Corporate Governance and Financial Performance of the Firm: The Mediating Role of Capital Structure

Peizhi Wang,Ramzan Muhammad The International Academy of Global Business and T 2020 The International Academy of Global Business and T Vol.16 No.2

Purpose - The governance of firms as assured by the board through good decisions about capital structure is maximum profit with an aim to enhance the wealth of shareowners. We focus on the corporate governance relationship with the financial performance of firms and check whether this relationship is meditated by the capital structure of the company. Design/Methodology/Approach - The study estimates said objectives using Pooled OLS, Fixed Effects, Random Effects, and a test for mediation analysis for total of 205 observations of 41 firms listed on the KSE-100 index of the Pakistan stock exchange for a period from 2013 to 2017. Findings - The results show that there is a strong positive relationship between corporate governance, financial leverage, and firm performance. Non-executive directors and female directorship negatively related to the firm performance and financial leverage of financial firms of Pakistan. The study contributed to existing literature with financial leverage positively and significantly mediating the relationship between firm performance and non-executive directors, audit committees, and ownership concentration in developing nations. Research Implications - The board of directors always consider the capital mix while making decisions as it helps to improve financial performance via good governance. Thus, this research has provided the best picture for firm policy makers, in particular, to help decide which components of corporate governance as mediated by capital structure are necessary for a firm’s financial well-being.

RESEARCH ON PARKING SLOT TRACKING ALGORITHM BASED ON FUSION OF VISION AND VEHICLE CHASSIS INFORMATION

Peizhi Zhang,Zhuoping Yu,Lu Xiong,Dequan Zeng 한국자동차공학회 2020 International journal of automotive technology Vol.21 No.3

During parking, the vision-based parking slot detection system has error or missed detection due to distortion, illumination variation, occlusion and limited field of view (FOV). Thus, the parking slot position sent to path planning system is inaccurate and discontinuous. Besides, the intelligent parking system (IPS) primarily relies on dead reckoning to send vehicle position to the motion control system, whereas the error will accumulate with the rise in driving distance. All the mentioned factors will cause parking deviation, incline or even line-pressing. In this paper, the idea of visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is adopted innovatively to achieve the parking slot tracking. Moreover, the extended Kalman filter (EKF) is used to achieve the fusion of vision and vehicle chassis information, to solve the two problems of discontinuous and inaccurate parking slot detection, as well as cumulative error in dead reckoning. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified using the vehicle tests.

Trade Performance via Infrastructure Investment: Evidence from Synergies among the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Peizhi Wang,Iqbal Arslan The International Academy of Global Business and T 2019 The International Academy of Global Business and T Vol.15 No.2

Purpose – The paper aims to identify synergies between the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the perspective of sustainable infrastructure development. Design/Methodology/Approach – The paper analyzes the long-run empirical relationship between infrastructure investment and trade performance. The study also deals with assessment on the basis of panel OLS, Random Effect, and GMM techniques toward the achievement of the SDGs in the period 2008- 2017. Findings – The paper concluded that infrastructure investment in BRI countries has a positive impact on trade performance, and it promotes trade in Asian countries. It also draws attention to the fact that the joint work of these two global initiatives (BRI and Agenda 2030) could achieve aims in the future. Research Implications – The outcome of this research can be observed as tentative, and further work is more desirable.

Trade Facilitation and China’s Agricultural Products Exports: Empirical Evidence from Japan and Korea

Jing Liu,Peizhi Wang,Haomiao Wu 한국무역학회 2021 Journal of Korea trade Vol.25 No.7

Purpose – This paper analyzes the relationship between trade facilitation and agricultural products exports and estimates the effects of trade facilitation in importing countries on Chinese agricultural products exports, which is of great significance for promoting agricultural trade between China,Japan and Korea and the governments of the three countries to formulate targeted trade facilitation policies. Design/methodology – Based on Wilson (2003) theoretical framework, this paper sets up its own trade facilitation level measurement system by involving four primary indicators and fifteen secondary indicators to evaluate the trade facilitation levels of Japan and Korea from 2011 to 2018 respectively. The paper selected the data on China s agricultural exports at the HS4 level from 2011-2018 and used a fixed-effects model to estimate the effect of changes in trade facilitation levels in trading partner countries on China s agricultural trade. Findings – Our main findings can be summarized as follows: the level of trade facilitation in importing countries has a significantly positive effect on China’s agricultural exports. The higher the level of trade facilitation in trading partner countries, the more Chinese agricultural exports trade, i.e. for every 1 percentage point increase in the level of trade facilitation, the volume of exports will increase by 2.299%.The sub-sample test shows that China s main agricultural products exported to Japan and Korea, such as aquatic products, vegetables, fruits and other perishable fresh products, are particularly significantly affected by the level of trade facilitation. Originality/value – First, from the innovation of the research perspective, which is different from the analysis of the existing paper on the overall trade facilitation of all traded commodities. This article is based on the close trade relations between China, Japan and Korea, and the particularity of agricultural products, from the perspective of China’s agricultural exports to Japan and Korea, discuss the impact of importing countries—Japan and Korea’s trade facilitation levels on China’s agricultural exports;Secondly, in this paper, the hierarchical data of the HS4 quartile is used to avoid the information loss of the industry, and to analyse the impact of the importing country’s trade facilitation level on the export of different types of agricultural products more scientifically.

Synthesis of Porous NiMo Sulfide Microspheres for High-Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells and Supercapacitor

Wen Yang,Bin Xia,Jiacheng Lu,Peizhi Yang,Xiaobo Chen 성균관대학교(자연과학캠퍼스) 성균나노과학기술원 2019 NANO Vol.14 No.4

"Novel hierarchical porous NiMoS4 microspheres with high electrochemical performance was successfully prepared using a facile one-step hydrothermal method. The dual application of porous NiMoS4 microspheres in energy harvesting and storage (i.e., dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and supercapacitors (SCs), respectively) is explored. In contrast to NiS2 nanosheets, MoS2 nanosheets and Pt counter electrodes (CEs), the NiMoS4 microspheres CE demonstrated the lowest charge transfer resistance and highest electrocatalytic activity for the I3 - /I - redox couple reaction. The NiMoS4-based DSSC showed a higher power conversion efficiency (8.9%) even than that of Pt-based DSSC (8.7%) under simulated standard global AM 1.5G sunlight (100 mW cm -2). As an electroactive material for SCs, the assembled NiMoS4//AC asymmetric supercapacitor showed excellent specific capacitance (118.7 F g -1 at 1 Ag -1), high energy density of 42.2 Wh kg -1 (with a power density of 799.2 W kg -1), and superior cycling durability with a specific capacitance retention of 79.5% after 9000 cycles at 3 A g -1."

A Facile One-Pot Stepwise Hydrothermal Method for the Synthesis of 3D MoS2/RGO Composites with Improved Lithium Storage Properties

Bingning Wang,Xuehua Liu,Binghui Xu,Yanhui Li,Dan Xiu,Peizhi Guo,Hongliang Li 성균관대학교(자연과학캠퍼스) 성균나노과학기술원 2019 NANO Vol.14 No.3

Three-dimensional reduced graphene oxide (RGO) matrix decorated with nanoflowers of layered MoS2 (denoted as 3D MoS2/RGO) have been synthesized via a facile one-pot stepwise hydrothermal method. Graphene oxide (GO) is used as precursor of RGOand a 3D GOnetwork is formed in the first-step of hydrothermal treatment. At the second stage of hydrothermal treatment, nanoflowers of layered MoS2 formand anchor on the surface of previously formed 3D RGO network. In this preparation, thiourea not only induces the formation of the 3D architecture at a relatively low temperature, but also works as sulfur precursor of MoS2. The synthesized composites have been investigated with XRD, SEM, TEM, Raman spectra, TGA, N2 sorption technique and electrochemical measurements. In comparison with normal MoS2/RGO composites, the 3D MoS2/RGO composite shows improved electrochemical performance as anode material for lithium-ion batteries. A high reversible capacity of 930 mAh · g -1 after 130 cycles under a current density of 200 mA · g -1 as well as good rate capability and superior cyclic stability have been observed. The superior electrochemical performance of the 3D MoS2/RGO composite as anode active material for lithium-ion battery is ascribed to its robust 3D structures, enhanced surface area and the synergistic effect between graphene matrix and the MoS2 nanoflowers subunit.

Sodium Alginate-Assisted Synthesis of PdAg Bimetallic Nanoparticles and their Enhanced Activity for Electrooxidation of Ethanol

Yanru Yin,Changna Wen,Ning Ma,Baoyan Wang,Lianying Zhang,Hongliang Li,Peizhi Guo 성균관대학교(자연과학캠퍼스) 성균나노과학기술원 2019 NANO Vol.14 No.9

Palladium and palladium-silver bimetallic nanocrystals have been synthesized hydrothermally by using environmental-friendly sodium alginate as the stabilizer and reducing agent. The pure palladium nanoparticles were spherical-like possibly due to the principle of the lowest surface energy, however, the formation of bimetallic palladium-silver nanoparticles was much more complicated, which was thinner and more irregular nanostructures than pure palladium nanoparticles. Electrochemical measurements showed that the electrocatalytic activity toward ethanol oxidation was increased first with the increase of silver content in bimetallic nanoparticles, from pure palladium of around 1070 mA/mg, to PdAg-20 of 1160 mA/mg and to PdAg-10 of 1750 mA/mg, and declined greatly at a high content of silver, approximately 279 mA/mg. Electrochemical stability test showed that PdAg-10 and PdAg-5 were the best and worst among four palladium-based samples, respectively. Based on the experimental data, the formation mechanism of pure palladium and palladium-silver bimetallic nanoparticles and the structure-property relationship of these samples have been discussed.

Antimony Selenide Nanorods Decorated on Reduced Graphene Oxide with Excellent Electrochemical Properties for Li-Ion Batteries

Wang, Xia,Wang, Hong,Li, Qiang,Li, Hongsen,Xu, Jie,Zhao, Guoxia,Li, Hongliang,Guo, Peizhi,Li, Shandong,Sun, Yang-kook The Electrochemical Society 2017 Journal of the Electrochemical Society Vol.164 No.13

<P>A promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) consisting of Sb2Se3 nanorods and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets has been prepared by an effective solvothermal approach. The synergetic effect between Sb2Se3 nanorods and rGO matrix provides not only high conductivity paths and strong electron contact interface, but also alleviates the volume change of Sb2Se3 nanorods, resulting in excellent lithium-storage performance. When tested as an anode material for LIBs, a high capacity of 868.30 mAh g(-1) can be retained after 100 cycles at 200 mA g(-1). Even at 2000 mA g(-1), a satisfactory capacity of 430.40 mAh g(-1) after long 550 cycles can be delivered. Ex situ X-ray diffraction study suggests that the Sb2Se3/rGO composite follows the combined Li+ intercalation, conversion reaction and alloying reaction mechanism. These features suggest the Sb2Se3/rGO composite a viable choice for application as an anode material in high-performance LIBs. (C) 2017 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.</P>

Overexpression of the Cytokinin Oxidase/dehydrogenase (CKX) from Medicago sativa Enhanced Salt Stress Tolerance of Arabidopsis

Shuxia Li,Yunru An,Shaya Hailati,Jing Zhang,Yuman Cao,Yushi Liu,Jincai Geng,Tianming Hu,Peizhi Yang 한국식물학회 2019 Journal of Plant Biology Vol.62 No.5

Cytokinin oxidase/dehydrogenase (CKXs) areinvolved in various physiological processes, includingcytokinins (CKs) catabolism, root system architecture andresponse to abiotic stresses in plants. Alfalfa (Medicagosativa) is a widely cultivated forage which is frequentlythreatened by high salinity, and the potential role of CKXs inalleviating the salt stress in alfalfa lacked attention. In thisstudy, we isolated a CKX gene from alfalfa, MsCKX(MK177192), and identified its biological functions byoverexpressing it in Arabidopsis. MsCKX shares high sequenceidentity with CKX from other legume plants, especiallyMedicago truncatula (98%). MsCKX was clearly tissuespecific,and it was mainly expressed in roots. In addition,the expression of MsCKX increased under salt stress andabscisic acid (ABA) treatment. Overexpression of MsCKXgene increased the activity of CKX, which led to an enlargedroot system in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Overexpressionof MsCKX gene enhanced salt tolerance of transgenic plantsby maintaining a higher K+/Na+ ratio, enhancing the activities ofantioxidant enzymes to scavenge ROS and increasing theexpression levels of stress-related genes (P5CS1, DREB2,ion transporters and H+ pumps). Taken together, these resultsshed light on the roles of MsCKX involved in salt toleranceand may have applications in salt-resistant breeding ofalfalfa.