Congratulations Across Cultures: English Versus Armenian and Persian Speakers

AbstractThe proper use of speech acts plays a vital role in the development of pragmatic competence. Whereas some speech acts such as apologies, requests, compliments and complaints have been extensively studied, the speech act of congratulations has not been as widely perused. The present study compared the strategies native Americans utilize for offering congratulations with the ones used by Armenians and Iranians. To this end, the data were gleaned through a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) to which 40 native Americans responded. Analysis of the data revealed several similarities and differences between the three groups which will be discussed in the paper

Effect of Device Variables on Surface Potential and Threshold Voltage in DG-GNRFET

In this paper we present four simple analytical threshold voltage model for short- channel and length of saturation velocity region (LVSR) effect that takes into account the built – in potential of the source and drain channel junction, the surface potential and the surface electric field effect on double – gate graphene nanoribbon transistors. Four established models for surface potential, lateral electric field, LVSR and threshold voltage are presented. These models are based on the easy analytical solution of the two dimensional potential distribution in the graphene and Poisson equation which can be used to obtain surface potential, lateral electric field, LVSR and threshold voltage. These models give a closed form solution of the surface potential and electrical field distribution as a function of structural parameters and drain bias. Most of analytical outcomes are shown to correlate with outcomes acquired by Matlab simulation and the end model applicability to the published silicon base devices is demonstrated

Evaluating different strategies in Ukraine and its effects on the international systems

The recent war between Russia and Ukraine, which is considered as the biggest and most important military conflict in Europe after the Second World War, will leave deep consequences on the relations of countries in addition to the pervasive effects on the level of the international system. A crisis in one region affects the interests of other actors in other regions; therefore, the disruption of the balance of power in the relations between the great powers following Russia's attack on Ukraine includes opportunities and threats for international actors. Based on this, the current article aimed to answer the question, “What impact will Russia-Ukraine conflict have on the international system?”. The research hypothesis was proposed in such a way that the recent crisis in Ukraine can affect the international system in economic, security, and social axes. The findings of the research showed that the war in Ukraine would probably have had global effects on the food, energy and economic systems. The analysis method used in this research was descriptive and analytical, and to achieve the main goal of the research, which was to investigate the possible effects of the war between Russia and Ukraine on the international system and global actors, the theoretical framework of offensive realism was used

Performance Evaluation of Four-Sided Square Wind Catchers with Different Geometries by Numerical Method

The extensive enhance of using air conditioning to cool and ventilate buildings in hot - arid climate regions have turned into an actual crisis since these systems consume high load of electricity. Recently, green ventilation features such as wind catchers have been utilized as a solution in order to improve indoor air quality and decrease energy consumption. The most common ventilation device in hot and hot-humid areas of Iran was wind catcher or "Badgir". This study is an outline of the results of a research on the wind catcher element in the traditional architecture of Iran. An appraisal of the wind towers' individuality with prominence on their morphology is presented and classification of the wind towers based on their physical characteristic and parameters are thus proposed. This paper also presents a limited wind driven simulation results which shows the impact of different square wind catcher's plan geometry on the indoor ventilation rate. The simulations accomplished using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), reveal the effect of four different square wind catchers on the indoor ventilation rate

Effects of silver nanoparticle exposure on germination and early growth of Pinus sylvestris and Alnus subcordata

The possible ecological toxicity of silver nanoparticles (AgNP) was evaluated based on germination and growth characteristics of Pinus sylvestris and Alnus subcordata. Seeds were exposed to different concentrations of AgNP in soil (0, 10, 20, 40, 80 and 100 mg/kg) and aqueous suspension (0, 10 and 20 mg/L). Then, seed germination percentage (GP%), speed of germination (S.G), seedling length (SL), as well as fresh and dry weights (FW and DW) were measured. The results showed that low concentration of AgNP (under 80 mg/kg) could be used without detrimental effects on the germination characteristics of P. sylvestris in the soil. Nevertheless, inhibitory effect of AgNP was observed at 10 mg/L for P. sylvestris in aqueous suspension. The dissimilar results in soil and aqueous suspension were due to the organic matters and clay minerals in the soil. There was no significant difference (p<0.01) among the treatments of A. subcordata, not only in soil but also in the aqueous suspension

A deep neural network to recover missing data in small animal pet imaging:Comparison between sinogram-and image-domain implementations

Missing areas in PET sinograms and severe image artifacts as a consequence thereof, still gain prominence not only in sparse-ring detector configurations but also in full-ring PET scanners in case of faulty detectors. Empty bins in the projection domain, caused by inter-block gap regions or any failure in the detector blocks may lead to unacceptable image distortions and inaccuracies in quantitative analysis. Deep neural networks have recently attracted enormous attention within the imaging community and are being deployed for various applications, including handling impaired sinograms and removing the streaking artifacts generated by incomplete projection views. Despite the promising results in sparse-view CT reconstruction, the utility of deep-learning-based methods in synthesizing artifact-free PET images in the sparse-crystal setting is poorly explored. Herein, we investigated the feasibility of a modified U-Net to generate artifact-free PET scans in the presence of severe dead regions between adjacent detector blocks on a dedicated high-resolution preclinical PET scanner. The performance of the model was assessed in both projection and image-space. The visual inspection and quantitative analysis seem to indicate that the proposed method is well suited for application on partial-ring PET scanners

Examination of photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency of field- grown sweet corn (Zea mays L var merit) under water and nitrogen stress

The physiological response to drought stress in sweet corn (Zea mays L var merit) is not well understood. Water and nitrogen utilization properties of leaves can play key roles in plant drought tolerance. During the grain-filling period, increasing photosynthesis per unit plant N, namely photosynthetic N-use efficiency (PNUE) is a potential way to increase N-utilization efficiency (NUtE). The objective of this study was to determine whether the PNUE within the canopy is optimized as a method of maximizing canopy productivity under low N conditions and/or wa- ter stress. Sweet corn plants were grown in the field in two consecutive years with three N levels (0, 175, and 225 kg N ha−1) and two water regimes (100 and 60 percent field capacity). Throughout the grain-filling period significant interactions of irrigation regime x nitrogen fertilization on specific leaf N (SLN), net photosynthetic rate (P ), PNUE (calculated as P /SLN), stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration rate (E) and green leaf area (GLA) were measured every 10 d after silking (DAS). Significant differences in SLN, P , gs, E, and PNUE occurred in leaves. Ear FM with- out N (N0) (13.69 and 15.56 Mg ha−1 across 2 yr) was 37% and 45% and 34% and 41% less than the average of N125 and N225 across both years, but physiological NUtE increased by 21% without N. Correspondingly, PNUE at high levels of N was similar to that of the full irrigation, with both of them having smaller PNUE than the lower of N. In conclusion, improved whole-plant NUtE under water stress and with N0 may both contribute to the high degree of physiological acclimation of sweet corn to drought and the overall increase in PNUE in the leaves

Split nitrogen sources effects on nitrogen use efficiency, yield and seed quality of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.)

The effects of nitrogen (N) on crop yields have historically been assessed with field trials, but selection and use of the best sources and optimal timing N applications have a significant role in realizing the maximum potential of oilseeds quality and quantity. This study was conducted to determine the combine effects of N sources (ammonium nitrate (AN), ammonium sulfate (AS), sulfur coated urea (SCU), and urea (U)) and split N fertilization ((1/4,3/4,0), (1/3,1/3,1/3), (1/2,1/2,0), and (1/3,2/3,0)) on safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) some growth characters, yield and seed quality, and N use efficiency based on a split plot design with three replications at the experimental research station, Shiraz University in 2015 and 2016. The highest safflower dry matter (5140.93 kg ha-1), seed yield (3303.52 kg ha-1) and protein yield (694.95 kg ha-1) were achieved with the application of AN fertilizer in a split pattern of 1/2,1/2,0 (applying half of the N at sowing time and the rest at stem elongation), while the highest oil yield (753.09 kg ha-1) was observed by U fertilizer and similar split pattern. Applying AN fertilizer and split patterns of 1/3,2/3,0 (applying one third of the N at sowing and two thirds of the N at stem elongation) and 1/4,3/4,0 (applying one quarter of the N at sowing and three quarters at stem elongation) maximized safflower N uptake efficiency (NUpE) (0.78 kg kg-1). However, the highest N utilization efficiency (NUtE) (43.70 kg kg-1) was obtained when AN fertilizer in a split pattern of 1/2,1/2,0 was applied. On the contrary, applying AS and SCU fertilizers was less effective on safflower performance by all split patterns. It is concluded that applying AN fertilizer in a split pattern of 1/3,2/3,0 and or U fertilizer in a split pattern of 1/2,1/2,0 not only enhanced safflower growth, yield and seed quality improved, but also increased the N use efficiency of safflower