The Accounting Profession’s Engagement with Accounting Standards: Conceptualizing Accounting Complexity through Big 4 Comment Letters

Regulators, standard setters, and the accounting profession maintain that complexity in accounting standards is a significant issue. However, it is unclear what complexity means in the context of accounting standards. This study examines, via comment letter submissions, the accounting profession’s engagement with complexity in accounting standards. We analyze comment letters submitted to the Financial Accounting Standards Board over a 12-year period and find the profession characterizes complexity through three dimensions – multiplicity, diversity, and interrelatedness. We examine the Big 4’s discourse on these dimensions and observe consistency between audit firms in their discourse on several features. For instance, we find that firms primarily oppose proposed FASB changes when firms perceive those changes to increase rather than decrease complexity. Additionally, firms perceive proposed changes to affect financial statement preparers more often than other stakeholders. However, the Big 4 do not hold universal opinions as to the root causes of complexity. At the cross-firm level, we find inconsistencies that imply heterogeneity in the Big 4’s discourse on root causes. Such inconsistency may, in and of itself, construct accounting complexity. Ultimately, we maintain that the Big 4’s engagement with accounting standards has consequences for how complexity is thought and acted upon in accounting standards

Estimation of risks of coal mining projects on relief of the Moravian-Silesian Carpathians in the Czech Republic: an engineering geomorphological case study the of Trojanovice mining area

The aim of the paper is prediction and estimation of risks of planned hard coal deep mining in Trojanovice mining area below sensitive young terrain of the Moravian-Silesian Carpathians and impact of mining activities on the relief. The authors carried out detailed geomorphological mapping of the area, compiled digital geomorphological map and 3-D model of geomorphological hazards. The engineering-geomorphological analysis has shown that planned underground mining activities will accelerate geodynamic processes in the area and cause substantial changes of mountain and highland relief.The aim of the paper is prediction and estimation of risks of planned hard coal deep mining in Trojanovice mining area below sensitive young terrain of the Moravian-Silesian Carpathians and impact of mining activities on the relief. The authors carried out detailed geomorphological mapping of the area, compiled digital geomorphological map and 3-D model of geomorphological hazards. The engineering-geomorphological analysis has shown that planned underground mining activities will accelerate geodynamic processes in the area and cause substantial changes of mountain and highland relief

Neogene and Pleistocene deposits in the area Brno-Švédské šance

Excavations on the building site situated in the SE part of the city of Brno exposed Jurassic, Neogene and Quaternary deposits. The sedimentary petrographic analysis of deposits and geomorphic study has shown variations in the source area of Neogene marine deposits and terrestrial fluvial sedimentation during the Pleistocene. The uppermost terrestrial fluvial sediments are interpreted as terrace sediments of the Svitava River. The fluviatile sands and gravels reveal braided fluvial style acting in periglacial conditions of the Lower Pleistocene.Excavations on the building site situated in the SE part of the city of Brno exposed Jurassic, Neogene and Quaternary deposits. The sedimentary petrographic analysis of deposits and geomorphic study has shown variations in the source area of Neogene marine deposits and terrestrial fluvial sedimentation during the Pleistocene. The uppermost terrestrial fluvial sediments are interpreted as terrace sediments of the Svitava River. The fluviatile sands and gravels reveal braided fluvial style acting in periglacial conditions of the Lower Pleistocene

Constraining long-term denudation and faulting history in intraplate regions by multisystem thermochronology: An example of the Sudetic Marginal Fault (Bohemian Massif, central Europe)

The Rychlebské hory Mountain region in the Sudetes (NE Bohemian Massif) provides a natural laboratory for studies of postorogenic landscape evolution. This work reveals both the exhumation history of the region and the paleoactivity along the Sudetic Marginal Fault (SMF) using zircon (U-Th)/He (ZHe), apatite fission track (AFT), and apatite (U-Th)/He (AHe) dating of crystalline basement and postorogenic sedimentary samples. Most significantly, and in direct contradiction of traditional paleogeographic reconstructions, this work has found evidence of a large Cretaceous sea and regional burial (to >6.5 km) of the Carboniferous-Permian basement in the Late Cretaceous (~95–80 Ma). During the burial by sediments of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin System, the SMF acted as a normal fault as documented by offset ZHe ages across the fault. At 85–70 Ma, the basin was inverted, Cretaceous strata eroded, and basement blocks were exhumed to the near surface at a rate of ~300 m/Ma as evidenced by Late Cretaceous–Paleocene AFT ages and thermal modeling results. There is no appreciable difference in AFT and AHe ages across the fault, suggesting that the SMF acted as a reverse fault during exhumation. In the late Eocene–Oligocene, the basement was locally heated to <70°C by magmatic activity related to opening of the Eger rift system. Neogene or younger thermal activity was not recorded in the thermochronological data, confirming that late Cenozoic uplift and erosion of the basement blocks was limited to less than ∼1.5 km in the study area

Basaltic Dyke with Specific Volcanogenic Structures and its geomorphic evolution: Unique Geoheritage of the Faroe Islands (North Atlantic Ocean)

Volcanic landforms resulting from Cenozoic volcanism represent the most peculiar features of global geodiversity and provide eminent narratives for geoeducation. Among them, however, relict volcanic forms and site-specific landforms in remote areas have received less attention. In this paper, we provide the first description of unique volcanogenic features (hereinafter referred to as pseudo-hieroglyphs) developed on a summit rock wall at the Sandfelli ridge near the village of Gjógv in the N Eysturoy Island (Faroe Islands). The geomorphic evolution of the ridge and rock wall during the Quaternary is described and detailed petrographic analyses of the volcanogenic features are provided. Based on observed petrographical features, we interpret the pseudo-hieroglyphs to probably represent unique examples of chaotic horizontal columnar jointing. Following the geomorphological and petrographic examination of the study site, we analyse current Faroese legislation aiming at nature conservation and use this case to discuss broader implications of geoheritage conservation and geotourism in distant regions.Vulkanická krajina vzniklá kenozoickým vulkanismem představuje nejpodivnější rysy globální geodiversity a poskytuje vynikající příběhy pro geovzdělávání. Méně pozornosti se však dostává reliktním vulkanickým formám a lokálním tvarům reliéfu v odlehlých oblastech. V tomto článku přinášíme první popis unikátních vulkanogenních tvarů (dále jen "pseudo-hieroglyfy"), které se vyvíjely na skalní stěně vrcholu na hřbetě Sandfelli u vesnice Gjógv v severní části ostrova Eysturoy (Faerské ostrovy). Je popsán geomorfologický vývoj hřbetu a skalní stěny během kvartéru a jsou uvedeny podrobné petrografické analýzy vulkanogenních vlastností. Na základě pozorovaných petrografických rysů interpretujeme pseudo-hieroglyfy, které pravděpodobně představují jedinečné příklady chaotické horizontální sloupcovité odlučnosti. Po geomorfologickém a petrografickém studiu zájmové lokality analyzujeme současnou faerskou legislativu zaměřenou na ochranu přírody a užíváme tohoto příkladu k diskusi širších důsledků zachování a geoturistiky geografického dědictví ve vzdálených regionech

Interacting natural-technical systems in the cultural landscape =Přírodně technické systémy v kulturní krajině

Man has been trying to separate socioeconomic systems from the natural components of the landscape. But In fact the socioeconomic subsystems Of the cultural landscape are intimately related to the natural and quasi-natural landscape subsystems. Relationships between the natural and socioeconomic subsystems of the cultural landscape are of different types and different strength. Two types of relationships are of special importance, i. e. location relationships and relationships changing the environment of the socioeconomic subsystems14214

Relief of Czechia : quantitative evaluation in the GIS environment =Georeliéf Česka a jeho kvantitativní hodnocení v přostředí GIS

The authors used a new GIS-based geomorphological map of Czechia in the scale of 1:500,000 (Demek, Balatka, Kirchner, Mackovčin, Pánek, Slavík 2009) for computer aided quantitative evaluation of the relief of the country. The analysis showed that erosion landforms prevail in Czechia (77.14% of the Czech territory). Summit and piedmont planation surfaces (etchplain, rock pediments, and cryopediments) that take 8.87% of the Czech territory were quantitatively evaluated over the whole Czech territory for the first time. The most common accumulation landforms were loess surfaces (8.04%) and fluvial landforms like floodplains and accumulation river terraces (8.20% of state territory). Polygon layer of the new GIS-based map enabled the evaluation of the geomorphodiversity of the Czech territory.11112