Does economic growth positively affect income inequality in China?

This report focuses on the relationship between the economic growth and income inequality in China. The hypothesis is that economic growth led to an increase in income inequality in China. The alternative hypothesis is that economic growth led to a decrease in income inequality in China. After analysing GDP per capita and the GINI index from World Bank, the results show a positive relationship between economic growth and income inequality. Additionally, this report also would measure the influence of monopoly power and the disposable income of urban/rural households to further support the hypothesis

Plastic Inorganic Semiconductors for Flexible Electronics

Featured with bendability and deformability, smartness and lightness, flexible materials and devices have wide applications in electronics, optoelectronics, and energy utilization. The key for flexible electronics is the integration of flexibility and decent electrical performance of semiconductors. It has long been realized that high-performance inorganic semiconductors are brittle, and the thinning-down-induced flexibility does not change the intrinsic brittleness. This inconvenient fact severely restricts the fabrication and service of inorganic semiconductors in flexible and deformable electronics. By contrast, flexible and soft polymers can be readily deformed but behave poorly in terms of electrical properties. Recently, Ag2S was discovered as the room-temperature ductile inorganic semiconductor. The intrinsic flexibility and plasticity of Ag2S are attributed to multicentered chemical bonding and solid linkage among easy slip planes. Furthermore, the electrical and thermoelectric properties of Ag2S can be readily optimized by Se/Te alloying while the ductility is maintained, giving birth to a high-efficiency full inorganic flexible thermoelectric device. This chapter briefly reviews this big discovery, relevant backgrounds, and research advances and tries to demonstrate a clear structure-performance correlation between crystal structure/chemical bonding and mechanical/electrical properties