abstract the variables affecting the nature of reading comprehension can be classified into two general categories: reader’s variables, and text variables (alderson, 2000). despite the wave of research on vocabulary knowledge as reader’s variable, the role of this knowledge in c-test as a text-dependent test and its interaction with lexical cohesion of the test as a text feature has remained a...

abstract sensitive and precise voltammetric methods for the determination of trace amounts of furaldehydes, mainly as furfural (f) and 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde (hmf), in waste waters and other matrices is described. determination of total furaldehyde at < ?g g-1 levels in alkaline buffered aqueous media was individually investigated. by the use of ordinary swv and adsorptive square wave ...

insurers have in the past few decades faced longevity risks - the risk that annuitants survive more than expected - and therefore need a new approach to manage this new risk. in this dissertation we survey methods that hedge longevity risks. these methods use securitization to manage risk, so using modern financial and insurance pricing models, especially wang transform and actuarial concepts, ...

in the first part of this thesis we explored wetting and its dynamics for small droplets. first, we showed how a simple feature of water droplets on a surface, i.e. laplace pressure, can be exploited to build a micropump. we investigated capillary pumping in microchannels both experimentally and numerically. putting two droplets of different sizes at the in/outlet of a microchannel, will ge...

while performance-based language assessment has led to an increased authenticity and content validity in the practice of writing assessment, the reliability of ratings has become a major issue. research findings have shown different reactions by native english speaker (nes) and non-native english speaker (nns) teachers to students’ writings. the focus of this study is on investigating whether i...

esl/efl books play a crucial role in shaping language learners worldview of gender roles in society. the present study investigated the status of sexism in two sets of efl textbooks, one developed by non-native iranian authors (ili series) and the other by native authors (top notch series). first, two books from each series was selected randomly. then, a quantitative analysis was carried out wi...

there are two major theories of measurement in psychometrics: classical test theory (ctt) and item-response theory (irt). despite its widespread and long use, ctt has a number of shortcomings, which make it problematic to be used for practical and theoretical purposes. irt tries to solve these shortcomings, and provide better and more dependable answers. one of the applications of irt is the as...

the research questions were as follows: 1. is there any relationship between the students concious awareness of the form and implications of the conjuncations and their improvement in using appropriate conjunctions? 2. does students knowledge of the from and the implications of the conjunctions help them to produce more coherent writings. 3. does a comparison between english conjunctions and th...

terms of address as an important linguistics items provide valuable information about the interlocutors, their relationship and their circumstances. this study was done to investigate the change route of persian address terms in the two recent centuries including three historical periods of qajar, pahlavi and after the islamic revolution. data were extracted from a corpus consisting 24 novels w...

in fact this study is concerned with the relationship between the variation in thematice structure and the comprehension of spoken language. so the study focused on the following questions: 1. is there any relationship between thematic structure and the comprehension of spoken language? 2. which of the themes would have greated thematic force and be easier for the subjects to comprehend? accord...