The Impact of Macro-Prudential Measures on Retail Loans: Evidence from Turkey

Following the global financial crisis, savings rate to GDP ratio in Turkey declined to severe levels. The Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency of Turkey took various macro-prudential measures to limit the retail loans in the banking sector to support the policies for increasing the savings rate. The aim of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of these measures, thus the comparison of the growth rate of the loan types for the period of December 2010-September 2013 to October 2013-September 2015 with Welchs’ t-tests. The results of the analysis points to the success of BRSA measures with significant declines in consumer loans, namely car loans, general purpose loans and credit cards with installments.&nbsp

Electronic Structure of a Chain-like Compound: TlSe

An ab-initio pseudopotential calculation using density functional theory within the local density approximation has been performed to investigate the electronic properties of TlSe which is of chain-like crystal geometry. The energy bands and effective masses along high symmetry directions, the density of states and valence charge density distributions cut through various planes are presented. The results have been discussed in terms of previously existing experimental and theoretical data, and comparisons with similar compounds have been made.Comment: 7 page

Disease associated with equine coronavirus infection and high case fatality rate.

BackgroundEquine coronavirus (ECoV) is associated with clinical disease in adult horses. Outbreaks are associated with a low case fatality rate and a small number of animals with signs of encephalopathic disease are described.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to describe the epidemiological and clinical features of two outbreaks of ECoV infection that were associated with an high case fatality rate.Animals14 miniature horses and 1 miniature donkey testing fecal positive for ECoV from two related disease outbreaks.MethodsRetrospective study describing the epidemiological findings, clinicopathological findings, and fecal viral load from affected horses.ResultsIn EcoV positive horses, 27% (4/15) of the animals died or were euthanized. Severe hyperammonemia (677 μmol/L, reference range ≤ 60 μmol/L) was identified in one animal with signs of encephalopathic disease that subsequently died. Fecal viral load (ECoV genome equivalents per gram of feces) was significantly higher in the nonsurvivors compared to animals that survived (P = .02).Conclusions and clinical importanceEquine coronavirus had a higher case fatality rate in this group of miniature horses than previously reported in other outbreaks of varying breeds. Hyperammonemia could contribute to signs of encephalopathic disease, and the fecal viral load might be of prognostic value in affected horses

Influence of steps on the tilting and adsorption dynamics of ordered Pn films on vicinal Ag(111) surfaces

Here we present a structural study of pentacene (Pn) thin films on vicinal Ag(111) surfaces by He atom diffraction measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations supplemented with van der Waals (vdW) interactions. Our He atom diffraction results suggest initial adsorption at the step edges evidenced by initial slow specular reflection intensity decay rate as a function of Pn deposition time. In parallel with the experimental findings, our DFT+vdW calculations predict the step edges as the most stable adsorption site on the surface. An isolated molecule adsorbs as tilted on the step edge with a binding energy of 1.4 eV. In addition, a complete monolayer (ML) with pentacenes flat on the terraces and tilted only at the step edges is found to be more stable than one with all lying flat or tilted molecules, which in turn influences multilayers. Hence our results suggest that step edges can trap Pn molecules and act as nucleation sites for the growth of ordered thin films with a crystal structure similar to that of bulk Pn.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Pt-incorporated anatase TiO2(001) surface for solar cell applications : First-principles density functional theory calculations

First-principles density functional theory calculations were carried out to determine the low energy geometries of anatase TiO$_2$(001) with Pt implants in the sublayers as substitutional and interstitial impurities as well as on the surface in the form of adsorbates. We investigated the effect of such a systematic Pt incorporation in the electronic structure of this surface for isolated and interacting impurities with an emphasis on the reduction in the band gap to visible region. Comprehensive calculations, for 1x1 surface, showed that Pt ions at interstitial cavities result in local segregation, forming metallic wires inside, while substitution for bulk Ti and adsorption drives four strongly dispersed impurity states from valence-bands up in the gap with a narrowing of ~1.5 eV. Hence, such a contiguous Pt incorporation drives anatase into infrared regime. Pt substitution for the surface Ti, on the other hand, metallizes the surface. Systematic trends for 2x2 surface revealed that Pt can be encapsulated inside to form stable structures as a result of strong Pt-O interactions as well as the adsorptional and substitutional cases. Dilute impurities considered for 2x2 surface models exhibit flat-like defect states driven from the valence bands narrowing the energy gap suitable to obtain visible light responsive titania.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables. to appear on Phys. Rev

Perspectives about living on the horns of dilemmas: An analysis of gender factors related to superintendent decision-making and problem-solving

The major focus of this paper is a gender-based analysis of school superintendent decision-making and problem-solving as well as an investigation of contemporary leadership dilemmas. The findings are based on responses from 258 superintendents of K-12 school districts in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania collected over a period of three years (2009-2011). The researchers also conducted 18 comprehensive qualitative “face-to-face” interviews with self-selected superintendents who responded to the quantitative survey. The intended outcome of this article is for education policy makers, professors, and practitioners to comprehensively examine the extent and degree of various dilemmas confronting the Mid-Atlantic Region school superintendent sample and to evaluate the decision-making and problem-solving approaches used by them. The study results that are presented will serve as valuable references to not only individual superintendents but also to university administrator preparation professors and to state administrator licensure agencies because it is important for all aspiring superintendents to know the various issues associated with education leadership and the personal and professional dilemmas that they need to be prepared to face as they embark on a career to improve schooling in the United States

Progress with the Upgrade of the SPS for the HL-LHC Era

The demanding beam performance requirements of the High Luminosity (HL-) LHC project translate into a set of requirements and upgrade paths for the LHC injector complex. In this paper the performance requirements for the SPS and the known limitations are reviewed in the light of the 2012 operational experience. The various SPS upgrades in progress and still under consideration are described, in addition to the machine studies and simulations performed in 2012. The expected machine performance reach is estimated on the basis of the present knowledge, and the remaining decisions that still need to be made concerning upgrade options are detailed.Comment: 3 p. Presented at 4th International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC 2013

Upgrades Of the SPS, Transfer Line and LHC Injection Protection Devices For the HL-LHC Era

The challenging High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) beam requirements will lead in the future to unprecedented beam parameters along the LHC injector chain. In the SPS accelerator these requests translate into about a factor two higher intensity and brightness than the present design performance. In addition to the challenge of producing and accelerating such beams, these parameters affect the resistance of the existing equipment against beam impact. Most of the protection devices in the SPS ring, its transfer lines and the LHC injection areas will be put under operational constraints which are beyond their design specification. The equipment concerned has been reviewed and their resistance to the HL-LHC beams checked. Theoretical and simulation studies have been performed for the SPS beam scraping system, the protection devices and the dump absorbers of the SPS-to-LHC transfer lines, as well as for the LHC injection protection devices. The first results of these studies are reported, together with the future prospects.Comment: 3 p. Presented at 4th International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC 2013

Effect of molecular and electronic structure on the light harvesting properties of dye sensitizers

The systematic trends in structural and electronic properties of perylene diimide (PDI) derived dye molecules have been investigated by DFT calculations based on projector augmented wave (PAW) method including gradient corrected exchange-correlation effects. TDDFT calculations have been performed to study the visible absorbance activity of these complexes. The effect of different ligands and halogen atoms attached to PDI were studied to characterize the light harvesting properties. The atomic size and electronegativity of the halogen were observed to alter the relaxed molecular geometries which in turn influenced the electronic behavior of the dye molecules. Ground state molecular structure of isolated dye molecules studied in this work depends on both the halogen atom and the carboxylic acid groups. DFT calculations revealed that the carboxylic acid ligands did not play an important role in changing the HOMO-LUMO gap of the sensitizer. However, they serve as anchor between the PDI and substrate titania surface of the solar cell or photocatalyst. A commercially available dye-sensitizer, ruthenium bipyridine (RuBpy), was also studied for electronic and structural properties in order to make a comparison with PDI derivatives for light harvesting properties. Results of this work suggest that fluorinated, chlorinated, brominated, and iyodinated PDI compounds can be useful as sensitizers in solar cells and in artificial photosynthesis.Comment: Single pdf file, 14 pages with 7 figures and 4 table

QiSampler: evaluation of scoring schemes for high-throughput datasets using a repetitive sampling strategy on gold standards

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>High-throughput biological experiments can produce a large amount of data showing little overlap with current knowledge. This may be a problem when evaluating alternative scoring mechanisms for such data according to a gold standard dataset because standard statistical tests may not be appropriate.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>To address this problem we have implemented the QiSampler tool that uses a repetitive sampling strategy to evaluate several scoring schemes or experimental parameters for any type of high-throughput data given a gold standard. We provide two example applications of the tool: selection of the best scoring scheme for a high-throughput protein-protein interaction dataset by comparison to a dataset derived from the literature, and evaluation of functional enrichment in a set of tumour-related differentially expressed genes from a thyroid microarray dataset.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>QiSampler is implemented as an open source R script and a web server, which can be accessed at <url>http://cbdm.mdc-berlin.de/tools/sampler/</url>.</p