The Benefits of Privatizing Banks to Strategic Foreign Investors: A Survey of Central and Eastern Europe

The last decade witnessed the biggest privatization initiative so far that transitioned the markets of Central and Eastern Europe from centrally planned to competitive and western oriented. As a result, an increasing share of the banking sector in many of the transitional states is controlled by foreign capital. This study examines the effect of privatizing banks to foreign owners as opposed to domestic owners on bank performance. Using the ratio approach and the stochastic frontier approach, the paper concludes that although the effects of new ownership are not very pronounced due to the recent nature of the transition, banks privatized to foreign owners outperform these sold to domestic owners across all measures: profitability level, portfolio quality and managerial efficiency

Guidelines for assessing favourable conservation status of Natura 2000 species and habitat types in Bulgaria

This executive summary describes the methodology for assessing the favourable conservation status of N2000 habitats and species on site level in Bulgaria and gives guidelines for its application. The methodology was developed in the frame of the BBI/Matra project 2006/014 “Favourable Conservation Status of Natura 2000 Habitat types and Species in Bulgaria”. The project was generously supported by the Dutch government under the BBI/Matra programme, which is a combination of two international policy programs of the Dutch government. The objectives and financial resources of the BBI/Matra Programme fall within the remit of the Matra Social Transformation Program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and under the International Policy Program on Biodiversity of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality

Optimized production of large Bose Einstein Condensates

We suggest different simple schemes to efficiently load and evaporate a ''dimple'' crossed dipolar trap. The collisional processes between atoms which are trapped in a reservoir load in a non adiabatic way the dimple. The reservoir trap can be provided either by a dark SPOT Magneto Optical Trap, the (aberrated) laser beam itself or by a quadrupolar or quadratic magnetic trap. Optimal parameters for the dimple are derived from thermodynamical equations and from loading time, including possible inelastic and Majorana losses. We suggest to load at relatively high temperature a tight optical trap. Simple evaporative cooling equations, taking into account gravity, the possible occurrence of hydrodynamical regime, Feshbach resonance processes and three body recombination events are given. To have an efficient evaporation the elastic collisional rate (in s$^{-1}$) is found to be on the order of the trapping frequency and lower than one hundred times the temperature in micro-Kelvin. Bose Einstein condensates with more than $10^7$ atoms should be obtained in much less than one second starting from an usual MOT setup.Comment: 14 page

Prediction of sanding in subsurface hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Sand production in oil and gas wells can occur if the fluid velocity exceeds a certain value. Due to drilling operations, the mechanical stresses can exceed the load bearing capacity of the rock. As the local stresses exceed certain level, a certain amount of rock is fractured into sand. Then, the sand is carried by the fluid through the wellbore depending on the flow rate. The amount of the solids can be less than a few grams per cubic meter of reservoir fluid or an essential amount. In the later case erosion of the rock and removing sufficient quantities of rock can occur. This can produce subsurface cavities which collapse and destroy the well. When sanding is unavoidable it is necessary to estimate the characteristics of the process. Our aim was to generate a simple one-dimensional local model, which predicts the volume of sanding, the radius and the porosity of the yielded zone. Such model will help the company in the development of complex 3D models

ANTIMICROBIAL EVALUATION OF SOME HYDRAZONE DERIVATIVES

Hydrazone derivatives represent one of the most active classes of compounds possessing a broad spectrum of biological activity. The use of the hydrazones is due to their anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antidepressant, antitumoral, analgesic, antiplatelet, anticonvulsant, antischistosomiasis and antiviral activity. Due to their physiological activity, they are also used in agriculture as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and plant growth regulators. Furthermore, hydrazone derivatives possessing an azomethine proton (-NH-N=CH-) constitute a significant class of compounds for new drug development in order to synthesize effective agents against microbial activity. Considering these applications some psubstituted aromatic hydrazones were previously synthesized and characterized. In this study a series of aromatic hydrazones were evaluated for their in vitro growth and inhibitory activity against Bacillus subtilis, Aspergillus niger and Candida utilis, using filter paper disc method. Stock solutions of compounds were prepared in DMSO, as inert medium in three different concentration levels: 1, 5 and 10 mg/mL. A control disc using DMSO without any test compound was included and there was no inhibitory activity in those disks. The diameter of zone of inhibition (mm) was measured. Every test was done in triplicate to confirm the findings. The screening results indicate that not all investigated compounds exhibited antimicrobial activities. It can be noted that compounds with N-p-methoxy substitute group showed the greatest inhibitory effect against Bacillus subtilis (max zone of inhibition of 14.3 mm) and Candida utilis (max zone of inhibition of 16 mm). All investigated hydrazones showed no inhibitory effects against Aspergillus niger

Greenhouse gas balance over thaw-freeze cycles in discontinuous zone permafrost

Peat in the discontinuous permafrost zone contains a globally significant reservoir of carbon that has undergone multiple permafrost-thaw cycles since the end of the mid-Holocene (~3700 years before present). Periods of thaw increase C decomposition rates which leads to the release of CO2 and CH4 to the atmosphere creating potential climate feedback. To determine the magnitude and direction of such feedback, we measured CO2 and CH4 emissions and modeled C accumulation rates and radiative fluxes from measurements of two radioactive tracers with differing lifetimes to describe the C balance of the peatland over multiple permafrost-thaw cycles since the initiation of permafrost at the site. At thaw features, the balance between increased primary production and higher CH4 emission stimulated by warmer temperatures and wetter conditions favors C sequestration and enhanced peat accumulation. Flux measurements suggest that frozen plateaus may intermittently (order of years to decades) act as CO2 sources depending on temperature and net ecosystem respiration rates, but modeling results suggest that—despite brief periods of net C loss to the atmosphere at the initiation of thaw—integrated over millennia, these sites have acted as net C sinks via peat accumulation. In greenhouse gas terms, the transition from frozen permafrost to thawed wetland is accompanied by increasing CO2 uptake that is partially offset by increasing CH4 emissions. In the short-term (decadal time scale) the net effect of this transition is likely enhanced warming via increased radiative C emissions, while in the long-term (centuries) net C deposition provides a negative feedback to climate warming

Preparation of ZnO nanowires by electrochemical deposition

AbstractThis work reports the results from the synthesis of nanostructured ZnO thin films via electrochemical deposition on glass substrates coated with F doped SnO2. The influence of the deposition parameters on the properties of the obtained ZnO films was studied. The Raman spectra of the ZnO films contain the typical for ZnO vibrational bands. The scanning electron microscope micrographs demonstrate that the films consist of ZnO nanowires. Growing of ZnO in the conditions with addition of H2O2 in lower concentration and without flowing air results in larger grain formation. The ZnO layers demonstrate high diffuse reflection