Financial crisis and bank efficiency: An empirical study of European banks

This article uses the frontier technique to highlight the differences in the impact of the global financial crisis on the efficiency of 783 commercial banks from the EU during the period 2004–2010. We emphasise the distinctions between large and small banks, publicly traded and privately held banks, as well as the statuses of banks’ country of origin, especially for the year in which they joined the EU and held eurozone membership. Our results show that the crisis has a significant and positive im pact on both the cost and profit inefficienciesof the commercial banks from the EU, and that this impact is higher on eurozone banks. In terms of cost efficiency, the most affected by the crisis are the large publicly traded banks, operating in old members of the EU. With regard to the profit inefficiency, the global financial crisis seems to have had a lower impact on the large public banks

Radiopharmaceuticals for PET and SPECT Imaging: A Literature Review over the Last Decade

Positron emission tomography (PET) uses radioactive tracers and enables the functional imaging of several metabolic processes, blood flow measurements, regional chemical composition, and/or chemical absorption. Depending on the targeted processes within the living organism, different tracers are used for various medical conditions, such as cancer, particular brain pathologies, cardiac events, and bone lesions, where the most commonly used tracers are radiolabeled with 18F (e.g., [18F]-FDG and NA [18F]). Oxygen-15 isotope is mostly involved in blood flow measurements, whereas a wide array of 11C-based compounds have also been developed for neuronal disorders according to the affected neuroreceptors, prostate cancer, and lung carcinomas. In contrast, the single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) technique uses gamma-emitting radioisotopes and can be used to diagnose strokes, seizures, bone illnesses, and infections by gauging the blood flow and radio distribution within tissues and organs. The radioisotopes typically used in SPECT imaging are iodine-123, technetium-99m, xenon-133, thallium-201, and indium-111. This systematic review article aims to clarify and disseminate the available scientific literature focused on PET/SPECT radiotracers and to provide an overview of the conducted research within the past decade, with an additional focus on the novel radiopharmaceuticals developed for medical imaging