Evaluating the financial performance of bank branches

We evaluate the financial performance of most of the branch offices of a large European savings bank for a recent accounting period. We employ a complementary pair of nonparametric techniques to evaluate their financial performance, in terms of their ability to conserve on the expenses they incur in building their customer bases and providing customer services. We find variation in the ability of branch offices to perform this task, and agreement on the identity of the laggard branches. We then employ parametric techniques to determine that the list of indicators on which their financial performance is evaluated can be reduced without statistically significant loss of information to bank management. Both findings suggest ways in which the bank can increase the profitability of its branch network. A previous version of this paper was presented at CORE, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, where we received many helpful comments from the audience. We are grateful to three referees for their helpful comments as well.     

A simple relationship between the hammett acidity function,Ho, and the thermodynamic pKa values of unsubstituted aromatic carboxamides

The well-known failure of the Hammett H_o function to describe the prototropic reaction isotherms of aromatic carboxamides can be corrected by taking account of the hydration requirements of the prototropic reactions of the carboxamides relative to the hydration requirements of the dissociations of the primary amines used as indicators to establish the H_o scale. This approach has been successfully applied to benzamide and the naphthamides. For up to a 4:1 molar ratio of water to sulfuric acid, the amide acidity scale, H_A and the H_o scale are simply related by H_A = H_o — 2 log a_w , where a_w is the activity of water.     

Photobinding of ketoprofen in vitro and ex vivo

Ketoprofen (KP), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug of the 2-aryl propionic class, has been shown to produce photoallergic side effects as well as cutaneous photosensitizing properties that induce other phototoxic effects. In the present study we investigated photobinding of ketoprofen to both human serum albumin (HSA), a model protein, and to ex vivo pig skin and its photodegradation. Results demonstrate that photoadduct formation and photodegradation progressively increased with irradiation time where they reach a maximum. Maximum photobinding to the viable layer of the epidermis was about 7-8% of the initial radiolabelled KP added, in the region of 15-30 min UV irradiation. These results were comparable to in vitro results that were seen with photobinding of KP to HSA; in this case, the quantity of covalently bound material was approximately 10% of the initial, after a maximum of 18 min irradiation. It was found by HPLC analysis that the KP decrease is accompanied by an increase of the corresponding photoproduct, decarboxylated ketoprofen (DKP). The yield of DKP reaches a maximum at around 15 min. DKP appears to play an important role in vitro and ex vivo, being the major photoproduct and responsible for the photobinding process. Using micro-autoradiographical techniques we investigated the penetration and distribution of ketoprofen in ex vivo pig skin in greater detail. It was apparent that percutaneous absorption was taking place and that most of the ketoprofen was predominately localised in fibroblasts in the papillary dermis. No other specific localisation within the skin architecture was identified. Although there were differences in the quantities of bound ketoprofen within the different layers of the skin, these levels did not appear to correlate with irradiation time.     

Mutual interdependence of spin crossover and metal-metal bond formation in M2Cl9(3-) (M = Fe, Ru, Os)

Broken-symmetry density functional theory is used to examine the coupling between metal ions in the face-shared bioctahedral complexes M2Cl9(3-), M = Fe, Ru, Os. In the ruthenium and osmium systems, the metal ions have low-spin configurations, and strong coupling results in the formation of a metal-metal sigma bond. In contrast, the iron system contains two weakly coupled high-spin FeIII centers, the different behavior being due to the high spin-polarization energy in the smaller Fe atom. At Fe-Fe separations shorter than 2.4 A, however, an abrupt transition occurs and the ground state becomes very similar to that for the heavier congeners (i.e., strongly coupled low-spin FeIII). The intrinsic link between high-spin/low-spin transitions on the individual metal centers and the onset of metal-metal bond formation is traced to the spin-polarization energy, which plays a central role in both processes.     

Amides as precursors of imidoyl radicals in cyclisation reactions

Amides have been successfully used as precursors of imidoyl radicals for radical cyclisation. The amides have been converted to imidoyl selanides via reaction with phosgene to yield imidoyl chlorides followed by reaction with potassium phenylselanide. Imidoyl selanides were reacted with tributyltin hydride (Bu₃SnH) as the radical mediator with triethylborane or AIBN as initiators to yield imidoyl radicals for cyclisation reactions. Imidoyl radicals have been cyclised onto alkenes to yield 2,3-substituted-indoles and -quinolines and also onto pyrroles and indoles to give bi- and tricyclic heteroarenes.     

6- and 7-aryl-1,2,4-triazolo[4,3-b]-1,2,4-triazines. Synthesis and characterization

Synthetic methods for the preparation of 6-aryl-1,2,4-triazolo[4,3-b]-1,2,4-triazines ( 1 ) and the 7-aryl isomers ( 2 ) are described. Compounds 1 were prepared from aryl glyoxaldoximes 76 via 6-aryl-1,2,4-triazin-3(2H)ones ( 75 ). A simple procedure for the preparation of the 7-aryl isomers was effected using arylglyoxals 11 and the triazoles ( 4, 12a and 12b ). However, complete regioselectivity was not realized in all cases, especially when the triazoles were substituted at the C-5 position. A regiospecific synthesis of the 7-aryl isomers 2 was developed via the 3-methylthio-5-aryl-1,2,4-triazines ( 61 ). The structure of the parent 6-phenyl derivative 5 was confirmed by x-ray crystallography.