Design of an embedded iris recognition system for use with a multi-factor authentication system.

This paper describes in detail the design, manufacturing and testing of an embedded iris scanner for use with a multifactor authentication system. The design process for this project included hardware design from part selection to board design to populating. Additionally, this process included the entirety of the software development, though the iris recognition process was largely based on other works. The functional requirements for the overall multi-factor authentication system were to have three authentication methods with a thirty second window to complete all three. The system acceptance accuracy was required to be greater than 75%. Those requirements therefore dictate that the iris scanner module must also have an acceptance accuracy higher than 75% and perform iris recognition in a few seconds so that the user can gain admittance in the allotted window of time. While the hardware has been verified and tested, further development and testing is necessary on the software and image processing. This work is funded by the Department of Energy’s Kansas City National Security Campus, operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, LLC under contract number DE-NA0002839

Governance of public pension funds : lessons from corporate governance and international evidence

An understanding of corporate governance theory can promote the adoption of appropriate governance tools to limit agency problems in public pension fund management. The absence of a market for corporate control hinders the translation of lessons from the private sector corporate world to public pension governance. The establishment of a fit, and proper governing body for public pension funds, thus may be even more important than the maintenance of a comparable body for private sector corporations. In particular, behavioral controls should be carefully designed.Economic Theory&Research,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Decentralization,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,National Governance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform

The Impact of Macroeconomic News on Quote Adjustments, Noise, and Informational Volatility

We study the impact of the arrival of macroeconomic news on the informational and noise-driven components in high-frequency quote processes and their conditional variances. Bid and ask returns are decomposed into a common ("efficient return") factor and two market-side-specific components capturing market microstructure effects. The corresponding variance components reflect information-driven and noise-induced volatilities. We find that all volatility components reveal distinct dynamics and are positively influenced by news. The proportion of noise-induced variances is highest before announcements and significantly declines thereafter. Moreover, news-affected responses in all volatility components are influenced by order flow imbalances.efficient return, macroeconomic announcements, microstructure noise, informational volatility

The impact of macroeconomic news on quote adjustments, noise, and informational volatility

We study the impact of the arrival of macroeconomic news on the informational and noise-driven components in high-frequency quote processes and their conditional variances. Bid and ask returns are decomposed into a common ('efficient return') factor and two market-side-specific components capturing market microstructure effects. The corresponding variance components reflect information-driven and noise-induced volatilities.We find that all volatility components reveal distinct dynamics and are positively influenced by news. The proportion of noise-induced variances is highest before announcements and significantly declines thereafter. Moreover, news-affected responses in all volatility components are influenced by order flow imbalances. --effcient return,macroeconomic announcements,microstructure noise,informational volatility

Genetic Basis of Ammonium Toxicity Resistance in a Sake Strain of Yeast: A Mendelian Case.

High concentrations of ammonium at physiological concentrations of potassium are toxic for the standard laboratory strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae In the original description of this metabolic phenotype, we focused on the standard laboratory strains of Saccharomyces In this study, we screened a large collection of S. cerevisiae natural isolates and identified one strain that is resistant to high concentrations of ammonium. This strain, K12, was isolated in sake breweries. When the K12 strain was crossed to the standard laboratory strain (FY4), the resulting tetrads displayed 2:2 segregation of the resistance phenotype, suggesting a single gene trait. Using a bulk segregant analysis strategy, we mapped this trait to a 150-kb region on chromosome X containing the TRK1 gene. This gene encodes a transporter required for high-affinity potassium transport in S. cerevisiae Data from reciprocal hemizygosity experiments with TRK1 deletion strains in K12 and BY backgrounds, as well as analysis of the deletion of this gene in the K12 strain, demonstrate that the K12 allele of TRK1 is responsible for ammonium toxicity resistance. Furthermore, we determined the minimal amount of potassium required for both the K12 and laboratory strain needed for growth. These results demonstrate that the gene encoded by the K12 allele of TRK1 has a greater affinity for potassium than the standard allele of TRK1 found in Saccharomyces strains. We hypothesize that this greater-affinity allele of the potassium transporter reduces the flux of ammonium into the yeast cells under conditions of ammonium toxicity. These findings further refine our understanding of ammonium toxicity in yeast and provide an example of using natural variation to understand cellular processes

Combating Corruption in International Business: The Big Questions

The last several years have seen a significant rise in the efforts of governments to combat the supply side of corruption. Due to these increased efforts, now is an important time to ask some of the big questions in combating corruption. In short, my big questions relate to understanding why corporations pay bribes, what corporations need to do to stop paying bribes, and how to encourage corporations to actively fight corruption (that is, to combat corruption beyond their organizational boundaries). The first section of the essay addresses the question: why do corporations pay bribes? This leads to two additional questions: why do employees pay bribes, and when are compliance and ethics programs effective in preventing the payment of bribes? The next big question focuses on issues of corporate social responsibility: what should a corporation do to combat corruption? That is, is it sufficient for a corporation to simply ensure that its employees do not pay bribes, or should the corporation do something more?http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113261/1/1286_Hess.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113261/4/1286_Hess.pdfDescription of 1286_Hess.pdf : Corrected number on cover

Ethical Infrastructures and Evidence-Based Corporate Compliance and Ethics Programs: Policy Implications from the Empirical Evidence

In 2016 it will be the twenty-fifth anniversary of Organizational Sentencing Guidelines (OSG), which has been the single greatest influence on the structure of corporations’ compliance programs. The government and corporations continue to place faith in the ability of corporate compliance programs to reduce illegal and unethical behavior by managers and employees. Despite these efforts, the levels of observed unethical behavior by corporate employees has continued at a steady level over the past decade. In response, there has been an increased focus on trying to understand how a corporation’s culture influences its compliance program’s effectiveness. Although many (including the US Sentencing Commission through their amendments to the OSG) have recognized the importance of a corporation’s culture for controlling unethical behavior, there continues to be a wide-spread lack of understanding of the relationship between the compliance program and the corporation’s culture. This Article explains corporate culture by bringing together the latest research in behavioral and organizational ethics to present a model of an organization’s ethical infrastructure. This model integrates, rather than separates, the ideas of compliance and an ethical corporate culture. To incorporate this model into policy, this Article proposes two short amendments to the OSG that have the potential to catalyze significant change.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116105/1/1293_Hess.pd