Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions by Chinese Firms: an Analysis of Performances

With the booming of the world economy, globalisation seems to have become an unavoidable trend, making each part of the world interrelated and interactive. During the past few decades, a large quantity of firms seeking growth and expansion have chosen merger and acquisition (M&A) as one of their main strategies. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) states in 2000 that the amount of cross-border mergers has been on the rise and cross-border mergers have become the fasted means for those companies pursuing global expansion. Erel et al. (2012) stand for this point that the amount of international takeovers have dramatically increased from 23 percent in 1997 to 45 percent in 2002, and the majority of transactions are cross-border ones in developed country. However, even there being some wealth effects that acquirers can make positive although small abnormal returns upon merger deals (Fuller et al., 2002), several scholars come up with opponent views. Both Aw and Chatterjee (2004) and Moeller and Schlingemann (2005) find that the cross-border takeovers create lower returns than the domestic ones. It is agreed by both that cross-border deals have higher potential gains along with higher potential risks. The potential gains include greater market shares, high-quality resources and increased economies of scale while the potential risks include geography distances, cultural distances and political opposition. Despite this, as a matter of fact, many developing countries have realised the benefits of cross-border deals. China is a good example, which has been proved to surpass South Korea and Japan with respect to cross-border merger investments (UNCTAD, 2005). On one hand, for the purpose of integrating into the world competition, many Chinese firms have begun to create their global strategies, such as to acquire brand, advanced technologies and managerial expertise. A typical example can be the acquisition between Lenovo and IBM in 2005. On the other hand, Chinese government acts as a wise leader to encourage its entrepreneurs to engage in the global competition by investing overseas. The decisions such as the Open-door policy in 1978, the Go-out policy in 1999 and the WTO accession in 2001 all have offer chances for Chinese firms to be involved in the world trend of cross-border merger activities. In return, these firms can contribute to the high-level growth of Chinese economy. Apart from these, more details will be discussed in the section of Literature Review. Although the growth of Chinese acquirers can be achieved through cross-border deals, many of them are struggling to realise their synergies and obtain positive returns. Thus it still remains to be seen that whether most of the Chinese firms can benefit from cross-border mergers. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation is to conduct empirical studies on the performances of the Chinese acquirers and examine the possible determinants for them to achieve positive results

In vitro expression and analysis of the 826 human G protein-coupled receptors

ABSTRACT G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are involved in all human physiological systems where they are responsible for transducing extracellular signals into cells. GPCRs signal in response to a diverse array of stimuli including light, hormones, and lipids, where these signals affect downstream cascades to impact both health and disease states. Yet, despite their importance as therapeutic targets, detailed molecular structures of only 30 GPCRs have been determined to date. A key challenge to their structure determination is adequate protein expression. Here we report the quantification of protein expression in an insect cell expression system for all 826 human GPCRs using two different fusion constructs. Expression characteristics are analyzed in aggregate and among each of the five distinct subfamilies. These data can be used to identify trends related to GPCR expression between different fusion constructs and between different GPCR families, and to prioritize lead candidates for future structure determination feasibility

Targeting of the Human Coagulation Factor IX Gene at rDNA Locus of Human Embryonic Stem Cells

BACKGROUND: Genetic modification is a prerequisite to realizing the full potential of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in human genetic research and regenerative medicine. Unfortunately, the random integration methods that have been the primary techniques used keep creating problems, and the primary alternative method, gene targeting, has been effective in manipulating mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) but poorly in hESCs. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Human ribosomal DNA (rDNA) repeats are clustered on the short arm of acrocentric chromosomes. They consist of approximately 400 copies of the 45S pre-RNA (rRNA) gene per haploid. In the present study, we targeted a physiological gene, human coagulation factor IX, into the rDNA locus of hESCs via homologous recombination. The relative gene targeting efficiency (>50%) and homologous recombination frequency (>10(-5)) were more than 10-fold higher than those of loci targeted in previous reports. Meanwhile, the targeted clones retained both a normal karyotype and the main characteristics of ES cells. The transgene was found to be stably and ectopically expressed in targeted hESCs. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first targeting of a human physiological gene at a defined locus on the hESC genome. Our findings indicate that the rDNA locus may serve as an ideal harbor for transgenes in hESCs

Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions by Chinese Firms: an Analysis of Performances

With the booming of the world economy, globalisation seems to have become an unavoidable trend, making each part of the world interrelated and interactive. During the past few decades, a large quantity of firms seeking growth and expansion have chosen merger and acquisition (M&A) as one of their main strategies. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) states in 2000 that the amount of cross-border mergers has been on the rise and cross-border mergers have become the fasted means for those companies pursuing global expansion. Erel et al. (2012) stand for this point that the amount of international takeovers have dramatically increased from 23 percent in 1997 to 45 percent in 2002, and the majority of transactions are cross-border ones in developed country. However, even there being some wealth effects that acquirers can make positive although small abnormal returns upon merger deals (Fuller et al., 2002), several scholars come up with opponent views. Both Aw and Chatterjee (2004) and Moeller and Schlingemann (2005) find that the cross-border takeovers create lower returns than the domestic ones. It is agreed by both that cross-border deals have higher potential gains along with higher potential risks. The potential gains include greater market shares, high-quality resources and increased economies of scale while the potential risks include geography distances, cultural distances and political opposition. Despite this, as a matter of fact, many developing countries have realised the benefits of cross-border deals. China is a good example, which has been proved to surpass South Korea and Japan with respect to cross-border merger investments (UNCTAD, 2005). On one hand, for the purpose of integrating into the world competition, many Chinese firms have begun to create their global strategies, such as to acquire brand, advanced technologies and managerial expertise. A typical example can be the acquisition between Lenovo and IBM in 2005. On the other hand, Chinese government acts as a wise leader to encourage its entrepreneurs to engage in the global competition by investing overseas. The decisions such as the Open-door policy in 1978, the Go-out policy in 1999 and the WTO accession in 2001 all have offer chances for Chinese firms to be involved in the world trend of cross-border merger activities. In return, these firms can contribute to the high-level growth of Chinese economy. Apart from these, more details will be discussed in the section of Literature Review. Although the growth of Chinese acquirers can be achieved through cross-border deals, many of them are struggling to realise their synergies and obtain positive returns. Thus it still remains to be seen that whether most of the Chinese firms can benefit from cross-border mergers. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation is to conduct empirical studies on the performances of the Chinese acquirers and examine the possible determinants for them to achieve positive results

Catalytic oxidation of toluene over a porous Co3O4-supported ruthenium catalyst

Porous Co3O4-MOF and Ru/Co3O4-MOF were prepared through a metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)-templated method, and the bulk materials resulted from precipitation method were prepared for comparison. All catalysts were tested for the catalytic oxidation of toluene in the temperature range of 150-300 degrees C, and Ru/Co3O4-MOF showed apparently higher catalytic activity and CO2 selectivity than other materials. The influence of water vapour on the catalytic oxidation of toluene was studied at 235 degrees C and 245 degrees C, and it could be found that the inhibition effect weakened with the increase of temperature. Additionally, the test of 12 h on-stream reaction was conducted to explore the stability of Ru/Co3O4-MOF

A High-Dynamic-Range Optical Remote Sensing Imaging Method for Digital TDI CMOS

The digital time delay integration (digital TDI) technology of the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor has been widely adopted and developed in the optical remote sensing field. However, the details of targets that have low illumination or low contrast in scenarios of high contrast are often drowned out because of the superposition of multi-stage images in digital domain multiplies the read noise and the dark noise, thus limiting the imaging dynamic range. Through an in-depth analysis of the information transfer model of digital TDI, this paper attempts to explore effective ways to overcome this issue. Based on the evaluation and analysis of multi-stage images, the entropy-maximized adaptive histogram equalization (EMAHE) algorithm is proposed to improve the ability of images to express the details of dark or low-contrast targets. Furthermore, in this paper, an image fusion method is utilized based on gradient pyramid decomposition and entropy weighting of different TDI stage images, which can improve the detection ability of the digital TDI CMOS for complex scenes with high contrast, and obtain images that are suitable for recognition by the human eye. The experimental results show that the proposed methods can effectively improve the high-dynamic-range imaging (HDRI) capability of the digital TDI CMOS. The obtained images have greater entropy and average gradients

Kinetics and mechanism study on catalytic oxidation of chlorobenzene over V2O5/TiO2 catalysts

In this article, we present a detailed study combining the kinetic studies and in-situ FTIR experiments to investigate the oxidation behavior of chlorobenzene over V2O5/TiO2 catalysts. The catalytic data show the 3-5 wt.% V2O5/TiO2 catalysts are best fit for the oxidation of chlorobenzene. The calculated apparent reaction orders are about 0.6 and 0.2, respectively. The results of in-situ FTIR provided mechanism insights into the catalytic reaction, which supports the following proposal: (i) a nucleophilic substitution on V=O species and (ii) attacking by surface oxygen through a electrophilic substitution, then (iii) followed by the cracking of ring structure, and further oxidation of the resulting species to form final products. The above results further suggest that the nucleophilic substitution process and surface reaction are kinetically significant steps for chlorobenzene oxidation, determining the overall rate of the reaction. Furthermore, 1,2-dichlorobenzene, 1,3-dichlorobenzene and 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene as additional reactants were tested together with chlorobenzene in binary mixtures to examine their competition reactions. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Design strategy of porous elastomer substrate and encapsulation for inorganic stretchable electronics

The emergence of stretchable electronic technology has led to the development of many industries and facilitated many unprecedented applications, owing to its ability to bear various deformations. However, conventional solid elastomer substrates and encapsulation can severely restrict the free motion and deformation of patterned interconnects, leading to potential mechanical failures and electrical breakdowns. To address this issue, we propose a design strategy of porous elastomer substrate and encapsulation to improve the stretchability of serpentine interconnects in island-bridge structures. The serpentine interconnects are fully bonded to the elastomer substrate, while segments above circular pores remain suspended, allowing for free deformation and a substantial improvement in elastic stretchability compared to the solid substrates. The pores ensure unimpeded interconnect deformations, and moderate porosity provides support while maintaining the initial planar state. Compared to conventional solid configurations, finite element analysis (FEA) demonstrates a substantial enhancement of elastic stretchability (e.g. ≈9 times without encapsulation and ≈ 7 times with encapsulation). Uniaxial cyclic loading fatigue experiments validate the enhanced elastic stretchability, indicating the mechanical stability of the porous design. With its intrinsic advantages in permeability, the proposed strategy has the potential to offer insightful inspiration and novel concepts for advancing the field of stretchable inorganic electronics