Non-monotonic Relationship Research Articles

Ownership Concentration, Control, and Capital Structure in Family and Non-Family Firms

The objective of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between the firm’s ownership and control structure and its leverage. Capital structure is not only the result of various financial characteristics of the firm but also depends on who is in control. Thus, it is fundamental to understand the influence that certain features of the shareholding structure or the composition of the board, including the potential differences between family and non-family firms, exert on capital structure decisions. The paper uses a sample of wine firms in Portugal, because it helps to capture a business sector where family firms make up a significant portion of the industry. It is used an unbalanced panel data set of 460 firms for the period 2010 to 2018 and applied a random-effects model specification. Our results do not evidence significant differences between family and non-family firms. Still, they indicate that firms with fewer shareholders, smaller boards, and where the main director or member of the board is also a shareholder tend to present higher debt levels. There is no evidence of a non-monotonic relation between the ownership structure and debt, nor the presence of moderating effects on that relation. This paper fills a gap in the literature as the impact that specific characteristics of firms and their leaders have on capital structure decisions is still a topic less studied in the literature, particularly in bank-based economies.

Steady state entanglement of distant nitrogen-vacancy centers in a coherent thermal magnon bath

We investigate steady state entanglement (SSE) between two nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center defects in a diamond host on an ultrathin yttrium iron garnet (YIG) strip. We determine the dephasing and dissipative interactions of the qubits with the quanta of spin waves (magnon bath) in the YIG depending on the qubit positions on the strip. We show that the magnon's dephasing effect can be eliminated, and we can transform the bath into a multimode displaced thermal state using external magnetic fields. Entanglement dynamics of the qubits in such a displaced thermal bath have been analyzed by deriving and solving the master equation. An additional electric field is considered to engineer the magnon dispersion relation at the band edge to control the Markovian character of the open system dynamics. We determine the optimum geometrical parameters of the system of distant qubits and the YIG strip to get SSE. Furthermore, parameter regimes for which the shared displaced magnon bath can sustain significant SSE against the local dephasing and decoherence of NV centers to their nuclear spin environments have been determined. Along with SSE, we investigate the steady state coherence (SSC) and explain the physical mechanism of how delayed SSE appears following a rapid generation and sudden death of entanglement using the interplay of decoherence-free subspace states, system geometry, displacement of the thermal bath, and enhancement of the qubit dissipation near the magnon band edge. A nonmonotonic relation between bath coherence and SSE is found, and critical coherence for maximum SSE is determined. Our results illuminate the efficient use of system geometry, band edge in bath spectrum, and reservoir coherence to engineer system-reservoir interactions for robust SSE and SSC.

A Non-Monotonic Precipitation Response to Changes in Soil Moisture in the Presence of Vegetation

Abstract In many parts of the world, humans rely on afternoon rainfall for their water supply. However, it is not fully understood how land surface properties influence afternoon precipitation. In fact, disagreement remains regarding the relative prevalence of “wet-soil advantage” regimes, in which wet soils receive more precipitation than do dry soils, and “dry-soil advantage” regimes, in which the opposite occurs. Recent studies have proposed that the permanent wilting point (PWP) soil moisture threshold influences the location and organization of convective clouds. Motivated by this work, we investigate how changes in soil moisture relative to the PWP affect the timing and amount of surface rainfall, as well as how this response depends on the presence or absence of vegetation. This investigation is carried out by conducting several series of high-resolution, idealized numerical experiments using a fully coupled, interactive soil-vegetation-atmosphere modeling system. From these experiments, a new soil moisture-precipitation relationship emerges: in the presence of vegetation, simulations with moderately dry soils, whose initial liquid water content slightly exceeds the PWP, generate significantly less surface precipitation than do those with the driest or wettest soils. This result suggests that simulated “wet-soil advantage” and “dry-soil advantage” regimes may not necessarily be mutually exclusive, insofar as extremely wet and extremely dry soils can both exhibit an “advantage” over moderately dry soils. This non-monotonic soil moisture-precipitation relationship is found to result from the PWP’s modulation of transpiration of water vapor by plants. In the absence of vegetation, a wet-soil advantage occurs instead in these idealized simulations.

Capital market deepening, Governor’s characteristics and Russian regional enterprises: A big data analysis

We measure the impact of the bank credit disbursement on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) growth, incorporating the role of regional governors’ characteristics in the case of 84 regions of the Russian Federation. Given the considerable heterogeneity across regions, time and reverse causality, we applied the Panel Quantile Regression via Moments (MM-QR) approach to analyze monthly frequency big data (2016M1–2021M1). Our empirical investigation demonstrates that bank credit disbursement and MSME growth follow a non-monotonic relation, implying that up to the specific size of the credit is detrimental, but after surpassing the threshold size, it is supportive to MSME growth under each quantile. Regional governors’ political and economic liaison with the federal government impede MSME growth under different quantiles of MSME growth. Our findings further infer that credit market deepening along with firms’ individual characteristics are crucial for enterprise performance in the current time of digital transformation. We provide several policy implications.

Investment, payout, and cash management under risk and ambiguity

This study extends the theoretical model of dynamic investment, dividend payout, costly external financing, and liquidation for financially constrained firms by incorporating ambiguity. We demonstrate that ambiguity aversion induces a trade-off between the “bird-in-hand” effect and an amplified precautionary motive in determining firms’ cash management, which consequently affects firms’ investment, dividend payout, costly external financing, and liquidation decisions. Unlike the models considering risk only, we identify a non-monotonic relationship between the endogenous payout boundary and ambiguity aversion. Our model generates several new implications, including providing an explanation for the high cash holdings and speed-up of asset sales during the recent COVID-19 crisis.

Concentration effect of kinetic hydrate inhibitor on hydrate formation and inhibition

Kinetic hydrate inhibitor (KHI) is an eco-friendly and promising technology for hydrate blockage issue in natural gas pipelines, but it remains unclear of how KHI performance would vary at different subcooling and concentration. In this study, the influence of KHI on the kinetics of methane - propane hydrate formation was evaluated with a wide range of subcooling (5–20 ℃) and concentration (100–51000 ppm) conditions, by characterizing the pressure evolution, average hydrate growth rate and hydrate volume fraction. The results put forward a ‘concentration effect’ concept that represented the nonmonotonic relationship between the performance and concentration of KHI, where KHI obtained higher inhibition performance with either relatively low or high concentration, but became almost ineffective at the intermediate concentration zone. Two hypotheses were then proposed to reveal its internal mechanisms, including the ‘weakened adsorption’ hypothesis and the ‘competition’ hypothesis. Results further demonstrated that the above concentration effect became less obvious when the experimental conditions were more contributory for fast hydrate formation, such as the enhanced subcooling and stirring speed. In addition, the universality of concentration effect was preliminarily verified, which was not restricted by the type of KHI or the selected experimental system. To the best of our knowledge, such concentration effect was for the first time systematically investigated and reported in this study, which highlighted the possibility of flexibly selecting the appropriate KHI concentration based on the practical driving force for hydrate formation.

Self-employment experience effects on well-being: A longitudinal study

The notion that self-employed individuals are more satisfied with their jobs than wage-employees has found broad empirical support. Previous research exploring the well-being effects of self-employment typically relies on direct cross-sectional comparisons between wage-employees and self-employed or on longitudinal investigations of transitions in or out of self-employment. In this study, the authors use individuals’ employment status histories in British longitudinal data to examine how accumulated self-employment experience affects job satisfaction, satisfaction with leisure and satisfaction with income. The study finds that those with past work experience only as self-employed report higher levels of job satisfaction than those with experience only as wage-employees. However, individuals with mixed work experience profiles are the most satisfied. This suggests a non-monotonic relationship between self-employment and job satisfaction. Patterns of self-employment experience and other satisfaction domains, such as satisfaction with income or leisure, are more nuanced, differing across gender lines.

SYNTHESIS OF Mg-DOPED n(ZnO) THIN FILMS USING SOL-GEL 6 DIP-COATING METHOD AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ITS STRUCTURAL AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES

Mg-doped ZnO alloy thin films having hexagonal Wurtzite structures were prepared using the Sol-Gel method. The doping results into, increased surface roughness and reduced grain size. Photonic applications are made easier by altering the optical bandgap of ZnO nano-structured thin films doped with various components. Mg metal atom doped ZnO films are an excellent example for study. In this work, the thin film of Mg-doped ZnO is formed on glass substrate via dip coating method with varied concentration of dopant. Dip-coating method is one of the cheapest methods. SEM, Raman spectroscopy and UV-vis spectroscopy are used to characterize the thin films. The spectroscopic analysis revealed a more uniformed crystalline nano-structured surface with fewer structural deffects. As the Mg atom concentration is increased, the results show a linear increment in the band gap of Mg-doped ZnO thin film in comparsion to the pure ZnO nanostructured thin film, as well as there occurs an improvement in crystalline character. The reduction in intensity of visible radiation (enhancement in radiation in UV region) with increase in Mg concentration indicates for a decrease in intrinsic defects. The changing trends in optical and structural parameters as with increased Mg content reveal a nonlinear and non-monotonic relations. The work provides insights to analyse the dependence of optical bandgap on crystal structure and defects.

The Complex Relationship Between Cooling Parameters and Neuroprotection in a Model of Selective Hypothermia.

BackgroundHypothermia remains the best studied neuroprotectant. Despite extensive positive large and small animal data, side effects continue to limit human applications. Selective hypothermia is an efficient way of applying neuroprotection to the brain without the systemic complications of global hypothermia. However, optimal depth and duration of therapeutic hypothermia are still unknown. We analyzed a large animal cohort study of selective hypothermia for statistical relationships between depth or duration of hypothermia and the final stroke volume.MethodsA cohort of 30 swine stroke subjects provided the dataset for normothermic and selective hypothermic animals. Hypothermic parameters including duration, temperature nadir, and an Area Under the Curve measurement for 34 and 30°C were correlated with the final infarct volumes measured by MRI and histology.ResultsBetween group comparisons continue to demonstrate a reduction in infarct volume with selective hypothermia. Histologically-derived infarct volumes were 1.2 mm3 smaller in hypothermia-treated pigs (P = 0.04) and showed a similar, but non-significant reduction in MRI (P = 0.15). However, within the selective hypothermia group, more intense cooling, as measured through increased AUC 34 and decreased temperature nadir was associated with larger infarct proportions by MRI [Pearson's r = 0.48 (p = 0.05) and r = −0.59 (p = 0.01), respectively]. Reevaluation of the entire cohort with quadratic regression demonstrated a U-shaped pattern, wherein the average infarct proportion was minimized at 515 degree-minutes (AUC34) of cooling, and increased thereafter. In a single case of direct brain tissue oxygen monitoring during selective hypothermia, brain tissue oxygen strongly correlated with brain temperature reduction over the course of selective hypothermia to 23°C.ConclusionsIn a large animal model of selective hypothermia applied to focal ischemia, there is a non-monotone relationship between duration and depth of hypothermia and stroke volume reduction. This suggests a limit to depth or duration of selective hypothermia for optimal neuroprotection. Further research is required to delineate more precise depth and duration limits for selective hypothermia.

A syncretic state-of-charge estimator for LiFePO4 batteries leveraging expansion force

State of Charge (SoC) estimation for LiFePO4 (LFP) batteries is particularly challenging due to the flat open circuit voltage (OCV) characteristics. This paper proposes a novel method of SoC estimation for LFP batteries based on expansion force which has not been investigated in the existing literature. After a series of experiments, it is found that the expansion force is more sensitive to SoC than voltage and independent of the dynamic current. However, the estimation work is still technically challenging because of the non-monotonic relationship between expansion force and SoC. To cope with it, an expansion force model based on the least-square support vector machine (LSSVM) method is firstly exploited, which is employed as the measurement equation of adaptive unscented Kalman filters (AUKF). Meanwhile, the moving window method is applied to enhance the adaptability of the established model and then an accurate SoC estimation result is attained. Finally, the proposed method is evaluated via sufficient experiment data covering different temperatures and constraint conditions. Experimental results show that the root means square errors of measure equation and SoC estimation can be bounded within 1% and 0.54%. In conclusion, the proposed method provides a new perspective for SoC estimation of LFP batteries.

A two-scale thermo-mechanically coupled model for anomalous martensite transformation and elastocaloric switching effect of shape memory alloy

Conventional shape memory alloys (SMAs) exhibit an approximately linear relationship between the critical stresses of martensite transformation (MT) and ambient temperature (Clausius-Clapeyron relationship). Meanwhile, depending on the sign of entropy difference between the parent and martensite phases, these alloys behavior either a conventional or an inverse elastocaloric effect which originates from the latent heat release/absorption during stress-induced MT. Recently, MT with a non-monotonic Clausius-Clapeyron relationship (denotes as anomalous MT) and an elastocaloric switching effect (changes from the inverse elastocaloric effect at relatively low temperature to the conventional elastocaloric effect at relatively high temperature) were reported in CoCr-based Heusler-type SMAs. In this paper, to understand and quantitatively describe these new phenomena, a two-scale thermo-mechanically coupled constitutive model is constructed. In the mesoscopic scale, the fine twinned structure and the potential correspondent variant pairs of martensite phase are analyzed based on the crystallographic symmetry and the geometrically nonlinear theory of MT. The classical Debye's model is employed to describe the lattice and electronic heat capacities of the parent and martensite phases; while, a Monte Carlo simulation for the three-dimensional (3D) Ising's model is performed and a scaling law for the magnetic heat capacity of parent phase is proposed. Then, a new constitutive model is established based on the fundamental laws of irreversible thermodynamics to describe the non-isothermal stress-induced MT between parent and martensite phases. To consider the thermo-mechanical interactions between the parent phase and correspondent martensite variant pairs, each variant pair is regarded as an inhomogeneous inclusion with a mobile interface and embedded in the parent phase. With the help of interfacial operator, the thermodynamic driving force of MT is derived from the constructed Helmholtz free energy and dissipative inequality. Internal heat generation originated from the thermo-elasticity, inelastic deformation dissipation and latent heat is derived from the conservation law of energy. In the macroscopic scale, the thermo-mechanical response of SMA specimen is obtained by solving the equations of force balance, deformation compatibility, and thermodynamic equilibrium through the full-field calculation and mean-field approximation. Finally, the proposed model is verified by comparing the predictions with the experiments. It can be found that the anomalous MT and elastocaloric switching effect of CoCrAlSi SMA can be well captured by the proposed model.

High-speed penetration dynamics of polycarbonate

Ballistic impact experiments are conducted to investigate high-speed penetration of polycarbonate by steel spheres at impact velocities ranging from ∼600 to 2400 ms−1. High-speed photography is applied to capture the penetration processes, including projectile trajectories and cavity/damage evolution. Postmortem projectiles are characterized with three-dimensional laser scanning, and postmortem targets, with optical imaging and micro computed tomography. The maximum penetration depth varies nonmonotonically with impact velocity vi, and decreases with increasing vi above about 1777 ms−1. With increasing vi, the damage of polycarbonate targets increases significantly in amplitude and volume. The damage networks, consisting of cracks and voids, exhibit fractal features with similar fractal dimensions. At low vi, plate-shaped cracks are formed in the cavity, while needle-shaped cracks along with a large amount of melting-induced small voids, at high vi. Numerical simulations of impact penetration of polycarbonate reproduces well the experimental observations. Considering projectile distortion, a modified Poncelet model is derived to describe the nonmonotonic relation between the maximum penetration depth and vi.

Theoretical and computational studies of the Weibel instability in several beam–plasma interaction configurations

The Weibel instability is investigated theoretically and numerically under three scenarios: counterstreaming electron beams in background plasma, an electron–positron beam and an electron–proton beam in background plasma. These models occur widely in laboratory and astrophysical environments. The Weibel instability growth rates are determined numerically from the corresponding cold-fluid dispersion relations, which are confirmed with two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The maximum growth rates for the counterstreaming beams in background plasma are an order of magnitude smaller than the maximum growth rates for the beams cases in the same range of density ratios and beam energies. The maximum growth rate for the electron–positron beam case is shown to be at most a factor $\sqrt {2}$ greater than the electron–proton beam case with similar dispersion behaviours. A non-monotonic relation is found between the maximum Weibel instability growth rates and the electron–positron beam energy, suggesting that increasing beam energies does not entail an increase in the Weibel instability growth rate.

Comprehensive study on unregulated emissions of heavy-duty SI pure methanol engine with EGR

Methanol is a potential alternative fuel for heavy-duty engines to effectively reduce carbon emissions. On the other hand, unregulated emissions from methanol-fueled engines are harmful to the environment. The formaldehyde emission mechanism was investigated in this paper using a premixed laminar combustion experiment and a plug flow reactor (PFR) simulation with a detailed mechanism. Furthermore, the engine test was carried out on a heavy-duty spark ignition (SI) pure methanol engine with EGR to study the effects of the injection strategy, exhaust gas recirculation ratio (EGR), engine load, and speed on unregulated emissions. The high-pressure loop EGR system and port fuel injection system were adopted. Unregulated emissions were measured using a GC-2010 gas chromatography analyzer with a pulsed discharge helium ionization detector (PDHID) and Gs-OxyPLOT. Formaldehyde emission is the post-oxidation production of unburned methanol, according to the experiment and simulation, and it increases first, then decreases as the temperature rises. Unregulated emissions mainly consist of methanol and formaldehyde. The injection timing can be divided into two groups: 120°CA to 300°CA and 360°CA to 780°CA, where 0°CA represents fire TDC. The BTE at αinj of 120°CA to 300°CA is lower than that at other αinj, while methanol and formaldehyde emissions are the opposite. The temperature of unburned methanol post-oxidation is affected by engine speed, load, and EGR ratio, affecting methanol and formaldehyde emissions. The higher exhaust temperature caused by the higher engine speed, load and a lower EGR ratio can reduce methanol emissions. The nonmonotonic trends of formaldehyde emission with the EGR ratio and the different influences of EGR on the formaldehyde emission under different engine loads are the result of the nonmonotonic relationship between formaldehyde emission and temperature. The engine experiment results are consistent with the PFR simulation.

Retail distribution evaluation in brand-level sales response models

The effectiveness of a product’s distribution network in retail stores is an important consideration for marketing managers. An effective distribution network typically covers a large number of stores in the geographic area of a market and establishes a continuous presence in the top-selling outlets of a product category at the same time. This study proposes a semiparametric, brand-level version of the SCAN*PRO sales model, to evaluate the impact of retail distribution changes on sales. The model is estimated using the iteratively reweighted least squares method and provides the following outputs: (i) least squares coefficient estimates for the price and promotional drivers in the model specification and (ii) two-dimensional plots of the nonmonotonic relationship between the weighted distribution and sales. The proposed model can be estimated with commonly available retail scanning data and is demonstrated using three laundry detergent brands from The Netherlands.

Large deviations of semisupervised learning in the stochastic block model.

In semisupervised community detection, the membership of a set of revealed nodes is known in addition to the graph structure and can be leveraged to achieve better inference accuracies. While previous works investigated the case where the revealed nodes are selected at random, this paper focuses on correlated subsets leading to atypically high accuracies. In the framework of the dense stochastic block model, we employ statistical physics methods to derive a large deviation analysis of the number of these rare subsets, as characterized by their free energy. We find theoretical evidence of a nonmonotonic relationship between reconstruction accuracy and the free energy associated to the posterior measure of the inference problem. We further discuss possible implications for active learning applications in community detection.

The non-monotonic relationship between financial integration and cost efficiency: Evidence from East Asian commercial banks

This is the first study to investigate how financial integration affects bank cost efficiency by applying the non-monotonic stochastic frontier model developed by Wang (2002) to a sample of East Asian commercial banks over the period 1997–2014. We consistently report a non-monotonic association between financial integration and bank cost efficiency. Financial integration improves bank cost efficiency but then becomes efficiency-impeding. Our empirical results support the existence of an optimal level of financial integration and validate the IMF’s nuanced ‘institutional view’ toward full capital account openness as well as being meaningful to further financial integration in East Asia.

Flow dynamics in lateral vegetation cavities constructed by an array of emergent vegetation patches along the open-channel bank

The hydrodynamics in a straight rectangular open channel containing novel lateral cavities constructed by an array of square emergent vegetation patches discontinuously distributed along the bank were explored numerically using three-dimensional large eddy simulations (LES). Five vegetation densities (Φ), ranging from 0.02 to 0.25, as well as the traditional lateral cavities created by impermeable solid media, were tested. The effects of the cavity aspect ratio (AR) were also examined. The LES results showed that the mean recirculation pattern inside the vegetation cavities and coherent structures in the horizontal shear layer were closely dependent on Φ and AR. When Φ ≥ 0.06, a main recirculation vortex that formed inside the vegetation cavities resembled that within solid media cavities, whereas the extent of the former increased upstream as Φ increased. Compared with the solid cases, the vegetation cavities exhibited a higher turbulent intensity within the shear layer and wider regions of enhanced turbulent kinetic energy, which decreased with increasing Φ. The penetration depth of the elevated turbulent kinetic energy into the cavities also decreased with increasing Φ, whereas a deeper penetration was expected at larger AR values. The interfacial turbulence was dominated by “cavities field”-scale coherent vortices at Φ ≤ 0.06, whereas “cavity element”-scale at Φ ≥ 0.15. When Φ = 0.1, the shear vortices of both scales contributed to the enhancement of the interfacial turbulence. The mean mass exchange showed a non-monotonic relationship with Φ and reached maximum values at Φ = 1. The total momentum transport efficiency decreased monotonically with increasing Φ. Despite the AR and Φ values, the turbulent motions dominated the momentum transport over most of the cavity length.

Interdependencies between Dynamic Response and Crack Growth in a 3D-Printed Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) Cantilever Beam under Thermo-Mechanical Loads.

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) is the most commonly used thermoplastic printing material for fused deposition modelling (FDM). FDM ABS can be used in a variety of complex working environments. Notably, the thermo-mechanical coupled loads under complex operating conditions may lead to cracking and ultimately catastrophic structural failure. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the crack depth and location before a structural fracture occurs. As these parameters affect the dynamic response of the structure, in this study, the fundamental frequency and displacement amplitude response of a cracked 3D-printed ABS cantilever beam in a thermal environment were analytically and experimentally investigated. The existing analytical model, specifically the torsional spring model used to calculate the fundamental frequency change to determine the crack depth and location was enhanced by the proposed Khan-He model. The analytical relationship between the displacement amplitude and crack was established in Khan-He model and validated for the first time for FDM ABS. The results show that a reduced crack depth and location farther from the fixed end correspond to a higher fundamental frequency and displacement amplitude. An elevated ambient temperature decreases the global elastic modulus of the cracked beam and results in a lower fundamental frequency. Moreover, a non-monotonic relationship exists between the displacement amplitude and ambient temperature. The displacement amplitude is more sensitive to the crack change than the fundamental frequency in the initial stages of crack growth.

Does an optimal ESG score exist? Evidence from China

ABSTRACT Utilizing the environment, social and governance (ESG) score database, this paper examines the impact of ESG rating on a firm’s financial performance for 438 listed firms in China over the period 2010 to 2020. Our investigation revealed some fresh insight into the presence of a non-monotonic relationship of a firm’s ESG score and its financial performance, which strengthens the idea of an optimal level of ESG score. Furthermore, the study has highlighted the governance-based considerations of international institutional investors regarding the Chinese stock market. Hence, the insights gained from this study may be of assistance to the firm’s management and investors in an emerging market.