Middle East Research Institute. Iran: MERI Report. Middle East Research Institute Routledge Revivals. New York: Routledge, 2015.

Book review

Formative assessment feedback to enhance the writing performance of Iranian IELTS candidates: Blending teacher and automated writing evaluation

With the incremental integration of technology in writing assessment, technology-generated feedback has found its way to take further steps toward replacing human corrective feedback and rating. Yet, further investigation is deemed necessary regarding its potential use either as a supplement to or replacement for human feedback. This study aims to investigate the effect of blending teacher and automated writing evaluation, as formative assessment feedback, on enhancing the writing performance among Iranian IELTS candidates. In this explanatory mixed-methods research, three groups of Iranian intermediate learners (N=31) completed six IELTS writing tasks during six consecutive weeks and received automated, teacher, and blended (automated + teacher) feedback modes respectively on different components of writing (task response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy). A structured written interview was also conducted to explore learners’ perception (attitude, clarity, preference) of the mode of feedback they received. Findings revealed that students who received teacher-only and blended feedback performed better in writing. Also, the blended feedback group outperformed the others regarding task response, the teacher feedback group in cohesion and coherence, and the automated feedback group in lexical resource. The analysis of the interviews revealed that the majority of the learners confirmed the clarity of all feedback modes and learners’ attitude about feedback modes was positive although they highly preferred the blended one. The findings suggest new ideas to facilitate learning and assessing writing and support the evidence that teachers can provide comprehensive, accurate, and continuous feedback as a means of formative assessment

Association of Prostate-Specific Antigen Density and Gleason score of Positive Surgical Margin with Biochemical Recurrence in Prostate Cancer

Background: We aimed to investigate the association between prostate specific antigen (PSA) density and Gleason score of the positive surgical (PSM) margin after radical prostatectomy with biochemical recurrence in patients with prostate cancer.  Materials and Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, patients with prostate cancer referred to Hasheminejad Hospital in Tehran, Iran, during 2009-2019, who underwent radical prostatectomy were enrolled through the convenience sampling method. The follow-up period was determined as at least one year after radical prostatectomy to determine biochemical recurrence. Prostate-specific antigen density (PSAD) and the Gleason score of surgical specimen and positive surgical margins (PSM) were evaluated and their association with biochemical recurrences was investigated. Results: One hundred and three patients were assessed. The overall biochemical recurrence rate was 48.5% with a mean follow-up of 24 months (12-42 months) and an average time to biochemical recurrence of 18 months (16-20 months). BCR-free (Biochemical recurrence-free) survival rates of patients divided based on the PSAD cut-off point (0.205 ng/ml/cc) were significantly different using the log-rank test (P= 0.008) (85.7%, 57.1%, and 14.3% for values ≤ 0.205 ng/ml/c versus 55.8%, 20.9%, and 0% for values ˃ 0.205 ng/ml/cc, respectively for 1-, 2- and 3-year survival). Moreover, Cox regression showed that the Gleason score of PSM, the Gleason score of the surgical specimen, and the PSAD predicted biochemical recurrence more, respectively. Conclusion: PSAD and PSM Gleason scores were strong predictors of biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy and their use along with other common indicators including tumor grade and stage and PSA level can increase the accuracy of risk assessment in patients with prostate cancer

STUDYING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL TRUST AND TAX EVASIO

Abstract. Social trust is the reflection of the laid down laws and regulations and their execution. Social trust is occurred when one understands the acceptance of the truth as his/her duty. The basic working procedure for promoting tax acceptance, the development of tax ethics in the structure of the tax system, agents, auditors and, in particular, tax payers and its executive solution is the growth of community trust. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between social trust and tax evasion. Data were collected by a questionnaire and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The statistical sample of this research includes 384 tax payers from North Khorasan Province, which were surveyed in1995. Findings of the research indicate that there is a negative and significant relationship between social trust and tax evasion. Also, the findings showed that the relationship between social trust and tax evasion is higher among female payers than male ones. In addition, they showed that the relationship between social trust and tax avoidance by payers without financial literacy is stronger than those having financial literacy.Keywords: financial literacy, payers’ gender, social trust and tax evasio

A new protocol for direct regeneration of stevia plant (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni) by tissue culture techniques

Purpose: Due to pharmaceutical value of Stevia plant (Stevia rebudiana Bertoni.), this study was done to introduce a new protocol for rapid mass propagation of itthrough tissue culture. Research Method: In MS medium shoot proliferation of stevia by six concentrations of BA (0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 mg·l-1) and root induction by four concentrations of IBA (0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.1 mg·l-1) was investigated.Rooting of cuttings was done both in vitro and ex vivo conditions. Findings: According to the results, the most number of stems obtained in MS medium containing 0.3 mg l-1 BA. The highest length of stems obtained in MS medium without BA and the most number of leaves observed in MS medium supplemented with 0.4 mg·l-1 BA. In in vitro situation, the most number and length of roots obtained in MS medium without IBA. The most number of rooted cuttings was obtained in IBA solution after 72 hours and about 70% of rooted cuttings were healthy. Research limitations: It had no limitation to report. Originality/value: In conclusion, it seems that the potential of producing root and shoots in stevia plant is extremely high, so its proliferation is possible using low concentrations of plant growth regulators in in vitro culture