The Impact of Firm and Industry Characteristics on Small Firms' Capital Structure: Evidence from Dutch Panel Data

We investigate small firms’ capital structure, employing a proprietary database containing financial statements of Dutch small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 2003 to 2005. We find that the capital structure decision of Dutch SMEs is consistent with the pecking order theory: SMEs use profits to reduce their debt level, and growing firms increase their debt position since they need more funds. Furthermore, we document that profits reduce in particular short term debt, whereas growth increases long term debt. This implies that when internal funds are depleted, long term debt is next in the pecking order. We also find evidence for the maturity matching principle in SME capital structure: long term assets are financed with long term debt, while short term assets are financed with short tem debt. This implies that the maturity structure of debt is an instrument for lenders to deal with problems of asymmetric information. Finally, we find that SME capital structure varies across industries but firm characteristics are more important than industry characteristics.Capital Structure;SMEs;pecking order theory;trade-off theory

Sustainable Route to Inorganic Porous Hollow Fibers with Superior Properties

This research article presents a method for the fabrication of inorganic porous hollow fibers, using ecologically benign feed materials instead of organic solvents and harmful additives. Our method is based on ionic cross-linking of an aqueous mixture of sodium alginate, inorganic particles, and a carbonate. The mixture is spun into an acidic coagulation bath, where the low pH triggers the dissociation of the carbonate into multivalent cations and carbon dioxide. The multivalent cations cross-link the alginate, thereby consolidating the 3D structure and arresting the inorganic particles. In a subsequent thermal treatment, the polymer is removed, and the particles are sintered together. Adequate gelation requires a sufficiently low pH of the acid bath and a sufficing buffering capacity of the acid. In addition, to facilitate thermal treatment, it appears to be crucial that the acid has a conjugated base with limited propensity for complexing cations. The environmentally safe and sustainable lactic acid and acetic acid are shown to be convenient acids. The fibers prepared via our method have outstanding properties, such as high mechanical strength, homogeneous morphology, and sharp distribution of small pores. In addition, they are prepared using sustainable chemicals such as lactic acid and calcium carbonate

Highly permeable and mechanically robust silicon carbide hollow fiber membranes

Silicon carbide (SiC) membranes have shown large potential for applications in water treatment. Being able to make these membranes in a hollow fiber geometry allows for higher surface-to-volume ratios. In this study, we present a thermal treatment procedure that is tuned to produce porous silicon carbide hollow fiber membranes with sufficient mechanical strength. Thermal treatments up to 1500 °C in either nitrogen or argon resulted in relatively strong fibers, that were still contaminated with residual carbon from the polymer binder. After treatment at a higher temperature of 1790 °C, the mechanical strength had decreased as a result of carbon removal, but after treatments at even higher temperature of 2075 °C the SiC-particles sinter together, resulting in fibers with mechanical strengths of 30–40 MPa and exceptionally high water permeabilities of 50,000 L m−2 h−1 bar−1. Combined with the unique chemical and thermal resistance of silicon carbide, these properties make the fibers suitable microfiltration membranes or as a membrane support for application under demanding condition

Development of a device to simulate tooth mobility

Objectives: The testing of new materials under simulation of oral conditions is essential in medicine. For simulation of fracture strength different simulation devices are used for test set-up. The results of these in vitro tests differ because there is no standardization of tooth mobility in simulation devices. The aim of this study is to develop a simulation device that depicts the tooth mobility curve as accurately as possible and creates reproducible and scalable mobility curves. Materials and methods: With the aid of published literature and with the help of dentists, average forms of tooth classes were generated. Based on these tooth data, different abutment tooth shapes and different simulation devices were designed with a CAD system and were generated with a Rapid Prototyping system. Then, for all simulation devices the displacement curves were created with a universal testing machine and compared with the tooth mobility curve. With this new information, an improved adapted simulation device was constructed. Results: A simulations device that is able to simulate the mobility curve of natural teeth with high accuracy and where mobility is reproducible and scalable was developed

Search for a CP-odd light Higgs boson in J/ψ →γA⁰

Using J/ψ radiative decays from 9.0 billion J/ψ events collected by the BESIII detector, we search for di-muon decays of a CP-odd light Higgs boson (A0), predicted by many new physics models beyond the Standard Model, including the next-to-minimal supersymmetric Standard Model. No evidence for the CP-odd light Higgs production is found, and we set 90% confidence level upper limits on the product branching fraction B(J/ψ→γA0)×B(A0→μ+μ-) in the range of (1.2-778.0)×10-9 for 0.212≤mA0≤3.0 GeV/c2. The new measurement is a 6-7 times improvement over our previous measurement, and is also slightly better than the BABAR measurement in the low-mass region for tanβ=1

Oscillating features in the electromagnetic structure of the neutron

The complicated structure of the neutron cannot be calculated using first-principles calculations due to the large colour charge of quarks and the self-interaction of gluons. Its simplest structure observables are the electromagnetic form factors1, which probe our understanding of the strong interaction. Until now, a small amount of data has been available for the determination of the neutron structure from the time-like kinematical range. Here we present measurements of the Born cross section of electron–positron annihilation reactions into a neutron and anti-neutron pair, and determine the neutron’s effective form factor. The data were recorded with the BESIII experiment at centre-of-mass energies between 2.00 and 3.08 GeV using an integrated luminosity of 647.9 pb−1. Our results improve the statistics on the neutron form factor by more than a factor of 60 over previous measurements, demonstrating that the neutron form factor data from annihilation in the time-like regime is on par with that from electron scattering experiments. The effective form factor of the neutron shows a periodic behaviour, similar to earlier observations of the proton form factor. Future works—both theoretical and experimental—will help illuminate the origin of this oscillation of the electromagnetic structure observables of the nucleon

Measurement of the branching fraction of leptonic decay D⁺_s → τ⁺ν_τ via τ⁺→ π⁺π⁰¯ν_τ

By analyzing 6.32  fb−1 of e+e− annihilation data collected at the center-of-mass energies between 4.178 and 4.226 GeV with the BESIII detector, we determine the branching fraction of the leptonic decay D+s→τ+ντ, with τ+→π+π0¯ντ, to be BD+s→τ+ντ=(5.29±0.25stat±0.20syst)%. We estimate the product of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element |Vcs| and the D+s decay constant fD+s to be fD+s|Vcs|=(244.8±5.8stat±4.8syst)  MeV, using the known values of the τ+ and D+s masses as well as the D+s lifetime, together with our branching fraction measurement. Combining the value of |Vcs| obtained from a global fit in the standard model and fD+s from lattice quantum chromodynamics, we obtain fD+s=(251.6±5.9stat±4.9syst)  MeV and |Vcs|=0.980±0.023stat±0.019syst. Using the branching fraction of BD+s→μ+νμ=(5.35±0.21)×10−3, we obtain the ratio of the branching fractions BD+s→τ+ντ/BD+s→μ+νμ=9.89±0.71, which is consistent with the standard model prediction of lepton flavor universality

Study of the decay D⁺ → K^∗(892)⁺K⁰_S in D⁺ → K⁺K⁰_Sπ⁰

Based on an e+e− collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.93  fb−1 collected with the BESIII detector at √s=3.773  GeV, the first amplitude analysis of the singly Cabibbo-suppressed decay D+→K+K0Sπ0 is performed. From the amplitude analysis, the K∗(892)+K0S component is found to be dominant with a fraction of (57.1±2.6±4.2)%, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. In combination with the absolute branching fraction B(D+→K+K0Sπ0) measured by BESIII, we obtain B(D+→K∗(892)+K0S)=(8.69±0.40±0.64±0.51)×10−3, where the third uncertainty is due to the branching fraction B(D+→K+K0Sπ0). The precision of this result is significantly improved compared to the previous measurement. This result also differs from most of theoretical predictions by about 4σ, which may help to improve the understanding of the dynamics behind

Study of the decay D⁺_s → π⁺π⁺π⁻η and observation of the W-annihilation decay D⁺_s→ a₀(980)⁺ρ⁰

The decay D+s→π+π+π−η is observed for the first time, using e+e− collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6.32  fb−1, collected by the BESIII detector at center-of-mass energies between 4.178 and 4.226 GeV. The absolute branching fraction for this decay is measured to be B(D+s→π+π+π−η)=(3.12±0.13stat±0.09syst)%. The first amplitude analysis of this decay reveals the substructures in D+s→π+π+π−η and determines the relative fractions and the phases among these substructures. The dominant intermediate process is D+s→a1(1260)+η,a1(1260)+→ρ(770)0π+ with a branching fraction of (1.73±0.14stat±0.08syst)%. We also observe the W-annihilation process D+s→a0(980)+ρ(770)0, a0(980)+→π+η with a branching fraction of (0.21±0.08stat±0.05syst)%, which is larger than the branching fractions of other measured pure W-annihilation decays by 1 order of magnitude

Measurement of J/ψ → Ξ(1530)⁻¯Ξ⁺ and evidence for the radiative decay Ξ(1530)⁻→ γΞ⁻

The SU(3)-flavor violating decay J/ψ→Ξ(1530)−¯Ξ++c.c. is studied using (1310.6±7.0)×106 J/ψ events collected with the BESIII detector at BEPCII, and the branching fraction is measured to be B(J/ψ→Ξ(1530)−¯Ξ++c.c.)=(3.17±0.02stat±0.08syst)×10−4. This result is consistent with previous measurements with an order of magnitude improved precision. The angular parameter for this decay is measured for the first time and is found to be α=−0.21±0.04stat±0.06syst. In addition, we report evidence for the radiative decay Ξ(1530)−→γΞ− with a significance of 3.9σ, including the systematic uncertainties. The 90% confidence level upper limit on the branching fraction is determined to be B(Ξ(1530)−→γΞ−)≤3.7%