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The creation of an open financial data ecosystem is a new frontier to be explored within a financial services industry characterized by the presence of new players, along with traditional financial intermediaries. Spurred by datafication and digitisation, open finance is considered an extension of the open banking foundation launched in Europe through targeted regulation. The open finance journey is just beginning. By taking stock of the open banking experience across jurisdictions, this article examines the future shift from open banking to open finance. Selected critical issues within the open banking context give valuable indications for the development of open finance. Open finance, datafication, digitisation, open banking, APIs, PSD2, Consumer Data Right, reciprocity, consumer education

SUMMARY Over the past decade, a series of malpractice incidents in the financial services industry have shown that the risk of misconduct is not a theoretical possibility. Accordingly, the promotion and implementation of new ethics, values, and behaviours in banks and other financial institutions are primary objectives on the international regulatory agenda. Recent cases of mis-selling of financial products widened the scope of discussion towards financial firms’ sales practices. In particular, the widespread use of cross-selling techniques in the financial services industry caught regulatory attention, above all, among the European Supervisory Authorities. The ensuing debate was underpinned by the crucial question of how to guarantee a sustainable use of cross-selling by banks and financial institutions. This article addresses this question by analysing cross-selling in relation to the specificities and risks posed by the financial services industry. Whilst it was possible to elaborate on regulatory solutions in relation to a distorted use of financial practices, such as securitization and interest rate benchmarks, now it is also desirable to discuss the optimal strategy to prevent cross-selling from being the ‘tool’ for financial misconduct. This is of significance given the recognized potential of misconduct cases to pose systemic threats to financial stability.

Mechanical properties of fibres reinforced composite materials depend on the type of fibres used, their percentage as well as their arrangement and orientation. As computer technology continues to improve, high-resolution computed tomography has proven to be an ideal instrument to analyse the structure of this kind of materials. In this context, various approaches have been proposed to detect the fibre orientation distribution and the relative degree of anisotropy of these composite materials. Some of these approaches are based on ‘individual’ measurements that isolate and reconstruct each single fibre and measure its properties. On the other hand, other approaches capture the characteristics of the fibre distribution by means of ‘global’ measurements computed on the entire set of tomographic data. The first methods are more precise but also more complex because they demand a procedure able to segment and separate each single fibre in the polymer, whereas the latter are easier to implement and can be applied even if fibre segmentation and separation is not effective or practicable. In this paper, a global method based on the technique called volume orientation – originally proposed several years ago to study the anisotropy of bone structures – is applied to fibre reinforced composite materials. This new approach does not require data acquired at very high resolution nor very complex procedures for individual segmentation of the fibres, but only binarised data through common thresholding procedures. The effectiveness of the proposed new approach is demonstrated by comparing it to the results obtained from a method based on individual measurements: when resolution and images quality are good enough, the volume orientation method gives results quite similar to the other approach. The analysis of three different case studies demonstrates its flexibility and its validity as an alternative to methods based on the separation of individual fibres, which are not always usable. The samples have been carefully selected in order to range between different attenuation contrast levels and also include a specimen subjected to mechanical testing which can be of great practical interest. Lay Description: Mechanical properties of fibres reinforced composite materials depend on the type of fibres used, their percentage as well as their arrangement and orientation. Today, both destructive and nondestructive techniques can be used in order to assess the fibre orientation. As computer technology continues to improve, high-resolution computed tomography has proven to be an ideal instrument to analyse the structure of this kind of materials, and then the fibre orientation distribution inside the material. In this context, various strategies have been proposed. Some of them require measurements that isolate and reconstruct each single fibre and measure its properties. On the other hand, other approaches capture the characteristics of the fibre distribution by means of ‘global’ measurements computed on the entire set of tomographic data. The first methods are more precise but also more complex because they demand a procedure able to detect and separate each single fibre in the polymer, whereas the latter are easier to implement and can be applied even if fibre segmentation and separation is not effective or practicable. In this paper, a global method based on the technique called volume orientation – originally proposed several years ago to study the microstructure of bone tissues – is applied to fibre reinforced composite materials. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that this new approach is easier to use. As a matter of fact, it does not require data acquired at very high resolution nor very complex procedures for individual segmentation of the fibres, but only binarised data through common thresholding procedures. The effectiveness of the proposed new approach is shown by comparing it to the results obtained from a method based on individual measurements: when spatial resolution and images quality are good enough, the volume orientation method gives results quite similar to the other already used approach. The analysis of three different case studies demonstrates its flexibility and its validity as an alternative to methods based on the separation of individual fibres, which are not always usable. The samples have been carefully selected in order to range between different attenuation contrast levels and different nature of the fibres (mineral, vegetable or synthetic). A specimen subjected to mechanical testing is also included, because of its great practical interest.

Top marine predators are key components of marine food webs. Among them, long-distance migratory seabirds, which travel across different marine ecosystems over the year, may experience important year-round changes in terms of oceanographic conditions and availability of trophic resources. We tested whether this was the case in the Scopoli’s shearwater (Calonectris diomedea), a trans-equatorial migrant and top predator, by sampling birds breeding in three environmentally different regions of the Mediterranean Sea. The analysis of positional data and stable isotopes (δ13 C and δ15N) of target feathers revealed that birds from the three regions were spatially segregated during the breeding period while they shared non-breeding areas in the Atlantic Ocean. Isotopic baseline levels of N and C (meso-zooplankton) were significantly different among marine regions during breeding. Such variation was reflected at the higher trophic levels of pelagic and demersal fish muscles as well as in shearwater feathers grown in the Mediterranean. δ15N- and δ13C-adjusted values of shearwaters were significantly different among populations suggesting that birds from different breeding areas relied on prey species from different trophic levels. Conversely, the non-breeding spatial and isotopic niches overlapped greatly among the three populations. Shearwater trophic niches during breeding were narrower and segregated compared to the non-breeding period, revealing a high plasticity in trophic resource use. Overall, this study highlights seasonal and region-specific use of trophic resources by Scopoli’s shearwater, suggesting a broad trophic plasticity and possibly a high adaptability to environmental changes. Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCT info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

In many applications, polymeric foams (such as expanded polystyrene or expanded polypropylene) are used for protection from impacts. Standard design requires the foam to maximize the energy absorption, thus achieving large deformations (typically up to 25% and above in compression) while maintaining the stress level below a threshold value. In this work, steam chest-moulded EPS and EPP were characterized in relation to their density, microstructure and applied strain rate. Typical mechanical parameters (elastic moduli and plateau stress in compression) were compared with existing models and data in the literature. The strain-rate dependence was accurately described using Nagy’s phenomenological model. The mechanical behaviour of the foams was then correlated with their microstructure, as investigated using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray micro-tomography. Structural parameters were obtained using both (2D and 3D) techniques and relevant results were compared. © The Author(s) 2018.

The anisotropy of a short fiber reinforced composite produced by injection molding of basalt fibers and polypropylene matrix has been studied by X-ray microtomography (or micro-CT). Fiber orientation was analyzed using four stereological methods: Mean Intercept Length (MIL), Volume Orientation (VO), Star Volume Distribution (SVD) and Star Length Distribution (SLD). The fabric tensor obtained from micro-CT analysis provided information on the fiber orientation, indicating that fibers were partially aligned in the injection direction.

Structural anisotropy of two-phase materials can be evaluated through global measurements, as volume orientation or mean-intercept length methods do, or through statistics performed on a set of individual measurements. This last procedure is encouraged by recent improvements in the spatial resolution of conventional X-ray tomography. In this paper, the above-described approaches were compared in three case studies: a foam subjected to an in situ compression test, a second foam with a completely different cell morphology and a plastic material reinforced with short fibres. The approach based on the subdivision into distinguishable objects of the considered material phase has proved to be more sensitive in highlighting small deformations in the structure or small irregularities in an otherwise isotropic structure. On the other hand, the other approach is more general and is always usable. The two methods for calculating the fabric tensor tend to converge as the average anisotropy of individual objects in the statistical population increases. The use of Lambert's cylindrical equal-area projection of cell/fibre directions or local volume orientations is suggested, because the density of points is preserved from the sphere to the plane surface. Finally, a quick vector method to evaluate the anisotropy of the directions distribution has been presented, by defining a coherence index of the average direction.

This study is aimed at investigating the structure of a scaffold made of bovine gelatin and hydroxyapatite for bone tissue engineering purposes. In particular, the detailed characterization of such a material has a great relevance because of its application in the healing process of the osteochondral defect that consists of a damage of cartilage and injury of the adjacent subchondral bone, significantly compromising millions of patient's quality of life. Two different techniques exploiting X-ray radiation, with table-top setups, are used: microtomography (micro-CT) and microdiffraction. Micro-CT characterizes the microstructure in the three dimensions at the micrometer scale spatial resolution, whereas microdiffraction provides combined structural/morphological information at the atomic and nanoscale, in two dimensional microscopy images with a hundred micrometer spatial resolution. The combination of these two techniques allowed an appropriate structural characterization for the purpose of validating the engineering approach used for the realization of the hydroxyapatite gradient across the scaffold, with properties close to the natural model. © 2016 American Chemical Society.