testing plays a vital role in any language teaching program. it allows teachers and stakeholders, including program administrators, parents, admissions officers and prospective employers to be assured that the learners are progressing according to an accepted standard (douglas, 2010). the problems currently facing language testers have both practical and theoretical implications but the first i...

hydrochlorothiazide (hct) is a diuretic agent which is shown to be effective in the treatment of hypertension. literature reports have demonstrated that urinary excretion data may be used to assess the bioavailability of various formulations containing this thiazide. also hct consumption by the athletes is one of the drugs which should be regulated by world anti-doping agency (wada), because of...

according to coates’s (2004, as cited in zhang, 2010) definition of "conversational dominance" (p.111), it refers to the phenomenon of a speaker dominating others in interaction. specifically, it means how a speaker makes use of certain strategies to get the floor and maintain the floor. thus, the amount of talk is the main measurement for the dominance of the conversation. whether a speaker do...

according to webster and wind (1972) and anderson et al (1987), “organizational buying is a complex process and involves many people from different functional areas, multiple goals and potentially conflicting decision criteria. moreover, the customers of today are also more knowledgeable and selective when making their purchasing decisions. since a key to organizational survival is the retentio...

all analytical methods are generally based on the measurement of a parameter or parameters which are somehow related to the concentration of the species.an ideal analytical method is one in which the concentration of a species can be measured to a high degree precision and accuracy and with a high sensitivity. unfortunately finding such a method is very difficult or sometimes even impossible.in...

according to cheng (1999), in recent esl/efl literature, asian (especially east asian) learners of english as a foreign/second language have been arguably reported as reticent and passive learners. the most common allegations are that these students are reluctant to participate in classroom discourse; they are unwilling to give responses; they do not ask questions; and they are passive and over...

abstract: advertisements are the most accessible type of authentic materials, and this is one reason why they are used more and more in english teaching classes. for this cause, studies in the field of advertisements are very widespread nowadays. for pun is one aspect which makes advertisements more interesting, it is used more than before in advertisements. use of puns makes an advertisement m...

abstract tasks nowadays are at the center of attention in sla research. task types is one of the critical issues in this regard, their effectiveness and suitability to any particular context, their characteristics and the result they yield are among some of these issues. on the other hand, discourse markers (dms) have been very much investigated and their effectiveness in conveying the meaning...

the study of air infiltration into the buildings is important from several perspectives that may be noted to energy and design of hvac systems, indoor air quality and thermal comfort and design of smoke control systems. given the importance of this issue, an experimental and numerical study of air infiltration through conventional doors and windows has been explored in iran. to this end, at fir...

any change in the refractive index of a laser active medium can lead to serious degradation of beam quality, laser beam modes, laser performance and variation in the intensity distribution. alteration in the refractive index of laser active medium is especially notable in high power lasers. it is clear that in the laser beam production, the pumping agent induces a great amount of heat which...