External factors and outward foreign direct investment by Chinese firms

Drawing on the institutional lens and the global political economy (GPE) perspective, the thesis firstly examines the role of home-government support and interstate relational factors in shaping Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs) overseas subsidiary performance. The author tackles two aspects of home-government support: financial support and non-financial policy support. Moreover, their effects under the contingency of interstate relational factors are considered. Using survey data, the findings show that Chinese MNEs subsidiary performance is positively related to the degree of home-government non-financial policy support but not financial support. The effect of non-financial policy support is moderated by interstate political and economic relations. Stronger interstate political relations augment the impact of non-financial policy support on subsidiary performance, whereas interstate economic relations have a substitutive effect. The thesis further addresses the role of home-country legitimacy on the level of political risk faced by Chinese MNEs when venturing internationally. Highlighting the notion of legitimacy under the institutional perspective, the author suggests that the level of political risk encountered by Chinese firms is jointly determined by the institutional governance quality and firms home-country legitimacy with key stakeholders in a host country. While host-country political and regulatory governance quality remain important factors in explaining the political risk faced by Chinese MNEs, their effects tend to diminish due to the lack of social acceptance of a firm s home country with the host-country government, industrial agencies and general public. Finally, this thesis explores how political risk is conceived by Chinese MNEs when competing in the global arena. Based on qualitative interviews with managers of Chinese firms, the study provides a fine-grained analysis about the way that political risk is perceived by Chinese companies operating in developed and developing host countries, specifically, the European Union (EU) and Africa. The findings reveal that Chinese MNEs perceive that political risk can go beyond the conventional source of host-country political turmoil. The baggage carried by Chinese firms due to different ideologies between their home and host countries, and the host-government s concern over the motives behind these firms activities, represent a source of political risk arise from firms home country. The study shows that Chinese MNEs regard their home-country origin and industry-specific restrictions as major political risks in the EU. By contrast, they consider the volatile political environment in some African countries as the main source of political risk. In addition to the sharp contrast of the political and regulatory environments between the EU and Africa, Chinese firms commonly face political risk in both markets due to their own behaviours

Dual Thermoresponsive Aggregation of Schizophrenic PDMAEMA‑<i>b</i>‑PSBMA Copolymer with an Unrepeatable pH Response and a Recycled CO₂/N₂ Response

A dual thermoresponsive block copolymer of poly­[2-(dimethylamino)­ethyl methacrylate]-<i>block</i>-poly­(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (PDMAEMA-<i>b</i>-PSBMA) exhibited reversible schizophrenic aggregation behavior in water because of the upper critical solution temperature (UCST) of the PSBMA block and the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the PDMAEMA block. Both the UCST and LCST shifted to lower values with increasing DMAEMA/SBMA block ratios, which was ascribed to the hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance of both blocks. Because of the salt-sensitive PSBMA and pH-responsive PDMAEMA, the UCST and LCST values of PDMAEMA-<i>b</i>-PSBMA were codetermined by varying the salt concentrations and pH. Specifically, increasing the salt concentration resulted in a notable decrease in the UCST and a slight increase in the LCST due to the salt-induced screening of the electrostatic attractions of the PSBMA and salt-enhanced solubility of the PSBMA blocks, respectively. The LCST decreased with increasing pH because of the deprotonation of PDMAEMA, and the UCST first increased and then decreased with increasing pH. Besides, the copolymer with larger PDMAEMA content was more sensitive to pH. For the repetitive adjustment to thermoresponsive aggregation, repeated addition of acids and bases induced salt accumulation and diminished the switchability of pH, whereas repeated switching cycles were achieved by CO₂/N₂ bubbling without introducing salt enrichment. The difference in HCl/NaOH titration and CO₂/N₂ bubbling also existed in the switching cycles when PDMAEMA-<i>b</i>-PSBMA served as a stimulus-responsive emulsifier

Effect of Composition of PDMAEMA‑<i>b</i>‑PAA Block Copolymers on Their pH- and Temperature-Responsive Behaviors

A series of poly­(2-(dimethylamino) ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) homopolymers and poly­(2-(dimethylamino)­ethyl methacrylate)-<i>b</i>-poly­(acrylic acid) (PDMAEMA-<i>b</i>-PAA) diblock copolymers were synthesized by atomic transfer radical polymerization. Thanks to a fine-tuning of the hydrophobic–hydrophilic balance by varying the molecular weight of the polymers and the pH of the aqueous solutions, as well as the composition for the block copolymers, the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) and the aggregation–dissolution kinetics of PDMAEMA homopolymers and PDMAEMA-<i>b</i>-PAA block copolymers can be adjusted. For the block copolymers, the results show that larger relative size of the PDMAEMA blocks leads to an increasing tendency to form micellar aggregates and a decrease of the LCST of the aqueous solution, which is consistent with the increasing copolymer hydrophobicity. A significant difference of the stimuli-responsive behavior between PDMAEMA-rich and PAA-rich copolymers is observed, because the former exhibit thermo-responsive behavior in a broad temperature range of 40–60 °C in basic media, while the pH-responsive behavior is dominant, and only a weak thermo-responsive behavior is exhibited around the specific isoelectric point (IEP) in the latter case. The aggregation rate is strongly influenced by temperature, molecular weight, structure, and composition of the polymer. Specifically, temperature has a stronger effect than the molar ratio of the PDMAEMA segment in the copolymer (related to its hydrophobicity) and the chain molecular weight, although the PDMAEMA-<i>b</i>-PAA copolymers show faster aggregation rate than do the PDMAEMA homopolymers

Melting Behavior of Zipper-Structured Lipopeptides in Lipid Bilayer

A zipper-structured lipopeptide is expected to play a role of “intelligent valve” in the lipid bilayer. In this paper, a series of zipper-structured lipopeptides have been designed for preparing thermocontrollable hybrid liposomes. Their conformational transition as a function of temperature in lipid bilayer has been investigated for understanding the influences of molecular structure and bilayer property on biofunction. The melting temperatures <i>T</i>_m of the lipopeptides have been found to depend on their molecular structures. When the lipopeptides have been doped in bilayer, an increase of size of alkyl chain increases the stability of the α-helix resulting in a decrease in fluidity of lipid bilayer. However, an increase of amino groups at N-terminal is found to decrease the stability of the spatial structure. The thermocontrollability of the “valve” in lipid bilayer is confirmed by drug release experiments under different temperatures. Meanwhile, effects of bilayer properties on the thermosensitivity of lipopeptides have also been investigated. Results show the <i>T</i>_m of lipopeptide doped in bilayer decreases with the increase of membrane fluidity. Furthermore, the reversibility of the thermocontrolled “valve” is also proven by release drug under intermittent temperatures. It could be concluded that the molecular structure of the lipopeptide, as well as the property of bilayer, give great influence on the biofunction of the hybrid liposomes

Self-Assembly Behavior of Thermoresponsive Oligo(ethylene glycol) Methacrylates Random Copolymer

A well-defined random copolymer containing 2-(2-methoxyethoxy) ethyl methacrylate (MEO₂MA, <i>M</i>_n = 188 g/mol) and poly­(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PEGMA, <i>M</i>_n = 2080 g/mol) (poly­(MEO₂MA-<i>co</i>-PEGMA₂₀₈₀)), <i>M</i>_n = 17300 g/mol) was synthesized using the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) process, and its thermoresponsive behaviors in aqueous solution were investigated. In comparison to other temperature-sensitive random copolymers based on oligo­(ethylene glycol) methacrylates, this copolymer exhibited an unusual thermally induced two-stage aggregation process. The copolymer chains associate at the first thermal transition followed by a rearrangement process at the second thermal transition to produce a stable core–shell micellar structure. The morphology of the micelle comprises of a methacrylate core stabilized by the longer ethylene glycol segments (<i>M</i>_n = 2080 g/mol) shell

Coarse-Grained Simulation of Polycation/DNA-Like Complexes: Role of Neutral Block

Complexes formed by polycations and DNA are of great research interest because of their prospective application in gene therapy. Whereas the applications of multiblock based polycation generally exhibit promising features, a thorough understanding on the effect of neutral block incorporated in polycation is still lacking. By using coarse-grained dynamics simulation with the help of a simple model for solvent mediated interaction, we perform a theoretical study on the physicochemical properties of various polyplexes composed of a single DNA-like polyanion chain and numbers of linear polycationic chains with different modifications. By analyzing various properties, we find the hydrophobic/hydrophilic modifications of linear polycations may bring an improvement on one aspect of the properties as gene carrier but also involve a trade-off with another one. In particular, polycation with a hydrophobic middle block and a hydrophilic tail block display distinct advantages among di- and triblock linear polycations as gene carrier, while careful design of the hydrophobic block should be made to reduce the zeta potential. The simulation results are compared with available experimental data displaying good agreements

Enhanced Biphasic Reactions in Amphiphilic Silica Mesopores

In this study, we investigated the effect of the pore volume and mesopore size of surface-active catalytic organosilicas on the genesis of particle-stabilized (Pickering) emulsions for the dodecanal/ethylene glycol system and their reactivity for the acid-catalyzed biphasic acetalization reaction. To this aim, we functionalized a series of fumed silica superparticles (size 100–300 nm) displaying an average mesopore size in the range of 11–14 nm and variable mesopore volume, with a similar surface density of octyl and propylsulfonic acid groups. The modified silica superparticles were characterized in detail using different techniques, including acid–base titration, thermogravimetric analysis, TEM, and dynamic light scattering. The pore volume of the particles impacts their self-assembly and coverage at the dodecanal/ethylene glycol (DA/EG) interface. This affects the stability and the average droplet size of emulsions and conditions of the available interfacial surface area for reaction. The maximum DA-EG productivity is observed for A200 super-SiNPs with a pore volume of 0.39 cm3·g–1 with an interfacial coverage by particles lower than 1 (i.e., submonolayer). Using dissipative particle dynamics and all-atom grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations, we unveil a stabilizing role of the pore volume of porous silica superparticles for generating emulsions and local micromixing of immiscible dodecanal and ethylene glycol, allowing fast and efficient solvent-free acetalization in the presence of Pickering emulsions. The micromixing level is interrelated to the adsorption energy of self-assembled particles at the DA/EG interface

Expression of the human <i>CYP2E1</i> reporter constructs in the human hepatoma cell line (Hep G2).

<p>The luciferase activities were normalized against the human wild type construct. The results are the average of at least three independent experiments. Comparisons among groups were done with the aid of the ANOVA statistical procedure. **Significantly different from Wild type transfected cells (<i>P</i><0.05), *** Significantly different from Wild type transfected cells (<i>P</i><0.01).</p

Double restriction enzyme identification of pGL3-<i>CYP2E1</i> with <i>Bgl II</i> and <i>Hind III.</i>

<p>WT: wide type; MU1: −1778G>A; MU2: −1646A>G; MU3: −971A>C and −962A>G; MU4: −792T>G; MU5: −722A>G.</p

Predictive analysis (performed by CONREAL) of transcription factor binding sites affected by potential regulatory SNPs in <i>CYP2E1</i>.

<p>Predictive analysis (performed by CONREAL) of transcription factor binding sites affected by potential regulatory SNPs in <i>CYP2E1</i>.</p