Search results for: Iranian Universities

Authors: M. Dezyani, R. Ezzati, H. Mirzaei

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The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of pH on chemical, structural, and functional properties of Fetta cheese, and to relate changes in structure to changes in cheese unctionality. Fetta cheese was obtained from a cheese-production facility and stored at 4°C. Ten days after manufacture, the cheese was cut into blocks that were vacuum-packaged and stored for 4 d at 4°C. Cheese blocks were then high-pressure injected one, three, or five times with a 20% (wt/wt) glucono-δ-lactone solution. Successive injections were performed 24 h apart. Cheese blocks were then analyzed after 40 d of storage at 4°C. Acidulant injection decreased cheese pH from 5.3 in the uninjected cheese to 4.7 after five injections. Decreased pH increased the content of soluble calcium and slightly decreased the total calcium content of cheese. At the highest level, injection of acidulant promoted syneresis. Thus, after five injections, the moisture content of cheese decreased from 34 to 31%, which esulted in decreased cheese weight. Lowered cheese pH, 4.7 compared with 5.3, also resulted in contraction of the protein matrix. Acidulant injection decreased cheese hardness and cohesiveness, and the cheese became more crumbly.

Keywords: calcium, high-pressure injection, protein matrix, syneresis

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Authors: Omair Anas

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The Persian Gulf has been in turmoil for a long time since the colonial administration has handed over the role to the small and weak kings and emirs who were assured of protection in return of many economic and security promises to them. The regional order, Saudi Arabia evolved was a rentier regional order secured by an expansion of rentier economy and taking responsibility for much of the expenses of the regional order on behalf of relatively poor countries. The two oil booms helped the Saudi state to expand the 'rentier order' driven stability and bring the countries like Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Palestine under its tutelage. The disruptive misadventure, however, came with Iran's proclamation of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 which it wanted to be exported to its 'un-Islamic and American puppet' Arab neighbours. For Saudi Arabia, even the challenge presented by the socialist-nationalist Arab dictators like Gamal Abdul Nasser and Hafez Al-Assad was not that much threatening to the Saudi Arabia’s then-defensive realism. In the Arab uprisings, the Gulf monarchies saw a wave of insecurity and Iran found it an opportune time to complete the revolutionary process it could not complete after 1979. An alliance of convenience and ideology between Iran and Islamist groups had the real potential to challenge both Saudi Arabia’s own security and its leadership in the region. The disruptive threat appeared at a time when the Saudi state had already sensed an impending crisis originating from the shifts in the energy markets. Low energy prices, declining global demands, and huge investments in alternative energy resources required Saudi Arabia to rationalize its economy according to changing the global political economy. The domestic Saudi reforms remained gradual until the death of King Abdullah in 2015. What is happening now in the region, the Qatar crisis, the Lebanon crisis and the Saudi-Iranian proxy war in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen has combined three immediate objectives, rationalising Saudi economy and most importantly, the resetting the Saudi royal power for Saudi Arabia’s longest-serving future King Mohammad bin Salman. The Saudi King perhaps has no time to wait and watch the power vacuum appearing because of Iran’s expansionist foreign policy. The Saudis appear to be employing an offensive realism by advancing a pro-active regional policy to counter Iran’s threatening influence amid disappearing Western security from the region. As the Syrian civil war is coming to a compromised end with ceding much ground to Iran-controlled militias, Hezbollah and Al-Hashad, the Saudi state has lost much ground in these years and the threat from Iranian proxies is more than a reality, more clearly in Bahrain, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. This paper attempts to analyse the changing Saudi behaviour in the region, which, the author understands, is shaped by an offensive-realist approach towards finding a favourable security environment for the Saudi-led regional order, a post-rentier order perhaps.

Keywords: terrorism, Saudi Arabia, Rentier State, gulf crisis

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Authors: Yasemi Mehran, Parsa Mehran, Farzingohar Mehrnaz

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Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing has been identified as one of the most serious threats to the sustainability of the world’s fisheries. In the present study, illegal and unreported fishing of different species in waters of Persian Gulf and Oman Sea (Hormozgan province) were evaluated. Among 47 species of 33 families identified in this study, with 39 species belong to teleosts, 4 species belong to elasmobranchs and 4 species belong to invertebrate. The total weight of illegal and unreported catch were 78525.22 tonnes. Maximum and minimum values were found for Dussumiera acuta (20640.74 tonnes) and Tenualosa ilisha (0.733 tonnes), respectively. The most commercial species group was scombridae, carangidae and clupeidae, respectively. Teleosts with 91.15%, elasmobranchs with 4.82 and invertebrates with 4.03% constituted total weight of illegal and unreported fishing. Results of this study provide valuable information in order to access a sustainable management on fish resources.

Keywords: catch composition, illegal, unreported fishing, Hormozgan province

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Authors: J. Liebenberg, M. Huisman, E. Mentz

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It is widely acknowledged that there is a shortage of software developers, not only in South Africa, but also worldwide. Despite reports on a gap between industry needs and software education, the gap has mostly been explored in quantitative studies. This paper reports on the qualitative data of a mixed method study of the perceptions of professional software developers regarding what topics they learned from their formal education and the importance of these topics to their actual work. The analysis suggests that there is a gap between industry’s needs and software development education and the following recommendations are made: 1) Real-life projects must be included in students’ education; 2) Soft skills and business skills must be included in curricula; 3) Universities must keep the curriculum up to date; 4) Software development education must be made accessible to a diverse range of students.

Keywords: software development education, software industry, IT workforce, computing curricula

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Authors: S. Dodd

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This presentation examines the gender gap in leadership positions at colleges and universities within the United States. Despite the fact that women now outnumber men in earning doctorate degrees, women continue to hold far fewer positions of educational leadership, and still, earn less money than men do at every level. Considering the lack of female representation in positions of leadership, there are clearly outside variables preventing women from attaining these positions, despite their educational attainment. Following this study, the American Council on Education (ACE) set a goal to achieve an equal percentage of females holding college presidency positions by the year 2030. This goal is particularly ambitious, especially when considering the gender disparity at all ranks in higher education. Men still hold nearly 70% of all full professorships at degree-granting institutions. Even when women are equally represented in numbers, men typically hold a higher rank and are more likely to be tenured. Across all four-year colleges and universities in the United States, men earn more money than women at every rank and in every discipline. There are over twice as many men than women represented on governing boards, who help formed and uphold campus policies. The fact that the low percentage of female presidents has remained static for many years deepens the challenge for the ACE. Although emphasizing the need to create greater opportunities for women in educational administration is admirable, it is difficult to simplify the social forces that create and uphold the status quo of male leadership. When aiming to ensure 'women' hold 50% of all college presidency positions, it is important to consider how the intersections of race, social class, and other factors also correlate with lower job status. This presentation explores how gendered notions of leadership begin in a child’s early years and are carried into future careers, and how these conceptualizations impact the creation and upholding of educational policies at every academic level. Current research that emphasizes the importance establishing a bottom-up approach to a gender equity infrastructure for children early in their educational careers will be discussed. A top-down approach starting with female college presidents is incomplete and insufficient if the mindsets of the youth who will one day be entering those institutions of higher education are not also taken into consideration. Although ACE has established this lofty goal for female college presidencies by the year 2030, a road map for this will ensue, has not yet been provided. The talent pool of women who are educated and experienced for such positions is vast, but acknowledging the social barriers existing for women in these positions will be crucial to making the changes necessary for these leadership opportunities to be long lasting and successful.

Keywords: equity, higher education, leadership, women

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Authors: Seyed Mohammad Reza Amirian, Seyedeh Khadije Amirian, Maryam Sabouri

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The present study aimed to investigate second language (L2) motivation, enjoyment, and self-regulation as the main variables for explaining variance in the process, and to find out the outcome of L2 Aural Vocabulary Knowledge (AVK) development by focusing on the Iranian EFL students at Hakim Sabzevari University. To this end, 122 EFL students (86 females) and (36 males) participated in this study. The students filled out the Motivation Questionnaire, Foreign Language Enjoyment Questionnaire, and Self-Regulation Questionnaire and also took Aural Vocabulary Knowledge (AVK) Test. Using SPSS software, the data were analyzed through multiple regressions and path analysis. A preliminary Pearson correlation analysis revealed that 2 out of 3 independent variables were significantly linked to AVK. According to the obtained regression model, self-regulation was a significant predictor of aural vocabulary knowledge test. Finally, the results of the mediation analysis showed that the indirect effect of enjoyment on AVK through self- regulation was significant. These findings are discussed, and implications are offered.

Keywords: aural vocabulary knowledge, enjoyment, motivation, self-regulation

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Authors: Juha Kettunen

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This study presents a project that tests and adjusts active European learning and teaching methods in Indonesian universities to increase their external impact on enterprises and other organizations; it also assesses the implementation of the Erasmus+ projects funded by the European Union. The project is based on the approach of innovation pedagogy that responds to regional development needs and integrates applied research and development projects into education to create capabilities for students to participate in development work after graduation. The assessment of the Erasmus+ project resulted in many improvements that can be made to achieve higher quality and innovativeness. The results of this study are useful for those who want to improve the applied research and development projects of higher education institutions.

Keywords: higher education, innovations, social network, project management

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Authors: Laura Rodriguez Amaya

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Advances in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are viewed as important to countries’ national economies and their capacities to be competitive in the global economy. However, many countries experience low numbers of students entering these disciplines. To strengthen the professional STEM pipelines, it is important that students are retained in these disciplines at universities. Scholars agree that to retain students in universities’ STEM degrees, it is necessary that STEM course content shows the relevance of these academic fields to their daily lives. By increasing students’ understanding on the importance of these degrees and careers, students’ motivation to remain in these academic programs can also increase. An effective way to make STEM content relevant to students’ lives is the use of geospatial technologies and geovisualization in the classroom. The Geospatial Revolution, and the science and technology associated with it, has provided scientists and engineers with an incredible amount of data about Earth and Earth systems. This data can be used in the classroom to support instruction and make content relevant to all students. The purpose of this study was to find out the prevalence use of geospatial technologies and geovisualization as teaching practices in a USA university. The Teaching Practices Inventory survey, which is a modified version of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative Teaching Practices Inventory, was selected for the study. Faculty in the STEM disciplines that participated in a summer learning institute at a 4-year university in the USA constituted the population selected for the study. One of the summer learning institute’s main purpose was to have an impact on the teaching of STEM courses, particularly the teaching of gateway courses taken by many STEM majors. The sample population for the study is 97.5 of the total number of summer learning institute participants. Basic descriptive statistics through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) were performed to find out: 1) The percentage of faculty using geospatial technologies and geovisualization; 2) Did the faculty associated department impact their use of geospatial tools?; and 3) Did the number of years in a teaching capacity impact their use of geospatial tools? Findings indicate that only 10 percent of respondents had used geospatial technologies, and 18 percent had used geospatial visualization. In addition, the use of geovisualization among faculty of different disciplines was broader than the use of geospatial technologies. The use of geospatial technologies concentrated in the engineering departments. Data seems to indicate the lack of incorporation of geospatial tools in STEM education. The use of geospatial tools is an effective way to engage students in deep STEM learning. Future research should look at the effect on student learning and retention in science and engineering programs when geospatial tools are used.

Keywords: engineering education, geospatial technology, geovisualization, STEM

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Authors: Soheil Behdarvandirad

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The relationship between depression and self-focused language has been well documented. The more depressed a person is, the more "I"s, "me"s, and "my"s they will use. The present study attempted to factor in the impact of mood and examine whether negative mood has self-focused impacts similar to those of depression. For this purpose, 160 Iranian native speakers of Farsi were divided into three experimental groups of negative, neutral, and positive groups. After completing the BDI-II inventory and depression measurement, they were presented with pretested mood stimuli (3 separate videos to induce the target moods). Finally, they were asked to write between 10 to 20 minutes about a topic that asked them to freely write about their state of life, how you feel about it and the reasons that had shaped their current life circumstances. While the significant correlation between depression and I-talk was observed, negative mood led to more we-talk in general and seemed to even push the participants away from self-rumination. It seems that it is an emotion-regulatory strategy that participants subconsciously adopt to distract themselves from the disturbing mood. However, negative mood intensified the self-focused language among depressed participants. Such results can be further studied by examining brain areas that are more involved in self-perception and particularly in precuneus.

Keywords: self-focused language, depression, mood, precuneus

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Authors: R. Bhagwan, M. Subbhan

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Nursing is a very challenging field in South Africa and due to the burden of disease it is critical that nursing students are prepared with the adequate knowledge and skills to deliver effective patient care. Despite this very little research has been done on the teaching strategies used by nurse educators to teach nursing students. It is in this context that a survey of all nurse educators at Nursing Colleges and Universities in Kwa-Zulu Natal was undertaken (n=300) to explore what current pedagogical strategies were being used and which more creative methodologies should be implemented in relation to specific nursing content. Findings revealed that most nurse educators still utlize the lecture approach, but although believe other methodologies such as e-learning are important have not done so because of inadequate training. The recommendations made are that more creative pedagogical strategies such as simultation, portfoloios and case studies be adopted.

Keywords: creative, teaching methodologies, dydactic, nursing

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Authors: Ronak Khosravi, Mahmood Abbasi Layegh, Siamak Haghipour, Avin Esmaili

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In this paper, a study on classification of musical woodwind instruments using a small set of features selected from a broad range of extracted ones by the sequential forward selection method was carried out. Firstly, we extract 42 features for each record in the music database of 402 sound files belonging to five different groups of Flutes (end blown and internal duct), Single –reed, Double –reed (exposed and capped), Triple reed and Quadruple reed. Then, the sequential forward selection method is adopted to choose the best feature set in order to achieve very high classification accuracy. Two different classification techniques of support vector machines and relevance vector machines have been tested out and an accuracy of up to 96% can be achieved by using 21 time, frequency and coefficient features and relevance vector machine with the Gaussian kernel function.

Keywords: coefficient features, relevance vector machines, spectral features, support vector machines, temporal features

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Authors: Negin Parsamanesh, Saman Ameri-Mahabadi, Ali Nikfar, Mojdeh Mansouri, Hossein Chiti, Gita Fatemi Abhari

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Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe progressive X-linked neuromuscular illness that affects movement through mutations in dystrophin gene. The mutation leads to insufficient, lack of or dysfunction of dystrophin. The cause of DMD was determined in an Iranian family. Exome sequencing was carried out along with a complete physical examination of the family. In silico methods were applied to find the alteration in the protein structure. The homozygous variant in DMD gene (NM-004006.2) was defined as c.2732-2733delTT (p.Phe911CysfsX8) in exon 21. In addition, phylogenetic conservation study of the human dystrophin protein sequence revealed that phenylalanine 911 is one of the evolutionarily conserved amino acids. In conclusion, our study indicated a new deletion in the DMD gene in the affected family. This deletion with an X-linked inheritance pattern is new in Iran. These findings could facilitate genetic counseling for this family and other patients in the future.

Keywords: duchenne muscular dystrophy, whole exome sequencing, iran, metabolic syndrome

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Authors: Clifford De Raffaele, Luana Bugeja, Serengul Smith

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The adaptation of social networking sites within higher education has garnered significant interest in the recent years with numerous researches considering it as a possible shift from the traditional classroom based learning paradigm. Notwithstanding this increase in research and conducted studies however, the adaption of SNS based modules have failed to proliferate within Universities. This paper, commences its contribution by analyzing the various models and theories proposed in literature and amalgamates together various effective aspects for the inclusion of social technology within e-Learning. A three phased framework is further proposed which details the necessary considerations for the successful adaptation of SNS in enhancing the students learning experience. This proposal outlines the theoretical foundations which will be analyzed in practical implementation across international university campuses.

Keywords: eLearning, higher education, social network sites, student learning

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Authors: Mohammed Kafaji

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This paper aims to investigate the influence of quality of education and quality of research, provided by local educational institutions, on the adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in managing business operations for companies in Saudi market. A model was developed and tested using data collected from 138 CEO’s of foreign companies in diverse business sectors. The data is analysed and managed using multivariate approaches through standard statistical packages. The results showed that educational quality has little contribution to the ICT adoption while research quality seems to play a more prominent role. These results are analysed in terms of business environment and market constraints and further extended to the perceived effectiveness of applied pedagogical approaches in schools and universities.

Keywords: quality of education, quality of research, mediation, domestic competition, ICT adoption

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Authors: Costas Christodoulides

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Excessive use of social networking sites (SNS) and the Internet by high school pupils and university students, can cause consequences similar to those observed in substance or gambling related addictions, negatively influence individual well-being notwithstanding self-assessments that people make about their life and experiences. The present study examined, for the first time in Cyprus, the levels of problematic use of the Social Media and the Internet among Cypriot pupils and students aiming at contributing to the discussion about the need for a more conclusive policy framework in the island. The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) and the Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale 2 (GPIUS-2) were adapted to a Cypriot version and along with a sociodemographic questionnaire were introduced to a sample of 1059 young persons in order to respectively assess the addiction risk for Social Media Use and the risk of Problematic Internet Use. The sample consisted of 59% females, aged 15 to 35 (M=18.9 years, SD=3.20), 465 of them were high school students and 594 university students. Of 1059 respondents from 4 high-schools and 5 Universities (HEI) in Cyprus, 8.3% of the sample had BSMAS scores suggestive of addiction. Approximately a quarter of the sample (24%), demonstrated GPIUS-2 scores suggestive of high risk for problematic internet use. It is notable that differences seem to exist across gender with the score of the female population (11.1%) reaching levels of addiction to social media more than twice the level of addiction of the male population (4.3%). Also, the female population of high school students seems to be at the most vulnerable position for problematic internet use (28%). The 26% of the sample often or very often used some SNSs to forget of personal problems. The results of this study show that half of those surveyed used the Internet to feel better when they were upset or to escape the isolation they felt. Among the sample population, the study reports that 60% of the pupils and female university students are in agreement with the relevant statements. Conclusively, this study suggests that SNSs addiction levels among pupils and students in Cyprus ought to be an important public health concern. The same if not more alarming is the identified by the study prevalence of problematic Internet use among the same population. These results confirm international trends reported by scholarly research while also suggest that particular categories such as high school pupils and young females may be more exposed to problem SNSs and Internet use. Preventive strategies need first to acknowledge the problem in order to then formulate an effective strategy for prevention and intervention. For relevant authorities it is of primary importance to “exploit” the fact that high schools and universities can be seen as small communities and units potentially available for forging alliances for healthy Social Media and Internet use.

Keywords: problematic internet use, social media addiction, social networking sites, well-being

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Authors: Farnaz Nazem

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The aim of sustainable architecture is to design buildings with the least adverse effects on the environment and provide better conditions for people. What building forms make the best use of land? This question was addressed in the late 1960s at the center of Land Use and Built Form Studies in Cambridge. This led to a number of influential papers which had a great influence on the practice of urban design. This paper concentrates on the results of sustainability caused by climatic conditions in Iranian traditional architecture in hot-arid regions. As people spent a significant amount of their time in houses, it was very important to have such houses to fulfill their needs physically and spiritually as well as satisfying their cultural and religious aspects of their lifestyles. In a vast country such as Iran with different climatic zones, traditional builders have presented series of logical solutions for human comfort. These solutions have been able to response to the environmental problems for a long period of time. As a result, by considering the experience in traditional architecture of hot–arid climate in Iran, it is possible to attain sustainable architecture.

Keywords: hot-arid climate, Iran, sustainable traditional architecture, urban planning

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Boroumand Devlagh, Seyed Mohammad Hosein Razavi, Fatemeh Ahmadi, Azam Fazli Darzi

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The issue of female presence in Iran stadiums has long been considered and debated by governmental experts and authorities, however, no conclusion is yielded yet. Thus, the present study has been done with the aim of investigating the approach of male and female spectators about the presence of female spectators in Iranian stadiums. The statistical population of the study includes all male and female spectators who have not experienced the live watching of male championship matches in stadiums. 224 subjects from the statistical population have selected through stratified random sampling as the sample of the study. For data collection, researcher-made questionnaire has been used whose validity has been confirmed by the university professors and its reliability has been studied and confirmed through an preliminary study. (r= 0.81). Data analysis has been done using descriptive and referential statistics in P< 0.05. The results of the study showed that male and female were meaningfully agreed with the female presence in stadiums and there is no meaningful difference between male and female approaches concerning the female spectators’ presence in sport stadiums of Iran (sig= 0.867).

Keywords: male, female spectators, Iran, sport stadiums, population

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Authors: Mohamed Elmogbail

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The present study aimed at investigating difficulties those Translators encounter in understanding idiomatic expressions between Arabic and English languages. To achieve this goal, the researcher raised the three questions are:(1) What are the major difficulties that translators encounter in translating idiomatic expressions? (2) What factors cause such difficulties that translators encountered in translating idiomatic expressions? (3) What are the possible techniques that should be followed to overcome these difficulties? To answer these questions, the researcher designed questionnaire Table (2) and mentioned tables related to Test Show the second question in the study is about the factors that stand behind the challenges. Translators encounter while translating idiomatic expressions. The translators asked Provided the following factors:1- Because of lack of exposure to the source culture, they do not know the connotations of the cultural words that are related to the environment, food, folklore 2- Misusing dictionaries made the participants unable to find a proper target language idiomatic expression. 3-Lack of using idiomatic expressions in daily life. Table (3): (Questionnaire) Results to the table (3) Questions Of the study are About suggestions that can be inferred to handle these challenges. The questioned translators provided the following solutions:1- translators must be exposed to source language culture, including religion, habits, and traditions.2- translators should also be exposed to source language idiomatic expressions by introducing English culture in textbooks and through participating in extensive English culture courses.3- translators should be familiar with the differences between source and target language cultures.4- translators should avoid literal translation that results in most cases in wrong or poor translation.5- Schools, universities, and institutions should introduce translators to English culture.6- translators should participate in cultural workshops at universities.7- translators should try to use idiomatic expressions in everyday situations.8- translators should read more idiomatic expressions books. And researcher also designed a translation test consisted of 40 excerpts given to a random sample of 100 Translators in Khartoum capital of Sudan to translate them. After Collected data for the study, the researcher proceeded to a more detailed analysis, the methodology used in the analysis of idiomatic expressions Is empirical and descriptive. This study is qualitative by nature, but the quantitative method used the analysis of the data. Some figure and statistics are used, such as (statistical package for the social sciences). The researcher calculated the percentage proportion of each translation expressions. And compared them to each other. The finding of the study showed that most translations are inadequate as the translators faced difficulties while communication, these difficulties were mostly due to their unfamiliarity with idiomatic expressions producing improper equivalence in the communication, and not being able to use translation techniques as required, and resorted to literal translation, furthermore, the study recommended that more comprehensive studies to executed on translating idiomatic expressions to enrich the translation field.

Keywords: translation, translators, idioms., expressions

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Authors: Sheren H. Salah, Ahmed Y. Ben Sasi

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The inverted pendulum system is a classic control problem that is used in universities around the world. It is a suitable process to test prototype controllers due to its high non-linearities and lack of stability. The inverted pendulum represents a challenging control problem, which continually moves toward an uncontrolled state. This paper presents the possibility of balancing an inverted pendulum system using sliding mode control (SMC). The goal is to determine which control strategy delivers better performance with respect to pendulum’s angle and cart's position. Therefore, proportional-integral-derivative (PID) is used for comparison. Results have proven SMC control produced better response compared to PID control in both normal and noisy systems.

Keywords: inverted pendulum (IP), proportional-integral derivative (PID), sliding mode control (SMC), systems and control engineering

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Authors: Bita Mashayekhi, Marjan Fayyazi, Parisa Sefati

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Audit quality is a popular topic in accounting and auditing research because recent decades’ financial crises reduce the reliability of financial reports to public investors and cause significant doubt about the audit profession. Therefore, doing research to identify effective factors in improving audit quality is necessary for bringing back public investors’ trust to financial statements as well as audit reports. In this study, we explore the relationship between audit rotation and audit quality. For this purpose, we employ the Duff (2009) model of audit quality to measure audit quality and use a questionnaire survey of 27 audit service quality attributes. Our results show that there is a negative relationship between auditor’s rotation and audit quality as we consider the auditor’s reputation, capability, assurance, experience, and responsiveness as surrogates for audit quality. There is no evidence for verifying a same relationship when we use the auditor’s independence and expertise for measuring audit quality.

Keywords: audit quality, auditor’s rotation, reputation, capability, assurance, experience, responsiveness, independence, expertise

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Authors: Seyyed Hassan Seyyedrezaei

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The advent of computer and ICT thereafter has introduced many irrevocable changes in learning and teaching. There is substantially growing need for the use of IT and ICT in language learning and teaching. In other words, the integration of Information Technology (IT) into online teaching is of vital importance for education and assessment. Considering the fact that the image of education is undergone drastic changes by the advent of technology, education systems and teachers move beyond the walls of traditional classes and methods in order to join with other educational centers to revitalize education. Given the advent of distance learning, online courses and virtual universities, e-assessment has taken a prominent place in effective teaching and meeting the learners' educational needs. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, scrutinizing e-learning, it discusses how and why e-assessment is becoming widely used by educationalists and administrators worldwide. As a second purpose, a couple of effective strategies for online assessment will be enumerated.

Keywords: e-assessment, e learning, ICT, online assessment

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Authors: Fahimeh Khatami, Maryam Ziyaee, Elham Sanagar Darbani

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Variety of different factors could influence on the measure urban perception. Both physical and non-physical factors, at least, make the quality of perception through the urban spaces. The value of lighting is one of the important factors which could make the better quality of environmental perception for the user. The perception of urban space in most of the Iranian cities is offer by different factors during the night time which caused to the death of nightlife and social activities. Therefore, this research is an attempt to study on the different of user perception during day and night in the Koohsangi Street. As the case study area in Iran in order to bring out the main influential factors during perception process. To deal with this good we used chi-square test on a sample size made up of on hundred participants. The result shows that for improving the night quality of urban spaces the legibility, navigation, and role stimulation were in important perception factors. Therefore, by focusing on these factors it would be possible to find out more functional solution for improving the activity of night perception.

Keywords: perception, urban space, legibility, imageability, nightscape

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Authors: Liu Yi Hui, Chun-Liang Lai, Jhang Yu Cih, He You Jing, Chiu Fan-Yun, Lin Yu Fang

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For universities offering long-term care education, the inclusion of adulting learning and practices in professional courses as appropriate based on holistic design and evaluation could improve talent empowerment by leveraging social capital. Moreover, it could make the courses and materials used in long-term care education responsive to real-life needs. A mixed research method was used in the research design. A quantitative study was also conducted using a questionnaire survey, and the data were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 Chinese version. The qualitative data included students’ learning files (learning reflection notes, course reports, and experience records).

Keywords: adult learning, community empowerment, social capital, mixed research

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Authors: Rory Patrick O'Kane

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More universities and third level institutions now require at least an IELTS Band 6 for entry into courses of study for non-native speakers of English. This presentation focuses on IELTS Academic Writing Tasks 1 and 2 and in particular on the marking criterion of Coherence and Cohesion. A requirement for candidates aiming at Band 6 and above is that they produce answers which show a clear, overall progression of information and ideas and which use cohesive devices effectively. With this in mind, the presenter will examine what exactly is meant by coherence and cohesion and various strategies which can be used to assist students in improving their scores in this area. A number of classroom teaching ideas will be introduced, and participants will have the opportunity to compare and discuss sample answers written by candidates for this examination with a specific focus on coherence and cohesion. Intended audience: Teachers of IELTS Academic Writing.

Keywords: coherence, cohesion, IELTS, strategies

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Authors: Mehrdad HassanZadeh Dugoori, Iman Mohammadali Tajrishi

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Since Iran's nuclear program became public in 2002, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been unable to confirm Tehran's assertions that its nuclear activities are exclusively for peaceful purposes and that it has not sought to develop nuclear weapons. The United Nations Security Council has adopted six resolutions since 2006 requiring Iran to stop enriching uranium - which can be used for civilian purposes, but also to build nuclear bombs, which Iran never follow this strategy- and co-operate with the IAEA. Four resolutions have included progressively expansive sanctions to persuade Tehran to comply. The US and EU have imposed additional sanctions on Iranian oil exports and banks since 2012. In this article we reassess the sanction dimensions of Iran and the influences. Then according to the last agreement between P5+1 and Iran in 15 July 2015, we mention reconstruction strategies for oil export markets of Iran and the operational program for one million barrel of crude oil sales per day. These strategies are the conclusion of focus group and brain storming with Iran's oil and gas managers during content analysis.

Keywords: post-sanction, oil market, reconstruction, marketing, strategy

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Authors: Foroozan Sadri, Mohammadmehdi Moulaii, Farkhondeh Vahdati

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Smart materials can create a great revolution in our built environment, as living systems do. In this research, the optimal structure of healthcare building envelopes is analyzed in terms of thickness according to the utility of the smart-nano materials as nontoxic substances in the region. The research method in this paper is based on library studies and simulation. Grasshopper program is employed to simulate thermal characteristics to achieve the optimum U-value in Semnan desert climate, according to Iranian national standards. The potential of healthcare envelope layouts in thermal properties development (primarily U-value) of these buildings is discussed due to the high thermal loads of healthcare buildings and also toxicity effects of conventional materials. As a result, envelope thicknesses are calculated, and the performance of the nano-PCM and gypsum wallboards are compared. A solution with comparable performance using smart-nano materials instead of conventional materials would determine a decrease in wall thickness.

Keywords: energy saving, exterior envelope, smart-nano materials, thermal performance, U-value

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Authors: Perttu Heino

Abstract:

Universities of applied sciences (UASs) were introduced as part of the Finnish higher education system in the early 1990’s. Research, development and innovation (RDI) were mentioned in the legislation on UASs from the very beginning, but very little attention was paid to it in the early years of UASs due to reasons that are easy to understand. Required changes in the organization of the UAS and its educational offering were a big challenge, and it took several years to get things in order. There were RDI projects already then, but their number was low and there was no systematical coordination or management of those activities. In this paper, the institutional transformation of UASs is discussed based on how Tampere University of Applied Sciences has transformed during the years from a traditional tertiary level school to a modern higher education institution with a strong RDI activity, characterized by lively university-industry interaction and tight integration to education.

Keywords: research, development, management, practices

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Authors: Khosro Mohammadi

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The grain quality of chickpea in Iran is low and instable, which may be attributed to the evolution of cultivars with a narrow genetic base making them vulnerable to biotic stresses. Four chickpea varieties from diverse geographic origins were chosen and arranged in a randomized complete block design. Mesorhizobium Sp. cicer strain SW7 was added to all the chickpea seeds. Chickpea seeds were planted on October 9, 2013. Each genotype was sown 5 m in length, with 35 cm inter-row spacing, in 3 rows. Weeds were removed manually in all plots. Results showed that analysis of variance on the studied traits showed significant differences among genotypes for N, P, K and Fe contents of chickpea, but there is not a significant difference among Ca, Zn and Mg continents of chickpea. The experimental coefficient of variation (CV) varied from 7.3 to 15.8. In general, the CV value lower than 20% is considered to be good, indicating the accuracy of conducted experiments. The highest grain N was observed in Hashem and Jam cultivars. The highest grain P was observed in Jam cultivar. Phosphorus content (mg/100g) ranged from 142.3 to 302.3 with a mean value of 221.3. The negative correlation (-0.126) was observed between the N and P of chickpea cultivars. The highest K and Fe contents were observed in Jam cultivar.

Keywords: cultivar, genotype, nitrogen, nutrient, yield

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Authors: Ramin Tafazzoli, Rahime Zamanfashami, Amir Mohagheghzadeh

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Entrepreneurship is the driving engine of countries’ economic development and has a determinant role in the economic, social and cultural improvement of the societies. Entrepreneurship and its impact on countries’ destiny, result in the planner and policy makers’ attempts to explore and extend it in various aspects. These days, all countries follow their social capital development and human resource quality improvement to achieve the strategic national objectives, economic growth, value creation, cultural dynamism, civil excellence and social solidarity, pursuing the sustainable development based on innovation, entrepreneurial technology , knowledge management and knowledge-focused in various levels and areas. Because of the rapid economic and cultural changes in recent decades and also the emerged need for reinforcing the knowledge-based structures and wealth generation via knowledge, a convenient infrastructure is strongly required for generating science and technology. Devoting attention to entrepreneurship and training and fostering the students who have the essential abilities and skills for creating a suitable business unit, is one of the duties of each university. New expectations necessitate that universities in the development trend by way of entrepreneurship, play a prominent role. Since, higher education has an important role in training and fostering the specialist human resource in the society, attention to the academic entrepreneurship help to develop this issue better. The higher education, relying on its core mission (training and researching) be expected to help the path where exploit and apply the created capabilities and also to cause the development in the society. In this term, the higher education play an essential role to expanse and extent the entrepreneurial concepts by establishing the entrepreneurship universities. Therefore, it is necessary to constitute and establish the entrepreneurship university to solve the problems and improve the development trend. The entrepreneurial courses follow the objectives such as: informing, creating culture, entrepreneurial morality, technical knowledge, entrepreneurial skills transferring, preparing the audiences or researching, job creation, business establishing and its preservation. According to the vision 1404 of Islamic republic of Iran in which the society has to include the advanced knowledge in the field of technology and science generation and also economic growth. In this essay, we investigate the entrepreneurship concepts, entrepreneurship university characteristics, entrepreneurship organizations values, entrepreneurship education process, meanwhile paying attention to that fact which the university can play an essential role in entrepreneurs training by education, culture and science. At the end, we present some suggestion and some solution for obstacles, emphasizing on the vision.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, entrepreneur university, higher education, university

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Authors: Tabrej Khan

Abstract:

Examination Scheduling System (ESS) is a scheduling system that targets as an exam committee in any academic institute to help them in managing the exams automatically. We present an algorithm for Examination Scheduling System. Nowadays, many universities have challenges with creating examination schedule fast with less confliction compared to hand works. Our aims are to develop a computerized system that can be used in examination scheduling in an academic institute versus available resources (Time, Hall, Invigilator and instructor) with no contradiction and achieve fairness among students. ESS was developed using HTML, C# language, Crystal Report and ASP.NET through Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 as developing tools with integrated SQL server database. This application can produce some benefits such as reducing the time spent in creating an exam schedule and achieving fairness among students

Keywords: examination scheduling system (ESS), algorithm, ASP.NET, crystal report

Procedia PDF Downloads 381