The production of custom variable neutral density filters using film and a computer controlled imaging device

A system for generating custom variable neutral density filters has been built, characterized, and demonstrated. The desired densities for a neutral density filter are entered into the controlling computer as a function of distance. The program which generates the filter density profile is designed to vary the exposure time by controlling the velocity of the film as it moves under a slit aperture. A custom illumination system was designed and built to provide constant lamp output. The technique can provide the film with the exposure necessary to produce a given density profile

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Insights for Internal Auditors

Douglas Faggioli, president and CEO of Nature\u27s Sunshine Products (NSP) made the above remarks as he accepted, on behalf of NSP, a 2004 100 Best Corporate Citizens award from Business Ethics magazine. NSP received the award two years in a row. Less than two years later, NSP would discover a bribery scheme in its Brazil operations that would expose it to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Faggioli and the company\u27s CFO, Craig Huff, along with NSP, would be plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit, and the SEC would fine each officer $25,000. In order to register and import more products in Brazil, NSP made undocumented cash payments to Brazilian customs brokers, some of which were ultimately paid to Brazilian customs officials. NSP\u27s Brazilian subsidiary falsified its books and hid the nature of these payments in its filings with the SEC. NSP\u27s internal investigation revealed internal control weaknesses, which likely led to the violations

Audit Committee Material Weaknesses in Smaller Reporting Companies

One of the critical elements of internal control over financial reporting is an effectively functioning audit committee. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) defines an audit committee as committee (or equivalent body) established by and amongst the board of directors of an issuer for the purpose of overseeing the accounting and financial reporting processes of the issuer and audits of the financial statements of the issuer. Recent SOX section 404 filings by smaller reporting companies ( nonaccelerated filers, or registrants with less than $75 million of public float), however, indicate that some small companies still are struggling to develop effective audit committees. Examining the disclosures made by smaller reporting companies and then analyzing the available resources can be useful for small businesses seeking to establish and maintain effective audit committees. The SEC rules public companies to issue an annual report on the company\u27s internal control over financial reporting and to include an auditor\u27s opinion on their effectiveness

How Skillful are the Multiannual Forecasts of Atlantic Hurricane Activity?

The recent emergence of near-term climate prediction, wherein climate models are initialized with the contemporaneous state of the Earth system and integrated up to 10 years into the future, has prompted the development of three different multiannual forecasting techniques of North Atlantic hurricane frequency. Descriptions of these three different approaches, as well as their respective skill, are available in the peer-reviewed literature, but because these various studies are sufficiently different in their details (e.g., period covered, metric used to compute the skill, measure of hurricane activity), it is nearly impossible to compare them. Using the latest decadal reforecasts currently available, we present a direct comparison of these three multiannual forecasting techniques with a combination of simple statistical models, with the hope of offering a perspective on the current state-of-the-art research in this field and the skill level currently reached by these forecasts. Using both deterministic and probabilistic approaches, we show that these forecast systems have a significant level of skill and can improve on simple alternatives, such as climatological and persistence forecasts.The first author would like to thank Isadora Jimenez for providing the necessary material for Fig. 2. The first author would like to acknowledge the financial support from the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO; Project CGL2014- 55764-R), the Risk Prediction Initiative at BIOS (Grant RPI2.0-2013-CARON), and the EU [Seventh Framework Programme (FP7); Grant Agreement GA603521]. We additionally acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme’s Working Group on Coupled Modelling, which is responsible for CMIP, and we thank the climate modeling groups for producing and making available their model output. For CMIP, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison provides coordinating support and led development of software infrastructure in partnership with the Global Organization for Earth System Science Portals. LPC's contract is cofinanced by the MINECO under the Juan de la Cierva Incorporacion postdoctoral fellowship number IJCI-2015-23367. Finally, we thank the National Hurricane Center for making the HURDAT2 data available. All climate model data are available at https://esgf-index1.ceda.ac.uk/projects/esgf-ceda/.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Fluid quantity gaging

A system for measuring the mass of liquid in a tank on orbit with 1 percent accuracy was developed and demonstrated. An extensive tradeoff identified adiabatic compression as the only gaging technique that is independent of gravity or its orientation, and of the size and distribution of bubbles in the tank. This technique is applicable to all Earth-storable and cryogenic liquids of interest for Space Station use, except superfluid helium, and can be applied to tanks of any size, shape, or internal structure. Accuracy of 0.2 percent was demonstrated in the laboratory, and a detailed analytical model was developed and verified by testing. A flight system architecture is presented that allows meeting the needs of a broad range of space fluid systems without custom development for each user

Better Environment, Better Staff

The article discusses result of a survey addressing the quality of work life among audit personnel in the U.S. The result shows that dissatisfaction in the work environment affects staff\u27s performance. Creating customer value is one of the issues in business establishment. As stated, clients are demanding the expertise that comes with experiences. The quality of work environment may persuade outstanding staff members to pursue other career options. Financial rewards of public accounting are not the basis for changes in the rating of staff

A Review of Academic Literature on Internal Control Reporting Under SOX

Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) mandates reporting on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) by public company management and auditors. Such reporting began for fiscal years ended Nov 15, 2004 for accelerated filers and is scheduled to be fully implemented for non-accelerated filers in mid-2010. Section 404(a) of SOX requires public company management to include an assessment of the effectiveness of the company\u27s ICFR in its annual internal control report, and Section 404(b) requires attestation by the company\u27s auditor. The authors review the literature on internal control reporting under both Sections 302 and 404 in the post-SOX period. The internal control literature has grown substantially since the passage of SOX due to the availability of data regarding ICFR effectiveness that were not previously available. They conducted a literature search through mid-2009 resulting in the inclusion of many published papers and working papers that address ICFR issues covered in our taxonomy

Audit Committee Effectiveness: A Synthesis of the Empirical Audit Committee Literature

The article describes the factors that contribute to audit committee effectiveness. An effective audit committee has qualified members with the authority and resources to protect stakeholder interests by ensuring reliable financial reporting, internal controls, and risk management through its diligent oversight efforts. The determinants of audit committee effectiveness includes the audit committee composition, authority, resources and diligence. The major U.S. stock exchanges require that audit committees be composed of at least three independent, financially literate directors. Team issues also are relevant when considering audit committee composition. The audit committee derives its authority from the full board of directors, federal law and exchange listing requirements. Authority is viewed as a function of the audit committees responsibilities and influence. Audit committee authority also depends on the audit committees relationships with management, external and internal auditors and the board as a whole. The resource component of audit committee effectiveness highlights that effective oversight is contingent upon the audit committee having adequate resources to do its job. Diligence is the process factor that is needed to achieve audit committee effectiveness

Design and Development of Stable, Water-soluble, Human Toll-like Receptor 2-Specific, Monoacyl Lipopeptides as Candidate Vaccine Adjuvants

Antigens in modern subunit vaccines are largely soluble and poorly immunogenic proteins inducing relatively short-lived immune responses. Appropriate adjuvants initiate early innate immune responses, amplifying subsequent adaptive immune responses. Agonists of TLR2 are devoid of significant pro-inflammatory activity in ex vivo human blood models, and yet potently adjuvantic, suggesting that this chemotype may be a safe and effective adjuvant. Our earlier work on the monoacyl lipopeptide class of TLR2 agonists led to the design of a highly potent lead, but with negligible aqueous solubility, necessitating the reintroduction of aqueous solubility. We explored several strategies of introducing ionizable groups on the lipopeptide, as well as the systematic evaluation of chemically stable bioisosteres of the ester-linked palmitoyl group. These studies have led to a fully optimized, chemically stable, and highly water-soluble, human TLR2-specific agonist, which was found to have an excellent safety profile and displayed prominent adjuvantic activities in rabbit models