elevated temperatures

As one of the promising MAX phase materials for high-temperature applications, Cr2AlC is considered as a potential substitution bond coat material in thermal barrier coating systems. In this paper, the microstructure evolution and elemental diffusion behavior near the interface of the diffusion couple composed of Cr2AlC and single crystal superalloy DD5 were investigated at 1100 °C, 1150 °C, and 1200 °C. Elemental interdiffusion between Cr2AlC and DD5 occurs significantly, resulting in the formation of a thick layer of Kirkendall holes after 20 h heat treatment at 1100 °C and higher temperatures. The outward diffusion of Ni into Cr2AlC and the inward diffusion of Al into DD5 alloy causes the formation of β-NiAl matrix embedded with dispersed Cr7C3 phase. Simultaneously, the precipitation of σ-TCP phase and degradation of the γ/γ′ matrix occurs in the alloy. Additionally, TaC, M2C (where M = Ta, W, Cr), and M23C6 (M = Cr, Re, W) compounds are formed near the interface along with the dissolution of σ-TCP phases. It is further found that Al in Cr2AlC exhibits the highest average effective diffusion coefficient among the four dominant diffusing elements. It also displays the lowest diffusion activation energy which is due to its relatively weak Cr-Al and Al-Al bonds