The speech act of offer in Jordanian arabic: a socio-pragmatic analysis

Offers are widely common speech acts ranging from everyday communications to commercials. They constitute a crucial role in Jordanian culture. However, Jordanian Arabic offers have not been examined in a complex way. In order to address these unanswered problems, the current research work takes a threefold (theoretical, empirical and comparative) perspective. First, the theoretical perspective of the research work focuses on the description of offers based on the former theoretical observations and the empirical research results, then outlines the potential arrangement of offer characteristics based on the two concepts 'salience' and 'performance' from a Jordanian Arabic perspective. The second perspective of the research work involves the empirical investigation of three corpora of Jordanian Arabic offers. In order to carry out the empirical research, data are collected from three different sources: 100 ads extracted from Facebook that were posted by Jordanian agencies of travel and tourism, 100 ads extracted from 'Open Market' website that were posted by individual owners or agents of real estates, and a DCT consisting of 10 situations distributed to 100 Jordanian Arabic citizens. The data composing of the three corpora are analyzed in a qualitative-quantitative method, so data are calculated and tabulated in order to help find all the nuances in the offer strategies along with their linguistic patterns as well as politeness modification strategies. Since the analysis of Jordanian Arabic offers is still very much in its infancy, two linguistic taxonomies are constructed in order to organize the process of the data analysis for both written and spoken offers. The results of the data analysis explore the notable role of the Jordanian culture not only in determining the offer strategy but also in choosing the politeness modification strategy. Direct offers were found to be the most frequently familiar offer strategy in the three corpora. On the one hand, politeness strategies in both corpora of Facebook and Open Market were used differently based on the platform of ads and the offered object. On the other hand, politeness modifications in the spoken corpus were microscopically examined and then detected that the preference of politeness modification strategy draws upon the offeree's socio-cultural variables as age, social status, and gender. As a consequence, the current research offers a challenge to the face-saving model of politeness proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987) as it neglected two important variables regarding age and gender through which the degree of politeness can be assessed from a Jordanian Arabic perspective. The third perspective compares the findings concerning written offers to those of spoken offers. The results of the comparison between the three corpora have explored some similarities and differences between the three corpora, which in turn, contribute to arrive at the four principal conclusions of the work: Jordanian Arabic offers are face-enhancing as well as face-threatening acts that are realized either directly or indirectly, Jordanian Arabic direct offers are more popular in use than their indirect counterparts, and politeness in Jordanian Arabic offers is related to the phenomenon of persuasion

Possibilistic networks parameter learning: Preliminary empirical comparison

International audienceLike Bayesian networks, possibilistic ones compactly encode joint uncertainty representations over a set of variables. Learning possibilistic networks from data in general and from imperfect or scarce data in particular, has not received enough attention. Indeed, only few works deal with learning the structure and the parameters of a possibilistic network from a dataset. This paper provides a preliminary comparative empirical evaluation of two approaches for learning the parameters of a possibilistic network from empirical data. The first method is a possibilistic approach while the second one first learns imprecise probability measures then transforms them into possibility distributions by means of probability-possibility transformations. The comparative evaluation focuses on learning belief networks on datasets with missing data and scarce datasets

Eight new records for the Eriophyid (Trombidiformes Eriophyoidea Eriophyidae) mite fauna of Iran

Trees from Juglandaceae, Ulmaceae, Salicaceae, Leguminosae and Betulaceae were sampled during two growing seasons, 2010 and 2011, in the southwest region of East Azerbaijan province, Iran, in order to survey their eriophyid mite fauna. Among identified taxa, eight species appeared to be new for the Iranian eriophyid fauna: Coptophylla lamimani (Keifer, 1939b), Stenacis palomaris Keifer, 1970, Shevtchenkella juglandis (Keifer, 1951), Anthocoptes striatus Ponomareva, 1978, Aculus mogeri (Farkas, 1960), Aculops unguiculatus (Nalepa, 1897), Aculops allotrichus (Nalepa, 1894) and Tegolophus califraxini (Keifer, 1938). Supplementary descriptions were given for Sh. ulmi (Farkas, 1960), A. striatus, A. mogeri, A. unguiculatus and A. allotrichus. In this study, Alhagi maurorum Medik (Leguminosae) and Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl. subsp. angustifolia (Oleaceae) were reported as new host plants for A. allotrichus and T. califraxini, respectively. Remarks on the eriophyid distribution in East Azerbaijan were also given

Influence Of The Margin Design On The Fracture Resistance Of Implant Supported Monolithic Zirconia Crowns

The purpose of this in vitro study was to test the influence of the margin design of implant supported monolithic zirconia crowns and test if monolithic zirconia crowns with extra fine finish line thickness cemented on zirconia implant abutments can bare the maximum masticatory forces on molars and hence be used in the posterior region. Fourteen identical monolithic zirconia crowns cemented on zirconia implant abutments mounted on titanium bases and fixed on implant replicas embedded in PMMA resin were divided into two groups: group I designed with a 0.5 mm CFL (CFL) and group II with a feather-edge finish line (FEFL) of 0.3 mm. All specimens underwent static load until fracture in order to determine the break force. Break forces in N were recorded for each group. The CFL group exhibited slightly higher fracture resistance (1879.14 ± 322.28 N) compared to the feather-edge finish line group (1685.00 ± 362.18 N). However, statistical analysis revealed that the observed difference between the two groups (194.14 ± 183.24; p = 0.310) was not significant. Within the limitations of this study, both monolithic zirconia crowns with 0.5 mm chamfer and 0.3 mm feather edge margins cemented on zirconia implant abutments can be used in the posterior region as their resistance to fracture is similar and surpasses the maximum masticatory force applied on molars

Impact of covid‐19 on swimming training: Practical recommendations during home confinement/isolation

The COVID‐19 pandemic has had severe effects on communities globally, leading to significant restrictions on all aspects of society, including in sports. Several significant decisions were made to postpone or cancel major swimming events by FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation). Swimmers were no longer allowed to continue their usual training in swimming pools and were confined to their homes. These unusual circumstances may represent a good opportunity to strengthen different areas of swimmer preparation and potentially enhance performance when resuming regular aquatic training. We searched major databases for relevant information, and the present article provides practical information on home‐based training for swimmers of all ages. The COVID‐19 crisis and its consequences on the swimming community have created a myriad of challenges for swimmers around the world, including maintaining their fitness level and preparing to return optimally and safely to pool training and competitions. Unfortunately, the mental consequences that might arise after the pandemic may also have an impact. We strongly recommend encouraging the swimmers to consider quarantine as an opportunity for development in specific areas of preparation and learn how to best cope with this special situation of self‐isolation and/or “physical distancing” for their mental health and in case a similar situation is faced again in the future.This work was supported by Qatar University—Internal Grant QUST‐1‐CED‐2021‐4

Predicting Variables of Academic Achievement and Science Self-Concept of Students in Third Year Guidance School Based on Parents' Education Level and Attitude towards Science

This study was aimed at predicting variables of academic achievement and science self-concept of students in third year guidance based on parents' education level and attitude towards science. Findings of the Thamesin (2007) were used in this study. The sample of this study is 3981 students of third year guidance who answered to questionnaire of Thames 2007.  Collected data were analyzed through structural equation model and results showed that only two routes, namely the direct effect of attitude towards science on science self-concept and science improvement are not significant with possibility of 95%, but the rest of the routs namely the direct effect of parental education on science advancement and attitudes toward science are significant and positive and their influence on science self-concept is negative and significant. Also, the direct influence of science development on science self-concept is positive and significant and its impact on attitude toward science is significant and negative. Moreover, the direct effect of self-concept on attitudes toward science is significant and positive and its influence on science achievement variable is negative and significant. Indirect influence of parental education variables, attitudes towards science and science self-concept on science advancement was reported significant. But, only the overall effect of parental education on the development of science is significant and overall effect of variables of attitudes to science and self-concept on development of science was reported insignificant. In addition, the overall indirect effect of parents' education and development of science on self-concept is significant and also attitude towards science has indirect and significant influence on science self-concept and its overall effect on self-concept is not significant. The general and indirect effect of variables of self-concept and development of science on attitude towards science was significant, while the overall impact of variable of parental education on the attitude to science was non-significant and its indirect effect was reported to be significant. The results indicated that the variables of attitude towards science, science self-concept and achievement have moderating role

Predicting Variables of Academic Achievement and Science Self-Concept of Students in Third Year Guidance School Based on Parents' Education Level and Attitude towards Science

This study was aimed at predicting variables of academic achievement and science self-concept of students in third year guidance based on parents' education level and attitude towards science. Findings of the Thamesin (2007) were used in this study. The sample of this study is 3981 students of third year guidance who answered to questionnaire of Thames 2007.  Collected data were analyzed through structural equation model and results showed that only two routes, namely the direct effect of attitude towards science on science self-concept and science improvement are not significant with possibility of 95%, but the rest of the routs namely the direct effect of parental education on science advancement and attitudes toward science are significant and positive and their influence on science self-concept is negative and significant. Also, the direct influence of science development on science self-concept is positive and significant and its impact on attitude toward science is significant and negative. Moreover, the direct effect of self-concept on attitudes toward science is significant and positive and its influence on science achievement variable is negative and significant. Indirect influence of parental education variables, attitudes towards science and science self-concept on science advancement was reported significant. But, only the overall effect of parental education on the development of science is significant and overall effect of variables of attitudes to science and self-concept on development of science was reported insignificant. In addition, the overall indirect effect of parents' education and development of science on self-concept is significant and also attitude towards science has indirect and significant influence on science self-concept and its overall effect on self-concept is not significant. The general and indirect effect of variables of self-concept and development of science on attitude towards science was significant, while the overall impact of variable of parental education on the attitude to science was non-significant and its indirect effect was reported to be significant. The results indicated that the variables of attitude towards science, science self-concept and achievement have moderating role

Predicting Variables of Academic Achievement and Science Self-Concept of Students in Third Year Guidance School Based on Parents' Education Level and Attitude towards Science

This study was aimed at predicting variables of academic achievement and science self-concept of students in third year guidance based on parents' education level and attitude towards science. Findings of the Thamesin (2007) were used in this study. The sample of this study is 3981 students of third year guidance who answered to questionnaire of Thames 2007.  Collected data were analyzed through structural equation model and results showed that only two routes, namely the direct effect of attitude towards science on science self-concept and science improvement are not significant with possibility of 95%, but the rest of the routs namely the direct effect of parental education on science advancement and attitudes toward science are significant and positive and their influence on science self-concept is negative and significant. Also, the direct influence of science development on science self-concept is positive and significant and its impact on attitude toward science is significant and negative. Moreover, the direct effect of self-concept on attitudes toward science is significant and positive and its influence on science achievement variable is negative and significant. Indirect influence of parental education variables, attitudes towards science and science self-concept on science advancement was reported significant. But, only the overall effect of parental education on the development of science is significant and overall effect of variables of attitudes to science and self-concept on development of science was reported insignificant. In addition, the overall indirect effect of parents' education and development of science on self-concept is significant and also attitude towards science has indirect and significant influence on science self-concept and its overall effect on self-concept is not significant. The general and indirect effect of variables of self-concept and development of science on attitude towards science was significant, while the overall impact of variable of parental education on the attitude to science was non-significant and its indirect effect was reported to be significant. The results indicated that the variables of attitude towards science, science self-concept and achievement have moderating role