What lies behind the "Too-Small-To-Survive" banks

It is a common place that during financial crises, like the one started in 2007, authorities provide substantial financial support to some problem banks, whilst at the same time let several others to go bankrupt. Is this happening because some particular banks are considered important and big enough to save, whereas some others are perceived as being ‘Too-Small-To-Survive’? Is the size of banks the fundamental factor that makes authorities to treat them differently, or it is also that some banks perform poorly and are not capable of withstanding some considerable shocks whatsoever? Our study provides concrete answers to these questions thus filling part of the void in the existing literature. A short- and a long-run positive relationship between size and performance is documented regardless of the level of bank soundness (healthy vs. failed and assisted banks) under scrutiny. Importantly, we pose and lend support to the ‘Too-Small-To-Survive’ hypothesis according to which the impact of bank performance on failure probability strongly depends on size. Evidence shows that authorities tend not to save banks whose size is below some specific threshold

Applying Benford’s law to detect fraudulent practices in the banking industry

In this paper, we take a glimpse at the dark side of bank accounting statements by using a mathematical law which was established by Benford in 1938 to detect data manipulation. We shed the spotlight on the healthy, failed, and bailed out banks in the global financial crisis and test whether a set of balance sheet and income statement variables which are used by regulators to rate the performance and soundness of banks were manipulated in the years prior to and also during the crisis. We find that banks utilise loan loss provisions to manipulate earnings and income upwards throughout the examined periods. Together with loan loss provisions, problem banks resort to a downward manipulation of allowance for loan losses and non-performing loans with the purpose to tamper earnings upwards. We also provide evidence that manipulation is more prevalent in problem banks, which manage income and earnings to conceal their financial difficulties. Moreover, manipulation is found to be strengthened in the crisis period; it is also expanded to affect regulatory capital. Overall, banks utilise data manipulation without yet resorting to eye-catching manipulation strategies that may attract the scrutiny by regulators. Benford’s Law appears to be a suitable tool for assessing the quality of accounting information and for discovering irregularities in bank accounting data

Sarcoidosis-induced pericarditis in a patient with portopulmonary hypertension: a case report

Portopulmonary hypertension is a rare and severe complication of patients with cirrhosis. Sarcoidosis, a disease of unknown etiology, is also a cause of pulonary hypertension and right heart dysfunction. We report the case of a 51-year-old male patient, suffering from cirrhosis due to Wilson’s disease, portal hypertension and pulmonary hypertension (PH), who developed severe pericarditis. Wilson’s disease was diagnosed 8 years before his last admission to our hospital and was being successfully treated with D-penicillamine. PH was recognized 2 years before admission and being treated with bosentan. The patient complained for dyspnea at rest and the 2D echocardiogram revealed a significant amount of pericardial fluid. All other causes of acute pericarditis were excluded and his laboratory, imaging and histopathological investigation showed evidence of sarcoidosis. He underwent a therapy with corticosteroids (methylprednisolone) and his follow-up examination showed remarkable decrease of the levels of mean pulmonary artery pressure and pericardial fluid

Development and Optimization of Medical-Grade Multi-Functional Polyamide 12-Cuprous Oxide Nanocomposites with Superior Mechanical and Antibacterial Properties for Cost-Effective 3D Printing

In the current study, nanocomposites of medical-grade polyamide 12 (PA12) with incorporated copper (I) oxide (cuprous oxide-Cu2O) were prepared and fully characterized for their mechanical, thermal, and antibacterial properties. The investigation was performed on specimens manufactured by fused filament fabrication (FFF) and aimed to produce multi-purpose geometrically complex nanocomposite materials that could be employed in medical, food, and other sectors. Tensile, flexural, impact and Vickers microhardness measurements were conducted on the 3D-printed specimens. The fractographic inspection was conducted utilizing scanning electron microscopy (SEM), to determine the fracture mechanism and qualitatively evaluate the process. Moreover, the thermal properties were determined by thermogravimetric analysis (D/TGA). Finally, their antibacterial performance was assessed through a screening method of well agar diffusion. The results demonstrate that the overall optimum performance was achieved for the nanocomposites with 2.0 wt.% loading, while 0.5 wt.% to 4.0 wt.% loading was concluded to have discrete improvements of either the mechanical, the thermal, or the antibacterial performance

Polyamide 12/Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube and Carbon Black Nanocomposites Manufactured by 3D Printing Fused Filament Fabrication: A Comparison of the Electrical, Thermoelectric, and Mechanical Properties

In this study, nanocomposites with polyamide 12 (PA12) as the polymer matrix and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and carbon black (CB) at different loadings (2.5, 5.0, and 10.0 wt.%) as fillers, were produced in 3D printing filament form by melt mixing extrusion process. The filament was then used to build specimens with the fused filament fabrication (FFF) three-dimensional (3D) printing process. The aim was to produce by FFF 3D printing, electrically conductive and thermoelectric functional specimens with enhanced mechanical properties. All nanocomposites’ samples were electrically conductive at filler loadings above the electrical percolation threshold. The highest thermoelectric performance was obtained for the PA12/CNT nanocomposite at 10.0 wt.%. The static tensile and flexural mechanical properties, as well as the Charpy’s impact and Vickers microhardness, were determined. The highest improvement in mechanical properties was observed for the PA12/CNT nanocomposites at 5.0 wt.% filler loading. The fracture mechanisms were identified by fractographic analyses of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images acquired from fractured surfaces of tensile tested specimens. The nanocomposites produced could find a variety of applications such as; 3D-printed organic thermoelectric materials for plausible large-scale thermal energy harvesting applications, resistors for flexible circuitry, and piezoresistive sensors for strain sensing

Cost-effective bi-functional resin reinforced with a nano-inclusion blend for vat photopolymerization additive manufacturing: The effect of multiple antibacterial nanoparticle agents

Herein, a blend of nanoparticle (NP) inclusions has been arranged at various loadings into a photosensitive resin, while bi-functional three-dimensional (3D) printed specimens were fabricated through a vat photopolymerization process, to elucidate physicochemical mechanisms and synergistic effects, over the filler loading. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Raman, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed the chemical/spectroscopic and thermal properties of the fabricated specimens. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) depicted the surface morphology, while SEM fractography demonstrated the morphology of tensile test specimens’ fractured surfaces. Mechanical tests exhibited a strong reinforcement mechanism. The highest reinforcement of 20.8% in the tensile strength is reported for the 2 wt.% nanocomposite. All the prepared recipes exhibited a boosted antibacterial performance, as was documented via a screening agar well diffusion method. The research herein leads towards a novel generation of low-cost bi-functional materials for 3D printing bioactive applications, where mechanical reinforcement and antibacterial performance are required in the operational environment

Optimization of the filler concentration on fused filament fabrication 3d printed polypropylene with titanium dioxide nanocomposites

Polypropylene (PP) is an engineered thermoplastic polymer widely used in various applications. This work aims to enhance the properties of PP with the introduction of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) as nanofillers. Novel nanocomposite filaments were produced at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 wt.% filler concentrations, following a melt mixing extrusion process. These filaments were then fed to a commercially available fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printer for the preparation of specimens, to be assessed for their mechanical, viscoelastic, physicochemical, and fractographic properties, according to international standards. Tensile, flexural, impact, and microhardness tests, as well as dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), Raman, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), melt flow volume index (MVR), and atomic force microscopy (AFM), were conducted, to fully characterize the filler concentration effect on the 3D printed nanocomposite material properties. The results revealed an improvement in the nanocomposites properties, with the increase of the filler amount, while the microstructural effect and processability of the material was not significantly affected, which is important for the possible industrialization of the reported protocol. This work showed that PP/TiO2 can be a novel nanocomposite system in AM applications that the polymer industry can benefit from

Sustainable Additive Manufacturing: Mechanical Response of Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol over Multiple Recycling Processes

The continuous demand for thermoplastic polymers in a great variety of applications, combined with an urgent need to minimize the quantity of waste for a balanced energy-from-waste strategy, has led to increasing scientific interest in developing new recycling processes for plastic products. Glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate (PETG) is known to have some enhanced properties as compared to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) homopolymer; this has recently attracted the interest from the fused filament fabrication (FFF) three-dimensional (3D) printing community. PET has shown a reduced ability for repeated recycling through traditional processes. Herein, we demonstrate the potential for using recycled PETG in consecutive 3D printing manufacturing processes. Distributed recycling additive manufacturing (DRAM)-oriented equipment was chosen in order to test the mechanical and thermal response of PETG material in continuous recycling processes. Tensile, flexure, impact strength, and Vickers micro-hardness tests were carried out for six (6) cycles of recycling. Finally, Raman spectroscopy as well as thermal and morphological analyses via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) fractography were carried out. In general, the results revealed a minor knockdown effect on the mechanical properties as well as the thermal properties of PETG following the process proposed herein, even after six rounds of recycling

The incidence of physician-diagnosed food allergy declines with age: A specialist UK centre experience

The incidence of physician-diagnosed food allergy declined with age in a cohort of UK adults.Men were more likely to be diagnosed with food allergy than women.The incidence of shellfish, wheat & cereals and vegetable & herb allergies increased with age

Fused Filament Fabrication Three-Dimensional Printing Multi-Functional of Polylactic Acid/Carbon Black Nanocomposites

Conductive Polymer Composites (CPCs) have recently gained an extensive scientific interest as feedstock materials in Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) Three-dimensional (3D) printing. Polylactic Acid (PLA), widely used in FFF 3D printing, as well as its Carbon Black (CB) nanocomposites at different weight percentage (wt.%) filler loadings (0.5, 1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 wt.%), were prepared via a melt mixing filament extrusion process in this study and utilized to manufacture FFF 3D printed specimens. The nanocomposites were examined for their electrical conductivity. The highest loaded 3D printed CPC (5.0 wt.%) was tested as an electrothermal Joule heating device. Static tensile, flexural, Charpy’s impact and Vickers microhardness mechanical properties were investigated for the neat and PLA/CB 3D printed nanocomposites. Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) revealed a stiffening mechanism for the PLA/CB nanocomposites. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) elucidated the samples’ internal and external microstructural characteristics. The PLA/CB 5.0 wt.% nanocomposite demonstrated also antibacterial properties, when examined with a screening process, against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). It can be envisaged that the 3D printed PLA/CB CPCs exhibited a multi-functional performance, and could open new avenues towards low-cost personalized biomedical objects with complex geometry, amongst others, i.e., surgery tools, splints, wearables, etc