Campaign finance and the 2012 Presidential election

An examination of recent changes to the legal regulation of the financing of U.S. presidential campaigns (general and primary

Recent b-physics results from OPAL

The most recent b-physics results from the OPAL experiment at LEP are reviewed. A measurement of semileptonic B meson decays to narrow orbitally-excited charm mesons is presented first, followed by a study of charm production in b-hadron decays. Here, B refers to B+ and B0 mesons and their charge conjugates, and b-hadron refers to the admixture of hadrons containing a b quark produced in electron-positron annihilations at \sqrt{s}= m_Z.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX, epj style (included), Proceedings of the International Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics EPS 2003 (July 17-23, 2003), Aachen, German

Optimal disclosure policy and undue diligence

While both public and private financial agencies supply asset markets with large amounts of information, they do not generally disclose all asset-related information to the general public. This observation leads us to ask what principles might govern the optimal disclosure policy for an asset manager or financial regulator. To investigate this question, we study the properties of a dynamic economy endowed with a risky asset, and with individuals that lack commitment. Information relating to future asset returns is available to society at zero cost. Legislation dictates whether this information is to be made public or not. Given the properties of our environment, nondisclosure is generally desirable. This result is overturned, however, when individuals are able to access hidden information—what we call undue diligence—at sufficiently low cost. Information disclosure is desirable, in other words, only to the extent that individuals can easily discover it for themselves.Disclosure of information ; Banks and banking - Regulations

The Jesness Inventory as a Predictor of Firesetters from Non-Firesetters Among Children 8-18: A Discriminant Analysis

The Jesness Inventory and several demographic variables were evaluated using linear discriminant analysis to explore the major question: Can the Jesness Inventory scales accurately discriminate and then classify firesetters and non-firesetters? Psychiatric hospital records of children ages 8-18 were reviewed at two hospitals from August 1983 to October 1985. Twenty-five patients who had engaged in firesetting behavior and a comparison group of fifty-one hospitalized non-firesetting children who had taken the Jesness Inventory during their hospitalization were selected for the study. Three linear discriminant analyses were run. The major finding was that the Jesness Inventory was unable to satisfactorily classify firesetters from non-firesetters. This discriminant function classified 52% of the non-firesetters and 70% of the firesetters correctly, for a total of 58% correct. This result is only slightly higher than what would be predicted by chance. A second discriminant analysis, which combined the demographic variables with the Jesness Inventory scales, was able to classify 71% of the non-firesetters and 70% of the firesetters accurately for a total of 71% correct classifications. Firesetters were discriminated from non-firesetters by the variables age, sex, adoption, and the Jesness Inventory scales: Immaturity, Withdrawal, and Autism. Firesetters tended to be younger in age, male, adopted, and scored higher on the Immaturity and Withdrawal scales. The third discriminant function used only the demographics as predictor variables and found that 86% of the non-firesetters and 80% of the firesetters were classified accurately, for a total of 84% correct classifications. Again age, sex, and adoption history entered the equation. These findings tend to cast doubt on the ability of the Jesness Inventory to discriminate and classify children who set fires, and continue to support other studies that have found child self-report instruments unable to discriminate firesetters from comparison groups

Reworking Louisiana’s Private Works Act

The article addresses the 2019 revision to the Private Works Act, the culmination of a long history of legislative efforts to protect contractors, laborers, suppliers and others who contribute to the improvement of an immovable, and its significance in Louisiana law

The Bounty System in Iowa

A study of the history and functioning of the bounty system in Iowa demonstrates the legal weaknesses, costliness, and general ineffectiveness of this method of controlling undesired wildlife. The bounty laws have developed by trial and error. Early laws were simplified and primarily intended for the protection of livestock from the larger predators, notably wolves. After 1900, the program was expanded to include nuisance species and, more recently, in intended behalf of game protection. Bounty rates were changed many times in response to changes in attitudes toward troublesome wildlife and the cost of maintaining the program. Because of bounty frauds, wastefulness, and the technical ineffectiveness of this type of program in wildlife management, it is advocated that more modern methods be used, such as extension teaching programs in localities where troubles with wildlife are serious

Computational hybrid imaging

Fluorescence microscopy is a powerful tool to measure molecular specific information in biological samples. However, most biological tissues are highly heterogeneous because of refractive index (RI) differences and thus degrade the signal-to-noise ratio of fluorescence images. At the same time, RI is an intrinsic optical property of label free biological tissues that quantitatively relates to cell morphology, mass, and stiffness. Conventional imaging techniques measure fluorescence and RI of biological samples separately. Here, we develop a new computational hybrid imaging method based on a multi-slice model of multiple scattering that reconstructs 3D fluorescence and 3D RI from the same dataset of fluorescence images. Our method not only bridges the gap between fluorescence and RI imaging and provides a panoramic view of the biological samples, but also can digitally correct multiple scattering effect of fluorescence images from the reconstructed 3D RI. Computational hybrid imaging opens a unique avenue beyond conventional imaging techniques.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure