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Currently, conjugated nonlinear optical (NLO) materials suffer from the drawbacks of complex manufacturing process and high cost. To further study the NLO materials with cost-effective, it is necessary to prepare new NLO materials with satisfactory performance.

Pyrene derivatives with good third-order NLO properties were synthesized by combining pyrene compounds with TCNE, TCNQ, F4-TCNQ and other molecular systems by clicking chemical method.

The pyrene derivatives were characterized by ultraviolet spectrum and Z-scan. The charge-transfer of the D-p-A structures plays a key role in the absorption peak shifts. And the third-order nonlinear absorption of the products revealed good third-order NLO susceptibilities.

The synthesis technology of pyrene derivatives is not mature enough and is in the preliminary exploration stage. So, the authors produced a relatively small number of samples and did not conduct a very comprehensive test.

This novel pyrene derivative is suggestive and can promote the exploration and development of the third-order nonlinear materials.

Four new pyrene derivatives were synthesized by selecting new molecular systems. Because of its good chemical properties and stable properties, it can be a reference for the development of third-order nonlinear materials in the future.

This study aims to develop a new kind of functional low molecular weight organic dyes, which is highly efficient, meanwhile inexpensive and easily prepared and modified and can be used in photoacoustic (PA) imaging and photothermal therapy (PTT). To further realize the release of molecules under the biomedical condition, the releasing efficiency of micellar nanoparticles under different stimuli were represented.

A class of azo and Schiff base derivatives with different click reagents were characterized by PA imaging and photothermal (PT) experiments. The molecule with best PT effect was loaded into a temperature-stimuli-sensitive amphiphilic block copolymer which demonstrated the capability of releasing the polymers under the near-infrared (NIR) light of 650 nm.

The PA and PT effects of a series of azo and Schiff base derivatives with different click reagents were characterized. Introducing the click reagent F4-TCNQ can result in red shift of peaks of PA intensity. Stimulated with 650 nm laser irradiation, the polymer processed higher release rate than being stimulated by temperature stimuli.

This paper not only guides the design of NIR dyes with good PA intensity but also provides a method which has great potential for the application of NIR photothermal dyes in the field of biotechnology for controlled release.

This paper uses click reagents to modify azo and Schiff derivatives and an amphiphilic block copolymer under NIR light to realize controlled release.

I RECKLESSLY ordered a brown ale, while my friend the Famous SF Author satisfied himself with an orange juice and his pipe: he's had to cut down on the drink, on doctor's orders. What with holding down a ‘proper’ job and producing SF novels to a publisher's deadline, his constitution has been undergoing some harsh punishment recently. In the end he had to throw up the ‘proper’ job and become a full‐time author. (In any case, he can't afford to drink at current pub prices.)

This study intends to explore the opportunities and roles of Macao's universities in the education and training development of Hengqin under the General Plan of the Development of the Guangdong–Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin promulgated in August 2021.

This study is intended to analyze the role of Macao’ universities in Hengqin development, based on data collected through interviewing with dozens of scholars and government officials from Macao and Hengqin, and government reports, news reports and other relevant data.

The General Plan provides Macao's universities with opportunities to develop education and training in Hengqin. On the one hand, Hengqin can be the locus of Macao's tertiary education diversification; Macao's universities can jointly establish technological research institutions and set up postdoctoral research centers and university branches to enroll master's and doctoral students from Mainland China. On the other hand, Macao's universities can set up a branch of professional training and open training courses in Hengqin. These efforts are designed to promote technological innovation and cultural diffusion in Macao.

This study analyses the potential role of Macao's universities in developing education and training in Hengqin since the central policy was announced last August. This study will be of interest to scholars as well as policymakers.

Gross domestic product (GDP) is an important indicator to measure a country's economic development. If the future development trend of a country's GDP can be accurately predicted, it will have a positive effect on the formulation and implementation of the country's future economic development policies. In order to explore the future development trend of China's GDP, the purpose of this paper is to establish a new grey forecasting model with time power term to forecast GDP.

Firstly, the shortcomings of the traditional grey prediction model with time power term are found out through analysis, and then the generalized grey prediction model with time power term is established (abbreviated as PTGM (1,1, α) model). Secondly, the PTGM (1,1, α) model is improved by linear interpolation method, and the optimized PTGM (1,1, α) model is established (abbreviated as OPTGM (1,1, α) model), and the parameters of the OPTGM (1,1, α) model are solved by the quantum genetic algorithm. Thirdly, the advantage of the OPTGM (1,1, α) model over the traditional grey models is illustrated by two real cases. Finally the OPTGM (1,1, α) model is used to predict China's GDP from 2020 to 2029.

The OPTGM (1,1, α) model is more suitable for predicting China's GDP than other grey prediction models.

A new grey prediction model with time power term is proposed.

This paper aims to investigate whether family CEOs benefit investment efficiency under uncertainty with Chinese family firms and to test the moderating effect of ownership structure, including family ownership, the separation of family control from family ownership and the multiple large shareholder structure.

Fixed-effects models are designed for a sample of 5,734 firm-year observations for Chinese family firms from 2009 to 2014.

The results show that investment efficiency is low under uncertainty, and having family CEOs can reduce this negative relationship. Further analysis reveals that for firms with family CEOs, the negative effect of uncertainty on investment efficiency is weaker when the family has higher ownership, when family control is less separated from family ownership, or when family firms have multiple large shareholder structures.

The authors do not distinguish founder-CEOs and descendant-CEOs. Most of Chinese family firms are still managed by founders, so the authors cannot explore the generation effect although different generations manage firms differently. Because family succession is becoming a more and more important problem in China, further research may be able to explore the generation effect.

This paper suggests that in emerging economies with weak investor protection, outside minority shareholders can avoid expropriation from family owners by investing in firms with large family ownership, little separation of family control from ownership or multiple large shareholder structure. In addition, policymakers can encourage institutional investors to participate in family business to improve corporate governance.

Drawing on both Type I and Type II agency theory perspectives, the authors argue that although family CEOs can generally benefit firms’ investment efficiency, the benefits vary with firms’ ownership structure. In other words, family CEOs are not absolute agents or stewards but some extent of combination of both.

This study explores whether and how Buddhism impacts corporate cash holdings. Buddhist culture affects investors' perception of how cash is deployed and then influences corporate cash holdings. This study first examines the impact of Buddhism on corporate cash holdings and then investigates whether formal governance mechanisms such as legal institutions and institutional ownership influence the relationship between Buddhism and corporate cash holdings.

The authors conduct empirical tests with data on Chinese listed companies between 2006 and 2019. Buddhism is measured with the natural logarithm of the number of Buddhist temples within a radius of a certain distance around a firm's headquarters. The authors adopt the OLS method to regress and take the 2SLS method, Heckman selection model and FEVD approach to address the endogeneity issue.

The results show a positive relationship between Buddhism and corporate cash holdings. This positive relation is more prominent for firms located in regions with weak legal institutions and for firms with low institutional ownership. Further analysis shows that Buddhism works through the channel of alleviating agency problems and finally improves the value of cash to investors.

The authors’ findings have important implications. First, this study provides inspiration for incorporating the ethical values of traditional cultures, such as Buddhism, into the corporate governance system. Second, the findings imply that informal institutions can influence corporate financial decisions beyond the effect of formal institutions, suggesting that informal systems should be emphasized when dealing with business affairs in countries where legal institutions are relatively weak. Third, the results suggest the significance of encouraging research on religious culture to explore its active role in corporate governance.

This study illustrates the positive value of religious culture in advancing corporate governance by relating Buddhism to corporate cash holdings based on the explanation of investors' perception. It makes a marginal contribution to the literature that investigates the determinants of cash policies and explores the firm-level consequences of religious culture, adding to the research area of culture and corporate finance.

In electronic commerce (EC), user interest reflects the behavior set of a users’ group acting on certain impulses. Electronic commerce web stations (ECWS) might be useful for intelligent information technology to create and refine the user interests database (UIDB) to make all kinds of service personalized. Usually two types of information should be included in UIDB. The first is contents of products or services and the second is forms for showing the contents. Both their structures are tangled trees. The issues about how to implement personalized service were investigated, the concepts of user interests and the structure of UIDB are defined, those about ECWS, how to create UIDB by user answers' selections, update and refine UIDB by user’s feedback information are discussed in detail in this paper. By means of UIDB, ECWS can actively recommend suitable series of pre‐sent web pages for different user groups and gradually arrive at their aim: offering personalized service for user groups.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of cross-listing in overcoming liability of origin (LOO) facing emerging economy corporations (EECs).

This paper takes Chinese firms' cross-listing in Hong Kong and the firms' establishment of international joint ventures (IJVs) with foreign partners as the research setting. This is an empirical study using Heckman's self-selection model as the primary econometric technique and two-stage least square (2SLS) regressions as the supplementary estimation procedure.

Cross-listing in developed economies can serve as a signal for EECs to overcome the LOO. In addition, the regional institutional voids of emerging economies (EEs) and state ownership are prominent boundary conditions shaping this effect.

Only Chinese firms and the firms' cross-listing in Hong Kong are considered for the empirical context as a result of data availability.

This paper provides a practical solution for EECs whose internationalisation tends to be hindered by the LOO.

This study is of high importance in that it centres on a distinctive and challenging problem faced with EECs—the LOO. Besides, it ascribes this liability to a matter of information asymmetries and explores how cross-listing can serve as a signal to cope with this challenge.

User interests in electronic commerce reflect the behavior set of users acting on certain impulse. Electronic commerce web stations (ECWS) might make full use of intelligent IT to create and refine user interests database (UIDB) to make services personalized. In this paper, the issues about how to implement such kind of services are investigated, the concepts of user interests and their transitions are defined; the structure of UIDB and how to create it are explored, and the analysis and mining of the data in server log files to help dynamically updating UIDB are discussed in detail. Then, ECWS can actively recommend suitable series of pre‐sent web pages for different users and flexibly deal with transitions of users' interests. The dynamic structure may make the system perfect after a period of use to help ECWS to offer their users with personalized service.