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Operational risk assessment has received considerable attention in bank risk management. However, current assessment methods are primarily designed to assess the risk profile of individual banks. To enable cross-bank operational risk assessment, we propose an integrated AHP-DEA (analytic hierarchy process–data envelopment analysis) method. This method determines the importance of assessment criteria by calculating the weighted sum of rank votes after obtaining the importance values for specific rankings with DEA. This procedure replaces the pairwise comparisons in AHP and addresses the challenge of traditional AHPs in determining appropriate importance values when dealing with a large number of indicators. We applied this method to assess the operational risks of three Chinese commercial banks, and the empirical results indicate that this integrated AHP-DEA method is simple and user-friendly, making it suitable for cross-bank operational risk assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Before implementation of the radio frequency identification (RFID) system, there was a high loss rate of 4.0%–4.3% of red blood cell (RBC) units every year expiring on the shelf in our transfusion service laboratory. We introduced RFID technology to improve inventory management and the burden of work on the staff. The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of RFID technology on the inventory management of RBC units and the staff workload in a transfusion service laboratory. Study Design and Methods: Using an RFID system involves encoding RBC units with an RFID tag capturing information such as donor identification number, product code, blood type, expiration date, product volume, and negative antigen(s). Tag information is collected through retrofitted storage shelves linked to the RFID server. The study analyzed RBC usage by unit and by volume (mL) and staff work effort to carry out inventory management tasks before and after the implementation of the RFID system. Results: Implementation of the RFID technology reduced the loss, or discard, of RBC units to less than 1% annually (a statistically significant change, p <.001). The RFID computer dashboard provides a constant visual update of the inventory, allowing technologists to have accurate product counts and reducing their work burden. Discussion: Implementation of RFID technology substantially reduced RBC product loss, improved inventory management, and lessened staff work burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In developing countries, banks have been looking out for new ways to improve their performance using digital transformation. This research bases itself on critical methodology, in which, a Data Analytics Lifecycle based on the Design Thinking concept (DAL-DT) has been used to support management control systems, and propose ways to optimise employee incentives, capital budgeting, workforce planning systems, in the context of a commercial bank in Vietnam. In addition, our study also examines the organisational actors engaged in the application of DT initiatives through the social practice theoretical lens of Bourdieu, regarding habitus, capitals, and fields. The results reveal that although DAL-DT, in principle, provides effective strategic plans along with a cohesive corporate culture that supports the implementation of DT initiatives, there are some constraints to this innovative reform. For instance, the top management of commercial banks in developing nations seem to display a lack of willingness and misunderstanding of the concept of DT, add to that the lack of suitable resources coupled with over-expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to examine on the ways in which a company's sustainability reporting (SR) differs depending on the types of ownership it has, notably director ownership (DO), institutional ownership (IO), and foreign ownership (FO). This paper uses a sample of 145 firm-year observations from 29 listed banks in the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) of Bangladesh from 2016 to 2020 and regression analysis to test the relationship between different ownership structures and SR. The study also employed the generalized method of moments (GMM) to deal with the endogeneity issue. The findings show that investors have varying perspectives on SR disclosure activity. The findings show that two stockholding patterns, DO and FO, significantly impact SR disclosure in Bangladesh but that there is no significant association between IO and SR disclosure. In constructing SR, this paper depends on only the quantity of disclosure, not the quality, and is solely based on the published annual report. The study findings also provide a comprehensive overview of the SR practice of Bangladeshi banks, which may be helpful to regulators, policymakers, management, creditors, and other stakeholders in making investment and economic decisions. To encourage SR commitment, the government may need to keep an eye on the ownership structure and implement policies that encourage foreign investment. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to look at how ownership structure influence SR practices in the banking industry of Bangladesh over five years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of various factors on the level of non-performing loans (NPL) and, to determine the moderating role of efficiency on the relationship between different factors and NPL in China. The current study addressed four important factors to examine the role in relation to the NPL. These factors include; return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), economic sustainability and political instability index. Furthermore, the moderating role of efficiency is addressed between these factors and NPL. Secondary data is used in this study to consider the empirical results. Secondary data related to ROA, ROE, economic sustainability and political instability index is collected from different sources. Consistent with the literature, we found significant effect of ROA, ROE, economic sustainability and political instability index on NPL. Banking sector of China is majorly influenced by these factors due to the effect on NPLs. Furthermore, the efficiency has contribution to the NPLs as moderating variable. Results of this study are helpful for the management of banking industry to resolve various issues related to NPLs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) represents a radically new way to manage databases. Since money and payments are all about managing databases and since banks play a central role in money and payments, DAO-based money and payments systems are potentially a disruptive force in the banking system--which includes central banks. One would normally expect regulatory frameworks to evolve with a changing technological landscape. However, the decentralized governance structure characteristic of DAOs renders it near impossible to regulate these entities directly--a property that makes them ideal vehicles to exploit regulatory arbitrage. In this article, I discuss some of the monetary policy implications of DAO-based money and payment systems. I highlight the prospect of a globally accessible DAO-based stablecoin that may conceivably end up financing a large fraction of global trade. To the extent that such a structure imposes systemic financial risk and to the extent it cannot be regulated directly, an alternative strategy is to offer a competing product. A central bank digital currency accessible to firms involved in the global supply chain may be one way to mitigate the systemic risk associated with an emergent, unregulated global stablecoin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the theoretical and methodological aspects of managing the loan portfolio and credit risks of a commercial bank in the context of the need to stimulate investment processes in the economy. The article considers the essential characteristics of the loan portfolio of a commercial bank and allocates its key features with clarification of their economic content in terms of the qualitative aspect of formation and management of the pool of credit assets. The study examines current approaches to assessing the credit portfolio of a commercial bank, taking into account its key characteristics. Indeed, based on the results of monitoring the quality of the credit portfolio, it is possible to formulate a set of proposals for managing credit assets and assess the adequacy of measures implemented by the bank's management in the face of economic uncertainty to maintain competitive positions on the credit services market. A review of the dynamics of lending to non-financial corporations and households by maturity is carried out through the prism of the potential use of these borrowed financial resources to intensify the investment activity of economic entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This symposium focuses on the relationship between financialization and the social economy, specifically examining the role of finance and financial markets in the lives of US households. Financialization refers to the growth and dominance of the financial system, extending beyond the financial sector itself to impact social relationships and households' economic decision-making. The articles in this symposium explore various aspects of financialization, including the economic precarity of US households, the concentration of asset management, and the potential for alternative financial institutions to mitigate dependence on private institutions. The papers also address racial disparities in access to financial infrastructure and the conflicts of interest within asset management firms. Overall, these articles provide valuable insights into the intersection of financialization, inter-household relationships, public policy, and households' financial security. [Extracted from the article]

The European Bank for induced pluripotent Stem Cells (EBiSC) was established in 2014 as a non-profit project for the banking, quality control, and distribution of human iPSC lines for research around the world. EBiSC iPSCs are deposited from diverse laboratories internationally and, hence, a key activity for EBiSC is standardising not only the iPSC lines themselves but also the data associated with them. This includes enabling unique nomenclature for the cells, as well as applying uniformity to the data provided by the cell line generator versus quality control data generated by EBiSC, and providing mechanisms to share personal data in a secure and GDPR-compliant manner. A joint approach implemented by EBiSC and the human pluripotent stem cell registry (hPSCreg®) has provided a solution that enabled hPSCreg® to improve its registration platform for iPSCs and EBiSC to have a pipeline for the import, standardisation, storage, and management of data associated with EBiSC iPSCs. In this work, we describe the experience of cell line data management for iPSC banking throughout the course of EBiSC's development as a central European banking infrastructure and present a model for how this could be implemented by other iPSC repositories to increase the FAIRness of iPSC research globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to identify the impact of decision-making (Quality- EffectivenessAcceptance) on crisis management (Signal detection- Preparation/prevention- Containment/Damage limitation- Recovery- Learning) in the private banks in Yemen. To achieve the objectives of the study, the quantitative approach was employed, utilizing both descriptive and analytical methods. The study population consisted of leaders from private banks in Yemen, specifically those in their main branches in the capital, Sana'a, holding the following administrative positions: General Manager, Assistant General Manager, Sector Manager, and Department Manager. Due to the small size of the study community, the comprehensive survey method was employed, and questionnaires served as the primary tool for data collection. A total of 239 questionnaires were distributed, and 219 valid questionnaires (92% response rate) were collected for analysis. Data were analyzed using appropriate statistical methods within the SPSS v26 software, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied using Amos v26. The paper concluded that there is a positive impact of decision-making on crisis management in the private banks in Yemen. The study presented a number of recommendations including paying attention to decision-making by considering its dimensions (Quality- Effectiveness- Acceptance), with particular emphasis on the quality of decision. This is crucial considering the influence of decisionmaking on all administrative operations and functions, especially given the diverse and numerous crises faced by banks in the unstable Yemeni environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks beyond Z‐score and proposes a novel methodological framework to build an all‐encompassing indicator of bank stability for individual banks using the optimisation‐based 'benefit‐of‐the‐doubt (BoD)' approach. Unlike other available approaches, this approach is totally data‐driven and generates endogenous weights to aggregate sub‐indicators of bank stability and dimensions. Further, the final outcomes are not limited to a scalar measure of bank stability. The unique optimal weights offer valuable policy‐relevant insights and highlight the most precarious areas of stability, which demand the immediate attention of the bank's management and the industry regulators for both micro‐and macro‐level policymaking. Using the data of Indian public sector banks operating in the year 2018, the study illustrates the proposed framework to obtain a holistic indicator of bank stability, defined on 14 ratio sub‐indicators and 5 broad dimensions (soundness, asset quality, profitability, management efficiency, and liquidity) of bank stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In general, this research aims to analyze the effect of CAMEL’s factors, namely BOPO, CAR, NPL, and LDR on the bank's financial performance. As well as the external factors of Digitalization and Bank Size on the bank's financial performance. In this case, the bank's financial performance is proxied by ROA. The population in this study are conventional banks registered with the Financial Services Authority totaling 107 banks. The sampling technique used purposive sampling with a total sample of 10 banks that met the criteria. The approach used is panel data regression with a random effect model as the best model. Data analysis software uses E-Views 12. The results of this study found that BOPO and CAR have a negative effect on financial performance. LDR, Digitization, and Bank Size each have a positive effect on financial performance. But, NPL does not affect bank performance. From these results, banks are expected to be able to improve financial performance and bank management performance so that creditors have a good perception of bank performance in the future. And must be able to maintain the soundness of the bank by considering all possible risks that will arise. In research, bank digitization has shown quite good results. However, banks must continue to innovate on digital banking while continuing to be accompanied by an increase in the number of customers and pay attention to the infrastructure costs of digitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how bank funding diversity and lending affect bank performance, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. We employ the Generalized Method of Moments to analyze unbalanced panels of commercial banks in China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The empirical results show that a percentage increase in bank funding diversity and bank lending in the sample negatively affects profitability. In contrast, the results are mixed in each country due to different market microstructures. While holding diversified funding strengthens bank profitability during the pandemic, increasing lending activities dampers the bank's performance. Finally, this research has important implications for bank managers and regulators to develop sustainable banking performance in emerging markets, especially during pandemics. Plain Language Summary: This paper investigates how bank funding diversity and lending affect bank performance, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. We employ the Generalized Method of Moments to analyze unbalanced panels of commercial banks in China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The empirical results show that a percentage increase in bank funding diversity and bank lending in the sample negatively affects profitability. In contrast, the results are mixed in each country due to different market microstructures. While holding diversified funding strengthens bank profitability during the pandemic, increasing lending activities dampers the bank's performance. Finally, this research has important implications for bank managers and regulators to develop sustainable banking performance in emerging markets, especially during pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food banks have played a crucial role in mitigating food insecurity in affluent countries for over four decades. Throughout the years, academics have researched food banks for a variety of operational problems, resulting in several research papers on the topic. However, despite significant academic interest, the operational challenges and optimization of food bank operations remain under-researched. This study aims to conduct a systematic literature review on food bank operations and provide evidence-based recommendations for addressing prevalent challenges, and provide decision-makers with practical recommendations. In addition, this investigation seeks to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food bank operations. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of academic publications on food bank operations using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) in order to get a deeper comprehension of the problems confronting food bank operations. Using a keyword search strategy with the logical operators "AND" and "OR," two search methods were utilized to identify relevant articles on food bank operations management, supply chain, distribution, and production in our first search. In our second search, we discovered articles in the "Operations Research & Management Science" (OR &MS) category of Web of Science containing food bank-related keywords such as food charity, food donation, and food aid. The database searches yielded 246 hits, and the article content was scanned to eliminate irrelevant articles by removing non-English articles and duplicated studies, leaving 55 articles for further examination. Our extensive examination of Operations Research (OR) methodologies reveals that Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) models are the most commonly used methodology, followed by Linear Program (LP), Dynamic Program (DP), and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques. The key findings of this study emphasize the operational challenges food banks encountered during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, including supply chain disruptions, increased demand, and volunteer shortages. To address these issues, effective solutions, including the management of food donations and volunteer scheduling, were proposed. Our findings have practical implications for decision-makers in food bank management, highlighting the importance of adopting evidence-based solutions. Finally, Limitations and prospective research directions in food bank management are discussed, with an emphasis on the need for ongoing research in this crucial area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early twentieth century, scholarly interest in the intersection between knowledge and political rationality in advanced liberal democracies has drawn attention to two general and contradictory processes: first, the rise of technocracy, and of the institutions, and experts, who use technical knowledge as a lever of power; second, the democratization of expertise – the emergence of lay audiences as stake-holders and competent participants in technical and scientific decisions and debates. In this paper, I analyze the annual reports on the Italian economy written by the Bank of Italy between 1960 and 1984, and trace the debate they spurred in three national newspaper outlets. I detail the emergence of public expertise on the economy, as well as the emergence of crisis and reputation management as techniques for the Bank to bolster its authority. I argue that the Bank of Italy, by framing the present as an exception, achieved a form of performativity that I call fictional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bank-specific risks along with corporate governance mechanisms are an important consideration for measuring bank performance. Therefore, this study aims to explore the role of credit and liquidity risk along with bank governance for the performance of banks. The present study included a sample of 116 banks operating within Asian emerging nations, spanning the period from 2012 to 2022. It utilizes static and dynamic panel methods for testing the main hypothesis and for confirming robustness. This study finds that credit risk (Z-score, Non-performing loans), liquidity risk (Current ratio, Loan to deposit ratio) and corporate governance (Board size and CEO duality) significantly influence the performance of banks in Asian emerging economies. Banking management should maintain procedures for loan granting and timely repayment of loan instalments from consumers to control credit risk. Managers of banks should keep a close eye on their banks' liquidity conditions and implement appropriate governance systems to help them operate and earn better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate whether, and to what extent, banks exploit their discretion over loan loss provisions to achieve their management purposes during the pandemic. Using a sample of US banks during the current COVID-19 outbreak, we find that banks are more eager to use discretionary loan loss provisions in response to the worsening pandemic situation. We find in particular that banks use discretionary loan loss provisions to manage regulatory capital, smooth income and signal private information to outsiders. Overall, this paper enriches the literature on bank discretionary behaviour during the difficult time, especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore, it has important implications for banking supervisor and bank stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's digitally interconnected world, social media emerges as a powerful tool, offering different opportunities for modern businesses. Not only do organizations use social media for marketing purposes, but they also endeavor to influence consumer psychology and behavior. Although prior studies indicate social media's efficacy in disseminating corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications, there remains a dearth of research addressing the impact of CSR-related messaging from banks on consumers' brand advocacy behavior (CBAB). Our study seeks to bridge this gap, exploring the CSR-CBAB relationship within the banking sector of an emerging economy. Additionally, we investigate the roles of consumers' emotions and values in mediating and moderating their CBAB, introducing two mediating factors, consumer happiness (HP) and admiration (BRAD), and moderating variable altruistic values (ATVL). Data collection involved an adapted questionnaire targeting banking consumers. The structural analysis revealed a positive correlation between a bank's CSR-related social media communications and CBAB. HP and BRAD were identified as mediators in this relationship, while ATVL emerged as a moderator. These findings hold significant theoretical and practical implications. For instance, our research highlights the indispensable role of social media in effectively conveying CSR-related information to banking consumers, subsequently enhancing their advocacy intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several major economies have already committed to achieving a carbon-neutral economy by 2050, in accordance with the Paris Agreement. The banking system in all countries has a key role to play in supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy, and academia has been researching the prudential regulation tools that will enable the incorporation of climate risk management into banking. However, no studies to date have attempted to systematize research on Climate-related Prudential Regulation Tools. This study conducts a systematic review of the English-language peer-reviewed literature produced on this topic in the period since the 2007–2008 financial crisis, revealing the state of the art and the research gaps. The thematic synthesis carried out in this study shows the experience of some countries in the implementation of these tools and the advancement of academic knowledge in this field. These findings can serve as a reference for the further development of a harmonized international framework to address climate risk in banking. Central banks are considering sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) in their agenda to align national financial systems towards internationally-agreed climate goals. The academic research community is also investigating how to integrate climate risk into the prudential regulation tools available to financial regulators. A concentration of research in developed countries, mainly in Europe, and a significant increase in the publication of studies has been observed in recent years. Scientific research has focused on five prudential regulatory tools: disclosure requirements, climate-related stress testing, differentiated capital requirements, targeted refinancing lines, and green finance guides and frameworks. Research gaps identified include green bubble, double materiality, interaction between policies, compound risks, banking governance, and small and medium-size enterprize (SME) banking. They are cross-cutting issues that could increase the body of knowledge on climate-related prudential regulation tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asset-Liability Management (ALM) of banks is defined as simultaneous planning of all bank assets and liabilities under different conditions and its purpose is to maximize profits and minimize the risks in banks by optimizing the parameters in the balance sheet. Most of the studies 'and proposed models in the ALM field are based on an objective function that maximizes bank profit. It is not easy to apply changes in these models in order to reach the optimal values of the parameters in the balance sheet. In this article, an attempt has been made to propose a linear model using constraints to achieve optimal values of balance sheet parameters using ALM objectives and considering balance sheet, system and regulatory constraints. It has also been tried to design the model according to the most possible mode and with the least changes and to minimize the size of the balance sheet. The analysis of the model presented in this article has been conducted using the parameters of the balance sheet and income statement of one of the famous Iranian banks. The results obtained from the proposed model show that the values of cash and receivables from banks and other credit institutions have decreased by 30% and increased by 200%, respectively, compared to the actual values of these parameters. Also, Total Income, Operating Income and Non-Operating Income have grown by 30% compared to the actual values of these parameters. Also, the values of a number of parameters are estimated to be zero after optimization. According to the results, it is obvious that the performance of bank managers, especially in the management of bank assets, is significantly different from the optimal values of the balance sheet, and the results obtained from the proposed model can help the management of banks as much as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Platelet concentrates (PC) are prepared from random donor platelets (RDP) and single donor platelets (SDP) and the various quality parameters of the PC are multifactorial which includes the preparation techniques, types of bags used, holding period prior to processing, type of anticoagulant used, use of additive solutions, the storage conditions after processing, etc. Extending the holding period before processing and ensuring the absence of deleterious affect on the quality parameters of the PC can be extremely beneficial from operational and logistical reasons to meet the increased clinical demand of PCs, particularly for oncology cases and during dengue epidemic. Aims and Objectives: The comparative evaluation of various quality parameters including morphological, biochemical and molecular aspects of PCs between fresh whole blood (WB) (8 hrs) versus overnight hold blood (24 hrs) on the 0, 3rd and 5th day of storage. Materials and Methods: Fifty units of blood were collected and stored overnight (24 hrs) hours at a temperature of 22°C to 24°C and processed subsequently. The other 50 units were processed immediately within 8 hours. All the PCs had undergone mandatory serological testing and all the sero-negative PCs had fulfilled quality control parameters. Sterility confirmation was done on 0, 3rd and 5th day of storage. Morphological, biochemical and molecular aspects for both the categories of PCs were studied. For statistical analysis, t-test at 95% confidence interval was done with a P value of <0.05 taken as statistically significant. Results: All essential quality parameters in both the categories of PCs were within acceptable limits. No adverse impact on quality was noted in the overnight PCs. Conclusion: The preserved quality of overnight PCs along with associated logistic benefits should encourage blood bank management to seriously explore the feasibility of undertaking the 24-hours whole blood holding period (overnight) before preparing PCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the components of customer value creation, including customer-side perceptions of the time factor in banking services. Nowadays in the fast-spaced world everybody is looking for opportunities which help them to manage their finances faster and faster, avoid long administration, waiting and travel times. Besides the helpfulness and expertise of the bank clerks, the high level of service, the favorable pricing and the reputation of the bank, the role of time is becoming more and more important in order to maintain and achieve the customer experience. The study provides an overview of international and domestic research results then examines the time factor and its role in the banking sector based on the customer value model. The online survey with 725 asked people, looked for answers how each generation perceives waiting time, how many waiting time they can tolerate and what time-consuming factors they think the most critical in the banking administration. As data analysis methods, we used frequency distribution, ANOVA (analysis of variance), Tukey Post Hoc test and multidimensional scaling. The research deepens and complements the results of previous surveys on the topic at several points, and can serve as a guide for both banking professionals and administrators in the project of improving the service by reducing the time factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we used genotyping to determine the genetic structure and molecular identities of apple landraces from six species of Malus Mill. in China, based on the fingerprints revealed by microsatellite markers with tailed primer M13. A total of 46 apple landraces of Malus Mill. selected from the National Apple and Pear Germplasm Repository in Xingcheng, China were genotyped with 14 SSR markers. The primers differentiated all the accessions. At least three SSR primers, CH04h02, CH01f07a and CH04g07, with a higher heterozygosity and Shannon's information index than other combinations can distinguish all the accessions. All the alleles for these three primers were arranged in descending order, and they were assigned values beginning with 01. Character strings were constituted by combining all the codes of the three primers for every accession. By such means, separate and special molecular identities were obtained for every apple landrace, which could be expressed in the form of a bar code. Using such bar codes, trees can be labeled and scanned, which aids in the identification and tracking of genebank collections. The eight-step method for establishing the molecular identities of apple landraces reported here may serve as a reference when determining the molecular identities establishment of other apple germplasms of Malus Mill. This method might also be used for the establishment of a molecular database to aid the preservation of Malus Mill., which is in imminent danger in China. It may also be used to improve the gene bank management of Malus Mill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is very much fundamental to identify the susceptibility of river bank materials to erosion for implementing management strategies. The present paper intends to find out the susceptibility of river bank materials to erosion and it also focuses on vulnerability assessment based on susceptibility of river bank materials to erosion. A vulnerability assessment model based on susceptibility of river bank material to erosion has been used in this study. To satisfy the objectives of this study, a stretch of river Ganga-Bhagirathi in Jangipur sub-division under the district of Murshidabad has been selected. The results of the study show that aggregate stability of the soil in study area is less than 10% and the percentage of aggregated clay (less than 8%) and organic matter (less than 0.5%) in the soil are also very less. The areas categorized as high susceptibility to erosion are highly vulnerable than the rest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The steady development of commercial banks plays a key role in maintaining the healthy development of the economy. The ability to judge financial risks is a reflection of the comprehensive risk management level of a commercial bank, and it is also an important criterion for measuring its competitiveness and operational stability. Based on the analysis of economic development laws and reference to relevant literature, this paper screened out the eight most representative risk evaluation measurement indicators of commercial banks, ranked these indicators in preference according to expert opinions, established a group decision-making model, and then obtained the consensus ranking by using the least divergence method. The PCbHA method was used to check the consistency of the results, modify the expert opinions, iteratively calculate, and finally construct the importance ranking of commercial bank risk indicators. This paper discusses the construction of an evaluation system based on the perspective of risk management to enrich and improve the risk management content of commercial banks, enhance the risk prevention and control ability, and provide suggestions for the prevention and management of risks in commercial banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to assess the influence of internal and external factors on the Efficiency of banks in Pakistan using the Data Envelopment Analysis Approach (DEA). Bank's Efficiency is measured through DEA Model using input and output variables. The input variable includes the number of employees, number of branches, administration expenses, non-interest expenses, and loan loss provisions. In contrast, the output variable consists of net interest income, net commissions, and total other income. This study considers the internal determinants of the bank's Efficiency as corporate governance, enterprise risk management, ownership structure (state, foreign, and domestic ultimate owned banks), return on equity, financial leverage, and the size of the bank. The external determinants of the bank's Efficiency include banking structure and macroeconomic conditions. The study has used data from seventeen commercial banks over the period of 2011 to 2020. The study used the Data Envelopment Analysis Approach (DEA) and Logit and Probit Regression Model to evaluate research hypotheses. The Logit model results show that corporate governance, ultimate global ownership, and return on equity have a statistically significant and positive impact on the bank's Efficiency. Enterprise risk management and financial leverage adversely affect the bank's Efficiency. Better corporate governance can help banks to control the risk and cost of capital and enhancement the effectiveness of capital. Similarly, better risk management of banks can lead to better operational and strategic decisions in the competitive banking environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credit card churn prediction, insurance fraud detection, and loan default prediction are all critical analytical customer relationship management (ACRM) problems. Since these events occur infrequently, datasets for these problems are highly unbalanced. Consequently, when trained on such unbalanced datasets, all machine learning classifiers tend to produce high false positive rates. We propose two methods for data balancing. To oversample the minority class, we proposed an innovative GAN called chaoticGAN, where we employed chaotic noise as input for the generator. We also employed the traditional GAN (Goodfellow et al. in Adv Neural Inf Process Syst, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1145/3422622), Wasserstein GAN (Arjovsky et al. in Wasserstein GAN, 2017. https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.07875), and CTGAN (Xu et al. in Modeling Tabular Data using Conditional GAN. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1907.00503) independently for baseline comparison. On the data balanced by GANs, we employed a host of machine learning classifiers, including Random Forest, Decision Tree, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Logistic Regression (LR), multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and Light gradient boosting machine (LGBM) to demonstrate the efficacy of our approaches. In the second approach, we augment the oversampled synthetic minority class data obtained by GAN and its variants with the undersampled majority class data obtained by one class support vector machine (OCSVM) (Tax et al. in Mach Learn 54:45–66, 2014). We passed the entire modified dataset to build the classifiers. Our proposed approaches outperform earlier studies on the same datasets in terms of the area under the ROC curve (AUC). Further, our proposed chaoticGAN and its hybrid turned out to be statistically similar to the state-of-the-art CTGAN on all datasets while being significant over other methods w.r.t AUC over tenfold cross-validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the application of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) in financial credit risk management is a research hot spot. Most research has focused on using data and AI algorithms to improve modeling performance, ignoring the difficulty of data sharing. Federated learning has become an effective solution for achieving the "available and invisible" goal of data sharing under the premise that the data do not come out of the local area and meet global data compliance. However, we must find a solution for the poor modeling performance caused by data heterogeneity to truly achieve the goal of credit risk management in the financial industry. This paper proposes an application scheme of federated learning in the field of financial credit risk management. It presents an experimental comparison and analysis to verify the feasibility of the application. The antagonistic verification results show the existence of non-independent and identically distributed (non-IID) data. Moreover, using the Chi-square test method, we detail the modeling, analysis, and evaluation of heterogeneous data with non-IID characteristics. The experimental results demonstrate a performance improvement of 14% by the proposed application framework and method in the financial credit risk management of small banks with few data samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary Bladder Neck Obstruction (PBNO) management provides medical and surgical treatment, such as transurethral incisions that can lead to retrograde ejaculation. The aim of this study was to investigate the maintenance of anterograde ejaculation and semen quality before and after this surgical procedure. A retrospective evaluation was carried out between 2011 and 2020. A total of 73 patients diagnosed with PBNO were recruited. Ejaculatory function, semen quality, and the fertility of recruited subjects were evaluated. Semen parameters—Baseline, 8.2% of patients were oligozoospermic and 12.3% had a semen volume below the WHO 2010 fifth percentile. Post-surgery, 20% of patients were oligozoospermic. We detected a significant decrease in total sperm number, a significant increase in the number of abnormal forms, and a reduction in the leukocyte concentration. Ejaculatory function—A total of 7.7% of patients reported anejaculation after transurethral incision of the bladder neck. Fertility—9.2% of the patients already had children before surgery; 13.8% had naturally conceived children in the years following surgery; 76.9% had no desire for paternity at the time. Our data have important implications for sperm bank management. The alterations in semen parameters and the risk of anejaculation suggest that the use of sperm cryopreservation before surgery for PBNO should be encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study investigates the impact of bank market competition and concentration on the bank default-risk using the data for 36 Indian scheduled commercial banks from 1999 to 2017. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts the dynamic panel generalised method of moments (GMM) and panel quantile models to obtain the results. Findings: Bank market competition and concentration foster financial fragility in terms of high default-risk. This implies that concentration does not mean a lack of competition in the Indian banking market. The findings from the quantile model reveal that the stated relationships become weaker under the tails of the conditional distribution of the risk measure. Research limitations/implications: The authors recommend that non-structural measures (Lerner index and H-statistic) should be preferred over the concentration measures (HHI and CR3) to characterise bank market competition in India. Based on the evidence of persistence in the bank risk variable, from the methodological perspective, dynamic panel data models are better choices for bank-level analyses compared to the conventional panel data models. Practical implications: To improve the health of banks, price competition should be reduced among them. This objective should be achieved by creating new avenues to increase the banks' non-interest income parallelly with the consolidation of the market. riginality/value: First, it tries to answer whether concentration implies a lack of competition for a banking system like India. Second, the quantile regression technique enables us to understand the varying nature of the impact of market competition on bank risk at different locations on the latter's conditional distribution. Earlier studies have not looked at these aspects in the Indian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] The present paper aimed to study the impact of organic and inorganic combined application on the organic carbon composition, carbon bank management index and organic carbon functional group of tobacco planting soil in Wuxi county, so as to provide reference for improving the quality of tobacco planting soil and reasonable fertilization. [Method] Four treatments were set up under the condition of constant nitrogen input in field experiment: chemical fertilizer（CF）, chemical fertilizer with mushroom slag organic fertilizer（CMO）, chemical fertilizer with high carbon-based fertilizer（CHB）, and chemical fertilizer with biological organic fertilizer（CBO）. The effect of organic and inorganic application on soil carbon reservoir was studied by measuring total organic carbon and active carbon functional group structure using Fourier infrared spectrometry（FTIR）. [Result] （i） Compared with single organic fertilizer, the soil supplemented with organic fertilizer was slightly increased, and there was no significant difference between the treatments, significantly increased the output value on flue-cured tobacco leaf;（ii） The DOC, MBC content of the soil active carbon bank treated with organic fertilizer was significantly higher than that of single chemical fertilizer treatment. Among them, CMO treatment showed the largest increase in soil DOC content, thus being 67. 13%, 12. 84%, and 28. 54% higher than CF, CHB, CBO, respectively. CBO treatment showed the most increase in soil MBC content, with soil MBC content increasing 42. 32% compared to CF and CHB treatment showing 11. 43% higher soil EOC compared to CF;（iii）Among the three organic fertilizers, the DOC distribution of DOC, CMO, CBO, EOC, and the carbon bank management index of CHB treatment was significantly greater than CF and CMO;（iv） The structure difference of each treated organic carbon functional group was small, which mainly included phenols, aromatic hydrocarbons, olefins and mesamides. The relative peak area at 1634 cm-1 was associated significantly positively with soil MBC content, and that at 468 cm-1 was associated significantly negatively with soil TOC content. [Conclusion] Compared with single organic fertilizer, soil organic residue organic fertilizer significantly improved soil DOC and MBC content and high carbon-based fertilizer significantly improved soil EOC content and carbon bank management index. Short-term organic and inorganic distribution had little impact on organic carbon functional groups. However, the peaks at 1634 and 468 cm-1 were significantly associated with the soil TOC and MBC content. At the same time, organic-inorganic fertilizer significantly increased the yield and output value of flue-cured tobacco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to present the importance of BANDES in the sustainable development of Espírito Santo since its creation in 1967, as well as its changes in positioning to meet strategic guidelines of the state government and transitions of the state economy. Analyzing financial statements and management reports, it was shown that the bank changed its position in the credit market recently, moving from microcredit to credit focused on micro, small and medium companies. In addition, the bank expanded its portfolio with investments in FIPs, payment for environmental services, management of development funds, PPPs, among others, consolidating itself as the main agent for promoting the sustainable development of Espírito Santo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: All banks in Nigeria have fully implemented an intranet, and it has been used to link all branches across the country and provide access to varieties of information and facilitate knowledge management (KM) activities. The potential of the intranet to facilitate KM in an organisation is well spelled in the literature. However, little attention has been given to its use for KM, and factors that determine its use for KM in Nigerian banks have not been examined. Objectives: This study investigates the determinants of intranet utilisation for knowledge management in Nigerian banks from the users' perspective. Methods: A survey was adopted and a questionnaire was distributed to 555 banks' employees across 11 banks head office in Lagos, Nigeria. Data collected were analysed using frequencies and percentages, Pearson multiple correlations, and multiple linear regression. Results: The result shows that the intranet is used for knowledge creation, storage, retrieval, distribution, and application in Nigerian banks. Furthermore, system quality was found to be the best predictor of the four KM processes followed by task technology fit, while service quality was not. Conclusion: The study concluded that system quality is the most important intranet feature in predicting intranet utilisation for all the KM processes followed by perceived task technology fit, while service quality was found not to be a good predictor. Contribution: This study is unique and one of the pioneer studies in Nigeria that focused on using intranet to manage knowledge in the Nigerian banking sector. The study identified intranet characteristics that are best predictors of KM processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The weed seed bank causes damage to agriculture, due to competition with cultivated plants and raising production costs, Cenchrus echinatus has a high seed multiplication and dissemination mechanism and Conyza bonariensis glyphosate resistance mechanism. The objective was to evaluate the potential of Mentha arvensis essential oil by means of fumigation in the weed seed bank. Soil samples (2 kg per treatment) were collected, homogenized and subjected to fumigation for 24 and 48 hours at concentrations of 2.5% and 5.0% of essential oil. The soil was solarized (control) and dried in the shade for three days as a witness. Then, 500 g of soil were distributed in four trays in a completely randomized design, where they received irrigation, identification and registration of emerging seedlings. Data were checked for normality and homogeneity of variance, transformed when necessary and submitted to analysis of variance at a 5% significance level. The averages were performed by Tukey and Dunnet tests at 5% probability. It was concluded that fumigation reduced grass and horseweed emergence regardless of dose and exposure time, with results similar to solarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the efforts of the World Health Organization, blood transfusions and delivery are still the crucial challenges in blood supply chain management, especially when there is a high demand and not enough blood inventory. Consequently, reducing uncertainty in blood demand, waste, and shortages has become a primary goal. In this paper, we propose a smart platform-oriented approach that will create a robust blood demand and supply chain able to achieve the goals of reducing uncertainty in blood demand by forecasting blood collection/demand, and reducing blood wastage and shortage by balancing blood collection and distribution based on an effective blood inventory management. We use machine learning and time series forecasting models to develop an AI/ML decision support system. It is an effective tool with three main modules that directly and indirectly impact all phases of the blood supply chain: (i) the blood demand forecasting module is designed to forecast blood demand; (ii) blood donor classification helps predict daily unbooked donors thereby enhancing the ability to control the volume of blood collected based on the results of blood demand forecasting; and (iii) scheduling blood donation appointments according to the expected number and type of blood donations, thus improving the quantity of blood by reducing the number of canceled appointments, and indirectly improving the quality and quantity of blood supply by decreasing the number of unqualified donors, thereby reducing the amount of invalid blood after and before preparation. As a result of the system's improvements, blood shortages and waste can be reduced. The proposed solution provides robust and accurate predictions and identifies important clinical predictors for blood demand forecasting. Compared with the past year's historical data, our integrated proposed system increased collected blood volume by 11%, decreased inventory wastage by 20%, and had a low incidence of shortages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The equilibrium between supply and demand for red blood cells is increasing unpredictably in many countries. An understanding of trends in blood usage profile and current usage can help predict future trends in demand and to put efforts to reduce use in particular areas. This study helps in analyzing the pattern of red blood cell utilization in a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in a blood bank, tertiary care hospital over a period of 6 months. All the requests coming to blood bank with information regarding patient's demographic details, diagnosis and indication for transfusion, type of request, blood transfused or returned were collected and reviewed. Crossmatch transfusion (CT) ratio, transfusion index (TI), and transfusion probability were also calculated. Results: A total of 10,364 patients (20,399 requests) utilized total 32,608 units of blood and its components, out of those 14,195 units of packed red cells units were utilized. March month had maximum number of requests and utilization. Most of the requests for blood were from the inpatients (wards) and were requested and utilized in the age group of 21–30 years with male predominance. Patients in the division of medicine utilized most blood. Although the division of surgery requested most of the blood, on an average, they utilized only one-third of the requested product. Overall, anemia was the most common indication for red cell utilization. In surgical group, spine surgery had a maximum CT ratio. Neurosurgery and hand surgery had the lowest TI in all specialties. Hand surgery and spine surgery had a lowest transfusion probability. Overall, utilization rate in our study was 59.8%. Conclusion: A regular review of blood unit's usage is very important to estimate the blood utilization pattern in any hospital. Profile of blood utilization will act as indicator for quality management of blood bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud applications are becoming central and critical to the delivery of financial services. Despite their significance, banks face increased exposure to transaction risks related to the use of cloud services and internal and external pressures to improve their risk management practices. In this study, we use a unique data set from a bank's cloud register to examine the effectiveness of internal governance on an ongoing cloud outsourcing transaction between a bank and cloud service provider. We employ structural equation modeling and a simple linear regression to test for transaction misalignment and causes of governance inefficiencies. We find that a strong degree of misalignment is largely due to poor design of internal controls and a weak control system that does not provide acceptable indications of residual risk likelihood. The findings indicate that cloud risks are driven not only by agency costs, but also by firm-specific risks which contribute to a number of transaction uncertainties and governance misalignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prudential regulation has become increasingly important over time. In such a context, strict suitability requirements for members of the management body and key function holders are considered an adequate tool to safeguard the sound and prudent management of banks. In the years following the Great Financial Crisis in 2008–2009 and the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis in 2010–2012, the regulatory and supervisory approach to banks' corporate governance has seen a significant evolution. The centralisation of banking supervision at the Eurozone level was complemented by the application of a single rulebook throughout the European Union which stated, in compliance with the Capital Requirements Directive, higher suitability requirements for being appointed as a member of a management body or as a key function holder at a bank. Furthermore, the choice to identify fit and proper requirements through standards attributes significant power to the decision maker, thus allowing greater public control over private choices, and is justified by the need to prevent negative externalities. This approach is open to debate. Against the background of the pursuit of public interest, the lawmaker confers discretionary power on the supervisory authorities (the European Central Bank and the national competent authorities), and sets restrictions on the job market for board member candidates. This paper is a contribution enriching the ongoing discussion about the existing regulatory and policy regime, with a special focus on the specific functions performed by the management body members and particularly by the chairs of the management body's special committees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016 the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) came into being. It sought to improve banking culture through the attribution of responsibility to individuals and to provide clarity on required conduct standards. It marked a shift away from collective responsibility and towards more individual accountability that had been so lacking following the financial crisis of 2007/08. Its scope is expansive, including not just board executives but also senior managers. In this paper, I question whether there are indications the SMCR is achieving its objective of 'changing banking for good'. I do this by analysing the design of the SMCR and its application in practice as well as the meaning and regulatability of culture. I conclude that though the SMCR could make strides towards better banking culture, its potential is being curtailed by inconsistent messaging and irresolute application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the inherently unfavorable geological conditions coupled with various triggering factors, reservoir bank slopes often exhibit long-term and complex deformation processes with multiple accelerating phases, which poses constant threats to the safe operations of hydropower stations, as well as the safety of the residents, houses, and infrastructures both upstream and downstream of the reservoirs. In this study, the quantile regression has been used to develop a fundamental tool for the prediction and early warning of this type of complex slope deformation. The application of this tool is illustrated in the case study of the Duonuo near-dam slope at Baishui River in China. Quantile regression can estimate the parameters of the prediction model, such as the Fukui–Okubo model used in this study, based on different quantile levels. This enables the predictive uncertainty to be quantified and obtain a possible failure-time horizon. Further, two indicators, i.e., the reliability indicator and the strength indicator, have been defined to aggregate the predictive information of the quantile regression. As such, the reliability and intensity of failure precursory signals associated with the accelerating behavior can be diagnosed. Finally, a probabilistic warning indicator has been proposed to establish an early warning procedure, which can measure the risk levels of a slope failure in real time. Two case studies, i.e., the Duonuo slope and the Vajont landslide, have been used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed early warning indicator. Thus, the tool developed in this study provides valuable references for predictive decision-making and disaster management of reservoir bank slopes. It can also easily be transferred to unstable slopes with similar evolution characteristics in other hazardous areas. Highlights: A new prediction approach using quantile regression and Fukui–Okubo model is proposed for reservoir bank slope failure. A failure time window is used to quantify predictive uncertainty in a reservoir bank slope failure prediction. Two indicators are developed for precursory diagnosis of reservoir bank slope failure. A dimensionless indicator for early warning of reservoir bank slope failure is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines problems in the personnel management system of a modern bank of Ukraine. The system of management and employee motivation was analyzed using the example of JSC "Oschadbank". An analysis of the personnel of JSC "Oschadbank" by age was carried out. Ways to improve the efficiency of enterprise management and the possibility of implementing these ways in JSC "Oschadbank" were considered. Problems in the management system were identified and recommendations were made for improving the personnel management system and improving the bank's competitiveness. The consequences of the implementation of our proposals in JSC "Oschadbank" have been demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: breastfeeding is the gold standard for infant’s nutrition. Human milk bank is an essential tool to guarantee availability and safety in those situations when breastfeeding is not an option. The manipulation during the extraction of the human milk by the donors is a critical point to ensure an adequate microbiological safety. Therefore, knowing the bacterial flora that prevails in donated milk is essential to draw conclusions that can lead to taking measures in the management of the bank. Objectives: to analyze the prevalence of microorganisms in milk samples donated to the milk bank and how the bacterial flora behaves according to the profile of the donors and the donor milk circuits. Methods: the present work is a retrospective descriptive observational study that analyzes characteristics and the positive microbiological results within our milk bank samples from June 1, 2016 to December 31, 2020. All milk bank donors voluntarily signed an informed consent that authorizes the use of data to investigation. Results: during the study period, a total of 1,587 liters of raw milk were donated by 266 women, highlighting that, despite the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic, 2020 has been the year in which more volume of milk has been dispensed. The results show that 221 batches had at least one positive microbiological isolation (149 of them were before and 46 after pasteurization). Pre and post-pasteurization rate varies over the years with a decrease in the pre-pasteurization discard rate (3,9%) and increase in the post-pasteurization rate (5,3%). The most frequently isolated germs found in pre-pasteurization cultures were gram positive cocci and Enterobacter and a decrease in the positivity to S. aureus after establishing an eradication protocol. In post-pasteurization cultures, the most commonly found germs are Bacillus. Regarding the donor’s profile, it was found a non statistically significant that those women with the highest donation volume and/or admission of their offspring in Neonatology were associated with higher frequency of positive cultures. Conclusions: bacteriological analysis of milk samples is an essential part of quality control for a milk bank. Our results reflect a good extraction system and transportation, as well as good training from the bank’s professionals. Nevertheless, improvement of processes is necessary to reduce the rate of contamination and the amount of discarded milk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]