Monthly Forecasting of Water Quality Parameters within Bayesian Networks: A Case Study of Honolulu, Pacific Ocean

This study investigates the efficiency of Bayesian network (BN) and also artificial neural network models for predicting water quality parameters in Honolulu, Pacific Ocean. Monthly forecasting of three important characteristics of water body including water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen have been taken under consideration. Two separate strategies were applied in which the first strategy was related to prediction of the water quality parameters based on previous time series of the same variable. In the second strategy, an attempt was made to forecast DO using different affecting parameters such as temperature, salinity, previous time series of DO, and amount of chlorophyll. The efficiency of the models were assessed by using error measures. Results revealed that the BN models are superior over the ANN models in case of temperature and DO forecasting. Also, it was found that the first strategy is more efficient than the second strategy for predicting DO concentration. The best BN models for temperature, salinity and DO were achieved when time series of the same parameter up to 3, 2, and 3 previous months applied as input variables respectively. Overall, it can be concluded that BN and ANN models can be successfully applied for water quality modelling and forecasting in coastal waters. Moreover, the current study demonstrated that the BN models have a great ability dealing with time series including incomplete or missing data

English for specific purposes: Traditions, trends, directions

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) began around fifty years ago as a result of pressing worldwide demands for fast-paced language training in occupational and professional settings, rapid revolutions in theoretical linguistics, and burgeoning pressures on schools and educators to focus on, and to be responsive to, learners’ needs. It started within the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) but has gradually established itself as an autonomous subfield of Applied Linguistics (AL). This paper will review the origins, evolution, and status quo of ESP, and then predict the future directions of this important field. The theoretical, analytical, and methodological evolutions of ESP are reviewed, the positions of genre analysis, target language use situation analysis, and context in ESP are described, the ‘just-in-case’ EAP and ‘just-in-time’ EOP approaches are compared, and the text-first and context-first approaches to discourse structure analysis are compared. The paper predicts that ESP will adopt a wide-angled epistemological stance to survey the (a) discursive, (b) generic, (c) social, and (d) organizational structures of specialized texts and discourses, as well as those of texts and discourses simplified for the popularization of science, in a systematic and contextualized manner. ESP practitioners are also warned about the potential threats of teaching genres of power within ESP

Assessing Writing: A Review of the Main Trends

As a language skill, writing has had, still has and will continue to have an important role in shaping the scientific structure of human life in that it is the medium through which scientific content is stored, retained, and transmitted. It has therefore been a major concern for writing teachers and researchers to find a reliable method for evaluating and ensuring quality writing. This paper addresses the different approaches to scoring writing and classifies them into a priori scoring systems (including holistic and analytic scoring), and a posteriori trait-based scoring systems (including primary-trait and multiple-trait scoring)

Lexemes, practs, and those who have yet to decide

Mey’s (2001) action-theoretic societal pragmatics known as pragmatic act theory nurtures the idea that the explanatory movement in pragmatic theories should go from the outside in (i. e. from actual situational contexts into prior contexts encoded in the utterances used). Kecskes’s (2010, 2013) socio-cognitive approach challenges Mey’s position, and argues that the explan-atory movement should go in both directions: from the outside in and from the inside out. To challenge Mey’s view and to nurture his own position, Kecskes resorts to a dialectical socio-cognitive perspective on human communication (Kecskes 2003, 2008), and uses situation-bound utterances as evidence to support his theory. In this paper, I will provide an overview of both theories and argue in favor of Mey’s position

Washback or backwash? Revisiting the status quo of washback and test impact in EFL contexts

It has been argued in the literature on (language) testing that any act of testing/assessment can impact (a) educators’ curriculum design, (b) teachers’ teaching practices, and (c) students’ learning behaviors. This quality of any given testing situation or act of assessment has been called washback, or backwash if you will. Washback falls into the two categories of positive or negative—that is, beneficial or harmful. After an overview of the existing scholarly knowledge on washback, this paper argues that washback is not necessarily a test quality. Drawing on the notion of test method facets, the paper lends support to claims that see washback as a main function of teaching, learning, and policy-making situations or conditions rather than a quality of any given test. The paper also argues that the concepts of facet design and analysis including formal research designs, structural hypothesis testing, and measurement are inevitable and inescapable in any comprehensive model of washback. A possible borderline between backwash and washback is also proposed.

The Bilingual Self or Selves?

A concise but strong review of the literature on bilinguals? perception of ?self? led to the question of whether bilinguals perceive themselves as different or the same people when they function in different languages. 183 participants (N =183) randomly assigned to two half-groups took both the English and Persian versions of the Self Concept Scale (SCS) in two counter-balanced administration sessions with a time interval of 3 weeks. Results, after data analysis using descriptive and inferential statistics, indicated that Iranian-Americans have a more realistic self concept when they function in English than when they function in Persian. Their average self concepts in English and Persian do not match. Moreover, the female Iranian-American shows a larger discrepancy in her English and Persian self concepts than her male counterpart. This indicates that females are more open to alienation than males. The results of this study lend empirical support to claims made by previous researchers that bilinguals have a kind of split personality. After the filed study, it was concluded that a bilingual is not a unique person who assumes different identities when he functions in the different languages he knows, but that a bilingual possess two different ?guises? or ?selves? which are language-specific and are used in accordance with the language the bilingual speaks at any given point in time

A conversation analytic perspective on Quranic verses and chapters

Applying a conversation-analytic framework to Quranic verses and chapters, the current qualitative study sought to shed new lights on the opening and closing verses in The Holy Quran. In effect, the study analyzed the opening and closing verses of 14 surahs to find out the central themes upon which they begin and come to a close. The analysis was conducted using the Persian translations of the verses as well as seeking help from the available Quran commentary or exegesis written in English. The analysis of the opening verses of the selected surahs revealed three central themes: (1) some surahs begin with words that praise and eulogize Allah, (2) some with imperative sentences or commandments addressed to the Holy Prophet, and (3) some related to specific events and times. Regarding the closing verses, the findings were not uniform across the selected surahs; while in some surahs the closing verses together with the opening verses deal with a similar topic or theme, in some other surahs the closing verses are concerned with different topics

Efficacy and Safety of Intravenous Sodium Valproate in Convulsive Status Epilepticus in Children in Shahid Sadoughi Hospital

How to Cite this Article: Fallah R, Yadegari Y, Salmani Nodushan M. Efficacy and Safety of Intravenous Sodium Valproate in Convulsive Status Epilepticus in Children in Shahid Sadoughi Hospital. Iran. J. Child. Neurol 2012;6(2):39-44. Objective Status epilepticus (SE) is the most common pediatric neurologic emergency with high mortality and morbidity. There is no consensus on the drug of choice in the treatment of children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of intravenous sodium valproate as a third-line drug in the treatment of generalized convulsive SE of children. Materials & Methods In a retrospective study, medical records of those children who were admitted to Shahid Sadoughi Hospital of Yazd due to refractory generalized convulsive SE and were treated by intravenous sodium valproate as a third-line drug from 2009 to 2011 were evaluated. Results Six girls and five boys with a mean age of 5.12 ± 1.2 years (range: 3 - 9.6 years) were evaluated. Intravenous valproate was effective for cessation of seizures in seven patients (63.6 %). The mean dose of valproate for stopping seizures was 27.1 ± 1.4 mg/kg/day. Children whose seizures were controlled by sodium valproate were older than non- responsive children (mean± SD: 4.8 ± 1.2 years vs. 3.1 ± 0.43 years, p= 0.03) and they also had shorter ICU stay days (mean± SD: 2.6 ± 1.4 days vs. 5.6 ± 2.8 days, p= 0.01). Two children had mild and transient nausea and vomiting. None of them had cardiopulmonary or severe paraclinical side effects. Conclusion Intravenous sodium valproate may be used as an effective and safe third-line antiepileptic drug in the treatment of pediatric generalized convulsive status epilepticus.References Raj D, Gulati S, Lodha R. Status epilepticus. Indian J Pediatr 2011;78(2):219-26. Shearer P, Riviello J. 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