Backtesting the efficiency of MNB’s Lending Survey

This article briefly presents the general practice of lending surveys aimed at revealing loan supply behaviour, as well as the literature analysing their usability. The focus of our analysis is the so-called Lending Survey (SLO), conducted by the MNB since 2003. In the context of our backtesting based on data available up to December 2008, we examined whether there were any contradictions in banks’ responses and how usable the results were from the perspective of lending and growth forecasts. Based on the results, it can be established that banks are consistent in their answers, so there is a strong relationship between their forward-looking and subsequent, retrospective answers. The correlation between the changes in lending standards and the volume of loan portfolios is weak. This is due to the fact that in the Hungarian banking sector the increase in loan portfolios over the past five years may have been influenced not only by supply-side behaviour, but also by demand for loans and economic growth to a great extent. We also examined the correlation between changes in corporate lending standards and GDP growth, which proved to be significant. Nevertheless, we cannot draw conclusions about the direction of the cause and effect relationship based solely on the establishment of correlation, in other words about whether banks act procyclically or whether corporate lending behaviour plays a decisive role in economic growth. The strength of our analysis is limited by the brevity of the available time series and by the fact that we were unable to observe the entire loan cycle during the period under review. Later, with the expansion of the Lending Survey’s data series, it will be worthwhile to pursue our examination.lending survey, Hungary, loan supply behaviour,lending standards.

Extensions of positive definite functions on amenable groups

Let $S$ be a subset of a amenable group $G$ such that $e\in S$ and $S^{-1}=S$. The main result of the paper states that if the Cayley graph of $G$ with respect to $S$ has a certain combinatorial property, then every positive definite operator-valued function on $S$ can be extended to a positive definite function on $G$. Several known extension results are obtained as a corollary. New applications are also presented

Microstructure formation in electrodeposited Co-Cu/Cu multilayers with GMR effect: influence of current density during the magnetic layer deposition

The influence of the current density applied during the deposition of the magnetic layers on the microstructure formation in electrodeposited Co-Cu/Cu multilayers and on their giant magnetoresistance (GMR) was investigated using a combination of magnetoresistance measurements, wide-angle and small-angle X-ray scattering, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and chemical analysis. The magnetoresistance measurements revealed that a reduction of the current density stimulates a transition from the formation of the magnetic layers with predominantly ferromagnetic character to the formation of superparamagnetic regions. As based on electrochemical considerations, it was supposed that such a change in the magnetic properties can be caused by an increased amount of Cu codeposited with Co at low current densities. It turned out from the structural studies that a pronounced segregation of Co and Cu occurs at low current densities. In accordance with their very low mutual solubility at room temperature, no atomic scale intermixing of Co and Cu could be detected. The segregation of Cu and Co was related to the fragmentation of the magnetic layers, to the enhancement of the local lattice strains, to the increase of the interface corrugations, to the partial loss of the multilayer periodicity and finally to the formation of Co precipitates in the Cu matrix

Hazai fitoftórás növénybetegségek felmérése és a kórokozók feno- és genotípusos vizsgálata = Pheno- and genotypic studies on Phytophthora spp. occurring and causing plant diseases in Hungary

A gombaszerű, de algákkal rokon növénykórokozó Phytophthora-fajok világszerte súlyos károkat okoznak mezőgazdasági, kertészeti és erdészeti kultúrákban. Magyarországon kevés ismeretünk volt előfordulásuk gyakoriságáról, ezért célunk a hazai fitoftórák és az általuk kiváltott betegségek felmérése és a patogének változékonyságának tanulmányozása volt. Összesen 18 fitoftórát (közülük 7-et hazai viszonylatban első alkalommal) azonosítottunk 19 növényfajról (elsősorban dísznövényekről), erdők és gyümölcsösök talajából, valamint 32 hazánkban eddig le nem írt fitoftóra-gazdanövény kapcsolatot jegyeztünk fel. Leggyakoribb betegségtünet a gyökér- és szártőrothadás volt, minek következtében az egész növény elpusztulhat. Hajtásokon és leveleken ritkábban fordultak elő e patogének. EPPO karantén listás kórokozókat nem azonosítottunk. A beteg növények mintegy felét mindössze néhány különösen elterjedt faj károsította. A már korábban ismert kórokozók mellett azonosítottunk a tudományra nézve új fajokat is, melyek gazdasági szerepének vizsgálata feltétlenül szükséges. Megállapítottuk továbbá, hogy a fitoftórás égerpusztulás okozásáért hazánkban is elsősorban a kórokozó agresszívabb alfaja, a P. alni subsp. alni felelős, melynek ama klónszerű populációja terjedt el Magyarországon, mely Európa más részein is jelen van. Munkánk egy részét nemzetközi együttműködésben végeztük, ill. folytatjuk a továbbiakban. | The genus Phytophthora is a group of ‘fungus-like’ plant pathogens causing severe losses in agriculture, horticulture and forestry. In Hungary, however, these pseudofungi have not been studied in proportion to their importance. Thus our goals were (i) to survey the occurrence of Phytophthoras country-wide, and (ii) to conduct studies on the genetic diversity of populations of the pathogens. Altogether 18 Phythophthoras were identified from 19 plant species representing mainly woody ornamentals, and some were isolated from forestry and soils of orchards. Thirty-two Phytophthora-host combinations new to Hungary were recorded. The most frequent disease symptoms were root rot and stem necrosis, resulting in the death of affected plants in most cases. Shoot and leaf blights were rare. We have not found Phytophthoras listed on the EPPO quarantine or alert lists. Approximately half of the diseased plants were attacked by the same few Phytophthoras. In addition to the old-known pathogens, we also identified new Phytophthora species, of which economic importance needs to be examined. It was also found that the phytophthora disease of alder in Hungary was primarily caused by that clonal population of the aggressive subspecies, P. alni subsp. alni, which is also present in other parts of Europe. Our research work was partly carried out in international co-operations, and will be continued so

Egy új Phytophthora-faj jellemzése és formális leírása = Characterization and formal description of a new Phytophthora species

Az algákkal rokon növénykórokozó fitoftórák súlyos gazdasági és környezeti károkat okoznak világszerte. Közülük több is szerepet játszik az erdőpusztulásként ismert összetett ökológiai jelenségben. A pályázati munka alanya egy új, eddig informálisan Phytophthora taxon Salixsoilnak nevezett fitoftóra, melynek Salix-fajok talajkörnyezetéből származó első két izolátumát 2003-ban azonosították. Ezt követően magunk is megtaláltuk hazai égeresekben. A pályázat során a taxon rendszertani helyzetét és patogénként betöltött lehetséges ökológiai szerepét vizsgáltuk nemzetközi együttműködés keretében. Megállapítottuk, hogy a vizsgált taxon számos morfológiai és fiziológiai határozóbélyeg tekintetében nem különíthető el az ismert P. gonapodyides fajtól, de más fontos tulajdonságok (pl. a magas hőmérséklettel szembeni tolerancia) és molekuláris genetikai jellegek vonatkozásában igen. A taxon gyengén fertőzi a fűz és éger hajtását kísérleti körülmények között. Nem kizárt, hogy patogénként viselkedik a vizsgált gazdanövényeken természetes körülmények között. Magas hőmérséklettel szembeni toleranciája pedig azt sejteti, hogy részt vehet a még élő, éppen komposztálódó növényi részek lebontásában is. A kapott molekuláris genetikai adatok a taxon stabilizálódott filogenetikai helyzetére utalnak, s a hőmérsékleti érzékenységi adatokkal együtt megbízható alapot szolgáltatnak annak önálló formális fajként történő leírásához. | Plant pathogenic Phytophthora species which show close link to algae cause severe economical and environmental losses throughout the world. Many of them play a role in the complex ecological phenomenon known as forest decline. The subject of this proposal is an informal Phytophthora designated so far as P. taxon Salixsoil, of which first two isolates collected around Salix trees were identified in 2003. Subsequently, we have also found it in Hungarian alder stands. During this project, we have investigated its taxonomical position and possible ecological role within the frame of an international co-operation. The results show that P. taxon Salixsoil can not be distinguished from the known morphospecies P. gonapodyides in a number of morphological and physiological traits. However, they are different in other important physiological (e. g. ability to tolerate high temperature) and molecular genetic characteristics. P. taxon Salixsoil is weakly pathogenic to salix and alder twigs under experimental conditions. It may be pathogenic to these hosts in the nature, too. Its ability to tolerate high temperature suggests that the taxon may also play a role in the breakdown of plant litter and detritus. The obtained molecular genetic data indicates that P. taxon Salixsoil has a stable phylogenetic position and, along with the growth-temperature relationship data, serve a good basis for its description as a new formal Phytophthora species

Microstructure of a rapidly quenched nanocrystalline Hf11Ni89 alloy from X-ray diffraction

A rapidly quenched nanocrystalline Hf(11)Ni(89) alloy was produced by melt-spinning. The X-ray phase analysis shows that the as-quenched ribbon consists of mainly nanocrystalline fcc HfNi(5) although a small amount of Ni is also detected. The crystallite size distribution and the dislocation structure of the dominant HfNi(5) phase were determined by a recently developed method of diffraction profile analysis. In this procedure, by assuming spherical shape and log-normal size distribution of crystallites, the measured physical intensity profiles are fitted by the well established ab initio functions of size and strain peak profiles. The anisotropic broadening of peak profiles is accounted for by the dislocation model of the mean square strain in terms of average dislocation contrast factors. It was found that the median and the variance of the crystallite size distribution are 3.3 nm and 0.70, respectively. The dislocation density is 5.7x10(16) m(-2) and the character of dislocations is nearly pure screw

Az orosz mentalitás egykor és most (Változott-e a szépnem helyzete?)

In her book of 100 questions and 100 answers «Какие мы, русские?» (What Are We, Russians Like?) Alla Sergeyeva gives a real account of the XXI century mentality and stereotypes of behaviour. Like women in many other countries of the world Russian women consider taking care of the family hearth the most important in their lives. Their status during history was not enviable at all. One of the urgent problems of today is: why do they often make an effort to choose a foreign husband. Even today friendship and love “in the Russian way”, intimacy and sex in Russian people’s lives is an inexhaustible topic for discussion. It is important to study ho w the above concepts are expressed in the language and how they are translated into foreign languages