The relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP) has long been a central and contentious debate in the literature. However, prior empirical studies provide indefinite conclusions. The purpose of this study is to review systematically and quantify the CSR–CFP link in a meta-analytic framework. Based on 119 effect sizes from 42 studies, this study estimates that the overall effect size of the CSR–CFP relationship is positive and significant, thus endorsing the argument that CSR does enhance financial performance. Furthermore, this work sheds light on the causal relationship between CSR and CFP. Subsequent financial performance is associated with prior social responsibility, while the reverse direction is not supported. This finding supports the instrumental stakeholder theory. As predicted, the meta-analysis results indicate that the measurement strategies of the two key constructs of CSR and CFP explain some variations of the CSR–CFP relationship. Last, this study examines the moderating effect of the environmental context on the CSR–CFP link. This work proposes that CSR in the developed world, with a relatively mature institutional system and efficient market mechanism, will be more visible than CSR in the developing world. The results show that the CSR–CFP relationship is stronger for firms from advanced economies than for firms from developing economies.

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The present study is to investigate the possible hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects of neohesperidin (NHP) derived from Citrus aurantium L. in vivo. KK-A(y) mice were used as the diabetic experimental model, whereas C57BL/6 mice were used as normal control for a 6-week study. Treatment of NHP significantly decreased fasting glucose, serum glucose, and glycosylated serum protein (GSP) in KK-A(y) mice. It significantly elevated oral glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity and decreased insulin resistance in the diabetic mice. In addition, NHP significantly decreased serum triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TCH), leptin level, and liver index in the KK-A(y) mice. NHP also inhibited lipid accumulation in the liver and decreased the size of epididymal adipocyte in the KK-A(y) mice. Gene expression of stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (SCD-1) and fatty acid synthase (FAS) were significantly inhibited, whereas the expression of acyl-CoA oxidase (ACOX) was significantly induced by NHP treatment in the liver of KK-A(y) mice. In addition, elevated level of phosphorylation of hepatic AMPK was observed in NHP-treated mice. Therefore, the activation of the AMPK pathway and regulation of its target genes, including SCD-1, FAS, and ACOX, may play important roles in the hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects of NHP in vivo, and NHP may have great potential in the prevention of diabetes and its complications.

Abstract-To accommodate the demand of exponentially increased global wireless data traffic, the prospective data rates for wireless communication in the market place will soon reach 100 Gbit/s and beyond. In the lab environment, wireless transmission throughput has been elevated to the level of over 100 Gbit/s attributed to the development of photonic-assisted millimeter wave (MMW) and THz technologies. However, most of recent demonstrations with over 100 Gbit/s data rates are based on spatial or frequency division multiplexing techniques, resulting in increased system's complexity and energy consumption. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a single channel 0.4 THz photonic-wireless link achieving a net data rate of beyond 100 Gbit/s by using a single pair of THz emitter and receiver, without employing any spatial/frequency division multiplexing techniques. The high throughput up to 106 Gbit/s within a single THz channel is enabled by combining spectrally efficient modulation format, ultra-broadband THz transceiver and advanced digital signal processing (DSP) routine. Besides that, our demonstration from system-wide implementation viewpoint also features high transmission stability, and hence shows its great potential to not only decrease the system's complexity, but also meet the requirements of prospective data rates for bandwidth-hungry short-range wireless applications.

To accommodate the ever increasing wireless traffic in the access networks, considerable efforts have been recently invested in developing photonics-assisted wireless communication systems with very high data rates. Superior to photonic millimeter-wave systems, terahertz (THz) band (300 GHz-10 THz) provides a much larger bandwidth and thus promises an extremely high capacity. However, the capacity potential of THz wireless systems has by no means been achieved yet. Here, we successfully demonstrate 160 Gbit/s wireless transmission by using a single THz emitter and modulating 25 GHz spaced 8 channels (20 Gbps per channel) in the 300-500 GHz band, which is the highest bitrate in the frequency band above 300 GHz, to the best of our knowledge.

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