Purpose Changes to the auditor’s report have been proposed and issued internationally to provide more relevant information to users and enhance the perceived value of financial statement audits. This paper aims to investigate the impact of audit reporting changes on audit quality and audit fees in the New Zealand context. Design/methodology/approach The authors examined audit quality measured by absolute abnormal accruals and audit fees for New Zealand listed companies. Findings The evidence suggests the enhanced audit reports were followed by an improvement in audit quality as proxied by a reduction in absolute abnormal accruals upon the adoption of the new audit reporting requirements. There was also a significant increase in audit fees. Practical implications Although the new auditor reporting requirements are associated with improvements in audit quality, such benefit does not come without cost. Originality/value The study provides evidence about the impact of this recent substantial reform to auditing.

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The 1975 Turkish code provisions are first reviewed to provide the background for design and detailing of structures prior to the earthquake. The performance of reinforced concrete and masonry structures is described indicating many of the deficiencies in design, detailing, and construction execution. The behaviour of precast concrete structures, steel structures, and industrial facilities is also presented. The provisions of the 1997 Turkish building code are summarized and a description of new construction provides evidence of both excellent and poor construction practice. Some examples of retrofitting of damaged structures soon after the earthquake are also presented.Key words: seismic design, earthquake, Kocaeli, structures, codes, concrete, precast concrete.

Numerous structural monitoring systems have been developed and installed in the field to collect information on the performance and behaviour of civil engineering structures and systems, such as buildings and bridges. The processing and analysis of large datasets collected from continuous monitoring systems often require a significant amount of time and effort. In order to accelerate the processing of these continuous monitoring data and to facilitate more rapid data analysis, and more timely interpretation and use of the results, a real-time data processing and analysis application platform has been developed which encompasses all aspects of data manipulation. This application platform consists of data processing, analysis and visualization modules, all integrated through graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The applications are designed and adapted to run in a real-time mode by automatically sorting incoming data and re-directing it to the processing and animation modules for graphic display of bridge displacements and motion in near real-time, as limited by the network speed. With this capability, after the occurrence of extreme events such as windstorms, earthquakes or ship impacts, bridge responses and condition of the facility can be assessed in a timely manner for decision support of its operation. The research opportunities that can be explored using the computer tool applications presented in this paper are illustrated by a discussion of recent research results.

In an arch dam, adjacent monoliths separated by vertical contraction joints may move relative to each other during an earthquake, resulting in the gradual opening and closing and possible shear movement at the joint surfaces. This paper presents the formulation of a joint constitutive model for a zero-thickness joint element that can simulate both the opening and closing and shear sliding behaviour, as well as the non-linear shear key e ects of the joint. The proposed joint element has been implemented in the concrete arch dam ÿnite element analysis program ADAP-88. The response of a typical arch dam subjected to earthquake ground motion is presented to demonstrate the capability of the proposed joint model. Results from a parametric study carried out to study the sensitivity of the response to the joint properties are discussed. The joint parameters considered in the parametric study include apparent cohesion, friction coe cient, and whether the joint has beveled or unbeveled shear key, or the joint is unrestrained in shear sliding. The analysis results show that joint opening and shear slippage at the contraction joints can have signiÿcant e ects on the response of an arch dam. ? 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.