NATIONAL ACCOUNTING CULTURE AND THE RECOGNITION OF PROVISIONS: AN APPLICATION OF THE PRUDENCE PRINCIPLE

Prudence in accounting is a corner-stone concept which has shaped accounting theory, as well as ordinary financial reporting. Thus, on the quantitative side of the study, we developed a proxy for accounting conservatism, namely the degree of uncertainty associated with the settling of a company's obligations. To this purpose, we hand-collected accounting data for 388 business groups from 17 European countries. For these companies we computed the provisions-to-liabilities ratio (PLR) and performed several group tests, according to the following original classification of national accounting cultures. The results indicate that companies incorporated in countries that are classified as ‘conservative' do assign a significantly higher degree of uncertainty to their total amount of liabilities.mixed research methods, accounting conservatism, European companies, national accounting culture, international harmonization

THE INFLUENCE OF THE COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT ON THE COMPANIES COMPETITIVENESS

In a market economy, competition is the engine which makes the entire system of connections between the economic operators work, the main element of the market mechanism which leads to the development of the economic life. The competition represents a tough fight, without considerations, where the economic interests of each participant on the market come first. In this context, this paper attempts to carry out an analysis of the competitive environment and especially of the influence exerted by it on the competitiveness of the companies. Otherwise, competitiveness can be regarded as the main goal that is to earn higher profits or a better position on the market. This work was supported by CNCSIS-UEFISCSU, project number PNII-IDEI 826/19.01.2009competition, competitive environment, competitiveness, competitive forces, strategies

An HST/STIS Optical Transmission Spectrum of Warm Neptune GJ 436b

GJ 436b is a prime target for understanding warm Neptune exoplanet atmospheres and a target for multiple JWST GTO programs. Here, we report the first space-based optical transmission spectrum of the planet using two HST/STIS transit observations from 0.53-1.03 microns. We find no evidence for alkali absorption features, nor evidence of a scattering slope longward of 0.53 microns. The spectrum is indicative of moderate to high metallicity (~100-1000x solar) while moderate metallicity scenarios (~100x solar) require aerosol opacity. The optical spectrum also rules out some highly scattering haze models. We find an increase in transit depth around 0.8 microns in the transmission spectra of 3 different sub-Jovian exoplanets (GJ 436b, HAT-P-26b, and GJ 1214b). While most of the data come from STIS, data from three other instruments may indicate this is not an instrumental effect. Only the transit spectrum of GJ 1214b is well fit by a model with stellar plages on the photosphere of the host star. Our photometric monitoring of the host star reveals a stellar rotation rate of 44.1 days and an activity cycle of 7.4 years. Intriguingly, GJ 436 does not become redder as it gets dimmer, which is expected if star spots were dominating the variability. These insights into the nature of the GJ 436 system help refine our expectations for future observations in the era of JWST, whose higher precision and broader wavelength coverage will shed light on the composition and structure of GJ 436b's atmosphere.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables, Accepted to AJ. A full version of table 1 is included as table1_mrt.tx

Universal subspaces for compact Lie groups

For a representation of a connected compact Lie group G in a finite dimensional real vector space U and a subspace V of U, invariant under a maximal torus of G, we obtain a sufficient condition for V to meet all G-orbits in U, which is also necessary in certain cases. The proof makes use of the cohomology of flag manifolds and the invariant theory of Weyl groups. Then we apply our condition to the conjugation representations of U(n), Sp(n), and SO(n) in the space of $n\times n$ matrices over C, H, and R, respectively. In particular, we obtain an interesting generalization of Schur's triangularization theorem.Comment: 20 page

Abel-type inequalities, complex numbers and Gauss-Pólya type integral inequalities

We obtain inequalities of Abel type but for nondecreasing sequences rather than the usual nonincreasing sequences. Striking complex analogues are presented. The inequalities on the real domain are used to derive new integral inequalities related to those of Gauss-Pólya type

Yang-Mills fields on CR manifolds

We study pseudo Yang-Mills fields on a compact strictly pseudoconvex CR manifold.Comment: 52 page

Transit confirmation and improved stellar and planet parameters for the super-Earth HD 97658 b and its host star

Super-Earths transiting nearby bright stars are key objects that simultaneously allow for accurate measurements of both their mass and radius, providing essential constraints on their internal composition. We present here the confirmation, based on Spitzer transit observations, that the super-Earth HD 97658 b transits its host star. HD 97658 is a low-mass ($M_*=0.77\pm0.05\,M_{\odot}$) K1 dwarf, as determined from the Hipparcos parallax and stellar evolution modeling. To constrain the planet parameters, we carry out Bayesian global analyses of Keck-HIRES radial velocities, and MOST and Spitzer photometry. HD 97658 b is a massive ($M_P=7.55^{+0.83}_{-0.79} M_{\oplus}$) and large ($R_{P} = 2.247^{+0.098}_{-0.095} R_{\oplus}$ at 4.5 $\mu$m) super-Earth. We investigate the possible internal compositions for HD 97658 b. Our results indicate a large rocky component, by at least 60% by mass, and very little H-He components, at most 2% by mass. We also discuss how future asteroseismic observations can improve the knowledge of the HD 97658 system, in particular by constraining its age. Orbiting a bright host star, HD 97658 b will be a key target for coming space missions TESS, CHEOPS, PLATO, and also JWST, to characterize thoroughly its structure and atmosphere.Comment: 8 figures, accepted to Ap