Revisiting aspectual se in Spanish: telicity, statives, and maximization

This paper addresses aspectual se in Spanish. Building on the previous analyses that have been proposed in the literature to account for constructions with aspectual se that mainly focus on the syntax of these (see, e.g., MacDonald, Jonathan E. 2017. Spanish aspectual se as an indirect object reflexive: The import of atelicity, bare nouns, and leísta PCC repairs. Probus. International Journal of Romance Linguistics 29(1). 73–118), this paper provides a semantic account that makes explicit (i) why dynamic predicates must be telic in the presence of se, and (ii) why the very same se can appear with a limited number of stative predicates, which are atelic. The account is implemented in the Figure/Path Relation model in Beavers, John. 2011. On affectedness. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 29(2). 335–370, Figure/Path Relation model. I propose a maximization strategy that captures that dynamic predicates in constructions with se are always telic by indicating the conditions under which the theme has a fixed quantity and the scale/path that may be associated with the verb is bounded. This maximization strategy is then compared to and distinguished from the event maximization strategies proposed for Slavic languages (Filip, Hana. 2008. Events and maximalization: The case of telicity and perfectivity. In Susan Rothstein (ed.), Theoretical and crosslinguistic approaches to the semantics of aspect, 217–256. Amsterdam: John Benjamins) and Hungarian (Kardos, Éva. 2016. Telicity marking in Hungarian. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 1(1). 1–37), and to the scale/path maximization strategy proposed for Southern Aymara (Martínez Vera, Gabriel. 2021a. Degree achievements and degree morphemes in competition in Southern Aymara. Linguistics and Philosophy 44. 695–735).

On Designing a Socially Optimal Expedited Service and Its Impact on Individual Welfare

Problem definition: We consider the problem faced by a welfare-maximizing service provider who must make a decision on how to split a fixed quantity of resources between two variants of the service: a standard variant and an expedited variant. The service is mandatory, but customers can choose between the two variants. Choosing the expedited variant requires enrollment that incurs a fixed cost per period. Customers are strategic and have the same cost of waiting but are heterogeneous in the rate at which they use the service. Academic/practical relevance: The option of expedited security at U.S. airports (TSA PreCheck) is an instance where this problem arises. As has been the case with the PreCheck program, providers that offer expedited service may face criticism from customers, with the main concern being that the diversion of resources to expedited services increases wait time for regular customers. This has important policy implications for the provider, especially a government organization such as the TSA. Existing literature has focused on service differentiation as a means to maximize profit or overall social welfare, but its effect on individual customers has received little attention. Methodology: We find customer’s equilibrium decisions for any allocation choice made by the provider. Using the equilibrium result, we solve for the allocation choice that maximizes social welfare. Results: Even when customers behave strategically, an expedited service offered in parallel to a standard service cannot only increase overall welfare, but also do so for each customer individually. We also find that in a scenario where some customers lose out because of the expedited service, improving the efficiency of the expedited service is more effective than decreasing the enrollment cost to help those who are worse off. Managerial implications: The gains from offering expedited service do not have to come at the expense of regular customers. When they do, we provide recommendations for which decision levers are most effective at making the system fair.

Contracts and Firms' Inflation Expectations

We use novel survey data to study firms’ inventory contracts. We document facts about the usage of purchase and sale contracts. We find that firms purchase and sell inventory through three contractual arrangements: fixed price and quantity, fixed price only, and fixed quantity only. The former holds the largest share of contracts. The average duration of purchase contracts is not very different from the average duration of sale contracts. We then find that the upward bias in inflation expectations is a feature of firms that do not purchase or sell largely through contracts. Our findings are useful in the calibration of sticky price models.

On the correction for polar motion in gravimetry and in 3-D positioning

<p>In the correction for polar motion, terrestrial gravimetry and 3-D positioning follow different conventions. The 3-D positions were first corrected to refer to the "mean pole" (IERS Conventions up to 2010) and now to the "secular pole" (IERS Conventions update since 2018). In any case, the pole reference evolves in time and describes the track of secular or low-frequency polar wander. However, since 1988 terrestrial gravimetry follows the IAGBN (International Gravity Basestation Network) Processing Standards where the gravity values are corrected to refer to the IERS Reference Pole, a fixed quantity. This may lead to discrepancies when for instance gravity change rates from absolute gravity measurements are interpreted together with vertical velocities from GNSS. I discuss the size and geographical distribution of the possible discrepancies and how to account for them in geodynamical problems. The fixed reference of the IAGBN Processing Standards has served the gravity community well, by providing a stable system for terrestrial gravity for the last 30 years during which time the pole reference in the IERS Conventions has been revised several times. In fact, the recently proposed conventions for the International Gravity Reference System (IGRS) and the International Gravity Reference Frame (IGRF) maintain the IAGBN principle. However, it appears that with the adoption of the “secular pole” the reference in 3-D positioning may have become predictable for the foreseeable future. Therefore, it could be suggested that now is the time to harmonize terrestrial gravity with 3-D, by adopting the time-dependent secular pole as a reference for it as well, especially as this is already happening with satellite gravity. I argue that at present the practical drawbacks from such a change of reference would outweigh any theoretical advantages, and the harmonization, where necessary, can be simply performed a-posteriori to published gravity trends/values.</p>

Storage characteristics, digestibility and nitrogen balance in west african dwarf sheep fed preserved elephant grass, caged layer waste and cassava peel diets during dry season

The storage characteristics, digestibility and nitrogen balance of three experimental diets consisting of elephant grass at 45, 40 and 35%, and caged layer waste at 25, 30 and 35 %, respectively with fixed quantity of cassava Deels and sawdust ash at 28 % und 2 %, respectively were assessed using West African Dwarf sheep. Result showed that there was a significant (P<0.05) reduction in the nutrient composition of the feed in terms of DM, CP, ash, NFE, Pand K while the contents of EE, NDF, ADF, ADL, Ca, Mg, Na, Zn, Fe, Cu and Mn were not influenced (P>0.015) by the length of storage. Apparent digestibility of DM, CP, ash and NDF was high but not significantly affected by the composition of the experimental diets. However, digestibilities of CF, ADF and ADL were significantly higher (P<0.05) in rams offered diets 1 and 2 than the rams fed diet 3. Nitrogen balance in the rams fed the experimental diets was high (69.04 to 74.90% of intake) but similar (P>0.05) among the treatments. It was concluded that the experimental diets have good potentials for dry season feeding of small ruminants.

Diachronic plurality of retranslations in the context of translation equivalence (case study of Ukrainian retranslations of W. Shakespeare’s tragedies)

The article considers the concept of equivalence in the context of the diachronic plurality of retranslations of Shakespeare's tragedies. An analysis of different approaches to determining the levels of equivalence is given: E. Nida and K. Rice distinguish formal and dynamic equivalence; J. Catford differentiates formal equivalent and text equivalent; J. House determines the difference between explicit and implicit translation. W. Koller distinguishes five types of equivalence: denotative equivalence, connotative equivalence, text-normative equivalence, pragmatic equivalence, and formal equivalence. V. Komissarov defines the levels of equivalence that form a hierarchical structure: levels of communication objectives, description of the situation, utterance, messages, and linguistic signs. The article highlights the notion of diachronic plurality of retranslations of a time-remote original text on the example of Ukrainian retranslations of the XIX–XXI centuries of Shakespeare's tragedies „Hamlet” and „Romeo and Juliet” and defines the basic principles of equivalence theory on which diachronic plurality of retranslations is based. The specifics of translators' use of different strategies in achieving equivalence of the original text and the translated one, which are due to the creative personality of the translator and translation style, is described. The article demonstrates that achieving the equivalence of a time-remote original text that is not a fixed quantity is a very important task for every translator, whose decision is determined by various factors, including the translator's choice of appropriate strategies and tactics. Each translation reflects its „own” original, which always follows from the individual vision of the text by the translator.

Static hedging of weather and price risks in electricity markets

We present the closed-form solution to the problem of hedging price and quantity risks for energy retailers (ER), using financial instruments based on electricity price and weather indexes. Our model considers an ER who is intermediary in a regulated electricity market. ERs buy a fixed quantity of electricity at a variable cost and must serve a variable demand at a fixed cost. Thus ERs are subject to both price and quantity risks. To hedge such risks, an ER could construct a portfolio of financial instruments based on price and weather indexes. We construct the closed form solution for the optimal portfolio for the mean-VaR model in the discrete setting. Our model does not make any distributional assumption.

The correction for polar motion in gravimetry and in 3-D positioning

&lt;p&gt;In the correction for polar motion, terrestrial gravimetry and 3-D positioning follow different conventions. The 3-D positions are corrected to refer to the &quot;mean pole&quot; (IERS Conventions 2010) or to the &quot;secular pole&quot; (IERS update working version since 2018). In any case, the pole reference evolves in time and describes the track of secular or low-frequency polar wander. However, in terrestrial gravimetry the gravity values are corrected to refer to the IERS Reference Pole, a fixed quantity. This may lead to discrepancies when for instance gravity change rates from absolute gravity measurements are compared with vertical velocities from GNSS. I discuss the size and geographical distribution of the possible discrepancies.&lt;/p&gt;

The Reliability Factor: Modeling individual reliability with multiple items from a single assessment

Reliability is a crucial concept in psychometrics. Although it is typically estimated as a single fixed quantity, previous work suggests that reliability can vary across persons, groups, and covariates. We propose a novel method for estimating and modeling case-specific reliability without repeated measurements or parallel tests. The proposed method employs a “Reliability Factor” that models the error variance of each case across multiple indicators, thereby producing case-specific reliability estimates. Additionally, we use Gaussian process modeling to a estimate non-linear, non-monotonic function between the latent factor itself and the reliability of the measure, providing an analogue to test information functions in item response theory. The reliability factor model is a new tool for examining latent regions with poor conditional reliability, and correlates thereof, in a classical test theory framework.