Prediction of bank failures in emerging financial markets: an ANN approach

Purpose – The recent financial crises in the world have brought attention to the need for a new international financial architecture which rests on crisis prevention, crisis prediction and crisis management. It is therefore both desirable and vital to explore new predictive techniques for providing early warnings to regulatory agencies. The purpose of this study is to propose a new technique to prevent future crises, with reference to the last banking crises in Turkey. Design/methodology/approach – ANN is utilized as an inductive algorithm in discovering predictive knowledge structures in financial data and used to explain previous bank failures in the Turkish banking sector as a special case of EFMs (emerging financial markets). Findings – The empirical results indicate that ANN is proved to differentiate patterns or trends in financial data. Most of the bank failures could be predicted long before, with the utilization of an ANN classification approach, but more importantly it could be proposed to detect early warning signals of potential failures, as in the case of the Turkish banking sector. Practical implications – The regulatory agencies could use ANN as an alternative method to predict and prevent future systemic banking crises in order to minimize the cost to the economy. Originality/value – This paper reveals that the ANN approach can be proposed as a promising method of evaluating financial conditions in terms of predictive accuracy, adaptability and robustness, and as an alternative early warning method that can be used along with the most common alternatives such as CAMEL, financial ratio and peer group analysis, comprehensive bank risk assessment, and econometric models.Banks, Economic stability, Financial control, Neural nets, Predictive process, Turkey

Evaluation of hemodynamic perfusion MR images

Perfusion normally refers to the delivery of blood at the level of capillaries. Hemodynamic perfusion magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has been used in clinics for a series of applications including tumor characterization (histological type diagnosis and grading), diagnosis and the follow up of stroke, and several other disorders

Assessment of Surgeon's Stress Level and Alertness Using EEG during Laparoscopic Simple Nephrectomy

Göksel Duru, Dilek (Arel Author) --- Conference: Neural Engineering (NER), 2013 6th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on 6-8 Nov. 2013 San Diego, CA.Laparoscopic simple nephrectomy (LSN) is an accepted treatment modality for nonfunctioning kidneys. Besides decreased postoperative morbidity, LSN is an advantage with decreased analgesic requirements and convalescence. LSN is a highly stressful operation, and the procedure requires high concentration level and experience. Emotions recognized from Electroencephalogram (EEG) may lead to detect the real emotions of the human. In this study, we proposed a subject-dependent stress level detection from EEG using the (Fpz beta/alpha) ratio to recognize high and low dominance levels of feelings based on the 2D Valence-Arousal model. The stress level of the surgeon is monitored via EEG during the operation. The most stressful phase of LSN and its change over time are determined using wireless EEG headset with real-time measurements. The aim here is to monitor and utilize objective information on the mental effort and stress demanded

Development of a Surgical Interface for Cryoablation of Kidney Tumors

Autonomous surgical systems aim to improve surgical treatments in all stages of the clinical workflow. A surgical interface should be safe, robust, and user-friendly. In this article, the functionality and usability of a surgical interface as critical factors for acceptability are investigated. Then, the surgical interface for the cryoablation of kidney tumors is designed, with consideration of the functionality and usability factors. The surgical interface includes a preoperative surgical simulator that allows the surgeon to plan the surgical interventions. The surgical interface with one surgeon is evaluated

GSM base station electromagnetic radiation and oxidative stress in rats

The ever increasing use of cellular phones and the increasing number of associated base stations are becoming a widespread source of nonionizing electromagnetic radiation. Some biological effects are likely to occur even at low-level EM fields. In this study, a gigahertz transverse electromagnetic (GTEM) cell was used as an exposure environment for plane wave conditions of far-field free space EM field propagation at the GSM base transceiver station (BTS) frequency of 945MHz, and effects on oxidative stress in rats were investigated. When EM fields at a power density of 3.67W/m(2) (specific absorption rate = 11.3mW/kg), which is well below current exposure limits, were applied, MDA (malondialdehyde) level was found to increase and GSH (reduced glutathione) concentration was found to decrease significantly (p < 0.0001). Additionally, there was a less significant (p = 0.0190) increase in SOD (superoxide dismutase) activity under EM exposure