Inspection Program Research Articles

The Efficacy of PCAOB Operational Decision Making

The PCAOB’s operating budget and related investment in its inspection program have increased substantially since its inception. To provide insights into the efficacy of this increased investment, we leverage the PCAOB’s decision to open five new satellite offices in 2009. We begin by examining the market-level factors associated with the PCAOB’s expansion decisions and find that the PCAOB opened offices in markets where increased oversight was likely to have the greatest beneficial impact on audit quality. We then use a difference-in-differences empirical design to consider the impacts of the expansion on several engagement-level audit outcomes. We find that audit quality significantly improved following the PCAOB’s expansion in markets where new offices opened relative to markets without an office opening. While we find no evidence that auditors affected by the office expansion passed on costs directly to their clients through increased audit prices, we do find evidence of an indirect cost associated with the expansion in the form of a relative increase in auditor turnover. Collectively, our findings provide new insights into the PCAOB’s post-implementation operational decision making and suggest that the regulator’s additional investment in audit oversight was effective in improving audit quality without imposing a significant direct cost on companies and shareholders.

History of the Asian Lymantria species Program: A Unique Pathway Risk Mitigation Strategy

Abstract Changes in grain trading between Russian Far Eastern ports and North America in the late 1980s and early 1990s led to introductions of Lymantria dispar asiatica (Vnukovskij), formerly called the Asian gypsy moth (AGM), and the recognition of a new pathway for its transport. Unlike the pathways commonly used and regulated for commodities and for packaging material containing pest organisms, this presented a unique pathway for AGM. Vessels departing from the Russia Far East transiting to ports on the west coast of the United States (US) and Canada (CA) were infested with life stages of AGM and related species. Upon arrival in North America, eggs oviposited on the surfaces of the ships and its cargo hatched with larvae ballooning to vegetation surrounding port areas leading to the potential establishment of AGM populations. A multi layered monitoring and inspection program was developed to mitigate this risk of introduction, initially for Russian Far Eastern ports, and eventually to include specified areas of other Asian countries. In this article, we summarize and review the integral parts of this mitigation program, which include: risk assessments, AGM monitoring in foreign and domestic ports, vessel cleaning and certification by a government Plant Protection Organization (PPO) or its proxy, AGM surveillance, and eradication of introduced AGM in ports and other areas within the United States and Canada. The uniqueness of this program is characterized by its complexity, which involves coordinated efforts of PPOs, the use of various inspection organizations, and the support of ocean transportation industries.

Aerial Image Analysis Using Deep Learning for Electrical Overhead Line Network Asset Management

Electricity networks are critical infrastructure, delivering vital energy services. Due to the significant number, variety and distribution of electrical network overhead line assets, energy network operators spend millions annually on inspection and maintenance programmes. Currently, inspection involves acquiring and manually analysing aerial images. This is labour intensive and subjective. Along with costs associated with helicopter or drone operations, data analysis represents a significant financial burden to network operators. We propose an approach to automating assessment of the condition of electrical towers. Importantly, we train machine learning tower classifiers without using condition labels for individual components of interest. Instead, learning is supervised using only condition labels for towers in their entirety. This enables us to use a real-world industry dataset without needing costly additional human labelling of thousands of individual components. Our prototype first detects instances of components in multiple images of each tower, using Mask R-CNN or RetinaNet. It then predicts tower condition ratings using one of two approaches: (i) component instance classifiers trained using class labels transferred from towers to each of their detected component instances, or (ii) multiple instance learning classifiers based on bags of detected instances. Instance or bag class predictions are aggregated to obtain tower condition ratings. Evaluation used a dataset with representative tower images and associated condition ratings covering a range of component types, scenes, environmental conditions, and viewpoints. We report experiments investigating classification of towers based on the condition of their multiple insulator and U-bolt components. Insulators and their U-bolts were detected with average precision of 96.7 and 97.9, respectively. Tower classification achieved areas under ROC curves of 0.94 and 0.98 for insulator condition and U-bolt condition ratings, respectively. Thus we demonstrate that tower condition classifiers can be trained effectively without labelling the condition of individual components.

A bi-objective mathematical model to determine risk-based inspection programs

The present study aims to develop a bi-objective mathematical model to determine risk-based inspection programs for reducing the total costs as well as the risk arisen. The main objective of this paper is to determine the number and type of inspection techniques to be done in each time period. The NSGA II and MOPSO meta-heuristic algorithms both have been applied to solve the problem. To compare the results of these two algorithms and to select the most efficient algorithm, 7 indices in two categories are implemented. In the first category, the means of the first and second objective functions and in the second category, the indices of comparison of multi objective algorithms have been evaluated. The results of the comparisons of these indices using TOPSIS method show the high efficiency of MOPSO algorithm in solving the presented problem.

Do Safety Inspections Improve Safety? Evidence from the Roadside Inspection Program for Commercial Vehicles

Do Safety Inspections Improve Safety? Evidence from the Roadside Inspection Program for Commercial Vehicles

HPLC-UV and UPLC-MS/MS methods for the simultaneous analysis of sildenafil, vardenafil, and tadalafil and their counterfeits dapoxetine, paroxetine, citalopram, tramadol, and yohimbine in aphrodisiac products.

In recent times, the counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals has been considered a serious trouble especially in developing countries that acquire poor inspection programs. Sildenafil, vardenafil and tadalafil (phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors) products have gained wide popularity in treating sexual disorders, for which they are subjected to counterfeiting. For this purpose, a simple, rapid, and novel HPLC method with ultraviolet detection has been simply developed for the simultaneous determination of vardenafil, sildenafil, and tadalafil, and their counterfeits (dapoxetine, paroxetine, citalopram, tramadol and yohimbine) in pharmaceutical dosage forms and counterfeit products such as instant coffee and honey. The separation was carried out on a C18 column, with acetonitrile and an aqueous 0.05% formic acid solution as the mobile phase with a gradient program and at a flow rate of 1 mL min−1. UV detection was accurately set at 230 nm. The total run time was 11 min for elution of these eight drugs. A UPLC-MS/MS method was also developed, by which compounds were separated in only 6 min, and it was used as a confirmatory tool for studied compounds by identification of their mass spectra. Proposed methods were validated by following ICH guidelines. Both methods were found to be linear, specific, precise and accurate, and they were efficiently applied to analyze 50 commercial products including honey sachets, instant coffee and pharmaceutical products marketed as aphrodisiacs and suspected to contain PDE5-inhibitors.

Inclusion of Construction Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) Components in Building Construction Project

Building construction projects are required to have the Occupational Health and Safety Management System (Sistem Manajemen Kesehatan dan Keselamatan Kerja, OHSMS) due to its high-risk nature. For this purpose, the Ministry of Public Works and People’s Housing of the Republic of Indonesia has issued the Circular Letter Number 66/SE/M/2015 on Costs for Implementing Construction Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) in the Field of Public Works. The purpose of this study is to present a detailed description of OHSMS implementation in several building construction projects by using the Ministry’s Circular as the reference. This study is a descriptive study on 30 building construction projects implemented in Indonesia from 2017 to 2019 as the unit of analysis. Data were collected using a questionnaire which was developed based on the content of the Circular of the Minister of Public Works and People’s Housing Number 66/SE/M/2015. This questionnaire was then distributed to respondents using the purposive sampling technic.The OHSMS implementation subcomponents that are most frequently included in the work agreement of building construction projects are work procedure manual development, OHS induction, safety net, protective helmet, worker insurance (BPJS ketenagakerjaan dan kesehatan kerja), OHS expert and/or OHS officer, first aids kit, prohibition sign, and portable fire extinguishers. The least frequently included subcomponents are the provision of worker identity cards (KIP), poster, fall restraint, life jacket, Certificate of OHS Steering Committee (Panitia Pembina Keselamatan dan Kesehatan Kerja, P2K3), medical officer, fogging solution, traffic strip light, OHS flag, and internal audit and inspection programs. A total of 30 building construction projects have implemented OHSMS by including the details of the construction OHSMS implementation, as stated in the Minister of Public Works and People’s Housing Circular Number 66/SE/M/2015 in their work contract.

Medicação de alto risco: reflexão da ritalina

Objetivo: identificar os riscos e benefícios sobre a pratica de consumo não prescrito da Ritalina no Brasil. Métodos: Trata-se de uma Revisão Integrativa da Literatura, considerando artigos publicados nas bases de dados por meio dos descritores: Psicofármacos, Metilfenidato, Ritalina e Medicamentos, no período de 2014 a 2018. Resultados: Resultou-se em 5.224.529 publicações que após análise, chegou-se a 11 artigos que abordavam o tema. Resultou-se na construção de três categorias: experiência com o uso do medicamento, estratégias de obtenção do metilfenidato, potenciais riscos e benefícios do uso de metilfenidato. Considerações finais: Conclui-se que o consumo de metilfenidato apresenta diversos efeitos colaterais e adversos como: sonolência ou insônia, alucinações, problemas cardiovasculares, psicose, dependência e depressão, principalmente se for consumido de forma não prescrita. Portanto, entende-se que ainda há a necessidade de investir em programas de fiscalizações de medicações, assim como em programas de educação sobre os riscos e benefícios dos psicoestimulantes, evitando o processo medicalizante entre a indústria farmacêutica e a medicinam.

The Un-Ideal Home: Fire Safety, Visual Culture and the LCC (1958–63)

Mounted annually at the Ideal Home Exhibition, a series of fire safety displays produced by the London County Council (LCC) in 1958–63 crystallized some of the key contradictions of the postwar consensus. The paper explores how the displays negotiate, in aesthetic and affective terms, two dissonant sets of concerns: on the one hand, the Ideal Home Exhibition’s celebration of homeownership and home-centred consumption; and, on the other, the LCC’s ‘high fire risk’ inspection programme, which focused on areas of multiple occupancy housing during a period when house fires were growing at an alarming rate. A visual-cultural history of the LCC displays demonstrates their contradictory testimony to a neglected history of housing inequalities. That history, it will be argued, was inseparable from the Conservative government’s so-called ‘property owning democracy’. At the same time, the LCC displays reveal the frictions and resistances inherent in this same moment.

Effect of the EQUIP initiative on additional images performed at screening mammography: a pilot study

PurposeThe Enhancing Quality Using the Inspection Program (EQUIP) initiative was launched to improve clinical image quality. The purpose of this study was to determine if the implementation of the EQUIP reporting system resulted in an increased number of extra views performed at the technologists' discretion during screening mammography. Materials and methodsFollowing IRB approval at a single comprehensive cancer center, patients who underwent screening mammography with combination full-field digital mammography plus digital breast tomosynthesis during a 6-month period before (January 2017 to June 2017) and after (January 2018 to June 2018) EQUIP implementation were identified. For each patient, both screening mammograms were retrospectively reviewed by 1 of 3 subspecialized breast radiologists (3–10 years of experience). The following data were recorded: demographics, breast density, surgical history, technologist, number and type of extra views, final BI-RADS assessment, radiologist-assigned indication for the view, and radiologist-assigned necessity of the view. McNemar's test for paired data was computed with p value of <0.05 considered statistically significant. ResultsOf 820 patients, 370 (45%) had additional views in 2018 compared to 317 (39%) in 2017. After EQUIP, patients were 38% more likely to have additional views (OR = 1.38, 95% CI = 1.11–1.73). The total number of additional views in 2018 was 636 compared to 530 in 2017 (20% increase). Among patients with extra views in both years, the number of additional views per patient did not significantly increase post EQUIP implementation (OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 0.73–1.92). The most common extra view was exaggerated craniocaudal lateral, and the most common reason cited by the reviewing radiologist was lateral fibroglandular tissue at the edge of the images. Most of the extra views performed in 2018 were not performed in 2017 and over half were deemed unnecessary. Eight of eleven technologists demonstrated an increased frequency of screening mammograms with extra views performed post EQUIP. ConclusionFollowing EQUIP implementation, screening mammography patients were significantly more likely to have extra views performed at the technologists' discretion. Our findings emphasize the importance of ongoing technologist education and radiologist feedback.

Assessment of air pollutant emissions from healthcare waste incinerators of different design features

The aim of this paper was to e valuate the levels of gaseous emissions from four different healthcare wastes incinerators in three regional hospitals and one national hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The incinerators studied differ in terms of capacity (kg/h) and design features. Five gaseous air pollutants (CO, CO2, NOx, and SO2) were analyzed in the sampled flue gases using a portable desktop combustion gas analyzer (model KANE900 Plus). About 29, 30, 34 and 40 consecutive runs were conducted for each incinerator at Amana, Temeke, Mwananyamala, and Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), respectively. Other properties of the flue gas analyzed include temperature (FT), combustion efficiency (CE), percent excess air, and CO/CO2 ratio. Results showed lower CE range (lowest at Ilala regional hospital (51.4%) and highest at MNH (60.0%). The highest flue temperature was detected at MNH (911°C). The CE and pollutants concentration increased with FT and decreased with percent excess air. Results indicated poor performance of the incinerators, due to higher gaseous emissions above US-EPA standards, putting communities around these hospitals at occupational and public health risks. Installation of various air pollution control devices (APCDs) as well as monitoring and inspection programs is strongly recommended. Key words: Incinerator, combustion efficiency, healthcare waste, flue gas, acidic gaseous emissions, excess air, flue gas temperature.

자동차 배출가스 정밀검사 결과를 이용한 운행차 배출가스 저감사업 추진효과 분석

자동차 배출가스 정밀검사 결과를 이용한 운행차 배출가스 저감사업 추진효과 분석

Grade pending: the effect of the New York City restaurant sanitary grades inspection program on Salmonellosis

New York City began public reporting of restaurant sanitary inspection grades in 2010. The policy’s impact on the incidence of foodborne illness has not been previously studied. We used a retrospective cohort design to evaluate whether the introduction of sanitary grades in 2010 reduced the incidence of Salmonellosis. To estimate the policy impact, we performed a difference-in-differences analysis in which in New York City was compared to a “synthetic control group” consisting of a weighted sample of comparison geographies. We evaluated reported Salmonellosis cases from April 2003 through December 2015 from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDS) (National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, Weekly Tables of Infectious Disease Data n.d.). Our main outcome measure was quarterly risk-adjusted cases of reported Salmonellosis per 100,000 residents. Results of our difference-in-differences analysis found that the New York City restaurant sanitary grades program was associated with a non-significant reduction in risk-adjusted cases of reported Salmonellosis per 100,000 (−0.31, 95% confidence interval = (−1.41, 0.80)). This finding was robust across all specifications. Consistent with recent evidence that public reporting has had little impact on public health, public reporting of restaurant sanitary inspection grades did not appear to decrease the incidence of Salmonellosis.

The Development of Auditing Standards at the PCAOB and Related Audit Practitioner Input

SYNOPSIS The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB; Board) maintains that constituent feedback plays an essential and dynamic role in its audit standard-setting process. We examine a major source of constituent feedback, responses to standard-setting questions, using a sample drawn from the original proposals of 14 PCAOB auditing standards. We find that after receiving comment letter feedback to the standard-setting questions, the Board revises approximately half of its guidance tied to those questions. We also explore the related comment letters of eight professional auditing firms subject to the PCAOB's annual inspection program and discover varying levels of opposition to and support for the PCAOB's proposed authoritative guidance. We observe PCAOB revision to authoritative guidance highly contested by the firms in more than three-fourths of cases of standard-setting questions and PCAOB non-revision to guidance highly supported by the firms in more than 90 percent of cases. Data Availability: Publicly available.

Safety climate at agricultural cooperatives

Introduction: This study identifies determinants of safety climate at agricultural cooperatives. Methods: An extensive survey was designed to build upon past research done in collaboration with DuPont (Risch et al., 2014). In 2014 and 2015, the survey was administered to 1930 employees at 14 different agricultural cooperatives with 154 locations. Injury incidence data were also collected from each location to better understand the overall health and safety environment in this sector. An ordered probit model is used to identify variables that are associated with better safety climates. Results: Safety system components such as discipline programs, inspection programs, modified duty programs, off-the-job safety training programs, and recognition programs are positively related to individual safety climate for both managerial employees and nonmanagerial employees. Variables representing an employee’s agricultural background, distance between their workplace and childhood home, and formal education are not associated with managerial safety climate. However, agricultural background and childhood home distance are associated with nonmanagerial safety climate. Conclusions: Improving occupational health and safety is a priority for many agricultural cooperatives. Lower safety climate emerges as nonmanagerial employees have more experience with production agriculture and work nearer to their home community. Practical applications: Employees of agricultural cooperatives face a host of health and safety challenges that are likely to persist into the future. The safety system components associated with safety climate indicate that continuous feedback is important for improving occupational health and safety. Occupational health and safety programming should also acknowledge that many employees have experiences that influence their attitudes and behaviors.

On-machine noncontact scanning of high-gradient freeform surface using chromatic confocal probe on diamond turning machine

Inspecting a high-gradient freeform surface is a challenging task in manufacturing automation due to its complexity of the surface and high-aspect-ratio. On-machine measurement has shown remarkable achievements in ultra-precision manufacturing. In this paper, an on-machine noncontact scanning method using chromatic confocal probe for high-gradient freeform surface is proposed. First, a coordinate sampling model of scanning based on an ultra-precision diamond turning machine is established. Then, the steepness angle is defined to guide the scanning curves distribution, and global mesh scanning lines are generated by controlling planning deviations. Segmented motion trajectory of the probe is designed considering the vector direction of optical axis and sensor offset error. Finally, the scanning parameters are determined and the NC inspection program is generated. The proposed method can make a balance between accuracy and efficiency. Its effectiveness is verified by the on-machine inspection experiments.

Disclosure policies in inspection programs: The role of specific deterrence

In inspection programs, policies of disclosing inspection performance promote greater compliance via general deterrence—i.e., by increasing the expected cost of regulatory violations. Yet, despite their growing popularity as regulatory aids, an unexamined matter is how specific deterrence – deterrence that follows from receiving punishment – might influence the effectiveness of disclosure policies. In Las Vegas, Nevada, food-service health inspections are scored numerically. Using a simple grading scale, scores are then coarsened into letter grades which restaurants must prominently display. There is, however, a wrinkle to this grading scale: establishments committing the same violation in consecutive inspections are downgraded one letter. By virtue of this downgrade rule, punishment assignment varies among identically scored inspections. Relative to establishments with identical sequences of prior inspection scores, I find that restaurants are assessed 17%–27% fewer demerits following a downgrade. This substantial specific deterrence effect has important implications for the design of disclosure policies; particularly, regarding the coarsening of numeric scores into letter grades.

Environmental law enforcement as external monitoring: Evidence from the impact of an environmental inspection program on firm-level stock price crash risk

Leveraging from the recent reform in the China’s new environmental inspector program (NEIP) as a natural experiment, we document that firms located in NEIP cities having lower future stock price crash risk than those located in non-NEIP cities. The findings are consistent with the notion that firms disclose more negative news when subject to enhanced environmental monitoring leading to a lower future stock price crash risk. Hence, environmental law enforcement has a deterrent effect on firms and making them more transparent. Overall, besides the impact on environment, environment law enforcement brings unintended positive effects on firm-level governance.

Tourists' Noncompliant Behaviors in Antarctica: An Assessment of Adherence to Proenvironmental Guidelines

Research on compliance of tourists to guidelines in Antarctica has been limited. This investigation explores if the current reporting methods sufficiently provide an accurate measure of tourists' noncompliance. Specifically, the study addresses the compliance knowledge gap regarding Antarctic tourist behaviors by documenting instances of noncompliance with the General Guidelines for Visitors to the Antarctic (GGVA) to determine if the Antarctic Treaty Inspection Program (ATIP) and industry reports accurately reflect the frequency of noncompliance in the Antarctic. Conducted in situ at four landing sites along the Antarctic Peninsula, documented instances of noncompliance occur at a frequency of 1.63 instances per minute ashore. Based on available data from the ATIP and the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, this frequency of noncompliance challenges the status quo and implies that further investigation is necessary.

Implementation of Health Examination for Elector Recruitment Processes in the West Nusa Tenggara Province

BACKGROUND: The high number of cases of members of the Voting Officers Group (KPPS) who was sick and died in the simultaneous elections in 2019 is a record that the implementation of the simultaneous election implementation system has not been maximized, particularly relating to the recruitment and selection of election organizers.&#x0D; AIM: This study aims to determine the implementation of the health inspection program for KPPS members in the recruitment process in West Nusa Tenggara Province in 2019.&#x0D; METHODS: The research design used in this study was non-experimental with a descriptive quantitative approach to describe a situation as it is. While the data analysis technique used is using descriptive statistics with percentages.&#x0D; RESULTS: The results showed that the majority of respondents’ health inspection planning was categorized as good (50%), while the majority of respondents’ health inspection implementation was categorized as poor (60%), the majority of respondents’ health inspection evaluations were good (65%) and the health inspection for KPPS members in the recruitment process the majority of respondents are categorized as less (50%).&#x0D; CONCLUSION: In an effort to prevent morbidity or even fatalities at the election organizers, it is important to have a comprehensive plan related to the health inspection process for election organizer candidates including the road map for medical check-ups for election administrators.