The Blackblot Product Manager’s Toolkit ® (PMTK) is a comprehensive set of models and professional templates which constitute a complete product management methodology that illustrates notable best practices and processes to help create successful market-driven products. At the very core of the Blackblot PMTK Methodology are two foundation rules which govern the entire methodology. This chapter...

In today’s competitive, dynamic, and changing business environment, being able to collaborate globally within and beyond the enterprise borders is critical. Inter-Organizational Collaborations (IOCs) have been proposed as a response to the characteristics of highly competitive global business environments. So far, a number of reference models, frameworks, and ad hoc architectures related to som...

the high blood rate that often occurs in arteries may play a role in artery failure and tortuosity which leads to blackouts, transitory ischemic attacks and other diseases. however, vibration and instability analysis of carotid arteries are lacking. the objective of this study is to investigate the vibration and instability of the carotid arteries conveying blood under axial tension with surrou...

Theme-Rheme theory is one of the important components in text linguistics, which is closely related to language teaching and learning. This paper applies the Theme-Rheme theory in EFL reading teaching for nonEnglish majors in college, and explores its influence on students’ EFL reading proficiency. The result of this study proves that the Theme-Rheme theory is an effective system and it has cer...

This is a semantic pilot study which concentrates on how people in Taiwan process the temporal metaphors, ego-moving metaphor and time-moving metaphor. Motivated by the research of Gentner, Imai, and Boroditsky (2002) in which the English native speakers comprehend ego-moving metaphors faster than time-moving metaphors, the present study attempts to reexamine whether the faster reaction to ego-...

This preliminary study aims at investigating the production and perception of the English nasals /m/ and /n/ in word-final position by a group of 10 intermediate Brazilian EFL learners. Production data was collected by means of a Sentence Reading Test considering preceding vowel as phonological context. Perception was assessed by means of an identification test contrasting native-like vs. nonna...

This paper seeks to investigate the relationship between learner factors and the reported choice of language learning strategies (LLSs) in both an EFL context (Japan) and an ESL context (Australia). The study used a revised version of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) designed by Oxford (1990) to ascertain the choice of LLSs and a specifically designed questionnaire to identif...

This study investigated the relationship between selfefficacy and stress among 108 EFL teachers in Iran. The participants were administered self-efficacy and stress questionnaires. Pearson Product-Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression analyses were used. The results indicated significant negative correlation between self efficacy and stress. Also it was found that both dimensions of self-e...