RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE AND REAL EARNINGS MANAGEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM CHINESE LISTED MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

The aim of the study was to establish the relationship between corporate governance structure and real earnings management (REM) for 1307 listed manufacturing firms in China. Data was collected for the period from 2013 to 2019. OLS regression analysis, correlation analysis and descriptive statistics were adopted for analysis. The findings on both ownership and board structure were largely mixed. Based on the findings the large shareholder ownership only helps to impede expense manipulation while they cannot significantly help to reduce instances of sales control. Institutional ownership structure has a significant positive relationship with REM when executed through sales control and expenses manipulation. However, it has a negative relationship with production controls in the manufacturing firms. Managerial ownership was found to have no effect on real earnings management except when it is done through expenses manipulation where it positively influences expense manipulation. Board independence was found to have no significant influence on real earnings management. Board size has a significant positive effect on real earnings management when carried out through sales manipulation. However, it does not influence REM through expenses manipulation or production control. The study recommends an optimum board size and not larger board size which are difficult to manage and control. Most critical ought to be the skills and experience of the board members, rather a diverse skill set. Further given that corporate governance cannot in totality deter earnings manipulation as inferred from the findings, the study recommends disciplinary mechanisms to prevent top executives from manipulating earnings

Effects of Light and pH on Cell Density of Chlorella Vulgaris

AbstractImproving the cell density of microalgae cultivation is one of the keys to reduce the cost of microalgae biodiesel. Many studies showed that the adjustment of pH and light intensity could increase cell density. The effects of light intensities, pH and pH adjustments on the growth of Chlorella vulgaris were studied in light incubator. The light intensities were set at 3960, 7920 and 11920lux; values of pH were 7, 8, 9 and 10 respectively; and pH adjustment methods included without and with pH control. Results show that: (1) In terms of light intensity, without pH control, the cell density under 3960lux is highest. With pH control, the cell density under 7920lux is higher than other levels. (2) In terms of pH, under the same light intensity, the cell density with pH control at 10 is highest, which indicates the light intensity will not affect the optimal pH value. And the pH fluctuates between 10 and 10.5 with pH control at 10, which is the most suitable range of pH for Chlorella vulgaris cultivation. (3) For pH adjustment methods, under 7920lux, the cell density with pH control at 10.0 is 56.7% higher than that with initial pH at 10.0, while the cell density with initial pH at 7.0 is 34.7% than that with pH control at 7.0, which indicates the method with pH control at values of the optimum pH makes better growth of microalgae

COVIDanno, COVID-19 annotation in human

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiologic agent of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), has caused a global health crisis. Despite ongoing efforts to treat patients, there is no universal prevention or cure available. One of the feasible approaches will be identifying the key genes from SARS-CoV-2-infected cells. SARS-CoV-2-infected in vitro model, allows easy control of the experimental conditions, obtaining reproducible results, and monitoring of infection progression. Currently, accumulating RNA-seq data from SARS-CoV-2 in vitro models urgently needs systematic translation and interpretation. To fill this gap, we built COVIDanno, COVID-19 annotation in humans, available at http://biomedbdc.wchscu.cn/COVIDanno/. The aim of this resource is to provide a reference resource of intensive functional annotations of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) among different time points of COVID-19 infection in human in vitro models. To do this, we performed differential expression analysis for 136 individual datasets across 13 tissue types. In total, we identified 4,935 DEGs. We performed multiple bioinformatics/computational biology studies for these DEGs. Furthermore, we developed a novel tool to help users predict the status of SARS-CoV-2 infection for a given sample. COVIDanno will be a valuable resource for identifying SARS-CoV-2-related genes and understanding their potential functional roles in different time points and multiple tissue types

Hemolytic properties of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in in vitro systems

Epidemiological studies have suggested that inhalation exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution, especially fine particles (i.e., PM2.5 (PM with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 microns or less)), is causally associated with cardiovascular health risks. To explore the toxicological mechanisms behind the observed adverse health effects, the hemolytic activity of PM2.5 samples collected during different pollution levels in Beijing was evaluated. The results demonstrated that the hemolysis of PM2.5 ranged from 1.98% to 7.75% and demonstrated a clear dose–response relationship. The exposure toxicity index (TI) is proposed to represent the toxicity potential of PM2.5, which is calculated by the hemolysis percentage of erythrocytes (red blood cells, RBC) multiplied by the mass concentration of PM2.5. In a pollution episode, as the mass concentration increases, TI first increases and then decreases, that is, TI (low pollution levels) < TI (heavy pollution levels) < TI (medium pollution levels). In order to verify the feasibility of the hemolysis method for PM toxicity detection, the hemolytic properties of PM2.5 were compared with the plasmid scission assay (PSA). The hemolysis results had a significant positive correlation with the DNA damage percentages, indicating that the hemolysis assay is feasible for the detection of PM2.5 toxicity, thus providing more corroborating information regarding the risk to human cardiovascular health

Concentration, source, and health risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: a pilot study in the Xuanwei lung cancer epidemic area, Yunnan Province, China

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are toxic and hazardous volatile environmental pollutants that have been studied as possible major causative agents of lung cancer in Xuanwei. In this paper, indoor and outdoor PM2.5 samples were collected from two homes at different time periods in Hutou, the lung cancer epidemic area in Xuanwei. The results showed that PAH pollution levels from coal combustion in Xuanwei lung cancer epidemic area were significant. The mass concentrations of total PAHs, major carcinogenic compounds, and benzo[a]pyrene-based equivalent concentration (BaPeq) were significantly higher in the coal-using home than in the electricity-using home. For the coal-using home, the PAHs were mainly derived from coal combustion. For the electricity-using home, the PAHs might have been a combination of traffic and coal combustion sources. The human health risk due to inhalation exposure to the PAHs was represented by the incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) of the inhalation exposure. The results showed that the indoor cancer risk for the coal-using home in Xuanwei is higher than that of the electricity-using home and much higher than that of Chinese megacities such as Beijing and Tianjin. Long-term exposure to indoor coal-burning environments containing high levels of PAHs may be one of the main reasons for the high incidence of lung cancer in Xuanwei