The Virtual Balise concept has been demonstrated and shared among the ERTMS community as a mean to replace the physical balises by implementing a train Location Determination System (LDS) based on GNSS. It is evidenced both by the results of recent and current EC-supported R&D projects (e.g. 3InSat, ERSAT EAV, STARS, RHINOS, NGTC), the Sardinia Trial Site (Cagliari – San Gavino double track lines) equipped with a ERTMS Level 2 based system with Virtual Balises and the Ansaldo STS Freight SIL 4 ERTMS Level 2 system based on GPS L1 positioning system in commercial service in Australia.

In order to introduce the safe high-integrity LDS system into ERTMS/ ETCS and use it in railway operations in EU member states (MSs), it is necessary to develop and to authorize it according to relevant European and national regulations. It means that this LDS and its integration into ERTMS must pass through a certification and authorization process compliant with the applicable CENELEC standards and EU regulations.

This article deals with a possible certification process of a train LDS as a new subsystem of the ERTMS/ETCS interoperability constituents. Special attention is paid to a possible certification strategy in case of external GNSS safety-of-life service employment via an augmentation network. A possible certification framework for the whole LDS comprising on-board and trackside subsystems is outlined as well. Since the introduction of GNSS into ERTMS/ETCS represents a significant change within EU railway network, then the required common safety method must be applied. In this framework, a new pilot line has been launched by RFI with Ansaldo STS aiming to contribute to the identification of a possible certification process for deploying an ERTMS Level 2, baseline 3 with GNSS localization and public telecom solutions by 2020.

Urban rapid transits are one of the most popular transportation methods these days. They are equipped with large-capacity air compressors because they use pneumatic pressure to supply power for braking, door opening and closing. Passengers tend to complain about vibration and noise generated during the operation of the air compressor. To address such issues, the excitation force generated in an air compressor mounted on a railway car was indirectly measured in this study. In order to accurately predict the excitation force transmitted to the mount rubber, the impedance matrix method technique was applied, which uses acceleration and the inverse of transfer functions. The proper locations of the measuring acceleration were also investigated. The calculated results of the transmitting force were then compared with the directly measured values.

In terms of the monetary transmission mechanism, one of the canals of influence of the monetary policy on the economy is the stock market. Determining the relationship between monetary policy actions and stock market is important in terms of the monetary transmission actions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of monetary policy shocks as a basic economic shocks on stock markets. In the study, predicting Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium model was carried out within framework of Bayesian Approach. The relationship between monetary policy shocks and stock market was investigated by causality analysis. Obtained findings indicate that there is bilateral relation between monetary policy shocks and stock returns.

Recently safety of Korean railway lines has been threatened by typhoon and heavy rainfall due to global warming and representative rainfall induced risks are landslides, slope failure, debris flow, fallen rocks etc. Risks of slope failures are evaluated by deformation of ground surface and underground movements. But many bore holes and sensors must be equipped in the ground for detecting of deformation of ground movements. Furthermore, it is not easy to confirm slope failure immediately and needs much time for post-processing of various data. Only one or very specific sections could be monitored for limited area due to budget. A multipurpose sensor is developed for overcoming these problems by use of data from inclinometer installed on the ground surface. Motions at a point of ground surface could be simply divided into rotation and linear movements and they might be representative sensor signals. In this study, failure types, slip surface, failed mass and failure direction could be recognized by use of these characteristics; sensor data and an algorithm to detect these movements are suggested. Failure shapes such as circular and planar failure are estimated by combination of simplified ground movements. For determination of a two-dimensional (2D) slip surface, 3D coordinates of a main slope profile and all sensor locations should be defined. Then specific equation to estimate slip surface is selected. After selection of starting and ending point of slip surface, the tangent value of a slip surface could be calculated from each sensor. 2D slip surface is calculated by combination of sensor location, the equation, tangent values and each ending point. 3D failed soil mass is also estimated from various 2D slip surfaces. By use of centre of mass, we could get movement direction of failed soil mass. An examination of this algorithm has been executed in a railway slope. Consequently, it is possible to estimate slip surface and failed soil mass using data from ground surface.

The main results of the macro stress testing exercise in this paper reveal that Malaysia’s banking sector is resilient, well diversified, and highly interconnected. Further, Malaysia has a thriving equity market, large bond market and growing private debt securities. Main results of the baseline scenario suggest a modest change in capital ratios; the post-stress test CAR and Tier 1 capital ratio are -1.64% and -1.38% respectively. The impact of all fundamental shocks on capital ratios under both adverse and severely adverse scenarios is significant. The aggregate capital shortfall in the form of needed capital injection (i.e. cost to the government from failed banks) under adverse scenario is 1.55% of the GDP (or $4.59 billion based on 2015 GDP of $296.22 billion). The capitalization needs became more severe in the severely adverse scenario, $10.52 billion (or 3.55% of 2015 GDP). The important conclusion of the macro stress testing is that no bank failed, faced a liquidation or suspension of license.

Road intersections play a key role in traffic management. Modern roundabouts require entering vehicles to yield to the circulating flow, and have proven highly effective in granting high performance levels to both new and redesigned intersections; therefore, their use has widely spread around the world over the years. The choice of the correct shape, size and signage of a roundabout is essential to accomplish the desired results in terms of performance and safety. In order to achieve these goals, designers have moved away from conventional layouts such as single-lane and multilane roundabouts, conceiving more and more unconventional solutions (spiral, turbo and two-geometry roundabouts). Alongside this design evolution, research has been conducted on functional analysis of roundabouts: several authors and authorities have developed capacity assessment models that are suitable for the analysis of unconventional roundabouts, but nowadays no complete review of such models is available. The aim of this paper is to collect descriptions of the main types of conventional and unconventional roundabouts, with a focus on their geometric features and applicable capacity assessment models.

The role of the internal audit becomes more and more important in the process of assessing and managing the own risks that the company deals with. Consequently, the provision of a risk management system and of an effective internal control system, including the internal audit function, is probably the greatest challenge for the management; the internal auditor also has a vital part in this respect. As such, the internal auditor and the manager should be considered as partners within an entity, having the same targets; some of these targets are the effectiveness of the management process and the achievement of the proposed targets. The internal audit has an important part in creating the management’s responsibility, in the sense that the management has to undertake the proposed recommendations and the fact that they should be implemented, with the purpose of avoiding potential risks. Therefore the main purpose of the internal audit activity was oriented towards the effective management of material, human and financial resources, fraud prevention and minimisation of risks regarding the events and transactions that occur within a company.

The profitability of manufacturing companies does not only play the role of improving the market value of that specific company but also leads to the overall growth of the whole sector which translate to improvement on profit level that could be attributable to characteristics possessed by firms. It is on this the study examines the effect of firm attributes on the return on assets of listed companies in Nigeria for a period of five years. The population and sample size of this study comprises of all the 41 listed manufacturing companies in the Nigerian Stock Exchange as at 31 December, 2016. The result of random effect regression provides evidence that all firm attributes apart from operating expenses and firm size had a negative and significant effect on return on asset. Based on this result, the study recommends that listed manufacturing firms should reduce firm size and operating expenses so as to increase the return on assets of their firms and short term cash should not be channeled to fund capital asset.

This study aims to determine the effect of administration of State Property, which consists of bookkeeping, inventory, and reporting on the optimization of fixed assets in the Secretariat of the General Election Commission of West Java Province, Indonesia. Questionnaires are distributed to 38 officers whom using and responsible for the use of fixed assets in a room or work location at the Secretariat of the General Election Commission of West Java Province, Indonesia. The finding shows that administration of State Property (bookkeeping, inventory, and reporting of fixed assets) affect the optimization of fixed assets in the Secretariat of the General Election Commission by 55% while the remaining 45% influenced by other factors that are not examined in this study.

This study aims to analyze the influence of intellectual capital on the value of company. Intellectual capital as an independent variable is measured using the Value Added Intellectual Capital (VAIC) component. On the other hand, company value as a dependent variable is proxied with Price to Book Value (PBV). 28 companies are selected based on purposive sampling method that come from retail trade and property & real estate sectors listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) from 2014 to 2016. Both panel data procedure analysis and statistical criteria test were conducted. The findings show that the Value Added Capital Employed (VACA), Value Added Human Capital (VAHU), and Structural Capital Value Added (STVA) significantly influence the Price to Book Value (PBV), where VACA has significant positive effect on PBV, while VAHU and STVA have no significant positive effect on PBV.

The paper examines management accounting change and the changing roles of management accountants in two independent organizations in the Nigerian public sector. The sampling population was made up of 100 respondents in the accounts departments of two public sector organizations comprising a public university and a university teaching hospital. Using the Mann Whitney test the paper considers whether there are significant differences between respondents in both organizations on management accounting change, roles of management accountants as well as the drivers and barriers to the change. The results indicate that whereas there are significant differences in some aspects relating to the roles, tasks and skills of management accountants, there are no significant differences in the drivers and barriers in the change in management accountants’ roles. Specifically, we find that the main triggers (drivers) of change in the roles of management accountants are: technology, globalization and competition while the barriers are: management stability, lack of adequate resources and shortage of accounting staffs. The paper concludes that there is change in the roles and tasks performed by management accountants in the public sector. The paper suggests that the results of this study have important implications for the training of management accountants by accounting faculties from universities and professionals bodies.

The article uses numerical modelling to verify the impact of non-traffic load (water and frost) on sub- grade structure freezing of railway tracks with different routing (embankment and cut). The introduction characterizes two actual railway track models in the campus of the University of Žilina, named experimental stand DRETM – Department of Railway Engineering and Track Management (two measuring profiles were considered here: second measuring profile – embankment, third measuring profile – cut). The second part of the article brings the results of numerical modelling of non-traffic load impact on subgrade structure freezing in two respective profiles. Here, the course of the winter period 2016/2017 for Žilina and the climatic conditions of the winter period 2004/2005 measured for Poprad were applied (the values of the air frost index achieved in Poprad were approximately identical to or higher than the values in Žilina). The conclusion includes a comparison of the individual methods of rail track routing, a summary of achieved results of numerical modelling of subgrade structure freezing and sufficiency assessment of subgrade surface protection from the adverse effects of frost.

The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has become universal financial reporting language as it is currently used by 166 (85%) (out of 195) countries in the Africa, Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia and Oceana. Similarly, all eight country members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have accepted IFRS for presentation of financial statements of their public companies. In the era of globalistaion and liberalistion, IFRS are performing mounting significant role in the global accounting system. Therefore, this paper was intended to portray the process of convergence of IFRS in global accounting system and to identify the status of SAARC countries in convergence of IFRS. For this reason, secondary sources and review of literature were taken into consideration. The study demonstrated that IFRS set by International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) adopted by all countries have been altered slightly before accepting. The SAARC countries have also made minor modifications in IFRS and accepted in phased manner. The study concluded that the SAARC countries are facing number of problems that should be resolved for better convergence of IFRS.

Taipei Main Station of Taipei Mass Rapid Transit is the busiest transport hub in Taiwan in terms of ridership. Its complex layout and high number of passengers frequently lead to congested transfer traffic patterns. This study examined passengers’ walking trajectories and behaviours and the relationship between crowding and train movement at the transfer concourse on floor B2 of Taipei Main Station to understand the factors of interference and congestion during traffic flow. An improvement plan was subsequently proposed. This study observed that because more passengers situated themselves in the middle cars than the front and rear cars, most boarding and alighting passengers used specific escalators to enter and exit the platform level. In addition, passengers’ walking flow tended to be affected by their personal moving distances, the movement of other passengers and traffic volume. Transfer passengers preferred to use escalators or stairs closer to them, resulting in poor traffic diversion inside the platform. In particular, congestion frequently occurred at the fork near the T junction, where most passenger interferences were recorded. Passengers tended to lean against walls or walk between pillars to mitigate the conflicting flow of movement among them. Other walking trajectory factors included the locations and directions of escalators, stairs and turnstiles. This study used Unity3D software to construct three traffic diversion proposals based on observation records. The proposals were used to simulate and verify improved traffic patterns and mitigate interference. The simulations revealed that moderate changes in the upward and downward directions of escalators could facilitate smoother transfer traffic patterns. Escalators with traversing directions that better adhere to passengers’ traffic patterns may substantially increase passengers’ walking speeds regardless of the direction they are coming from, thereby effectively mitigating congestion at the T junction.

This study examines the effect of deferred tax and accruals on the persistence of earnings. Firms with either large (small) deferred tax and large (small) accruals are predicted to exhibit low (high) earnings persistence. Using a sample of 1,609 firm-year observations from 2007 to 2014 from the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), results of this study were consistent with the predictions, deferred tax and accruals had negative effects on earnings persistence. These results remained qualitatively unchanged after controlling for industry sector dummy variables and year dummy variables. When the sample was split into two groups, positive and negative accruals subsamples, the findings showed consistent results of the negative effect of accruals on earnings persistent. However, when the sample was split into two groups, positive and negative deferred tax subsamples, the results showed the negative effect of the deferred tax on earnings persistence but only for positive deferred tax subsample.

In society, moral rules are all about society. The concept of ethics is also expressed as a Professional phenomenon at the same time as a social phenomen on. This research is designed to express the perception of accounting profession ethics and to set an example for the studies conducted on this field. The results of a survey, which was conducted to accounting profesionals working in Mersin province are given place in the direction in accordance with the purpose of this study. The obtained data were analyzed in the SPSS program and the findings were revealed. Factor analysis, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis tests are used to analyze the obtained data. The findings showed that participants has a positive perception related to professional accountants to behave in accordance with ethical principles and professional ethics. Moreover, it is seen that perception of participants vary with professional experience, gender, age and state of education.

The objective of this study is to analyze the effects of the corporate’s characteristics on tax avoidance and to analyze the effects of moderation of earnings management on the relationship between the corporate’s characteristics and tax avoidance. The corporate’s characteristics in this study are proxied by the profitability, the leverage, and the size. This study selected 49 manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange of the period of 2012-2016 as samples that were selected by using the cluster random sampling technique. The result of the panel data regression with random effect model shows that the characteristics of a company, namely the profitability and the size have a significant negative effect on tax avoidance, whereas the leverage has a significant positive effect on tax avoidance. The action of the earnings management is able to moderate the effects of the profitability and the leverage on tax avoidance. However, the action of the earnings management is unable to moderate the effects of the size on tax avoidance.

The wave of global financial crises (2007 – 2008) caused a surge in the capital flows of developed countries particularly, between developed and developing countries. The crisis has hit all financial sectors with unexpected severity and speed. This paper determines the impact of global financial crisis (2007 – 2008) on socially innovative microfinance institutions operating in Pakistan by using descriptive ratio analysis and the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test. This paper analyzes performance of MFIs for 15 years i.e., from 2000 – 2014 in three waves: before, during and after the financial crisis. The results show that financial crisis affected performance of all selected MFIs but Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP) showed major changes in three waves of crises. The output of the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test confirms that the financial crisis worsened the operations of MFIs in Pakistan. This study will assist microfinance practitioners, policy makers, rural financial institutions, and microfinance institutions in maintaining and developing more effective strategies to survive in such crisis in the future.

The study examines the effect of ownership structure on financial performance of listed insurance firms in Nigeria. Data was collected from the annual reports of 28 insurance firms listed in the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the periods of 2011 to 2016. The ex-post facto was employed by the study to examine the effect of ownership structure on financial performance of listed insurance firms in Nigeria. In addition to the descriptive statistics and correlation, multiple regression technique through panel data methodology was applied for model estimation. Data were subjected to pooled General Least Square, Fixed Effects, and Random Effects regression model to test the hypotheses of the study. Ownership structure proxied by managerial ownership, institutional ownership, and ownership concentration were adopted as independent variables. Firm financial performance as the dependent variables was proxied by Book value per Share. This study found ownership structure having significant positive effect on financial performance of the listed insurance firms except concentrated ownership with negative effect. However, in respect of size and growth of the firms, which form the control variables of the study, there were mixed evidence of their effects on financial performance. The study recommends that in order to enhance the financial performance, insurance firms in Nigeria should increase management equity- holding in the firms as this can stimulate the managers to maximize their efficiency and create more wealth for stakeholders.