The impairment test for football players: the missing link between sports and financial performance?

The academic literature on financial reporting and accounting is limited in the football industry compared with other sectors of the economy. The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the financial communications of football clubs with reference to the impairment test for football players. According to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), an impairment test measures whether a balance sheet item is actually worth the amount stated on the balance sheet. The balance sheet amount should be reduced if the impairment test indicates a lower value. At the end of each reporting period, a football club is required to assess whether there is any indication that a footballer may be impaired. The paper aims to show that the financial communications and reporting disclosed by football clubs about the impairment test procedure is poor and inadequate. It is argued that the UEFA regulations have gaps that ought to be filled and that IFRS are not perfectly suitable for companies operating in specific business sectors such as the football industry. The study is based on an extensive literature review and an analysis of previous academic studies. In addition, this study investigates the best practices reported in the footnotes of the financial statements of several football clubs in Italy, England and Scotland. These clubs operate and play in different jurisdictions and so also adopt different accounting standards. The research study reveals that only a few of the clubs studied give information about the impairment test in the footnotes to financial statements. This confirms that the financial communications of football clubs are limited. Secondly, only one club studied (Rangers F.C.) acknowledges that a possible external indication for performing an impairment test might be the failure to achieve the sporting goals fixed at the beginning of the sporting season. Our findings suggest that UEFA, FIFA and local football associations should promote new regulations aimed to improve the accuracy of the financial disclosure of football clubs. They should also introduce as an important external indicator to perform the impairment. This kind of failure has a negative impact on football clubs' revenues. These findings may also have interesting implications for other sporting organisations. This article is published as part of a collection on corporate governance, the sports industry and intellectual capital

Gravitational collapse of a magnetized fermion gas with finite temperature

We examine the dynamics of a self--gravitating magnetized electron gas at finite temperature near the collapsing singularity of a Bianchi-I spacetime. Considering a general and appropriate and physically motivated initial conditions, we transform Einstein--Maxwell field equations into a complete and self--consistent dynamical system amenable for numerical work. The resulting numerical solutions reveal the gas collapsing into both, isotropic ("point-like") and anisotropic ("cigar-like") singularities, depending on the initial intensity of the magnetic field. We provide a thorough study of the near collapse behavior and interplay of all relevant state and kinematic variables: temperature, expansion scalar, shear scalar, magnetic field, magnetization and energy density. A significant qualitative difference in the behavior of the gas emerges in the temperature range $\hbox{T} sim10^{4}\hbox{K}$ and $\hbox{T}\sim 10^{7}\hbox{K}$.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1211.598

Visiones de la agricultura familiar en los programas de intervención

En el año internacional de la agricultura familiar se han incrementado los eventos, los programas y, en general, las referencias a la “agricultura familiar”. Esta atención forma parte de una nueva perspectiva desde las instituciones de intervención que, por otra parte, constituye un abanico de interpretaciones y supuestos. Este constituye la primera etapa de un estudio en el marco del Programa de investigación y desarrollo bajo la dirección de Roberto Ringuelet: “Estudio de situaciones problemáticas en las interfaces de los procesos de extensión rural” (Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales y Facultad de Psicología, UNLP). Partimos de un corpus de datos derivados de documentos, eventos sobre agricultura familiar y experiencias diversas de campo que serán convenientemente indicadas en el transcurso del texto. Nos interesa básicamente identificar los agentes institucionales, considerando los campos conceptuales asociados y, más específicamente, el grado y tipo de la incorporación de una visión social de la agricultura familiar.Mesa 25: Civilización y barbarie. Mundo rural: interculturalidad, familia y trabajo.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

An alternative for human gait modelling using the Bond Graph Technique

The systematic analysis of the human gait with a skeletal or neuromuscular disorder is a valuable clinical instrument to determine the nature and severity of the disease. At present, there are many institutions that have developed a series of numerical models that simulate and analyze biomechanics systems such as the human gait. Many of these models require diverse and segmented programming to incorporate various effects of the dynamics of the body such as the performance of the muscles and tendons, the passive and active resistance to movement, and other physiological effects. One of the alternatives to simulate biomechanical systems is the use of the Bond Graph modeling technique. The modular modeling with multi-domains, a feature of the Bond Graph technique, is one of its potential advantages compare to other methods. The equations generated with the use of this technique are equivalent to those techniques developed with more traditional methods, but the modules can be easier and more comfortable to use in conjunction with models of neuromuscular control functions, models that incorporate the elasticity properties in the bones and tendons, etc. The proposed model, comprised of seven segments, is developed to estimate the torque and the power in the joints. This model is simulated and validated using the processed experimental data of a normal gait in GCD (Gait Cycle Data) format file

Design of an RSFQ Control Circuit to Observe MQC on an rf-SQUID

We believe that the best chance to observe macroscopic quantum coherence (MQC) in a rf-SQUID qubit is to use on-chip RSFQ digital circuits for preparing, evolving and reading out the qubit's quantum state. This approach allows experiments to be conducted on a very short time scale (sub-nanosecond) without the use of large bandwidth control lines that would couple environmental degrees of freedom to the qubit thus contributing to its decoherence. In this paper we present our design of a RSFQ digital control circuit for demonstrating MQC in a rf-SQUID. We assess some of the key practical issues in the circuit design including the achievement of the necessary flux bias stability. We present an "active" isolation structure to be used to increase coherence times. The structure decouples the SQUID from external degrees of freedom, and then couples it to the output measurement circuitry when required, all under the active control of RSFQ circuits. Research supported in part by ARO grant # DAAG55-98-1-0367.Comment: 4 pages. More information and publications at http://www.ece.rochester.edu:8080/users/sde/research/publications/index.htm

Abundance and Composition of Zooplankton (Copepoda, Cladocera, Rotifera) in Lake Taal: Potential Impact of Intensive Size-Selective Predation by the Freshwater Sardine, Sardinella tawilis (Herre 1927)

Zooplankton are considered to be important members of the lake ecosystem. The abundance and composition of which are due to several factors, for example, the impact of intensive size-selective predation by planktivorous fishes residing in the lake. In this study, the abundance and composition of zooplankton found in the vicinity of Isla Napayun - a known fishing ground of the freshwater sardine, Sardinella tawilis (Herre 1927) was analyzed using samples taken from vertical plankton tows from the 10 and 20 m depths in 2 sampling sites from the said area. These were then compared with the stomach contents of S. tawilis taken during the same period. Results show that there were 4 genera of Copepoda, 4 genera of Cladocera and 2 genera of Rotifera found in the plankton tows that were analyzed. Of these, the nauplius larvae of the copepods were noted to be the most abundant followed by the rotifer Brachionus spp. Analysis of the stomach contents of the collected S. tawilis samples revealed a zooplankton diet that was composed of 90% Copepoda with the remaining 10% being made up of the Cladocera and Rotifera. These results indicate that small-bodied organisms dominate the lake. This is indicative of intensive size-selective predation by the S. tawilis on the zooplankton population of the area. This is further validated by the high preference of S. tawilis for Copepoda, which is the largest of the 3 groups (in terms of size) in the samples that were analyzed in spite of the fact that small-bodied zooplankton dominate the zooplankton community during the entire sampling period. The zooplankton found in this particular area of Lake Taal has been observed to be highly influenced by intensive size selective preference of planktivores such as the S. tawilis for bigger zooplankton