AN EMPIRICAL STUDY FOR THE RELATIONSHIP OF CHINESE STOCK MARKET AND MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS

This paper discusses the relationship between Shanghai stock index and nine macro economic indicators, namely CPI, fixed asset investment, export, industrial output, M1, M2, domestic loan, short-term interest rate and savings, using cointegration theorem and Granger causality test during the sample period from January 1996 to December 2005. The whole sample period is further divided into two periods to investigate whether such relationship has become stronger over time. The result shows that stock market is strongly correlated with Chinese macro economy in the long run; half the macroeconomic indicators provide explanatory power to stock index in the short run of the whole sample period. However there is no strong evidence shows that such correlation is stronger in period two than period one.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Deciding Fast and Slow in Risk Decision Making: An Experimental Study

The current study presents findings of an experiment. Response time was used to investigate fast deciders’ (FD) and slow deciders’ (SD) behavioral differences. SDs were found to be more cognitive than FDs and this could induce an increase in average response time. Both FDs and SDs showed aversion to extreme options, but they behaved differently with option ‘S’ being “safer” among groups. Moreover, FDs responded more instinctively to negative feedbacks

How design enhance the situation switching process in individual teleworking

Teleworking is gradually being applied on a large scale in organizations in China because of the epidemic. At the same time, it is changing from an urgent need to a new normalized office scenario as organizations collaborate more across geographies, reduce staffing costs and improve support related to teleworking. In teleworking, individuals communicate with the organization through multiple electronic devices in a private, non-fixed location to complete work tasks. Compared with office work, teleworking makes personal life and work more closely connected in time and space dimensions. On the one hand, this means that teleworkers can be flexible and fully engaged in their work and leisure activities. However, on the other hand, it also leads to considerable negative effects, such as constant stress due to the confusion between work and non-work time, easy distractions due to the interruption of personal matters, and feelings of overwhelm due to reduced direct social interaction. Undoubtedly, how to help people establish a positive teleworking state to better facilitate good personal work-life interaction is an issue worth investigating. This thesis takes the perspective of "situation switching" in individual teleworking, aiming to explore the possibility of helping teleworkers to better transition between different categories of situations in the multi-activity scenario in individual teleworking and thus help them establishing a better personal state. The research in this thesis is divided into two phases. The first phase is the study of the categories of situations in teleworking, which is developed from the perspective of situations defined by the subjective psychological characteristics of teleworkers in this thesis. By coding and analyzing the raw data, the situations in teleworking are classified into eight sub-situations under three different level of concentration requirements. Further, situation switching process in telework is discussed in two categories: entering and leaving formal working states, and situation switching that occurred during formal work hours with concentration switching as the main feature. The second phase of the study is an examination of the cues that support, represent, and influence teleworkers to switch between situations. By examining the behavioral motivations of teleworkers and the objective stimuli in the work environment that constitute the situations, this study summarizes the cues at both task and environment levels. Based on the study of situation switching in teleworking and the cues that influence the process, a situational adaptive design strategy is proposed in this thesis. Its main advantage is to determine the situation by recognizing the individual's tasks and activities in teleworking, and thus create and switch various cues in the work environment to positively influence the individual's concentration and personal state. Three ambient cues - sound, light and smell - are used in the design strategy. By dynamically adjusting the three cues, the design strategy is able to flexibly and proactively respond to the switching process between different situations, thus helping teleworkers to meet the different requirements of personal state regulation. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the practical implications, limitations, further research and personal reflections to declare the value of the research and the possibility of future development

Identification two novel nacrein-like proteins involved in the shell formation of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas

Nacrein-like proteins have carbonic anhydrase (CA)-like domains, but their coding regions are flanked by inserted repeat sequence, such as Gly-X-Asn. Reportedly, nacrein-like proteins show the highest similarity to human carbonic anhydrase 1(α-CA1), possess CA catalytic functions, and play a key role in shell biomineralization. In the present study, two novel nacrein-like proteins were firstly identified from the shell-forming mantle of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. With numerous analyses, it was identified and characterized that both the nacrein-like proteins F1 and F2 were secreted and most closely related to the nacrein-like protein of California mussel Mytilus californianus via phylogenetic analysis. RT-PCR analysis showed that the nacrein-like proteins F1 and F2 were expressed in multiple tissues and the expression levels remarkably rose after entering the spat stage, which were basically consistent with the increase of calcite fractions in the total shell volume. Surprisingly, the Gly-X-Asn repeat domain, which is distinctive in most nacrein-like proteins, was absent in the two newly identified nacrein-like proteins in C. gigas and replaced with a series of acidic amino acids (D/E). Regardless, nacrein-like proteins in mollusks seem to be vital to the deposition of calcium carbonate and likely perform diverse functions. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11033-014-3298-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Effect of superabsorbent polymer on mechanical properties of cement stabilized base and its mechanism

Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) are cross-linked polymers that can absorb and retain large amounts of water. In recent years, a growing interest was seen in applying SAPs in concrete to improve its performance due to its efficiency in mitigating shrinkage. This paper presents findings in a study on effect of SAPs on performance of cement-treated base (CTB), using the experience of internal curing of concrete. CTB specimens with and without SAPs were prepared and tested in the laboratory. Tests conducted include mechanical property testing, dry shrinkage testing, differential thermal analysis, mercury intrusion porosimetry and scanning electron microscope testing. It was found that 7-day and 28-day unconfined compressive strength of CTB specimens with SAPs was higher than regular CTB specimens. 28d compressive strength of CTB specimens with SAPs made by Static pressure method was 5.87 MPa, which is 27% higher than that of regular CTB specimens. Drying shrinkage of CTB specimens with SAPs was decreased by 52.5% comparing with regular CTB specimens. Through the microstructure analysis it was found that CTB specimens with SAPs could produce more hydration products, which is also the reason for the strength improvement