Fibre dynamics in the air-laid nonwoven process

Nonwoven manufacturing processes, generally speaking, aim to produce fabric more economically than can be achieved by traditional means of fabric formation namely weaving and knitting. Although all nonwovens are made by assembling fibres into some type of web, there are various ways of producing webs. The most common web forming methods are : carding ( parallel-laid and cross-laid ), meltblown, spunbonded, wet-laid and air-laid. This study focuses on the air-laid web process. The main objective of the reported work is to further develop the understanding of the dynamics of fibre flow in the air- laid web forming process by deriving a theoretical model which relates fibre properties (fineness, length, density) and process variables to fibre movement in the stripping zone of the process. Having read the literature and obtaining the necessary background about fibre dynamics in the air flow, a new theoretical model has been developed which describes the movement of fibres along the teeth of the opening roller and their passage along the channel. This model gives an insight into the general behaviour of fibres when the key process variables (such as air speed, cylinder speed, angle of teeth, length of the teeth,...) are altered. In an attempt to verify the theoretical model, high speed cine photography was used to visualise the flow of fibres through the system. Analysis of photographs gave good agreement with the main theoretical findings of the model in respect of the trajectory of fibres within the stripping zone of the air-laid web forming proces

THE USE OF “TAAROF”: THE GENERATION AND GENDER FACTORS IN IRANIAN POLITENESS SYSTEM

This thesis examines the use of taarof expressions as well as attitudes to taarof held by Iranians. Taarof is a politeness system of Iranian (or Farsi), which is known for its high complexity (Sharifian, 2011). The study focuses on the comparison of the use of and attitudes towards taarof across two genders (men and women) and across two age groups (20-29 and 40-59 year olds). There were 60 participants in the study: a group of 30 males and a group of 30 females. In each group 15 participants were 20-29 and 15 participants were 40-59 years old. All the participants were monolingual speakers of Iranian (Farsi) residing in Iran. The first part of the study examines the use of taarof by the participants based on their answers to a questionnaire. The second part of the study investigates the use of taarof expressions by the four participant groups in quasi-spontaneous conversations (dialogues) prompted with two different script scenarios describing in brief a situation of language use (purchase of a watch in a store and giving/receiving compliments). Taarof expressions used by the participants in the dialogues were manually extracted from transcripts, and their frequencies were compared across the four groups of participants with T-Tests using R package. The results demonstrate that the attitudes to taarof are mixed: both positive and negative attitudes are found among participants. Attitudes to taarof significantly differ across gender and generation groups, whereby women and younger participants hold more negative attitudes to taarof. The use of taarof expressions overall does not differ by gender, however, the specific use of three expressions is gender-specific. Older participants use significantly more taarof expression than younger ones overall. There was only one expression that was used more by the younger group of participants

BRANDING OF OTC AND SKINCARE PRODUCTS: A BEHAVIOURAL PSYCHOLOGY APPROACH

Abstract One of the main reasons for the failure of branding activities, is that marketers and brand managers consider branding as an input activity or as "something done to the consumer." It is argued in this thesis that consumers actively participate in this practice by evaluating branding efforts and in many cases they do not associate branding endeavours with product category. This thesis is attempting to explore consumer behaviour toward branding and discover variables that could be used to explain the role and contribution of consumers in branding activities. Two main reasons have been introduced in this thesis to explain the characteristics of consumer contribution in branding endeavours. First, the consumer side of brands and second, the situational variables in a purchase and consumption environment. The consumer side of the brand consists of three main factors: firstly, what customers expect from the brand per se, independent from the product; secondly, the extent to which the brand is considered by customers and finally, their consideration of the relationship between product and brand. The Behavioural Perspective Model (BPM), introduced by Foxall (1997), is applied in this research to explore both situational variables and the consumer's side of the brand. This behaviouristic approach to consumer research considers setting and learning history as twodeterminants of consumer behaviour. Involvement has been used for quantifying learning history and it is argued that to a very high extent involvement could be considered as the same as learning history in BPM. Three different methodologies have been used in this research to investigate the aforementioned variables using a case study of skincare and OTC products in Iran. Interviews, focus groups and questionnaires have been applied to explore the aforementioned variables and any potential relationships among them. The results show that brand image is the main situational variable in these two groups of products. For OTC products the dominant expected brand image is functional; in skincare products, although some level of symbolic brand image is expected, the brand image is mainly functional. The variables introduced in this thesis could be used as a framework for brand managers when deciding how to prioritise their efforts. More importantly, they could use this information for choosing the right brand image based on the type of consumer involvement

THE IMPACT OF NEGOTIATED LESSON PLAN ON INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS’ VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE

The current study investigated the effect of the traditional lesson planning determined by teachers and the negotiated lesson plan (NLP) on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge. To this end, a copy of Solution Placement Test was administered to 47 learners, and 36 participants at the intermediate level of language proficiency were homogeneously selected. They were then divided into two groups of 18 participants as the experimental and the control groups. Next, the vocabulary pretest was conducted to measure the participants’ vocabulary knowledge and check the homogeneity of the groups at the beginning of the treatment. The learners in the experimental group shared their ideas in small groups, had the key role and enjoyed shared-decision making deciding what they would do for the next sessions of the course. The learners in the control group had no role in determining the course materials. The result of data analysis based on their pretest and posttest scores of vocabulary showed that the participants of the experimental group became better vocabulary learners after receiving NLP treatment compared to those in the pre-determined lesson plan that received unnoticeable results from the pretest to the posttest. The teachers and the material developers need to consider the negotiated lesson planning into account so that the issue of learner involvement in instructional materials is paid attention to.  Article visualizations

EXPLORING IRANIAN EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE ONLINE IN-SERVICE TRAINING

It is widely acknowledged that in order to improve the quality of education in schools, there is a need to place pedagogy and its training implications at the center of teacher education reform. This study investigated the EFL teachers’ perception of the online in-service training. In doing so, an adapted 30-item questionnaire, having been piloted, was administered to 32 Iranian high school English teachers out of a total population of 40 teachers selected based on convenience sampling in Fouman and Somesara high schools in Guilan, Iran. Next, to add depth and detail to the participants’ responses to the questionnaire, a five-item interview was conducted with volunteer participants. The results of analyses revealed that there was not any statistically significant mean difference in the perceptions of male and female teachers about online in-service training (INSET). However, statistically significant differences were found among the teachers in terms of their university degrees and teaching experiences. The teachers were reported to view online programs as an essential tool needed for teachers’ professional development. The findings can be utilized pedagogically by teachers as an encouraging factor to attend the online INSET courses and, most importantly, by education administration to hold such courses more effectively.  Article visualizations

THE EFFECT OF JOB SATISFACTION ON TEACHERS' CREATIVITY IN USING SUPPLEMENTARY EQUIPMENT IN LEARNING ENGLISH IN IRANIAN ENGLISH INSTITUTES

Teachers’ job satisfaction and creativity in the teaching process are very important to the continuous growth of educational systems around the world. Satisfaction and creation at work are very essential in teachers’ life because they form the fundamental reasons to vitalize the teaching and learning atmosphere. This study was carried out to probe into a kind of precise research to investigate the effect of job satisfaction on teachers’ creativity in using side equipment among EFL teachers in English institutes. To this end, 50 teachers who were teaching EFL at Adib, Alborz and Rouyesh No English Institutes in Rasht were selected. The participants of the study were selected based on their job experiences and their availabilities. Their English teaching experience varied from 5 to 20 years. The ages of the teachers ranged between 20 and 50 years. The participants were asked to fill out a researcher-developed questionnaire. It was a questionnaire which included 20 items and there were two parts. The first part of the questionnaire asked about job satisfaction among the teachers, and the second part asked about their creative use of side equipment in class. The findings suggested that teachers hold different views regarding job satisfaction and teachers with high level of job satisfaction are more creative in using side equipment. The findings also suggested that job satisfaction increases creativity in using equipment in EFL classes. Furthermore, if the teachers are satisfied with their job, they will develop and maintain a high level of performance and learning process will be more efficient and effective.  Article visualizations

THE EFFECT OF IMPLICIT VS. EXPLICIT CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK ON IRANIAN ELEMENTARY EFL LEARNERS’ PARAGRAPH WRITING ABILITY

This research tried to compare the probable effects of two different kinds of corrective feedback (explicit and implicit) on Iranian elementary EFL learners' paragraph writing ability. The participants were 30 English elementary foreign language learners who were studying EFL at Iran Language Institute (ILI) in Lahijan, Iran. They were all native speakers of Persian. The study groups both included girls aged 12 to 14. In order to make sure that all the participants were at the same English proficiency level, Face to Face Written Placement Test was organized. The pretest-posttest nonequivalent-groups design which is a subcategory of quasi-experimental designs was utilized in this study. Each group included 15 participants. All of the participants in each group have expected to write a paragraph as the pretest and after treatment sessions they were required to write another paragraph as the posttest of writing. The findings showed the superiority of explicit feedback over implicit feedback during the procedure of the research.  Article visualizations

THE EFFECT OF TEACHER IMPLICIT CORRECTION THROUGH RECAST VERSUS EXPLICIT SELF-CORRECTION THROUGH ELICITATION ON IRANIAN INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS’ USE OF COLLOCATIONS IN WRITING

Over the last decades, the vital role of corrective feedback has attracted much attention. However, few studies have considered the effects of feedback on the acquisition of specific lexical items such as collocations. To bridge this gap, the current research was conducted to investigate the effect of two types of feedback, recast and elicitation on the use of collocations in writing. The participants of the study were 45 intermediate EFL learners at Kish Air Institute, in Qaemshahr, Iran, which were homogenized by Solutions placement test. Three intact classes were used, which randomly assigned into two experimental and one control groups. Each group consisted of 15 participants. After the pretest, in the treatment phase, one experimental group received implicit feedback through recast, and the other one received explicit feedback through elicitation, and the control group received no feedback on their collocational errors. Then, the posttest was administered. Finally, the collected data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA. The findings of the current study illustrated that the two experimental groups outperformed the control one, which confirmed the effectiveness of providing feedback in the learning process. Moreover, it was revealed that the recast group performed significantly better than the elicitation group.  Article visualizations

THE IMPACT OF TASK-BASED METHOD ON TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS COLLOCATION AMONG IRANIAN INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS

This study is going to investigate the effect of task-based method on teaching phrasal verbs collocation among Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To this end, 45 female EFL learners with the age range of 19 to 30 were selected from among 95 participants through Quick Placement Test. Its purpose was to homogenize the participants based on their proficiency level. Then they were randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group. The participants of the experimental groups were divided into two classes including 15 participants. Next, both experimental groups received task-based method for 15 sessions. During the treatment sessions some phrasal verbs pre-taught to the learners by the use of information-gap and opinion-gap tasks. Meanwhile, the control group received 15-session placebo that was the use of explicit instruction like Grammar Translation Method, and it was based on the structural syllabus. The related findings revealed that the experimental group who received the information-gap task performed better at learning phrasal verbs collocation. The findings showed that the role of information-gap of TBLT method leads the learners to more proficiency in learning phrasal verbs collocation, and it is more effective, because the learners have background knowledge. Consequently, the information-gap group had a better result in acquiring the phrasal verbs collocation.  Article visualizations

THE IMPACT OF EXPLICIT TEACHING OF VERB COLLOCATIONS ON IMPROVING UPPER-INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS’ WRITING SKILL

Although impeccable development of collocation is of critical concern to second language acquisition, EFL learners may find it excessively demanding to deal. Therefore, the present study investigated the impact of teaching verb collocation as an assimilated element of collocations on improving Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners’ writing ability via explicit teaching as the leading method. Results of numerous studies have shown learners’ understanding of collocations may highly depend on their levels of English language. In this study, first, 100 upper-intermediate candidates have been invited to meet the required standards accordingly. Then 40 participants were selected by conducting an Oxford Placement Test. A quasi-experimental design was applied with the steps of inquiring about the outcome, a pretest and subsequently a posttest administered based on MELAB paper-based writing test to assess their competence by the standards of the MELAB writing rating scale. The findings acknowledged the problematic elements and suggested rational solutions which may have further implications for syllabus designers, learners, and teachers principally.  Article visualizations