In the past two decades, CE has been used frequently for the measurement of apparent binding/association constants. CE has numerous advantages, including short analysis times, low sample consumption, simplicity of operation, etc. This review provides a fundamental introduction to binding theory and then summarizes recent applications and advances in the field of CE-based methods for the evaluation of molecular association. The time period for this survey is from 2002 (when our previous review was published) to the present.

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Purpose -This paper investigates the determinants of capital structure using a cross-section sample of 1481 non-financial firms listed on the Chinese stock exchanges in 2011. Design/methodology/approach -Employing four leverage measures (total leverage and long-term leverage in terms of both book value and market value, respectively), this study examines the effects of factors with proven influences on capital structure in literature, along with industry effect and ownership effect. Findings -We find that large firms favour debt financing while profitable firms rely more on internal capital accumulation. Intangibility and business risk increase the level of debt financing but tax has little impact on capital structure. We also observe strong industrial effect and ownership effect. Real estate firms borrow considerably more and firms from utility and manufacturing industries use more long-term debt despite compared with commercial firms. On the other hand, firms with state ownership tend to borrow more, while firms with foreign ownership choose more equity financing. Research limitations -The study uses cross-section data to avoid any potential time effects, which allows us to focus on our main research question -to identify the determinants of capital structure for Chinese firms. Future research may gain more insights using panel data and considering other factors such as crisis and financial reforms. Practical implications -These results may provide important implications to investors in making investment decision and to firms in making financing decisions. Originality/value -this paper uses by far the largest and latest cross-section sample from the Chinese stock markets, offering a more complete picture of the financing behaviours in the Chinese firms, with known characters and the impact of ownerships.

This paper combines the static effect of ownership and the dynamic effect of privatization on bank performance in China over 1995-2010, reporting a significantly higher performance by private intermediaries -joint stock commercial banks and city commercial banks -relative to state-owned commercial banks. However, publicly traded banks, subject to multiple monitoring and vetting in capital markets, perform better regardless of ownership status. The privatization of banks has improved performance with respect to revenue inflow and efficiency gains in the short-or long-run (initial public offerings). The positive long-run effect is more relevant and significant for banking institutions with minority foreign ownership. Moreover, this paper innovatively estimates interest income efficiency and non-interest income efficiency at the same time. The results suggest that Chinese banks are much more efficient in generating interest income than raising non-interest revenue, although the latter aspect has improved significantly during the sample period.

China has accelerated and deepened bank reform since it joined the WTO in 2001. Employing a stochastic distance function, this paper investigates the technical efficiency of banks and examines the static, selection and dynamic effects of governance changes on bank efficiency in China for the period 1995-2005. Our results show that bank efficiency has been improved and state-owned banks still perform poorly except for a noticeable improvement from 2003. Strong selection effects are found from both the foreign acquisition and going-public reform strategies. Foreign acquisition may benefit bank efficiency in the long run, but going-public appears to have just some short run effects. One obvious policy implication is that foreign competition is beneficial to China's on-going bank reform, and goingpublic is just a means to allow effective foreign competition. JEL classification: D21, L32, P31