An overview and analysis of community bank mergers

With some of the largest mergers in history now taking place in the financial services industry, the fact that consolidation is also occurring among small banking institutions is often overlooked. The factors that are promoting consolidation in the banking industry are also relevant for the smallest banks, namely the need to spread the cost of technological and administrative overhead and the desire to maintain earnings growth. With limited growth opportunities in many rural communities, smaller banks often choose to merge with other nearby rural banks as the means to gain asset size and improve efficiency. ; Using a case study approach that focuses on nineteen rural banks that participated in in-market mergers, this article examines whether smaller community banks that followed this merger strategy realized efficiency gains. The results show that such mergers have usually been successful from both a profitability and a cost efficiency perspective. Further, these gains were typically achieved without closing branch offices. These successes are important to rural bankers as they seek opportunities for consolidation. They are also important from a public policy perspective and should be carefully considered by regulators in their evaluation of small bank mergers.Bank mergers

Defect Chemistry of Novel Transparent Conductors

The combination of optical transparency and metallic-like conductivity in a single material is unusual, such that only a handful of transparent conductors have been discovered in the last century. However, they play a crucial rôle as transparent electrodes in the operation of modern devices such as display screens and solar cells. The increasing ubiquity of opto-electronic technology therefore motivates the continued development and discovery of transparent conductors. This work uses computational methods to investigate the defect chemistry and rationalise the performance of a wide variety of transparent conducting materials. The insights from this project will guide the optimisation of existing technologies through alternative doping strategies, and act as a stepping stone towards the development of new materials for transparent conducting applications. An overview of the electronic structure requirements and some applications of transparent conducting materials are offered in Chapter 1. Next, the computational theory that enables the calculation of electronic structure is presented in Chapter 2, followed by a section on methodology and implementation in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 introduces a selection of post-transition metal oxides (ZnO, In₂O₃, Ga₂O₃ and ZnSb₂O₆) as n-type transparent conductors and investigates doping strategies for achieving metallic-like conductivity. This is followed by Chapter 5, which examines CaCuP and CuI as potential p-type transparent conductors, with a focus on their defect chemistry (specifically the copper vacancy) and charge transport behaviour. Finally, p-type doping strategies are considered in the transparent perovskite BaSnO₃ in Chapter 6, followed by a summary of the results and suggestions of future work in Chapter 7

Computational Prediction of an Antimony-Based n-Type Transparent Conducting Oxide: F-Doped Sb2O5

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) possess a unique combination of optical transparency and electrical conductivity, making them indispensable in optoelectronic applications. However, their heavy dependence on a small number of established materials limits the range of devices that they can support. The discovery and development of additional wide bandgap oxides that can be doped to exhibit metallic-like conductivity are therefore necessary. In this work, we use hybrid density functional theory to identify a binary Sb(V) system, Sb2O5, as a promising TCO with high conductivity and transparency when doped with fluorine. We conducted a full point defect analysis, finding F-doped Sb2O5 to exhibit degenerate n-type transparent conducting behavior. The inherently large electron affinity found in antimony oxides also widens their application in organic solar cells. Following our previous work on zinc antimonate, this work provides additional support for designing Sb(V)-based oxides as cost-effective TCOs for a broader range of applications

An unsteady, accelerated, high order panel method with vortex particle wakes

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-138).Potential flow solvers for three dimensional aerodynamic analysis are commonly used in industrial applications. The limitation on the number of discretization elements and the user expertise and effort required to specify the wake location are two significant drawbacks preventing the even more widespread use of these codes. These drawbacks are addressed by the hands off, accelerated, unsteady, panel method with vortex particle wakes which is described. In the thesis, an unsteady vortex particle representation of the domain vorticity is coupled to several boundary element method potential flow formulations. Source-doublet, doublet-Neumann membrane (doublet lattice), and source-Neumann boundary integral equation formulations are implemented. A precorrected-FFT accelerated Krylov subspace iterative solution technique is implemented to efficiently solve the boundary element method linear system of equations. Similarly, a Fast Multipole Tree algorithm is used to accelerate the vortex particle interactions. Additional simplification of the panel method setup is achieved through the introduction of a body piercing wake discretization for lifting bodies with thickness.(cont.) Linear basis functions on flat panel surface triangulations are implemented in the accelerated potential flow framework. The advantages of linear order basis functions outweigh the increased complexity of the implementation when compared with traditional constant collocation approaches. Panel integration approaches for the curved panel, double layer self term are presented. A quadratic curved panel, quadratic basis function, Green's theorem direct potential flow solver is presented.by David Joe Willis.Ph.D

Resurrecting the interval of need concept to improve dialogue between researchers, policymakers, and social care practitioners

Academics, social care practitioners, and policymakers speak different languages. If academic research is to have an impact on society, it must be understandable and convincing to the end users. We argue that the conceptualisation of social care ‘need’ is different among these stakeholders, leading to poor communication between them. Academics should use concepts that have more meaning to practitioners. We propose resurrecting a little-used concept from the 1970s, ‘interval of need’, to help to bridge this gap. The interval of need concept identifies how often people require help, supplementing the usual data about types of tasks where assistance is needed. The history of the concept is described, followed by a test of its usefulness for today’s researchers by applying it to data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. An updated version of interval of need is proposed. Validation checks were conducted against mortality data, and through conceptual validation from a social work practitioner. The nature of the dataset limited comparability with previous studies. However, we conclude that the interval of need concept has promising scope to enhance communication of research findings, potentially leading to improved outcomes for service users. This paper strives to mark a turning point in the language and analysis of social care, ensuring that academic investigation in this field is convincing and clear to practitioners and policymakers

Therapeutic indices for transchest defibrillator shocks: Effective, damaging, and lethal electrical doses

Although prospective studies of defibrillator shock overdose cannot be performed in man, the therapeutic indices of various defibrillating current waveforms can be measured in animals. We determined the ratios TD50/ED50 and LD50/ ED50 (where TD50 = median toxic or damageinducing dose, ED50 = median effective or defibrillating dose, and LD50 = median lethal dose) as measures of the therapeutic index for damped sine wave defibrillator shocks in dogs. Death of an animal and/or any degree of cardiac damage found by gross or microscopic examination were defined as harmful effects of shock, analogous to drug toxicity. In terms of peak current, the ED50, TD50, and LD50 were 1.1, 5.8, and 24 amperes/ kg; the therapeutic indices were TD50/ED50 = 5 for morphologic damage and LD50/ED50 = 22 for death. In terms of delivered energy the ED50, TD50, and LD50 were 1.5, 30, and 470 joules/kg; the therapeutic indices were TD50/ED50 = 20 for damage and LD50/ED50 = 320 for death. These data indicate a reasonable margin of safety for damped sine wave defibrillator shocks in dogs, and are consistent with reported incidences of suspected shockinduced damage in humans

Limits to Hole Mobility and Doping in Copper Iodide

Over one hundred years have passed since the discovery of the p-type transparent conducting material copper iodide, predating the concept of the “electron−hole” itself. Supercentenarian status notwithstanding, little is understood about the charge transport mechanisms in CuI. Herein, a variety of modeling techniques are used to investigate the charge transport properties of CuI, and limitations to the hole mobility over experimentally achievable carrier concentrations are discussed. Poor dielectric response is responsible for extensive scattering from ionized impurities at degenerately doped carrier concentrations, while phonon scattering is found to dominate at lower carrier concentrations. A phonon-limited hole mobility of 162 cm2 V−1 s−1 is predicted at room temperature. The simulated charge transport properties for CuI are compared to existing experimental data, and the implications for future device performance are discussed. In addition to charge transport calculations, the defect chemistry of CuI is investigated with hybrid functionals, revealing that reasonably localized holes from the copper vacancy are the predominant source of charge carriers. The chalcogens S and Se are investigated as extrinsic dopants, where it is found that despite relatively low defect formation energies, they are unlikely to act as efficient electron acceptors due to the strong localization of holes and subsequent deep transition levels