Measuring Securities Market Efficiency in the Regulatory Setting

In Nov 1998, the SEC proposed a modification to the federal securities law disclosure requirements to facilitate the process of issuing new securities. Thomas and Cotter discuss how to determine when companies should be able to issue simplified disclosure documents

trackr: A Framework for Enhancing Discoverability and Reproducibility of Data Visualizations and Other Artifacts in R

Research is an incremental, iterative process, with new results relying and building upon previous ones. Scientists need to find, retrieve, understand, and verify results in order to confidently extend them, even when the results are their own. We present the trackr framework for organizing, automatically annotating, discovering, and retrieving results. We identify sources of automatically extractable metadata for computational results, and we define an extensible system for organizing, annotating, and searching for results based on these and other metadata. We present an open-source implementation of these concepts for plots, computational artifacts, and woven dynamic reports generated in the R statistical computing language

Implementation of Badhwar classification of corn/soybean segments

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

On the convergence of stresses in fretting fatigue

Fretting is a phenomenon that occurs at the contacts of surfaces that are subjected to oscillatory relative movement of small amplitudes. Depending on service conditions, fretting may significantly reduce the service life of a component due to fretting fatigue. In this regard, the analysis of stresses at contact is of great importance for predicting the lifetime of components. However, due to the complexity of the fretting phenomenon, analytical solutions are available for very selective situations and finite element (FE) analysis has become an attractive tool to evaluate stresses and to study fretting problems. Recent laboratory studies in fretting fatigue suggested the presence of stress singularities in the stick-slip zone. In this paper, we constructed finite element models, with different element sizes, in order to verify the existence of stress singularity under fretting conditions. Based on our results, we did not find any singularity for the considered loading conditions and coefficients of friction. Since no singularity was found, the present paper also provides some comments regarding the convergence rate. Our analyses showed that the convergence rate in stress components depends on coefficient of friction, implying that this rate also depends on the loading condition. It was also observed that errors can be relatively high for cases with a high coefficient of friction, suggesting the importance of mesh refinement in these situations. Although the accuracy of the FE analysis is very important for satisfactory predictions, most of the studies in the literature rarely provide information regarding the level of error in simulations. Thus, some recommendations of mesh sizes for those who wish to perform FE analysis of fretting problems are provided for different levels of accuracy

Invalid Forensic Science Testimony and Wrongful Convictions

This is the first study to explore the forensic science testimony by prosecution experts in the trials of innocent persons, all convicted of serious crimes, who were later exonerated by post-conviction DNA testing. Trial transcripts were sought for all 156 exonerees identified as having trial testimony by forensic analysts, of which 137 were located and reviewed. These trials most commonly included testimony concerning serological analysis and microscopic hair comparison, but some included bite mark, shoe print, soil, fiber, and fingerprint comparisons, and several included DNA testing. This study found that in the bulk of these trials of innocent defendants - 82 cases or 60% - forensic analysts called by the prosecution provided invalid testimony at trial - that is, testimony with conclusions misstating empirical data or wholly unsupported by empirical data. This was not the testimony of a mere handful of analysts: this set of trials included invalid testimony by 72 forensic analysts called by the prosecution and employed by 52 laboratories, practices, or hospitals from 25 states. Unfortunately, the adversarial process largely failed to police this invalid testimony. Defense counsel rarely cross-examined analysts concerning invalid testimony and rarely obtained experts of their own. In the few cases in which invalid forensic science was challenged, judges seldom provided relief. This evidence supports efforts to create scientific oversight mechanisms for reviewing forensic testimony and to develop clear scientific standards for written reports and testimony. The scientific community can through an official government entity promulgate standards to ensure the valid presentation of forensic science in criminal cases and thus the integrity and fairness of the criminal process