Xinyu Zhou

Leveraging the staggered introduction of specialized bankruptcy courts across China as an exogenous shock, this study examines the impact of specialized bankruptcy courts on corporate ESG performance. Using listed firms in China from 2015 to 2021, we find that the introduction of specialized bankruptcy courts leads to an increase in corporate ESG performance. Our main results remain robust after considering endogeneity concerns and TWFE bias. The underlying mechanism is that these courts strengthen creditor protection, thereby enhancing access to bank loans for local firms. Moreover, this effect is more pronounced in firms with limited access to bank financing and in cities with more efficient legal and financial environments. Collectively, our study contributes a novel perspective to the discourse in law and finance, underscoring the broader implications of judicial reforms on corporate ethical behavior.

© 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.We present evidence for breathing modes in magnetron sputtering plasmas: periodic axial variations of plasma parameters with characteristic frequencies between 10 and 100 kHz. A set of azimuthally distributed probes shows synchronous oscillations of the floating potential. They appear most clearly when considering the intermediate current regime in which the direction of azimuthal spoke motion changes. Breathing oscillations were found to be superimposed on azimuthal spoke motion. Depending on pressure and current, one can also find a regime of chaotic fluctuations and one of stable discharges, the latter at high current. A pressure-current phase diagram for the different situations is proposed.

Leveraging the staggered introduction of specialized bankruptcy courts across China as an exogenous shock, this study examines the impact of specialized bankruptcy courts on corporate ESG performance. Using listed firms in China from 2015 to 2021, we find that the introduction of specialized bankruptcy courts leads to an increase in corporate ESG performance. Our main results remain robust after considering endogeneity concerns and TWFE bias. The underlying mechanism is that these courts strengthen creditor protection, thereby enhancing access to bank loans for local firms. Moreover, this effect is more pronounced in firms with limited access to bank financing and in cities with more efficient legal and financial environments. Collectively, our study contributes a novel perspective to the discourse in law and finance, underscoring the broader implications of judicial reforms on corporate ethical behavior.

© 2017 American Ceramic Society.Nano- and microscale CeO2-ZrO2 shape memory ceramics are promising materials for smart micro-electro-mechanical systems, sensing, actuation and energy damping applications, but the processing science for scalable production of such small volume ceramics has not yet been established. Herein, we report a modified sol-gel method to synthesize highly monodisperse spherical CZ particles with diameters in the range of ~0.8-3.0 μm. Synchrotron X-ray micro-diffraction confirmed that most of the particles are single crystal after annealing at 1450°C. Having a monocrystalline structure and a small specimen length scale, the particles exhibit significantly enhanced shape memory and superelasticity properties with up to ~4.7% compression being completely recoverable. Highly reproducible superelasticity through over five hundred strain cycles, with dissipated energy up to ~40 MJ/m3 per cycle, is achieved in the CZ particles containing 16 mol% ceria. This cycling capability is enhanced by ten times compared with our first demonstration using micropillars. Furthermore, the effects of cycling and testing temperature on superelasticity have been investigated.