A Path Analysis of the Interrelationship Among EFL Learners’ Humor Style, Anxiety, and Language Proficiency

Humor is a complicated part of the human experience and therefore an important dimension of humanity’s unique ability for language. The main purpose of this study is to find which dimension of humor styles can better predict anxiety and language achievement. The participants of the present study were 210 (103 female and 107 male) Iranian advanced EFL learners with different ages, both genders, and various educational backgrounds. Convenience sampling was employed to collect data. This study utilized one test and two questionnaires which are Preliminary English Test (PET), the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ), and The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). Path Analysis and Pearson correlation were used to analyze data. Results showed that all four sub-constructs of humor styles, affiliative humor (β=-0.27, p < 0.05), self-enhancing humor (β=-0.31, p < 0.05), aggressive humor (β= 0.17, p < 0.05), and self-defeating humor (β= 0.20, p < 0.05) are significant predictors of learners’ anxiety. However, among four sub-constructs of humor styles, only affiliative humor (β=-0.32, p < 0.05), and self-enhancing humor (β=-0.25, p < 0.05) are positive significant predictors of learners’ Language Achievement. In addition, language achievement is predicted negatively by anxiety (β=-0.26, p < 0.05). Two paths from aggressive humor to language proficiency (β= 0.09, p > 0.05), and from self-defeating humor to language proficiency (β= 0.07, p > 0.05) were not significant and removed from the model. With regards to the field of foreign language, humor has been identified as a powerful means to decrease students’ anxiety in a foreign language learning situations and it helps language learners in performing in a foreign language.

A Study of EFL Learners＇ Receptive and Productive Knowledge of SP： With Implications for Vocabulary Teaching

This study attempts to see whether there are any differences between L2 （Second Language） learners＇ receptive and productive knowledge of SP （Semantic Prosody）. SP is defined as the tendency of the use of some words to occur in a certain semantic environment. For example, the verb ＂cause＂ is associated with unpleasant things-death, problem and the like. The study is based on a random sampling of subjects （N = 60） drawn from 180 EFL （English as a Foreign Language） learners taking English classes at different language institutes in Khorramabad, Iran. A test of SP as a task of elicitation was constructed, validated and used to measure the learners＇ knowledge of both productive and receptive SP. A matched t-test was used to compare the mean differences between receptive and productive SP measures. The results showed significant difference between EFL learners＇ knowledge of receptive and productive SP, EFL learners perform better in receptive SP measures than in productive ones. Possible imolications of the findings for teaching vocabularv to EFL learners will be discussed.

A Note to the Objective Function for Centralized Case in Netessine and Rudi's Inventory Model

Netessine and Rudi（2003） consider a consumer-driven substitution problem with an arbitrary number of products under both centralized management and competition. They obtain analytically tractable solutions, establish concavity of the objective function, i.e., the expected profit function generated by each product and uniqueness of the equilibrium for the decentralize case. For the centralized case, they indicate that the objective function, i.e., the expected profit function, might not be concave and not even quasiconcave. In this note we show, for the centralize case, that the objective function is submodular, and partially verify Netessine and Rudi＇s observation that the objective function be unimodal in each of the decision variables for some case.

Teaching and practice of pharmaceutical comprehensive study in China

Pharmaceutical comprehensive study(PCS) is a new system of experimental teaching in China, which integrates multidisciplinary pharmaceutical knowledge and covers the basic process of new drug discovery. To explore the feasibility of this experiment teaching system and mode, we developed PCS as an elective course. The PCS is designed with two sections: pharmaceutical comprehensive design(PCD) and pharmaceutical comprehensive experiment(PCE). The PCD section includes literature review, comprehensive project design and oral examination. PCE can be divided into four parts: synthesis, quantitative determination, pharmacodynamic evaluation, and formulation and quality determination. Course grade was determined by experimental performance, written report, literature review, new project design and oral examination. The learning interest, experimental ability, theoretical level and literature retrieval ability, team spirit and interpersonal skills have been all significantly improved among students taking this course. A survey was administered at the end of the semester to the enrolled students. The responses were reported as percentages, and the feedback was positive. The course was highly recommended by the teaching inspection committee. This new course plays an important role in developing students’ creativity and comprehensive ability. It could help students understand the focus and features of every secondary discipline, as well as establish scientific and reasonable knowledge system. Most students can better understand the process of drug research after this course.

Sex disparity in hepatocellular carcinoma owing to NAFLD and non-NAFLD etiology:epidemiological findings and pathobiological mechanisms

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD)exhibits sexual dimorphism,with men being more exposed than women to the risk of simple steatosis,nonalcoholic steatohepatitis fibrosis,and hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC),while the protection conferred to women seemingly disappears with aging and reproductive senescence(i.e.,menopause).HCC,the most common primary liver cancer,which carries an ominous prognosis,may result from various genetic and non-genetic risk factors.NAFLD is now projected to become the most common cause of HCC.HCC also exhibits a definite sexual dimorphism in as much as it has a worldwide high male-to-female ratio.In this review article,we focus on sex differences in the epidemiological features of HCC.Moreover,we discuss sex differences in the clinical outcome and molecular pathobiology of NAFLD-HCC.By highlighting the research gaps to be filled,the aim of this review is to prompt future research of sex differences in HCC and facilitate developing personalized cancer prevention strategies,detection,and treatments to achieve better patient outcomes in NAFLD-HCC,considering sex differences in HCC pathobiology.