The main aim of the work is to assess physical parameters of forest woodchips and their impact on the prices achieved by the supplier in transactions with a power plant. During fragmentation of logging residue, high content of green matter and contaminants negatively impacts the quality parameters that serve as basis for settlements. The analysis concerns data on the main parameters -water content, fuel value, sulphur and ash content -from 252 days of deliveries of forest chips to a power plant. The deliveries were realised from forested areas on an average about 340 km from the plant. Average water content and the resultant fuel value of forest chips was within 27-47% and 8.7-12.9 GJ×Mg −1 (appropriately), respectively. They depend on the month in which they are delivered to the power plant. The threshold values for the above-mentioned parameters are set by the plant at a real level and the suppliers have no problems with meeting them. The parameter that is most frequently exceeded is ash content (11.5% of cases). The settlement system does not differentiate on the basis of the transport distance but gives possibility to lower the settlement price when the quality parameters are not met but provides no reward for deliveries with parameters better than the average ones. On the basis of results obtained, it was calculated that average annual settlement price is lower than the contract price by about 0.20 PLN×GJ −1 , which in case of the analysed company may translate into an average daily loss of about 700 PLN.

Spanish dialectology observes that dialects with a preference for velarized variants of /n/ (e.g. Caribbean dialects) include nasalized vocalic allophones in their inventory. Instrumental cross-dialectal comparisons of Spanish anticipatory nasalization, however, remain surprisingly rare. To this end, I compare the time-course of nasality in pre-nasal vowels in Argentine and Dominican Spanish, as well as across a number of linguistic variables described in the phonetic, sociolinguistic and historical literature. Twenty-eight speakers from Santo Domingo and twenty-six from Buenos Aires were recorded with a nasometer, an ideal instrument for data collection in the field. Measurements of nasal energy were extracted to acoustically characterize the time-course of nasality. Results indicate that Dominican speakers present more extensive anticipatory vowel nasalization than Argentine speakers. These findings are consistent with observations of allophonic nasalization (i.e. phonologized) in the Caribbean dialect under study, Dominican Spanish. Regarding the linguistic variables, stressed pre-nasal vowels showed earlier onset of nasalization, particularly among the Caribbean speakers, which further provides support for the phonological differences in vowel nasality.

Buenos Aires Spanish (BAS) is well known for the sound change that led the palatal obstruent to become a post-alveolar fricative. However, that obstruent is not the only palatal phoneme undergoing sound change in BAS. The present study investigates the production of /ɲ/ and /nj/ in BAS, which have been reported as merging (Malmberg 1950). Previous research suggests that some speakers produce a ‘traditional’ (alveolo)palatal nasal, while other speakers realize /ɲ/ with two distinct non-simultaneous constrictions: alveolar/postalveolar and palatal (Kochetov & Colantoni 2011). An acoustic analysis is based on the speech of 33 speakers (15 males, 17 females; from four age groups: 15–19 years old, 20–29 years, 30–45 years and 45+ years) and was obtained by measuring duration and formant contours in the tautosyllabic vocalic portion. Results reveal that /ɲ/ and /nj/ are not fully merged, as some speakers produce differences. Specifically, the results indicate that production differences between men and women disappear as age decreases, with female speakers being more innovative. Findings provide evidence that the sound change is still progressing and probably nearing completion, and show that the palatal system in BAS is losing the (alveolo)palatal nasal.

Abstract The present study explored development in Spanish vowel production during a short-term study abroad program. The production patterns of a group of learners studying abroad in a 4-week program in the Dominican Republic were compared in terms of overall vowel quality, tendency to diphthongize /e/ and /o/, and vowel duration to those of a similar group of learners studying in the at-home context. Results revealed no significant changes or differences between groups in vowel quality or diphthongization, but a significant improvement (i.e., reduction) in vowel duration for /a/, /o/, and /u/ for the at-home group only. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research, and areas for future research are outlined.

Registros recurrentes del poco conocido huroncito patagónico (Lyncodon patagonicus) en el departamento de Ullún,