Local Residents’ Preferences for Second Home Tourism Development Policies: A Choice Experiment nalysis

This paper is concerned with the preferences of the rural residents living in areas subject to rapid second home tourism development in Iran. Since second home development could have positive and negative social, cultural, economical and environmental impacts for local residents, planning policies should take into consideration public opinions and preferences for future planning and developments. Using a choice experiment method, we attempt to estimate the values that the rural households in Tehran province would place on different impacts of second home development policies.second home, tourism, choice experiment method, Tehran

A corpus-based study of Malaysia ESL students' use of discourse connectors in upper and post-secondry argumentative writing

Discourse connectors (DCs) are one of the elements of cohesive devices that bring about cohesion to a piece of writing or speech. They are potentially useful means for writers,particularly in ESL and EFL writing pedagogic settings. DCs usefulness is two-pronged. First, they help and guide readers through the text, and then they are tools for writers to engage with their readers. It has been well-documented that appropriate and efficient use of DCs will create a coherent flow of the text. However, second/foreign language learners have some difficulties to use them efficiently and systematically in their writing. Literature review shows that the Malaysian ESL students are also suffering from improper and efficient use of DCs which leads them in failing to produce a cohesive text. Surprisingly, no single study was found in the context of Malaysia to investigate Malaysian ESL students’ understanding and use of DCs. Hence, this study attempted to investigate and understand the nature and the use of the DCs in the Malaysian student writing compared with Native speakers writing. The study also was set to examine the correlation between the frequency use of the DCs and the quality of writing. The final goal of this research study was to find out to what extent Malaysian ESL students are committing errors while using DCs. A corpus-based approach was adopted to meet the objectives of the study. To this end,an argumentative topic was assigned to the Form 4, Form 5 (upper-secondary) and the first year college students (post-secondary) and they were asked to write about the given topic in the classroom and submit their works to the instructors. They were required to write 250 words within 45 minutes. Upon compilation of the essays, the Malaysian Corpus of Students' Argumentative Writing (MCSAW) was built with ≃ 600,000 tokens. To compare and find out a vivid picture of Malaysian ESL students use of DCs with Native English Speakers, the Louvain Corpus of Native Essay Writing [LOCNESS] corpus was used. Oxford Wordsmith Tools (5) was employed to extract data from corpus for analysis, by using frequency count and concordance functions. Aiming to identify what type of DCs is used by Malaysian ESL students, Discourse Connector List developed by Rezvani Kalajahi and Neufeld (2014) was used. To be able to examine the relationship between the quality of writing and the frequency of the use of the DCs, ESL composition profile offered by Jacobs et al. (1981) was utilized. Finally, a framework of identification of DCs error type was developed by the researcher to explore the errors that students commit while using DCs. Findings of this study entail three phases. First, it was observed that Malaysian students tend to use DCs more frequently than native students. The overall frequency of the use of the DCs between Malaysian and native students was statistically significant at p < .05. However, the native students used more variety of DCs types than Malaysian students (398vs.328). It was also found that Malaysian students use DCs in some categories frequently and infrequently. Based on the findings in the native students writing (LOCNESS Corpus), the most frequent DCs in written English were offered. Second,there was a very weak negative but insignificant correlation between writing quality and the frequency of the use of the DCs in the writing of Malaysian ESL students. Finally,the qualitative analysis revealed that the erroneous use of DCs made by Malaysian ESL student writers mainly manifested in eight different categories. They had problems with the use of these devices which involved semantic, syntactic, stylistic, positional and mechanical errors. They also appeared to have tendency for unnecessary addition, omission, and redundant repetition of the DCs. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that Malaysian ESL students’ use of DCs was still at an evolving level. It is vitally important that the accurate use of DCs in writing among Malaysian students be further highlighted in the classrooms through using concordance lines and adopting explicit instruction technique. Besides, material developers may take the outcome of the research into consideration and could find out possible ways to distribute and introduce DCs systematically across the educational levels

The effect of cell derived microparticles in transfusion medicine and adaptive immune system

This article reviews will focus on the concept and formation of micro particles (MPs) in circulation and their role in transfusion medicine and immune system. MPs are cell membrane derived vesicles which express markers of their parent cells and are found in circulation at low levels. Exact functions of MPs are unclear. In here, Physiological almost all types of circulating MPs including platelets MPs (PMPs), leukocytes MPs (LMPs), red blood cells MPs (RMPs) and endothelial cells MPs (EMPs) have been discussed. Furthermore, MPs present in plasma and blood products and their levels increase during storage. Thus, it can be stated that MPs are likely to cause transfusion reactions, particularly thrombotic complications and Transfusion-Related Acute Lung Injury (TRALI). Also, it is shown that the MPs may affect the immune system. However, to prove these, more and extensive studies both in vivo and in vitro need to be done

EVALUATIVE FUNCTIONS OF REPORTING VERBS IN THE INTRODUCTIONS OF MASTER THESES

Purpose of the study: This study has unearthed the serious challenges faced postgraduate students in the University of Technology in either over-using or miss-using of some reporting verbs which make their work monotonous and repetitive Methodology: The study is based on a small corpus consisting of the Introduction (henceforth LR) in 3 master theses written by students from the University of Technology who finished their Master's degree in engineering. It is important to mention here that the term” writer” is used to refer to the master student who is reporting information and ideas of the previous studies written in the same field and the term “source” refers to the person who is being reported as a reference in the study.&nbsp; Results: The analysis revealed the students' preference to use factive verbs more than non-factive verbs; however, they are non-willing to use counter-factive verbs in writing the Introductions. This indicates their inability to challenge existing knowledge in the field effectively. Applications of this study: This research can be used for the universities, teachers, and students. Novelty/Originality of this study: In this research, the model of the Evaluative Functions of Reporting Verbs in the Introductions of Master Theses is presented in a comprehensive and complete manner

Using new analytical algorithm to study the effect of temperature variations on static shape of contact wire of OCS

The vibrations of pantograph passing underneath the overhead system can be reduced by using droppers to place the contact wire in the designed curve. Nowadays, various software programs are used to estimate dynamic interaction of pantographs and overhead catenary system. In order to implement the software program, the necessary static force for each dropper should be estimated initially to place the contact wire in the designed curve. Unlike most available software programs, the implemented software program in this research consists of a heuristic analytical algorithm to estimate the static shape of the overhead catenary system. Accordingly, the variable separation and eigen function expansion method were used to calculate the static shape of contact wire and messenger cable under a given loading condition. At the next step, the stiffness matrix of contact wire in catenary was obtained and a procedure was defined to calculate the necessary static force for each dropper, which would then place the contact wire in the target curve. Finally, effort was made to examine the function of automatic tension device in OCS (Tension Wheel considering the Coulomb’s friction). Moreover, the deformations in the contact wire and messenger cable due to temperature changes were estimated and the results shows that allowable friction in the tension wheel can cause 27 % deviation in sag of the contact wire

A Complete experimental study of oil/water interfacial properties in the presence of TiO2 nanoparticles and different ions

International audiencePrevious studies on Nanoparticles (NPs) application for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods have revealed their effective role in the rock wettability alteration, relative Interfacial Tension (IFT) and oil viscosity reduction, formation and stabilization of the emulsions, and reduced asphaltene precipitation, which are all in direct relationship with oil/water interfacial properties. This study focuses on the interfacial properties of oil/water in the presence of Titania NPs and different ions at different pressures and temperatures. For this, different concentrations of TiO2 NPs in the Formation Water (FW) were prepared to monitor the effects of NPs on the oil/water IFT, carbonate rock wettability, zeta potential, and asphaltene adsorption. The results on IFT values indicated that NPs behavior at high pressures and temperatures is completely different, as compared to the ambient conditions, and 1000 ppm NPs introduced the lowest IFT at 600 psi and 60 °C. This reduction is potentially attributed to the asphaltene adsorption at the oil/water interface by TiO2 NPs, which hinders the asphaltene deposition at the interface and in turn IFT increasing. Contact angle results revealed two distinctive behaviors for NPs at high and low concentrations. In other words, with the first interval (below the optimum concentration), an increase in NPs concentration led to a quick wettability alteration toward the water-wet condition, and with the second one (above the optimum concentration), there was an increase in contact angle with an increase in NPs concentration, which is due to the NPs stacking near the rock surface. These results were in good accordance with zeta potential measurements, in which 1000 ppm nanofluid presented the highest stability (zeta potential value of −46.9 mV). Batch adsorption experiments resulted that catalytic TiO2 NPs are capable of adsorbing asphaltene at the oil/water interface. In addition, the results on fitting experimental data to the Langmuir and Freundlich Isotherms showed that the adsorption best fitted Langmuir Isotherm and hence the adsorption type is a monolayer

Sonochemical synthesis and characterization of a novel hetro-binuclear metal organic nano polymer based on picolinic acid ligand

Nanoparticles of one new lead and K coordination polymer (CP), {[Pb(pyc)(N)K].½HO} (1) Hpyc = picolinic acid ligand, has been synthesized by use of a sonochemical process and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectroscopy and elemental analyses. The single crystal X-ray data of compound 1 imply that the Pb ion is seven coordinated. The thermal stability of compound 1 has been studied by thermogravimetric (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The role of temperature, reaction time and ultrasound irradiation power on the size and morphfology of the nano-structured compound obtained from 1, have been investigated. Results indicate that an increase of temperature and sonication power and a decrease in time reaction led to a decrease of particle size

Effect of Morphine Withdrawal Syndrome on Cerebral Ischemia

Objective(s)Opioid abuse is still remained a major mental health problem, a criminal legal issue and may cause ischemic brain changes including stroke and brain edema. In the present study, we investigated whether spontaneously withdrawal syndrome might affect stroke outcomes.Materials and MethodsAddiction was induced by progressive incremental doses of morphine over 7 days. Behavioral signs of withdrawal were observed 24, 48 and 72 hr after morphine deprivation and total withdrawal score was determined. Cerebral ischemia was induced 18-22 hr after the last morphine injection by placing a natural clot into the middle cerebral artery (MCA). Neurological deficits were evaluated at 2, 24 and 48 hr after ischemia induction, and infarct size and brain edema were determined at 48 hr after stroke.ResultsMorphine withdrawal animals showed a significant increase in total withdrawal score and decrease of weight gain during the 72 hr after the last morphine injection. Compared to the addicted and control animals, infarct volume and brain edema were significantly increased in the morphine deprived animals (P< 0.05) at 48 hr after cerebral ischemia. Also, neurological deficits were higher in the morphine-withdrawn rats at 48 hr after stroke (P< 0.05). ConclusionOur data indicates that spontaneous withdrawal syndrome may worsen stroke outcomes. Further investigations are necessary to elucidate mechanisms of opiate withdrawal syndrome on stroke

Global and Local Visual Processing: Influence of Perceptual Field Variables

The Global Precedence Effect (GPE) suggests that the processing of global properties of a visual stimulus precedes the processing of local properties. The generality of this theory was argued for four decades during different known Perceptual Field Variables. The effect size of various PFVs, regarding the findings during these four decades, were pooled in our recent meta-analysis study. Pursuing the study, in the present paper, we explore the effects of Congruency, Size, and Sparsity and their interaction on global advantage in two different experiments with different task paradigms; Matching judgment and Similarity judgment. Upon results of these experiments, Congruency and Size have significant effects and Sparsity has small effects. Also, the task paradigm and its interaction with other PFVs are shown significant effects in this study, which shows the prominence of the role of task paradigms in evaluating PFVs' effects on GPE. Also, we found that the effects of these parameters were not specific to the special condition that individuals were instructed to retinal stabilize. So, the experiments were more extendible to daily human behavior

Does Applying Vocabulary Learning Strategies Vary Based on Gender? The Case of Turkish EFL Learners

This research study aimed at exploring the vocabulary learning strategies of the undergraduate English Language Teaching students at Eastern Mediterranean University in Northern Cyprus. These research questions posed accordingly: 1.What is the frequency of vocabulary leaning strategies? 2. Is there any difference in applying vocabulary learning strategies by male and female students? In order to analyze data and answer research questions, inferential statistics via SPSS (17) deployed. The finding of the study revealed that 24 vocabulary learning strategies out of 44 VLS (including psycholinguistic and metacognitive strategies) are being used infrequently while only 20 vocabulary learning strategies are being applied frequently via learners. However, the frequency mean for the psycholinguistic strategy use, metacognitive strategies as well as the overall frequency mean was slightly higher for the female respondents. Keywords: gender difference, vocabulary learning strategies, language learning strategie