Financial repression and liberalisation in China

This thesis is concerned with the implications of the financial liberalisation of the Chinese economy for savings, investment, monetary policy and the exchange rate, in China. In the first part, the financial repression hypothesis is tested on savings and investment, with the result that there is some evidence to support the complementarity between money and physical capital in China since 1987, although this effect is shown to have become weaker over the sample period as liberalisation has taken place. The second issue is to investigate the consequences of interest rate liberalisation in China, using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model. There are two main findings. First, raising deposit rates serves to alter the division of production between consumption and investment and to improve the efficiency of the monetary policy transmission mechanism through interest rates. Second, the deregulation of deposit and loan rates leads to less volatility in inflation as interest rates are allowed to partly absorb shocks to the economy. Other monetary policies under financial repression in China are examined as well. The results based on the DSGE model suggest that the interest rate rule is more effective and powerful than the conventional money growth rule and the adjustment of the required reserve ratio helps little to contain inflation. In addition, the administrative window guidance on bank loans contributes to less volatility of inflation and stabilises the deregulation process of deposit and loan rates. The final part of the thesis examines the sources of the volatility in real exchange rate, which are shown to stem essentially from demand shocks, although up to a quarter of the volatility comes from relative supply disturbances, perhaps reflecting the importance of supply-side reform in China since the early 1990s

Visualization 1.mp4

Comparison between raw OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) B-scans and distortion corrected OCT B-scans in DALK (Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty) needle insertions

The changing sources of real exchange rate fluctuations in China, 1995–2017: twinning the western industrial economies?

Relative real demand shocks are the most important source of real exchange rate fluctuations for most countries, including China, but prior to 2005 supply shocks were also large and highly significant. Whereas China’s pegged exchange rate policy rendered nominal (monetary) shocks unimportant, the shift to a more flexible exchange rate policy made nominal shocks a more important source of real exchange rate variability. Using a structural VAR model and quarterly data on China from 1995 to 2017, impulse response and variance decomposition analysis suggest that, although real relative demand shocks remain the main source of real exchange rate fluctuations, nominal shocks have become much more important in both absolute terms and relative to supply shocks. This suggests that, since adopting a managed floating exchange rate regime, the sources of China’s real exchange rate fluctuations have become similar to those of developed industrial countries. This stands in contrast to the fact that, despite being the world’s largest manufacturing economy, China is still classified as a developing country

Protein-Functionalized Diamond Surfaces in a Water Solvent: A Theoretical Approach

In order to improve the performance of a diamond-based implant material, surface functionalization with different proteins is a promising approach. The main goal of the present study has been to theoretically investigate the diamond functionalization by physisorption of different proteins onto different surface planes. The protein candidates selected are growth factors which can promote cell adhesion and growth and subsequent vascularization surrounding the implanted materials. They include Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 (BMP2), Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), Fibronectin (FN), and Angiopoietin (AGP). Moreover, it is well-known that diamond surface properties are strongly dependent on diamond surface planes and surface terminations. Therefore, the following two different diamond surface planes [diamond (100)-2 × 1 and diamond (111)] and four different kinds of terminations species (H, OH, COOH, and NH₂) were used in the present study. The results from force-field calculations show that the surface wettability is crucial for the protein adhesion onto the diamond surfaces, and the different proteins possess distinct preferences for diamond surface planes and terminations. For the identification of protein functionality, the atomic structures, in addition to corresponding electrostatic maps, were also visualized in the comparison of protein structures before and after adhesion to the diamond surfaces. It could be concluded that the protein structures and binding pocket electrostatic distributions are maintained as a result of the functionalization process, regardless of adhesion energy strength. These results provide a solid base for experimental protein functionalization of the diamond surfaces

Gas Phase Studies of N‑Heterocyclic Carbene-Catalyzed Condensation Reactions

N-Heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) catalyze <i>Umpolung</i> condensation reactions of carbonyl compounds, including the Stetter reaction. These types of reactions have not heretofore been examined in the gas phase. Herein, we explore the feasibility of examining these reactions in the absence of solvent. A charge-tagged thiazolylidene catalyst is used to track the reactions by mass spectrometry. We find that the first <i>Umpolung</i> step, the addition of the NHC catalyst to a carbonyl compound to form the “Breslow intermediate”, does not readily proceed in the gas phase, contrary to the case in solution. The use of acylsilanes in place of the carbonyl compounds appears to solve this issue, presumably because of a favorable Brook rearrangement. The second addition reaction, with enones, does not occur under our gas phase conditions. These reactions do occur in solution; the differential reactivity between the condensed and gas phases is discussed, and calculations are used to aid in the interpretation of the results

DataSheet1_Do agricultural productive services alleviate farmland abandonment? Evidence from China rural household panel survey data.docx

As an important means to solve “who will farm” and “how to farm” in the future, agricultural productive services change the allocation structure of agricultural factors and play an important role in alleviating farmland abandonment. This study uses the 2017 China Rural Household Panel Survey data and adopts the logistic model, the IV Tobit model, and the mediating effect model to investigate the impact of agricultural productive services on farmland abandonment. The results show: (1) Agricultural productive services significantly reduce farmland abandonment by 1.51% on average. (2) Mechanism analysis implies that agricultural labour substitution, land transfer effect, and technological adoption effect play important intermediary roles in alleviating farmland abandonment. (3) Moreover, compared with the eastern, central, and non-karst regions, agricultural productive services failed to reduce farmland abandonment in the western and karst regions with poor terrain conditions. Agricultural productive services could alleviate the farmland abandonment of small farmers and elderly farmers. Therefore, agricultural productive services contribute to the reuse of small-scale plots.</p

A bi-chain Co^II coordination framework bridged by water molecules: magnetic properties and photocatalytic behavior

<p>A new coordination framework, [Co₂(<b>L</b>)₂(bpy)₂(H₂O)]_n (<b>1</b>) (H₂<b>L</b> = (4-phenyl)-2,6-bis(4-carboxyphenyl)pyridine and bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine), has been prepared and structurally characterized. Complex <b>1</b> shows an interesting bi-chain substructure bridged by coordinated water molecules, which is further extended into a three-dimensional (3-D) supramolecular structure by <i>π</i>–<i>π</i> stacking interactions. Moreover, the magnetic properties and photocatalytic activity for degradation of methyl orange have been investigated.</p

Measuring the productivity of urban commercial banks in China

This paper contributes to the productivity analysis literature by measuring the productivity of 76 urban commercial banks operating in China's 27 regions from 2013 to 2018. A spatial total factor productivity index is constructed using a spatial autoregressive production function. The index is decomposed into the efficiency change and the returns to scale change, and it identifies both spatial direct (feedback) and spatial indirect (spillovers) components. The result confirms positive spatial dependence in the production of urban commercial banks. Additionally, productivity of China's urban commercial banks increases, which is mainly contributed to by the returns to scale change. </p

Age-Related Topographical Metabolic Signatures for the Rat Gastrointestinal Contents

Symbiotic gut microbiota is essential for mammalian physiology and analyzing the metabolite compositions of gastrointestinal contents is vital for understanding the microbiome–host interactions. To understand the developmental dependence of the topographical metabolic signatures for the rat gastrointestinal contents, we systematically characterized the metabolite compositional variations of the contents in rat jejunum, ileum, cecum, and colon for two age-groups using ¹H NMR spectroscopy and multivariate analysis. Significant topographical metabolic variations were present for the jejunal, ileal, cecal, colonic contents, and feces, reflecting the absorption functions for each intestinal region and the gut microbiota therein. The concentrations of amino acids, lactate, creatine, choline, bile acids, uracil and urocanate decreased drastically from jejunal to ileal contents followed with steady decreases from cecal content to feces. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and arabinoxylan-related carbohydrates had highest levels in cecal content and feces, respectively. Such topographical metabolic signatures for the intestinal contents varied with animal age highlighted by the level changes for lactate, choline, taurine, amino acids, carbohydrates, keto-acids, and SCFAs. These findings provided essential information for the topographical metabolic variations in the gastrointestinal tract and demonstrated metabolic profiling as a useful approach for understanding host–microbiome interactions and functional status of the gastrointestinal regions

Influence of solids retention time on membrane fouling: characterization of extracellular polymeric substances and soluble microbial products

<div><p>The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of solids retention time (SRT) on membrane fouling and the characteristics of biomacromolecules. Four identical laboratory-scale membrane bioreactors (MBRs) were operated with SRTs for 10, 20, 40 and 80 days. The results indicated that membrane fouling occurred faster and more readily under short SRTs. Fouling resistance was the primary source of filtration resistance. The modified fouling index (MFI) results suggested that the more ready fouling at short SRTs could be attributed to higher concentrations of soluble microbial products (SMP). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra indicated that the SRT had a weak influence on the functional groups of the total extracellular polymeric substances (TEPS) and SMP. However, the MBR under a short SRT had more low-molecular-weight (MW) compounds (<1 kDa) and fewer high-MW compounds (>100 kDa). Aromatic protein and tryptophan protein-like substances were the dominant groups in the TEPS and SMP, respectively.</p></div