670 research outputs found
The impact of constructive operating lease capitalisation on key accounting ratios
Current UK lease accounting regulation does not require operating leases to be capitalised in the accounts of lessees, although this is likely to change with the publication of FRS 5. This study conducts a prospective analysis of the effects of such a change. The potential magnitude of the impact of lease capitalisation upon individual users' decisions, market valuations, company cash flows, and managers' behaviour can be indicated by the effect on key accounting ratios, which are employed in decision-making and in financial contracts. The capitalised value of operating leases is estimated using a method similar to that suggested by Imhoff, Lipe and Wright (1991), adapted for the UK accounting and tax environment, and developed to incorporate company-specific assumptions. Results for 1994 for a random sample of 300 listed UK companies show that, on average, the unrecorded long-term liability represented 39% of reported long-term debt, while the unrecorded asset represented 6% of total assets. Capitalisation had a significant impact (at the 1% level) on six of the nine selected ratios (profit margin, return on assets, asset turnover, and three measures of gearing). Moreover, the Spearman rank correlation between each ratio before and after capitalisation revealed that the ranking of companies changed markedly for gearing measures in particular. There were significant inter-industry variations, with the services sector experiencing the greatest impact. An analysis of the impact of capitalisation over the five-year period from 1990 to 1994 showed that capitalisation had the greatest impact during the trough of the recession. Results were shown to be robust with respect to key assumptions of the capitalisation method. These findings contribute to the assessment of the economic consequences of a policy change requiring operating lease capitalisation. Significant changes in the magnitude of key accounting ratios and a major shift in company performance rankings suggest that interested parties' decisions and company cash flows are likely to be affected
Structure and belonging: Pathways to success for underrepresented minority and women PhD students in STEM fields
The advancement of underrepresented minority and women PhD students to elite postdoctoral and faculty positions in the STEM fields continues to lag that of majority males, despite decades of efforts to mitigate bias and increase opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds. In 2015, the National Science Foundation Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NSF AGEP) California Alliance (Berkeley, Caltech, Stanford, UCLA) conducted a wide-ranging survey of graduate students across the mathematical, physical, engineering, and computer sciences in order to identify levers to improve the success of PhD students, and, in time, improve diversity in STEM leadership positions, especially the professoriate. The survey data were interpreted via path analysis, a method that identifies significant relationships, both direct and indirect, among various factors and outcomes of interest. We investigated two important outcomes: publication rates, which largely determine a new PhD student’s competitiveness in the academic marketplace, and subjective well-being. Women and minority students who perceived that they were well-prepared for their graduate courses and accepted by their colleagues (faculty and fellow students), and who experienced well-articulated and structured PhD programs, were most likely to publish at rates comparable to their male majority peers. Women PhD students experienced significantly higher levels of distress than their male peers, both majority and minority, while both women and minority student distress levels were mitigated by clearly-articulated expectations, perceiving that they were well-prepared for graduate level courses, and feeling accepted by their colleagues. It is unclear whether higher levels of distress in women students is related directly to their experiences in their STEM PhD programs. The findings suggest that mitigating factors that negatively affect diversity should not, in principle, require the investment of large resources, but rather requires attention to the local culture and structure of individual STEM PhD programs
A Wormhole at the core of an infinite cosmic string
We study a solution of Einstein's equations that describes a straight cosmic
string with a variable angular deficit, starting with a deficit at the
core. We show that the coordinate singularity associated to this defect can be
interpreted as a traversible wormhole lodging at the the core of the string. A
negative energy density gradually decreases the angular deficit as the distance
from the core increases, ending, at radial infinity, in a Minkowski spacetime.
The negative energy density can be confined to a small transversal section of
the string by gluing to it an exterior Gott's like solution, that freezes the
angular deficit existing at the matching border. The equation of state of the
string is such that any massive particle may stay at rest anywhere in this
spacetime. In this sense this is 2+1 spacetime solution.Comment: 1 tex file and 5 eps files. To be Published in Nov. in Phys.Rev.
Supermassive Black Hole Masses in Type II Active Galactic Nuclei with Polarimetric Broad Emission Lines
Type II AGNs with polarimetric broad emission line provided strong evidence
for the orientation-based unified model for AGNs. We want to investigate
whether the polarimetric broad emission line in type II AGNs can be used to
calculate their central supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses, like that for
type I AGNs. We collected 12 type II AGNs with polarimetric broad emission line
width from the literatures, and calculated their central black hole masses from
the polarimetric broad line width and the isotropic \oiii luminosity. We also
calculate the mass from stellar velocity dispersion, , with the
\mbh-\sigma_* relation.We find that: (1) the black hole masses derived from
the polarimetric broad line width is averagely larger than that from the \mbh-
\sigma_* relation by about 0.6 dex, (2) If these type II AGNs follow
\mbh-\sigma_* relation, we find that the random velocity can't not be omitted
and is comparable with the BLRs Keplerian velocity. It is consistent with the
scenery of large outflow from the accretion disk suggested by Yong et al.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 tables, accepted by A&
Friend or foe? The current epidemiologic evidence on selenium and human cancer risk.
Scientific opinion on the relationship between selenium and the risk of cancer has undergone radical change over the years, with selenium first viewed as a possible carcinogen in the 1940s then as a possible cancer preventive agent in the 1960s-2000s. More recently, randomized controlled trials have found no effect on cancer risk but suggest possible low-dose dermatologic and endocrine toxicity, and animal studies indicate both carcinogenic and cancer-preventive effects. A growing body of evidence from human and laboratory studies indicates dramatically different biological effects of the various inorganic and organic chemical forms of selenium, which may explain apparent inconsistencies across studies. These chemical form-specific effects also have important implications for exposure and health risk assessment. Overall, available epidemiologic evidence suggests no cancer preventive effect of increased selenium intake in healthy individuals and possible increased risk of other diseases and disorders
A comparison of wind observations of the upper thermosphere from the dynamics explorer satellite with the predictions of a global time-dependent model
Seven polar passes of the NASA Dynamics Explorer 2 (DE-2) satellite during October and early December 1981 have been used to examine the high-latitude circulation in the upper thermosphere. Vector winds along the satellite track are derived by appropriate merging of the data from the remote-sensing Fabry-Perot interferometer (meridional wind) and the in situ wind and temperature spectrometer (zonal wind) and are compared with the predictions of a three-dimensional, time-dependent, global model of the thermosphere. Major features of the experimental winds, such as the mean day to night circulation caused by solar u.v. and e.u.v. heating, augmented by magnetospheric processes at high latitude and the sharp boundaries and flow reversals imposed on thermospheric winds by momentum transfer (ion drag) from the magnetosphere, are qualitatively explained by a version of the global model using a semi-empirical global model of polar electric fields (Volland Model 2 or Heppner Model A) and a model of global electron density which excludes the effects of high-latitude geomagnetic processes. A second version of the global dynamic model includes a theoretical model of the high-latitude ionosphere which is self-consistent and reflects the enhancement of ionization due to magnetospheric phenomena acting in addition to solar e.u.v. photo-ionization, including the interactive processes which occur between ionization and high latitude ion convection and thermospheric winds. This second dynamical model shows an improved comparison with the structure and magnitude of polar cap and auroral oval winds at times of other than extremely low geomagnetic activity, when the first model appears a better match. An improved empirical description of the complex magnetospheric processes exciting the thermosphere in the vicinity of the dayside polar cusp and an empirical description of storm-time electric fields will be required for a quantitative explanation of the polar thermospheric winds during geomagnetic substorm events.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25079/1/0000510.pd
A new search for distant radio galaxies in the Southern hemisphere -- III. Optical spectroscopy and analysis of the MRCR--SUMSS sample
We have compiled a sample of 234 ultra-steep-spectrum(USS)-selected radio
sources in order to find high-redshift radio galaxies (HzRGs). The sample is in
the southern sky at -40 deg < DEC < -30 deg which is the overlap region of the
408-MHz Revised Molonglo Reference Catalogue, 843-MHz Sydney University
Molonglo Sky Survey (the MRCR--SUMSS sample) and the 1400-MHz NRAO VLA Sky
Survey. This is the third in a series of papers on the MRCR--SUMSS sample. Here
we present optical spectra from the ANU 2.3-m telescope, ESO New Technology
Telescope and ESO Very Large Telescope for 52 of the identifications from
Bryant et al. (2009, Paper II), yielding redshifts for 36 galaxies, 13 of which
have z>2. We analyse the K-z distribution and compare 4-arcsec-aperture
magnitudes with 64-kpc aperture magnitudes in several surveys from the
literature; the MRCR--SUMSS sample is found to be consistent with models for
10^{11}-10^{12} solar mass galaxies. Dispersions about the fits in the K-z plot
support passive evolution of radio galaxy hosts since z>3. By comparing
USS-selected samples in the literature, we find that the resultant median
redshift of the samples shown is not dependent on the flux density distribution
or selection frequency of each sample. In addition, our finding that the
majority of the radio spectral energy distributions remain straight over a wide
frequency range suggests that a k-correction is not responsible for the success
of USS-selection in identifying high redshift radio galaxies and therefore the
steep radio spectra may be intrinsic to the source or a product of the
environment. Two galaxies have been found to have both compact radio structures
and strong self-absorption in the Ly-alpha line, suggesting they are surrounded
by a dense medium...abridged.Comment: Accepted for MNRAS. 25 page
Structure and belonging: Pathways to success for underrepresented minority and women PhD students in STEM fields
The advancement of underrepresented minority and women PhD students to elite postdoctoral and faculty positions in the STEM fields continues to lag that of majority males, despite decades of efforts to mitigate bias and increase opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds. In 2015, the National Science Foundation Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NSF AGEP) California Alliance (Berkeley, Caltech, Stanford, UCLA) conducted a wide-ranging survey of graduate students across the mathematical, physical, engineering, and computer sciences in order to identify levers to improve the success of PhD students, and, in time, improve diversity in STEM leadership positions, especially the professoriate. The survey data were interpreted via path analysis, a method that identifies significant relationships, both direct and indirect, among various factors and outcomes of interest. We investigated two important outcomes: publication rates, which largely determine a new PhD student’s competitiveness in the academic marketplace, and subjective well-being. Women and minority students who perceived that they were well-prepared for their graduate courses and accepted by their colleagues (faculty and fellow students), and who experienced well-articulated and structured PhD programs, were most likely to publish at rates comparable to their male majority peers. Women PhD students experienced significantly higher levels of distress than their male peers, both majority and minority, while both women and minority student distress levels were mitigated by clearly-articulated expectations, perceiving that they were well-prepared for graduate level courses, and feeling accepted by their colleagues. It is unclear whether higher levels of distress in women students is related directly to their experiences in their STEM PhD programs. The findings suggest that mitigating factors that negatively affect diversity should not, in principle, require the investment of large resources, but rather requires attention to the local culture and structure of individual STEM PhD programs
Rare Copy Number Variants in \u3cem\u3eNRXN1\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eCNTN6\u3c/em\u3e Increase Risk for Tourette Syndrome
Tourette syndrome (TS) is a model neuropsychiatric disorder thought to arise from abnormal development and/or maintenance of cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuits. TS is highly heritable, but its underlying genetic causes are still elusive, and no genome-wide significant loci have been discovered to date. We analyzed a European ancestry sample of 2,434 TS cases and 4,093 ancestry-matched controls for rare (\u3c 1% frequency) copy-number variants (CNVs) using SNP microarray data. We observed an enrichment of global CNV burden that was prominent for large (\u3e 1 Mb), singleton events (OR = 2.28, 95% CI [1.39–3.79], p = 1.2 × 10−3) and known, pathogenic CNVs (OR = 3.03 [1.85–5.07], p = 1.5 × 10−5). We also identified two individual, genome-wide significant loci, each conferring a substantial increase in TS risk (NRXN1 deletions, OR = 20.3, 95% CI [2.6–156.2]; CNTN6 duplications, OR = 10.1, 95% CI [2.3–45.4]). Approximately 1% of TS cases carry one of these CNVs, indicating that rare structural variation contributes significantly to the genetic architecture of TS
Microwave sterilization of plastic tissue culture vessels for reuse
A simple protocol has been developed for recycling plastic tissue culture vessels. The killing properties of microwaves were used to decontaminate plastic tissue culture vessels for reuse. Nine bacterial cultures, four gram-negative and five gram-positive genera, including two Bacillus species, were used to artificially contaminate tissue culture vessels. The microwaves produced by a "home-type" microwave oven (2.45 gHz) were able to decontaminate the vessels with a 3-min exposure. The same exposure time was also used to completely inactivate the following three test viruses: polio type 1, parainfluenza type 1 (Sendai), and bacteriophage T4. The recycling procedure did not reduce the attachment and proliferation of the following cell types: primary chicken and turkey embryo, HEp-2, Vero, BGMK, and MK-2.Peer reviewedMicrobiolog
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