The Effect of Text Authenticity on the Performance of Iranian EFL Students in a C-Test

As part of growing efforts to understand factors affecting c-test this study aims to investigate the effect of text authenticity on the performance of Iranian EFL students in a C-Test. The C-Test is an integrative testing instrument that measures overall language competence, very much like the cloze test. In this study the rule of two has been applied: "the second half of every second word has been deleted, beginning with the second word of the second sentence; the first and last sentences are left intact" (Katona and Dornyei 1993: 35). The research involves 60 college students in their third year, majoring in English Literature at Ershad-Damavand College. This group were randomly selected applying multi-stage sampling. Since the present study intended to investigate the role of two different formats, i.e. authentic and inauthentic texts (text translated from Persian into English), two different tailored C-Tests were made to measure and compare the performances of the participants. Two C-Tests, one with Authentic Text and the other, with Inauthentic Text were administered to this homogenized group comprising 30 subjects. The findings of this study suggest that authenticity has an effect on the performance of learners in c-tests and we should control this variable while devising a c-test

Investigating the offences specific to oil industry personnel in Iranian legal system

Nowadays many third world countries have an oil-based economy. These countries gain their incomes from selling oil and raw and natural materials. Iran is also one of those countries which oil has a special importance in its economy. Due to the high importance of oil industry in Iranian economy, in 1959 an act called the act of punishment for disruptors in the oil industry was passed by the Iranian parliament of the time. And by this act a criminal protection has been done for oil industry based on the requirements of that time. In this act various offences has been mentioned and for each offence a punishment is determined. This act mentions intentional and unintentional offences related to the oil industry. It should be noted that among the intentional and unintentional offences in this act some offences, which are specific to oil industry personnel and anybody can not commit, have been also mentioned. This paper aims at answering the question that “which actions by oil industry personnel have been regarded as offence by the above act?” our assumption is that a part of this act is specific to determining punishment for oil industry offender personnel

Grasping the Identity Gap - A Qualitative Strategic Analysis of Football Clubs in Sweden

Many European football clubs have developed a more strategic and business-like thinking within their organizations that has resulted in partly altered business models and views on competition, sustainable competitive advantage and organization. In this thesis we investigate this development with a certain focus on Swedish football industry. The investigation is driven by the question of how Swedish football clubs strategically develop themselves and their competitive advantages in order to manage the various challenges they are currently facing. We apply both traditional strategic theories and a resource based view (RBV). Further, we also introduce the concept of organizational identity as a relevant strategic tool. In order to understand this we have conducted an in-depth interpretative study aimed at understanding how key people in the industry at large and in two football clubs make sense of and understand these challenges. The empirical material thus basically consists of case studies of two clubs that together with conceptions of football management and strategy constitutes the analytical framework of the thesis. Our practical contribution frames the problems with the strategic work of Swedish football clubs. Our theoretical contribution develops the thoughts of organizational identity as a strategic resource, which is mirrored in the Strategy-Identity Framework. On the basis of this we conclude that the Swedish football clubs have difficulties with their strategic implementation and growth partly due to organizational identity struggle. Further we also state that organizational identity is an important strategic resource that is unique and difficult to imitate

Determinants of childhood obesity in representative sample of children in north east of iran

Childhood obesity has become, a global public health problem, and epidemiological studies are important to identify its determinants in different populations. This study aimed to investigate factors associated with obesity in a representative sample of children in Neishabour, Iran. This study was conducted among 1500 randomly selected 6-12-year-old students from urban areas of Neishabour, northeast of Iran. Then, through a case-control study, 114 obese (BMI � 95 th percentile of Iranian reference) children were selected as the case group and were compared with 102 controls (15 th � BMI 85 th percentile). Factors suggested to be associated with weight status were investigated, for example, parental obesity, child physical activity levels, socio-economic status (SES), and so forth. The analysis was conducted using univariate and multivariate logistic regression (MLR) in SPSS version 16. In univariate logistic regression model, birth weight, birth order, family extension, TV watching, sleep duration, physical activity, parents job, parents education, parental obesity history, and SES were significantly associated with childrens obesity. After MLR analysis, physical activity and parental obesity history remained statistically significant in the model. Our findings showed that physical activity and parental obesity history are the most important determinants for childhood obesity in our population. This finding should be considered in implementation of preventive interventions. Copyright © 2012 Fereshteh Baygi et al

Investigating the offences specific to oil industry personnel in Iranian legal system

Nowadays many third world countries have an oil-based economy. These countries gain their incomes from selling oil and raw and natural materials. Iran is also one of those countries which oil has a special importance in its economy. Due to the high importance of oil industry in Iranian economy, in 1959 an act called the act of punishment for disruptors in the oil industry was passed by the Iranian parliament of the time. And by this act a criminal protection has been done for oil industry based on the requirements of that time. In this act various offences has been mentioned and for each offence a punishment is determined. This act mentions intentional and unintentional offences related to the oil industry. It should be noted that among the intentional and unintentional offences in this act some offences, which are specific to oil industry personnel and anybody can not commit, have been also mentioned. This paper aims at answering the question that “which actions by oil industry personnel have been regarded as offence by the above act?” our assumption is that a part of this act is specific to determining punishment for oil industry offender personnel