How Are Companies Complying With Financial Accounting Standard 121 "Impairment of Long-Lived Assets"?

Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (SFAS) 121 is a new standard devoted to the issue of impairment of long-lived assets. Impairment loss occurs when the carrying amount is not expected to be recovered. When SFAS 121 was issued, early adoption was suggested but not required for fiscal years beginning before December 15, 1995. Although there are some similarities, the standard sets some different rules for assets "to be held and used" and assets "to be disposed of" Since the standard does not identify a materiality level, it remains at the discretion of management. This paper first discusses the requirements of SFAS 121. Then a sample of companies is analyzed to determine compliance with the new standard. A sample of25 companies was chosen from the CD-ROM Disclosure Software. The sample was analyzed and compared on a list of items to identify relationship between the items and to identify if, how and when companies plan to comply with SFAS 121. Some of the items noted were year ends, early adoption of SFAS 121, type of impairment, discussion in the management representation letter and discussion in the footnotes to the financial statements.B.S. (Bachelor of Science

Selling \u27Fracking\u27: Legitimation of High Speed Oil and Gas Extraction in the Marcellus Shale Region

The advent of horizontal hydraulic fracture drilling, or \u27fracking,\u27 a technology used to access oil and natural gas deposits, has allowed for the extraction of deep, unconventional shale gas and oil deposits in various shale seams throughout the United States and world. One such shale seam, the Marcellus shale, extends from New York State, across Pennsylvania, and throughout West Virginia, where shale gas development has significantly increased within the last decade. This boom has created a massive amount of economic activity surrounding the energy industry, creating jobs for workers, income from leases and royalties for landowners, and profits for energy conglomerates. However, this bounty comes with risks to environmental and public health, and has led to divisive community polarization over the issue in the Marcellus shale region. In the face of potential environmental and social disruption, and a great deal of controversy surrounding \u27fracking,\u27 the oil and gas industry has had to undertake a myriad of public relations campaigns and initiatives to legitimize their extraction efforts in the Marcellus shale region, and to project the oil and gas industry in a positive light to residents, policy makers, and landowners. This thesis describes one such public relations initiative, the Energy in Depth Northeast Marcellus Initiative. Through qualitative content analysis of Energy in Depth\u27s online web material, this thesis examines the ways in which the oil and gas industry narrates the shale gas boom in the Marcellus shale region, and the ways in which the industry frames the discourse surrounding natural gas development. Through the use of environmental imagery, appeals to scientific reason, and appeals to patriotism, the oil and gas industry uses Energy in Depth to frame the shale gas extraction process in a positive way, all the while framing those who question or oppose the processes of shale gas extraction as irrational obstructionists

Comparison of Aerocapture Performance Using Bank Control and Direct Force Control with Two Human-Scale Vehicles at Mars

Recent studies of human-scale missions to Mars have included a wide trade space of vehicle configurations and control schemes. Some configurations fly at a low angle of attack with a low L/D,while others fly at a high angle of attack with a mid L/D. Some use bank angle control, while others use direct force control, where the angle of attack and sideslip angle are independently modulated. This paper compares the performance of three vehicle configurations: a low-L/D vehicle using direct force control, a low-L/D vehicle using bank control, and a mid-L/D vehicle using bank control. The reference mission is aerocapture at Mars into a highly elliptical, 1-sol orbit. The trajectories are integrated in three degrees of freedom. All three cases utilize numeric predictor-corrector guidances and emulate control system responses with rate and acceleration limits. The configurations are compared using a Monte Carlo analysis. The robustness of each configuration to increased dispersions is also compared

Modal Analysis of the Orion Capsule Two Parachute System

As discussed in Ref [1], it is apparent from flight tests that the system made up of two main parachutes and a capsule can undergo several distinct dynamical behaviors. The most significant and problematic of these is the pendulum mode in which the system develops a pronounced swinging motion with an amplitude of up to 24 deg. Large excursions away from vertical by the capsule could cause it to strike the ground at a large horizontal or vertical speed and jeopardize the safety of the astronauts during a crewed mission. In reference [1], Ali et al. summarized a series of efforts taken by the Capsule Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) Program to understand and mitigate the pendulum issue. The period of oscillation and location of the system's pivot point are determined from post-flight analysis. Other noticeable but benign modes include: 1) flyout (scissors) mode, where the parachutes move back and forth symmetrically with respect to the vertical axis similar to the motion of a pair of scissors; 2) maypole mode, where the two parachutes circle around the vertical axis at a nearly constant radius and period; and 3) breathing mode, in which deformation of the non-rigid canopies affects the axial acceleration of the system in an oscillatory manner. Because these modes are relatively harm- less, little effort has been devoted to analyzing them in comparison with the pendulum motion. Motions of the actual system made up of two parachutes and a capsule are extremely complicated due to nonlinearities and flexibility effects. Often it is difficult to obtain insight into the fundamental dynamics of the system by examining results from a multi-body simulation based on nonlinear equations of motion (EOMs). As a part of this study, the dynamics of each mode observed during flight is derived from first principles on an individual basis by making numerous simplifications along the way. The intent is to gain a better understanding into the behavior of the complex multi-body system by studying the reduced set of differential equations associated with each mode. This approach is analogous to the traditional modal analysis technique used to study airplane flight dynamics, in which the full nonlinear behavior of the airframe is decomposed into the phugoid and short period modes for the longitudinal dynamics and the spiral, roll-subsidence, and dutch-roll modes for the lateral dynamics. It is important to note that the study does not address the mechanisms that cause the system to transition from one mode to another, nor does it discuss motions during which two or more modes occur simultaneously

The Ursinus Weekly, October 13, 1911

Alumni notes: Coach Price calls for help in developing new men • Penn outplayed • Football developments • Historical-Political group ratifies student constitution • Classicals ratify constitution • More smokes: Post mortem held over Penn game • Society notes • Christian associationshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/2742/thumbnail.jp

Juvenile Risk Assessment: Assessing the Evaluability and Predictive Validity of the Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument for use among the North Dakota Juvenile Probation Population

Risk assessment using an actuarial instrument represents one of eight core evidence-based practices (EBP) in community supervision recognized by the National Institute of Corrections (NIC). Despite the widespread adoption of a variety of instruments, many jurisdictions have not assessed their predictive validity. This research examines the evaluability of a risk assessment instrument, the Youth Assessment & Screening Instrument (YASI), adopted by the North Dakota Juvenile Court. The instrument has been in use since 2002. While studies of the YASI from New York State, Illinois, and Canada provide some confidence in the instrument\u27s predictive accuracy, questions still remain concerning its applicability to female and Native American populations

Signal-to-Noise Ratio Improvement based on the Discrete Wavelet Transform in Ultrasonic Defectoscopy

In ultrasonic testing it is very important to recognize the fault echoes buried in a noisy signal. The fault echo characterizes a flaw in the material. An important requirement on ultrasonic signal filtering is zero-time shift, because the position of ultrasonic echoes is essential. This requirement is accomplished using the discrete wavelet transform (DWT), which is used for reducing the signal-to-noise ratio. This paper evaluates the quality of filtering using the discrete wavelet transform. Additional computer simulations of the proposed algorithms are presented

The Ursinus Weekly, November 13, 1911

Alumni notes • First senate • Freshman banquet • Practice game • Chemical-Biological election • Mass meeting • Football nominations • Senior girls entertain • Christian associations • Society notes • College notes • Interesting scores of Saturdayhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/2746/thumbnail.jp

Signal Separation in Ultrasonic Non-Destructive Testing

In ultrasonic non-destructive testing the signals characterizing the material structure are commonly evaluated. The sensitivity and resolution of ultrasonic systems is limited by the backscattering and electronic noise level commonly contained in the acquired ultrasonic signals. For this reason, it is very important to use appropriate advanced signal processing methods for noise reduction and signal separation. This paper compares algorithms used for efficient noise reduction in ultrasonic signals in A-scan. Algorithms based on the discrete wavelet transform and the Wiener filter are considered. Part of this paper analyses and applies blind source separation, which has never been used in practical ultrasonic non-destructive testing. All proposed methods are evaluated on both simulated and acquired ultrasonic signals.