This paper examines how firm credit ratings affect the use of outstanding private debt and unused lines of credit. Firms not having credit ratings have more outstanding private debt and unused lines of credit than firms having credit ratings. Firms of low credit ratings also use more private...

Liquidity is one of the crucial factors in economy which reflects smooth operation of the markets. In a liquid market, traders are able to transact large quantities of security quickly with minimal trading cost and price impact. Many researchers have investigated the relationship between market...

We develop a novel measure of volatility pass-through to assess international propagation of output volatility shocks to macroeconomic aggregates, equity prices,and currencies. An increase in country's output volatility is associated with adecrease in its output, consumption, and net exports....

This paper employs real option analysis to evaluate the investment project to adopt energy saving and carbon emission reduction technology. Sensitivity analysis and simulation outcomes highlight the respective roles of carbon price level and government support in the investment decision. That...

The addition of granular activated carbon (GAC) enhanced the performance of up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor treating blackwater at 35 °C. DNA were extracted from the sludge and biofilms attached to GAC and submitted for shotgun sequencing. In addition, the acyl-homoserine...

Heat conduction, being one of the most common types of energy, occurs everywhere at any time in nature. On the long journey to explore the optimal structural design for the ubiquitous heat conduction problem, many insights have been reported, yet still identifying the best structural...

Antimony (Sb), a toxic metalloid, has serious negative effects on human health and its pollution has become a global environmental problem. Bio-reduction of Sb(V) is an effective Sb-removal approach. This work, for the first time, demonstrates the feasibility of autotrophic Sb(V) bio-reduction...