Suchergebnisse

This paper discusses the development of the British state audit system exercised by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the National Audit Office (NAO). It briefly describes the concerns which led to a campaign for reforming our audit arrangements and to the passing of the National Audit Act in 1983 and considers ways in which that Act could be used to increase the effectiveness of parliamentary and public accountability of central government in the light of new developments in the management of departments.

Presentation inscription by the author. ; Mode of access: Internet. ; VIVA Repository Copy 2014. ; 2

The Bank of England depleted its open-market portfolio by secretly sterilizing large gold inflows. Thereafter interest rates were influenced by manipulating reported gold flows. Expectations manipulation as a monetary policy channel is modeled and estimated. A gold flow falsification was over two-thirds as effective as an open-market operation. These results contradict accepted new classical models and suggest that credibility benefits from new classical policy are small, despite current popularity among central bankers. The episode supports Peter Temin's view of interwar central bankers as nonstabilizers and enforcers of a dysfunctional classical orthodoxy.

Social and judicial reluctance to accept defectively designed products raises sharp questions concerning the human factors engineer's moral, ethical, legal and personal responsibilities. This paper presents one human factors engineer's thoughts and opinions on these questions and illustrates situations where liability perhaps should and should not be personal.

Recent studies of the anthropometry and selected biomechanical characteristics of hands are summarized. These include: (1) conventional anthropometry of male and female hands, (2) the anthropometry of the relaxed hand, (3) comparison of certain engineering anthropometric and performance parameters between bare and pressure-gloved hands, and (4) the ability to retain grips on selected handles under high dynamic loads. The utility of these data for human factors engineering is discussed.