Risk-based Contributions in EU Deposit Guarantee Schemes: Current Practices

This report describes the risk-based models and monitoring systems applied across the EU MS. On the one hand, it broadly illustrates systems currently applied across the EU to highlight the fundamental principles underlying risk determination; on the other, it provides more technical details of each method, including a description of the mathematical tools employed. Moreover, a numerical example of each risk-based methodology is discussed in order to reproduce the individual steps of the calculation.JRC.G.9-Econometrics and statistical support to antifrau

Fatigue damage in spline couplings: numerical simulations and experimental validation

Abstract Spline couplings are often over dimensioned concerning fatigue life, but they are subjected to wear phenomena. For as concerns fatigue life, standard design methods consider only a part of the spline teeth to be in contact and this brings to underestimate the components life, so a better understanding about component fatigue behavior may allow to a weight reduction and a consequent increasing of machine efficiency. On the other hand, wear damage may cause spline coupling run outs; this phenomenon is generally caused by the relative sliding between engaging teeth; the sliding may be due to kinematic conditions (angular misalignment between shafts) of teeth deflection. In order to obtain component optimization, both fatigue and wear behavior have to be taken into account. Standard spline coupling design methods do not properly consider wear damage and they evaluate fatigue life with big approximations. In this work fatigue damage are experimentally and numerically investigated while wear damage has been experimentally evaluated. Experimental results have been obtained by a dedicated test rig. Fatigue tests have been performed by means of a special device connected to a standard fatigue machine. Tests have been done by varying the most important working parameters (torque and misalignment angle). Experimental results have been compared with standard design methods to evaluate if and how they may over dimension the components. Results show that concerning the fatigue life, the actual component life is higher respect to that calculated by standard methods. Regarding wear behavior, results shows that whenever a relative motion between engaging teeth is present, wear damage appears

methodology development to design a representative test specimen for wear damage in spline couplings

Abstract Aim of this paper is to develop a new methodology in order to design a representative test specimen for wear damage characterisation in spline couplings. In other words, real component and test specimen (same material) have been considered having a common target that is an isodamage condition reached after an established number of working (testing) cycles.Influence parameters chosen for this aim are, under the hypothesis of equal friction coefficient, hertzian pressure due to the load entity (torque) and the corresponding slidings. Slidings have been determined referring to two different working conditions, traditional fatigue testing with variable torque (aligned conditions) and wear testing in misaligned conditions. Specimen geometry has been firstly stated following DIN 5480 requirements, then profile micro geometries have been varied to tune the established target parameters and the corresponding FEM simulations have been carried on. Hertzian pressure values and corresponding contact areas have been verified by classical formula.A preliminary experimental activity has been done in order to verify the specimen design related to isodamage dimensioning aspects

experimental investigation about tribological performance of grapheme nanoplatelets as additive for lubricants

Abstract Graphene has received a great interest by researchers in a wide field of applications. Referring to tribological aspects, graphene has been considered as an additive in lubricants, in order to reduce components friction and machine losses. Some papers are available in literature about graphene utilized as additive in solids or liquid lubricants. Despite the big potential of graphene in this field, its use as a lubricant or a lubricant additive on macro-meso scale remains relatively unexplored. In particular, the literature is lacking about specific applications of graphene added lubricants on mechanical systems. In this paper, the effect graphene added to a standard lubricants to create high performance compounds has been investigated. Firstly, the Coefficient of Friction (CoF) of different compositions of lubricant-graphene compounds has been experimentally evaluated. In particular, a commercial grease and two commercial oils have been chosen to be used as base lubricants. Results in terms of Coefficient of Friction values of all compounds have been compared each other. Finally, characterization results of graphene added grease have been related to that available from previous studies performed on a mechanical component (a spline coupling), commonly used in many industrial applications, lubricated by the same graphene-grease compounds. Results show that graphene added to viscous lubricants generally reduces the coefficient of friction, in both materials and components

Change in the DGS Level of Coverage Due to the 2008 Financial Crisis: First Basic Impact Evaluation

Scope of this report is the assessment of the impact of increasing the DGS level of coverage for banks¿ deposits (from current levels up to 50K¿ or possibly 100K¿) as a consequnce of the 2008 financial crisis.JRC.G.9-Econometrics and statistical support to antifrau

Possible models for risk-based contributions to EU Deposit Guarantee Schemes

JRC has investigated potential risk-based models for computing contributions of Deposit Guarantee Scheme (DGS) and assessed their potential impact across Member States. The report illustrates three possible approaches for calculating contributions on the basis of the risk profile of the DGS members (i.e. banks) and presents a preliminary impact assessment exercise.JRC.DG.G.9-Econometrics and applied statistic

Endothelin-dependent vasoconstrictor activity in metabolically healthy and unhealthy obese patients

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Cost Impact of Changing the Funding Mechanisms for Deposit-Guarantee

Directive 94/19/EC on Deposit Guarantee Schemes (DGS) requires EU Member States to have DGS in place, which protect depositors to a certain extent in cases of default. The Directive leaves many structural aspects of DGS to the discretion of MS, including the way DGS are financed. As a result, the DGS funding mechanisms are very heterogeneous among MS. Some MS finance their scheme by means of regular contributions, whereas others levy contributions only in the event of a crisis. In between, there are a wide variety of schemes which collect both ex-ante contributions and ex-post levies. This study aims at investigating the effects of harmonising the mechanisms for funding DGS across the EU with the aid of a scenario analysis which applies three different ex-ante scenarios across the EU MS.JRC.G.9-Econometrics and statistical support to antifrau

<i>Ailanthus altissima</i> mapping from multi-temporal very high resolution satellite images

This study presents the results of multi-seasonal WorldView-2 (WV-2) satellite images classification for the mapping of Ailanthus altissima (A. altissima), an invasive plant species thriving in a protected grassland area of Southern Italy. The technique used relied on a two-stage hybrid classification process: the first stage applied a knowledge-driven learning scheme to provide a land cover map (LC), including deciduous vegetation and other classes, without the need of reference training data; the second stage exploited a data-driven classification to: (i) discriminate pixels of the invasive species found within the deciduous vegetation layer of the LC map; (ii) determine the most favourable seasons for such recognition. In the second stage, when a traditional Maximum Likelihood classifier was used, the results obtained with multi-temporal July and October WV-2 images, showed an output Overall Accuracy (OA) value of ?91%. To increase such a value, first a low-pass median filtering was used with a resulting OA of 99.2%, then, a Support Vector Machine classifier was applied obtaining the best A. altissima User\u27s Accuracy (UA) and OA values of 82.47% and 97.96%, respectively, without any filtering. When instead of the full multi-spectral bands set some spectral vegetation indices computed from the same months were used the UA and OA values decreased. The findings reported suggest that multi-temporal, very high resolution satellite imagery can be effective for A. altissima mapping, especially when airborne hyperspectral data are unavailable. Since training data are required only in the second stage to discriminate A. altissima from other deciduous plants, the use of the first stage LC mapping as pre-filter can render the hybrid technique proposed cost and time effective. Multi-temporal VHR data and the hybrid system suggested may offer new opportunities for invasive plant monitoring and follow up of management decision

Tailoring dry microparticles for pulmonary drug delivery: ultrasonic spray freeze-drying with mannitol and salbutamol sulphate

Spray freeze-drying has emerged as a valid alternative to traditional spray drying to produce therapeutic dry microparticles. In particular, the spherical shape and high porosity of spray freeze-dried microparticles make them suitable for pulmonary drug delivery through dry powder inhalers. However, an appropriate particle size and fine particle fraction are required to guarantee lung deposition. This study used ultrasonic spray freeze-drying to generate dry microparticles composed of mannitol either alone or added with the bronchodilator salbutamol sulphate. The influence of the solid concentration and the feed flow rate on the particle size, morphology, surface area, porosity, and crystallinity was investigated. Growing particle size was observed, increasing the concentration and feed flow rate. Similarly, the addition of the drug led to a larger particle size and surface area. The in vitro simulation of drug deposition highlighted the dependence of the aerodynamic properties on the solid concentration and feed flow rate. Due to the lower density and particle geometric size, the highest fine particle fraction (26%) and smallest mass median aerodynamic diameter (4.4 μm) were reached at the lowest solid concentration and feed flow rate