The sleeping watch dog: aka the Securities and Exchange Commission
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to expose inefficient regulatory policies and organizational weaknesses at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that have contributed to a series of regulatory oversights that have produced some of the largest fraud schemes perpetrated on investors. Design/methodology/approach - Sources of information consisted of scholarly articles and articles retrieved from the web. Findings - Findings suggest that although weaknesses that have been exposed at the SEC may not account for any one securities fraud oversight, cumulatively, the weaknesses create negative synergy that increases the probability that a regulatory oversight will occur. Originality/value - This paper serves as a useful guide to alert and educate securities regulators and enforcement, regardless of the country they may operate in, to examine their own regulatory policies and organizational structures for weakness that may be similar to the SEC.
Commentary from the American Accounting Association's 2011 Annual Meeting Panel on Emerging Issues in Fraud Research
A t one of the forensic and investigative accounting panels at the American Accounting Association’s 2011 Annual meeting, panelists discussed some of the common misconceptions about fraud, the dearth of articles related to fraud examination and forensic accounting published in the mainstream accounting journals, and the many opportunities for future research in these areas. They also discussed the publication process as it relates to articles on fraud examination and forensic accounting topics. This article summarizes their discussion, and also draws upon some of the relevant published literature to highlight some of the fraud topics that are still largely unexplored and thus ripe for academic research. An emerging area of research is in the fraud and forensic accounting area. As a result of increased interest in fraud and forensic topics, journals (both new and old) are interested in manuscripts. The purpose of this paper is to (1) critically evaluate the state of current fraud research and provide guidance for future researchers, and (2) examine the publication process for both practitioner and scholarly journals from both an editorial and topical perspective. For readers who may be unfamiliar with the difference between forensic accounting and fraud examination, forensic accounting is a broader term that involves using accounting for investigative or other legal applications, such as corporate acquisition, divorce proceedings, insurance settlement, or other legal purposes. Joe Wells (2003) defines forensic accounting as work done by accountants
Ceramic microwave antennas for mobile applications
Due to their medium to high permittivity values, ceramic microwave materials are attractive as building blocks for miniaturised antenna solutions. Further advantages are low dielectric losses and an excellent temperature stability of standard ceramic materials. Yet, the permittivity of the ceramic material also has a strong influence on the radiation efficiency and bandwidth of the antenna. This implies that in the design process a suitable compromise has to be found between the degree of miniaturisation on the one hand and the antenna efficiency and bandwidth on the other. We describe two approaches towards efficient miniaturised ceramic microwave antennas: the dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) with partial metallisation and the shorting post patch antenna. We focus on design steps taken to ensure both a high degree of miniaturisation and high values of the radiation efficiency, the choice of the ceramic material and the experimental performance of the antennas.