Investigating Iraqi EFL College Students’ Ability of Parametric Resetting

This paper tries to answer whether Iraqi EFL college students are able to reset the parametric values of their native Arabic into those which suit English. It aims at enhancing Iraqi students' knowledge of some of the parametric values of English via tackling three parameters: Null-subject parameter, Head-parameter, and Serial parameter. To achieve the aim of this study,  Grammaticality Judgment Tasks are administered to sixty students of the fourth year at the Department of English- College of Languages/ University of Baghdad for the academic year 2016-2017. The students' responses have been corrected and statically analysed. The study concludes that Iraqi EFL students' ability to reset parameters varies as to the parameter in question since they have succeeded to reset the Head parameter, but failed to reset the Serial parameter; this is accompanied by a partial ability to rest the Null-subject parameter. As well, it has further been revealed that Iraqi EFL students' inability to reset a parameter is due to negative transfer from Arabic to English, hence EFL learners need be exposed to extensive input data to encourage the resetting of parameters

Simplification Strategies in the Production of English Word-final Obstruent Clusters by Iraqi EFL College Students from A Markedness Theory Perspective

This study investigates the phonotactics of English obstruent clusters in the word-final position from a markedness theory perspective among Iraqi EFL College Students whose native language, Arabic, prefers only two-member word-final obstruent cluster as a maximum. The markedness of clusters is measured depending on Iraqi EFL College Students’ utilization of the simplification strategies. This study tries to answer whether or not word-final obstruent clusters are marked or unmarked for Iraqi EFL College Students, and whether or not the markedness of the obstruent cluster increases as to its length. In order to answer these questions, a test has been distributed among 60 Iraqi EFL Fourth-Year College students, Department of English, College of Arts-University of Baghdad for the academic year 2017-2018 involving a list of words and sentences containing word-final obstruent clusters. The study concludes that word-final obstruent clusters are marked due to the fact that the obstruents are universally marked in the coda. The four-member obstruent clusters are more marked than the three-member obstruent clusters which are in turn more marked than the two-member obstruent clusters

Genotoxicity assessment of high concentrations of 2,4-D, NAA and Dicamba on date palm callus (Phoenix dactylifera L.) using protein profile and RAPD markers

Genetic stability and uniformity of in vitro-derived date palm plants has a major importance to ascertain true-to-typeness of produced plants. The goal of present study was to evaluate the genetic toxicity of different plant growth regulators on date palm callus at initiation stages using protein patterns and RAPD analysis. Date palm offshoots of Hillawii cultivar were dissected, apical meristems were divided into four segments and cultured on callus induction medium containing the plant growth regulators as 2,4-D at 50 and 100 mg/L; NAA at 30 mg/L and Dicamba at 10 mg/L. The changes occurred in protein profile of callus when treated with high concentration of 2,4-D (100 mg/L), including loss of normal fragments (19 and 66 KDa polypeptides in control), as well as, appearance of new fragments, while at low concentration of 2,4-D (50 mg/L) and Dicamba treatment, the protein patterns showed no changes compared to control profile. Similar trends of polymorphisms were obtained with RAPD marker. The high concentration of 2,4-D produced more polymorphic fragments in comparison to control treatment. The DNA profile was identical between 2,4-D at low concentration and control. Dendrograms were generated using similarity indices of protein and RAPD results, and revealed that genetic similarity index was high between 2,4-D treatment at low concentration and control, as separated in one subcluster, followed by Dicamba and NAA, while, the highest genetic distance was obtained between 2,4-D at high concentration and control treatment and separated alone in one cluster