This study examines the compliance between the accounting standard for Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE) and accountants’ practices in terms of disclosure and measurement, in order to determine its levels and drivers. Based on the assumption that a higher level of compliance is associated with a higher quality of the accounting information system, compliance indices are proposed and econometric regressions are used to analyze the determinants of this accounting compliance for Portuguese firms. The empirical evidence shows that compliance is not high, and that it tends to be higher for disclosing rather than for measuring. Moreover, the results suggest that firm size has a positive impact on compliance, both for measurement and disclosure, consistent with larger firms being subject to greater scrutiny. Liquidity, on the other hand, tends to have a negative effect on compliance, as more liquid firms are less dependent on external financing. Furthermore, while leverage tends to have a positive effect on measurement compliance, profitability has no effect on accounting compliance. Therefore, this study adds evidence straight from the perceptions of practitioners who interpret and apply accounting standards and then influence the quality of financial reporting, providing valuable insights that have the potential to affect confidence in firms.

This study employs a transfer matrix, dynamic degree, stability index, and the PLUS model to analyze the spatiotemporal changes in forest land and their driving factors in Yibin City from 2000 to 2022. The results reveal the following: (1) The land use in Yibin City is predominantly characterized by cultivated land and forest land (accounting for over 95% of the total area). The area of cultivated land initially increased and then decreased, while forest land continued to decline and construction land expanded significantly. The rate of forest land loss has slowed (with the dynamic degree decreasing from −0.62% to −0.04%), and ecosystem stability has improved (the F-value increased from 2.27 to 2.9). The conversion of cultivated land to forest land is the primary driver of forest recovery, whereas the conversion of forest land to cultivated land is the main cause of reduction; (2) cultivated land is concentrated in the central and northeastern regions, while forest land is distributed in the western and southern mountainous areas. Construction land is predominantly located in urban areas and along transportation routes. Areas of forest land reduction are mainly found in the central and southern regions with rapid economic development, while areas of forest land increase are concentrated in high-altitude zones or key ecological protection areas. Stable forest land is distributed in the western and southern ecological conservation zones; (3) changes in forest land are primarily influenced by annual precipitation, elevation, and distance to rivers. Road accessibility and GDP have significant impacts, while slope, annual average temperature, and population density exert moderate influences. Distance to railways, aspect, and soil type have relatively minor effects. The findings of this study provide a scientific basis for the sustainable management of forest resources and ecological conservation in Yibin City.

To study the environment of the Kipushi mining locality (LMK), the evolution of its landscape was observed using Landsat images from 2000 to 2020. The evolution of the landscape was generally modified by the unplanned expansion of human settlements, agricultural areas, associated with the increase in firewood collection, carbonization, and exploitation of quarry materials. The problem is that this area has never benefited from change detection studies and the LMK area is very heterogeneous. The objective of the study is to evaluate the performance of classification algorithms and apply change detection to highlight the degradation of the LMK. The first approach concerned the classifications based on the stacking of the analyzed Landsat image bands of 2000 and 2020. And the second method performed the classifications on neo-images derived from concatenations of the spectral indices: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Building Index (NDBI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). In both cases, the study comparatively examined the performance of five variants of classification algorithms, namely, Maximum Likelihood (ML), Minimum Distance (MD), Neural Network (NN), Parallelepiped (Para) and Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM). The results of the controlled classifications on the stacking of Landsat image bands from 2000 and 2020 were less consistent than those obtained with the index concatenation approach. The Para and DM classification algorithms were less efficient. With their respective Kappa scores ranging from 0.27 (2000 image) to 0.43 (2020 image) for Para and from 0.64 (2000 image) to 0.84 (2020 image) for DM. The results of the SAM classifier were satisfactory for the Kappa score of 0.83 (2000) and 0.88 (2020). The ML and NN were more suitable for the study area. Their respective Kappa scores ranged between 0.91 (image 2000) and 0.99 (image 2020) for the LM algorithm and between 0.95 (image 2000) and 0.96 (image 2020) for the NN algorithm.

This study aims to investigate the enhancement in electrical efficiency of a polycrystalline photovoltaic (PV) module. The performance of a PV module primarily depends upon environmental factors like temperature, irradiance, etc. Mainly, the PV module performance depends upon the panel temperature. The performance of the PV module has an inverse relationship with temperature. The open circuit voltage of a module decreases with the increase in temperature, which consequently leads to the reduction in maximum power, efficiency, and fill factor. This study investigates the increase in the efficiency of the PV module by lowering the panel temperature with the help of water channel cooling and water-channel accompanied with forced convection. The two arrangements, namely, multi-inlet outlet and serpentine, are used to decrease the temperature of the polycrystalline PV module. Copper tubes in the form of the above arrangements are employed at the back surface of the panel. The results demonstrate that the combined technique is more efficient than the simple water-channel cooling technique owing to multi-heat dissipation and effective heat transfer, and it is concluded that the multi-inlet outlet cooling technique is more efficient than the serpentine cooling technique, which is attributed to uniform cooling over the surface and lesser pressure losses.

A gradually detailed geophysical investigation took place on Ancient Marina territory. In that area was extended Ancient Tritaea, according to responsible Archaeological Services. The first approach had been attempted since 1988 by applied electric mapping based on a twin-probe array. Later, the survey extended to the peripheral zone under the relative request from the 6th Archaeological Antiquity. A new approach was implemented by combining three different geophysical techniques, like electrical mapping, total intensity, and vertical gradient. These were applied on discrete geophysical grids. Electric mapping tried to separate the area into low and high-interest subareas according to soil resistance allocation. That technique detected enough geometrical characteristics, which worked as the main lever for the application of two other geophysical techniques. The other two techniques would be to certify the existence of geometrical characteristics, which divorced them from geological findings. Magnetic methods were characterized as a rapid technique with greater sensitivity in relation to electric mapping. Also, vertical gradient focuses on the horizontal extension of buried remains. Processing of magnetic measurements (total and vertical) certified the results from electric mapping. Also, both of the techniques confirmed the existence of human activity results, which were presented as a cross-section of two perpendicular parts. The new survey results showed that the new findings related to results from the previous approach. Geophysical research in that area is continuing.