Market Orientation in the Shanghai Automotive Industry: An Exploratory Study

This paper focuses on whether companies can develop market orientation (MO) to improve business performance (BP) in the Shanghai automotive industry, operating in an emerging economy, and finds that companies within the Shanghai automotive industry do adopt a MO at different levels, with most companies at or below the middle level. In order to measure BP, this research employs both subjective and objective measures, and the research findings indicate that MO is positively correlated with BP by a subjective measure, and that companies with a higher degree of MO are more likely to display higher levels of BP. However, if objective measures are used, the results are mixed. There is a significant positive association between MO and annual profit per employee and return on total assets, a weak positive association between MO and annual sales per employee, and no relationship between MO and return on equity

DETERMINANTS OF IPOS UNDERPRICING LEVEL: EVIDENCES FROM THE U.S. STOCK MARKET

A puzzle regarding initial public offerings (IPOs) is the motivation of the issuers/underwriters “leaving the money on the table to the investors”. Numerous theoretical and empirical models explaining this underpricing phenomenon in the financial markets, they mainly focus on the asymmetric information problems, control and ownership considerations, behaviour consideration and lawsuit avoidance. I examined the extent to the determinants of initial returns based on 1,017 IPOs data in U.S. market over 1999 – 2009, shown the existence of underpricing phenomenon in U.S. with the 18.78% initial return. My results indicate that about 36.73% of the variation of initial return can be predicted by public information (or historical IPO data available online) known before the new shares offering date. Amongst various traditional explanation of the underpricing level, behaviour consideration which including the macroeconomic environment and the IPO market condition I the most significant predictors of underpricing degree. Additionally, initial return of IPOs tends to have a regular pattern

Tourism gentrification and sustainability of farming cultural heritage site

Gentrification is a phenomenon widely studied in inner city transformation. Recently the concept of gentrification has also been applied in the context of tourism. However, the negative effects of gentrification in area of indigenous shall not be ignored particularly where the cultural and lifestyle of the indigenous people are the main tourist attractions. This research investigates gentrification process in the Rice Terraces World Heritage Site at Yuanyang Yunnan, China. We deployed qualitative research to collect interview and observation data to analyse the drivers of gentrification, and proposed practical approaches to sustainable development

Traitor Tracing Revisited: New Attackers, Stronger Security Model and New Construction

In Crypto 94, Chor, Fiat, and Naor first introduced the traitor tracing (TT) systems, which aim at helping content distributors identify pirates. Since its introduction, many traitor tracing schemes have been proposed. However, we observe until now almost all the traitor tracing systems using probabilistic public key (and secret key) encryption as the the content distribution algorithm, they do not consider this basic fact: the malicious encrypter can plant some trapdoor in the randomness of the ciphertexts and later he can use this trapdoor or the delegation of the trapdoor to construct decoding pirates, He can sell them to the black market and get his own benefits. At first sight, this new attack model is too strong to capture the real attack scenarios. But we think it is valuable at least for the following two reasons: (1) Note in many modern content distribution systems, there are at least existing three different roles: { the content provider, the content distributer and the content consumer. In this framework, the encrypter is not necessarily the content provider (or content owner). It can be a malicious employee in the content provider corporation, it can also be the malicious content distributer or its malicious employee}. In all these cases, the encrypter has its own benefits and has the potential intention to plant some trapdoor in the randomness for generating ciphertexts. (2) Also note in the related work, there is a conclusion that traitor tracing and differential privacy can have directly influence on each other, while differential privacy (DP) is at the heart of constructing modern privacy preserving systems. But if we consider this new insider attacker (the encrypter), at least some part arguments on the relationship between traitor tracing and differential privacy need more consideration. Therefore in this paper we carefully describe this new insider attacker and investigate thoroughly on its effect. Our main research results are the following: (1) We show that many existing public key traitor tracing systems with probabilistic encryption algorithm are failing to work correctly when facing this malicious encrypter.They are including the BSW, BW, GKSW, LCZ and BZ traitor tracing systems. Furthermore, we conclude that most of the existing traitor tracing systems using probabilistic encryption algorithm can not resist this attack. (2) When considering the insider attacker (the encrypter), if the traitor tracing schemes using probabilistic encryption algorithms, the conclusion on tight relationship between traitor tracing and differential privacy may need more consideration. (3) By employing the technique of hash function, we show how to design TT+ system which can resist this type of attack based on the existing traitor tracing system. Compared with the old traitor tracing system, our new proposal does not add much overhead and thus is practical too

Identification and Characterization of microRNAs from Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) by High-Throughput Sequencing

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNAs of approximately 21 nt that regulate gene expression in plants post-transcriptionally by endonucleolytic cleavage or translational inhibition. miRNAs play essential roles in numerous developmental and physiological processes and many of them are conserved across species. Extensive studies of miRNAs have been done in a few model plants; however, less is known about the diversity of these regulatory RNAs in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), one of the most important oilseed crops cultivated worldwide. RESULTS: A library of small RNA from peanut was constructed for deep sequencing. In addition to 126 known miRNAs from 33 families, 25 novel peanut miRNAs were identified. The miRNA* sequences of four novel miRNAs were discovered, providing additional evidence for the existence of miRNAs. Twenty of the novel miRNAs were considered to be species-specific because no homolog has been found for other plant species. qRT-PCR was used to analyze the expression of seven miRNAs in different tissues and in seed at different developmental stages and some showed tissue- and/or growth stage-specific expression. Furthermore, potential targets of these putative miRNAs were predicted on the basis of the sequence homology search. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified large numbers of miRNAs and their related target genes through deep sequencing of a small RNA library. This study of the identification and characterization of miRNAs in peanut can initiate further study on peanut miRNA regulation mechanisms, and help toward a greater understanding of the important roles of miRNAs in peanut

Inconceivable Hypokalemia: A Case Report of Acute Severe Barium Chloride Poisoning

Barium is a heavy divalent alkaline earth metal that has been known as a muscle poison. Barium can cause human toxicity, which may lead to significant hypokalemia and have serious consequences. This paper reports a case of unprecedented barium intoxication in which the patient, who suffered from depression, swallowed at least 3.0 g barium chloride to commit suicide. On admission, the patient presented with nausea, vomiting, stomach burning feeling, dizziness, and weakness. Emergency biochemical testing showed that the patient was suffering from severe hypokalemia (K+ 1.7 mmol/L). His electrocardiogram (ECG) prompted atrioventricular blocking, ventricular tachycardia, prolongation of PR interval, ST segment depression with U waves, and T wave inversion. Intravenous potassium supplements were given immediately to correct hypokalemia and regular monitoring of vital signs and fluid balance was arranged. After all-out rescue of our hospital personnel, the condition of the patient is currently stable and he is gradually recovering. This case exemplifies the weaknesses of the management of toxic substances and the lack of mental health education for young people. We hope to get more attention for the supervision of toxic substances and the healthy development of young people

Intercomparison of MODIS Albedo Retrievals and In Situ Measurements Across the Global FLUXNET Network

Surface albedo is a key parameter in the Earth's energy balance since it affects the amount of solar radiation directly absorbed at the planet surface. Its variability in time and space can be globally retrieved through the use of remote sensing products. To evaluate and improve the quality of satellite retrievals, careful intercomparisons with in situ measurements of surface albedo are crucial. For this purpose we compared MODIS albedo retrievals with surface measurements taken at 53 FLUXNET sites that met strict conditions of land cover homogeneity. A good agreement between mean yearly values of satellite retrievals and in situ measurements was found (R(exp 2)= 0.82). The mismatch is correlated to the spatial heterogeneity of surface albedo, stressing the relevance of land cover homogeneity when comparing point to pixel data. When the seasonal patterns of MODIS albedo is considered for different plant functional types, the match with surface observation is extremely good at all forest sites. On the contrary, in non-forest sites satellite retrievals underestimate in situ measurements across the seasonal cycle. The mismatch observed at grasslands and croplands sites is likely due to the extreme fragmentation of these landscapes, as confirmed by geostatistical attributes derived from high resolution scenes

A Strategy for the Proliferation of Ulva prolifera, Main Causative Species of Green Tides, with Formation of Sporangia by Fragmentation

Ulva prolifera, a common green seaweed, is one of the causative species of green tides that occurred frequently along the shores of Qingdao in 2008 and had detrimental effects on the preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games sailing competition, since more than 30 percent of the area of the games was invaded. In view of the rapid accumulation of the vast biomass of floating U. prolifera in green tides, we investigated the formation of sporangia in disks of different diameters excised from U. prolifera, changes of the photosynthetic properties of cells during sporangia formation, and development of spores. The results suggested that disks less than 1.00 mm in diameter were optimal for the formation of sporangia, but there was a small amount of spore release in these. The highest percentage of area of spore release occurred in disks that were 2.50 mm in diameter. In contrast, sporangia were formed only at the cut edges of larger disks (3.00 mm, 3.50 mm, and 4.00 mm in diameter). Additionally, the majority of spores liberated from the disks appeared vigorous and developed successfully into new individuals. These results implied that fragments of the appropriate size from the U. prolifera thalli broken by a variety of factors via producing spores gave rise to the rapid proliferation of the seaweed under field conditions, which may be one of the most important factors to the rapid accumulation of the vast biomass of U. prolifera in the green tide that occurred in Qingdao, 2008