The translational hull Ω(S) of a semigroup S plays an important role in the theory of ideal extensions of semigroups. In fact, every ideal extension of S by a semigroup T with zero can be constructed using a certain partial homomorphism of T\0 into Ω(S); a particular case of interest is when S is weakly reductive (see §4.4 of [3], [2], [7]). A theorem of Gluskin [6, 1.7.1] states that if S is a weakly reductive semigroup and a densely embedded ideal of a semigroup Q, then Q and Ω(S) are isomorphic. A number of papers of Soviet mathematicians deal with the abstract characteristic (abstract semigroup, satisfying certain conditions, isomorphic to the given semigroup) of various classes of (partial) transformation semigroups in terms of densely embedded ideals (see, e.g., [4]). In many of the cases studied, the densely embedded ideal in question is a completely 0-simple semigroup, so that Gluskin's theorem mentioned above applies. This enhances the importance of the translational hull of a weakly reductive, and in particular of a completely 0-simple semigroup. Gluskin [5] applied the theory of densely embedded ideals (which are completely 0-simple semigroups) also to semigroups and rings of endomorphisms of a linear manifold and to certain classes of abstract rings.