Investigating transfer of one’s pragmatic knowledge of first language to his second or foreign language has been one of the areas of interest for researchers. However, there are contradictory results even within the scarce studies which have addressed transferability. This study was an attempt to investigate perceived pragmatic transferability of L1 refusal strategies by Persian EFL learners. S...

A packet switch with parallel switching planes is a parallel packet switch (PPS). A PPS can scale-up to faster line speeds than can a singleplane switch. It is an open problem to design a PPS that is feasible to implement using existing low-cost hardware components where no component runs faster than line speed. A PPS must be able to internally load balance traffic, have packet delays comparabl...

A study on capstan partial pressure suits (PPSs) was conducted to determine their effects on pilots' operational performance on a series of ergonomic measures at different pressure levels using objective and subjective approaches. Tests of range of motion, operational performance and operational strength were carried out on ten male subjects wearing PPSs under 6 different pressure conditions. S...

Peri-personal space (PPS) is defined as the space immediately surrounding our bodies, which is critical in the adaptation of our social behavior. As a space of interaction with the external world, PPS is involved in the control of motor action as well as in the protection of the body. The boundaries of this PPS are known to be flexible but so far, little is known about how PPS boundaries are in...

Polynomial phase signals (PPSs) have numerous applications in many fields including radar, sonar, geophysics, and radio communication systems. Therefore, estimation of PPS coefficients is very important. In this paper, a novel approach for PPS parameters estimation based on adaptive short-time Fourier transform (ASTFT), called the PPS-ASTFT estimator, is proposed. Using the PPS-ASTFT estimator,...

Principal curves and surfaces are nonlinear generalizations of principal components and subspaces, respectively. They can provide insightful summary of high-dimensional data not typically attainable by classical linear methods. Solutions to several problems, such as proof of existence and convergence, faced by the original principal curve formulation have been proposed in the past few years. Ne...

The force-frequency relationship for an individual muscle depends on the fatigue state, the length at which it is activated, and the muscle's activation history. The relationship among stimulation frequency and dynamic (nonisometric) muscle performance measurements (e.g., excursion, work, peak power, and average power) has not been reported. The purpose of this study was to identify the relatio...

This work analyzes whether a parallel packet switch (PPS) can emulate an output-queued (OQ) packet switch. The class of PPS is characterized by the deployment of parallel low-speed switches. Each lower speed packet switch operates at only a fraction of the input line rate R. This study develops and investigates a PPS which distributes cells to low-speed switches and uses outputs with push-in ar...

BACKGROUND The benefits of extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF) as a minimally invasive lumbar spinal fusion treatment for lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis have been unclear. We sought to evaluate the invasiveness and tolerability of XLIF with percutaneous pedicle screws (PPS) compared with traditional open posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF). METHODS Fifty-six consecutive patien...

The purpose of this study was to examine Cook’s (2003) ‘multiple competence’ by investigating backward pragmatic transfer (from L2 [English] to L1 [Persian]) in refusals to invitations. It explored participants’ frequency and content of refusal strategies in L1 regarding the status (i.e., power and distance) of interlocutors and the proficiency level of EFL learners. The participants were Persi...