Archives-December 

Since in Iranian university context, reading comprehension is the most important skill to be acquired by the students, this study wanted to show whether implementing pre-, while-, and post-reading activities has a significant impact on Iranian EFL Learners’ reading proficiency or not. 28 sophomore students at Islamic Azad University in Lahijan (Iran) participated in this study and were divided into two groups: experimental and control group. The former received teaching reading activities such as deducting, inferring, note-taking, etc. as the treatment while the latter did not receive such a treatment. The treatment proved to be effective, that is, the experimental group surpassed the control group according to the post-test. Finally, it is hoped that material developers, teachers and testers will benefit from the findings of this study.

Dufour effect on unsteady MHD flow through porous medium past an impulsively started inclined oscillating plate with variable temperature and mass diffusion is studied here. The fluid considered is gray, absorbing-emitting radiation but a non-scattering medium. The Governing equations involved in the present analysis are solved by the Laplace-transform technique. The velocity profile is discussed with the help of graphs drawn for different parameters.

The motion of an infinitesimal body with variable mass is studied. The equations of motion of the restricted three body problem with infinitesimal body of variable mass are introduced. The Jeans' law of mass change is applied. To tackle the dynamical problem, the Hamiltonian of the problem is formed with the time as independent variable. The solution of the equations of motion is formulated based on Lie series developments. Numerical representation of coordinates and momenta are given.

The growing trend tendency of web-based business world, emphasized on existence of an important and complementary component such as electronic banking as an undeniable necessity .In recent decades with development of communication and information tools, the volume of e-commerce significantly increased Such that between 2002 and 2006 on average each year 50% has added to the volume of trade exchange through electronic contexts. And its amount from 2,293 billion dollars in 2002 has reached to over 12,837 billion dollars in 2006. Given the widespread impact of electronic commerce and global markets dominance, it is necessary that the tools and contexts of transfer and exchange of money to keep pace with appropriate and desirable rate to the growth of e-commerce development. Adequacy of international Capital banks introduces the major risks associated with electronic banking as follows: strategic risk, credit risk, operational risk, liquidity risk, market risk and credit risk (reputation and history).One of the main identified risks in this field is that, All financial institutions Given the characteristics of the environment in which they operate And their activity amount are faced with operational risk that should be controlled As much as possible and determine the needed capital to manage it. Our main goal in this study is to identify operational risk factors in the electronic banking of Keshawarzi Bank. We first seek to identify risk factors that lead to this, so by control and reduction of impact of these factors the severity of this risk type is reduced and to bring about better management

The research reported in this thesis was on “Effects of job satisfaction on employee’s performance”. The purpose of research was to study the various factors that have been significant in determining employee performance and their importance with respect to the employees of Pakistan. The secondary data was collected by Internet and also from the material printed by different Scholars from all over the world. The primary data was gathered by floating questionnaires in Hassan leather industry Sheikhupura, Pakistan. SPSS was applied to analyze the gathered information through running Correlation tests on the variables in the study. The reliability of the data was measured with the help of the Cronbach’s Alpha value which too was calculated using the SPSS software. The findings provided an insight and estimation towards the impact of financial and Non-Financial reward system on employee’s performance. All the variables have been found to be significant in determining employee’s performance. The paper elaborates the characteristics and implications regarding the variables in detail to give a picture and a base for further research.

The present research dealt with evaluating the Human Resources Information System (HRIS) efficiency employing effective factors on users’ satisfaction such as system quality, information quality, and system application. The research sample included all staff in the Bureau of Prisons in Markazi province, Iran. The sample data were analyzed based on four factors including age, gender, education level, and years of service. Hypotheses testing revealed that there is a significant correlation between all of the considered variables. Results indicated that the ease of use of information system, authorized access to information system, integrated reports provided by information system, timely response of information system to individuals’ needs, information system variability and flexibility under different settings and continuity and uniformity of information system programming, information accuracy, security, completeness, newness, coordination and simplicity as well as correct information volume and understandability of information, information use in job performance improvement, feasibility of objectives and information system excellence, task simplification, transparency, clarity and understandability of information system, easy use, and output and productivity excellence of information system have a relatively significant impact on users’ satisfaction improvement.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have important roles in employment and GDP. One of the success pillars of SMEs is brand management improvement. This study evaluated the strategic performance of brand management in foods sector’s SMEs based on Keller’s Brand Report Card (BRC) in Iran. The research design of this paper is descriptive- survey type. The data gathered from 100 managers of 50 SMEs by using a 37-items questionnaire from 6 provinces. Results indicated that however the overall brand management performance has a good score but the performance in sub-categories are not equal. Freidman test indicated the priorities of brand performance in 10 sub-categories. Kruskal-wallis test showed that priorities of four sub-categories performance among different sectors of food industry.

In this work the speech disorder namely Apraxia of Speech is discussed. The basics of the disorder are described here. The speech parameters are identified which characterize the disorder and correction system is designed to improve the speech quality. The speech signal samples of people of age between five to eighty years are considered for the present study. These speech signals are digitized and enhanced and analyzed for the Speech Pause Index, Jitter, Shimmer, HNR, Pitch variations Tx graphs, Normalized Percentile fo characteristics and % Close Quotient EGG graphs using MATLAB, PRAAT, SFS and EXCEL platforms.

This study was conducted to evaluation of satisfaction with using Sheliver cleansing distilled product in fatty liver patients. A validated questionnaire for fatty liver disease was utilized to assess for a relationship between using Sheliver liver cleanser distilled with disease remission. A total of 120 patients responded to the questionnaire. This herbal medication included extract of Borago officinalis, Taraxacum officirale, Silybum marianum, Cynara scoolymus etc and produced by Parsiteb Company. Consumption of this product is 100 ml per day. According to questionnaire it was determined that, 78%, patients showed Satisfaction in relation to appearance and packaging of product and medication effect value. 67% of patients had “good” answer about satisfaction of healing period, but one of the things that patients were dissatisfied with the product price. According to our results and patients, Sheliver product made by Parsiteb Company is the best choice for fatty liver disease in compare to chemical medications.Key words: Fatty liver, Sheliver , questionnaire

Some physical chemical characteristics and heavy metal levels in soil samples (Top and Sub) around dumpsites at Obantoko, Lafenwa, and Olomore vicinities of Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria, were analysed in order to assess the effects of the dumps on the soils. Conventional analytical methods were employed for the determination of these physicochemical parameters while heavy metals in the soil samples where analysed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The results of the physicochemical analysis showed that the pH values in all the sites ranged from 8.21 to 8.61 indicating alkalinity of the soils. The Total Organic Carbon values ranged from 1.06 to 2.76 indicating presence of some organic matter and some microbiological activities in the soil samples. Conductivity values ranges from 875 to 1119?s/cm indicated significant presence of some soluble inorganic salts in soils studied. For all the physical chemical values recorded, the soil samples at Lafenwa had slightly higher values than those of Olomore, and Obantoko. The mean concentration level of the three locations for Pb for the top and subsoils in Obantoko, Lafenwa, and Olomore were 13.50 and 11.31, 7.64 and 12.44, 9.90 and 11.06 (mgkg-1) respectively and that of for top and subsoil for same locations were Cr 5.76 and 7.01, 7.64 and 12.44, and 4.65 and 6.86 (mgkg-1) while Pb were not detected at all locations except at Lafenwa L2 where 2.24 mgkg-1 was detected in the subsoil. The levels of the metals at the sub-soil were all higher than the top soil at all the locations, except for Obantoko were the value of Pb at the top soil was greater than the value at the subsoil. A consistent trend showing a decrease in the concentration of heavy metals at the topsoil was observed for soil samples. The results from the study show that leaching occurs at dumpsites from the top to the subsoil which could cause a degree of contamination to ground water and living organims. These soils may therefore constitute a major health risk to the local population, and therefore, need be stringent measures to curtail the adverse effect it may pose to human health and the environment.