Presenting the utility of consolidated financial reporting using structural equations

Improving the level of usefulness of financial reporting of companies plays an important role in the decision-making of users of financial reports. One of the ways to improve the usefulness of financial reporting is to pay attention to the factors affecting it. In current research, the researcher seeks to present the usefulness of consolidated financial reporting using structural equations. The current research is descriptive-correlational in the field of applied research. The tool used in this research is a researcher-made questionnaire with 48 items. A sample of 125 people was selected from the auditor community, members of the Iranian Certified Accountant Society. In line with the aim of the research, the influencing factors on the usefulness of consolidated financial reporting were identified and tested. Research hypotheses have been analyzed using PLS and SPSS software. The results show that the factors of companies' behavior, legal barriers, financial dimensions, industry and business, capital market rules, corporate governance, auditor's knowledge and training, special standards, accounting demand, synergy, economic conditions, environmental conditions, intrinsic and executive limitations have a positive and significant effect on the usefulness of consolidated financial reporting. IntroductionThe trend towards consolidated financial reporting has been subject to change with the globalization of the issue of improving the management of financial resources and accountability in the public sector. In this regard, studies have been conducted about the literature on the public sector. The quality of financial reporting is defined as the level of honesty of managers in providing fair and true information for decision-makers. Requiring managers to observe neutrality and objectivity in the items included in the financial statements leads to the improvement of the quality of financial reporting (Al‐Shaer, 2020). The quality of financial reporting improves the usefulness of financial information. Regulators and investors agree to have financial reporting with higher quality. Although the quality of financial reporting cannot be measured directly, prominent commentators consider it important as a major factor in the capital market; because the quality of financial reporting is a prerequisite for the proper functioning of the capital market and the economy, and has become an essential resource for market participants. Also, it reduces information asymmetry between managers, investors, regulatory agencies, society, and other stakeholders (Abbott et al, 2016).The accurate process of the usefulness of accounting information leads to the interpretation of stock returns, which is still a current issue and is a very necessary issue in accounting and finance so that this issue provides evidence about the usefulness of financial information related to each company that exists in the capital market. The greatest pioneers and authors of this field are those who have done a lot of work in this field and have provided a lot of evidence that supports the relevance of accounting profit value in explaining stock returns (Bentley et al, 2017).Consolidated financial reporting plays a major role in fulfilling the duty of accountability in a democratic society. Financial reporting should, on the one hand, help the government to fulfill its public accountability responsibility, and on the other hand, enable users to identify issues, obstacles, and challenges affecting the usefulness of consolidated financial reporting in different sectors. It seems that conducting research in Iran to discover and identify the external factors and mechanisms governing the usefulness of consolidated reporting by using the foundational context theory, in addition to opening a new perspective on financial reporting research, provides the necessary ground for promoting the usefulness of consolidated reporting. In general, a better understanding of the companies with consolidated reporting due to their volume discontinuity will help to better understand the market to increase efficiency and will lead to the creation of better financial markets, which is why this research is valuable. It seems that conducting research in Iran to provide an optimal model of the usefulness of consolidated financial reporting using the structural equations of the new perspective on financial reporting research provides the necessary ground for improving the quality of financial reporting. Therefore, in line with the goal of the research, the researcher seeks to identify the factors and dimensions influencing the usefulness of consolidated financial reporting. MethodsThis research is practical in terms of purpose and descriptive-surveying in terms of data collection. To collect information, a mixture of library and field methods has been used. Using library studies, subject literature, and research history were examined and components were extracted. This research was done in 1401. In this research, the structural equation model will be used to confirm or disconfirm the research hypotheses and the regression test will be used to investigate the effect of the intervention variable. Inferential statistics methods have been used to answer the research hypotheses and questions.The statistical population of the research is people working as certified accountants, members of the certified accountant's society of Iran. It should be noted that the participants in this research were 125 experts. The raw data obtained from the statistical population were analyzed using appropriate statistical techniques and SPSS and Smart PLS software, and after processing, they were presented in the form of information. In current research, structural equation modeling methods, namely the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method, were used to test the measurement model and research hypotheses. FindingsThe results show that the factors of companies' behavior, legal barriers, financial dimensions, industry and business, capital market rules, corporate governance, auditor's knowledge and training, special standards, accounting demand, synergy, economic conditions, environmental conditions, intrinsic and executive limitations have a positive and significant effect on the usefulness of consolidated financial reporting.    Conclusion The relationships obtained from research hypotheses show that this relationship is stronger in the case of consolidated accounts than in non-consolidated accounts. Consolidated financial statements provide a clear picture of the financial information of the combined companies as a single company. Also, financial dimensions. laws and capital market and corporate governance provide more useful information than other factors and have more information content. The findings show that in Iran's capital market, investors pay special attention to the economic and environmental conditions in their decisions in evaluating the usefulness of the main companies. And causal conditions including behavioral, knowledge and ethical, structural and managerial, legal, and financial dimensions can have positive effects on the usefulness of financial information. Also, the components used in this research have not been tested in any of the previous research; therefore, the findings of the present study were not consistent with any of the previous studies * Corresponding autho

Risk-taking behaviors of the Tehran city; Iranian college students in 2018

Background and aims: High-risk behaviors among different strata are one of the most severe health threats in recent years. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of high-risk behaviors among college students in Iran. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study with 144 new students in Tehran City, Iran, performed in 2018 using random sampling. The data collection tools included questions on demographic variables and Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) questionnaire. Students completed the questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS 24 and descriptive tests. Results: In this study, all students were in their first year of university. The results showed that 66% of students were girls and 34% were boys. 6.9% and 9% of students did not wear helmets when riding motorcycles or sitting in the driver’s seat, respectively. Also, threatened and beaten once with a weapon such as a knife or a stick and physically assaulted or beaten once were seen in 9% and 3.6% of students, respectively.9.7% had taken money from their parents or others once without permission. Conclusion: Based on the findings, many participants engage in high-risk behaviors that endanger their health; Therefore, designing and improving health programs and strategies is essential to reduce the risks and factors that cause high-risk behaviors

Linear and nonlinear chromatic integration in the mouse retina

Abstract The computations performed by a neural circuit depend on how it integrates its input signals into an output of its own. In the retina, ganglion cells integrate visual information over time, space, and chromatic channels. Unlike the former two, chromatic integration is largely unexplored. Analogous to classical studies of spatial integration, we here study chromatic integration in mouse retina by identifying chromatic stimuli for which activation from the green or UV color channel is maximally balanced by deactivation through the other color channel. This reveals nonlinear chromatic integration in subsets of On, Off, and On–Off ganglion cells. Unlike the latter two, nonlinear On cells display response suppression rather than activation under balanced chromatic stimulation. Furthermore, nonlinear chromatic integration occurs independently of nonlinear spatial integration, depends on contributions from the rod pathway and on surround inhibition, and may provide information about chromatic boundaries, such as the skyline in natural scenes.This study shows that ganglion cells in mouse retina integrate chromatic visual signals either linearly or nonlinearly. Nonlinear chromatic integration depends on rod photoreceptor activity and on surround inhibition and may help detect chromatic boundaries, such as the skyline in natural scenes.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001659EC | EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation H2020 | H2020 Priority Excellent Science | H2020 European Research Council (H2020 Excellent Science - European Research Council) https://doi.org/10.13039/10001066

The Effect of Experiential Marketing, Destination Image and Corporate Image on Guests' Satisfaction in Hotels (Case Study: 4 and 5 star Tehran Parsian Hotels)

Recognition of the common attitudes of consumers in the field of consumer behavior is a strategic capability. Therefore, consumer direct experience is the first effective factor on the formation of people's attitudes towards the products and services .The purpose of the present study is to explore the effect of experiential marketing, destination image and corporate image on satisfaction in four-star and five-star hotels Parsian Tehran. Structural equation modeling was employed to explore experiential marketing in the hotels. The research sample included 530 customers of four-star and five-star hotels Parsian in Tehran province. Sampling was conducted via two-phase stratified sampling method. The obtained results disclosed that customers' perceptions of experiential marketing, destination image and corporate image have a direct effect on satisfaction. Moreover, the proposed conceptual model to develop effectiveness models of experiential marketing, destination image and corporate image were confirme

Theoretical analysis of the conical premixed flame response to upstream velocity disturbances considering flame speed development effects

The effect of upstream velocity perturbations on the response of a premixed flame was investigated in terms of the flame transfer function dependency on excitation frequency. In this study, the assumption of constant flame speed was extended and the effect of flame speed development was considered; i.e., the flame speed would grow with the time after ignition or with the distance from a flame-holder. In the present study, the kinematics of a conical flame was investigated by linearization of the front tracking equation of flame to uniform and convected fluctuations of the flow velocity and the response was compared with that of a V-shaped flame and the experimental data in the previous studies. The results show that the effect of flame speed development could influence a decreasing gain and increase the phase of the flame response to the uniform velocity oscillations in low and moderate frequencies. Comparing the variations in the gain of flame response upon normalized frequency, show that a conical flame has lower values than the V-flame. In other words, these flames might be less susceptible to combustion instabilities than the V-flames. Furthermore, the variations in phase of the V-flames responses, which show a quasi-linear behavior with normalized frequency, have higher values than the saturated behavior in phase of the conical flame responses. Also, considering that the flame speed development induces an increase in the gain and phase of the conical flame response to the convected velocity oscillations in certain frequencies; because the developed flame front has longer length in comparison to the flame front in constant flame speed model. Therefore, the flame length may be longer than convective wavelength and the heat release would be generated in different points of the flame; consequently the flow oscillations might exert a stronger impact on the unsteady heat release fluctuations

Health Belief Model and HIV/AIDS among high school female students in Yazd, Iran

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; direction: ltr; line-height: 150%; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human </span></span><a title="Immune system" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_system"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-size: small;">immune system</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: small;"> that caused by the </span></span><a title="HIV" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-size: small;">human immunodeficiency virus</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: small;"> (HIV) and </span></span><a title="Transmission (medicine)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_(medicine)"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-size: small;">transmitted</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: small;"> through direct contact of a </span></span><a title="Mucous membrane" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucous_membrane"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-size: small;">mucous membrane</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: small;"> or the bloodstream with a </span></span><a title="Bodily fluid" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodily_fluid"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-size: small;">bodily fluid</span></span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> containing HIV. <sup>(1-4) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup>It is such a strange and frightening disease that sometimes people stopped thinking about it as a disease and start to wrap it in different layers of mystery<span dir="rtl" lang="FA">.</span><sup>(5)</sup></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" lang="EN-GB"> According to the latest figures published in the UNAIDS/WHO 2006 AIDS Epidemic Update, an estimated 39.5 million people are living with HIV. <sup>(6)</sup><span style="color: red;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">An </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">important factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS is believed to be poor knowledge about how it is spread and can be prevented. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The utility of the Health Belief Model continues to be suggested in identifying preventive behaviors.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This study is a cross- sectional study that 180 female students from three high schools in Yazd, Iran, completed a specially designed questionnaire, based on Health Belief Model in spring 2009. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" lang="EN-GB">Our data showed that the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">mean score of perceived susceptibility was 21.19 (out of 32) and perceived severity was 12.47 (out of 24). Also the mean score<span dir="rtl"> </span>of<span dir="rtl"> </span>perceived benefits and barriers were 9.05 and 9.45 (out of 12 and out of 16 respectively). The respondents acquired 46.61% of total knowledge score, 66.21% of perceived susceptibility, 51.95% of perceived severity, 75.41% of perceived benefits and 59.06% of perceived barriers. A positive association found between knowledge and perceived susceptibility. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" lang="EN-GB">Therefore </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">according to our results, the low level of perceived susceptibility and severity to HIV/AIDS among high school female students may not prevent them to not try a risky behavior in this area. <a name="OLE_LINK3"></a><a name="OLE_LINK4"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK3;">The results of this study revealed that, mean grade scores of perceived severity of participants about HIV/AIDS was near mean. These results revealed, the participants not accepted that are in higher risk about HIV/AIDS. In this condition, students don't try to prevent HIV/AIDS. In a factor analysis principal components<span dir="rtl"> </span>of the Health Belief Model constructs indicated perceived susceptibility is multidimensional, so sporadic condom user perceived themselves and their partners as at highest risk of AIDS and other sexually transmitted disease. <sup>(7)</sup> </span></a>In that study, prisoners decreased their HIV high-risk behaviors (e.g., used clean syringes) when they believed in the effectiveness of strategies designed to reduce the risk or seriousness of impact of the health condition. This does not mean that the other two components of the HBM are not effective in explaining health related behavior.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; direction: ltr; line-height: 150%; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">There was significant difference between mean grade scores of knowledge and perceived susceptibility and educational field of participants. (p<0.001) </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; direction: ltr; line-height: 150%; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span>A negative significant correlation between perceived severity with knowledge and perceived susceptibility, indicates that the students who have not perceived susceptibility and severity to a health problem like HIV/AIDS may not try in preventing it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Moreover, Health Belief Model can be used as a conceptual frame work in interventional programs for HIV/AIDS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></span></span></p&gt

The predictors of osteoporosis preventive behaviors in women based on health belief model

Osteoporosis, as a disease, is characterized by low bone mass and micro architectural deterioration of bone tissue. The aim of this study was to survey the predictors of osteoporosis preventive behaviors based on health belief model. This cross-sectional study was carried out on 401 randomly selected women referring to health centers. Data collection was based on health belief model. The employed instrument was confirmed by a panel of experts. Content validity ratio, content validity index, face validity, and exploratory factor analysis were used to determine the validity of the tool. Test-retest internal consistency was employed to determine the reliability. The mean age of women was 40.9±6.2 years. The variables of perceived susceptibility, motivation for walking behavior and variable of perceived sensitivity for nutrition behavior were predicted. The walking performance had a significant association with perceived susceptibility and motivation, the nutritional performance had a significant positive association with perceived susceptibility and self-efficacy and a negative correlation with perceived barriers. The variables under study explained 29.1% of the variance in walking behavior and 20.2% of the variance in nutrition behavior in osteoporosis prevention. This study indicated health belief model is capable to predict nutrition and walking behaviors for the prevention of osteoporosis. Hence, this model can be used as a framework for designing and implementing educational interventions for the prevention of osteoporosis in women

Simultaneous Determination of 6-Mercaptopurine and its Oxidative Metabolites in Synthetic Solutions and Human Plasma using Spectrophotometric Multivariate Calibration Methods

Introduction: 6-Mercaptopurine (6MP) is an important chemotherapeutic drug in the conventional treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). It is catabolized to 6-thiouric acid (6TUA) through 8-hydroxo-6-mercaptopurine (8OH6MP) or 6-thioxanthine (6TX) intermediates. Methods: High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is usually used to determine the contents of therapeutic drugs, metabolites and other important biomedical analytes in biological samples. In the present study, the multivariate calibration methods, partial least squares (PLS-1) and principle component regression (PCR) have been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of 6MP and its oxidative metabolites (6TUA, 8OH6MP and 6TX) without analyte separation in spiked human plasma. Mixtures of 6MP, 8-8OH6MP, 6TX and 6TUA have been resolved by PLS-1 and PCR to their UV spectra. Results: Recoveries (%) obtained for 6MP, 8-8OH6MP, 6TX and 6TUA were 94.5-97.5, 96.6-103.3, 95.1-96.9 and 93.4-95.8, respectively, using PLS-1 and 96.7-101.3, 96.2-98.8, 95.8-103.3 and 94.3-106.1, respectively, using PCR. The NAS (Net analyte signal) concept was used to calculate multivariate analytical figures of merit such as limit of detection (LOD), selectivity and sensitivity. The limit of detections for 6MP, 8-8OH6MP, 6TX and 6TUA were calculated to be 0.734, 0.439, 0.797 and 0.482 µmol L-1, respectively, using PLS and 0.724, 0.418, 0783 and 0.535 µmol L-1, respectively, using PCR. HPLC was also applied as a validation method for simultaneous determination of these thiopurines in the synthetic solutions and human plasma. Conclusion: Combination of spectroscopic techniques and chemometric methods (PLS and PCR) has provided a simple but powerful method for simultaneous analysis of multicomponent mixtures