A U.S. Manager\u27s Guide to Differences Between IFRS and U.S. GAAP

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are now required for consolidated financial reports for all European Union exchange-listed companies. Officials estimated that for 2005, the initial year of EU adoption, 8,000 financial statements were prepared in accordance with IFRS for the first time. Other countries have also adopted IFRS or IFRS-equivalent financial reporting standards. IFRS differ from U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in many key areas. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) are working on various convergence projects designed to reduce or eliminate differences between the two sets of reporting standards. But existing differences will likely continue for at least the next two years, and, for many accounting topics, differences are likely to last much longer. This article highlights the 20 convergence projects and summarizes the differences between the two sets of standards. In addition, differences in three topics that are not included in the convergence efforts are identified. Differences between IFRS and U.S. GAAP found in actual EU company Form 20-F filings are used to illustrate the impact of the reporting-standard differences

Tracking Performance: When Less Is More

With or without a balanced scorecard, it is easy for managers to become inundated with metrics and measures. In this article, we first highlight the differences between lagging and leading measures. Second, we illustrate the importance of differentiating the strategic leading indicators-the key leading measures-from those that may improve operational efficiency without significant improvements in profitability. Third, we use a business simulation to demonstrate that focusing on and improving the key leading measures has the greatest impact on profitability, but getting lost in the secondary measures dilutes the effect. Combined, the results illustrate that less may be more when it comes to measuring performance

Promoting Investments in Intangible Organizational Assets through Aligned Incentive Compensation Plans

In order for large companies to continue to compete and expand in the global business world, it is important that the performance and compensation of strategic business unit managers are aligned with the organization’s overall long-term goals and strategies

Critical accounting policy and estimate disclosures: Company response to the evolving SEC guidance

In late 2001, soon after numerous financial reporting failures including the much publicized demise of Enron, the SEC began a series of initiatives to improve critical accounting policy (CAP) and critical accounting estimate disclosures included within the MD&A section of Form 10-K. The first announcement, in the form of cautionary guidance, was issued in December 2001. This was followed by a Proposed Rule in 2002, and additional disclosure guidance near the end of 2003. Combined, the guidance required companies to provide information that would help investors understand the impact of estimates, accounting policies and external factors on financial results. Through 2007, the SEC continued to provide guidance as to the content of CAP disclosures in the MD&A. In this study, we assess the extent to which companies responded to the initial CAP guidance, and determine the extent to which company disclosures changed with additional SEC guidance by analyzing CAP disclosures included in the 2001 and 2003 10-K filings for 112 of the Mid-Cap 400 companies. Our findings indicate that most, but not all, sampled companies included 2001 CAP disclosures consistent with the cautionary advice. We find that the disclosure content increased from 2001 to 2003, and that the disclosure quality also increased. However, some items remained underdisclosed in 2003, indicating that even after a 2-year period in which the SEC continued to provide additional guidance and reviewed company CAP disclosures, companies were not fully disclosing content identified as important by the SEC, particularly when the guidance was included in the Proposed Rule

The Relationship between Pre-Employment Expectations, Experiences, and the Length of Stay in Public Accounting

This study examines the relationship between work-family conflict, employment expectations, and length of stay in public accounting. Length of stay is modeled as a function of demographic factors and job characteristics associated with work-family balance, measured in terms of the extent to which the employees\u27 expectations matched their actual employment experiences. Results indicated that gender, the presence of children in the household, flexible schedules, and the presence of mentors were related to length of stay in public accounting

The Status of Ethics in Technology Education

Ethics is not a new concept within technology education. The inclusion of ethics evolved naturally from the progression of technological activity in the latter part of the twentieth century. During this shift to a postindustrial society, people started to look at technology from a more humanistic view than they previously had. To keep pace with these changes, a new ethic was suggested to help advance technological literacy by highlighting the relationship between humans, the environment, and technology (DeVore, 1980, 1991). How far have we come? This chapter reviews the current state of ethics within technology education. In the first two sections, materials for classroom instruction, including textbooks and modular materials, are examined. The third section discusses and recommends resources and practices that appear in professional literature. A survey of international technology education and ethics constitutes the fourth section. The chapter concludes with a look at professional ethics as they relate to technology teachers, teacher educators, and administrators

Effect of body composition methodology on heritability estimation of body fatness

Heritability estimates of human body fatness vary widely and the contribution of body composition methodology to this variability is unknown. The effect of body composition methodology on estimations of genetic and environmental contributions to body fatness variation was examined in 78 adult male and female monozygotic twin pairs reared apart or together. Body composition was assessed by six methods - body mass index (BMI), dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), underwater weighing (UWW), total body water (TBW), bioelectric impedance (BIA), and skinfold thickness. Body fatness was expressed as percent body fat, fat mass, and fat mass/height2 to assess the effect of body fatness expression on heritability estimates. Model-fitting multivariate analyses were used to assess the genetic and environmental components of variance. Mean BMI was 24.5 kg/m2 (range of 17.8-43.4 kg/m2). There was a significant effect of body composition methodology (p<0.001) on heritability estimates, with UWW giving the highest estimate (69%) and BIA giving the lowest estimate (47%) for fat mass/height2. Expression of body fatness as percent body fat resulted in significantly higher heritability estimates (on average 10.3% higher) compared to expression as fat mass/height2 (p=0.015). DXA and TBW methods expressing body fatness as fat mass/height2 gave the least biased heritability assessments, based on the small contribution of specific genetic factors to their genetic variance. A model combining DXA and TBW methods resulted in a relatively low FM/ht2 heritability estimate of 60%, and significant contributions of common and unique environmental factors (22% and 18%, respectively). The body fatness heritability estimate of 60% indicates a smaller contribution of genetic variance to total variance than many previous studies using less powerful research designs have indicated. The results also highlight the importance of environmental factors and possibly genotype by environmental interactions in the etiology of weight gain and the obesity epidemic.R01 AR046124 - NIAMS NIH HHS; R01 MH065322 - NIMH NIH HHS; T32 HL069772 - NHLBI NIH HHS; R21 DK078867 - NIDDK NIH HHS; R37 DA018673 - NIDA NIH HHS; R01 DK076092 - NIDDK NIH HHS; R01 DK079003 - NIDDK NIH HHS; F32 DK009747 - NIDDK NIH HHS; R01 DA018673 - NIDA NIH HH

The CS sulphation motifs 4C3, 7D4, 3B3[-]; and perlecan identify stem cell populations and niches, activated progenitor cells and transitional tissue development in the fetal human elbow

We compared the immunohistochemical distribution of (i) the novel chondroitin sulphate (CS) sulphation motifs 7D4, 4C3 and 3B3[-], (ii) native heparan sulphate (HS) and Δ-HS ‘stubs’ generated by heparitinase III digestion and (iii) the HS-proteoglycan, perlecan, in the foetal human elbow joint. Putative stem cell populations associated with hair bulbs, humeral perichondrium, humeral and ulnar rudiment stromal/perivascular tissues expressed the CS motifs 4C3, 7D4 and 3B3[-] as well as perlecan in close association but not co-localised. Chondrocytes in the presumptive articular cartilage of the foetal elbow expressed the 4C3 and 7D4 CS sulphation motifs consistent with earlier studies on the expression of these motifs in knee cartilage following joint cavitation. The present study also indicated that hair bulbs, skin, perichondrium and rudiment stroma were all perlecan rich progenitor cell niches that contributed to the organisation and development of the human foetal elbow joint and associated connective tissues. One of the difficulties in determining the precise role of stem cells in tissue development and repair processes is their short engraftment period and the lack of specific markers which differentiate the activated stem cell lineages from the resident cells. The CS sulphation motifs 7D4, 4C3 and 3B3[-] decorate cell surface proteoglycans on activated stem/progenitor cells and thus can be used to identify these cells in transitional areas of tissue development and in repair tissues and may be applicable to determining a more precise mode of action of stem cells in these processes. Isolation of perlecan from 12-14 week gestational age foetal knee rudiments demonstrated that perlecan in these foetal tissues was a HS-CS hybrid proteoglyca

Self-Esteem in Second Life: An inWorld Group Intervention for Women with Disabilities

We are developing and investigating the feasibility of a self-esteem enhancement intervention in Second Life for women with physical disabilities. We adapted the curriculum of a previously tested workshop intervention to include features unique to this environment. Results of the beta test were very positive. Everyone involved showed considerable enthusiasm for exploring the new world of SL. The group leaders were challenged to resolve technical problems on every occasion, but these diminished and were perceived as manageable as the intervention progressed. Beta testers gave positive ratings to the information presented, organization, and usefulness of the intervention and found it very enjoyable although fatigue and stress limited the participation of some. They appreciated the use of Internet technology as an accommodation to their disability, in place of requiring transportation and additional energy expenditure to attend face-to-face meetings. Research issues related to engagement, measurement, and participant safety, as well as future research directions, are discussed. We conclude that SL has great potential for delivering health promotion interventions to women with physical disabilities

Variability in remission in family therapy for anorexia nervosa.

ObjectiveThe evolution toward more stringent conceptualizations of remission in family therapy for adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN) has, with time, introduced variability in outcomes across randomized controlled trials (RCTs). An examination of remission across the history of research on family therapy for AN shows that earlier studies adopted lenient definitions and generally yielded higher rates of remission than studies of the past decade that have used stricter definitions of remission. In this study, we investigate the reactivity of remission rates to the application of different definitions of remission used within the family therapy for AN literature, within a single RCT data set.MethodWe conducted a secondary analysis of data from a single-site RCT which compared the relative efficacy of two formats of family therapy in a sample of 106 Australian adolescents with AN. Using end-of-treatment data, we compared remission rates using 11 definitions of remission that have been used in studies of family therapy for AN spanning more than three decades.ResultsWe found wide variability in remission rates (21.7-87.7%; Cochran's Q χ2 (10, N = 106) = 303.55, p = .000], depending on which definition of remission was applied. As expected, more lenient criteria produced higher remission rates than more stringent definitions.DiscussionApplying different criteria of remission to a single data set illustrates the impact of changing how remission is defined. Failure to consider the greater stringency of remission criteria in recent studies could result in false inferences concerning the efficacy of family therapy for AN over time