Pool Of Competitors Research Articles

Noise Modulates Crosslinguistic Effects on Second-Language Auditory Word Recognition.

This study investigates whether crosslinguistic effects on auditory word recognition are modulated by the quality of the auditory signal (clear and noisy). In an online experiment, a group of Spanish-English bilingual listeners performed an auditory lexical decision task, in their second language, English. Words and pseudowords were either presented in the clear or were embedded in white auditory noise. Target words were varied in the degree to which they overlapped in their phonological form with their translation equivalents and were categorized according to their overlap as cognates (form and meaning) or noncognates (meaning only). In order to test for effects of crosslinguistic competition, the phonological neighborhood density of the targets' translations was also manipulated. The results show that crosslinguistic effects are impacted by noise; when the translation had a high neighborhood density, performance was worse for cognates than for noncognates, especially in noise. The findings suggest that noise increases lexical competition across languages, as it does within a language, and that the crosslinguistic phonological overlap for cognates compared with noncognates can further increase the pool of competitors by co-activating crosslinguistic lexical candidates. The results are discussed within the context of the bilingual word recognition literature and models of language and bilingual lexical processing.

Classification in sport: A question of fairness

ABSTRACT Competitor classification schemes have been a part of sport since its origins. Eligibility criteria have developed towards inclusion and increasing diversity. The pool of competitors has expanded from the ancient Olympic Games, eligible only to free Greek men, via nineteenth-century English sport favouring primarily the upper class of so-called gentlemen amateurs, to the current global and diverse pool of men, women, children, and able-bodied as well as disabled persons. Hence, the challenge of sound classification schemes has increased. This article examines the principles of fair classification of athletes. With the help of normative theory as well as practical examples, a fair equality of opportunity principle for sport (FEOPs) is formulated. It is demonstrated how sound classification schemes combine the normative backing from FEOPs with relevant scientific insights. Current classification challenges and possibilities for change are discussed. It is suggested that in several sports, biological sex classes can be abandoned, and that in some sports, sex classes can be replaced by body size classes. It is argued, too, that sports in which body height exerts a significant and systematic impact on performance should classify accordingly. In the final part, classification is discussed in light of new techno-scientific possibilities, among them the possibility of innovative performance-enhancing prosthetics.

Marketing aspects to investment attractiveness of diversified enterprises of aviation transport and logistic clusters

Introduction. Increased competition on the global capital market encourages companies to use marketing tools to stand out from competitors and thus have higher chances of investments attraction. The purpose of the article is to improve the theoretical and methodological foundations of regional logistics clusters formation, and to develop scientific and practical recommendations on the investment attractiveness of diversified enterprises in the aviation cluster of low-budget transportation.
 Aim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to improve the theoretical and methodological foundations of regional transport and logistics clusters, and to develop scientific and practical recommendations on the investment attractiveness of diversified enterprises in the aviation cluster of low-budget transportation.
 Results. Modern conditions of economic development are characterized by accelerating globalization and intensifying competition not only between companies and countries, but also between regions. The competitiveness of Ukraine consists of the competitiveness of the regions, which is formed by active development of economic entities in the respective regions. The competitiveness is characterized by support and development of clusters by consolidating the efforts of the state, business, science and education in priority areas of the regional economy. Besides private investment and commercial loans, the traditional sources of funding for the airport development programs are local budget support and loans, which are targeted at public financing of investment projects. In order to attract private (foreign) investments in airport development it is important to abide to several standards, including liberal administrative and tax policies of both local and public authorities, which encourage private investment initiative; effective antitrust policy of local authorities aimed at maintaining a healthy competitive environment.
 Conclusions. In order to form the positive image of the low-budget transportation cluster as a reliable, competent and solvent borrower, it is necessary to properly position the cluster and its offer to investors. The target market segment is the zonal aviation cluster can occupy a dominant position in the market segment of integrated transport services by customizing its strategy to stand out from the existing pool of competitors.

Selection from a pool of self-assembling lipid replicators

Replication and compartmentalization are fundamental to living systems and may have played important roles in life’s origins. Selection in compartmentalized autocatalytic systems might provide a way for evolution to occur and for life to arise from non-living systems. Herein we report selection in a system of self-reproducing lipids where a predominant species can emerge from a pool of competitors. The lipid replicators are metastable and their out-of-equilibrium population can be sustained by feeding the system with starting materials. Phase separation is crucial for selective surfactant formation as well as autocatalytic kinetics; indeed, no selection is observed when all reacting species are dissolved in the same phase. Selectivity is attributed to a kinetically controlled process where the rate of monomer formation determines which replicator building blocks are the fittest. This work reveals how kinetics of a phase-separated autocatalytic reaction may be used to control the population of out-of-equilibrium replicators in time.

Male-only care and cuckoldry in black coucals: does parenting hamper sex life?

Providing parental care often reduces additional mating opportunities. Paternal care becomes easier to understand if trade-offs between mating and caring remain mild. The black coucal Centropus grillii combines male-only parental care with 50% of all broods containing young sired by another male. To understand how much caring for offspring reduces a male's chance to sire additional young in other males' nests, we matched the production of extra-pair young in each nest with the periods during which potential extra-pair sires were either caring for offspring themselves or when they had no own offspring to care for. We found that males which cared for a clutch were not fully excluded from the pool of competitors for siring young in other males' nests. Instead, the relative siring success showed a temporary dip. Males were approximately 17% less likely to sire young in other males' nests while they were incubating, about 48% less likely to do so while feeding nestlings, followed by 26% when feeding fledglings, compared to the success of males that currently did not care for offspring. These results suggest that real-life care situations by males may involve trade-off structures that differ from, and are less strict than those frequently employed in theoretical considerations of operational sex ratios, sex roles and parenting decisions.

Competition and cooperation when the pool of competitors is expanded

While a tournament competition can induce the optimal incentive to work, it usually harms cooperation among participants. This paper shows how this adverse effect of a tournament can be reduced without impairing the incentive to work. As the pool of competitors in a tournament expands while the portion of winners is held constant, the negative effect on cooperation diminishes while the incentive to work remains.

Structure of the cannabinoid receptor 1: homology modeling of its inactive state and enrichment study based on CB1 antagonist docking

Multiple cannabinoid 1 receptor models were prepared and the best one was selected based on the models' performance in selecting known ligands from a pool of competitors.

Past Performance Evaluation in Repeated Procurement: A Simple Model of Handicapping

When procurement contracts are awarded through competitive tendering participating firms commit ex ante to fulfil a set of contractual duties. However, selected contractors may find profitable to renege ex post on their promises by opportunistically delivering lower quality standards. In order to deter ex post moral hazard, buyers may use different strategies depending on the extent to which quality dimensions are contractible, that is, verifiable by contracting parties and by courts. We consider a stylized repeated procurement framework in which a buyer awards a contract over time to two firms with different efficiency levels. If the contractor does not deliver the agreed of performance the buyer may handicap the same firm in future competitive tendering. We prove that under complete information extremely severe handicapping is never a credible strategy for the buyer, rather the latter finds it optimal to punish the opportunistic firm so as to make the pool of competitors more alike. In other words, when opportunistic behaviour arises, the buyer should use handicapping to level the playing field.

Studies on the incorporation of [5-3H] uridine during activation and transformation of lymphocytes induced by phytohaemagglutinin. Dependence on the incorporation rate on uridine concentration at certain critical concentrations.

1. Partially purified pig blood lymphocytes were stimulated to transform in culture with phytohaemagglutinin. Initial cell activation was assessed by measuring the increase of uridine incorporation into RNA induced by phytohaemagglutinin. The phytohaemagglutinin/serum ratio for this effect was similar to that required for transformation; however, no inhibition at high phytohaemagglutinin/serum ratios was found during cell activation. 2. Without replenishment of medium the pool of competitors with added uridine for incorporation fell to zero during 2 days of culture. At certain critical pool concentrations uridine itself could stimulate the rate of uridine incorporation. 3. Most of the tritium from [5-(3)H]uridine added at the initiation of culture had been incorporated into RNA by the end of the second day of culture; the subsequent loss of radioactivity preceded a fall in the total RNA content of cultures. 4. RNA was qualitatively examined on sucrose density gradients. In the first 30min. after the addition of phytohaemagglutinin, increased labelling occurred predominantly between the 28s and 4s regions of the gradients. On the second day of culture with phytohaemagglutinin mainly RNA sedimenting beyond the 28s region of gradients was labelled in 30min.