Decline in corporate lending in Hungary and across the Central and East European region during the crisis

Escalation of the global financial crisis in autumn 2008 ended the economic boom in the Central and East European region, which had been financed by external funds and accompanied by dynamic expansion in credit. During the recession, corporate loan portfolios started to decline in nearly all countries in the region. The question arises as to what role banks played in this process: by restraining their credit supply, did they contribute to the deepening of the economic recession and to a slower-thannecessary recovery, or has the contraction in corporate lending resulted from shrinking corporate credit demand caused by the recession? The question is of particular relevance to Hungary, which recorded the steepest decline in corporate lending in the region. In this article, we look at 9 countries1 in Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic States to provide a comparative presentation of developments in corporate lending and interest rates across the region and explore the reasons behind the differences observed. Available information appears to support the assumption that in Hungary – as well as in the Baltic States – the tightening of credit supply may have contributed more to the decline in corporate lending than in other countries of the region. This can be attributed primarily to Hungary’s reliance on external funds and vulnerability. At the same time, these results should be interpreted with the utmost caution for a variety of reasons. On the one hand, caution is called for because of the weakness of the analytical framework applied, as well as due to the limited reliability of the underlying data. On the other hand, the CEE region is far from homogeneous: the economic structure and development path of individual countries reveal more differences than similarities, rendering the comparison of certain aspects of the developments rather difficult.corporate lending, banking, CEE region, lending surveys, credit conditions, parent banks, corporate loan demand

A comparative study on the privacy risks of face recognition libraries

The rapid development of machine learning and the decreasing costs of computational resources has led to a widespread usage of face recognition. While this technology offers numerous benefits, it also poses new risks. We consider risks related to the processing of face embeddings, which are floating point vectors representing the human face in an identifying way. Previously, we showed that even simple machine learning models are capable of inferring demographic attributes from embeddings, leading to the possibility of re-identification attacks. This paper examines three popular Python libraries for face recognition, comparing their face detection performance and inspecting how much risk each library's embeddings pose regarding the aforementioned data leakage. Our experiments were conducted on a balanced face image dataset of different sexes and races, allowing us to discover biases in our results

gg-factor anisotropy in nanowire-based InAs quantum dots

The determination and control of the electron $g$-factor in semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are fundamental prerequisites in modern concepts of spintronics and spin-based quantum computation. We study the dependence of the $g$-factor on the orientation of an external magnetic field in quantum dots (QDs) formed between two metallic contacts on stacking fault free InAs nanowires. We extract the $g$-factor from the splitting of Kondo resonances and find that it varies continuously in the range between $|g^*| = 5$ and 15.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figure

Kinetics and mechanism of the adsorption of methylene blue from aqueous solution on the surface of a quartz cuvette by on-line UV-Vis spectrophotometry

It is often challenging to follow fast surface adsorption processes with sufficient time resolution. Here we report a convenient UV-Vis spectrophotometry based method to study the fast kinetics of an archetypical surface process: the adsorption of MB on quartz. The test object was a commercial quartz cuvette. About 3.3% of the dye was adsorbed from a 34 μM solution at pH 7 in 10 min. Biphasic kinetics was observed for the depletion of MB under continuous stirring at 1000 rpm. A kinetic model was postulated for the interpretation of time resolved spectral changes. This model assumes the reversible adsorption of MB on the surface which is followed by the isomerization of the binding mode. The overall process is kinetically first order with respect to MB, thus dimer formation, which was previously proposed to be favored on quartz, can be ruled out. The experimental adsorption isotherm is consistent with the formation of an adsorption monolayer from single molecules. The UV-vis absorbance spectrum of adsorbed MB does not show any blue shift. With the simplest experimental setup, it is shown that the dimerization of MB is not exceptionally favored on quartz surface

Thébai temetők = Theban Necropolis

TT 65 Projekt: TT 65: A sír díszítetlen, „lejtős folyosójának” és sírkamrájának feltárása. A falfestmények restaurátori munkálatainak megkezdése, ill. epigráfiai dokumentációjuk folytatása. Shaft ‘4’: Az újonnan felfedezett aknasír feltárása, a leletek közül a komoly tudományos értékkel bíró textilleletek konzerválása kezdődött meg. Saff 1: Az eddigi kutatás számára ismeretlen új szaff-sír és egy a 20. század eleje óta feledésbemerült sír (’Mond-tomb’) feltárásainak megkezdése. TT 184 Projekt: Feltárás a Khokha domb déli lejtőjének felső szakaszában – a TT 184, 185, 204, 205, „206”, 412, 413, (Kampp) -41-, -42-, -43- sírok kutatása, feltárása. Újonnan felfedezett sírok és díszített építmények feltárása, részleges helyreállítása: Saff-1 (Középbirodalom), festett vályogtégla-szentély (18. dinasztia). A TT 184 és TT 185 (Szeni-iqer, Óbirodalom) előudvarai fölötti modern ház elbontása, az előudvarok feltárása, a temető legrégebbi, óbirodalmi sírjainak kontextus-elemzése. TT -400- Projekt: TT -61-: 2008-ban az összes diagnosztikus leletről rajz- és fotódokumentáció készült. Az anyag publikációra való előkészítése folyamatban van. TT 32: Kiegészítő ásatás a sír előudvarának keleti oldala mentén. TT -64-: A sírakna ásatásának befejezése 2009-ben. TT 179: A sír faliképeinek fotó- és epigráfiai dokumentációja 2010-ben megkezdődött. TT -400-: A sír előudvarának, kultuszkápolnáinak, és „lejtős folyosójának” feltárása. A keresztterem faliképeinek epigráfiai dokumentációja elkészült. | TT 65 Project: TT 65: Excavation of the sloping passage and burial chamber. Commencing conservation work on the wall-paintings, while continuing their epigraphic documentation. Shaft ‘4’: Excavation of the newly discovered shaft tomb. Ongoing conservation of the textile finds. Saff 1: Initiating excavation in the forecourts of the newly found tomb and that of an adjoining tomb rediscovered since its loss since the early 20th cent (’Mond-tomb’). TT 184 Project: Research and excavation of TT 184, 185, 204, 205, „206”, 412, 413, (Kampp) -41-, -42-, -43-. Further monuments exposed, excavated and partly reconstructed: Saff-1 (Middle Kingdom); painted mud brick mortuary chapel. The modern building above the forecourts of TT 184 and TT 185 (Seny-iqer, Old Kingdom) was pulled down and the debris cleared away. Excavation of the forecourts and the latter monument with the context analysis of the Old Kingdom monuments of the necropolis. TT -400- Project: TT -61-: In 2008 all diagnostic finds were documented, drawn and photographed. The publication is under preparation. TT 32: A small-scale clearing was launched east of the forecourt of TT 32. TT -64-: The excavation of its burial shaft was completed in 2009. TT 179: The photographic and epigraphic documentation of the murals began in 2010. TT -400-: The forecourt, cult chapels, and the sloping passage of TT -400- were excavated. The epigraphic documentation of the murals in the transverse hall has also been completed

Reaction Schemes that are Easily Confused with a Reversible First Order Reaction

A detailed kinetic analysis of two schemes, one involving coupled consecutive processes and another featuring the simultaneous association reaction and decay of a component, is presented here using Taylor series expansion. It is shown that both of these schemes are easily confused with the reversible second–order reaction in a routine kinetic study. The kinetic traces predicted by both schemes are sufficiently close to pseudo–first–order curves so that it is practically impossible to identify the deviations based on data with the usual experimental errors, which was also demonstrated by fitting simulated theoretical curves to exponential functions. The dependence of the pseudo–first–order rate constants on the concentration of the excess reagent features the same trend as in the case of a reversible reaction: A straight line with an intercept is observed. This analysis emphasizes that the reversible nature of reactions should be demonstrated by direct equilibrium studies when elements of reversibility are implied by kinetic results