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Transfer of learning from English course to other contexts is one of the most fundamental objectives of EAP instruction. Providing opportunities to transfer the acquired knowledge from the ESAP writing course to writing tasks of specialized disciplines as well as analyzing students’ perceptions of transfer catalysts and barriers might suggest a foundation for future educational planning. This study examines how engineering graduates learning ESAP assessed the four constructs of learning transfer inventory that might facilitate or inhibit the transfer of learning in discipline-specific academic writing programs. 60 engineering graduate students participated in this study. During the ESAP course, collaboratively designed discipline-specific writing tasks were presented and practiced through multimodal input. The catalysts and the barriers to the learning transfer act were identified by administering the Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI). Results indicated that the students could obtain significant levels of academic writing skills and finally transfer their acquired instruction to authentic discipline practices. Furthermore, data analysis demonstrated that transfer of writing outcomes will be increased if more consideration of work-related factors is considered in higher education. All participants reported personal capacity as the main impediment induced by the work-related construct. Students’ positive attitudes toward three ability factors and all motivational factors suggested that an auspicious foundation for future educational planning exists if disciplinary and institutional considerations are embraced.
 

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Aim: Pediatric sleep problems can result in negative consequences for both mothers and children. Considering the relatively high prevalence of sleep disorders among children with ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), this study was designed to investigate the impact of a sleep hygiene intervention to promote sleep problems in children with ADHD and maternal mental health.
Methods: This randomized controlled trial was conducted on 62 children aged 7-13 years with the diagnosis of ADHD and comorbid sleep disorders accompanied by their mothers. Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) were completed by the children's mothers, and then the participants were allocated randomly into experimental and control groups. Mothers of the children in the experimental group received a sleep hygiene educational intervention, which was delivered through a training session and a booklet followed by two telephone calls and educational text messages. Participants in the control group received usual clinical care. The post-test was performed two months after intervention.
Findings: 56 participants (experimental group: n=28, control group: n=28) completed the survey. Data analysis showed that, compared with the control group, the experimental group had a significant reduction in mean scores of CSHQ (P=0.001) and stress subscale scores (F= 0.106, P= 0/015), after controlling pre-test. Besides, the mothers' stress was correlated with the children's CSHQ overall scores (r= 0.52, P= 0.001).
Conclusion: Implementing a sleep hygiene intervention in a sample of children with ADHD could result in improved children sleep problems and maternal well-being.

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«Passive Letters» refer to the elements that do not have Erab influences and for this reason they are often ignored ignored in syntax education. Studies show that these letters play a key role in identification of syntactic structure and understanding the meaning of context being called the semiotic function of passive letters. Although sometimes in syntax they are called Maani –Al- horouf (the meanings of letters) however, an organized review of their semiotic functions in order to understand their syntactic structure and accurate meaning of their context has not been studied yet.
In the view of RaziAstarabadi‚ semiotic and structural aspects of afore mentioned letters, are considered as a part of their syntactic function. According to the importance and extension of the presence of these letters in Arabic language‚ and by applying RaziAstarabadi’s views‚ this study tried to indicate their semiotic function in understanding the syntactic structure and answer the question of research based on a semiotic perspective, what is the most obvious sign of semiotic function of these letters in understanding the syntactic structure and context perception? To answer the questions with descriptive-analytic method, we investigated the different contexts and applied this view in analysis. The results showed that: passive letters play a key role in identification of the syntactic structure and showed a certain relationship between cause and effect in two parts of form and content and accordingly its major semiotic function can be found in distinguishing and diagnosis of grammatical arrangement of words and sentences.

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Results of the studies done by the Soco - economic Research Division of the former ministry of agriculture [1, p. 3-82] in mid - 1990s indicate that weaknesses of management system in rural areas specially after the 1962 land reform have created a number of pathological problems in agricultural production and rural social relations. These weaknesses have also brought about damaging consequences to the country's development process and to the agricultural production of Iran villages. For this reason, this paper funded by Institute for Planning and Agricultural Economy, is an attempt to design a measuring tool (through transformation of socio - economic variables to mathematical elements in a universal formula) to measure the functions of rural management based on the economic activity of the village so that through a periodical application of the formula one can identify the weak points of the rural management and use the necessary variables to repair the weak points. In order to design this mathematical tool, we will first identify the factors that cause any fluctuation in effectiveness of rural management by using a theoretical and psycho - sociological approach and then we will classify these factors with an analytical model. This approach was empirically validated through an explorative study done in areas such as Shahmeerzad, Sargost of Bandar- Abbas, northern strip from Noor to Ramsar, Zarrin- dasht of Firuzkooh and rural areas of Shahroud and Kelardasht. The theoretical elements were then transformed to measurable variables along with their indicators. The operational precedence of this model and its formulae is that in the process of its application if any changes in socio - political, cultural and economic indicators occurs, one can replace the new indicators with the previous ones. So, this model and its measuring tools have a distinctive feature of being self- modifying and cannot be affected by elements of time, space, the geographical dimension of its application, or type of the economic activity of the village under consideration. Hence, after a tentative application of this model for a period of three to five years and after modification of its elements, it can be used in any socio - economic setting compatible with rural characteristics.

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This study examined blurbs in the discipline of economics to investigate how evaluative lexico-grammatical resources are employed in the logogenetic constructions of these blurbs. The study was informed by the appraisal framework proposed by Martin and White (2005), which describes the language of our attitudes, viewpoints, and personal judgments toward people, objects, and things. All three categories of the appraisal framework, including attitude, engagement, and graduation, were thoroughly explored. Findings demonstrated that economics blurbs are densely packed with appreciation. Graduation was also found to be realized both as intensification and quantification. The study showed that blurbs can be dialogically or monologically constructed based on the presence or absence of external voices as well as engagement resources and locutions. Meanwhile, lexico-grammatical realizations were found  not to be restricted to one type of grammatical structures. Various forms  including adjectival qualities, nominalized qualities, and processes are employed for encoding evaluative resources. The findings of the study provide those interested in this genre insights into the practical details of blurbs’ advertising discourse and keep them informed of the curricular rules and regularities dominating promotional discourse

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Curved thin-walled structures are extensively used in many industrial applications including aviation industries. These parts have a specific role in manufacturing of helicopter main rotor blade. Fracture mechanics parameters are needed for life estimation and life extension of curved thin-walled structures. Standard methods of fracture mechanics testing are not applicable to these parts because of curvature and thinness of the specimens. So new test methods for these specimens is necessary to be investigated and developed. Vast trying has been done by scientists to overcome these problems and some theories and experimental methods such as the theory of fracture of thin-walled curved plates, the conventional burst test method and some new non-standard test methods has been initiated and developed. In the present paper, first of all, the theory of thin-walled curved plates has been briefly presented to link the behavior of curved specimens to the flat ones and the conventional burst test (BT) method has been accordingly introduced. Then, the newly developed non-standard test methods such as compact curved tension (CCT), pin loading tension (PLT), three points bending (TPB), double edge notched tension (DENT), internal conical mandrel (ICM) and X-specimen have been reviewed. Finally, a comparison between mentioned methods had been done to determine the most appropriate one.

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Unlike metals for which the fracture characterization methods have been standardized in the context of linear elastic and elastic plastic fracture mechanics theories, for polymeric materials the linear and especially nonlinear theories of viscoelastic fracture mechanics has not been completely developed due to complexities regarding the viscoelastic nature of these materials. For rubbers, even the rate independent theories based on nonlinear finite elasticity have not been widely used. In practice, most researchers make use of the same methods as applied for metals to rubbers. In this paper, the common methods of fracture characterization of rubbers based on J integral and the different challenges regarding them are reviewed. Specificly, the energy dissipation effects in regions far from the crack tip and the correction methods proposed to compensate for these effects are discussed. Performing fracture toughness tests on SENT specimens of a rubbery material based on polybutadiene, it is shown that the well-known multiple specimen method for determination of Jc has a strong sensitivity to experimental errors that exhibits itself as initial crack length dependence of Jc values and is just usefull when testing numerous specimens and removing the experimental errors. On the other hand, the locus method of dissipation correction, gives a single reliable Jc value using a fewer number of specimens and with a considerably lower sensitivity to the experimental errors. Also, using this method the specimen length dependence of Jc values reported in the literature is removed, and hence, it is possible to obtain a dimension independent Jc value.