Analysis of determinants influencing the level of intellectual capital disclosure: The case of FTSE 100 entities

Purpose: The paper deals with the issue of intellectual capital (IC) and its disclosure in the financialstatements and other parts of annual reports of FTSE 100 entities. The paper aims to identify thedeterminants that influence entities to reveal IC related information and to highlight the theoreticalaspects behind such determinants, resulting in comprehensive findings. The results of the analysis can beused to understand what leads entities to make decisions in the field of non-financial disclosure and helpin the development of the IC reporting framework.Design/methodology: The research is devoted to the analysis of the relationship between the level ofIC disclosures by companies and the analysed determinants – size, asset structure, profitability, industryand the factor of time. The dataset can be characterised as a panel data set containing 100 firms fromthe FTSE100 Index for the four most recent financial years (2018-2021). To produce a comprehensiveset of results, descriptive statistics are used, followed by regression and correlation analysis. The randomeffect method is used as it has a higher predictive power than pooled OLS and fixed effect methods inanalysing panel data.Findings: Based on the results of the analysis, it was concluded that the profitability measured as ROAis not a key factor of intellectual capital disclosure in the annual reports of FTSE 100 companies. Fromthe point of view of size, there exists a statistically significant relationship between total assets and allcomponents of IC, respectively overall IC. The analysis also showed a statistically significant impact ofthe sector in which companies operate. Particularly, companies in the service sector report moreinformation on human capital and companies in the high-tech sector report more information onstructural capital. A significant effect of asset structure was found for structural capital but only takinginto account the effect of goodwill, not through the effect of other intangible assets. Finally, the paperdemonstrated a positive and significant effect of the time factor on the level of reporting of all ICcomponents.Originality/value: This paper focuses on the determinants influencing the level of IC reporting in arepresentative sample of entities from the highly active FTSE100 Index, which provides a very recentand specific data sample from a research perspective. The paper is based on determinants that arefrequently reported in existing research, and it extends the scope by incorporating the effect ofintangible assets and goodwill as variables representing the asset structure in addition to the effect oftime. This paper presents statistically based results on the relationships between the determinants and ICbut also between the different elements of IC (human capital, structural capital and relational capital),which provide insights into the structure of reported information on intellectual capital. This insight is very substantial given that many studies ignore the characteristics of the different components of the ICas they may be affected by different determinantsPeer Reviewe

E-Auto aus gebrauchten Komponenten

Ein Beispiel für Kreislaufwirtschaft: Ein Team der Berner Fachhochschule BFH hat untersucht, wie sich ausgemusterte Benzinfahrzeuge dank Gebrauchtteilen in E-Autos umrüsten lassen. Doch ist die Idee markttauglich

AIDE-MOI: aktiv, selbstständig und sicher auch im Alter

Seniorinnen und Senioren möchten so lange wie möglich in ihrer gewohnten häuslichen Umgebung leben. Dabei ist für sie die grösstmögliche Selbstständigkeit wichtig. Es gilt also Hilfestellungen anzubieten, welche diese Ziele unterstützen und das Sicherheitsgefühl im Alter fördern. Welchen Beitrag kann hier die Elektronik bieten? Das interdisziplinäre Projekt AIDEMOI des Fachbereichs Gesundheit und des HuCE der Berner Fachhochschule hat diese Herausforderung angenommen

From deposit to point cloud: a study of low-cost computer vision approaches for the straightforward documentation of archaeological excavations

Stratigraphic archaeological excavations demand high-resolution documentation techniques for 3D recording. Today, this is typically accomplished using total stations or terrestrial laser scanners. This paper demonstrates the potential of another technique that is low-cost and easy to execute. It takes advantage of software using Structure from Motion (SfM) algorithms, which are known for their ability to reconstruct camera pose and threedimensional scene geometry (rendered as a sparse point cloud) from a series of overlapping photographs captured by a camera moving around the scene. When complemented by stereo matching algorithms, detailed 3D surface models can be built from such relatively oriented photo collections in a fully automated way. The absolute orientation of the model can be derived by the manual measurement of control points. The approach is extremely flexible and appropriate to deal with a wide variety of imagery, because this computer vision approach can also work with imagery resulting from a randomly moving camera (i.e. uncontrolled conditions) and calibrated optics are not a prerequisite. For a few years, these algorithms are embedded in several free and low-cost software packages. This paper will outline how such a program can be applied to map archaeological excavations in a very fast and uncomplicated way, using imagery shot with a standard compact digital camera (even if the images were not taken for this purpose). Archived data from previous excavations of VIAS-University of Vienna has been chosen and the derived digital surface models and orthophotos have been examined for their usefulness for archaeological applications. The absolute georeferencing of the resulting surface models was performed with the manual identification of fourteen control points. In order to express the positional accuracy of the generated 3D surface models, the NSSDA guidelines were applied. Simultaneously acquired terrestrial laser scanning data – which had been processed in our standard workflow – was used to independently check the results. The vertical accuracy of the surface models generated by SfM was found to be within 0.04 m at the 95 % confidence interval, whereas several visual assessments proved a very high horizontal positional accuracy as well

Temperature-dependent Faraday rotation and magnetization reorientation in cerium-substituted yttrium iron garnet thin films

We report on the temperature dependence of the magnetic and magneto-optical properties in cerium-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Ce: YIG) thin films. Measurements of the Faraday rotation as a function of temperature show that the magnetic easy axis of thin Ce: YIG films reorients from in-plane to out-of-plane on cooling below -100 degrees C. We argue that the temperature-dependence of the magnetostriction and magnetocrystalline anisotropy of Ce: YIG is the dominant factor contributing to the change in easy axis direction, and we describe the changes in the magneto-optical spectra with temperature.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award ECCS-1607865)United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Award FA8650-16-1-7641

Brugada syndrome and fever: Genetic and molecular characterization of patients carrying SCN5A mutations

Objective: Brugada syndrome (BrS) is characterized by ventricular tachyarrhythmias leading to sudden cardiac death and is caused, in part, by mutations in the SCN5A gene encoding the sodium channel Nav1.5. Fever can trigger or exacerbate the clinical manifestations of BrS. The aim of this work was to characterize the genetic and molecular determinants of fever-dependent BrS. Methods: Four male patients with typical BrS ST-segment elevation in V1-V3 or ventricular arrhythmias during fever were screened for mutations in the SCN5A gene. Wild-type (WT) and mutant Nav1.5 channels were expressed in HEK293 cells. The sodium currents (INa) were analysed using the whole-cell patch clamp technique at various temperatures. Protein expression of WT and mutant channels was studied by Western blot experiments. Results: Two mutations in SCN5A, L325R and R535X, were identified. Expression of the two mutant Nav1.5 channels in HEK293 cells revealed in each case a severe loss-of-function. Upon the increase of temperature up to 42 °C, we observed a pronounced acceleration of Nav1.5 activation and fast inactivation kinetics. Cardiac action potential modelling experiments suggest that in patients with reduced INa, fever could prematurely shorten the action potential by virtue of its effect on WT channels. Further experiments revealed that L325R channels are likely misfolded, since their function could be partially rescued by mexiletine or curcumin. In co-expression experiments, L325R channels interfered with the proper function of WT channels, suggesting that a dominant negative phenomenon may underlie BrS triggered by fever. Conclusions: The genetic background of BrS patients sensitive to fever is heterogeneous. Our experimental data suggest that the clinical manifestations of fever-exacerbated BrS may not be mutation specifi

Expression of selected proteins in breast cancer brain metastases

 The aim of the study was to assess the immunohistochemical (IHC) profiles of SRC3, Pax2, ER, PgR, Her2, EGFR, CK5/6, and Ki67 proteins in breast-cancer brain metastasis. The study utilized tumor samples from 30 metastatic patients and calculated correlations between all IHC variables. In fourteen cases, primary breast cancers paired with secondary deposits were analyzed. We evaluated the association between IHC status in the primary and secondary deposits, grade, and histotype of the tumors. The examination of the metastatic deposits in all 30 patients resulted in positive detection in the following cases: SRC3 in 20 cases (66.6%), Pax2 in 22 (73.3%), ER in 22 (73.3%), PgR in 25 (83.3%), Her2 in 10 (33.3%), EGFR in 12 (40%), CK5/6 in 7 (23.3%), and Ki67 in 23 (76.6%). Grade 2 was found in 13.3% of all patients, and grade 3 in 86.7%. SRC3 and Pax2 were positive in both G2 and G3. Invasive lobular carcinoma and invasive ductal carcinoma were diagnosed in 23.3% and 76.7% of cases, respectively. There were no differences between the IHC expression of the studied proteins in either grading or histotype of the tumors. In the IHC profiles, which included SRC3, Pax2, ER, PgR, Her2, CK5/6, Ki67, and EGFR, we found no statistically significant differences between the primary cancer and the brain metastasis. In our study of metastatic breast carcinoma deposits, there was no correlation between SRC3, Pax2 status and histotype, and tumor grade. The IHC status of the paired primary and metastatic deposits did not differ in a statistically significant manner.

Non-Universal Behavior of Finite Quantum Hall Systems as a Result of Weak Macroscopic Inhomogeneities

We show that, at low temperatures, macroscopic inhomogeneities of the electron density in the interior of a finite sample cause a reduction in the measured conductivity peak heights $\sigma_{xx}^{\rm max}$ compared to the universal values previously predicted for infinite homogeneous samples. This effect is expected to occur for the conductivity peaks measured in standard experimental geometries such as the Hall bar and the Corbino disc. At the lowest temperatures, the decrease in $\sigma_{xx}^{\rm max}(T)$ is found to saturate at values proportional to the difference between the adjacent plateaus in $\sigma_{xy}$, with a prefactor which depends on the particular realization of disorder in the sample. We argue that this provides a possible explanation of the ``non-universal scaling'' of $\sigma_{xx}^{\rm max}$ observed in a number of experiments. We also predict an enhancement of the ``non-local'' resistance due to the macroscopic inhomogeneities. We argue that, in the Hall bar with a sharp edge, the enhanced ``non-local'' resistance and the size corrections to the ``local'' resistance $R_{xx}$ are directly related. Using this relation, we suggest a method by which the finite-size corrections may be eliminated from $R_{xx}$ and $R_{xy}$ in this case.Comment: REVTEX 3.0 file (38 pages) + 5 postscript figures in uuencoded format. Revised version includes an additional figure showing unpublished experimental dat