This study was conducted to identify suitable experimental conditions for the Bovine Corneal Opacity and Permeability (BCOP) assay, after which the assay was employed using 11 substances listed in the OECD test guideline (TG) 437. The opacity of the corneas was checked on days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 10 after extraction. The only day 1 showed the opacity of below 7 (limit value), which indicated the corneas have to be used in a day after extraction. The treatment time of test substances was evaluated at 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30 min to determine the opacity, permeability and IVIS values. Suitable IVIS values were observed at 5, 10, and 15 min. Two culture temperature conditions, 25°C and 32°C, had similar IVIS values. The washing method suggested in the OECD TG 437 resulted in the most suitable IVIS value. Based on the established conditions, the BCOP assay was conducted using the 11 substances listed in OECD TG 437, and the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy matched those in the guidelines for all test substances. Taken together, the results of this study indicate that suitable domestic conditions for BCOP assay as an alternative eye irritation method were established. The results presented herein will be useful to future studies of other Korean alternative researches.

This study examines the effect of financial reporting opacity and audit quality on stock price crash risk using listed firms in Japan. This study is the first research to examine the effect of financial reporting opacity on crash risk using a Japanese listed company. Furthermore, the effect of audit quality on crash risk is verified. High level auditors can mitigate crash risk by playing a role as a corporate governance device mechanism to reduce agency costs. We use a logistic regression and linear regression model to test whether financial reporting opacity and audit quality affect crash risk using listed firms in the Japanese stock exchange market during the fiscal years 2015 January through 2017 February. The results of this study suggest that the financial reporting opacity variable shows a positive relationship with CRASH, which states that a firm with more opaque financial reporting increases crash risk. The results suggest also that the firms audited by Big4 auditors experience less crash risk, implying that the audit quality in Japan can be one of the factors mitigating firm's crash risk. This study provides implications for financial reporting and audit quality to external stakeholders who wants to avoid losses.

Method 9 is a reference method established by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to quantify plume opacity by the certified observer. Later, digital Optical Method (DOM) was developed to quantify plume opacity from digital photographs for bright and dim conditions. However, there is a limitation for the use of Method 9 and DOM to quantify the plume opacity especially for dim condition. In this paper, DIM-DOM system was used instead of DOM to quantify plume opacity during dim condition. Opacity readings provided by DIM-DOM were compared with the opacity values obtained with the reference in-stack transmissometer of the smoke generator. The individual opacity error results demonstrated that DIM-DOM met Method 9’s requirements. The individual opacity values ranging from 0 to 100% compare well to the corresponding opacity results from the in-stack transmissometer results meeting USEPA’s Method 9 IOE requirement of ≤15%. These results are encouraging and indicate that DIM-DOM has the potential to quantify plume opacity during dim condition.

This study is to show the inadequacy of OT-based analyses of opacity, thus defending rule-based analyses. Analyses in the OT`s framework such as Two-Level Constraints, Sympathy Theory, OO- Correspondence Relation, and Local Conjunction of constraint are found to be inappropriate or costly in solving the problem of opacity in Kyungsang dialect of Korean. Post-Obstruent Tensing applies opaquely in close relation to Consonant Cluster Simplification, where violation marks for the opaque candidate and its transparent counterpart are in a proper subset relation. In such a case, any OT-based analysis suffers theoretical strictures.