Initial Public Offering and Corporate Governance in China's Transitional Economy

This paper empirically investigates the performance of Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs). The data used covers the period from mid-1995 to mid-1999 with the sample including 884 companies (both in the A- and B-share markets). In an examination of growth, profitability and stability of listed companies either individually or as a combination, it can be seen that the only industries in which listed companies in China display strong performance are public utilities, transportation and finance. If one examines the changes in listed companies' financial indicators following the IPO, it becomes apparent that with the exception of earnings related indicators (EPS and ROE) there are no significant changes. What's more, the financial indicators tend to fall rapidly year on year. This means that the IPO is of little obvious help to companies' operational performance, and may actually make things worse. One of the reasons for this is that in order to implement the IPO and secure stock market listing, companies tend to submit inflated figures in the financial statements that they are required to provide. Another possible factor is the poor corporate governance characteristics of Chinese enterprises.

Ischemic conditioning by short periods of reperfusion attenuates renal ischemia/reperfusion induced apoptosis and autophagy in the rat

Prolonged ischemia amplified iscehemia/reperfusion (IR) induced renal apoptosis and autophagy. We hypothesize that ischemic conditioning (IC) by a briefly intermittent reperfusion during a prolonged ischemic phase may ameliorate IR induced renal dysfunction. We evaluated the antioxidant/oxidant mechanism, autophagy and apoptosis in the uninephrectomized Wistar rats subjected to sham control, 4 stages of 15-min IC (I15 × 4), 2 stages of 30-min IC (I30 × 2), and total 60-min ischema (I60) in the kidney followed by 4 or 24 hours of reperfusion. By use of ATP assay, monitoring O2-. amounts, autophagy and apoptosis analysis of rat kidneys, I60 followed by 4 hours of reperfusion decreased renal ATP and enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and proapoptotic and autophagic mechanisms, including enhanced Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, cytochrome C release, active caspase 3, poly-(ADP-ribose)-polymerase (PARP) degradation fragments, microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3) and Beclin-1 expression and subsequently tubular apoptosis and autophagy associated with elevated blood urea nitrogen and creatinine level. I30 × 2, not I15 × 4 decreased ROS production and cytochrome C release, increased Manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), Copper-Zn superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD) and catalase expression and provided a more efficient protection than I60 against IR induced tubular apoptosis and autophagy and blood urea nitrogen and creatinine level. We conclude that 60-min renal ischemia enhanced renal tubular oxidative stress, proapoptosis and autophagy in the rat kidneys. Two stages of 30-min ischemia with 3-min reperfusion significantly preserved renal ATP content, increased antioxidant defense mechanisms and decreased ischemia/reperfusion enhanced renal tubular oxidative stress, cytosolic cytochrome C release, proapoptosis and autophagy in rat kidneys

A Comparison of Food-grade Folium mori Extract and 1-Deoxynojirimycin for Glycemic Control and Renal Function in Streptozotocin-induced Diabetic Rats

ABSTRACTFolium mori (桑葉 Sāng Yè, leaf of Morus alba L.; FM) is known to possess hypoglycemic effects, and 1-deoxynojirimycin (1-DNJ) has been proposed as an important functional compound in FM. However, the hypoglycemic activity of purified 1-DNJ has been rarely studied. It is also not known how FM and 1-DNJ affect the development of DM nephropathy. This study compared the antidiabetic effect of a commercial FM product with that of purified 1-DNJ in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Seven days after induction, the diabetic rats were gavaged with FM (1, 3, 10, and 30mg/kg/day), 1-DNJ (30mg/kg/day), or vehicle (distilled deionized water; 2ml/kg/day) for 7days. All doses of FM ameliorated fasting and post-prandial blood glucose concomitantly with an increase in peripheral and pancreatic levels of insulin and improved homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR) in diabetic rats in a dose-dependent manner. Increased thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and nitrate/nitrite levels in the kidney, liver, and muscle of diabetic rats were reversed by all doses of FM. The renal function of the diabetic rats was normalized by all doses of FM, while blood pressure changes were reversed by FM at doses of 3mg/kg and above. Moreover, most of the above-mentioned parameters were improved by FM at doses of 3mg/kg and above to a similar extent as that of 1-DNJ. The results showed superior antidiabetic potential of the commercial FM product for glycemic control and protection against the development of diabetic nephropathy

(Z)-4-(2-Hy­droxy­benzyl­idene)-1-methyl-2-phenyl-1H-imidazol-5(4H)-one

In the title compound, C17H14N2O2, the asymmetric unit comprises two mol­ecules that are comformationally similar [the dihedral angles between the phenyl rings in each are 46.35 (2) and 48.04 (3)°], with the conformation stabilized by intra­molecular O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds, which generate S(7) rings. In the crystal, inversion-related mol­ecules are linked by pairs of weak C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming dimers with an R 2 2(16) graph-set motif. Weak inter-ring π–π stacking is observed in the structure, the shortest centroid-to-centroid distance being 3.7480 (13) Å

(E)-4-[(4-Diethyl­amino-2-hy­droxy­benzyl­idene)amino]­benzonitrile

The title compound, C18H19N3O, displays an E conformation with respect to the C=N double bond. The dihedral angle between the mean planes of the two benzene rings is 24.49 (3)°. An intra­molecular O—H⋯N hydrogen bond generates an S(6) ring. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked by nonclassical inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form an infinite one-dimensional chain along [010], generating a C(8) motif

An integrated analysis tool for analyzing hybridization intensities and genotypes using new-generation population-optimized human arrays

The cross-sample plot of the multipoint LOH/LCSH analyses of the three samples used in Fig. 5. The plot comprises four panels: (a) The top-left panel is a cross-sample and cross-chromosome plot. The vertical axis is the index of study samples, and the horizontal axis is the physical position (Mb) on each of the 23 chromosomes. The blue and red bars represent SNPs without and with LOH/LSCH, respectively. (b) The top-right panel is a histogram of cross-chromosome aberration frequency. The vertical axis is the index of study samples, and the horizontal axis is the cross-chromosome aberration frequency of the corresponding samples. The pink (skyblue) background represents that the genetic gender of a sample is female (male). The histogram represents the aberration frequency of LOH/LCSH SNPs across the chromosomes of the corresponding samples. (c) The bottom-left panel is a histogram of the cross-sample aberration frequency. The vertical axis is the cross-sample aberration frequency of a SNP, and the horizontal axis is the physical position (Mb) on each of the 23 chromosomes. The purple line represents the aberration proportion of samples carrying the SNPs with LOH/LCSH. (d) The bottom-right panel is the legend of the genetic gender that is used in panel (b), where the pink (skyblue) background represents that the genetic gender of a sample is female (male). (TIFF 1656 kb

A large-scale survey of genetic copy number variations among Han Chinese residing in Taiwan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Copy number variations (CNVs) have recently been recognized as important structural variations in the human genome. CNVs can affect gene expression and thus may contribute to phenotypic differences. The copy number inferring tool (CNIT) is an effective hidden Markov model-based algorithm for estimating allele-specific copy number and predicting chromosomal alterations from single nucleotide polymorphism microarrays. The CNIT algorithm, which was constructed using data from 270 HapMap multi-ethnic individuals, was applied to identify CNVs from 300 unrelated Han Chinese individuals in Taiwan.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using stringent selection criteria, 230 regions with variable copy numbers were identified in the Han Chinese population; 133 (57.83%) had been reported previously, 64 displayed greater than 1% CNV allele frequency. The average size of the CNV regions was 322 kb (ranging from 1.48 kb to 5.68 Mb) and covered a total of 2.47% of the human genome. A total of 196 of the CNV regions were simple deletions and 27 were simple amplifications. There were 449 genes and 5 microRNAs within these CNV regions; some of these genes are known to be associated with diseases.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The identified CNVs are characteristic of the Han Chinese population and should be considered when genetic studies are conducted. The CNV distribution in the human genome is still poorly characterized, and there is much diversity among different ethnic populations.</p

Non-invasive and transdermal measurement of blood uric acid level in human by electroporation and reverse iontophoresis

The aim of this study was to find out the optimum combination of electroporation (EP) and reverse iontophoresis (RI) on noninvasive and transdermal determination of blood uric acid level in humans. EP is the use of high-voltage electric pulse to create nano-channels on the stratum corneum, temporarily and reversibly. RI is the use of small current to facilitate both charged and uncharged molecule transportation across the skin. It is believed that the combination of these two techniques has additional benefits on the molecules’ extraction across the human skin. In vitro studies using porcine skin and diffusion cell have indicated that the optimum mode for transdermal uric acid extraction is the combination of RI with symmetrical biphasic direct current (current density = 0.3 mA/cm2; phase duration = 180 s) and EP with 10 pulses per second (voltage = 100 V/cm2; pulse width = 1 ms). This optimum mode was applied to six human subjects. Uric acid was successfully extracted through the subjects’ skin into the collection solution. A good correlation (r2 = 0.88) between the subject’s blood uric acid level and uric acid concentrations in collection solutions was observed. The results suggest that it may be possible to noninvasively and transdermally determine blood uric acid levels

Crystal structure of IcaR, a repressor of the TetR family implicated in biofilm formation in Staphylococcus epidermidis

Expression of the gene cluster icaADBC is necessary for biofilm production in Staphylococcus epidermidis. The ica operon is negatively controlled by the repressor IcaR. Here, the crystal structure of IcaR was determined and the refined structure revealed a homodimer comprising entirely α-helices, typical of the tetracycline repressor protein family for gene regulations. The N-terminal domain contains a conserved helix-turn-helix DNA-binding motif with some conformational variations, indicating flexibility in this region. The C-terminal domain shows a complementary surface charge distribution about the dyad axis, ideal for efficient and specific dimer formation. The results of the electrophoretic mobility shift assay and isothermal titration calorimetry suggested that a 28 bp core segment of the ica operator is implicated in the cooperative binding of two IcaR dimers on opposite sides of the duplex DNA. Computer modeling based on the known DNA-complex structure of QacR and site-specific mutagenesis experiments showed that direct protein–DNA interactions are mostly conserved, but with slight variations for recognizing the different sequences. By interfering with the binding of IcaR to DNA, aminoglycoside gentamicin and other antibiotics may activate the icaADBC genes and elicit biofilm production in S. epidermidis, and likely S. aureus, as a defense mechanism