An Investigation into Rohani’s Meeting Coverage in Two English Daily Newspapers with a Critical Discourse Analysis Perspective: Tehran Times vs. Los Angeles Times

This study was an attempt to investigate the ideological differences between the discourse of Los Angeles Times and Tehran Times in representing Iran's Rouhani meeting at the U.N. To this end, 4 reports in relation to the Iran's Rouhani meeting at the U.N. were collected from the websites of two newspapers of Los Angeles Times and Tehran Times. The reports were grouped and analyzed. The articles were analyzed in terms of the utilized discursive strategies. Hence, the similarities and differences between the two newspapers in representing Iran's Rouhani meeting at the U.N. were discussed.  It was shown that the Los Angeles Times heavily relied on Authoritative, Explanation, Evidentiality and Counterfactual discursive strategies and Tehran Times on Actor Description, Hyperbole, Lexicalization, Repetition and Situation Description discursive strategies

Examining the Role of Language, Emotion, and Culture as Three Basic Needs in Intercultural Communication Based on Iranian Language Teachers' Viewpoints

Pinpointing the role of language, emotion, and culture in intercultural interactions as the three basic needs of intercultural interactions is one of the most important problems in the intercultural field. Therefore, this paper probed the role of language, emotion, and culture simultaneously in intercultural communication in Iran. By using convenience sampling, one hundred Iranian language teachers were chosen and their language proficiency and ICC levels were specified by using Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and intercultural communicative competence (ICC) questionnaire. Then, the researchers used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to classify ICC questions under language, emotion, and culture categories.  After classifying the questions, the researchers used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), standard solution coefficient, standard path coefficient, T value, and Sobel formula to analyze the collected data from the ICC questionnaire based on participants' answers. The results revealed that language, culture, and emotion were the main macro-elements of intercultural communication. Also, it was shown that language was the most important need and macro-element in intercultural communication and then the second and third place went to culture and emotion respectively.  It was found that emotion acted as a mediator variable between language and culture and there was a relationship among language, culture, and emotion, too. This study was of high importance for language teachers, curriculum designers, textbook writers, intercultural experts, and cultural psychologist

Authorial Stance in Academic Writing: Issues and Implications for Research in English Language Teaching

Writers can start a dialogue with the reader to produce more engaging and persuasive texts and to comply with their own disciplinary practices by employing interaction features effectively. In this paper, first, interaction as a significant part of the rhetorical structure of academic discourse is presented and then, major approaches to this function of language are reviewed and clarified. Next, Hyland's 2005 model of academic interaction as a comprehensive and practical model for conducting research on stance in academic discourse is discussed. Finally, a number of recent studies on authorial stance in academic discourse along with their strong and weak points are presented and discussed to pinpoint gaps and to recommend new research areas in the field of English language teaching (ELT)

HMDB: the Human Metabolome Database

The Human Metabolome Database (HMDB) is currently the most complete and comprehensive curated collection of human metabolite and human metabolism data in the world. It contains records for more than 2180 endogenous metabolites with information gathered from thousands of books, journal articles and electronic databases. In addition to its comprehensive literature-derived data, the HMDB also contains an extensive collection of experimental metabolite concentration data compiled from hundreds of mass spectra (MS) and Nuclear Magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomic analyses performed on urine, blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples. This is further supplemented with thousands of NMR and MS spectra collected on purified, reference metabolites. Each metabolite entry in the HMDB contains an average of 90 separate data fields including a comprehensive compound description, names and synonyms, structural information, physico-chemical data, reference NMR and MS spectra, biofluid concentrations, disease associations, pathway information, enzyme data, gene sequence data, SNP and mutation data as well as extensive links to images, references and other public databases. Extensive searching, relational querying and data browsing tools are also provided. The HMDB is designed to address the broad needs of biochemists, clinical chemists, physicians, medical geneticists, nutritionists and members of the metabolomics community. The HMDB is available at

Development and validation of a nitrogen dioxide passive sampler

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is one of the main indicators of traffic-related air pollution in urban areas. Active sampling methods (common methods) are expensive and need advanced devices. While Passive sampling is a simple and low-cost method for measuring air pollutants, including NO2. Therefore in this study, we developed a passive sampler to measure ambient NO2 and validation its performance by comparing it with active sampling methods. Ambient NO2 was measured for 24 h by both active and passive sampling methods in the same locations (2 m height above grand level and 15 m distance from air pollution sources). Sampling of NO2 was repeated for 18 days to compare ambient NO2 concentrations measured by active and passive methods and validation our developed passive samplers. • To develop passive samplers we used three stainless steel filters impregnated with a combination of triethanolamine and acetone (25:25 mL) in each tube. • Active NO2 sampling was conducted using the modified Satlzman method (standard method). • There was a strong correlation between NO2 concentration obtained from active and passive sampling methods (r = 0.84)

VALIDATION OF 13 C-UREA BREATH TEST WITH NON DISPERSIVE ISOTOPE SELECTIVE INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF HELICOBACTER PYLORI INFECTION: A SURVEY IN IRANIAN POPULATION

ABSTRACT The urea breath test (UBT) which is carried out with 13 C or 14 C labeled urea is one of the most important non invasive methods for detection of Helicobacter pylori infection. Application of 13 C-UBT is becoming increasingly popular because of its non radioactive nature which makes it suitable for diagnostic purposes in children and women of child bearing ages. While isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) is generally used to detect 13 C in expired breath, this instrument is expensive and recently non dispersive isotope selective infrared (NDIR) spectroscopy which is a lower cost technique has been employed as a reliable counterpart for IRMS in small clinics. The aim of this study was to assess the validity of NDIR spectroscopy technique in Iranian population in comparison with histological examination, rapid urease test and 14 C-urea breath test as gold standard. Seventy six patients with dyspepsia were underwent 13 C-UBT for diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection. Good agreements were found between the 13 C-UBT and gold standard methods. The 13 C-UBT showed 100% sensitivity, 97.3% specificity, 97.56% positive predictive value, 100% negative predictive value and 98.65% accuracy. On the basis of these results it could be concluded that 13 C-UBT performed with NDIR spectroscopy is a reliable, accurate and non invasive diagnostic tool for detection of Helicobacter pylori infection in the Iranian population