Mergers and Acquisitions from an Accounting Approach: A Review of the Empirical Literature

The European Committee support that the Financial Statements drawn up in accordance with IFRS as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) provide users of these statements with a sufficient level of information to enable them to make an informed assessment of the assets and liabilities, financial position, profit and losses and prospects of an issuer. The International Financial Accounting Standards (IFRS) are a sound basis on which to unify accounting standards across the world. In its deliberations on and in elaborating positions to be taken on documents and papers issued by the IASB in the process of developing international accounting standards (IFRS and SIC), the Commission should take into account the importance of avoiding competitive disadvantages for European companies operating in the global marketplace, and, to the maximum possible extent, the views expressed by the delegations in the Accounting Regulatory Committee.This paper attempts to present the accounting methods applied with literature and examples when a merger or an acquisition takes place. This work is mainly directed at students and scientist of accountant and finance. Professionals also will get benefit from this paper because they will learn how to apply and understand the IFRS 3, so as to be able to fill in and analyze financial statements with IFRS. At the beginning we talk about IFRS 3 which is relevant to the accounting methods in mergers and acquisitions that occurred in every European country between big firms. We also show what happened when a big firm wants to takeover a small firm. Afterwards we analyze the steps that are needed to take when a firm wants to takeover a bank or an enterprise. Then we describe the Goodwill that is given from the bidder to the target firm if there is any. But which is the fair value of a takeover. If the bidder wants to allocate the cost should use the notes that we describe to determine it. Keywords: Finance, Accounting, Mergers and Acquisitions Jel Classification: M41, G34 DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/10-16-01 Publication date: August 31st 201

How Mergers and Acquisitions Affected the Basic Accounting Elements of Greek Banks During the Euro Years 2002-2018

During the years 2002-2018 a big wave of mergers and acquisitions took place in Greek Banking System. We have two big time periods that mergers and acquisitions occurred in the Greek Banking System. The first one includes the years 2002-2009 that the main domestic reasons for mergers and acquisitions in the Greek Banking System were the profit and the size so as to be able to expand mainly to the Balkan Countries with cross border mergers and acquisitions for more profit. The second one includes the years 2010-2018 that the world financial crisis affected the Greek Banking System. So the main reason for domestic mergers and acquisitions among the Greek Banks were the strengthening of them against aggressive takeovers, the economies of scale, risk of bankruptcy and recapitalization. In this paper we try to find out how these two time periods of mergers and acquisitions in the Greek Banking System affected the basic accounting elements such as Assets, Loans Equity, all kind of profits, Deposit even the personnel, of the remaining four Systemic Greek Banks. The remaining four Systemic Greek Banks that we examine in this paper are Eurobank, National Bank, Alpha Bank and Bank of Piraeus

Progression of mouse skin carcinogenesis is associated with increased ERα levels and is repressed by a dominant negative form of ERα.

Estrogen receptors (ER), namely ERα and ERβ, are hormone-activated transcription factors with an important role in carcinogenesis. In the present study, we aimed at elucidating the implication of ERα in skin cancer, using chemically-induced mouse skin tumours, as well as cell lines representing distinct stages of mouse skin oncogenesis. First, using immunohistochemical staining we showed that ERα is markedly increased in aggressive mouse skin tumours in vivo as compared to the papilloma tumours, whereas ERβ levels are low and become even lower in the aggressive spindle tumours of carcinogen-treated mice. Then, using the multistage mouse skin carcinogenesis model, we showed that ERα gradually increases during promotion and progression stages of mouse skin carcinogenesis, peaking at the most aggressive stage, whereas ERβ levels only slightly change throughout skin carcinogenesis. Stable transfection of the aggressive, spindle CarB cells with a dominant negative form of ERα (dnERα) resulted in reduced ERα levels and reduced binding to estrogen responsive elements (ERE)-containing sequences. We characterized two highly conserved EREs on the mouse ERα promoter through which dnERα decreased endogenous ERα levels. The dnERα-transfected CarB cells presented altered protein levels of cytoskeletal and cell adhesion molecules, slower growth rate and impaired anchorage-independent growth in vitro, whereas they gave smaller tumours with extended latency period of tumour onset in vivo. Our findings suggest an implication of ERα in the aggressiveness of spindle mouse skin cancer cells, possibly through regulation of genes affecting cell shape and adhesion, and they also provide hints for the effective targeting of spindle cancer cells by dnERα

Protein target highlights in CASP15: Analysis of models by structure providers

We present an in-depth analysis of selected CASP15 targets, focusing on their biological and functional significance. The authors of the structures identify and discuss key protein features and evaluate how effectively these aspects were captured in the submitted predictions. While the overall ability to predict three-dimensional protein structures continues to impress, reproducing uncommon features not previously observed in experimental structures is still a challenge. Furthermore, instances with conformational flexibility and large multimeric complexes highlight the need for novel scoring strategies to better emphasize biologically relevant structural regions. Looking ahead, closer integration of computational and experimental techniques will play a key role in determining the next challenges to be unraveled in the field of structural molecular biology

Development of multiplex PCR for the primal detection of aspergillus DNA in clinical samples

Aspergillus pathogens usually infect immunocompromised patients with lethal outcome. Conventional histological, microbiological and radiological methods used in the IA diagnosis are time-consuming and lack sensitivity and specificity. A multiplex PCR assay for the discrimination of the most frequent Aspergillus pathogens, A. fumigatus, A. flavus, A. terreus and A. niger is described herein. In total, 59 Aspergillus isolates were tested in this study. Four species specific primer pairs were designed to amplify the A. terreus rDNA gene and the A. fumigatus, A. awamori, A. niger var. saitoi and A. oryzae aspergillopepsins. The aforementioned primer sets were also tested for possible cross reactions with other clinically significant fungal, bacterial and viral taxa. Except from the A. tamarii isolate, all the tested strains of A. fumigatus, A. flavus, A. niger and A. terreus were successfully amplified producing amplicons of 250bp, 200bp, 150bp and 450bp respectively. The homology of the generated PCR products sequences with the published ones (GenBank) ranged from 95% to 100%. The primer pairs specificity results indicated that the A. terreus ITS regions and the aspergillopepsins exons of A. fumigatus, A. niger, A. flavus were suitable targets for multiplex amplification, aiming at the concurrent rapid differentiation of A. fumigatus, A. flavus, A. niger and A. terreus.Λοιμώξεις από παθογόνα είδη Ασπεργίλλου συχνά αποβαίνουν μοιραίες για τη ζωή σοβαρά ανοσοκατασταλμένων ασθενών. Η διάγνωση των ασπεργιλλώσεων παραμένει δύσκολη, δεδομένου ότι οι συμβατικές μικροβιολογικές και οι απεικονιστικές μέθοδοι αποτελούν χρονοβόρες διαδικασίες και στερούνται ευαισθησίας και ειδικότητας. Σ’ αυτή τη μελέτη συνολικά εξετάστηκαν 59 στελέχη Ασπεργίλλου με σκοπό την ανάπτυξη μιας πολυπλεκτικής PCR για τη διάκριση των τεσσάρων κλινικώς σημαντικότερων ειδών Ασπεργίλλου A. fumigatus, A. flavus, A. terreus and A. niger. Τα τέσσερα ζεύγη εναρκτών, που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν στην πολυπλεκτική PCR, σχεδιάστηκαν για την ενίσχυση των ITS περιοχών του rDNA του A. terreus και συγκεκριμένων εξωνίων των γονιδίων των ασπεργιλλοπεψινών των ειδών A. fumigatus, A. awamori, A. niger var. saitoi και A. oryzae. Τα ειδικά για τους A. fumigatus, A. flavus, A. niger, and A. terreus ζεύγη εναρκτών ελέγχθηκαν ως προς την ειδικότητά τους σε μεγάλο εύρος κλινικά σημαντικών βακτηρίων, ιών, νηματοειδών μυκήτων και ζυμομυκήτων. Τα προϊόντα ενίσχυσης των ειδών A. fumigatus, A. flavus, A. terreus and A. niger αναλύθηκαν ως προς την νουκλεοτιδική τους αλληλουχία και ελέγχθηκαν ως προς την ομολογία τους με αντίστοιχες κατατεθειμένες στην Τράπεζα γονιδιακών δεδομένων (GenBank). Εκτός του στελέχους A. tamarii, όλα τα εξετασθέντα στελέχη A. fumigatus, A. flavus, A. niger, and A. terreus, έδωσαν προϊόντα ενίσχυσης με διακριτό μεταξύ τους μέγεθος 250bp, 200bp, 150bp και 450bp αντίστοιχα. Η ομολογία της νουκλεοτιδικής αλληλουχίας των προϊόντων ενίσχυσης με τις αντίστοιχες κατατεθειμένες στην Τράπεζα NCBI ήταν ιδιαιτέρως υψηλή (95- 100%). Η ειδικότητα των χρησιμοποιηθέντων εναρκτών έδειξε ότι τα εξώνια των ασπεργιλλοπεψινών των ειδών A. fumigatus, A. flavus και A. niger και οι περιοχές ITS του A. terreus αποτελούν κατάλληλους στόχους για ενίσχυση και συνεπώς για την ανάπτυξη μιας πολυπλεκτικής PCR με απώτερο στόχο τη διάκριση των προαναφερθέντων τεσσάρων κλινικώς σημαντικότερων ειδών Ασπεργίλλου σε κλινικά δείγματα

Contemporary Grading of Prostate Cancer: The Impact of Grading Criteria and the Significance of the Amount of Intraductal Carcinoma

(1) Background: Prognostic grade group (PGG) is an important prognostic parameter in prostate cancer that guides therapeutic decisions. The cribriform pattern and intraductal carcinoma (IDC) are two histological patterns, that have additional prognostic significance. However, discrepancies exist regarding the handling of IDC according to the guidelines published by two international genitourinary pathology societies. Furthermore, whether, in addition to its presence, the amount of IDC is also of importance has not been studied before. Lastly, the handling of tertiary patterns has also been a matter of debate in the literature. (2) Methods: A total of 129 prostatectomy cases were retrieved and a detailed histopathologic analysis was performed. (3) Results: Two cases (1.6%) upgraded their PGG, when IDC was incorporated in the grading system. The presence and the amount of IDC, as well as the presence of cribriform carcinoma were associated with adverse pathologic characteristics. Interestingly, in six cases (4.7%) there was a difference in PGG when using the different guidelines regarding the handling of tertiary patterns. In total, 6.2% of the cases would be assigned a different grade depending on the guidelines followed. (4) Conclusions: These findings highlight a potential area of confusion among pathologists and clinicians and underscore the need for a consensus grading system

Architecture and functional dynamics of the pentafunctional AROM complex

The AROM complex is a multifunctional metabolic machine with ten enzymatic domains catalyzing the five central steps of the shikimate pathway in fungi and protists. We determined its crystal structure and catalytic behavior, and elucidated its conformational space using a combination of experimental and computational approaches. We derived this space in an elementary approach, exploiting an abundance of conformational information from its monofunctional homologs in the Protein Data Bank. It demonstrates how AROM is optimized for spatial compactness while allowing for unrestricted conformational transitions and a decoupled functioning of its individual enzymatic entities. With this architecture, AROM poses a tractable test case for the effects of active site proximity on the efficiency of both natural metabolic systems and biotechnological pathway optimization approaches. We show that a mere colocalization of enzymes is not sufficient to yield a detectable improvement of metabolic throughput