BACKGROUND The prevailing view in therapeutic clinical research today is that observational studies are useful for generating new hypotheses and that controlled experiments (i.e., randomized clinical trials, RCTs) are the most appropriate method for assessing and confirming the efficacy of interventions. DISCUSSION The current trend towards patient-centered medicine calls for alternative ways...

This study investigated the effectiveness of discourse structure-based graphic organizers (GOs) on students’ reading comprehension. Seventy learners were randomly divided in two equal experimental and control groups. They took a pre-test of reading comprehension. Then the experimental group analyzed the textual structures based on the frameworks of GOs and discussed the cohesive and coherent de...

Neuroimaging studies of language have typically focused on either production or comprehension of single speech utterances such as syllables, words, or sentences. In this study we used a new approach to functional MRI acquisition and analysis to characterize the neural responses during production and comprehension of complex real-life speech. First, using a time-warp based intrasubject correlati...

To analyze a production system and find its best configuration, the technique of simulation-based optimization is often utilized. This paper describes a practical exercise used at the University of Skövde, Sweden to teach simulation-based optimization to students using a physical Lego factory. The Lego factory provides a setting that is close to reality, and optimizing its production assists st...

this study investigates and compares the efficacy of differentiated instruction and traditional-based instruction on enhancing iranian students’ reading comprehension. eight elementary, intermediate, and advanced classrooms from 1 language institute were chosen, and based on their performance on the pretests were further divided into 4 control and 4 treatment groups. flexible grouping, tiered i...