Attitudes Of Chinese Listed Enterprises Toward Cash Flow Manipulation: A Resource Dependence Perspective

The prevalence of cash flow manipulation has drawn much scholarly attention in China and worldwide, especially since the exposure of the accounting scandals at Enron, WorldCom, and Qwest. Cash flow status also provides a sound basis for corporate valuation. Using a sample of 12,251 firm-year observations from 1999 to 2009, this study thus investigates the attitudes and behavioral patterns of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-SOEs in China toward cash flow manipulation. From a point of departure of resource-dependence theory, we find that non-SOEs tend to manipulate cash flow upward, whereas SOEs are more prone to manipulate cash flow downward. We also demonstrate that non-SOEs are more inclined to manipulate their cash flow statements compared with SOEs. The reason behind this differing behavior could be that non-SOEs are reliant on cash and funds from entities, such as governments and banks, and thus, they falsely enhance cash flow and firm performance in order to signal their solvency and thereby reduce financing costs. By contrast, since SOEs always receive sufficient cash inflows from both government sources and state-owned banks, the managers of these firms are unconcerned about cash flow shortages, which lessens their motivation to manipulate the figures. Indeed, this study finds that these managers may even reduce reported cash flow intentionally in order to obtain government assistance. Therefore, investors and regulators should make their judgments on the cash flow of entities based on their status as SOEs or non-SOEs

Synthesis and Characterization of Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Phenoxyacetic Acids

2-methylphenoxyacetic acid (2-MPA), 2-methyl-4-chlorophenxyacetic acid (MCPA) and 4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (4-CPA) were imprinted to investigate the cross-selectivities of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). The result indicates that 2-MPA, which is similar in shape, size and functionality with phenoxyacetic herbicides, are suitable to be used as a suitable template to prepare the MIPs for retaining phenoxyacetic herbicides. To study the ion-pair interactions between template molecules and functional monomer 4-vinylpiridine (4-VP), computational molecular modeling was employed. The data indicate that the cross-selectivities of MIPs for phenoxyacetic acid herbicides depend on the binding energies of complexes

Characterization of aerosol associated with enhanced small particle number concentrations in a suburban forested environment

Two elevated particle number/mass growth events associated with Aitken‐mode particles were observed during a sampling campaign (13–29 September 2004) at the Duke University Free‐Air CO2 Enrichment facility, a forested field site located in suburban central North Carolina. Aerosol growth rates between 1.2 and 4.9 nm hr−1 were observed, resulting in net increases in geometric mean diameter of 21 and 37 nm during events. Growth was dominated by addition of oxidized organic compounds. Campaign‐average aerosol mass concentrations measured by an Aerodyne quadrupole aerosol mass spectrometer (Q‐AMS) were 1.9 ± 1.6 (σ), 1.6 ± 1.9, 0.1 ± 0.1, and 0.4 ± 0.4 μg m−3 for organic mass (OM), sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium, respectively. These values represent 47%, 40%, 3%, and 10%, respectively, of the measured submicron aerosol mass. Based on Q‐AMS spectra, OM was apportioned to hydrocarbon‐like organic aerosol (HOA, likely representing primary organic aerosol) and two types of oxidized organic aerosol (OOA‐1 and OOA‐2), which constituted on average 6%, 58%, and 36%, respectively, of the apportioned OM. OOA‐1 probably represents aged, regional secondary organic aerosol (SOA), while OOA‐2 likely reflects less aged SOA. Organic aerosol characteristics associated with the events are compared to the campaign averages. Particularly in one event, the contribution of OOA‐2 to overall OM levels was enhanced, indicating the likelihood of less aged SOA formation. Statistical analyses investigate the relationships between HOA, OOA‐1, OOA‐2, other aerosol components, gas‐phase species, and meteorological data during the campaign and individual events. No single variable clearly controls the occurrence of a particle growth event

Colonic mucosal biopsy location can not affect the results of mucosal metabolomics and mucosal microbiota analysis in IBS

ObjectiveTo compare and analyze the mucosal metabolites and mucosal microbiota of different parts of colon in patients with IBS.MethodsA total of 10 patients with IBS-D and six healthy controls (HC) were enrolled. All enrolled participants underwent two biopsies of the ileocecal and sigmoid colon during colonoscopy. Metabolomic profiling of one piece of tissue was conducted using desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (DESI-MS), and the gut flora of the other piece was examined using 16S rRNA sequencing. The metabolic profiles and flora of the ileocecal and sigmoid colonic mucosa in each group were further analyzed in this study.Results(1) Principal components analysis (PCA) indicated that mucosal metabolites did not differ in different parts of the colon in either the IBS-D or HC groups. (2) In the mucosal microbiome analyses, no differences between the microbiota of the two parts of the colon were found by using Principal Co-ordinates Analysis (PCoA). In IBS group, comparing with sigmoid mucosa, the chao1 richness indice was higher and the Shannon index was lower in the ileocecal mucosa (p = 0.40, p = 0.22). However, in the HC group, microbiome analysis of the ileocecal mucosa showed lower values for Chao 1 and Shannon indices than those of the sigmoid colon mucosa (p = 0.06, p = 0.86). (3) Compared with the HC group, 1,113 metabolic signal peaks were upregulated, whereas 594 metabolites were downregulated in the IBS-D samples. Moreover, the PCA of the metabolites showed significant separation between the IBS-D and HC groups. (4) Chao1 expression was significantly higher in the mucosal microbiota with IBS-D than in the HC (p = 0.03). The Shannon index was lower in IBS-D, but the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.53). PCoA revealed a significant difference in the microflora structure between the IBS-D and HC groups.ConclusionThe mucosal metabolic profile and mucosal flora structure of the colon were similar, despite different locations in IBS and healthy subjects. IBS had abnormal colonic mucosal metabolism and flora disturbances

Bio‐Waste‐Derived Hard Carbon Anodes Through a Sustainable and Cost‐Effective Synthesis Process for Sodium‐Ion Batteries

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are postulated as sustainable energy storage devices for light electromobility and stationary applications. The anode of choice in SIBs is hard carbon (HC) due to its electrochemical performance. Among different HC precursors, bio-waste resources have attracted significant attention due to their low-cost, abundance, and sustainability. Many bio-waste materials have been used as HC precursors, but they often require strong acids/bases for pre-/post-treatment for HC development. Here, the morphology, microstructure, and electrochemical performance of HCs synthesized from hazelnut shells subjected to different pre-treatments (i. e., no pre-treatment, acid treatment, and water washing) were compared. The impact on the electrochemical performance of sodium-ion cells and the cost-effectiveness were also investigated. The results revealed that hazelnut shell-derived HCs produced via simple water washing outperformed those obtained via other processing methods in terms of electrochemical performance and cost–ecological effectiveness of a sodium-ion battery pack

Interactions Study of Hydrodynamic-Morphology-Vegetation for Dam-Break Flows

This study models a dam-break flow over a bed by using a depth-averaged numerical model based on finite-volume method and computes the dam-break flow and bed morphology characteristics. The generalized shallow water equations considering the sediment transport and bed change on dam-break flow are adopted in the numerical model, and the vegetation effects on the flow and morphological changes are considered. The model is verified against three cases from the laboratory and field data documented in the literature. The numerical results are consistent with the measured results, which show that the model could accurately simulate the evolution of the dam-break flows and the morphology evolution of bed within a computational domain with complex plant distribution. The results show that the riparian vegetation in the waterway narrows the channel and reduces the conveyance capacity of river. The flood flow is diverted away from the vegetation community toward two sides and forms a weak flow region behind the vegetation domain. The resistance of plants markedly reduces the flow velocity, which directly alters the fluvial processes and influences the waterway morphology

Energy trading model for multi-microgrid energy storage alliance based on Nash negotiation

With the continuous development of the electricity market and the gradual expansion of the number and scale of participation in market transactions, the traditional energy trading model has limited the formation of a competitive pattern of multi-agents. In this paper, a new multi-microgrid energy storage alliance energy trading model based on Nash negotiation is proposed. This model takes energy storage, multi-microgrid, and superior power grid enterprises as the main participants and establishes an energy market trading model with “buy–sell” cooperation and competition coexisting within the alliance based on Nash negotiation theory. Through the interaction of electricity between different entities, energy conversion and complementary utilization are increased, achieving reasonable allocation of resources, enhancing the overall flexibility of the alliance, and promoting the local consumption of a high proportion of new energy. The simulation results of the example show that the energy trading model based on Nash negotiation can fully leverage the initiative of demand-side participation in scheduling and improve the utilization rate of energy storage systems while ensuring the payment benefits of all participating entities, which can provide technical support for energy complementarity among multiple entities and provide new technological paths for the sustainable development of energy sharing mechanisms

A New Recommendation Algorithm Based on User’s Dynamic Information in Complex Social Network

The development of recommendation system comes with the research of data sparsity, cold start, scalability, and privacy protection problems. Even though many papers proposed different improved recommendation algorithms to solve those problems, there is still plenty of room for improvement. In the complex social network, we can take full advantage of dynamic information such as user’s hobby, social relationship, and historical log to improve the performance of recommendation system. In this paper, we proposed a new recommendation algorithm which is based on social user’s dynamic information to solve the cold start problem of traditional collaborative filtering algorithm and also considered the dynamic factors. The algorithm takes user’s response information, dynamic interest, and the classic similar measurement of collaborative filtering algorithm into account. Then, we compared the new proposed recommendation algorithm with the traditional user based collaborative filtering algorithm and also presented some of the findings from experiment. The results of experiment demonstrate that the new proposed algorithm has a better recommended performance than the collaborative filtering algorithm in cold start scenario