Falsification testing for usability inspection method assessment

We need more reliable usability inspection methods (UIMs), but assessment of UIMs has been unreliable [5]. We can only reliably improve UIMs if we have more reliable assessment. When assessing UIMs, we need to code analysts’ predictions as true or false positives or negatives, or as genuinely missed problems. Defenders of UIMs often claim that false positives cannot be accurately coded, i.e., that a prediction is true but has never shown up through user testing or other validation approaches. We show this and similar claims to be mistaken by briefly reviewing methods for reliable coding of each of five types of prediction outcome. We focus on falsification testing, which allows confident coding of false positives

Do depositors care about enforcement actions?

Since 1990, federal bank supervisors have publicly announced formal enforcement actions. This change in regime provides a natural laboratory to test two propositions: (1) claims by economists that putting confidential supervisory information in the public domain will enhance market discipline and (2) claims by bank supervisors that releasing such data will spark runs. To evaluate these propositions, we measure depositor reaction to 87 Federal Reserve announcements of enforcement actions. We compare deposit growth rates and yield spreads before and after the announcements at the sample banks and a control group of peer banks. The data show no evidence of unusual deposit withdrawals or spread increases at the sample banks following the announcements of formal actions. These results suggest that public announcements of enforcement actions did not spark bank runs or enhance depositor discipline. Apparently, depositors did not care a great deal about our sample actions.Bank supervision ; Deposit insurance

A Permanent Lisa

This article describes one collaborative arts-based research project. Portrait artist Mark Gilbert considers lessons for art and healing from one patient, Lisa. Lisa took comfort in the permanence of portraiture amidst the uncertainties of tongue cancer

Art of medicine: Witnessing care and cleaning health care spaces

Two portraits of Barry, a housekeeping utility worker at the Veterans Memorial Hospital Memory Clinic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, are part of 80- piece arts-based research collection, led by this article’s author, portrait artist Mark Gilbert. The 2-year study, Giving, Receiving, Observing & Witnessing Care (GROWing Care), explored experiences of patients living with dementia and their caregivers