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

Experimental control of pattern formation by photonic lattices

We study the control of modulational instability and pattern formation in a nonlinear dissipative feedback system with a periodic modulation of the material refractive index. We use a one-dimensional photonic lattice in a single-mirror feedback configuration and identify three mechanisms for pattern control: bandgap suppression of instability modes, periodicity induced pattern modes, and orientational pattern control.The authors acknowledge the support of the Conseil Régional de Lorraine, the bilateral FrenchAustralian Science and Technology program, and the Australian Research Council through Discovery projects

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

Levi harmonic maps of contact Riemannian manifolds

We study Levi harmonic maps i.e. $C^\infty$ solutions $f : M \to M^\prime$ to \tau_\mathcal{H} (f) \equiv \mathr{trace}_{g} ( \Pi_\mathcal{H}\beta_f ) = 0, where $(M , \eta, g)$ is an (almost) contact (semi) Riemannian manifold, $M^\prime$ is a (semi) Riemannian manifold, $\beta_f$ is the second fundamental form of $f$, and $\Pi_\mathcal{H} \beta_f$ is the restriction of $\beta_f$ to the Levi distribution $\mathcal{H} = \mathrm{Ker}(\eta )$. Many examples are exhibited e.g. the Hopf vector field on the unit sphere $S^{2n+1}$, immersions of Brieskorn spheres, and the geodesic flow of the tangent sphere bundle over a Riemannnian manifold of constant curvature $1$ are Levi harmonic maps. A CR map $f$ of contact (semi) Riemannian manifolds (with spacelike Reeb fields) is pseudoharmonic if and only if $f$ is Levi harmonic. We give a variational interpretation of Levi harmonicity. Any Levi harmonic morphism is shown to be a Levi harmonic map

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

Yang-Mills fields on CR manifolds

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