Greek banks in the Balkan countries: conclusion derived from analysis of their balance sheets

During the 1990s the Greek economy has flourished, with the help of the banking system, which, at the same period, has undergone considerable deregulation. The stock market “explosion” at the end of the decade has provided the necessary funds for the expansion of many Greek Banks in various countries and particularly those of the Balkan area. Some Greek companies had already expanded their business activities in these countries, which at the time were in the process of transition to the market economy, thus giving to the Greek Banks the incentive to follow their clientele. The expansion of Greek banks in the Balkans was such that they obtained significant market shares in some of the area’s countries. In the current paper we make an effort to examine the feasibility of the expansion of Greek banks in these countries, focusing especially on their financial efficiency. To that end the Balance Sheets of the parent banks, as well as those of their Balkan subsidiaries and associate companies where they held an equity share were studied and analyzed. Our main conclusion is that the activities of the Geek banks in the area were successful and had positive effects to their profitability and they reinforced their overall financial state.Banking System, balance sheets, financial analysis, profitability, efficiency, Balkan area.

Application of an Upwind integration method to plane parallel Hall-MHD

Aims: We study the impact of an Upwind scheme on the numerical convergence of simulations of the Hall and Ohmic effect in neutron stars crusts. While simulations of these effects have explored a variety of geometries and wide ranges of physical parameters, they are limited to relatively low values of the Hall parameter, playing the role of the magnetic Reynolds number, which should be not exceed a few hundred for numerical convergence. Methods: We study the evolution of the magnetic field in a plane-parallel Cartesian geometry. We discretise the induction equation using a finite difference scheme and then integrate it via the Euler forward method. Two different approaches are used for the integration of the advective terms appearing in the equation: a Forward Time and Central in Space (FTCS) and an Upwind scheme. We compare them in terms of accuracy and performance. We explore the impact of the Upwind method on convergence according to the ratio of planar to vertical field and the Hall parameter. Results: In the limit of a low strength planar field the use of an Upwind scheme provides a vast improvement leading to the convergence of simulations where the Hall parameter is 2 orders of magnitude higher than that of the FTCS. Upwind is still better if the planar field is stronger, yet, the difference of the maximum value of the Hall parameter reached is within a factor of 10 or a few. Moreover, we notice if the schemes diverge their behaviour is very different, with FTCS producing infinite energy, while the Upwind scheme only temporarily increasing the overall magnetic field energy. Conclusions: Overall, the Upwind scheme enhances the efficiency of the simulations allowing the exploration of environments with higher value of electric conductivity getting us closer than before to realistic environmental conditions of magnetars.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Effects of partial ionization on magnetic flux emergence in the Sun

We have performed 3-D numerical simulations to investigate the effect of partial ionization on the process of magnetic flux emergence. In our study, we have modified the single-fluid MHD equations to include the presence of neutrals and have performed two basic experiments: one that assumes a fully ionized plasma (FI case) and one that assumes a partially ionized plasma (PI case). We find that the PI case brings less dense plasma to and above the solar surface. Furthermore, we find that partial ionization alters the emerging magnetic field structure, leading to a different shape of the polarities in the emerged bipolar regions compared to the FI case. The amount of emerging flux into the solar atmosphere is larger in the PI case, which has the same initial plasma beta as the FI case, but a larger initial magnetic field strength. The expansion of the field above the photosphere occurs relatively earlier in the PI case, and we confirm that the inclusion of partial ionization reduces cooling due to adiabatic expansion. However, it does not appear to work as a heating mechanism for the atmospheric plasma. The performance of these experiments in three dimensions shows that PI does not prevent the formation of unstable magnetic structures, which erupt into the outer solar atmosphere

Smart Road Lighting Management System for Reduction of Energy Footprint

Energy consumption is a major problem nowadays, especially when it comes in mass scale. Cities and larger inhabited areas have to pay huge amounts of money for electricity bills. Municipality of Aspropyrgos in Greece, is one of them due to its old technology and low energy class. Its annual power consumption only for road lighting, is almost 5 million KWh and the average cost of electricity and maintenance is almost 800 thousand euros. This situation also has great environmental impact since the production of power for street lighting emits 3.3 million kg of CO2. That quantity demands almost 170 thousand trees, in order to be absorbed. For that reason, two layout scenarios are proposed, in order to provide lower power consumption and better management. The first includes the replacement of light bulbs with corresponding LEDs and the second includes smart management systems. The results of this research, clearly indicate, that there are high potentials in energy saving along with environmental and financial benefits