An applied linguistic analysis of the simplification of narrative texts

Simplification of texts has traditionally been carried out by replacing words and structures with appropriate semantic equivalents in the learner's interlanguage, omitting whichever items prove intractable, and thereby bringing the language of the original within the scope of the learner's transitional linguistic competence. This kind of simplification focuses mainly on the formal features of language. The simplifier can, on the other hand, concentrate on making explicit the propositional content and its presentation in the original in order to bring what is communicated in the original within the scope of the learner's transitional communicative competence. In this case, simplification focuses on the communicative function of the language. Up to now, however, approaches to the problem of simplification have been mainly concerned with the first kind, using the simplifier’s intuition as to what constitutes difficulty for the learner. There appear to be few objective principles underlying this process. The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of simplification on the communicative aspects of narrative texts, which includes the manner in which narrative units at higher levels of organisation are structured and presented and also the temporal and logical relationships between lower level structures such as sentences/clauses, with the intention of establishing an objective approach to the problem of simplification based on a set of principled procedures which could be used as a guideline in the simplification of material for foreign students at an advanced level.

Organizational and textual structuring of radio news discourse in English and Arabic.

The present work studies the overall structuring of radio news discourse via investigating three metatextual/interactive functions: (1) Discourse Organizing Elements (DOEs), (2) Attribution and (3) Sentential and Nominal Background Information (SBI & NBI). An extended corpus of about 73,000 words from BBC and Radio Damascus news is used to study DOEs and a restricted corpus of 38,000 words for Attribution and S & NBI. A situational approach is adopted to assess the influence of factors such as medium and audience on these functions and their frequence. It is found that: (1) DOEs are organizational and their frequency is determined by length of text; (2) Attribution Function in accordance with the editor's strategy and its frequency is audience sensitive; and (3) BI provides background information and is determined by audience and news topics. Secondly, the salient grammatical elements in DOEs are discourse deictic demonstratives, address pronouns and nouns referring to `the news'. Attribution is realized in reporting/reported clauses, and BI in a sentence, a clause or a nominal group. Thirdly, DOEs establish a hierarchy of (1) news, (2) summary/expansion and (3) item: including topic introduction and details. While Attribution is generally, and SBI solely, a function of detailing, NBI and proper names are generally a function of summary and topic introduction. Being primarily addressed to audience and referring metatextually, the functions investigated support Sinclair's interactive and autonomous planes of discourse. They also shed light on the part(s) of the linguistic system which realize the metatextual/interactive function. Strictly, `discourse structure' inevitably involves a rank-scale; but news discourse also shows a convention of item `listing'. Hence only within the boundary of variety (ultimately interpreted across language and in its situation) can textual functions and discourse structure be studied. Finally, interlingual variety study provides invaluable insights into a level of translation that goes beyond matching grammatical systems or situational factors, an interpretive level which has to be described in linguistic analysis of translation data.

Tense, aspect and modality in first and second language

Time after time… and aspect and mood. Over the last twenty five years, the study of time, aspect and - to a lesser extent - mood acquisition has enjoyed increasing popularity and a constant widening of its scope. In such a teeming field, what can be the contribution of this book? We believe that it is unique in several respects. First, this volume encompasses studies from different theoretical frameworks: functionalism vs generativism or function-based vs form-based approaches. It also brings together various sub-fields (first and second language acquisition, child and adult acquisition, bilingualism) that tend to evolve in parallel rather than learn from each other. A further originality is that it focuses on a wide range of typologically different languages, and features less studied languages such as Korean and Bulgarian. Finally, the book gathers some well-established scholars, young researchers, and even research students, in a rich inter-generational exchange, that ensures the survival but also the renewal and the refreshment of the discipline. The book at a glance The first part of the volume is devoted to the study of child language acquisition in monolingual, impaired and bilingual acquisition, while the second part focuses on adult learners. In this section, we will provide an overview of each chapter. The first study by Aviya Hacohen explores the acquisition of compositional telicity in Hebrew L1. Her psycholinguistic approach contributes valuable data to refine theoretical accounts. Through an innovating methodology, she gathers information from adults and children on the influence of definiteness, number, and the mass vs countable distinction on the constitution of a telic interpretation of the verb phrase. She notices that the notion of definiteness is mastered by children as young as 10, while the mass/count distinction does not appear before 10;7. However, this does not entail an adult-like use of telicity. She therefore concludes that beyond definiteness and noun type, pragmatics may play an important role in the derivation of Hebrew compositional telicity. For the second chapter we move from a Semitic language to a Slavic one. Milena Kuehnast focuses on the acquisition of negative imperatives in Bulgarian, a form that presents the specificity of being grammatical only with the imperfective form of the verb. The study examines how 40 Bulgarian children distributed in two age-groups (15 between 2;11-3;11, and 25 between 4;00 and 5;00) develop with respect to the acquisition of imperfective viewpoints, and the use of imperfective morphology. It shows an evolution in the recourse to expression of force in the use of negative imperatives, as well as the influence of morphological complexity on the successful production of forms. With Yi-An Lin’s study, we concentrate both on another type of informant and of framework. Indeed, he studies the production of children suffering from Specific Language Impairment (SLI), a developmental language disorder the causes of which exclude cognitive impairment, psycho-emotional disturbance, and motor-articulatory disorders. Using the Leonard corpus in CLAN, Lin aims to test two competing accounts of SLI (the Agreement and Tense Omission Model [ATOM] and his own Phonetic Form Deficit Model [PFDM]) that conflicts on the role attributed to spellout in the impairment. Spellout is the point at which the Computational System for Human Language (CHL) passes over the most recently derived part of the derivation to the interface components, Phonetic Form (PF) and Logical Form (LF). ATOM claims that SLI sufferers have a deficit in their syntactic representation while PFDM suggests that the problem only occurs at the spellout level. After studying the corpus from the point of view of tense / agreement marking, case marking, argument-movement and auxiliary inversion, Lin finds further support for his model. Olga Gupol, Susan Rohstein and Sharon Armon-Lotem’s chapter offers a welcome bridge between child language acquisition and multilingualism. Their study explores the influence of intensive exposure to L2 Hebrew on the development of L1 Russian tense and aspect morphology through an elicited narrative. Their informants are 40 Russian-Hebrew sequential bilingual children distributed in two age groups 4;0 – 4;11 and 7;0 - 8;0. They come to the conclusion that bilingual children anchor their narratives in perfective like monolinguals. However, while aware of grammatical aspect, bilinguals lack the full form-function mapping and tend to overgeneralize the imperfective on the principles of simplicity (as imperfective are the least morphologically marked forms), universality (as it covers more functions) and interference. Rafael Salaberry opens the second section on foreign language learners. In his contribution, he reflects on the difficulty L2 learners of Spanish encounter when it comes to distinguishing between iterativity (conveyed with the use of the preterite) and habituality (expressed through the imperfect). He examines in turn the theoretical views that see, on the one hand, habituality as part of grammatical knowledge and iterativity as pragmatic knowledge, and on the other hand both habituality and iterativity as grammatical knowledge. He comes to the conclusion that the use of preterite as a default past tense marker may explain the impoverished system of aspectual distinctions, not only at beginners but also at advanced levels, which may indicate that the system is differentially represented among L1 and L2 speakers. Acquiring the vast array of functions conveyed by a form is therefore no mean feat, as confirmed by the next study. Based on the prototype theory, Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig’s chapter focuses on the development of the progressive in L2 English. It opens with an overview of the functions of the progressive in English. Then, a review of acquisition research on the progressive in English and other languages is provided. The bulk of the chapter reports on a longitudinal study of 16 learners of L2 English and shows how their use of the progressive expands from the prototypical uses of process and continuousness to the less prototypical uses of repetition and future. The study concludes that the progressive spreads in interlanguage in accordance with prototype accounts. However, it suggests additional stages, not predicted by the Aspect Hypothesis, in the development from activities and accomplishments at least for the meaning of repeatedness. A similar theoretical framework is adopted in the following chapter, but it deals with a lesser studied language. Hyun-Jin Kim revisits the claims of the Aspect Hypothesis in relation to the acquisition of L2 Korean by two L1 English learners. Inspired by studies on L2 Japanese, she focuses on the emergence and spread of the past / perfective marker ¬–ess- and the progressive – ko iss- in the interlanguage of her informants throughout their third and fourth semesters of study. The data collected through six sessions of conversational interviews and picture description tasks seem to support the Aspect Hypothesis. Indeed learners show a strong association between past tense and accomplishments / achievements at the start and a gradual extension to other types; a limited use of past / perfective marker with states and an affinity of progressive with activities / accomplishments and later achievements. In addition, - ko iss– moves from progressive to resultative in the specific category of Korean verbs meaning wear / carry. While the previous contributions focus on function, Evgeniya Sergeeva and Jean-Pierre Chevrot’s is interested in form. The authors explore the acquisition of verbal morphology in L2 French by 30 instructed native speakers of Russian distributed in a low and high levels. They use an elicitation task for verbs with different models of stem alternation and study how token frequency and base forms influence stem selection. The analysis shows that frequency affects correct production, especially among learners with high proficiency. As for substitution errors, it appears that forms with a simple structure are systematically more frequent than the target form they replace. When a complex form serves as a substitute, it is more frequent only when it is replacing another complex form. As regards the use of base forms, the 3rd person singular of the present – and to some extent the infinitive – play this role in the corpus. The authors therefore conclude that the processing of surface forms can be influenced positively or negatively by the frequency of the target forms and of other competing stems, and by the proximity of the target stem to a base form. Finally, Martin Howard’s contribution takes up the challenge of focusing on the poorer relation of the TAM system. On the basis of L2 French data obtained through sociolinguistic interviews, he studies the expression of futurity, conditional and subjunctive in three groups of university learners with classroom teaching only (two or three years of university teaching) or with a mixture of classroom teaching and naturalistic exposure (2 years at University + 1 year abroad). An analysis of relative frequencies leads him to suggest a continuum of use going from futurate present to conditional with past hypothetic conditional clauses in si, which needs to be confirmed by further studies. Acknowledgements The present volume was inspired by the conference Acquisition of Tense – Aspect – Mood in First and Second Language held on 9th and 10th February 2008 at Aston University (Birmingham, UK) where over 40 delegates from four continents and over a dozen countries met for lively and enjoyable discussions. This collection of papers was double peer-reviewed by an international scientific committee made of Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig (Indiana University), Christine Bozier (Lund Universitet), Alex Housen (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Martin Howard (University College Cork), Florence Myles (Newcastle University), Urszula Paprocka (Catholic University of Lublin), †Clive Perdue (Université Paris 8), Michel Pierrard (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Rafael Salaberry (University of Texas at Austin), Suzanne Schlyter (Lund Universitet), Richard Towell (Salford University), and Daniel Véronique (Université d’Aix-en-Provence). We are very much indebted to that scientific committee for their insightful input at each step of the project. We are also thankful for the financial support of the Association for French Language Studies through its workshop grant, and to the Aston Modern Languages Research Foundation for funding the proofreading of the manuscript.

Planning Buy-Sell Agreements In The Hospitality Industry

In the article - Planning Buy-Sell Agreements In The Hospitality Industry - by John M. Tarras, Assistant Professor, School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management at Michigan State University, the author initially observes: “The vast majority of hospitality firms (restaurants, hotels, etc.) would be considered closely-held corporations. As such, they have unique planning problems compared to large, publicly-traded hospitality firms. One area of special concern to the closely-held hospitality firm is the planning and adoption of a buy-sell agreement.” The above thesis statement outlines the heart of the article; the buy-sell agreement in regard to smaller [closely held, as Tarras calls them] corporations. The theory is narrow and pro-active, spanning the gap between personal-to-corporate stock manipulations. “The primary purpose of a buy-sell agreement is to contribute to the orderly transfer of a shareholder's stock in a hospitality firm upon some future incident [typically retirement, withdrawal of a shareholder, disability, or death], as Tarras defines the concept. “The hospitality firm or the other shareholders would be committed to purchase the departing shareholder's stock at an agreed upon price and method, and to ensure that ample cash will be obtainable for such an impending sale. The buy-sell agreement provides a market for the shareholder or the shareholder's estate for the sale of otherwise illiquid stock,” the author further provides as canons of buy-sell agreements. In defining the buy-sell agreement with restrictive clauses, Tarras demonstrates, “…many closely-held hospitality firms desire to limit ownership to those individuals, either family or principal corporate employees, who are essential to the well-being of the firm.” Tarras says, another element of the buy-sell agreement is to furnish the departing shareholder with liquidity. “…there typically is some form of cash down payment with the remainder denoted by an interest-bearing promissory note [usually 5 to 15 years],” he informs. “The departing shareholders may require that the hospitality firm pledge the assets of the firm and that the remaining shareholders personally guarantee the promissory note.” “…the most frequent reason for establishing buy-sell agreements is for estate planning purposes,” Tarras says. There are tax advantages and liabilities for both the seller and buyer of stock via the buy-sell agreement, and the author enumerates many of these. One, big advantage of the buy-sell agreement is that it provides for the running of the company with a minimum of disruption through the stock-cash transition process, Tarras offers.

Intelligent retrieval system for conditions of contract documents in construction

The outcome of this research is an Intelligent Retrieval System for Conditions of Contract Documents. The objective of the research is to improve the method of retrieving data from a computer version of a construction Conditions of Contract document. SmartDoc, a prototype computer system has been developed for this purpose. The system provides recommendations to aid the user in the process of retrieving clauses from the construction Conditions of Contract document. The prototype system integrates two computer technologies: hypermedia and expert systems. Hypermedia is utilized to provide a dynamic way for retrieving data from the document. Expert systems technology is utilized to build a set of rules that activate the recommendations to aid the user during the process of retrieval of clauses. The rules are based on experts knowledge. The prototype system helps the user retrieve related clauses that are not explicitly cross-referenced but, according to expert experience, are relevant to the topic that the user is interested in.

A negociação coletiva como instrumento de efetividade do direito fundamental à igualdade

Equality as a principle and as a legal rule, integrates brazilian constitutional order since the Constitution of 1891, constituting the target always be sought, built and promoted by the state and society as a whole. Also e xs urgem for protection of equality and non - discrimination, declarations and international treaties, mostly ratified by Brazil. The international protection of human beings with intrinsic value began in the UN Declaration of 1948, which declared the equality of all men in rights and dignity, followed by more specific international documents, in a growing movement of ratification of international standards protection of human rights occurs after the atrocities during the Second World War. Within the Internation al Labour Organisation (ILO), the theme of equality and non - discrimination in employment relationships integrates one of its main conventions, to No. 111, ratified by Brazil since 1965, which aims to eliminate discrimination in respect of employment and oc cupation. In this context, lies the collective bargaining work, with her normative instruments arising from the collective agreement and the agreement recognized constitutionally and with full ability to create and establish standards and conditions for de tails of suitable work for each occupational category and economic having the unions the power and duty to use them as a means of effecting the postulates of equality and non - discrimination in employment relationships, filling gaps in state law and / or su pplementing it, molding them to existing events in the capital - job. Driven by greater freedom contained in the Constitution of 1988, trading, and with it, the private collective autonomy, in fact, have included the issue of equality and the right to differ ence between clauses created, scheduled to affirmative action and sealing exclusionary conduct, and reported some positive outcomes, such as greater diversity in work and training followed by admission of persons with disabilities environment. These attitu des of union entities and employers should be broadened because corroborate the fulfillment of constitutional requirements for compliance with the international declarations, adapting them to the reality of labor relations and contributing to the construct ion of equality in the pursuit of social justice with the recognition of the right to be different with respect to the inherent dignity of the human condition.

Consumo c(l)iente: abordagem do gênero anúncio publicitário em livros didáticos de língua portuguesa do ensino médio

Portuguese language textbooks, according to what has been preconized on the official document to education, have been configured on discursive genres imported from diverse spheres of human activity. Adverts, genre of ample social circulation, spread from the Advertising sphere to the schools and started being approached by these collectaneas as an object and a tool for teaching. Therefore, this research deals with the approach of ads in Portugese textbooks. These discursive practices matter for the impact or appeal they exert over the (new) consumers, among which High School students; for their representation in the capitalist system, which guides us on our relationships and social practices; and for the mix of languages that end up at their composition, once they encapsulate the spirit of our time, par excellence, the one from the verbal-visual genres. To understand the treatment given to these advertising pieces, from questions/commentaries related to them, two collections were selected by the Programa Nacional do Livro Didático – Textbook National Program (PNLD 2012) among the ones more used by public High Schools in Natal/RN. From Applied Linguistics, from mestizo, nomadic and inter/transdisciplinary identity (MOITA LOPES, 2009), this study falls within the discursive chain of the interpretive tradition of historical-cultural approach (FREITAS, 2010) and names the Bakhtin Circle and its language‟s dialogical conception as inescapable partners. The data of the colletaneas show that the genre approach can happen as concrete utterance, as linguistic artifact and as hybrid, at work with questions and without questions, with the predominance of its occurrence in the portion of the volume devoted to the study of grammar. In the literature chapters and production/interpretation of compositions, it insert is incipient or it doesn‟t happen in the volume. Such a provision has implications for multiliteracies (ROJO, 2012) of the citizen student, once the lack or the abundance of critical reading proposals for this genre, that demand from the student the exercise of knowledge that is necessary to the construction of linguistic and social meanings, can be responsible for guide to a more conscious consumerism (material and cultural) by the chief customers of the work under review. The approaches of the genres seems to indicate a gradual transition that such material have undergone, which means, from the focus on clauses to the focus on utterances, or even the approach as linguistic artifact to hybrid and the concrete utterance, in search of overcoming the traditional tendency of taking advantage of formal aspects of the language, to the detriment of enunciative ones, and for coming into harmony with the guidelines and parameters of teaching in contemporary times, bringing the school duties close to the rights in life.

Restrictions on Aliens in the United Kingdom, 1914-1919 : a Study of the Origins and Political Background of the Aliens Restrictions Acts of 1914 and 1919.

At first glance the Aliens Restriction Act of 1914, which was introduced and passed on the first day of World War One, seems a hasty and ill-prepared piece of legislation. Actually, when examined in the light of Arthur Marwick's thesis that war is a forcing house for pre-existent social and governmental ideas, it becomes clear that the act was not after all the product of hastily formed notions. In point of fact it followed the precedent of detailed draft clauses produced in 1911 by a sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence established to consider the treatment of aliens in the event of war. Indeed the draft clauses and the restrictions embodied in the 1914 act were strikingly similar to restrictions on aliens legislated in 1793. Hostility to aliens had been growing from 1905 to 1914 and this hostility blossomed into xeno-phobia on the outbreak of war, a crucial precondition for the specifically anti-enemy fears of the time. In 1919 the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Bill was introduced into parliament to extend temporarily the provisions of the 1914 act thus permitting the Home Secretary to plan permanent, detailed legislation. Two minority groups of MPs with extreme views on the treatment of aliens were prominent in the debates on this bill. The extreme Liberal group which advocated leniency in the treatment of aliens had little effect on the final form of the bill, but the extreme Conservative group, which demanded severe restrictions on aliens, succeeded in persuading the government to include detailed restrictions. Despite its allegedly temporary nature, the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act of 1919 was renewed annually until 1971.

Cláusulas de apertura al derecho internacional de los Derechos Humanos: constituciones iberoamericanas

Las Constituciones iberoamericanas reflejan la preocupación de reconocer y garantizar a todos sus habitantes los derechos humanos fundamentales del ser humano, para lo cual integran dentro de su articulado cláusulas especiales donde reconocen la apertura a estos derechos. Para dicho reconocimiento cada Estado elige los principios y elementos que considera esenciales, y que dentro de esta reflexión se han denominado elementos básicos de las cláusulas de apertura. El análisis comparativo parte precisamente de estos puntos que mencionan casi todos los textos constitutivos de Iberoamérica.

"Ad nostram scientiam referatur": la supervisión administrativa imperial de la aplicación de las leyes durante la dinastía constantiniana

Constantino y sus sucesores, Constancio II, Constante y Juliano, expresaron su particular interés por supervisar la aplicación de determinadas leyes imperiales mediante el uso de la fórmula ad nostram scientiam referatur y de otras similares. Constantino fue el príncipe que la empleó con más frecuencia, especialmente durante el período de 313-324, exceptuando el intervalo de 315-316, cuando la confrontación con Licinio le obligó a renunciar a atender directamente las cuestiones administrativas. La progresiva disminución de la inclusión de estas cláusulas en los textos legales imperiales a partir de la unificación del Imperio en 324 se debe poner en relación con la aparición de los curiosi y luego de los agentes in rebus, como oficiales encargados de vigilar la observancia de las normas vigentes.

East Uvean A condensed grammar

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-09

Élaboration d'un plan d'action d'approvisionnement responsable : cas d'Aéroports de Montréal

De par leurs activités, les aéroports engendrent des impacts environnementaux non négligeables. Un des moyens utilisés pour diminuer leurs impacts environnementaux et sociaux est de réévaluer les exigences dans les appels d’offres et contrats lors de l’acquisition d’un bien ou d’un service pour y intégrer des clauses liées au développement durable. L’approvisionnement responsable est récent en milieu aéroportuaire et possède beaucoup de potentiel compte tenu de l’ampleur et de la diversité des achats qui y sont effectués. Afin de permettre une amélioration continue dans ce domaine, des lignes directrices pour l’élaboration d’un plan d’action d’approvisionnement responsable sont développées. Pour ce faire, un portrait de la situation du développement durable, et plus particulièrement de l’approvisionnement responsable, effectué en analysant le cas de différents aéroports, notamment celui d’Aéroports de Montréal, indique que la responsabilité sociétale d’entreprise est de plus en plus présente et qu’ils sont donc plus conscients de l’importance de connaitre leurs diverses parties prenantes. En ayant connaissance de ses forces et faiblesses en développement durable, grâce à une évaluation BNQ 21000, un plan d’action d’approvisionnement responsable adapté à la réalité d’Aéroports de Montréal est élaboré. Pour ce faire, trois stratégies sont retenues : promouvoir les pratiques d'approvisionnement responsable, favoriser l’implantation de nouvelles pratiques et responsabiliser l'entièreté de la chaîne d'approvisionnement. La première orientation vise principalement à augmenter la communication des efforts et progrès accomplis, la deuxième consiste à apporter quelques ajustements organisationnels pour optimiser les possibilités et la troisième permet d’influencer les fournisseurs à considérer l’approvisionnement responsable dans leur gestion. Néanmoins, certaines pratiques recensées et jugées applicables au sein d’Aéroports de Montréal requièrent plus de temps ou de ressources que sur une période de cinq ans. Ainsi, une stratégie à plus long terme est nécessaire pour assurer une amélioration continue dans le temps. Pour ce faire, il est recommandé de constituer un comité d’approvisionnement responsable pour favoriser une multidisciplinarité et une progression plus rapide. Des pratiques telles que le calcul de coût de propriété, les audits des fournisseurs et de la sensibilisation dans le but de favoriser une plus grande collaboration, nécessitent d’être planifiées dans la stratégie pour optimiser leur implantation avec succès. Le plan d’action intègre les ressources humaines et financières devant être mobilisées afin de préparer les différents départements à la mise en œuvre des pratiques d’approvisionnement proposées.

Simplified design method for energy dissipating devices in retrofitting of seismically isolated bridges

Abstract: Highway bridges have great values in a country because in case of any natural disaster they may serve as lines to save people’s lives. Being vulnerable under significant seismic loads, different methods can be considered to design resistant highway bridges and rehabilitate the existing ones. In this study, base isolation has been considered as one efficient method in this regards which in some cases reduces significantly the seismic load effects on the structure. By reducing the ductility demand on the structure without a notable increase of strength, the structure is designed to remain elastic under seismic loads. The problem associated with the isolated bridges, especially with elastomeric bearings, can be their excessive displacements under service and seismic loads. This can defy the purpose of using elastomeric bearings for small to medium span typical bridges where expansion joints and clearances may result in significant increase of initial and maintenance cost. Thus, supplementing the structure with dampers with some stiffness can serve as a solution which in turn, however, may increase the structure base shear. The main objective of this thesis is to provide a simplified method for the evaluation of optimal parameters for dampers in isolated bridges. Firstly, performing a parametric study, some directions are given for the use of simple isolation devices such as elastomeric bearings to rehabilitate existing bridges with high importance. Parameters like geometry of the bridge, code provisions and the type of soil on which the structure is constructed have been introduced to a typical two span bridge. It is concluded that the stiffness of the substructure, soil type and special provisions in the code can determine the employment of base isolation for retrofitting of bridges. Secondly, based on the elastic response coefficient of isolated bridges, a simplified design method of dampers for seismically isolated regular highway bridges has been presented in this study. By setting objectives for reduction of displacement and base shear variation, the required stiffness and damping of a hysteretic damper can be determined. By modelling a typical two span bridge, numerical analyses have followed to verify the effectiveness of the method. The method has been used to identify equivalent linear parameters and subsequently, nonlinear parameters of hysteretic damper for various designated scenarios of displacement and base shear requirements. Comparison of the results of the nonlinear numerical model without damper and with damper has shown that the method is sufficiently accurate. Finally, an innovative and simple hysteretic steel damper was designed. Five specimens were fabricated from two steel grades and were tested accompanying a real scale elastomeric isolator in the structural laboratory of the Université de Sherbrooke. The test procedure was to characterize the specimens by cyclic displacement controlled tests and subsequently to test them by real-time dynamic substructuring (RTDS) method. The test results were then used to establish a numerical model of the system which went through nonlinear time history analyses under several earthquakes. The outcome of the experimental and numerical showed an acceptable conformity with the simplified method.

Analyse comparée de l'efficacité des programmes de conversion de titres de dette en prise de participation en Argentine, au Chili et au Mexique comme solution partielle à leur niveau d'endettement critique

Cet ouvrage comporte d'abords une mise en situation décrivant le contexte économique qui mena à la crise du début des années 1980 et à la mise sur pieds de nouveaux mécanismes financiers visant le ré-équilibre des économies en difficulté. Parmi l'ensemble des nouveaux types de transactions, les conversions de titres de dette en prise de participation (Debt for Equity Swaps: DES) sont étudiées en particulier à cause des nombreux avantages qu'elles comportent. Dans un contexte de déséquilibres interne et externe graves tel ceux vécus par certains pays d'Amérique latine, ces conversions semblent en effet très appropriées grâce à leur contribution à réduire l'encours de la dette extérieure et à augmenter le niveau des investissements, tout en limitant les pertes des banques prêteuses. L'analyse des programmes DES de l'Argentine, du Chili et du Mexique est faite à trois niveaux: le comportement des principaux indicateurs économiques est observé avant et après la mise en application des programmes, les avantages que les investisseurs et les pays débiteurs ont pu tirer des transactions sont ensuite mesurés en termes monétaires, et finalement, une étude des clauses particulières à chaque programme permet de terminer l'étude de l'efficacité des démarches de chaque pays pour retrouver un certain équilibre économique. Chacun des trois pays étudiés a démontré une certaine force en particulier. L'Argentine est le pays qui a le mieux profité de la décote de sa dette sur le marché secondaire et ainsi réussit à réduire son encours avec des escomptes considérables. Le volume des transactions fut cependant minime. C'est le Chili qui a pu radier la plus forte proportion de sa dette totale grâce aux transactions DES. Finalement, le Mexique s'est démarqué par l'importance des avantages qu'il a offerts aux investisseurs lors de la conversion des titres. L'étude permet de conclure que les transactions DES ont en effet un potentiel très intéressant comme outil de redressement pour un pays ne pouvant plus assumer le niveau de sa dette, mais ce, à condition que la mise sur pieds des programmes coïncide avec une prise en charge globale des économies. Le succès d'un programme dépend en grande partie de la confiance des investisseurs internationaux et des banques en la volonté de chaque état à adopter les mesures d'ajustement qu'impose leur situation critique.

Meeting on Provisions in Licensing Incorporating new developments in daily licensing practice: Setting conditions for open access, patron driven access, and data & text mining

Following the workshop on new developments in daily licensing practice in November 2011, we brought together fourteen representatives from national consortia (from Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and the UK) and publishers (Elsevier, SAGE and Springer) met in Copenhagen on 9 March 2012 to discuss provisions in licences to accommodate new developments. The one day workshop aimed to: present background and ideas regarding the provisions KE Licensing Expert Group developed; introduce and explain the provisions the invited publishers currently use;ascertain agreement on the wording for long term preservation, continuous access and course packs; give insight and more clarity about the use of open access provisions in licences; discuss a roadmap for inclusion of the provisions in the publishers’ licences; result in report to disseminate the outcome of the meeting. Participants of the workshop were: United Kingdom: Lorraine Estelle (Jisc Collections) Denmark: Lotte Eivor Jørgensen (DEFF), Lone Madsen (Southern University of Denmark), Anne Sandfær (DEFF/Knowledge Exchange) Germany: Hildegard Schaeffler (Bavarian State Library), Markus Brammer (TIB) The Netherlands: Wilma Mossink (SURF), Nol Verhagen (University of Amsterdam), Marc Dupuis (SURF/Knowledge Exchange) Publishers: Alicia Wise (Elsevier), Yvonne Campfens (Springer), Bettina Goerner (Springer), Leo Walford (Sage) Knowledge Exchange: Keith Russell The main outcome of the workshop was that it would be valuable to have a standard set of clauses which could used in negotiations, this would make concluding licences a lot easier and more efficient. The comments on the model provisions the Licensing Expert group had drafted will be taken into account and the provisions will be reformulated. Data and text mining is a new development and demand for access to allow for this is growing. It would be easier if there was a simpler way to access materials so they could be more easily mined. However there are still outstanding questions on how authors of articles that have been mined can be properly attributed.