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Visibility is important because it influences transportation safety. This study examined the relationships among sea–land breezes, relative humidity (RH), and the urban heat island (UHI) effect. The study also sought to understand how the synergistic effects of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and RH influence visibility. Hourly meteorological, PM2.5 concentration, and visibility data from 2016 to 2019 were obtained from government-owned stations. This study used quadratic equations, exponential functions, and multi-regression models, along with a comparison test, to analyse the relationships between these variables. While sea breezes alone cannot explain the presence of PM2.5, UHI circulation coupled with sea breezes during winter can promote the accumulation of PM2.5. The synergistic effects of RH, PM2,5, and aerosol hygroscopicity exist in synoptic patterns type I and type III. PM2.5 was negatively correlated with visibility in the winter, when the RH was 67–95% and the continental cold high-pressure (CCHP) system was over the Asian continent (type I), or when the RH was 49–89% and the CCHP had moved eastward, with its centre located beyond 125° E (type III). The synergistic predictor variable PM2.5×RH was more important than PM2.5 and RH individually in explaining the variation in visibility.

The article is devoted to the consideration of issues related to women's participation in the Olympic Games in history and modern world. Special attention is paid to the analysis of sociological researches aimed at the identification of problematic aspects of women's sports at the Olympic Games. The authors analyze the tendencies of the influence of feminist movement on the development of the women's participation in the Olympic movement and sports equality, the development of traditionally female and "non-female" sports. It is shown that the development of feminism rhetoric in sports has negative consequences for the social status of female athletes and changes the ideas on the sports ideals.

This thesis consists of two essays on finance and economic growth. Using the passage and the enforcement of capital market laws, the essays study whether and how the development of international capital markets can influence corporate innovation, a vital source for long-term economic growth around the world. In the first essay, I study the question: Do legal restrictions on insider trading accelerate or slow technological innovation? Based on over 75,000 industry-country- year observations across 94 economies from 1976 to 2006, I find that enforcing insider trading laws spurs innovation, as measured by patent intensity, scope, impact, generality, and originality. Consistent with theories that insider trading slows innovation by impeding the valuation of innovative activities, the relation between enforcing insider trading laws and innovation is larger in industries that are naturally innovative and opaque, and equity issuances also rise much more in these industries after a country enforces its insider trading laws. In the second essay, I examine the effect of activating M&A markets on the rate of technological innovation, using staggered adoption of international M&A laws. Based on more than 65,000 industry-country-year observations across 46 economies from 1976 to 2006, I find that adopting the M&A laws increases innovation in the high-tech industries of a country, as measured by patent intensity, scope, impact, generality, and originality. The results are consistent with the incentives provided by an active M&A market that amplifies the valuation of and returns to innovation, and boosts exit liquidity for the entrepreneurs and corporate investors. I also find that M&A volume increases in the high-tech industries, and the improvement of innovation is mainly contributed by the private firms. ; published_or_final_version ; Economics and Finance ; Doctoral ; Doctor of Philosophy