Testing the Pecking-Order Theory: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

The pecking-order theory of capital structure, which predicts that firms prefer internal to external finance, is one of the most influential theories of corporate leverage. This article examines whether the financial structure of China\u27s listed companies follows a pecking order from debt to equity. Using the entire cross-section sample of China\u27s listed companies in 2004, the authors find no evidence that China\u27s listed companies follow a pecking order when they need funds to finance investment projects. Further subgroup analyses indicate that big companies follow a pecking order and small and medium companies do not. These results suggest that the Chinese capital market is still under development. However, the large companies face a relatively looser financing environment than the small ones

Land Acquisition, Labor Allocation, and Income Growth of Farm Households

This article investigates how land acquisition during urbanization affects labor allocation decisions of farm households in China. We develop an agricultural household model by including land acquisition to examine its impacts on nonfarm labor participation and income. Two data sets (self-designed household surveys at Xingwen County in 2012 and the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data covering 29 provinces in 2013) are adopted for empirical analysis. The results find that land reduction has significantly positive effects on the probability and the share of family nonfarm labor allocation from both data sets. We also find that land acquisition increases the household income of the land acquisition group in CHFS data

Efficient Feeder-Free Episomal Reprogramming with Small Molecules

Genetic reprogramming of human somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) could offer replenishable cell sources for transplantation therapies. To fulfill their promises, human iPSCs will ideally be free of exogenous DNA (footprint-free), and be derived and cultured in chemically defined media free of feeder cells. Currently, methods are available to enable efficient derivation of footprint-free human iPSCs. However, each of these methods has its limitations. We have previously derived footprint-free human iPSCs by employing episomal vectors for transgene delivery, but the process was inefficient and required feeder cells. Here, we have greatly improved the episomal reprogramming efficiency using a cocktail containing MEK inhibitor PD0325901, GSK3β inhibitor CHIR99021, TGF-β/Activin/Nodal receptor inhibitor A-83-01, ROCK inhibitor HA-100 and human leukemia inhibitory factor. Moreover, we have successfully established a feeder-free reprogramming condition using chemically defined medium with bFGF and N2B27 supplements and chemically defined human ESC medium mTeSR1 for the derivation of footprint-free human iPSCs. These improvements enabled the routine derivation of footprint-free human iPSCs from skin fibroblasts, adipose tissue-derived cells and cord blood cells. This technology will likely be valuable for the production of clinical-grade human iPSCs

(5S*,6R*,7R*)-6-Formyl-5-phenyl-7-propyl­perhydro­pyrazolo[1,2-a]pyrazol-1-one

The title compound, C16H20N2O2, was obtained by catalytic asymmetric cyclo­addition of trans-3-propyl­acrolein with 1-benzyl­idenepyrazolid-3-one betaine. There are two symmetry-independent mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit. In both mol­ecules, the two five-membered heterocyclic rings adopt envelope conformations

Study on the effect of ultrasonic aging of crude Baijiu after second distillation

Objective: Accelerated manmade aging of base liquor after heavy distillation. Methods: A single factor experimental design method was adopted based on the study of impurity removal in second distillation of Luzhou-flavor crude Baijiu. The changes in the content of total acids and total esters in the liquor were used as indicators to preliminarily explore the effect of ultrasonic treatment conditions on the crude Baijiu. Results: The results showed that: among the three single factors of ultrasonic treatment power, temperature and time, there were varying degrees of differences between the levels of each individual factor; At an ultrasonic frequency of 45 kHz, the most suitable ultrasonic treatment process conditions were power 150 W, temperature 40 ℃, and time 40 minutes, respectively. Under this condition, ultrasound induced aging of the Baijiu samples had the effect of increasing acid and ester content, reducing fusel oil and acetaldehyde, and improving sensory quality. Conclusion: It is feasible to accelerate aging of luzhou-flavor base liquor after heavy distillation by ultrasonic wave

Non-invasive digital etching of van der Waals semiconductors

The capability to finely tailor material thickness with simultaneous atomic precision and non-invasivity would be useful for constructing quantum platforms and post-Moore microelectronics. However, it remains challenging to attain synchronized controls over tailoring selectivity and precision. Here we report a protocol that allows for non-invasive and atomically digital etching of van der Waals transition-metal dichalcogenides through selective alloying via low-temperature thermal diffusion and subsequent wet etching. The mechanism of selective alloying between sacrifice metal atoms and defective or pristine dichalcogenides is analyzed with high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy. Also, the non-invasive nature and atomic level precision of our etching technique are corroborated by consistent spectral, crystallographic and electrical characterization measurements. The low-temperature charge mobility of as-etched MoS$_2$ reaches up to $1200\,$cm$^{2}\cdot$V$^{-1}\cdot$s$^{-1}$, comparable to that of exfoliated pristine counterparts. The entire protocol represents a highly precise and non-invasive tailoring route for material manipulation.Comment: 46 pages, 4 figures, with S

From GPT-4 to Gemini and Beyond: Assessing the Landscape of MLLMs on Generalizability, Trustworthiness and Causality through Four Modalities

Multi-modal Large Language Models (MLLMs) have shown impressive abilities in generating reasonable responses with respect to multi-modal contents. However, there is still a wide gap between the performance of recent MLLM-based applications and the expectation of the broad public, even though the most powerful OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Gemini have been deployed. This paper strives to enhance understanding of the gap through the lens of a qualitative study on the generalizability, trustworthiness, and causal reasoning capabilities of recent proprietary and open-source MLLMs across four modalities: ie, text, code, image, and video, ultimately aiming to improve the transparency of MLLMs. We believe these properties are several representative factors that define the reliability of MLLMs, in supporting various downstream applications. To be specific, we evaluate the closed-source GPT-4 and Gemini and 6 open-source LLMs and MLLMs. Overall we evaluate 230 manually designed cases, where the qualitative results are then summarized into 12 scores (ie, 4 modalities times 3 properties). In total, we uncover 14 empirical findings that are useful to understand the capabilities and limitations of both proprietary and open-source MLLMs, towards more reliable downstream multi-modal applications

Non-invasive digital etching of van der Waals semiconductors

The capability to finely tailor material thickness with simultaneous atomic precision and non-invasivity would be useful for constructing quantum platforms and post-Moore microelectronics. However, it remains challenging to attain synchronized controls over tailoring selectivity and precision. Here we report a protocol that allows for non-invasive and atomically digital etching of van der Waals transition-metal dichalcogenides through selective alloying via low-temperature thermal diffusion and subsequent wet etching. The mechanism of selective alloying between sacrifice metal atoms and defective or pristine dichalcogenides is analyzed with high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy. Also, the non-invasive nature and atomic level precision of our etching technique are corroborated by consistent spectral, crystallographic, and electrical characterization measurements. The low-temperature charge mobility of as-etched MoS2 reaches up to 1200 cm2 V−1s−1, comparable to that of exfoliated pristine counterparts. The entire protocol represents a highly precise and non-invasive tailoring route for material manipulation

Testing the Pecking-Order Theory: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

The pecking-order theory of capital structure, which predicts that firms prefer internal to external finance, is one of the most influential theories of corporate leverage. This article examines whether the financial structure of China's listed companies follows a pecking order from debt to equity. Using the entire cross-section sample of China's listed companies in 2004, the authors find no evidence that China's listed companies follow a pecking order when they need funds to finance investment projects. Further subgroup analyses indicate that big companies follow a pecking order and small and medium companies do not. These results suggest that the Chinese capital market is still under development. However, the large companies face a relatively looser financing environment than the small ones.