Paris–Rome–London. Information and Propaganda Campaign for the Polish Question prior to the Great War (1907–14)

The article reconstructs Polish information and propaganda campaigns in Western Europe in the run-up to the Great War. Those initiatives allowed the issues related to the Polish question, especially the persecution of Poles under the Prussian and Russian partitions, to be brought to public attention in the West. The authors trace the process of disseminating information to the intellectual communities of Paris, Rome and London based on participant accounts, reports, propaganda pamphlets, the press from the period and secondary literature. They conclude that propaganda campaigns reached a relatively narrow group of intellectuals, writers, members of the artistic community, journalists, and to a lesser extent, parliamentarians. Although the information campaign could not immediately alter the previously established stereotypes, its specific effects could be observed during the Great War and at the Paris Peace Conference.

Stock derivatives and seasoned equity offerings

PurposeThe article aims to explore if stock derivative types (stock options and stock warrants) are associated with stock returns for firms undergoing seasoned equity offerings (SEOs).Design/methodology/approachThe authors regress stock returns against stock derivatives for periods around SEO announcements with standard errors clustered at the month level.FindingsThe authors find that lower stock derivatives holdings for the fiscal year after the SEO are associated with superior pre-SEO returns. This can be explained by owners exercising their derivatives to capitalize on the pre-SEO price run-up. The authors find that greater stock option holdings by insiders for the fiscal year after the SEO are associated with superior post-SEO returns for up to ten years after the SEO announcement. This new finding does not hold for stock warrants.Research limitations/implicationsStock derivatives are supplied by Capital IQ. Given their description, the authors infer that stock options are owned largely by insiders. Thus, the insider conclusions for stock options depend on this implication.Practical implicationsStock options and stock warrants can be used strategically to reward stock derivative owners of strong performing firms for past performance. Stock options can be used to motivate insiders (primarily key executives) to achieve superior future performance.Originality/valueThis study is unique in comparing the influence of holdings for stock options and stock warrants on stock price performance around SEOs. The authors show that the sign of the association depends on whether the test includes pre-SEO periods.

Shoreline Detection Accuracy from Video Monitoring Systems

Video monitoring has become an indispensable tool to understand beach processes. However, the measurement accuracy derived from the images has been taken for granted despite its dependence on the calibration process and camera movements. An easy to implement self-fed image stabilization algorithm is proposed to solve the camera movements. Georeferenced images were generated from the stabilized images using only one calibration. To assess the performance of the stabilization algorithm, a second set of georeferenced images was created from unstabilized images following the accepted practice of using several calibrations. Shorelines were extracted from the images and corrected with the measured water level and the computed run-up to the 0 m contour. Image-derived corrected shorelines were validated with one hundred beach profile surveys measured during a period of four years along a 1.1 km beach stretch. The simultaneous high-frequency field data available of images and beach surveys are uncommon and allow assessing seasonal changes and long-term trends accuracy. Errors in shoreline position do not increase in time suggesting that the proposed stabilization algorithm does not propagate errors, despite the ever-evolving vegetation in the images. The image stabilization reduces the error in shoreline position by 40 percent, having a larger impact with increasing distance from the camera. Furthermore, the algorithm improves the accuracy on long-term trends by one degree of magnitude (0.01 m/year vs. 0.25 m/year).

Hydrodynamic Modelling of Wave Overtopping over a Block-Covered Flood Defence

Wave overtopping can cause erosion on the landward slope due to high flow velocities and turbulence that cause high stresses on the cover. Innovative block revetments such as Grassblocks protect the subsoil of the dike against erosion. The blocks are permeable, which reduces the flow velocity and the pressures along the landward slope. The performance of these blocks is assessed in physical tests, which provides insights into the stability of the blocks. However, such experiments are expensive and accurate measurements are difficult due to highly turbulent conditions. Therefore, the goal of this study is to determine the hydrodynamic conditions at the dike cover caused by the wave run-up on the seaward slope and by the overtopping flow over the crest and landward slope. The geometry and wave conditions from the physical test at the Deltares Delta flume are implemented in an OpenFOAM® numerical model. Using the porousWaveFoam solver, a porous layer on the crest and landward slope is implemented, where the flow resistance of this porous layer largely depends on the resistance coefficients α [-] and β [-]. The numerical model is calibrated based on resistance coefficients as introduced earlier in the literature, which showed that the resistance coefficients of α=500 and β=2.0 performed best for the peak flow velocities and the peak pressures. The numerical model is evaluated by using these resistance coefficients in other time series of the physical tests. The evaluated model is then used to determine the hydrodynamic conditions on the landward slope, which showed that the pressure was the most influential hydrodynamic condition at the time of failure. Finally, the model showed that a porosity of n=0.6 and the porous layer thickness η=36mm reduced the peak pressure the most.

Effects of Barrier Stiffness on Debris Flow Dynamic Impact—I: Laboratory Flume Test

Debris flows often cause local damage to engineering structures by exerting destructive impact forces. The debris-flow–deformable-barrier interaction is a significant issue in engineering design. In this study, a large physical flume model test device was independently designed to repeatedly reproduce the flow and impact process of debris flow. Three physical flume tests were performed to investigate the effect of barrier stiffness on the debris flow impact. The flow kinematics of debris flow with three barrier stiffness values are essentially consistent with the process of impact–run-up–falling–pile-up. The development of a dead zone provided a cushion to diminish the impact of the follow-up debris flow on the barrier. The peak impact forces were attenuated as the barrier stiffness decreased. The slight deflections of a deformable barrier were sufficiently effective for peak load attenuation by up to 30%. It showed that the decrease of the barrier stiffness had a buffer effect on the debris flow impact and attenuated the peak impact force. And with the decrease of the barrier stiffness, when the barrier was impacted by the same soil types, the recoverable elastic strain will be larger, and the strain peak will be more obvious.

Wittgenstein, Ordinary Language, and Poeticity

The later Wittgenstein famously holds that an understanding which tries to run up against the limits of language bumps itself and results in nothing but plain nonsense. Therefore, the task of philosophy cannot be to create an ‘ideal’ language so as to produce a ‘real’ understanding for the first time; its aim must be to remove particular misunderstandings by clarifying the use of our ordinary language. Accordingly, Wittgenstein opposes both the sublime terms of traditional philosophy and the formal frameworks of modern logics—and adheres to a pointedly casual, colloquial style in his own philosophizing. However, there seems to lurk a certain inconsistency in Wittgenstein’s ordinary language approach: his philosophical remarks frequently remain enigmatic, and many of the terms Wittgenstein coins seem to be highly technical. Thus, one might wonder whether his verdicts on the limits of language and on philosophical jargons might not be turned against his own practice. The present essay probes the extent to which the contravening tendencies in Wittgenstein’s mature philosophy might be reconciled. Section 2 sketches Wittgenstein’s general approach to philosophy and tracks the special rôle that the language of everyday life occupies therein. Section 3 reconstructs Wittgenstein’s preferred method for philosophy, which he calls perspicuous representation, and argues that this method implements an aesthetic conception of philosophy and a poetic approach to philosophical language, in which philosophical insights are not explicitly stated, but mediated through well-worded and creatively composed descriptions. Section 4 discusses how Wittgenstein’s philosophical poetics relates to artificial terminologies and grammars in philosophy and science.

Property development activities: value creation or distraction for REITs?

PurposeThis paper examines the evolution and impact of property development activities on REIT performance. The paper provides insights on whether REITs should venture into property development in addition to their core-business of holding income producing properties.Design/methodology/approachThis paper charts and highlights the evolution of development activities of US REITs from 1992 to 2020. The Tobin's Q of property developing REITs and non-property developing REITs are compared using univariate analysis.FindingsDevelopment activities of US REITs grew dramatically during the run up to global financial crisis (GFC) in 2008. The level of development activities has dropped since the GFC and it has not return to its pre-crisis peak. In comparison, development activities of listed property investment companies and homebuilders are less volatile over the same period. The data reveals that property developing REITs enjoy significantly higher Tobin's Q as compared to their non-developing counterparts.Practical implicationsOur graphical evidence from a market without development restriction suggests that development restriction in other REIT regimes has it value in limit REITs' excessive risk-taking tendency during a booming property market. The positive relationship between Tobin's Q and the existence of property development activity support the value creation of this business activity to REITs.Originality/valueThis paper raises overbuilding as a potential cause of the underperformance of the REIT sector during the GFC.

Big Things Often Have Small Beginnings: A Review on the Development, Use and Value of Small and Big Corpora for Flemish Sign Language Linguistic Research

In 1990, Vermeerbergen started the first larger-scale corpus study with (semi)spontaneous language data from adult signers on the morpho-syntactic aspects of Flemish Sign Language (VGT). After this, a number of lexicographic projects, including the collection of a 90-h corpus, led to the launch of the first online bilingual Dutch/VGT—VGT/Dutch dictionary in 2004. Since then, researchers have developed several corpora of variable sizes, with the greatest realization being the VGT Corpus. The main focus of this chapter is twofold. On the one hand the run-up to, the development and the use of the VGT Corpus will be discussed, while on the other hand smaller specific research corpora will be highlighted such as the corpus on early parent-child interaction and the multifocal eye-tracking corpus. The current chapter will discuss the research and community value of the corpora and future directions. Finally, it will elaborate on the need for corpus research, the associated advantages and disadvantages, and the obstacles faced in smaller deaf communities.