Ocean122 Dec 4, 2012:

Deborah,
I would agree, in part, and disagree, in part, with your take on this sentence. The original may seem poorly written only to us, the laymen, who are not well versed in these theories -

http://www.persianholdings.com/UsersFiles/admin/files/articl...
I have pretty much the same understanding of the sentence as you do but I would rephrase it a little bit differently "Aggregate sales mediate (сглаживают, ослабляют, нивелируют) the impact of several factors on operational performance, and this mediating effect has a decreasing rate"

Dmitri Lyutenko Dec 4, 2012:

I have to eat crop cause I was obviously wrong.

Deborah, +1:
"Aggregate sales volume mediates the effects a, b, and c have on operational performance, and the effect is at a decreasing rate, presumably over time."

Katerina O. Dec 2, 2012:

Right, the original is not really straightforward. But maybe Veronica could know better with the context she has.

Deborah Hoffman Dec 2, 2012:

* This my take (and the original is poorly written, or there would not need to be so much discussion) Aggregate sales volume mediates the effects a, b, and c have on operational performance, and the effect is at a decreasing rate, presumably over time. I didn't get out of it that c was less affected than b which is less affected than a.

Katerina O. Dec 2, 2012:

Влияние каждого последующего из факторов а, b и c на оп. эф-ть зависит от совокупного объема продаж в меньшей степени, чем влияние предыдущего.
Потому что не влияние факторов снижается, а влияние продаж на влияние факторов.

Katerina O. Dec 2, 2012:

miridoli, я не вижу здесь представленного вами варианта перевода. Тем менее мне понятен тон и конструкция "Ну и как бы...?"

Dmitri Lyutenko Dec 2, 2012:

В зависимости от конструкции предложения можно использовать как вариант Игоря, так и Кати.

Dmitri Lyutenko Dec 2, 2012:

Влияние факторов в порядке убывания the effects of (a), (b) and (c) on operational performance at a decreasing rate

Последовательное снижение влияния факторов a, b, c, на операционную эффективность (каждый последующий фактор влияет на операционную эффективность в меньшей степени).

Marina Dolinsky (X) Dec 2, 2012:

2 Katerina O.
Ну и как бы Вы перевели все предложение с Вашим вариантом?

Katerina O. Dec 2, 2012:

Oh, 'at a decreasing rate' seems like an adverbial modifier to me. It refers to some sort of an action (a verb). 'volume at a decreasing rate' or 'effects at a decreasing rate' is not quite correct grammatically, is it?

Deborah Hoffman Dec 2, 2012:

- I'm not sure how that solves the issue but ok. At any rate, if you understand what this sentence means and can explain it then your English is better than mine.

Katerina O. Dec 2, 2012:

I'm pretty sure it refers to mediating, as it's the only verb in the sentence.

Deborah Hoffman Dec 2, 2012:

* I've been reading this sentence for about 10 minutes now and I don't even know what it means. Is the operational performance decreasing? the effects? the mediating?