Investigating the Effects of Subjective Norms and Trialability on English Teachers` Attitude toward the Use of Technology

Despite the availability of many technological resources in academic settings and their determinant effect in the improvement of teaching and learning, it seems that teachers rarely used them. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of psychological variables on teachers` attitudes regarding technology use.  In this research, most applicable models like the 'technology acceptance model', 'theory of reasoned action', and 'innovation diffusion theory' are used as the foundation for developing a conceptual framework. Variables such as 'perceived usefulness', 'perceived ease of use', 'trialability', 'subjective norms', and 'attitude' are recaptured from these models. The participants of the present research are high school English language teachers in Shiraz. The researcher uses stratified sampling to identify a representative sample from the population. The present study is administered by using five questionnaires to assess variables. The data are analyzed by means of path analysis. According to the obtained result, perceived ease of use is found to be affected by subjective norms and trialability, which in turn influenced the attitude of teachers toward using technology in their teachings. The results propose that the most influential factor on attitude is trialability (β= 0.38). On the other hand, perceived usefulness has a significant, influential effect on attitude. Subjective norms has an indirect but important effect on attitude

Rhetorical Moves Used in MA Students’ Theses in TEFL and Nursery

Abstracts in research papers are one of the focal parts of academic research, and they are one of the first things that a reader reads to determine the value of the research. Furthermore, acknowledgments appreciate those who have helped in writing a thesis. The present study investigated rhetorical moves in the acknowledgment and abstract sections of Iranian English language teaching and nursery students' M.A. theses. In addition, it investigated if there were any significant differences between rhetorical moves observed in the acknowledgment and abstract sections of Iranian TEFL and nursery students' M.A. theses in these two fields. Some of the 80 theses from the two disciplines, 40 each, were investigated. Hyland's (2000) models of the abstract rhetoric structure and acknowledgment structure were adopted to investigate the corpora under study. The results revealed that different steps and moves were used in theses from both disciplines. However, the results of Chi-square tests revealed that the differences between different moves and steps of these acknowledgments and abstracts from the two disciplines were insignificant. The findings have some implications for post-graduate students to be more aware of their addressees and language teachers to teach students about genre-based writing

Reference intervals for routine biochemical markers and body mass index: a study based on healthcare center database in northeastern Iran

Age‐ and sex‐specific reference intervals (RIs) for some biochemical tests may be useful for their interpretation, due to the variations in lifestyle and genetic, or ethnic factors. The aim of this study was to obtain RIs for some routine biochemical markers including a serum lipid profile, fasting blood glucose (FBG), aspartate and alanine aminotransferase (AST and ALT), uric acid, and body mass index (BMI) in subjects who attended primary healthcare centers. The large database of primary healthcare centers uses RIs to report results for children, adolescents, and young and old adults. RIs were obtained by using the indirect method, recommended by the CLSI Ep28‐A3 guidelines. RIs for FBG, BMI, and serum lipid profile, including triglyceride, total cholesterol, high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol, and low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol in people aged 18 to 120 years, were obtained without age/sex segmentation. RIs for serum AST, ALT, and uric acid were obtained without age segmentation, though these RIs were higher in males than females. The RIs for AST, ALT, and uric acid were higher in men, while the RIs for the other variables were similar in both sexes. This is the first study reporting the use of indirect RIs for BMI

Investigating the Effects of Subjective Norms and Trialability on English Teachers` Attitude toward the Use of Technology

Despite the availability of many technological resources in academic settings and their determinant effect in the improvement of teaching and learning, it seems that teachers rarely used them. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of psychological variables on teachers` attitudes regarding technology use.  In this research, most applicable models like the 'technology acceptance model', 'theory of reasoned action', and 'innovation diffusion theory' are used as the foundation for developing a conceptual framework. Variables such as 'perceived usefulness', 'perceived ease of use', 'trialability', 'subjective norms', and 'attitude' are recaptured from these models. The participants of the present research are high school English language teachers in Shiraz. The researcher uses stratified sampling to identify a representative sample from the population. The present study is administered by using five questionnaires to assess variables. The data are analyzed by means of path analysis. According to the obtained result, perceived ease of use is found to be affected by subjective norms and trialability, which in turn influenced the attitude of teachers toward using technology in their teachings. The results propose that the most influential factor on attitude is trialability (β= 0.38). On the other hand, perceived usefulness has a significant, influential effect on attitude. Subjective norms has an indirect but important effect on attitude

Physiological and Morphological Responses of Almond Cultivars under In Vitro Drought Stress

In this study, physiological and morphological responses of five almond cultivars to drought stress were investigated under in vitro conditions. Plantlets from five commercial almond cultivars (Supernova’, ‘Tuono’, ‘Sahand’, ‘Ferragnes ’ and ‘Shahroud 21’] were established in MS medium containing 0.5 mg per liter BAP and then subcultured  in MS proliferation medium containing 1 mg per liter BAP. Plantlets were exposed to four different levels of polyethylene glycol containing 0, 2, 4 and 6 percent, respectively, which is equivalent to 0, -0.14,-0.36 and -0.66 bar of water potential as drought stress levels during four weeks. This study was carried out as a two-factor factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with three replications, each consisting of two jars, each contained two explants. At the end of the stress period, physiological indicators of stress, including leaf relative water content (RWC), proline content and ion leakage of leaves and morphological indicators, including plantlet height and number of developed leaves, were measured. The results showed that drought stress increased ion leakage and proline content, while it reduced the RWC, plantlet height and number of developed leaves. According to these results, ‘Supernova’ and ‘Tuono’ were less affected by drought stress compared to other cultivars, while ‘Shahroud 21’ and ‘Ferragnes’ were more affected than others. ‘Sahand’ also showed an intermediate performance compared to other cultivars

Inverse modeling application for aquifer parameters estimation using a precise simulation–optimization model

Abstract In this research, a simulation–optimization (S/O) model is used in order to estimate aquifer parameters on two aquifers. In this model, meshless local Petrov–Galerkin (MLPG) is used for simulation purpose and modified teaching–learning-based optimization (MTLBO) algorithm is engaged as optimization model. Linking these two powerful models generates a S/O model named MLPG-MTLBO. The proposed model is applied on two aquifers: a standard and a real field aquifer. In standard aquifer, parameters are only transmissivity coefficients in x and y direction for three zones. The acquired results by MLPG-MTLBO are really close to true values. This fact presents the power of MLPG-MTLBO inverse model. Therefore, it is applied on field aquifer. Unconfined aquifer of Birjand recognized as real case study. Parameters which are needed to be estimated are specific yields and hydraulic conductivity coefficients. These parameters are computed by MLPG-MTLBO and entered to the groundwater flow model. The achieved groundwater table compared with observation data and RMSE is calculated. RMSE value is 0.356 m; however, this error criterion for MLPG and FDM is 0.757 m and 1.197 m, respectively. This means that estimation is precise and makes the RMSE to reduce from 0.757 to 0.356 m, and also, MLPG-MTLBO is an accurate model for this aim

Land Suitability Analysis for Solar Farms Exploitation Using GIS and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP)—A Case Study of Iran

Considering the geographical location and climatic conditions of Iran, solar energy can provide a considerable portion of the energy demand for the country. This study develops a two-step framework. In the first step, the map of unsuitable regions is extracted based on the defined constraints. In the next step, in order to identify the suitability of different regions, 11 defined criteria, including solar radiation, average annual temperatures, distance from power transmission lines, distance from major roads, distance from residential area, elevation, slope, land use, average annual cloudy days, average annual humidity and average annual dusty days, are identified. The relative weights of defined criteria and sub-criteria are also determined applying fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) technique. Next, by overlaying these criteria layers, the final map of prioritization of different regions of Iran for exploiting solar photovoltaic (PV) plants is developed. Based on Iran’s political divisions, investigation and analysis of the results have been presented for a total of 1057 districts of the country, where each district stands in one of the five defined classes of excellent, good, fair, low, and poor level. The obtained data indicate that 14.7% (237,920 km2), 17.2% (278,270 km2), 19.2% (311,767 km2), 11.3% (183,057 km2), 1.8% (30,549 km2) and 35.8% (580,264 km2) of Iran’s area are positioned as excellent, good, fair, low, poor and unsuitable areas, respectively. Moreover, Kerman, Yazd, Fars, Sisitan and Baluchestan, Southern Khorasan and Isfahan are included in the regions as the most excellent suitable provinces for exploiting solar PV plants