Inspired by biological asymmetric ion channels, new shape-tunable and pH-responsive asymmetric hourglass single nanochannel systems demonstrate unique ion-transport properties. It is found that the change in shape and pH cooperatively control the ion transport within the nanochannel ranging from asymmetric shape with asymmetric ion transport, to asymmetric shape with symmetric ion transport and symmetric shape with symmetric ion transport.

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This study investigates the effects of target information asymmetry in a takeover transaction. We find that a target with more information asymmetry receives a larger bid premium from the acquirer. We examine the response of the acquirer's investors to the bid to clarify whether the larger bid premium is an overpayment by the acquirer. We observe that the acquirer's investors respond more positively to the acquisition of an opaque target, indicating that the market recognizes the acquirer's valuation of the opaque target and agrees with the offer price. Our results indicate that corporate takeovers help to resolve asymmetric information in the capital market.

The Chinese Communist Party has recently unveiled its new agenda for state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform. Most attention to date has focused on structural reform through the so-called “mixed ownership” policy. This article is to direct attention to a critically important yet much less analysed item on the SOE reform agenda: the professionalization of the SOE executive personnel. This article provides an empirical study on the managerial elite of China's financial and non-financial SOEs. The findings suggest a politically constrained management approach in the Chinese state-owned sector. Moreover, an innovative analysis of the SOE executive career patterns reveals that the state-controlled banks and industrial SOEs employ divergent human resource management methods. The anatomy of the SOE managerial elite in this article provides a timely evaluation of the recent SOE reform policy and a richer understanding of China's state-owned sector from a comparative capitalism perspective.

This study examined Agape love in couple relationships among randomly-sampled, telephone-surveyed adults currently involved in a romantic relationship. Agape refers to other-centered, altruistic love and is one of the six styles of love from John Lee's (1973) theory of love styles. The results showed that age, religiosity, and relationship satisfaction were positively correlated with Agape. People with more education reported lower Agape love scores than did less educated people. Men reported a higher level of Agape love than did women when controlling for age, education, religiosity and relationship satisfaction.