Does the Internal Audit Function Play a Role in Mitigating Earnings Management?

This paper aims to investigate the effect of the characteristics of the internal audit function(IAF)on earnings management(EM)for a sample of 27 Tunisian listed companies.The authors employed the Correlated Panels Corrected Standard Errors model to estimate the regression equation.The results showed that EM is negatively associated with internal audit effectiveness,frequency of audit committee meetings with Chief Audit Executives(CAEs),the partial outsourcing of internal audit,and the firm’s size.Moreover,the authors found a positive relationship between EM and the use of IAF as a training ground for management and the private sector.This study is important to academics,regulators,and policymakers in introducing new governance reforms to strengthen the IAF as an important internal governance mechanism to reduce earnings management practices in emerging countries.The results also provide useful information for investors to examine the effect of internal audit characteristics on earnings management.

Comparison of water resources management between China and the United States

As the world’s top two economies,the United States(U.S.)and China face a number of similar water resources problems.Yet,few studies have been done to systematically compare policies and approaches on water resources management between China and the U.S.This study compares water resources policies of China and the U.S.in the areas of national authority,water supply,water quality,and ecosystem use of the water to draw lessons learned and shed light on water resources management in China,the U.S.,and the rest of the world.The lessons learned from the comparison include six aspects.1)New paradigms of people-water harmony and a water-saving society are urgently needed to address the pressing water crisis and achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals(UN SDGs).2)A comprehensive,consistent,forward-looking national policy is necessary to achieve sustainable use of water resources.3)Empowerment of river basin commissions with comprehensive authority over the integrative management of air,land,water,and biological resources in the river basin could significantly enhance the benefits and effectiveness of economic development and environmental protection.4)Expansion of water exchange through market mechanisms among water users promotes efficient and beneficial water uses.5)Use of water for ecosystem services should be an integral part of water resources management.China has set up a national blueprint for achieving ecological civilization;maintaining appropriate amounts of flow in rivers and lakes for maintenance of wildlife and fisheries and ecosystems should be institutionalized as part of this national strategy as well.6)By sharing their rich experiences and lessons in water resources management,economic development,and ecological protection with other countries,China and the U.S.can help the world to achieve global human-water harmony and the UN SDGs.

A new state of charge determination method for battery management system

State of Charge (SOC) determination is an increasingly important issue in battery technology. In addition to the immediate display of the remaining battery capacity to the user, precise knowledge of SOC exerts additional control over the charging/discharging process which in turn reduces the risk of over-voltage and gassing, which degrade the chemical composition of the electrolyte and plates. This paper describes a new approach to SOC determination for the lead-acid battery management system by combining Ah-balance with an EMF estimation algorithm, which predicts the battery’s EMF value while it is under load. The EMF estimation algorithm is based on an equivalent-circuit representation of the battery, with the parameters determined from a pulse test performed on the battery and a curve-fitting algorithm by means of least-square regression. The whole battery cycle is classified into seven states where the SOC is estimated with the Ah-balance method and the proposed EMF based algorithm. Laboratory tests and results are described in detail in the paper.

Changing Vegetation Patterns in Yobe State Nigeria: An Analysis of the Rates of Change, Potential Causes and the Implications for Sustainable Resource Management

The exploitation of natural resources for timber production, fuelwood use and conversion to agricultural land is increasing to such an extent that the sustainable use of many areas of the world is in doubt. This paper examines three decades of freely available Landsat satellite images of the northeastern part of Nigeria using a supervised classification based technique to create maps of vegetation change in Yobe State. The maps are then used to examine the temporal and spatial aspects of changes which have occurred in the context of previous evidence and literature. The results indicate that the vegetation of the area has drastically reduced since the 1970’s. However, as this study shows, the pattern of these changes is complicated and cannot be explained by any single physical or anthropogenic causal factor. Similarly, evidence from ground truthing investigation indicates the importance of fuelwood collection to the deforestation process within the region. This article shows the value of an existing remote sensing and image processing methodology for the assessment of vegetation change in developing countries in relation to the sustainable management of natural resources. The study also discusses the overall change within the study area and discusses several potential causative factors of the observed patterns of change.

State Auditing With the Investment in Public Sector： Case of Vietnam

In Vietnam, in the current period, public investment plays an important role in the improvement of technical infrastructure systems, economic and social development of motivation to promote national development. However, the question is how to ensure that these sources of funds are used most effectively in terms of limited resources. In this article, the author would like to emphasize the critical role of the state auditor which is not only in the transparency of information, in enhancing the trust of the citizens, but also in providing important and reliable information to the public sector agencies, units, investors, and people in the society. From that, it could help to serve the management and administration of revenues and expenditures of the state budget as well as reasonably and efficiently using financial resources and assets. In case of perfectly conducting those tasks, they will contribute the power to the economy, fight corruption as loss or waste, and detect and prevent violations of law; improve the efficient use of the budget, the money, and property of the state; and serve effectively for the operation of the National Assembly and People＇s Councils at all levels of the implementation and monitoring function to decide important issues of national and local governments. With the above information, these matters in Vietnam will be solved through this paper that consists of five parts： （1） the basics about the current public investment in Vietnam; （2） the role of state auditing in improving performance management and monitoring of investment; （3） the limitations of state auditing in public investment; （4） many solutions to promote the role of state auditing in improving the effective investment activities; and （5） conclusion.

Analyzing and Designing Business Processes Management System Based on Transformation of Instantiated Ontology’s State

The paper discusses efforts of finding a simple and transparent method to analyze business processes and developing its management system architecture. By introducing ontology and its state, the approach tried to find a unified representation and a flexible choreography of business processes. The main idea of the paper is the transformation of ontology＇s states, which are the most important scenarios of enterprises. The business activity composition, that is, case composition based on an AI technique, Case Based Reason （CBR）, which is to solve new problems by retrieving solutions to previous problems, and then store the modified solution. The main interest in CBR relies on that it allows a system to avoid past failures and exploit past successes.

State of Health Estimation of LiFePO_(4) Batteries for Battery Management Systems

When considering the mechanism of the batteries,the capacity reduction at storage(when not in use)and cycling(during use)and increase of internal resistance is because of degradation in the chemical composition inside the batteries.To optimize battery usage,a battery management system(BMS)is used to estimate possible aging effects while different load profiles are requested from the grid.This is specifically seen in a case when the vehicle is connected to the net(online through BMS).During this process,the BMS chooses the optimized load profiles based on the least aging effects on the battery pack.The major focus of this paper is to design an algorithm/model for lithium iron phosphate(LiFePO4)batteries.The model of the batteries is based on the accelerated aging test data(data from the beginning of life till the end of life).The objective is to develop an algorithm based on the actual battery trend during the whole life of the battery.By the analysis of the test data,the complete trend of the battery aging and the factors on which the aging is depending on is identified,the aging model can then be recalibrated to avoid any differences in the production process during cell manufacturing.The validation of the model was carried out at the end by utilizing different driving profiles at different C-rates and different ambient temperatures.A Linear and non-linear model-based approach is used based on statistical data.The parameterization was carried out by dividing the data into small chunks and estimating the parameters for the individual chunks.Self-adaptive characteristic map using a lookup table was also used.The nonlinear model was chosen as the best candidate among all other approaches for longer validation of 8-month data with real driving data set.

The Benefit of State Audit and Significance to Enhancing the Validity of Vietnamese State Budget Accounting

For achievement of common goals, state accounting is used and applied by the government for adjusting the activities of public organizations that are in compliance with the social-economic policies in the country. Indeed, public sector has been playing a pivotal role in supporting the government＇s aspirations in the development in any countries. To conduct these responsibilities, public entities have to provide valuable financial information for making the decisions. These figures will be extracted from accounting documents and reports, because accounting is a financial resources measurement of any firms. As a result, public sector accounting, also known as budget accounting, is an important tool for reflecting the governmental transactions to general statements. However, there are some limitations or errors in the public sector accounting reports. Therefore, state audit is established for checking, monitoring, and inspecting figures made from pubic accounting. Moreover, from the past to the present, very little research has been conducted to define the usefulness of public auditing to general accounting. With causes necessary for examining economic activities of any organizations, the main purpose of this paper is to identify the theory of state budget accounting, the activities, characteristics, and tasks of state audit for improving the value of accounting data in the Vietnamese public sector. This article has given five points of view as well as five solutions for enhancing the state audit.

Toward the Effect of Audit Quality on Earnings Management——Empirical Evidence from Manufacturing Enterprises Listed in Shanghai Stock Market

Nowadays, earnings management is a hot issue, but most of the researches focus on the incentives of earnings management and few of them refer to the effect of audit quality on earnings management. In this study, we directly examine the effect of external audit quality on earnings management by using discretionary accruals. We find that the discretionary accruals of non-dual audit companies are significantly greater than those of dual audit companies. We also find that clients of non-First Ten auditors intend to report greater discretionary accruals than those of First Ten auditors.

Financial Management and Control and Internal Audit System in the Public Sector in BiH

The introduction and implementation of finansijsko upravljanje i kontrola(FUK,financial management and control[FMC])in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina(FBiH)aims to incorporate a modern public internal financial control(PIFC)system into traditional public resources management models.This area is one of the reform areas in which Bosnia and Herzegovina(BiH)is obliged to harmonize the legislative framework and practice with the good practices and regulations recommended by the European Commission.The establishment and development of the PIFC are also an obligation of Bosnia and Herzegovina established by the Stabilization and Association Agreement between the European Community and the member states,of the one part,and Bosnia and Herzegovina,of the other part.The public internal financial control(PIFC)system focuses on enhancing transparency,financial discipline,and dedicated use of public resources,that is,transparent,economical,efficient,and effective management of public resources,and control of the use of those resources.The topic of this paper is“financial management and control in the public sector”where the aim is to show,through the conducted theoretical research,the level of achievement of the establishment of this system in public sector institutions in BiH.The European Union wants to direct all potential member countries towards development of internal controls in the use of their own resources,but also to create a control environment that would ensure the dedicated use of EU funds.In Bosnia and Herzegovina,there is no single legal framework in terms of a single law governing public internal financial controls.The contents of the applicable legal provisions at all three levels(BiH,FBiH,and Republic of Srpska[RS])are largely congruent thanks to the Coordination Committee of Central Harmonization Units(CHJs)in Bosnia and Herzegovina,through which the harmonization of regulations and practices in the development of public internal financial controls is ensured.

The Audit Opinion of Earnings Management in Listed Companies of China

The paper testes the relationship between audit opinions and financial sensitive zones and accounts on the basis of the data of A-share companies in China. The author finds that when ROE of listed companies is in the small-profit zone or in the large-loss zone, the probabilities that they get modified audit opinions increase. But the right-offering zone, accrual accounts and accounts below the line have no significant effects on the modified audit opinions. Besides, the author also finds that the ratio of accounts receivable to asset, debt ratio, previous year＇s audit opinion and change of CPA firms have significant positive effects on the modified audit opinions, while the ratio of major business revenue and size of companies have no notable effects. Some other factors such as cash ratio, age of the listing and CPA firm ranking have no consistent and continuous effects.

The Self-inspections(Internal Audits)Process as a Part of the Pharmaceutical Quality System:Formation of a Risk-Based Approach to Internal Audits Planning

The quality system of any modern pharmaceutical company is the pharmaceutical quality system(PQS),which extends the GMP standards to all stages of the medicinal productslife cycle,from pharmaceutical development to its withdrawal from production.The principal difference between PQS and GxP rules from other quality systems is that the medicinal product,its safety and efficacy is put at the forefront.At the same time,PQS implies a process approach to all components that should be aimed at achieving the main goal—ensuring and guaranteeing the quality of the medicinal product for the end user(patient)—and should be based on the quality risk management system.An integral part of PQS,as well as the GxP rules adopted in the European Union and PIC/S,is a process for self-inspections and/or quality audits,which regularly appraises the effectiveness and applicability of the PQS.This publication is dedicated to the definition of self-inspections(internal audits)as one of the PQS’s processes.The article defines the main standard stages and develops a model of a risk-based approach to the self-inspections’planning in relation to processes of the pharmaceutical quality system.

Research on the Influence Factors of the Auditing Quality from the Perspective of Profit Management

As one of the external mechanisms to protect investors,the quality of CPA auditing influences the profit of the investor directly.This paper studies the A-share listed companies in China from2009to 2011,with logistic regression,re-evaluating and exploring the influence factors to the auditing quality of CPA from the perspectives of the size of accountant firms and the profit management level.It finds that the size of accountant firms and the auditing quality are positively correlated with each other,but the statistics are not significant;however,the profit management level influences the auditing quality significantly.Besides,this paper finds that compared with the small-sized accountant firms,the profit management level and the auditing quality of those big-sized accountant firms are correlated with each more significantly.

30 years of reform of China's state-owned asset management system

Reform of China’s state-owned asset management system is an important component of China’s economic system reform,but also a key factor in rejuvenating the national economy.In this article,the authors analyzed the background of the reform,summarized the reform process and discussed related question on how to deepen the reform.

Whole-process case management effects on mental state and selfcare ability in patients with liver cancer

BACKGROUND Regarding the incidence of malignant tumors in China,the incidence of liver cancer ranks fourth,second only to lung,gastric,and esophageal cancers.The case fatality rate ranks third after lung and cervical cancer.In a previous study,the whole-process management model was applied to patients with breast cancer,which effectively reduced their negative emotions and improved treatment adherence and nursing satisfaction.METHODS In this single-center,randomized,controlled study,60 randomly selected patients with liver cancer who had been admitted to our hospital from January 2021 to January 2022 were randomly divided into an observation group(n=30),who received whole-process case management on the basis of routine nursing mea-sures,and a control group(n=30),who were given routine nursing measures.We compared differences between the two groups in terms of anxiety,depression,the level of hope,self-care ability,symptom distress,sleep quality,and quality of life.RESULTS Post-intervention,Hamilton anxiety scale,Hamilton depression scale,memory symptom assessment scale,and Pittsburgh sleep quality index scores in both groups were lower than those pre-intervention,and the observation group had lower scores than the control group(P<0.05).Herth hope index,self-care ability assessment scale-revision in Chinese,and quality of life measurement scale for patients with liver cancer scores in both groups were higher than those pre-intervention,with higher scores in the observation group compared with the control group(P<0.05).CONCLUSION Whole-process case management can effectively reduce anxiety and depression in patients with liver cancer,alleviate symptoms and problems,and improve the level of hope,self-care ability,sleep quality,and quality of life,as well as provide feasible nursing alternatives for patients with liver cancer.

A review of data-driven whole-life state of health prediction for lithium-ion batteries:Data preprocessing,aging characteristics,algorithms,and future challenges

Lithium-ion batteries are the preferred green energy storage method and are equipped with intelligent battery management systems(BMSs)that efficiently manage the batteries.This not only ensures the safety performance of the batteries but also significantly improves their efficiency and reduces their damage rate.Throughout their whole life cycle,lithium-ion batteries undergo aging and performance degradation due to diverse external environments and irregular degradation of internal materials.This degradation is reflected in the state of health(SOH)assessment.Therefore,this review offers the first comprehensive analysis of battery SOH estimation strategies across the entire lifecycle over the past five years,highlighting common research focuses rooted in data-driven methods.It delves into various dimensions such as dataset integration and preprocessing,health feature parameter extraction,and the construction of SOH estimation models.These approaches unearth hidden insights within data,addressing the inherent tension between computational complexity and estimation accuracy.To enha nce support for in-vehicle implementation,cloud computing,and the echelon technologies of battery recycling,remanufacturing,and reuse,as well as to offer insights into these technologies,a segmented management approach will be introduced in the future.This will encompass source domain data processing,multi-feature factor reconfiguration,hybrid drive modeling,parameter correction mechanisms,and fulltime health management.Based on the best SOH estimation outcomes,health strategies tailored to different stages can be devised in the future,leading to the establishment of a comprehensive SOH assessment framework.This will mitigate cross-domain distribution disparities and facilitate adaptation to a broader array of dynamic operation protocols.This article reviews the current research landscape from four perspectives and discusses the challenges that lie ahead.Researchers and practitioners can gain a comprehensive understanding of battery SOH estimation methods,offering valuable insights for the development of advanced battery management systems and embedded application research.

Review on Lithium-ion Battery PHM from the Perspective of Key PHM Steps

Prognostics and health management(PHM)has gotten considerable attention in the background of Industry 4.0.Battery PHM contributes to the reliable and safe operation of electric devices.Nevertheless,relevant reviews are still continuously updated over time.In this paper,we browsed extensive literature related to battery PHM from 2018to 2023 and summarized advances in battery PHM field,including battery testing and public datasets,fault diagnosis and prediction methods,health status estimation and health management methods.The last topic includes state of health estimation methods,remaining useful life prediction methods and predictive maintenance methods.Each of these categories is introduced and discussed in details.Based on this survey,we accordingly discuss challenges left to battery PHM,and provide future research opportunities.This research systematically reviews recent research about battery PHM from the perspective of key PHM steps and provide some valuable prospects for researchers and practitioners.

A Mixed Methods Evaluation of the Application of the REFLECT Framework to Psychological Services

The REFLECT Psychological Services Audit Framework was developed to address critical gaps in the evaluation of mental health services, primarily within Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) and psychological services. This study aims to assess the framework’s impact on clinical outcomes, financial oversight, staff well-being, and risk management. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining quantitative data—including paired t-tests, regression analysis, and Chi-square tests—with qualitative insights from semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Quantitative data were collected across 10 EAPs, evaluating 100 clients using the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scales for depression and anxiety, respectively, and 50 staff members using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Financial data included budget allocation efficiency and cost-effectiveness metrics. Risk management was assessed through safeguarding incidents and incident reporting time. Results revealed significant improvements across all key domains: client mental health outcomes (PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores significantly reduced, p [1] offers a comprehensive, evidence-based tool for improving service quality, financial efficiency, and clinician support in psychological services.

Application of Power Electronics and Control for Dual Battery Packs Management with Voltage Balancing and State of Charge Estimation

Energy storage, such as lead acid batteries, is necessary for renewable energy sources’ autonomy because of their intermittent nature, which makes them more frequently used than traditional energy sources to reduce operating costs. The battery storage system has to be monitored and managed to prevent serious problems such as battery overcharging, over-discharging, overheating, battery unbalancing, thermal runaway, and fire dangers. For voltage balancing between batteries in the pack throughout the charging period and the SOC estimate, a modified lossless switching mechanism is used in this research’s suggested battery management system. The OCV state of charge calculation, in the beginning, was used in conjunction with the coulomb counting approach to estimate the SOC. The results reveal that correlation factor K has an average value of 0.3 volts when VM ≥ 12 V and an average value of 0.825 when VM ≤ 12 V. The battery monitoring system revealed that voltage balancing was accomplished during the charging process in park one after 80 seconds with a SOC difference of 1.4% between Batteries 1 and 2. On the other hand, the system estimates the state of charge during the discharging process in two packs, with a maximum DOD of 10.8 V for all batteries. The project’s objectives were met since the BMS estimated SOC and achieved voltage balance.

From the Opacity of Internal Control to the Effectiveness of Legal Audit: Analysis of Issues and Determinants in Business in Cameroon

Legal audit is a statutory control of the accounts carried out based on internal control(IC).Meanwhile,paradoxically,IC is not always transparent to the legal auditor,but rather a compromise to his expectations.What are the determinants that allow the auditor to adapt to it?This paper proposes the analysis of issues and determinants of the effectiveness of legal audit in the context of an opaque IC.This study is carried out on a sample of 56 limited liability companies in Cameroon,carefully selected based on the existence of an IC service.The determinants explaining the auditor’s effectiveness in his mission are noted.