Search results for "Rating"
showing 10 items of 2021 documents
Financial constraints and cash–cash flow sensitivity
2014
This article explores the cash–cash flow relationship by comparing financially constrained and financially unconstrained companies. Unlike previous research, we test the sensitivity of cash to cash flow by considering unlisted firms as constrained and listed firms as unconstrained. Our empirical evidence is based on findings from Spanish firms and is consistent with the core rationale that unlisted firms face more difficulties than their listed counterparts when looking for funding from external markets. As a result, unlisted firms tend to hoard significant amounts of cash out of the generated cash flow, while listed firms do not. Our findings are robust to a number of additional empirical …
CREDIT RISK MANAGEMENT IN COMMERCIAL BANKS
2016
The article proposes a model of credit risk assessment on the basis of factor analysis of retail clients / borrowers in order to ensure predictive control of the level of risk posed by potential clients in commercial banks engaged in consumer lending. The aim of the study is to determine the level of risk represented by different groups (classes) of retail clients (borrowers) in order to reduce and prevent credit risk in the future as well as to improve the management of banking risks. The main results of the study are the creation of a model of borrowers internal credit ratings and the development of the methods of improving credit risk management in commercial banks.
A Model for Estimating Cash Flows in Firms Backed by Venture Capital
2013
Venture Capital only backs firms for a short period of time. When the time to exit arrives, the firm must inevitably be valued in order to obtain a basis for negotiating the exit price. Discounted cash flow is precisely one of the valuation methods that are used most by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
Project finance in the energy industry: new debt-based financing models
2012
The paper aims to examine the development of new financing models for project finance to attract private investors to finance large European energy infrastructure projects. In particular, the paper investigates the uniqueness of the project finance as a rapidly growing field in finance, the financial characteristics of the project bond market as one of the vehicles for funding energy projects, and the role of the credit support provided by the European Investment Bank and the European Union to promote the bond-based financing schemes. The paper is organized as follows. Section 1 provides a general description of project finance. Section 2 identifies the economic reasons for using project fi…
Performance of Fine-Tuning Convolutional Neural Networks for HEp-2 Image Classification
2020
The search for anti-nucleus antibodies (ANA) represents a fundamental step in the diagnosis of autoimmune diseases. The test considered the gold standard for ANA research is indirect immunofluorescence (IIF). The best substrate for ANA detection is provided by Human Epithelial type 2 (HEp-2) cells. The first phase of HEp-2 type image analysis involves the classification of fluorescence intensity in the positive/negative classes. However, the analysis of IIF images is difficult to perform and particularly dependent on the experience of the immunologist. For this reason, the interest of the scientific community in finding relevant technological solutions to the problem has been high. Deep lea…
Usability analysis of a novel biometric authentication approach for android-based mobile devices
2014
Mobile devices are widely replacing the standard personal computers thanks to their small size and user-friendly use. As a consequence, the amount of information, often confidential, exchanged through these devices is raising. This makes them potential targets of malicious network hackers. The use of simple passwords or PIN are not sufficient to provide a suitable security level for those applications requiring high protection levels on data and services. In this paper a biometric authentication system, as a running Android application, has been developed and implemented on a real mobile device. A system test on real users has been also carried out in order to evaluate the human-machine int…
Hybrid chaotic firefly decision making model for Parkinson’s disease diagnosis
2020
Parkinson’s disease is found as a progressive neurodegenerative condition which affects motor circuit by the loss of up to 70% of dopaminergic neurons. Thus, diagnosing the early stages of incidence is of great importance. In this article, a novel chaos-based stochastic model is proposed by combining the characteristics of chaotic firefly algorithm with Kernel-based Naïve Bayes (KNB) algorithm for diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease at an early stage. The efficiency of the model is tested on a voice measurement dataset that is collected from “UC Irvine Machine Learning Repository.” The dynamics of chaos optimization algorithm will enhance the firefly algorithm by introducing six types of chao…
The Impact of Fiscal Consolidation on Human Development
2018
We find that fiscal austerity is associated with a reduction of human development standards, with the negative effect being particularly severe in the case of spending-driven consolidation episodes. Fiscal adjustments are especially damaging for human development in developing countries (namely, African and Latin American countries). Additionally, the empirical evidence shows that (i) government stability is a crucial institutional determinant of human development, and (ii) while investment in physical capital can boost human development, government consumption and inflation are detrimental to it.
Reverse and normal drag along a fault
2005
An analysis of the theoretical displacement field around a single dip-slip fault at depth reveals that normal and reverse fault drag develop by perturbation flow induced by fault slip. We analytically model the heterogeneous part of the instantaneous displacement field of an isolated two-dimensional mode II fault in an infinite, homogeneous elastic body in response to fault slip. Material on both sides of the fault is displaced and ‘opposing circulation cells’ arise on opposite sides of the fault, with displacement magnitudes increasing towards the center of the fault. Both normal and reverse drag can develop at the fault center depending on the angle between the markers and the fault; norm…
H-KPP : Hypervisor-Assisted Kernel Patch Protection
2022
We present H-KPP, hypervisor-based protection for kernel code and data structures. H-KPP prevents the execution of unauthorized code in kernel mode. In addition, H-KPP protects certain object fields from malicious modifications. H-KPP can protect modern kernels equipped with BPF facilities and loadable kernel modules. H-KPP does not require modifying or recompiling the kernel. Unlike many other systems, H-KPP is based on a thin hypervisor and includes a novel SLAT switching mechanism, which allows H-KPP to achieve very low (≈6%) performance overhead compared to baseline Linux.