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The article aims at substantiating the theoretical and methodological foundations of research in bank consolidation and assessing its consequences in order to identify the relationship between consolidation and the banking market structure. The main preconditions and priorities of consolidation are systematized and generalized, taking into account the theory of financial integration and synergetic interaction. This approach will contribute to deeper understanding of the motives and trends of consolidation in modern conditions. It is noted that the transnationalization and concentration of capital form the basis for market consolidation, which goes through a certain life cycle, the latter being specified by the authors. It is concluded that the universal, integrated nature of financial business and the formation of financial business ecosystems is becoming more widespread. The main changes in financial mediation are identified. Statistics of banking concentration in Ukraine is given. The dynamics of concentration ratio for the period from January 1, 2000 to August 1, 2020 was analyzed, revealing that the market is moderately concentrated. It is stipulated that the higher the combined share of the five major banks in the banking sector, the less likely a domestic merger and acquisition is. Accordingly, the domestic banking market, compared to European ones, has significant potential. It is concluded that the high values of profitability indicators speak of excess demand over supply in the banking market; thus, competitive intensity under such conditions is minimal, even with the withdrawal of most banks from the market. Thus, competition is only declared. In the future, we should expect increased non-interest rate competition. It is noted that competitive intensity depends on the concentration, dynamics and profitability of the banking market. Competition assessment, carried out using non-structural measures, H-statistics, Boone indicators and Lerner index, showed that, since the an individual bank does not build up its range of activity through consolidation, or by redistributing its market share among participants, but due to the growing demand for banking services, and remote services in particular, competition is actually reduced. The research confirmed that the processes of concentration, consolidation and competition are interconnected, and this connection should be identified to better understand the formation of the banks’ functional strategy and their choice of the business model.

The grazing X-ray diffraction study of phase-II NbS3 whiskers with charge density waves has shown that they exhibit pairs of broadened reflections from two close phases with the monoclinic angles β1 and β2 instead of single peaks. The phase with the smaller monoclinic angle β1 = 95.9°–97.2° is close in lattice parameters to phase I without charge density waves. Phase II with β2 = 99.9°–100.0° has a reduced b lattice parameter along the strongest bond, which implies an increased concentration of sulfur vacancies in this phase compared to phase I. It has been concluded that the studied whiskers have underwent a spinodal decomposition with the redistribution of sulfur vacancies resulting in the alternation of phases in the (001) direction perpendicular to the layers. A satellite structure indicating the formation of a superlattice with a period of 35.2 nm in this direction is observed in the most structurally perfect whisker of phase II. The spinodal decomposition is combined with high internal stresses present in whiskers with a monoclinic lattice. The partial spinodal decomposition is also observed in some phase-I whiskers without charge density waves with the appearance of thin layers of phase IV and phase II with the monoclinic angle β = 104°. The existence of thin layers of phase II in the bulk of phase I in such samples exposed to a high-frequency voltage has been confirmed by the presence of Shapiro steps on current–voltage characteristics. Spinodal decomposition should be taken into account to describe the properties of NbS3 whiskers nominally belonging to a certain polytype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partial widths and double- and single-differential distributions are calculated on the framework of the Standard Model for the four-lepton decays , where = and . The contribution of virtual-photon emission by a light quark and a heavy quark, the bremsstrahlung contribution from charged leptons in the final state, the weak-annihilation contribution, and the contribution of wide vector resonances are taken into account. The contribution of narrow and resonances is excluded. Virtual-photon emission by the light quark of a meson is described on the framework of the vector-meson-dominance model, within which only the contributions of the lightest vector mesons containing pairs are taken into account. For the meson, this is the resonance. For the meson, the contributions of the and resonances are taken into account. Two possibilities are considered in the present study. The first is that where the contributions of the narrow and mesons are excluded from the partial widths with respect to the corresponding decays. The second is that where the contributions of narrow resonances are taken into account in partial widths. The problem of the influence of the subtraction procedure on the partial widths with respect to the decays is studied individually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] High energetic compounds of pentanitroisowurtzitane series containing various polynitropyrazolyl substituents attached to the frame through a methylene linker were synthesized in two steps from the corresponding NH precursors and paraformaldehyde. The structures of the compounds obtained were characterized by spectral methods, and their energy characteristics were estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]