Do External Auditors Perform a Corporate Governance Role in Emerging Markets? Evidence from East Asia

In emerging markets, the concentration of corporate ownership has created agency conflicts between controlling owners and minority shareholders. Conventional corporate control mechanisms such as boards of directors and takeovers are typically weak in containing the agency problem. This study examines whether external independent auditors could be employed as monitors and as bonding mechanisms to alleviate the agency conflict. Using a broad sample of firms from eight East Asian economies, we document that firms are more likely to employ Big Five auditors when they are more subject to the agency problem imbedded in their ultimate ownership structure. One possible reason that this documented relation between auditor choice and the agency problem is more evident than the inconsistent results using U.S. and U.K. data is that alternative governance mechanisms are limited in East Asia. In addition, among East Asian auditees subject to the agency problem, Big Five auditors charge a higher fee and set a lower audit modification threshold while non-Big Five auditors do not. Taken together, the evidence suggests that Big Five auditors in emerging markets do have a corporate governance role.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39784/3/wp400.pd

Logic analysis of complex systems by characterizing failure phenomena to achieve diagnosis and fault-isolation

A recent result shows that, for a certain class of systems, the interdependency among the elements of such a system together with the elements constitutes a mathematical structure a partially ordered set. It is called a loop free logic model of the system. On the basis of an intrinsic property of the mathematical structure, a characterization of system component failure in terms of maximal subsets of bad test signals of the system was obtained. Also, as a consequence, information concerning the total number of failure components in the system was deduced. Detailed examples are given to show how to restructure real systems containing loops into loop free models for which the result is applicable

Highlights of the TEXONO Research Program on Neutrino and Astroparticle Physics

This article reviews the research program and efforts for the TEXONO Collaboration on neutrino and astro-particle physics. The ``flagship'' program is on reactor-based neutrino physics at the Kuo-Sheng (KS) Power Plant in Taiwan. A limit on the neutrino magnetic moment of \munuebar < 1.3 X 10^{-10} \mub} at 90% confidence level was derived from measurements with a high purity germanium detector. Other physics topics at KS, as well as the various R&D program, are discussedComment: 10 pages, 9 figures, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Neutrino and Dark Matter in Nuclear Physics (NDM03), Nara, Japan, June 9-14, 200

AERODYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF TWO RECTANGULAR-PLAN-FORM, ALLMOVABLE CONTROLS IN COMBINATION WITH A SLENDER BODY OF REVOLUTION AT MACH NUMBERS FROM 3.00 TO 6.25

Aerodynamic characteristics of rectangular planform, all-movable controls combined with slender body of revolution at mach 3 to 6.2

THE IMPACT COMPARISON OF TOP-SPIN BALL OF TENNIS ON CLAY COURT AND HARD COURT

The purpose of this study was to compare the experiment parameters resulting from different incident angles, respectively 20, 30, 40,50,60,and 70 degrees, and top-spin ball of tennis, after the impact of the ball on the clay court and the hard court. Ten top-spin tennis(v=21m/sec,w=-142 rad/s) were filmed with High-Speed camera which impact on two different types of surface. The conclusion was as follows_Under the different angles of top-spin, the horizontal velocity, the vertical velocity, and the angular velocity change n the hard court are greater than those in the clay court. The rebound angle in the clay court are greater than those in the hard court. The value of the above –mentioned parameters, except the rebound angle and the vertical velocity, will decrease as the incident angle increased

Toxicological approach to setting spacecraft maximum allowable concentrations for carbon monoxide

The Spacecraft Maximum Allowable Concentrations (SMACs) are exposure limits for airborne chemicals used by NASA in spacecraft. The aim of these SMACs is to protect the spacecrew against adverse health effects and performance decrements that would interfere with mission objectives. Because of the 1 and 24 hr SMACs are set for contingencies, minor reversible toxic effects that do not affect mission objectives are acceptable. The 7, 30, or 180 day SMACs are aimed at nominal operations, so they are established at levels that would not cause noncarcinogenic toxic effects and more than one case of tumor per 1000 exposed individuals over the background. The process used to set the SMACs for carbon monoxide (CO) is described to illustrate the approach used by NASA. After the toxicological literature on CO was reviewed, the data were summarized and separated into acute, subchronic, and chronic toxicity data. CO's toxicity depends on the formation of carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) in the blood, reducing the blood's oxygen carrying capacity. The initial task was to estimate the COHb levels that would not produce toxic effects in the brain and heart

Nutrients in waters on the inner shelf between Cape Charles and Cape Hatteras

The distribution of nutrients in the shelf waters of the southern tip of the Middle Atlantic Bight was investigated. It is concluded that the outflow of freshwater from the Chesapeake Bay is a potential source of nutrients to the adjacent shelf waters. However, a quantitative estimation of its importance cannot yet be made because (1) there are other sources of nutrients to the study area and these sources cannot yet be quantified and (2) the concentrations of nutrients in the outflow from Chesapeake Bay exhibit significant short-term and long-term temporal variabilities

Comparison of uniform perturbation solutions and numerical solutions for some potential flows past slender bodies

Approximate solutions for potential flow past an axisymmetric slender body and past a thin airfoil are calculated using a uniform perturbation method and then compared with either the exact analytical solution or the solution obtained using a purely numerical method. The perturbation method is based upon a representation of the disturbance flow as the superposition of singularities distributed entirely within the body, while the numerical (panel) method is based upon a distribution of singularities on the surface of the body. It is found that the perturbation method provides very good results for small values of the slenderness ratio and for small angles of attack. Moreover, for comparable accuracy, the perturbation method is simpler to implement, requires less computer memory, and generally uses less computation time than the panel method. In particular, the uniform perturbation method yields good resolution near the regions of the leading and trailing edges where other methods fail or require special attention

RAMESES publication standards: meta-narrative reviews

PMCID: PMC3558334This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited