Goodwill Impairment: A New Window For Earnings Management?

The Financial Accounting Standards Board promulgated standard No. 142 in an attempt to improve the understandability of accounting information.  This new rule eliminated the practice of automatically amortizing goodwill.  No. 142 requires public companies to test goodwill for possible impairment at least annually.  An unintended consequence of this new standard is the opportunity for companies to use it in earnings management.  To test the possibility that the rule is being used for this purpose, a sample of companies was chosen, all of which had amounts of goodwill on their balance sheet during the 2003-2005 interval.  The results reveal that the number of companies experiencing losses or low rates of return on total assets who actually impaired goodwill was statistically insignificant during the period under consideration.  Thus, the results strongly suggest that companies are using No. 142 in an attempt to manage the volatility of earnings. &nbsp

L1599B: Cloud Envelope and C+ Emission in a Region of Moderately Enhanced Radiation Field

We study the effects of an asymmetric radiation field on the properties of a molecular cloud envelope. We employ observations of carbon monoxide (12CO and 13CO), atomic carbon, ionized carbon, and atomic hydrogen to analyze the chemical and physical properties of the core and envelope of L1599B, a molecular cloud forming a portion of the ring at approximately 27 pc from the star Lambda Ori. The O III star provides an asymmetric radiation field that produces a moderate enhancement of the external radiation field. Observations of the [CII] fine structure line with the GREAT instrument on SOFIA indicate a significant enhanced emission on the side of the cloud facing the star, while the [Ci], 12CO and 13CO J = 1-0 and 2-1, and 12CO J = 3-2 data from the PMO and APEX telescopes suggest a relatively typical cloud interior. The atomic, ionic, and molecular line centroid velocities track each other very closely, and indicate that the cloud may be undergoing differential radial motion. The HI data from the Arecibo GALFA survey and the SOFIA/GREAT [CII] data do not suggest any systematic motion of the halo gas, relative to the dense central portion of the cloud traced by 12CO and 13CO.Comment: 9 Figure

Product Analytics Based On Demographic Democratization

Product analytics is a blend of computational methods with the express purpose of facilitating the multifaceted process of decision-making based on demographic and consumer preferences.  This complex subject is derived from consensus theory and includes structured analytics, categories, and the combination of evidence.  The methodology is applicable to a wide range of business, economic, social, political, and strategic decisions.  The paper describes a product allocation application to demonstrate the concepts

Characterizing the transition from diffuse atomic to dense molecular clouds in the Magellanic clouds with [CII], [CI], and CO

We present and analyze deep Herschel/HIFI observations of the [CII] 158um, [CI] 609um, and [CI] 370um lines towards 54 lines-of-sight (LOS) in the Large and Small Magellanic clouds. These observations are used to determine the physical conditions of the line--emitting gas, which we use to study the transition from atomic to molecular gas and from C^+ to C^0 to CO in their low metallicity environments. We trace gas with molecular fractions in the range 0.1<f(H2)<1, between those in the diffuse H2 gas detected by UV absorption (f(H2)<0.2) and well shielded regions in which hydrogen is essentially completely molecular. The C^0 and CO column densities are only measurable in regions with molecular fractions f(H2)>0.45 in both the LMC and SMC. Ionized carbon is the dominant gas-phase form of this element that is associated with molecular gas, with C^0 and CO representing a small fraction, implying that most (89% in the LMC and 77% in the SMC) of the molecular gas in our sample is CO-dark H2. The mean X_CO conversion factors in our LMC and SMC sample are larger than the value typically found in the Milky Way. When applying a correction based on the filling factor of the CO emission, we find that the values of X_CO in the LMC and SMC are closer to that in the Milky Way. The observed [CII] intensity in our sample represents about 1% of the total far-infrared intensity from the LOSs observed in both Magellanic Clouds.Comment: 32 pages, 21 figures, Accepted to Ap

Vortices and domain walls in a Chern-Simons theory with magnetic moment interaction

We study the structure and properties of vortices in a recently proposed Abelian Maxwell-Chern-Simons model in $2 +1$ dimensions. The model which is described by gauge field interacting with a complex scalar field, includes two parity and time violating terms: the Chern-Simons and the anomalous magnetic terms. Self-dual relativistic vortices are discussed in detail. We also find one dimensional soliton solutions of the domain wall type. The vortices are correctly described by the domain wall solutions in the large flux limit.Comment: To be published in Phys RevD 23 pages, RevTex, 5 figure

HATNet Field G205: Follow-Up Observations of 28 Transiting-Planet candidates and Confirmation of the Planet HAT-P-8b

We report the identification of 32 transiting-planet candidates in HATNet field G205. We describe the procedures that we have used to follow up these candidates with spectroscopic and photometric observations, and we present a status report on our interpretation of the 28 candidates for which we have follow-up observations. Eight are eclipsing binaries with orbital solutions whose periods are consistent with their photometric ephemerides; two of these spectroscopic orbits are singled-lined and six are double-lined. For one of the candidates, a nearby but fainter eclipsing binary proved to be the source for the HATNet light curve, due to blending in the HATNet images. Four of the candidates were found to be rotating more rapidly than vsini = 50 km/s and were not pursued further. Thirteen of the candidates showed no significant velocity variation at the level of 0.5 to 1.0 km/s . Seven of these were eventually withdrawn as photometric false alarms based on an independent reanalysis using more sophisticated tools. Of the remaining six, one was put aside because a close visual companion proved to be a spectroscopic binary, and two were not followed up because the host stars were judged to be too large. Two of the remaining candidates are members of a visual binary, one of which was previously confirmed as the first HATNet transiting planet, HAT-P-1b. In this paper we confirm that the last of this set of candidates is also a a transiting planet, which we designate HAT-P-8b, with mass Mp = 1.52 +/- 0.18/0.16 Mjup, radius Rp = 1.50 +/- 0.08/0.06 Rjup, and photometric period P = 3.076320 +/- 0.000004 days. HAT-P-8b has an inflated radius for its mass, and a large mass for its period. The host star is a solar-metallicity F dwarf, with mass M* = 1.28 +/- 0.04 Msun and Rp = 1.58 +/- 0.08/0.06 Rsun.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, 13 table

Demonstration of images with negative group velocities

We report the experimental demonstration of the superluminal propagation of multi-spatial-mode images via four-wave mixing in hot atomic vapor, in which all spatial sub-regions propagate with negative group velocities. We investigate the spatial mode properties and temporal reshaping of the fast light images, and show large relative pulse peak advancements of up to 64% of the input pulse width. The degree of temporal reshaping is quantified and increases as the relative pulse peak advancement increases. When optimized for image quality or pulse advancement, negative group velocities of up to $v_{g}=-\frac{c}{880}$ and $v_{g}=-\frac{c}{2180}$, respectively, are demonstrated when integrating temporally over the entire image. The present results are applicable to temporal cloaking devices that require strong manipulation of the dispersion relation, where one can envision temporally cloaking various spatial regions of an image for different durations. Additionally, the modes involved in a four-wave mixing process similar to the present experiment have been shown to exhibit quantum correlations and entanglement. The results presented here provide insight into how to tailor experimental tests of the behavior of these quantum correlations and entanglement in the superluminal regime.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

A poxviral homolog of the Pellino protein inhibits Toll and Toll-like receptor signalling

Toll-like receptor (TLR) signalling pathways constitute an evolutionarily conserved component of the host immune response to pathogenic infection. Here, we describe the ability of a virally encoded form of the Pellino protein to inhibit Toll- and TLR-mediated activation of downstream Rel family transcription factors. In addition to inhibiting drosomycin promoter activation by Spa¨ tzle in Drosophila melanogaster cells, viral Pellino attenuates the activation of NF-jB by TLR signalling components and by the TLR4 ligand, LPS, in human cells. We propose that viral Pellino, like mammalian Pellinos, contains a forkhead-associated domain but differs from the mammalian forms in that it lacks a complete and functional RING-like domain. We produce a homology model and present experimental data to support this model by demonstrating that, like mammalian Pellinos, viral Pellino can interact with IRAK-1 via its forkhead-associated domain, whereas unlike its mammalian counterparts, it fails to post-translationally modify IRAK-1. Furthermore, we demonstrate that viral Pellino can functionally antagonise the activity of human Pellino3S. Thus, our findings identify potential immunoevasive capabilities possessed by a poxviral homolog of the Pellino protein and add growing evidence for a likely role for Pellino proteins in Toll and TLR signalling