A list-sequential sampling scheme with applications in financial auditing

External auditors have the responsibility of estimating thelevel of error in accounts presented to them by their clients,and establishing whether or not this exceeds materiality. Usuallythe large volume of accounts necessitates the use of sampleinformation to estimate the error amount, which is obtainedby randomly choosing a subset of the line items for auditing.Since the account amounts may vary considerably, it is desirableto select them with probability proportional to the book valuesize, and while numerous such procedures exist, most have implementationproblems which prevent their widespread application to practicalsituations: some select items with replacement, others becometoo complex when the sample size is large, and yet others returna variable sample size. This paper presents a selection methodthat mitigates these problems. It returns a fixed-size sampleof distinct line items, and is easy to implement no matter howlarge the sample. The results of a series of simulation experimentswith a variety of audit conditions indicate that the new methodprovides reliable bound estimates of the total error amount,which are more precise than methods currently in use.     

Finite extension and torsion of fiber-reinforced non-linearly elastic circular cylinders

In the context of the theory of non-linear elasticity for rubber-like materials, the problem of finite extension and torsion of a circular bar or tube has been widely investigated. More recently, this problem has attracted considerable attention in studies on the biomechanics of soft tissues and has been applied, for example, to examine the mechanical behavior of passive papillary muscles of the heart. A recent study in non-linear elasticity was concerned specifically with the effects of strain-stiffening on the response of solid circular cylinders in the combined deformation of torsion superimposed on axial extension. The cylinders are composed of incompressible isotropic non-linearly elastic materials that undergo severe strain-stiffening in the stress–stretch response. For two specific material models that reflect limiting chain extensibility at the molecular level, it was shown that, in the absence of an additional axial force, a transition value γ=γ_t of the axial stretch exists such that for γ<γ_t, the stretched cylinder tends to elongate on twisting whereas for γ>γ_t, the stretched cylinder tends to shorten on twisting. These results are in sharp contrast with those for classical models for rubber such as the Mooney–Rivlin (and neo-Hookean) models that predict that the stretched circular cylinder always tends to further elongate on twisting. Here we investigate similar issues for fiber-reinforced transversely isotropic circular cylinders. We consider a class of incompressible anisotropic materials with strain-energy densities that are of logarithmic form in the anisotropic invariant. These models reflect limited fiber extensibility and in the biomechanics context model the stretch induced strain-stiffening of collagen fibers on loading. They have been shown to model the mechanical behavior of fiber-reinforced rubber and many fibrous soft biological tissues. The consideration of anisotropy leads to a more elaborate mechanical response than was found for isotropic strain-stiffening materials. The results obtained here have important implications for extension–torsion tests for fiber-reinforced materials, for example in the development of accurate extension–torsion test protocols for determination of material properties of soft tissues.     

Constitutive Models for Almost Incompressible Isotropic Elastic Rubber-like Materials

A simple constitutive model is proposed for slightly compressible (or almost incompressible) non-linearly elastic materials that are homogeneous and isotropic. Experimental data for simple tension suggest that there is a power-law kinematic relationship between the stretches for large classes of such materials. It is shown that a common constitutive model for these materials does not, in general, capture this effect. The most general constitutive model giving rise to such a power-law relationship is then obtained. A special case yields the well-known Blatz–Ko model for compressible rubber. The behavior in biaxial tension and pure shear is also discussed.     

Reliability of biospeckle image analysis

 This paper presents an analysis of the time history of speckle patterns (THSP) that is one of the most used procedures to evaluate the biological activity by biospeckle images. THSPs generated by numerical simulations, obtained in a controlled drying of paint experiment and in dead and alive bean seeds under laser illumination were evaluated. We used first- and second-order statistics of the dynamic speckle patterns for different time and spatial amounts of data. We have tested both square and rectangular windows in the space time domain. The results show the agreement with a theoretical curve and comparisons between different window sizes.     

A Saint-Venant principle for shear band localization

A type of Saint-Venant principle is derived for a two-dimensional model of shear band formation in thermoviscoplastic solids. To establish that the thermal energy generated during the formation process remains highly localized, a spatially decaying upper bound on the temperature is derived. It is found that the temperature bound decays exponentially along the direction perpendicular to the band, with a rate that decreases in time. The result is established by using maximum principles for second-order nonlinear parabolic partial differential equations.Mathematics Subject Classification (2000). 74C20, 74G50.     

The rational development of molecularly imprinted polymer-based sensors for protein detection

The detection of specific proteins as biomarkers of disease, health status, environmental monitoring, food quality, control of fermenters and civil defence purposes means that biosensors for these targets will become increasingly more important. Among the technologies used for building specific recognition properties, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are attracting much attention. In this critical review we describe many methods used for imprinting recognition for protein targets in polymers and their incorporation with a number of transducer platforms with the aim of identifying the most promising approaches for the preparation of MIP-based protein sensors (277 references).     

Heavy-quark production at collider energy

The rather large cross section reported for Λ_c production at ISR energy suggests that cross sections for the production of heavier quarks at collider energy could be important. It is then advocated that an interesting kinematical region for the search for leptons associated with t quark formation is p_T > 5 GeV/c, θ ≈ 20–30°.     

Parton-nucleon reciprocity and the fragmentation of weak currents

We discuss some consequences of the parton-nucleon reciprocity relation for the production of nucleons by fragmentation of weak currents, both neutral and charged.     

A study of the adsorption of oxygen on Ni(111) using auger electron spectroscopy: Chemical shifts and valence spectra

Auger electron spectra have been recorded when oxygen is adsorbed on a Ni(111) single crystal surface. For the coverage range θ < 1, an analysis of the plot of the peak to peak height (H) of the oxygen KVV (516 eV) transition versus the total number of molecules cm^2? impinging on the surface (molecular beam dosing) shows agreement with the kinetic mechanism proposed by Morgan and King [Surface Sci. 23 (1970) 259] for the adsorption of oxygen on polycrystalline nickel films. In this coverage range, no energy shifts of the nickel or oxygen Auger peaks were recorded.At coverages θ > 1 (standard dosing procedure) shifts in the valence spectra M_{2, 3}VV (61 eV) and L₃M_{2, 3}V (782 eV) of ?2.3 eV and ?1.8eV respectively are recorded at 1.4 × 10^?2 torr-sec. Up to these coverages no shift of the L₃VV transition (849 eV) is observed. A chemical shift of ?2.1 eV is recorded in the L₃M_{2, 3}M_{2, 3} Auger transition (716 eV) at 1.4 × 10^?2 torr-sec.In the coverage range θ > 1, shifts in the energy of the oxygen Auger peaks are observed. At 5.8 × 10^?3 torr-sec. the KVV (516 eV) and KL₁V (495.2 ± 0.3 eV) transitions show shifts of ?1.5 eV and ?(1.0 ±0.3) eV respectively. No shift up to this coverage is recorded in the KL₁L₁ (480.6 ± 0.3 eV) transition.