On wh-movement in Spanish Echo Questions

This paper examines Spanish echo questions, an understudied phenomenon even in extensively described languages such as English. In particular, it focuses on a very particular type of echo questions, such as those made in response to a previous yes/no question (e.g. –Did you buy {mumble}?; –Did I buy what?) and makes a detailed description, on the one hand, of inherent echo features, common across most languages, and, on the other, those language-specific. In particular, I argue that wh-in-situ is not the only possible option in Spanish EQs in order to get a proper, echo interpretation. In addition, I offer some evidence from Spanish data in favour of a particular syntactic structure underlying this sort of questions (Sobin 2010)

Program-modular approach to the coordination of interests of participants of regional water markets (the case of southern regions of Russia)

Relevance. The efficiency of water management is determined by the quality of managerial decision-making. These decisions should ensure the balance of interests of all the actors in regional water markets. At present, in Russia, however, the balance of interests is considered only in macro-level strategies, which leads to the inefficiency of water distribution in regions. The study of the issues of rational distribution of water resources and their use in various industries and spheres of activity is, therefore, particularly relevant.Research objective. This article aims to propose methodology for maintaining the optimal balance between the interests of economic actors in regional water markets.Data and methods. This article proposes a program-modular approach to building a more efficient water management system. It is shown how the proposed methodology based on the incremental model of management can be used for balancing the interests of economic agents (suppliers and consumers of water resources). Results. It is proved that the plurality and divergence of interests of economic agents makes it difficult to manage them and thus precludes social and economic development of territories. The structural-functional analysis of the incremental model reveals various types of connections between the water-retaining capacity of gross regional product and indexes of industrial production for regions of the South Federal District.Conclusions. The prospects of development of water management in regions are associated with ensuring the balance of interests of the water market’s participants. The program-modular approach proposed by the authors combines the administrative and resource potential of regional water management and aligns the goals on the regional level with the more general goals of hydropower modernization. The novelty of our research is that it relies on the incremental model, which, unlike other models of management, leads to an incremental achievement of the desired through certain iterations

Comparative analysis of the best practices in the economic policy of import substitution

The modern challenges, the sanctions and the state of the economy made it possible to implement the import-substitution policy measures. This article provides a brief overview of the policies of import substitution, which have been carried out in various countries since the middle of the last century.The evaluation of these practices by the scientists is considered and their conclusions are summarized. The main results of the policy of import substitution of the countries of Latin America, Asia, and Europe are summarized. To this end, the risks able to impede the implementation of the import substitution policies are identified herein, the performance criteria for the implementation of the policy at the general economic and sectoral levels are proposed, and the principles of the state approach to the import substitution are formulated.peer-reviewe

Research into Dendro-Acoustic Properties of Intro-duced Clones’ Wood as Material for Manufacturing Musical Instruments

Background and Purpose: Studies of the physical-mechanical and acoustic properties of maple wood as a potential material for musical instruments manufacturing are extremely scarce. Related to this, dendro-acoustic studies of maples introduced by geographic origin are of great practical importance in order to create target plantations with predicted technical quality of wood. Materials and Methods: Maples from abroad introduced by geographic origin into the Botanical Garden of the Volga State University of Technology of the Republic of Mari El of Russia were used for the research. For comparison, the Norway maple of local origin (Acer platanoides L.) was selected. The studies were carried out by the frequency-amplitude method for determining Young\u27s dynamic modulus and the acoustic constant of sound emission according to the criterion of academician N. Andreyev. Results: It was revealed that there are differences in the density and dendroacoustic indices of maple wood of local origin and maple trees introduced by geographic origin. Norway maple (Acer platanoides L.) turned out to possess the largest acoustic constant characterizing the resonant properties of wood. Introduced maple trees, plane-tree maple (Acer pseudoplatanus L.) and sugar maple (Acer saccharinum L.) are only slightly inferior in terms of this indicator. Conclusions: The dendroacoustic properties of maple wood are generally much lower than that of resonant spruce. Consequently, the acoustic role of maple wood in the back plates of the violin and other string instruments is completely different than that of the top plate made from the resonant material of coniferous species. To reveal this difference in more detail, comparative studies and dendroacoustic identification of maple wood in blanks and musical instruments with different levels of acoustic characteristics are necessary

Professionally-Oriented Communicative Language Teaching Approach by the Design of a Computer Assisted ESP Course: Analysis of Results

Professionally-Oriented Communicative Language Teaching is an effective approach widely recognized among scientists and teachers which involves learners in authentic environment and communication and helps develop communicative competence of non-native speakers studying English for specific purposes (ESP). With the increase of Computer Assisted Language Learning teachers are constantly facing challenges to combine information technology with the Professionally-Oriented Communicative Language Teaching approach, and to develop and design relevant communicative activities which result in non-native speakers' of English improvement in communicative competence. The attempt to integrate computer assisted language environments and professionally oriented communicative language teaching results in the development of E-learning ESP courses in the Modular Object Oriented Developmental Learning Environment, based on the module "Electric systems and networks". The subjects of the study were sixty students, including students from Vietnam and the Czech Republic studying ESP at the Institute of Power Engineering of Tomsk Polytechnic University. The data was collected over a period of two years from the results of students' performance and a questionnaire survey concerning feedback on students' communicative language activities conducted during the course. The results indicate variations in the attitude of students from different countries to the developed communication activities. As the students state, however, the e-learning ESP course provides communicative situations similar to real ones and gives an opportunity to use the acquired knowledge in practical, professional, and research activity

A collaborative evaluation of LC-MS/MS based methods for BMAA analysis: soluble bound BMAA found to be an important fraction.

Exposure to β-Ν-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA) might be linked to the incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Analytical chemistry plays a crucial role in determining human BMAA exposure and the associated health risk, but the performance of various analytical methods currently employed is rarely compared. A CYANOCOST initiated workshop was organized aimed at training scientists in BMAA analysis, creating mutual understanding and paving the way towards interlaboratory comparison exercises. During this workshop, we tested different methods (extraction followed by derivatization and liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis, or directly followed by LC-MS/MS analysis) for trueness and intermediate precision. We adapted three workup methods for the underivatized analysis of animal, brain and cyanobacterial samples. Based on recovery of the internal standard D3BMAA, the underivatized methods were accurate (mean recovery 80%) and precise (mean relative standard deviation 10%), except for the cyanobacterium Leptolyngbya. However, total BMAA concentrations in the positive controls (cycad seeds) showed higher variation (relative standard deviation 21%-32%), implying that D3BMAA was not a good indicator for the release of BMAA from bound forms. Significant losses occurred during workup for the derivatized method, resulting in low recovery ( < 10%). Most BMAA was found in a trichloroacetic acid soluble, bound form and we recommend including this fraction during analysis

Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for precise fatty acid profiling of oilseed crops

Oilseed crops are one of the most important sources of vegetable oils for food and industry. Nutritional and technical properties of vegetable oil are primarily determined by its fatty acid (FA) composition. The content and composition of FAs in plants are commonly determined using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GS-MS) or gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID) techniques. In the present work, we applied ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) technique to FA profiling of sunflower and rapeseed seeds and compared this method with the GC-FID technique. GC-FID detected 11 FAs in sunflower and 13 FAs in rapeseed, while UPLC-MS appeared to be more sensitive, detecting about 2.5 times higher numbers of FAs in both plants. In addition to even-chain FAs, UPLC-MS was able to detect odd-chain FAs. The longest FA detected using GC-FID was an FA with 24 carbon atoms, whereas UPLC-MS could reveal the presence of longer FAs with the tails of up to 28 carbon atoms. Based on our results, we may conclude that UPLC-MS has great potential to be used for the assessment of FA profiles of oil crops

The syntax of wh-movement in multiple (true and echo) questions. A Q-particle approach

This dissertation studies typological distinctions among wh-fronting languages with respect to syntax of multiple questions. The main goal of this study is twofold: to provide a unified syntactic account of different patterns of wh-movement in true multiple wh-questions in general, and in echo wh-questions in particular. The dissertation proposes an account on how languages resorting to multiple wh-fronting (e.g. Russian) can be captured within Q-theory (Cable 2010), initially proposed for languages with single wh-fronting (e.g. English). It is argued that analysing the formation of wh­questions with a unifying theory and in a comparative way can shed light not only on the canonical interrogative syntax, but also on such understudied phenomena as echo wh-questions. This dissertation extends the crosslinguistic study of echo questions by presenting novel evidence that multiple wh­fronting languages do exhibit overt wh-fronting in echo questions.La tesis estudia las diferencias paramétricas entre varias lenguas con movimiento qu- obligatorio respecto a la formación de las preguntas múltiples. El objetivo principal consiste en proponer un análisis sintáctico unificado de diferentes patrones de movimiento qu- para las preguntas múltiples canónicas y para las preguntas de eco. Se discute cómo en el marco de la Teoria-Q (Cable 2010), inicialmente desarrollada para lenguas con movimiento simple (e.g., inglés), se puede captar la sintaxis de las interrogativas en lenguas con movimiento qu- múltiple (e.g., ruso). El análisis de la formación de las preguntas qu- dentro de una teoría unificadora y desde una perspectiva comparativa aclara además otros fenómenos poco estudiados, como las preguntas de eco. En este trabajo se amplia el análisis comparativo de estas interrogativas a otras lenguas tipológicamente distintas y se demuestra que las que presentan movimiento qu- múltiple muestran evidencias de desplazamiento explícito en las preguntas de eco

The syntactic analysis of "wh-" in situ Echo Questions in Spanish

Es bien conocido que interlingüísticamente las preguntas qu- de eco presentan considerables dificultades para las tradicionales teorías de la sintaxis de las preguntas-qu estándar, ya que parecen contradecir sistemáticamente las reglas generales de formación de interrogativas, manifestando, por ejemplo, el sintagma-qu in situ. En este artículo se presentan nuevos datos sobre la sintaxis de las preguntas qu- de eco en español y se ofrece un análisis que permite dar cuenta de sus principales características sintácticas.It is well known that crosslinguistically wh- Echo Questions present considerable challenges to traditional theories of syntax of standard wh-interrogatives, since they systematically appear to contradict general claims about question formation, manifesting, for example, wh-phrase in situ. This article presents some novel facts concerning the syntax of Spanish wh- Echo Questions and provides an analysis that accounts for their key syntactic features