Auditing Standards in China—A Comparative Analysis with Relevant International Standards and Guidelines

The continuing and deepening economic reforms in China have brought many changes both socially and economically to the society. The primary function of auditing in China has begun to shift away from the traditional tax compliance assessment towards the credibility lending to financial statements. The economic reforms and the development of the Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises have necessitated the parallel development of auditing standards in China. While some significant differences exist, the new Chinese auditing standards are, in a number of important aspects, similar to the professional standards promulgated by the International Federation of Accountants. The development of a comprehensive body of standards, auditor independence, the role of certain auditing techniques, and certified public accountant (CPA) population are the major areas that China needs to improve. Opening up the Chinese accounting industry will trigger significant advances in the implementation of Chinese standards and the development of the Chinese accounting profession.     

Runoff quality and pollution loadings from a tropical urban catchment.

Runoff quality draining from 17.14 km2 urban catchment in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, was analysed. The land-use consists of residential (30.3%), agricultural (27.3%), open space (27.9%), industrial (8.1%) and commercial (6.4%) areas. Three storm events were sampled in detail. These storms produced stormflow between 0.84 mm and 27.82 mm, and peakflow from 2.19 m3/s to 42.36 m3/s. Water quality showed marked variation during storms especially for TSS, BOD and COD with maximum concentrations of 778 mg/l, 135 mg/l and 358 mg/l, respectively. Concentrations of TOC, DOC, NH3-N, Fe and level of colour were also high. In general, the river quality is badly polluted and falls in Class V based on the Malaysian Interim National Water Quality Standards. Event Mean Concentrations (EMC) for various parameters varied considerably between storms. The largest storm produced higher EMC for TSS, NO3-N and SS whereas the smaller storms tend to register higher EMC for BOD, COD, NH3-N, TOC, Ca, K, Mg, Fe and Zn. Such variations could be explained in terms of pollutant availability and the effects of flushing and dilution. Based on a three-month average recurrence interval (ARI) of rainfall, the estimated event loadings (ton/ha) of TSS, BOD, COD, TOC, NH3-N and NO3-N were 0.055, 0.016, 0.012, 0.039, 0.010, 0.0007 and 0.0002, respectively. Heavy metals present in trace quantities. Storms with 3 months ARI could capture about 70% of the total annual loads of major pollutants.     

巴基斯坦发展水电和减轻贫困的规划

巴基斯坦政府已经把优先发展水电作为未来经济发展的一个重要因素，并且在国家的2025年远景工作规划中，也要求重点开发该国丰富的水能资源。     

Diffusion performance of major steel-making countries: alternative econometric tests

The purpose of this study is to compare the speed of diffusion in major steel-making countries. This is a cross-system analysis, involving industrial market countries (Western Europe, the United States, Canada, and Japan), quasi-market economies (selected newly industrializing countries, India), and the central planning states (the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe). The study reveals that at least in this, significant case, the latter countries are clearly inferior, i.e. slower.The article seeks the most accurate measure of speed of diffusion of one radical steel innovation, the oxygen process. The speed is estimated by regressing a logistic function not applied to the steel industry to date. Parameters of a logistic function are estimated first with linear least squares methods and then with nonlinear (or iterative) least squares, to establish which offers more accurate estimation than the widely used linear approach. It is shown that the iterative method produces a better statistical fit.Associate Professor; the author would like to acknowledge computational assistance by Steve Langolis, Stanford University, and help in updating the author's data on the world steel production provided by Mark Shafter, London School of Economics.     

Improvement of anaerobic digestion of sludge.

Anaerobic digestion improvement can be accomplished by different methods. Besides optimization of the process conditions, pretreatment of input sludge and increase of process temperature is frequently used. The thermophilic process brings a higher solids reduction and biogas production, a high resistance to foaming, no problems with odour, better pathogens destruction and an improvement of the energy balance of the whole treatment plant. Disintegration of excess activated sludge in a lysate centrifuge was proved to cause increase of biogas production in full-scale conditions. The rapid thermal conditioning of digested sludge is an acceptable method of particulate matter disintegration and solubilization.     

Toward Closing the Loop between Infrastructure Investments and Societal and Economic Impacts

The long-term value proposition of transportation infrastructure investments can be significantly distorted if the short-term effects of spatial externalities on land use patterns, economic expansions, and migration patterns are not properly included in the analysis. Some of these effects occur over a short period of time and soon after the investment materializes, whereas others take longer and follow more steady patterns. In this article, we develop a novel dynamical model of a primal society with constructs that are specifically geared toward transportation infrastructure expansions and investments. The model quantifies the impact of these expansions on some key performance indicators and on the overall utility and production capacity of the society. We argue that traditional analytical models that work on the premises of stationary behavior and a static response of society to changes in infrastructure do not correctly capture these effects. The land use patterns and spatial expansion computed from the model are validated against existing theory on land use. Preliminary results on how to use the model for value proposition analysis are also presented using simple case studies.     

Country spreads and emerging countries: Who drives whom?

This paper attempts to disentangle the intricate relation linking the world interest rate, country spreads, and emerging-market fundamentals. It does so by using a methodology that combines empirical and theoretical elements. The main findings are: (1) US interest rate shocks explain about 20% of movements in aggregate activity in emerging economies. (2) Country spread shocks explain about 12% of business cycles in emerging economies. (3) In response to an increase in US interest rates, country spreads first fall and then display a large, delayed overshooting; (4) US-interest-rate shocks affect domestic variables mostly through their effects on country spreads; (5) The feedback from emerging-market fundamentals to country spreads significantly exacerbates business-cycle fluctuations.