Assessing and Improving General English University Students＇ Main Sub-skills of Reading Compression： A Case of University of Bojnord

General English course at Iranian universities has always been a controversial issue since the students taking this course are rather weak in English proficiency and need more authentic instructions based on accurate need analysis. The materials applied in this course are mainly focused on reading comprehension. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to improve General English university students＇ main sub-skills of reading comprehension and see the effect of the possible changes in terms of time and the fields of study of the students. To do this, 168 university students taking General English course at university of Bojnord, including humanities, engineering, physical education, and sciences, received instruction on the main sub-skills of reading comprehension after taking a pre-test sample TOELF section of reading comprehension. After 16 sessions of 90 minute instruction, they took the post-test section of TOEFL sample of reading comprehension. Mixed between within subject analysis of variance was used to assess the impact of instruction for the four groups of students from pre-test to post-test. The findings of the study indicated that the effect of instruction in terms of time, from pre-test to post-test, and the interaction of time and fields of study were significant. Besides, changes for 10 sub-skills were the same among the four fields of study.

Two-dimensional Parameter Relationships for W UMa-type Systems Revisited

Reviewing the empirical and theoretical parameter relationships between various parameters is a good way to understand more about contact binary systems.In this investigation,two-dimensional(2D)relationships for P–MV(system),P–L1,2,M1,2–L1,2,and q–Lratiowere revisited.The sample used is related to 118 contact binary systems with an orbital period shorter than 0.6 days whose absolute parameters were estimated based on the Gaia Data Release 3 parallax.We reviewed previous studies on 2D relationships and updated six parameter relationships.Therefore,Markov chain Monte Carlo and Machine Learning methods were used,and the outcomes were compared.We selected 22 contact binary systems from eight previous studies for comparison,which had light curve solutions using spectroscopic data.The results show that the systems are in good agreement with the results of this study.

AWeighted Average Finite Difference Scheme for the Numerical Solution of Stochastic Parabolic Partial Differential Equations

In the present paper,the numerical solution of It?type stochastic parabolic equation with a timewhite noise process is imparted based on a stochastic finite difference scheme.At the beginning,an implicit stochastic finite difference scheme is presented for this equation.Some mathematical analyses of the scheme are then discussed.Lastly,to ascertain the efficacy and accuracy of the suggested technique,the numerical results are discussed and compared with the exact solution.

Kinetics of(TBAF+CO2)semi-clathrate hydrate formation in the presence and absence of SDS

In this communication, the impacts of adding SDS （sodium dodecyl sulfate）, TBAF （tetra-n-butylammonlum tluorloe） ano the mixture of SDS ＋ TBAF on the main kinetic parameters of CO2 hydrate formation （induction time, the quantity and rate of gas uptake, and storage capacity） were investigated. The tests were performed under stirring conditions at T = 5 ℃ and P = 3.8 MPa in a 169 cm3 batch reactor. The results show that adding SDS with a concentration of 400 ppm, TBAF with a concentration of l-5 wt%, and the mixture of SDS ＋ TBAF, would increase the storage capacity of CO2 hydrate and the quantity of gas uptake, and decrease the induction time of hydrate formation process. The addition of 5 wt% of TBAF and 400 ppm of SDS would increase the CO2 hydrate storage capacity by 86.1% and 81.6%, respectively, compared to pure water. Investigation of the impact of SDS, TBAF and their mixture on the rate of gas uptake indicates that the mixture of SDS ＋ TBAF does not have a significant effect on the rate of gas uptake during hydrate formation process.

Experimental investigation and adaptive neural fuzzy inference system prediction of copper recovery from flotation tailings by acid leaching in a batch agitated tank

The potential of copper recovery from flotation tailings was experimentally investigated using a laboratory-mixing tank. The experiments were performed with solid weight percentages of 30 wt%, 35 wt%, 40 wt% and 45 wt% in water. The measurements revealed that adding sulfuric acid all at once to the tank rapidly increased the efficiency of the leaching process, which was attributed to the rapid change in the acid concentration. The rate of iron dissolution from tailings was less than when the acid was added gradually. The sample with 40 wt% solid is recommended as an appropriate feed for the recovery of copper. The adaptive neural fuzzy system(ANFIS) was also used to predict the copper recovery from flotation tailings. The back-propagation algorithm and least squares method were applied for the training of ANFIS. The validation data was also applied to evaluate the performance of these models. Simulation results revealed that the testing results from these models were in good agreement with the experimental data.

Development of seismic fragility curves for precast concrete frames with cast-in-situ concrete shear-walls

Precast reinforced concrete buildings have been well received in some seismic zones worldwide due to advantages such as the ease and the speed of implementation,and the possibility of working in inappropriate atmospheric conditions.In this research,seismic fragility curves were developed for precast concrete frames with a cast-in-situ concrete shear-wall,concerning the important issues of modeling the precast beam-column joints,construction quality,and soil type effects.For this purpose,the incremental dynamic analysis(IDA)was conducted for three-dimensional models of 3-,5-,and 8-story buildings under two record sets corresponding to soil types C and D of the NEHRP code.Beam-column joints were modeled using nonlinear rotational springs with rigid links with respect to the finite size of the joint panel.Results demonstrate that the Weibull distribution can be fitted to the damage state capacities better than the lognormal distribution at the intensities that are more than one standard deviation away from the median damage capacity.The seismic vulnerability of precast structures increases at all damage states as the height of the building increases.It is also observed that soil type has almost no considerable effect on the fragility curve parameters for all damage states considered herein.

Kinetic study of methane hydrate formation in the presence of carbon nanostructures

The effect of synthesized nanostructures,including graphene oxide,chemically reduced graphene oxide with sodium dodecyl sulfate(SDS),chemically reduced graphene oxide with polyvinylpyrrolidone,and multi-walled carbon nanotubes,on the kinetics of methane hydrate formation was investigated in this work.The experiments were carried out at a pressure of 4.5 MPa and a temperature of 0 ℃ in a batch reactor.By adding nanostructures,the induction time decreases,and the shortest induction time appeares at certain concentrations of reduced graphene oxide with SDS and graphene oxide,that is,at a concentration of 360 ppm for reduced graphene oxide with SDS and 180 ppm for graphene oxide,with a 98% decrease in induction time compared to that in pure water.Moreover,utilization of carbon nanostructures increases the amount and the rate of methane consumed during the hydrate formation process.Utilization of multi-walled carbon nanotubes with a concentration of 90 ppm showes the highest amount of methane consumption.The amount of methane consumption increases by 173% in comparison with that in pure water.The addition of carbon nanostructures does not change the storage capacity of methane hydrate in the hydrate formation process,while the percentage of water conversion to hydrate in the presence of carbon nanotubes increases considerably,the greatest value of which occurres at a 90 ppm concentration of carbon nanotubes,that is,a 253% increase in the presence of carbon nanotubes compared to that of pure water.

Planar System-Masses in an Equilateral Triangle:Numerical Study within Fractional Calculus

In this work,a system of three masses on the vertices of equilateral triangle is investigated.This system is known in the literature as a planar system.We first give a description to the system by constructing its classical Lagrangian.Secondly,the classical Euler-Lagrange equations(i.e.,the classical equations of motion)are derived.Thirdly,we fractionalize the classical Lagrangian of the system,and as a result,we obtain the fractional Euler-Lagrange equations.As the final step,we give the numerical simulations of the fractional model,a new model which is based on Caputo fractional derivative.

Correlating thermal conductivity of pure hydrocarbons and aromatics via perceptron artificial neural network (PANN) method

Accurate estimation of liquid thermal conductivity is highly necessary to appropriately design equipments in different industries. Respect to this necessity, in the current investigation a feed-forward artificial neural network(ANN) model is examined to correlate the liquid thermal conductivity of normal and aromatic hydrocarbons at the temperatures range of 257–338 K and atmospheric pressure. For this purpose, 956 experimental thermal conductivities for normal and aromatic hydrocarbons are collected from different previously published literature.During the modeling stage, to discriminate different substances, critical temperature(Tc), critical pressure(Pc)and acentric factor(ω) are utilized as the network inputs besides the temperature. During the examination, effects of different transfer functions and number of neurons in hidden layer are investigated to find the optimum network architecture. Besides, statistical error analysis considering the results obtained from available correlations and group contribution methods and proposed neural network is performed to reliably check the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed method. Respect to the obtained results, it can be concluded that the proposed neural network consisted of three layers namely, input, hidden and output layers with 22 neurons in hidden layer was the optimum ANN model. Generally, the proposed model enables to correlate the thermal conductivity of normal and aromatic hydrocarbons with absolute average relative deviation percent(AARD), mean square error(MSE), and correlation coefficient(R^2) of lower than 0.2%, 1.05 × 10^(-7) and 0.9994, respectively.

An Ecological Exploration of the Culture of English as an International Language Among Iranian English Language Teachers in Light of Vygotsky＇s Genotypic Approach

Language ecology is defined as the study of the interactions between any given language and its environment. It is primarily determined by the people who learn it, who use it, and more important than the previous ones by the people who transmit it to the others; that is, language teachers. English language is used as an additional language almost all over the world and an indispensable part of the ecology of this international language is culture. Thus, an ecological perspective demands a particular view of the practice of the culture of English language as situated and localized. Exploring such practice within the diverse contexts of the use of English language should be based on the genesis underpinning English language teachers＇ thoughts and practice. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to explore Iranian English language teachers＇ attitudes, knowledge, and skills of teaching culture in light of Vygotsky＇s genotypic approach. To do so, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 English language teachers in Iran. Their records were analyzed and discussed in terms of four different and interrelated spans, namely phylogenetic, cultural-historic, ontogenetic, and microgenetic. Phylogenetic span focuses on the development of language teachers as natural species and their physical evolution. The cultural historic span concerns the development of language teachers based on social, cultural, and historic bases. Ontogenetic domain investigates the role of language teachers across their human life span. Microgenetic span is related to a set of roles, activities, and interpersonal relations experienced by the developing person in a given setting. The findings of the study have indicated that there is a sharp contrast between Iranian English language teachers＇ attitudes towards teaching culture and their practice in the classroom which is due to the divergence between the their ontogenetic development of culture teaching on one hand and the policies of the English language institutes develop within the cultural historic span on the other hand.

Optimal Redundancy Allocation in Hierarchical Series-Parallel Systems Using Mixed Integer Programming

Reliability optimization plays an important role in design, operation and management of the industrial systems. System reliability can be easily enhanced by improving the reliability of unreliable components and/or by using redundant configuration with subsystems/components in parallel. Redundancy Allocation Problem (RAP) was studied in this research. A mixed integer programming model was proposed to solve the problem, which considers simultaneously two objectives under several resource constraints. The model is only for the hierarchical series-parallel systems in which the elements of any subset of subsystems or components are connected in series or parallel and constitute a larger subsystem or total system. At the end of the study, the performance of the proposed approach was evaluated by a numerical example.

AN EFFICIENT PARALLEL PROCESSING OPTIMAL CONTROL SCHEME FOR A CLASS OF NONLINEAR COMPOSITE SYSTEMS

This article presents an efficient parallel processing approach for solving the opti- mal control problem of nonlinear composite systems. In this approach, the original high-order coupled nonlinear two-point boundary value problem （TPBVP） derived from the Pontrya- gin＇s maximum principle is first transformed into a sequence of lower-order deeoupled linear time-invariant TPBVPs. Then, an optimal control law which consists of both feedback and forward terms is achieved by using the modal series method for the derived sequence. The feedback term specified by local states of each subsystem is determined by solving a ma- trix Riccati differential equation. The forward term for each subsystem derived from its local information is an infinite sum of adjoint vectors. The convergence analysis and parallel processing capability of the proposed approach are also provided. To achieve an accurate feedforward-feedbaek suboptimal control, we apply a fast iterative algorithm with low com- putational effort. Finally, some comparative results are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Analyzing Culture of Learning and Teaching in the Iranian Secondary Schools English Language Course Books： Prospect

Knowing and analyzing the ＂culture of learning and teaching＂ in a coursebook or series of course books can contribute to teachers＇ and students＇ success in the educational and pedagogical goals and objectives. Cultures of learning and teaching refer to the perspectives of teachers and learners towards learning and teaching. Most of the research studies conducted in this field have referred to values and attitudes related to good learning and teaching as reflected through observations, interviews and questionnaires. However, just few studies have examined this term with regard to language teaching materials, and course books. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to introduce, investigate, and analyze the cultures of learning and teaching in Iranian secondary school course books entitled Prospect series. Based on the model used in this study, the cultures of learning and teaching in Prospect series were investigated as reflected in their external features including aims and objectives cited in the introduction, tables of content, and layout of the students＇ books, and internal features including task instructions and visual images in students＇ book plus the instructions in the teacher＇s book. Each of these features as well as the pedagogical issues of the Prospect series were provided and elaborated.

On the Ecological Evaluation of Iranian Secondary Schools English Language Course Books in Light Intercultural Communicative Competence： Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude

With the spread of English language around the world and its status as an international language, the need for more communication is felt. One pivoting aspect of this communication is the role of culture which can contribute to the success of communication at the global level and the co-construction of identities as individuals from different parts of the world get into interactions. Thus, the role of materials developed for learning English, especially the local ones, in the improvement of individuals＇ intercultural competence is significant. New course books for learning English at Iranian secondary schools entitled Prospect series have been developed recently. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the first and the second books of this series in light of Byram＇s model of Intercultural Communicative Competence （1CC）. Based on this model, ICC consists of three dimensions of attitude, knowledge, skills, and five saviors of knowledge, attitude, discovery, interaction, and critical thinking. To do the evaluation of the course books, the checklist developed based on these five saviors was used to evaluate the tasks for each unit of the books. The evaluation was done separately by each of the researchers in the study and inter-rater reliability showed a high level of Cronbach alpha. The findings indicated that about 90 percent of the activities of Prospect 1 and Prospect 2 lack the skills required for improving English language learners＇ ICC. They mostly focus on Iranian culture which might have been improved via learners＇ first language as well. This might imply the need for the adaptation of Prospect series activities in light of ICC so that Iranian English language learners can take advantage of their communication with the rest of the world.

Exploring English Language Learning Policies in Iran Based on Secondary School Course Books for Learning English in Light of Globalization and Culture

With the globalization of English, the macro and micro cultures of the users of English around the world interact intensively. Considering these conditions, the local and global cultural interface seems an important issue which needs to be clarified in the materials and books used for learning English. Thus, the focus of this study was to explore the language learning policy of the new Iranian English course book at high schools, Prospect 1, recently published and taught for a year in Iran, in light of globalization and culture. This qualitative study was conducted through carrying out semi-structured interviews. The participants of this study were 30 teachers of Ministry of Education, who had the experience of teaching Prospect I for a year and they were mostly chosen from Mashhad and the rest from other cities of Khorasan province, Iran. The interview contained four main questions which were posed to the teachers. The findings of the study indicate that the language learning policy of Iran need to pay more attention to the learners＇ intercultural communicative competence because it mainly attempts at teaching English language focusing on the home culture in the Iranian context. The article ends with some pedagogical implications and more recommendations for developing research studies.

Applied Techniques in Tracking Moving Targets in Marine Using Image Processing

Moving objects tracking is one of the most used categories in the realm of machine vision that has attracted attention of so many researchers in recent decades. Video tracking has various applications in military industries, protective systems and machine vision. Target tracking algorithms vary according to their usages. In this paper, it has been attempted to discuss and analyze mobile target tracking techniques and algorithms in Marine.

On the Practice of Pedagogic Corpus Linguistics With Secondary School Iranian English Language Learners

The gap between the theories of second language acquisition and their practice in materials development has been a controversial issue in the field of applied linguistics. Recently, the findings of corpus linguistics have narrowed the gap. However, their practice, especially in the realm of vocabulary acquisition, has encountered pedagogic problems in the classroom because the authentic nature of the words in corpus-based examples was beyond the level of learners＇ comprehension which paves the way for the practice of pedagogic corpus linguistics. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to practice pedagogic corpus linguistics, and mainly data-driven learning, with the first year secondary school English language learners in Iran in terms of their vocabulary acquisition. To do so, 28 students participated in the study. Examples from the British National Corpus for the main words of each unit of their course book, Prospect 1, were presented to them in a course of 16 sessions. Those which were beyond their understanding were eliminated and those comprehensible for them, the pedagogic ones, were selected based on their reports regarding the comprehensibility of each corpus-based example.

Towards an Ecological Understanding of Translation Etemality in the Context of Iran

This study attempted to investigate the similarities and differences regarding the conceptions of translation eternality among a small group of Iranian people of different social positions and different ages. Sixty-two participants were selected based on the maximum variation sampling. To gather data, semi-structured interview was utilized. The participants were asked a list of 11 questions collected from the existing literature on the similar topics. Then, the interviews were transcribed for analyzing the data. Besides, Erikson＇s （1959） theory of development was used to classify participants of different ages in four groups of teenager, young, middle age, and old. The high frequency factors were found and analyzed with the use of Bronfenbrenner＇s （1979） nested ecological model. Moreover, the participants were classified in 11 groups based on their social positions and their conceptions were analyzed with the same method. Broadly speaking, 17 central tendencies in the interviews were obtained： People mainly focused on subjects of the books, translation fluency, author＇s competence in writing, and translator＇s competence, translations which have common grounds with social events of Iran, advertisement, existence of movie or cartoon adaptation of the book, translator＇s awareness of the content of the book, existence of cultural similarities between the source and target culture, popularity of the translator, author, and the original book, conversational language in translation, translation fidelity, being both translator and author, and effect of censorship on translation. Besides, old participants seemed to have more precise view on translation eternality and teenager＇s concerns were mostly about the appearance-related issues.

Reading Performance and Academic Achievement in Early Childhood Bilingual and Monolinguals

Relationship between reading performance and academic achievement is theoretically predictable. However, this relationship could be higher among early childhood bilingual (ECBL) students than monolingual peers. For evaluating this claim, two groups of randomly selected female second graders (150 Farsi speaking and 150 Farsi and Turkish speaking) were tested and compared on these characteristics. The measures used were Kormi-Nouri and associates’ tests of reading performance. Moreover, academic achievement was defined to be the average of scores obtained by students at their final school exams in Math, Science and Farsi. Analysis of regression was then performed to determine which construct served as the best predictor of academic achievement in both groups. Based on the results, ECBL girls were superior to their monolingual (ML) counterparts in all three areas. Findings also show that reading performance was a strong predictor of school achievement for both groups.

The Influence of Socio-Demographic, Health and Work-Related Factors on Health-Related Quality of Life among Iranian Industrial Workers

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has not been investigated among Iranian industrial workers. The present paper aimed to study the influence of the socio-demographic, health and work-related factors on HRQOL among Iranian industrial workers. In this cross-sectional study, participants were 280 workers of two factories. The Persian version of World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief (WHOQOL-BREF) was used to assess the HRQOL. A questionnaire was developed to assess the socio-demographic, health and work-related factors. Results showed that the means (SD) of physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environment domains of HRQOL were 13.2 (2.7), 13.3 (2.6), 14.2 (3.5) and 12.6 (2.5), respectively. A multiple linear regression showed that types of job, exercise activity, working schedule, sleep quality, smoking, and conflict between work and social life were significantly associated with physical health domain;whereas, working schedule, marital status, working demand, sleep quality, BMI, and conflict between work and individual life were significantly associated with psychological health domain. Working schedule, working demand, sleep quality, conflict between work and individual life, and having children over two years were significantly associated with social relationship domain;however, working demand, working schedule, smoking, sleep quality, working hour, job satisfaction, marital status and exercise activity were significantly associated with environment domain. Collectively, work-related factors including unhealthy working conditions, unsafe working environments, long working hours, irregular working schedules, and the lack of occupational training may negatively influence the HRQOL of workers. To improve workers’ HRQOL, intervention programs should focus on improving work environment, working schedule, occupational training and restricting working hours.