Financial flexibility, dynamic capabilities, and the performance of manufacturing enterprises

This study explores the mechanism of financial flexibility on enterprise performance from the perspective of dynamic capabilities by testing the relationship among them respectively. This study selects the data of A-share manufacturing companies in Shenzhen and Shanghai from 2011 to 2017 to structure three main variables mentioned above. The test results of the regression analysis indicate that financial flexibility has an interval effect on enterprise performance. Dynamic capabilities play a part in mediating financial flexibility and enterprise performance, which means financial flexibility can influence enterprise performance through dynamic capabilities. This study adds weight to the theory of financial flexibility and dynamic capability and helps enterprises adjust them more effectively in an increasingly complex economic situation

Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Parameterizations

Various radiative transfer (RT) schemes are presented in the chapter including four-stream discrete ordinates adding method (4DDA), four-stream harmonic expansion approximation (4SDA) for the solar spectra and absorption approximation (AA), variational iteration method (VIM) for the infrared spectra. 4DDA uses Gaussian quadrature method to deal with the integration in the RT equation. 4SDA considers four-order spherical harmonic expansion in radiative intensity. VIM allows the zeroth-order solution to be identified as AA, and the scattering effect is included in the first-order iteration. By applying 4DDA/4SDA to a realistic atmospheric profile with gaseous transmission considered, it is found that the accuracy of 4DDA/4SDA is superior to two stream spherical harmonic (Eddington approximation) adding method (2SDA) and two-stream discrete ordinates adding method (2DDA), especially for the cloudy conditions. It is shown that the relative errors of 4DDA/4SDA are generally less than 1% in heating rate, while the relative errors of both 2SDA and 2DDA are over 6%. By applying VIM to a full radiation algorithm a gaseous gaseous transmission, it is found that VIM is generally more accurate than the discrete ordinates method (DOM). Computationally, VIM is slightly faster than DOM in the two-stream case but more than twice as fast in the four-stream case. In view of its high overall accuracy and computational efficiency, 4DDA, 4SDA, as well as VIM are well suited in solving radiative transfer in climate models

Perturbation Method for Solar/Infrared Radiative Transfer in a Scattering Medium with Vertical Inhomogeneity in Internal Optical Properties

A new scheme based on perturbation method is presented to solve the problem of solar/infrared radiative transfer (SRT/IRT) in a scattering medium, in which the inherent optical properties (IOPs) are vertically inhomogeneous. The Eddington approximation for SRT and the two-stream approximation for IRT are used as the zeroth-order solution, and multiple-scattering effect of inhomogeneous IOPs is included in the first-order solution. Observations show that the stratocumulus clouds are vertically inhomogeneous, and the accuracy of SRT/IRT for stratocumulus clouds by different solutions is evaluated. In the spectral band of 0.25–0.69 μm, the relative error in absorption with inhomogeneous SRT solution is 1.4% at most, but with the homogeneous SRT solution, it can be up to 7.4%. In the spectral band of 5–8 μm, the maximum relative error of downward emissivity can reach −11% for the homogeneous IRT solution but only −2% for the inhomogeneous IRT solution

The Chinese Virtual Singer Business: Introduction and Preliminary Analysis

The so-called virtual singers are personified singing synthesizer voicebanks, with the business around them straddling music industry and AGC (anime, games and comics) industry. Originated from Japan, where the first singing synthesizer in the world was invented, the virtual singer business has grown into a global business of billions. Today virtual singers are widely recognized as the first generation of virtual artists who have achieved notable global success, especially Hatsune Miku, the most popular Vocaloid singer in history. A local virtual singer business in China blossomed soon after the rise of Hatsune Miku, which has formed its own shape over the years in the unique social-economic context of China. Having gone through many ups and downs, the Chinese virtual singer business has moved into a stable yet bottleneck period, with one profitable superstar Luo Tianyi and hundreds of others struggling with attaining any attention of the audience. This paper intends to present the history, market structure, business model and copyright distribution of the Chinese virtual singer business, as well as to conduct a preliminary SWOT analysis on it. In order to better explain the business model and cultural context of the virtual singer business, some relevant aspects of the Japanese virtual singer business will also be discussed in literature review. The methodology of the paper is part case studies analysis, part primary interview.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-global-entertainment-business/1175/thumbnail.jp

Fern-like Plants Establishing the Understory of the Late Devonian Xinhang Lycopsid Forest

Forests appeared during the Middle to Late Devonian, but Devonian forests and their compositions are still rarely known. Xinhang forest was reported as the largest Devonian forest, with lycopsid trees of Guangdedendron micrum Wang et al. A fern-like plant Xinhangia spina Yang and Wang with shoots and anatomy, was previously described from this forest, but its habit and ecology remain unclear. From Xinhang forest, we now report more specimens of fern-like plants including X. spina and some unnamed plants in several beds. Prominent adventitious roots, spines and secondary xylem indicate that the stems of X. spina are largely procumbent to function as anchorage, absorption and support. Other fern-like plants with distinct roots or multiple slender branches also suggest procumbent habits. Xinhang forest is thus reconsidered as multispecific with a canopy of lycopsid trees and understory of diverse fern-like plants, which are adapted to the disturbed coastal environment. The composition of Xinhang forest may indicate a structural transition of the early forests’ dominator from fern-like plants to lycopsids

Multi-layer solar radiative transfer considering the vertical variation of inherent microphysical properties of clouds

A multi-layer solar radiative transfer (RT) scheme is proposed to deal with the vertical variation of inherent microphysical properties of clouds in this study. The exponential expressions are used to represent the vertical variation of optical properties caused by inhomogeneous microphysical properties. A perturbation method, coupled with the Eddington approximation, is used to solve the RT equation. In order to have a more accurate estimation of reflectance/transmittance for every single layer, the optical properties are adjusted following the theory of delta scaling in the proposed scheme. In addition, a modified adding method based on Chandrasekhar’s invariance principle is introduced to solve the multi-layer RT. The accuracy of the proposed scheme is investigated by comparing the reflectance/absorptance to the benchmark for two double-layer cases, and each layer with vertically inhomogeneous optical properties. Results show that the bias related to vertically inhomogeneous optical properties reaches 13.8 % for reflectance and 29.2 % for absorptance while the bias of the proposed scheme is only -0.8 % for reflectance and 1.7 % for absorptance. We also apply the proposed scheme as well as the conventional Eddington approximation to the Canadian Climate Center RT model which handle RT in CanAM4. The calculations are performed in the following four solar wavenumber bands 2500-4200, 4200-8400, 8400-14500 and 14500-50000 cm-1. The result also shows that the proposed scheme also improved the accuracy in both flux and heating rate calculation by taking the vertical variation of inherent microphysical properties into account. The proposed scheme is approximately three times more computationally expensive compared to the Eddington approximation when we only consider the algorithm itself. The computational time is doubled compared to the Eddington approximation when we take the complete radiative transfer process into account. Due to its accuracy and efficiency, the proposed scheme is suitable to improve the RT calculations regarding the vertical variation of inherent microphysical properties in climate models