Corporate governance and innovation performance: a contingency perspective

This study advances the study of the corporate governance and innovation performance by considering the effect of institutional environment-the existence of the state. The aim of this dissertation is to identify the role of the state in examining the effectiveness of corporate governance on innovation performance. Specifically, this study discusses the impact of corporate governance on innovation performance in the context of the specific institutional environment that whether enterprises are SOEs or not. Corporate governance in terms of managerial ownership, ownership concentration, foreign ownership and absorptive capacity is discussed separately. Using panel data from 152 companies with qualifications, the effectiveness of corporate governance on innovation performance is separately tested in the full sample and two subsamples: SOEs and Non-SOEs. This study finds that managerial ownership has a positive effect on innovation performance only in SOEs. Ownership concentration harms innovation performance in both SOEs and non-SOEs. However, what is worth noting is that foreign ownership does not affect innovation performance in this study. Besides, absorptive capacity positively shapes innovation performance in the full sample and two subsamples. These findings help researchers better understand how corporate governance mechanism affects innovation performance under different contexts-SOEs and non-SOEs. Finally, this study discusses the implications and provides direction for future research

Growing Typhoon Influence on East Asia

Numerical model studies have suggested that the ongoing global warming will likely affect tropical cyclone activity. But so far little observed evidence has been detected to support the projected future changes. Using satellite-supported best-track data from 1965 to 2003, we show for the first time that over the past four decades the two prevailing typhoon tracks in the western North Pacific (WNP) have shifted westward significantly; the typhoon activity over the South China Sea has considerably decreased; and East Asia has experienced increasing typhoon influence. Our trajectory model simulation indicates that the long-term shifts in the typhoon tracks result primarily from the changes in the mean translation velocity of typhoons or the large-scale steering flow, which is associated with the westward expansion and strengthening of the WNP subtropical high

THE CURRENT SITUATION OF FAMILY EDUCATION AND SCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN ADMISSION OF MIGRANT CHILDREN IN ZHEJIANG PROVINCE, CHINA: A SURVEY OF HANGZHOU, NINGBO AND JIAXING

Based on a survey of 322 parents of migrant children aged 3 to 10 in Hangzhou, Ningbo and Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, China, the study found that nearly 70% of parents have been working in Zhejiang for 5-10 years, and 28% of them have worked for more than 10 years; 94% of them hold agricultural household registration and 6% of them hold non-agricultural household registration. Nearly 70% of these families have 2 to 3 children and 16% of them have 4 children. Those children who can get into the local public kindergartens and primary schools are all study in the local institutions and most school-aged children and the majority of pre-school children who do not meet the admission requirements for local public kindergartens and primary schools return to their hometown due to the pressure of tuition fees. At the same time, family education is not efficient, more than half of the children’s spare time is occupied by television and video games, the proportion of reading and sports activities is only a little more than 10%. Most parents have little time to read, do homework and physical exercise with their children, because of their heavy work or low level of education. This paper puts forward some relevant countermeasures and suggestions, hoping to change this situation.  Article visualizations

Investigations into the effects of scaffold microstructure on slow-release system with bioactive factors for bone repair

In recent years, bone tissue engineering (BTE) has played an essential role in the repair of bone tissue defects. Although bioactive factors as one component of BTE have great potential to effectively promote cell differentiation and bone regeneration, they are usually not used alone due to their short effective half-lives, high concentrations, etc. The release rate of bioactive factors could be controlled by loading them into scaffolds, and the scaffold microstructure has been shown to significantly influence release rates of bioactive factors. Therefore, this review attempted to investigate how the scaffold microstructure affected the release rate of bioactive factors, in which the variables included pore size, pore shape and porosity. The loading nature and the releasing mechanism of bioactive factors were also summarized. The main conclusions were achieved as follows: i) The pore shapes in the scaffold may have had no apparent effect on the release of bioactive factors but significantly affected mechanical properties of the scaffolds; ii) The pore size of about 400 μm in the scaffold may be more conducive to controlling the release of bioactive factors to promote bone formation; iii) The porosity of scaffolds may be positively correlated with the release rate, and the porosity of 70%–80% may be better to control the release rate. This review indicates that a slow-release system with proper scaffold microstructure control could be a tremendous inspiration for developing new treatment strategies for bone disease. It is anticipated to eventually be developed into clinical applications to tackle treatment-related issues effectively

China’s pig relocation in balance

In 2015, the Chinese government banned livestock production in some regions (called non-livestock production regions, NLPRs) to control surface water pollution near vulnerable water bodies. In total, 90,000 NLPRs had been established by 2017, covering a land area of 0.82 million km2 and shutting down 0.26 million pig farms1. As a consequence, the number of slaughtered pigs decreased by 46 million head yr–1 between 2014 and 2017. The NLPRs policy is globally unprecedented in terms of the geographical area and number of farms affected, as well as its implementation speed. The NLPRs policy has reduced pork self-sufficiency in some provinces by up to 40% (ref. 2). However, it is unclear which farms and regions may take over the market share