Assessment of Environmental Carrying Capacity Using Principal Component Analysis

Regional environmental carrying capacity (ECC) is nonlinear and spatially specific. A hierarchy index system including resources, environmental and socio-economic elements was established using an analytic hierarchy process. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to estimate the regional size and differences of environmental carrying capacities. Main information of four principal components, i.e., carrying capacity of resources supply, carrying capacity of environmental quality, carrying capacity of social economy and carrying capacity of infrastructure construction, was extracted. The ECC evaluation value was divided into five levels of lowest carrying capacity, low carrying capacity, medium carrying capacity, high carrying capacity and highest carrying capacity, respectively. The results showed that on the whole ECC was at the medium carrying capacity level. ECC was generally highest in Guanzhong plain, followed by Loess Plateau, and was lowest in Qiba mountain. The carrying capacity of water resources and environmental quality was relatively low, and the infrastructure carrying capacity was highest among the four components. The temporal spatial variation of ECC was closely related to vulnerability of the natural resources and environment in the regions. Verification was proven that PCA was a useful tool when applied to evaluate ECC and reflect the spatial distribution of large-quantity ECC indices on a large regional scale. This study provides a basis for comprehensive understanding of resources, environment and management for regional balanced development.

Interval finite difference method for steady-state temperature field prediction with interval parameters

A new numerical technique named interval finite difference method is proposed for the steady-state temperature field prediction with uncertainties in both physical parameters and boundary conditions. Interval variables are used to quantitatively describe the uncertain parameters with limited information. Based on different Taylor and Neumann series, two kinds of parameter perturbation methods are presented to approximately yield the ranges of the uncertain temperature field. By comparing the results with traditional Monte Carlo simulation, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method for solving steady-state heat conduction problem with uncertain-but-bounded parameters.

Seismic source ruptures of several strong earth-quakes of 1989 in Sichuan region of China

Several strong earthquakes occurred in the regions of Batang and Xiaojin of Sichuan Province in 1989. This paper uses broadband waveform data from GDSN, by the forward trial-and-error modeling for multiple subevent, in terms of analysis on quasi-source time function or qSTF of station, to study source rupture characteristics of these strong earthquakes and to discuss tectonic background of earthquake occurrence regions preliminarily.

Variance Analysis of Growth Characteristics and Partial Production and Quality Characters of Different Tobacco Varieties

Objective] This study was conducted to discuss growth characteristics and partial production and quality characters of different varieties, so as to provide can-didates for tobacco production as wel as a theoretical basis for variety deployment in Guizhou. [Method] ‘K326’ was used as control, the experiment for variance analysis of growth characteristics and partial production and quality characters of dif-ferent tobacco varieties was carried out in Fengsan Town, Kaiyang County, Guizhou Province in 2015. [Result] GY8 grew faster in early stages and slower in late stages, the growth periods of GY2 （130 d） and GY5（129 d） were the longest, while those of Yun85 （121 d） and Yun87 （121 d） were the shortest; and GY2, GY5 and GY8 had larger plant heights, maximum leaf widths and maximum leaf areas, and Yun85, Yun87 and K326 showed larger stem girths and maximum leaf lengths. Yun87 exhibited lower natural incidences of diseases, while Yun85 and GY8 showed higher incidences of diseases. GY2, GY5 and GY8 had higher nicotine, total nitro-gen, K and Cl contents, while Yun85, Yun87 and K326 had higher total sugar and reducing sugar contents and higher total sugar/nicotine ratio. Yun85 and Yun87 showed better economic characters, while GY5 and GY8 showed poorer economic characters. [Conclusion] Yun85 and Yun87 have quality characters better than GY2 and GY8, field natural incidences of diseases lower than GY2 and GY8, and better economic characters, and thus could serve as candidates in future flue-cured tobac-co production in Guizhou.

An Increasing Rift Between Tax and Book Income After the Introduction of IFRS in Portugal

From January 1, 2010 the Portuguese system of financial accounting and reporting is based on the International Financial Reporting Standards （IFRS）. In Portugal, the taxable income of companies is derived from the accounting profit/loss. Adjustments are made to this figure to compute the taxable income. In this paper I will highlight the accounting and tax treatment of impairment losses in tangible assets, provisions, and the fair value method, concluding that the gap between accounting and tax rules did not diminish with the new system. In every one of the mentioned topics the rules inserted in the corporate tax code are quite different from the IFRS based accounting statements. Thus, an opportunity was lost to move towards a more harmonized system of computing book and tax income as far as corporate income tax is concerned

The driving effects of urbanization on economic growth and water use change in China： A provincial-level analysis in 1997-2011

As one of the key issues in China＇s sustainable development, rapid urbanization and continuous economic growth are accompanied by a steady increase of water consump- tion and a severe urban water crisis. A better understanding of the relationship among ur- banization, economic growth and water use change is necessary for Chinese decision mak- ers at various levels to address the positive and negative effects of urbanization. Thus, we established a complete decomposition model to quantify the driving effects of urbanization on economic growth and water use change for China and its 31 provincial administrative regions during the period of 1997-2011. The results show that, （1） China＇s urbanization only contrib- uted about 30% of the economic growth. Therefore, such idea as urbanization is the major driving force of economic growth may be weakened. （2） China＇s urbanization increased 2352×10^8 m3 of water use by increasing the economic aggregate. However, it decreased 4530×10^8 m3 of water use by optimizing the industrial structure and improving the water use efficiency. Therefore, such idea as urbanization is the major driving force of water demand growth may be reacquainted. （3） Urbanization usually made greater contribution to economic and water use growth in the provincial administrative regions in east and central China, which had larger population and economic aggregate and stepped into the accelerating period of urbanization. However, it also made greater contribution to industrial structure optimization and water use efficiency improvement, and then largely decreased total water use. In total, urbanization had negative effects on water use growth in most provincial administrative re- gions in China, and the spatiotemporal differences among them were lessened on the whole. （4） Though urbanization helps to decrease water use for China and most provincial adminis- trative regions, it may cause water crisis in urban built-up areas or urban agglomerations. Therefore, China should construct the water transfer and compensation mechanisms be- tween urban and rural areas, or low and high density urban areas as soon as possible.

A closed-form solution for moving source localization using LBI changing rate of phase difference only

Due to the deficiencies in the conventional multiple-receiver localization syste,.ns based on direction of arrival （DOA） such as system complexity of interferometer or array and ampli- tude/phase unbalance between multiple receiving channels and constraint on antenna configuration, a new radiated source localization method using the changing rate of phase difference （CRPD） measured by a long baseline interferometer （LBI） only is studied. To solve the strictly nonlinear problem, a two-stage closed-form solution is proposed. In the first stage, the DOA and its changing rate are estimated from the CRPD of each observer by the pseudolinear least square （PLS） method, and then in the second stage, the source position and velocity are found by another PLS minimiza- tion. The bias of the algorithm caused by the correlation between the measurement matrix and the noise in the second stage is analyzed. To reduce this bias, an instrumental variable （IV） method is derived. A weighted IV estimator is given in order to reduce the estimation variance. The proposed method does not need any initial guess and the computation is small. The Cramer-Rao lower bound （CRLB） and mean square error （MSE） are also analyzed. Simulation results show that the proposed method can be close to the CRLB with moderate Gaussian measurement noise.

A review of tax avoidance in China

This paper synthesizes the major empirical findings of the burgeoning tax avoidance research in China from the accounting,finance,and economics literature over the last 13 years.It surveys the evidence in four main areas:(1)the mechanisms through which Chinese firms avoid income taxes;(2)the effects of government ownership and agency problem on tax avoidance;(3)tax avoidance and political connections;and(4)the roles of book-tax conformity,tax enforcement,and corporate governance.It also discusses the appropriateness of tax avoidance measures in the Chinese setting.Finally,it proposes important directions for future research.