Fair value versus historic cost-valuation for biological assets: Implications for the quality of financial information

[spa] Este trabajo realiza un estudio empírico sobre los efectos, que se señalan en las discusiones teóricas, de la utilización del valor razonable (VR) frente al coste histórico (CH), utilizando dos muestras de explotaciones agrícolas, una de las cuales valora sus activos biológicos a CH y la otra a VR. No se encontraron diferencias significativas en los beneficios e ingresos entre ambas muestras, ni siquiera en sus volatilidades. Tampoco se encontraron diferencias significativas en rentabilidad, manipulación contable, ni en el poder de ambos criterios de valoración para predecir los flujos de tesorería. Por el contrario, la mayor parte de los tests realizados revelan un mayor poder de los beneficios calculados bajo el VR para la predicción de los beneficios futuros, respecto de cuando son calculados bajo el CH. El estudio proporciona también evidencia empírica de prácticas contables defectuosas de CH en el sector agrícola, concluyendo que el VR puede representar un criterio de valoración interesante para un sector, como el agrícola, caracterizado por el predominio de pequeñas explotaciones familiares.

Fair value versus historic cost-valuation for biological assets: Implications for the quality of financial information

[spa] Este trabajo realiza un estudio empírico sobre los efectos, que se señalan en las discusiones teóricas, de la utilización del valor razonable (VR) frente al coste histórico (CH), utilizando dos muestras de explotaciones agrícolas, una de las cuales valora sus activos biológicos a CH y la otra a VR. No se encontraron diferencias significativas en los beneficios e ingresos entre ambas muestras, ni siquiera en sus volatilidades. Tampoco se encontraron diferencias significativas en rentabilidad, manipulación contable, ni en el poder de ambos criterios de valoración para predecir los flujos de tesorería. Por el contrario, la mayor parte de los tests realizados revelan un mayor poder de los beneficios calculados bajo el VR para la predicción de los beneficios futuros, respecto de cuando son calculados bajo el CH. El estudio proporciona también evidencia empírica de prácticas contables defectuosas de CH en el sector agrícola, concluyendo que el VR puede representar un criterio de valoración interesante para un sector, como el agrícola, caracterizado por el predominio de pequeñas explotaciones familiares.

St. George's Parish Church, St. Catharines. Jubilee Celebration and Historic and Centenary Review

Inside the front cover H.K. Woodruff has signed the book and there is a label with the name , Mrs. Percy C. Band of Toronto, Ontario. The book contains some images and also has a list of matrimonial records from the St. Marks Church Register.

The fearsome island, being a modern rendering of the narrative ofone Seld Fordred, master marines of Hythe, whose shipwreck and subsequent adventures are herein set forth...

UANL

An approach to compatible new buildings in historic urban environments : case study in the Arabian Gulf region

Cette thèse contribue à l'état actuel des connaissances sur la compatibilité des nouveaux bâtiments avec les environnements urbains historiques. Elle suit un mode de présentation classique: Introduction, Revue de Littérature, Méthodologie, Résultats, Discussion et Conclusion. Le problème étudié est le manque d'orientation pour intégrer les processus de développement et de sauvegarde dans les contextes établis. La littérature récente révèle que les règles de préservation, aussi appelées normes et lignes directrices, ne peuvent pas garantir une relation compatible entre une intervention et son milieu. La pensée contemporaine dans le domaine de la conservation et de la gestion du patrimoine invite donc l’exploration d'autres moyens pour lier la nouvelle architecture à l'ancienne. Ainsi, le présent projet de recherche explore une approche alternative aux règles de préservation en vue d’atteindre le but de nouveaux bâtiments compatibles et d’améliorer la prise de décision fondée sur les valeurs. Pour produire des résultats spécifiques et convaincants, un cas a été sélectionné. Celui-ci est une ville dans la région du Golfe Arabe : la Ville de Koweït. Le résultat principal est le développement d’une approche, mise en œuvre en posant des questions approfondies sur le lieu, la conception et la construction des nouveaux bâtiments. Les questions suggérées dans la thèse mettent l’accent sur les valeurs patrimoniales et les choix de conception afin de permettre un changement réfléchi au sein des environnements urbains historiques. Elles aident aussi à évaluer les nouvelles propositions de projets au cas par cas. Pour démontrer comment cette approche pourrait être présentée et utilisée par les requérants et les évaluateurs, un modèle théorique est proposé. Ce modèle a ensuite été discuté avec des professionnels locaux et internationaux qui ont identifié ses forces et ses limites. En conclusion, l’ensemble des résultats montre que la mise à disposition de règles et / ou de questions approfondies n’est pas une solution satisfaisante puisqu’il y a d'autres enjeux importants qui devraient être abordés: comment appliquer l'orientation efficacement une fois qu’elle a été créée, comment développer la compétence liée à la prise de décision fondée sur les valeurs et comment insérer la conservation du patrimoine dans la mentalité du gouvernement local et des communautés. Lorsque ces enjeux seront traités, le patrimoine pourra devenir partie intégrante du processus de planification, ce qui est le but ultime. Enfin, cinq axes de recherche sont recommandés pour poursuivre l’exploration des idées introduites dans cette étude.

Discovering our historic enviroment. 'Descubriendo nuestro entorno histórico'.

Proyecto que implica a alumnos de la ESO de 14 a 16 años en una serie de actividades que les ayudan a descubrir el entorno histórico del lugar donde viven y el desarrollo de su ciudad. Mediante el estudio y observación de edificios y lugares conocen su herencia cultural y el ambiente en el que se encuentran.

Development of a historic hearing devices exhibit

This paper discusses historic hearing devices and their benefits to users.

Access to historic environments for tourists with disabilities: a compromise?

Historic environments, the basis for heritage tourism, are difficult to access for people with disabilities. Many countries have introduced legislation to promote equal rights for people with disabilities. Historic environments, however, enjoy protection under national planning systems which limit the physical access improvements that can be made. The significance of historic environments for tourism in the UK is outlined. Barriers restricting tourists with disabilities accessing historic sites are reviewed from the heritage tourism service provider's viewpoint. Interests of the major stakeholders are considered in terms of the apparent conflict between conservation and access issues as heritage tourism service providers seek to comply with disability discrimination legislation. From a study of access improvements made by major heritage tourism service providers, good practice is identified. However, physical access improvements to enable tourists with disabilities to visit historic environments are a compromise because of the strength of conservation interests. Questions remain as to whether this compromise is acceptable to the tourist with disabilities and whether intellectual access is an acceptable substitute for physical presence.

Historic environments and tourism: Improving access for disabled people

Historic environments and buildings are valued and valuable features of the UK tourism sector, as visitor attractions and as holiday accommodation. Keeping historic environments in economic use is crucial to their conservation, but they date from eras when access for disabled people was not a consideration. Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (the DDA) took effect on 1 October 2004 and requires service providers to make reasonable building adjustments to remove physical barriers to disabled access. This independent scoping study by the College of Estate Management, sponsored by Marsh Limited and The Mercers' Company, explores progress in making historic environments accessible to disabled people through an examination of UK policy, literature and case studies in South Oxfordshire and London. The report findings are relevant for property and built environment professionals, business managers and all those involved with historic environments that are used for tourism.

Rapid assessment of historic, current and future habitat quality for biodiversity around UK Natura 2000 sites

Changes in landscape composition and structure may impact the conservation and management of protected areas. Species that depend on specific habitats are at risk of extinction when these habitats are degraded or lost. Designing robust methods to evaluate landscape composition will assist decision- and policy-making in emerging landscapes. This paper describes a rapid assessment methodology aimed at evaluating landcover quality for birds, plants, butterflies and bees around seven UK Natura 2000 sites. An expert panel assigned quality values to standard Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) landcover classes for each taxonomic group. Quality was assessed based on historical (1950, 1990), current (2000) and future (2030) land-cover data, the last projected using three alternative scenarios: a growth applied strategy (GRAS), a business-as-might-beusual (BAMBU) scenario, and sustainable European development goal (SEDG) scenario. A quantitative quality index weighted the area of each land-cover parcel with a taxa-specific quality measure. Land parcels with high quality for all taxonomic groups were evaluated for temporal changes in area, size and adjacency. For all sites and taxonomic groups, the rate of deterioration of land-cover quality was greater between 1950 and 1990 than current rates or as modelled using the alternative future scenarios (2000– 2030). Model predictions indicated land-cover quality stabilized over time under the GRAS scenario, and was close to stable for the BAMBU scenario. The SEDG scenario suggested an ongoing loss of quality, though this was lower than the historical rate of c. 1% loss per decade. None of the future scenarios showed accelerated fragmentation, but rather increases in the area, adjacency and diversity of high quality land parcels in the landscape.

Tests of sunspot number sequences: 3. Effects of regression procedures on the calibration of historic sunspot data

We use sunspot group observations from the Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO) to investigate the effects of intercalibrating data from observers with different visual acuities. The tests are made by counting the number of groups RB above a variable cut-off threshold of observed total whole-spot area (uncorrected for foreshortening) to simulate what a lower acuity observer would have seen. The synthesised annual means of RB are then re-scaled to the full observed RGO group number RA using a variety of regression techniques. It is found that a very high correlation between RA and RB (rAB > 0.98) does not prevent large errors in the intercalibration (for example sunspot maximum values can be over 30 % too large even for such levels of rAB). In generating the backbone sunspot number (RBB), Svalgaard and Schatten (2015, this issue) force regression fits to pass through the scatter plot origin which generates unreliable fits (the residuals do not form a normal distribution) and causes sunspot cycle amplitudes to be exaggerated in the intercalibrated data. It is demonstrated that the use of Quantile-Quantile (“Q  Q”) plots to test for a normal distribution is a useful indicator of erroneous and misleading regression fits. Ordinary least squares linear fits, not forced to pass through the origin, are sometimes reliable (although the optimum method used is shown to be different when matching peak and average sunspot group numbers). However, other fits are only reliable if non-linear regression is used. From these results it is entirely possible that the inflation of solar cycle amplitudes in the backbone group sunspot number as one goes back in time, relative to related solar-terrestrial parameters, is entirely caused by the use of inappropriate and non-robust regression techniques to calibrate the sunspot data.