Consolidation Accounting Research Articles

Post-encoding task engagement not attentional load is detrimental to awake consolidation

The fate of new memories depends partly on the cognitive state experienced immediately following encoding. Wakeful rest, relative to task engagement, benefits retention and this effect is typically explained through a consolidation account: rest is theorised to provide a state of minimal interference, which would otherwise disrupt consolidation. Yet, the determinants of consolidation interference, notably the contribution of attention, remain poorly characterised. Through a repeated measures design, we investigated attention load’s impact on consolidation. In three phases, participants encountered a set of nonwords and underwent immediate recognition testing, experienced a 5-min delay condition, and completed a delayed recognition test for the nonwords. This cycle repeated for each phase before proceeding to the next. Delay conditions comprised of wakeful rest and two sustained attention to response tasks (SART) that were of low (SART-fixed) and high (SART-random) attention load. Immediate memory was matched across conditions, but delayed recognition was poorer after completing the SART-fixed and SART-random conditions, relative to rest. There was no difference between the two SART conditions. These data provide insights into the factors that contribute to the success of consolidation and indicate that the attention load of a task does not determine the magnitude of consolidation interference and associated forgetting.

A generative model of memory construction and consolidation

Episodic memories are (re)constructed, share neural substrates with imagination, combine unique features with schema-based predictions and show schema-based distortions that increase with consolidation. Here we present a computational model in which hippocampal replay (from an autoassociative network) trains generative models (variational autoencoders) to (re)create sensory experiences from latent variable representations in entorhinal, medial prefrontal and anterolateral temporal cortices via the hippocampal formation. Simulations show effects of memory age and hippocampal lesions in agreement with previous models, but also provide mechanisms for semantic memory, imagination, episodic future thinking, relational inference and schema-based distortions including boundary extension. The model explains how unique sensory and predictable conceptual elements of memories are stored and reconstructed by efficiently combining both hippocampal and neocortical systems, optimizing the use of limited hippocampal storage for new and unusual information. Overall, we believe hippocampal replay training generative models provides a comprehensive account of memory construction, imagination and consolidation.

Higher intensity exercise after encoding is more conducive to episodic memory retention than lower intensity exercise: A field study in endurance runners.

An acute bout of exercise in the moments after learning benefits the retention of new memories. This finding can be explained, at least partly, through a consolidation account: exercise provides a physiological state that is conducive to the early stabilisation of labile new memories, which supports their retention and subsequent retrieval. The modification of consolidation through non-invasive exercise interventions offers great applied potential. However, it remains poorly understood whether effects of exercise translate from the laboratory to naturalistic settings and whether the intensity of exercise determines the effect in memory. To this end, adult endurance runners were recruited as participants and completed two study sessions spaced two weeks apart. In each session, participants were presented with a list of words and asked to recall them on three occasions: (i) immediately following their presentation, (ii) after a 30-minute retention interval, and (iii) after 24 hours. Crucially, the 30-minute retention interval comprised our experimental manipulation: higher intensity exercise (running) in the first session and lower intensity exercise (walking) in the second, both completed in a naturalistic setting around participants' existing physical activity training programmes. Exertion was recorded through heart rate and rate of perceived exertion data. Alertness, mood, and arousal ratings were also collected before and after the 30-minute retention interval. Immediate memory for the two wordlists was matched, but participants retained significantly more words after 30 minutes and 24 hours when encoding was followed by higher than lower intensity exercise. Exertion data revealed that participants experienced vigorous and light exercise in the higher and lower intensity conditions, respectively. Significant improvements in alertness, mood, and arousal were observed following both exercise conditions, but especially in the higher intensity condition. These outcomes reveal that experiencing higher intensity physical activity in the field is conducive to declarative memory retention, possibly because it encourages consolidation.

Accounting aspects of organic production and the organic product movement

The issues of improving primary and consolidated accounting, methods of determining the cost of production, its evaluation, displaying information in the system of accounts, and summarizing the indicators of financial and non-financial reporting for the management of the organic production process and information support for management decision-making by various groups of users are relevant. The enterprises' awareness of the role of ecological, economic, and social advantages in the growth of agricultural competitiveness actualized the study of the organization of organic production from the point of view of the sustainable development of Ukraine's economy. It has been established that the production of organic products is promising but needs to be more researched in the development of the agrarian sector of the economy, especially in the accounting and analytical support of business processes. So, the article substantiates the need to build the concept of accounting and analytical support for producing organic products. It is urgent to develop several normative documents on keeping records of organic production and their adaptation and systematization to the needs of modern digital users. At the request of the modern information system, based on domestic and international legislation on accounting and reporting on the production of organic products, recommendations have been developed on the adaptation of accounting support for the movement of organic products. A unified information system about the objects of accounting for organic production, their normative, methodical, and accounting support for processing, grouping, summarizing, and registering aggregate data, displaying the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of organic products requires high-quality digital content by the needs of different groups of users for the adoption of management solutions. Keywords: organic production, costs, accounting, environmental and economic accounting, information, management.

Retro-cue effect: The retro-cue is effective when and only when working memory consolidation is inadequate.

The retro-cue effect (RCE) describes the finding that participants' working memory performance is enhanced when their attention is directed to the to-be-tested position by a spatial cue during the retention interval. Here, we explore the relationship between RCE and working memory consolidation. A sequential display retro-cue paradigm is used for the present study. In Experiments 1A and 1B, longer consolidation time (CT) completely erased the standard RCE. In Experiment 2, longer CT diminished the RCE in a standard simultaneous display retro-cue paradigm. In Experiment 3, the post-cue time was used by participants to further consolidate memory traces. In Experiment 4, longer CT protected memory representations from invalid cue costs. Our results support a consolidation account of the RCE: the retro-cue is effective when and only when the working memory consolidation is inadequate. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

A solution to the problem of pile settlement caused by vertical static loading with consideration to plastic properties of the foundation soil

Introduction. The article addresses the problem of nonlinear analyses of structures having pile foundations. The purpose of the study is to develop a method for determining the nonlinear behaviour of a single pile. The tasks of the study are to use the analytical method to define and solve the settlement problem of a single pile, taking into account the plastic properties of soils along the lateral surface and under the tip, as well as to verify the obtained solutions using the field data obtained by testing the pile subjected to static loading.
 Materials and methods. The analytical model of the telescopic motion of coaxial cylindrical soil layers around the pile was applied to obtain the solution. Pile settlement due to the punching of the bottom layer was calculated using the available formula dealing with a circular rigid stamp located at a given depth from the surface. To verify the solution, the authors used the materials of static loading tests conducted in respect of three reinforced concrete prismatic piles of the base of a hospital building located in the city of Tver. A static method was used to drive the piles.
 Results. A comparison between the results of the analysis obtained using the proposed solution and the field test data is presented. The analysis of this comparison shows that the solution allows describing the load-settlement curve for the static loading of a single pile. A reasonable mismatch between the calculated and field data is identified; it is associated with the inability of the derived formula to take account of soil consolidation.
 Conclusions.The solution, obtained for single pile settlement, takes into account plastic properties of soil on the lateral surface and under the pile tip. This solution describes the regularity of single pile deformation under static loading. Further research will take soil consolidation into account. The assumed values of the ultimate resistance of a pile along a lateral surface and under the pile tip have a considerable influence on the results of the calculation according to the solution obtained by the authors. A relevant task, to be solved in the course of further research, is to find alternative methods of their determination.

A neural network account of memory replay and knowledge consolidation.

Replay can consolidate memories through offline neural reactivation related to past experiences. Category knowledge is learned across multiple experiences, and its subsequent generalization is promoted by consolidation and replay during rest and sleep. However, aspects of replay are difficult to determine from neuroimaging studies. We provided insights into category knowledge replay by simulating these processes in a neural network which approximated the roles of the human ventral visual stream and hippocampus. Generative replay, akin to imagining new category instances, facilitated generalization to new experiences. Consolidation-related replay may therefore help to prepare us for the future as much as remember the past. Generative replay was more effective in later network layers functionally similar to the lateral occipital cortex than layers corresponding to early visual cortex, drawing a distinction between neural replay and its relevance to consolidation. Category replay was most beneficial for newly acquired knowledge, suggesting replay helps us adapt to changes in our environment. Finally, we present a novel mechanism for the observation that the brain selectively consolidates weaker information, namely a reinforcement learning process in which categories were replayed according to their contribution to network performance. This reinforces the idea of consolidation-related replay as an active rather than passive process.

Corporate capers, group accounting reforms

ABSTRACT Histories of business firms, mergers and takeovers, disputes, frauds and failures have proven fruitful in observing whether accounting generally produces serviceable information in applied commercial settings. We contribute to this literature by drawing on John Preston’s 2021 biography of Robert Maxwell, and earlier biographies of the media baron, juxtaposed with evidence in Frank Partnoy’s account of the 1920s larger-than-life Swedish engineer, businessman and financier Ivar Kreuger. Cameos of other business histories are interposed to suggest these cases are not outliers. Both oversaw what was referred to as an unexpected company failure. While their founder manager actions suggest that there is nothing new under the sun, there are enduring deficiencies in the group information disclosed to interested parties using malleable standards-based accounting, especially conventional consolidation accounting. These weaknesses are known to regulators and accounting standard setters but remain effectively unaddressed. The wheeling and dealing of Maxwell and Kreuger provide the commercial equivalent of a laboratory setting, with evidence suggesting circumvention of the separate legal entity notion within corporate groups, impeding effective regulatory and governance controls. Using a hypothetical, worked example, an alternative group accounting system illustrates how disclosure of additional, more serviceable group information to interested parties would likely provide a check on the actions of a dominant manager, and further, provide a greater likelihood of identification of a company failure trajectory.

ХЎЖАЛИК СУБЪЕКТЛАРИДА ХАРАЖАТЛАР ҲИСОБИ ВА ТАҲЛИЛИНИ ОҚИЛОНА ТАШКИЛ ҚИЛИШ ҲАМДА ЮРИТИШ МАСАЛАЛАРИ

The article discusses the issues of accounting and analysis of the main production costs, period costs and costs of financial activities in the system of effective management of business entities. The influence of production processes on the perfect business operations is studied, proposals are givenand recommendations for the organization of primary and consolidated cost accounting are developed.Кеу words:production process, cost classification, primary and consolidated documentation, main activity, cost period, financial activity

Coverage and correlates of health insurance in the north-eastern states of India

PurposeThe paper aims to analyze the coverage of health insurance and its correlates in the north-eastern region of India.Design/methodology/approachThe study accessed the raw data of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) (2015–16), which was an extensive, multiround survey conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India, which included socioeconomic, demographic and information on coverage of health insurance of any member of the household. The multivariate analysis of logistic regression was adopted to find the correlates of health insurance for all the eight (8) north-eastern states of India.FindingsThe results observed that among the north-eastern states, the coverage of health insurance was highest in Arunachal Pradesh (59%) followed by Tripura (58%), Mizoram (47%) surpassing the all India level of 27%, whereas the lowest was in Manipur (4%) followed by Nagaland (6%) and Assam (10%). The multivariate analysis of logistic regression found that the socioeconomic and demographic factors, households with a bank account and below poverty line (BPL) cardholders played a significant role in the coverage of health insurance in the north-eastern states of India.Research limitations/implicationsThe study focuses only on the coverage and correlates of health insurance. Further evaluation studies on each scheme of the social health insurance are needed for proper assessment of the health insurance schemes in the region.Practical implicationsThere has been evidence around the world (South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand) that health insurance could be a protective shield from the entrapment into poverty due to high health expenditure. The NFHS-4 put up the finding that in the north-eastern part of India, the coverage of health insurance had been low. This implied that the region could fall into poverty due to high medical expenses on health. Taking account of multiple health insurance providers, risk pooling and consolidation of health insurance providers have become the need of the hour.Originality/valueThe study is different from other studies of health insurance since it covered all the eight (8) north-eastern states of India, which are ethnically, culturally and historically distinct from the rest of India in general and within the region and states in particular and examines the impact of each of the independent variables with the dependent variables. The study has shown that the variation in health insurance coverage associated with socioeconomic and other household-level demographic attributes (although not very strong).

The effect of IFRS adoption on the value relevance of accounting information: evidence from South Korea

This study investigates whether the value relevance of accounting information was changed after IFRS adoption in South Korea. Related prior studies have found mixed empirical evidence depending on research methodologies or research periods. Moreover, the effect of IFRS adoption on value relevance can be different between Korean stock markets (KSE and KOSDAQ) because they have different characteristics. Also, the main financial statements reported by Korean firms had changed from individual financial statements to consolidated financial statements after IFRS adoption. Thus, this study analyzes the effect of IFRS adoption on the value relevance of individual and consolidated accounting numbers expanding research periods (5 years before and after IFRS adoption) and comparing changes in explanatory powers of Ohlson (1995) model on each listing market. The empirical results indicate that the value relevance of Korean listed firms generally decreased after IFRS adoption. However, the value relevance of KSE listed firms decreased, while the value relevance of KOSDAQ listed firms increased after IFRS adoption. In addition, it was found that the effects of IFRS adoption on value relevance of individual and consolidated financial information were different depending on listed markets. This implies that different level of demand for information environment may induce differential effects of IFRS adoption on value relevance.

Benefit of wakeful resting on gist and peripheral memory retrieval in healthy younger and older adults

Retrieval is greater if new learning is followed by a period of wakeful rest, minimising the likelihood of retroactive interference. It is not known if this benefit extends to recollection of both gist and peripheral details, nor whether age affects the benefit of wakeful resting in either of these types of recollection. Forty-five younger and forty older adults were presented with prose passages for later recall followed by a period of either interference or wakeful resting. Younger participants outperformed older participants in remembering peripheral details, but not on gist memory. Wakeful resting led to higher overall recollection in both age groups, both for gist and for peripheral details. Also, wakeful resting was more beneficial for gist than peripheral memory in older but not younger adults. We discuss these novel findings and their theoretical implications for a memory consolidation account of the benefits of wakeful resting.

The effects of post-encoding stress and glucocorticoids on episodic memory in humans and rodents

It is now well established that acute stress shortly after encoding (i.e., post-encoding stress) can benefit episodic memory. In the current paper, we briefly review the human literature examining the effects of post-encoding stress on episodic memory, and we relate that literature to studies of post-encoding manipulations of cortisol in humans, as well as studies of post-encoding stress and administration of corticosterone on analogous memory tasks in rodents. An examination of the literature reveals several important gaps in our understanding of stress and memory. For example, although the human literature shows that post-encoding stress generally improves memory, these effects are not observed if stress occurs in a different context from learning. Moreover, the rodent literature shows that post-encoding stress generally impairs memory instead of improving it, and these effects depend on whether the animal is habituated to the learning context prior to encoding. Although many aspects of the results support a cellular consolidation account of post-encoding stress, we present possible modifications, such as a network reset, to better account for the data. We also suggest that it is important to incorporate ideas of contextual binding in order to understanding the effects of post-encoding stress and glucocorticoids on memory.

Актуальні проблеми організації обліку необоротних активів екологічного спрямування лісогосподарського підприємства

У сучасних умовах виникає необхідність перегляду та уточнення принципів формування необоротних активів підприємства. Ресурси підприємства трансформуються в активи (відповідно – відображаються в балансі), лише після дотримання умов визнання, зокрема оцінки та ідентифікації, можна очікувати від них економічної вигоди (прибутку), це свідчить про актуальність і важливість цієї теми. Перше, на що потрібно звернути увагу, це організація первинного і зведеного обліку основних засобів екологічного призначення. Операцією, яка потребує окремих форм документів для її відображення в бухгалтерському обліку, є переоцінка основних засобів екологічного призначення, проблемним питанням обліку необоротних активів і ОЗ екологічного призначення є облік екологічних витрат на їх поліпшення. Практична проблема, пов'язана з оцінкою необоротних активів, часто виникає під час проведення їх інвентаризації та виявлення таких, що не відображені на балансі підприємства. Розглянуто актуальні проблеми організації обліку необоротних активів екологічного спрямування лісогосподарського підприємства. Для цілей переоцінки потрібно поділити групи основних засобів екологічного призначення (враховуючи специфіку діяльності) на певні підгрупи, щоб зробити їх однорідними. Для покращення організації обліку запропоновано деталізований план рахунків необоротних активів екологічного призначення, з урахуванням діяльності лісового підприємства. Розроблено прикладні пропозиції вирішення проблем організації обліку необоротних активів екологічного спрямування лісогосподарського підприємства, які допоможуть підприємству чітко організувати облік необоротних активів, спрямованих на екологічну політику лісогосподарства. Основою управління є інформація про екологічні витрати, отримана шляхом дослідження необоротних активів екологічного призначення діяльності підприємства, побудови механізму раціональної організації та методики обліку необоротних активів.

Two Key Tasks of Accounting

In the article, two main tasks of accounting are considered, which were formulated by Italian professor Vincenzo Giitti at the end of the nineteenth century, namely, the task of creating a scientifically sound accounting theory, and the task of developing accounting methods that meet the needs of modern enterprises. It is noted that at the present stage of development of accounting, these tasks have not lost their relevance. Despite all the attempts made, the generally recognized scientific theory of accounting has not yet been created, and the existing methods of accounting do not correspond to the needs of organizations created in the form of large integrated structures. The conducted research has shown that presently in the economy of the Russian Federation the significant share is occupied by the organizations carrying out financial and economic activity through affi ed and dependent societies. Organizations with a branched, integrated structure that includes subsidiaries and affiliates, as well as affiliated persons, account for at least 37% of the aggregate output of Russian organizations (total revenue of organizations) and a significant share of the capitalization of Russian organizations. The author argues that the existing consolidation methods provided for by international fi reporting standards are outside the accounting methodology, which, in turn, actualizes the problem of developing consolidated accounting methodology.

Cases on Preparation of Consolidated Financial Statements by Improved Consolidation Accounting System

Cases on Preparation of Consolidated Financial Statements by Improved Consolidation Accounting System

Firm Equity Investment Decisions and U.S. GAAP and IFRS Consolidation Control Guidelines: An Empirical Analysis

ABSTRACT It is asserted in the literature that rules-based accounting standards leave room for transaction structuring and that numerous accounting scandals have been linked to companies structuring transactions to avoid bright-line rules. Prior research suggests that bright-line accounting standards motivated companies to avoid the equity method or consolidation accounting by keeping their equity ownership percentages below the key thresholds of 20 percent and 50 percent. However, in recent years, much has changed regarding U.S. GAAP and IFRS principles, especially in terms of the guidelines surrounding business combinations and the concept of control. Now, given the similarity of the U.S. GAAP and IFRS equity investment accounting standards and their more recent emphasis on the control concept, one would not expect either U.S. GAAP or IFRS firms to engage in transaction-structuring behavior, holding concentrated ownership percentages at, or right below, 50 percent. Our study extends prior research by investigating whether this phenomenon (of investment percentages being concentrated right at 50 percent or just below) exists in today's FASB and IASB reporting environments and if so, why? Using ownership data from 2004–2008, we investigate whether firms engage in strategic investment behavior in the vicinity of the 50 percent ownership threshold within the U.S. GAAP and IFRS reporting environments. Interestingly, our univariate results indicate that despite a shift in the accounting standards to a more principles-based definition of control, U.S. GAAP-compliant and IFRS-compliant companies continue to behave in a manner indicative of purposeful transaction structuring around the 50 percent threshold, as evidenced by an unusually heavy concentration of investment at or below 50 percent. This finding could mean that U.S. GAAP- and IFRS-compliant companies (and their auditors) are continuing to anchor to the old bright-line guidance regarding consolidation accounting. We supplement our univariate tests with a regression analysis to examine potential incentives that could explain this investment behavior. We find that leverage has a significant positive marginal effect—increased leverage is associated with a greater likelihood of choosing to keep the investment level at or below 50 percent. Data Availability: The ownership data for this study were obtained from the Bureau van Dijk OSIRIS Ownership database. Data will be made available in accordance with the American Accounting Association's data integrity policy.

Introduction to Consolidation Accounting: Google's Acquisition of Waze

When Google purchased Israel-based Waze on June 11, 2013, many wondered how the quirky start-up had even gotten noticed. The answer was its product, an app launched from Ra'anana, Israel, that connected users with information about traffic—jams, accidents, shortcuts, cheap gas—and all sorts of driver-friendly data that was crowdsourced from drivers themselves. This acquisition provides an interesting international context for students to understand and apply consolidation accounting. As a single-class introductory-level treatment of consolidations using U.S. GAAP and an Israeli company, the case offers some side insights and perspective on the Israeli economy. Although intended for exploring the mechanics and goals of consolidated accounting methods, the case can be used to explore a few related topics. In addition to understanding this type of accounting, the issue of purchase price allocations is raised, allowing room for discussions related to the potential softness of these numbers at the time of consolidation, as well as multi-period issues and the possible economic consequences that could ensue from alternative allocations. Excerpt UVA-C-2354 Aug. 26, 2015 Introduction to Consolidation Accounting: Google's Acquisition of Waze The parking lot sometimes known as the interstate kept many a commuter in a state of frustration and anxiety. And, as it turned out, sitting idle in traffic was a global irritant; no one liked it. Then a new traffic-pattern app launched from Ra'anana, Israel, in 2009. The app connected users with information about jams, accidents, shortcuts, cheap gas, and all sorts of driver-friendly data gathered from the drivers themselves. The product grew in popularity until a company on the other side of the world noticed it—Google purchased Waze on June 11, 2013. Although Waze's founders became instant millionaires, many wondered: Why sell to Google when Waze could have gone public on its own? And now that Google owned the quirky start-up, what were its plans? Among those watching the acquisition was Gideon Gonen, who was obsessed with these questions and more. As the founder of another innovative tech start-up, he was keen to understand all the details of the deal. He decided to start by looking at the consequences of the Waze acquisition for Google's consolidated financial statements. Israeli Market . . .

The Problems of Stage Acquisition Under the New Consolidation Accounting Standards

This article discusses some important components of how the accounting standards of consolidated financial statements have changed under FASB Nos. 141R and 160. Goodwill consists of both the parent and the noncontrolling interest. Noncontrolling interest includes goodwill and is treated as equity, rather than a liability. Consolidation is based on the fair value of the subsidiary's net assets. If the parent acquired the subsidiary in multiple stages, the accounting method may have to change from the cost method to the equity method. And, any gains or losses from the previous investment must be recognized. After the controlling interest is reached, consolidation is required and goodwill is established. Any disposition of an investment in a subsidiary is treated as an equity transaction. This article emphasizes the complexity of stage acquisition.

APPLICABILITY OF CONSOLIDATED TECHNIQUES IN THE VIEW OF ROMANIAN ACCOUNTING REGULATIONS

The accounting regulations are more and more interested in groups of companies. In some cases, these regulations require for preparing the consolidated financial statements. This is the task of the parent company who keeps the consolidated accounts. To accomplish its goals, the consolidated accounting uses a couple of, so-called, consolidation techniques. These are applied in the case of groups of companies with a complex structure. Their goal is to elaborate the consolidated financial statements using a set of methods and empirical skills. In this article we synthetize and apply the consolidation techniques in the view of Romanian accounting regulations. The Romanian practice has revealed, especially, two techniques: one based on direct consolidation and another one based on multiple levels (phased consolidation). Therefore, this work regards only the technical side of consolidated accounting, accounting records being evaded. Furthermore, we focus only on the preparation of the consolidated balance sheet in the case of some hypothetical groups of companies.