The Semantic-Pragmatic Analysis of Persian Modal Verbs Based on Papafragou's Model This paper aims at analyzing the semantics and pragmatics of Persian modal verbs based on Papafragou's relevance-theoretic model. Persian modals are defined in terms of logical relations and propositional domains. According to the findings of the research, two of the three modals, namely, šodan and tavân express the logical relation of compatibility with respect to different propositional domains: the three forms mišavad, mišod and mišode are unspecified with respect to (...) their propositional domains and take them directly from the context, whereas betavân and bešavad accept the desirability domain. Mitavân also expresses compatibility in relation to the propositions in the factual domain. However, bˇyad is the only modal that encodes the logical relation of entailment and is unspecified with respect to the type of propositional domain it accepts. (shrink)

Background and ObjectivesFocal cortical dysplasia is a type of malformations of cortical development and one of the leading causes of drug-resistant epilepsy. Postoperative results improve the diagnosis of lesions on structural MRIs. Advances in quantitative algorithms have increased the identification of FCD lesions. However, due to significant differences in size, shape, and location of the lesion in different patients and a big deal of time for the objective diagnosis of lesion as well as the dependence of individual interpretation, sensitive approaches (...) are required to address the challenge of lesion diagnosis. In this research, a FCD computer-aided diagnostic system to improve existing methods is presented.MethodsMagnetic resonance imaging data were collected from 58 participants. Morphological and intensity-based features were calculated for each cortical surface and inserted into an artificial neural network. Statistical examinations evaluated classifier efficiency.ResultsNeural network evaluation metrics—sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy—were 96.7, 100, and 98.6%, respectively. Furthermore, the accuracy of the classifier for the detection of the lobe and hemisphere of the brain, where the FCD lesion is located, was 84.2 and 77.3%, respectively.ConclusionAnalyzing surface-based features by automated machine learning can give a quantitative and objective diagnosis of FCD lesions in presurgical assessment and improve postsurgical outcomes. (shrink)

Conversational implicatures are implied by the speaker in context rather than being linguistically encoded, and learners’ inability to infer the intended meaning, if not remedied through instruction, leads to communication breakdowns. Given this premise, the current study aimed to examine effects of classroom praxis-based instruction adjusted to EFL learners’ Zone of Proximal Development on their comprehension of CIMs. Participants were 36 Iranian high school students in 2 classrooms, assigned to experimental and comparison groups. A 20-item CIM test was administered at (...) pretest and posttest times to collect the data. Microgenetic trajectories were also traced through audio-recorded role-plays and social interactions within the ZPD setting. ZPD-adjusted mediational instruction on CIMs was given based on a multi-level regulatory scale and a view of microgenetic development along an other-to self-regulated functioning continuum. In the non-ZPD setting, mainstream teacher-fronted instruction was employed. ANCOVA results revealed differential instructional effects in favor of the praxis-based mediational setting. Microgenetic learning episodes also portrayed how collectively-mediated, ZPD-activated learning led to L2 learners’ progressively improved comprehension of CIMs. The findings suggest that comprehension of L2 CIMs can be improved through praxis-oriented co-construction of pragmatic knowledge through collaborative engagement with communicative activity. (shrink)

This study examined the opening and closing sequences of requestive e–mails written by 66 native English speaking students and 34 Iranian students sent to a faculty member in an American university. Three hundred requestive e–mails from NES students and NNES students sent to a professor were collected over six semesters and were analyzed for the cultural and social variation that exists in e–mail communication. Students’ choices of opening and closing strategies were examined with respect to different interpersonal styles of politeness. (...) Quantitative and qualitative findings revealed that solidarity and deference towards the professor were expressed differently in the e–mails of NES students and NNES students. (shrink)

This article investigates the construction of urban/rural binary distinctions in 18th - and 19th-century social scientific literature, and in particular in the writings of the statistical societies in England. The 18th-century writers were primarily concerned with the spread of luxury, vice and effeminacy among the upper social strata in large cities. Later on, statisticians began to focus on moral hazards among the urban working poor. These writings are significant in several respects: they contributed to the spatial mapping of moral character, (...) played a role in the development of quantitative social scientific techniques, and foreshadowed later sociological debates over the nature and consequences of social evolution from simpler to more complex societies. (shrink)

This article investigates the political role of social theories in contemporary Iran. It focuses, specifically, on how the 1979 Revolution marks a passage in Iranian political and social thought from political radicalism informed by Marxism to reformist liberalism inspired by local readings of Weber, Habermas, and Giddens. By investigating the writings of public intellectuals and political activists involved in Iran’s reform movement, the article traces their transformation from leftist revolutionary radicals to liberal proponents of free market, democracy, and religious pluralism. (...) It will be argued that an inadequate understanding of economic issues underlies the political failings of this movement. (shrink)

The present study investigates variability among raters from different linguistic backgrounds, who evaluated the pragmatic performance of English language learners with varying native languages by using both self- and peer-assessments. To this end, written discourse completion task samples of requesting speech acts from 10 participants were collected. Thereafter, the participants were asked to assess their peers’ WDCTs before assessing their own samples using the same rating scale. The raters were further asked to provide an explanation for their rating decisions. Findings (...) indicate that there may indeed be a link between a rater’s language background and their scoring patterns, although the results regarding peer- and self-assessment are mixed. There are both similarities and differences in the participants’ use of pragmatic norms and social rules in evaluating appropriateness. (shrink)

The aim of this phenomenological research study carried out in Iran was to capture the meaning of patients' rights from the lived experiences of patients and their companions. To achieve this, 12 semistructured interviews were conducted during 2005 in a teaching hospital in Tehran with patients and/or their companions. In addition, extensive field notes were compiled during the interviews. The data were analyzed using Benner's thematic analysis. The themes captured were classified into three main categories, with certain themes identified within (...) each category. The categories were: (1) the concept of patients' rights; (2) barriers to patients' rights; and (3) facilitators of patients' rights. The distinctive themes within each of the categories were identified as: (1a) receiving real care, (1b) focus on the patient, and (1c) equality and accessibility; (2a) dissatisfaction with caregivers, and (2b) specific work environment limitations; (3a) the patient's companion, (3b) a responsible system, and (3c) the public's awareness of rights. Although certain themes identified closely resemble those identified in international patients' bills of rights, the current study focused on themes that are particularly relevant to the Iranian sociocultural context. (shrink)

Background: In order to achieve the goals of the healthcare system, nursing managers are required to comply with ethical principles in decision-making. In complex and challenging healthcare settings, it is shown that the managers’ mere awareness of ethics does not suffice and managers need to be sensitive toward making ethical decisions. Aim: To explore nursing managers and their sensitivity toward ethical decision-making by analyzing their related experiences. Method: The current study has been conducted in Iran in 2017 through a qualitative (...) content analysis approach. Nineteen nurse managers were selected purposefully from different hospitals in Tehran. Data were collected using semi-structured, in-depth, face-to-face interviews, and after transcription, they were analyzed according to the Graneheim and Lundman method. Ethical considerations: The research was approved by the ethics committee of Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. Participants were informed about the purpose of the study and submitted written informed consents regarding their participation. The principle of autonomy, confidentiality, and anonymity was taken into account in data collection. Results: Fifteen subcategories, three categories, and one theme of excellent decision-making were the results of data analysis. Discussion: Findings showed that nursing managers’ sensitivity to ethical decision-making allows them to make the best decision by insight, commitment, and assertiveness. Making a morally excellent decision ensures that ethical principles are followed in the healthcare system. Conclusion: Considering that most managers are committed to making ethical decisions, it is required to develop the scope of their insights even further using a professional management and ethical principles training program. Also, by addressing some of the ethical barriers at personal and organizational levels, the assertiveness in managers can be improved, which in turn can facilitate their ethical decision-making. (shrink)

It is imperative to understand the factors that influence clinical competency. Consequently, it is essential to study those that have an impact on the process of attaining clinical competency. A grounded theory approach was adopted for this study. Professional competency empowers nurses and enables them to fulfill their duties effectively. Internal and external factors were identified as affecting clinical competency. A total of 36 clinical nurses, nurse educators, hospital managers and members of the Nursing Council in Tehran participated in this (...) research. Data were obtained by semistructured interviews. Personal factors and useful work experience were considered to be significant, based on knowledge and skills, ethical conduct, professional commitment, self-respect and respect for others, as well as from effective relationships, interest, responsibility and accountability. Effective management, education systems and technology were named as influential environmental factors. Personal and environmental factors affect clinical competency. Ethical persons are responsible and committed to their work, acquiring relevant work experience. A suitable work environment that is structured and ordered also encourages an ethical approach by nurses. (shrink)

This article reports the results of a qualitative study that used a deep interview method. The aim was to gather lived experiences of clinical nurses employed at government-funded medical centres regarding the non-materialistic and spiritual aspects of the profession that have had an important impact on their job satisfaction. On analysing the participants' concepts of spiritual satisfaction, the following themes were extracted: spiritually pleasant feelings, patients as celestial gifts, spiritual commitment, spiritual penchant, spiritual rewards, and spiritual dilemmas. Content analysis of (...) the data indicated that nurses who viewed these dimensions of job satisfaction as a significant factor considered nursing as an opportunity to worship God while providing care for patients, and regarded their aim as achieving patients' contentment by providing nursing care compatible with scientific care methods. (shrink)

Dignity is a human right and a base for human health. This right must be observed in work environments as a moral obligation. This qualitative study aimed to understand nurses’ experiences of violation of their dignity at work and to explore its dimensions. The participants were 15 nurses working in two hospitals in Tehran. The data were collected through 26 unstructured interviews and analyzed using content analysis. The dimensions of violation were ‘irreverence’, including experiences of abuse and violence, humiliation, and (...) being ignored; ‘coercion and violation of autonomy’, consisting of the control of relationships, lack of privacy, rigidness, and imposition; ‘ignoring professional and scientific ability’, indicating impossibilities in applying nurses’ knowledge; and ‘denying the value of nurse/care’, being the theme that verified the dominance of treatment/cure and lack of recognition of care value. Health systems should take the promotion of the nurses’ dignity into account through providing a dignified work environment. (shrink)

The main goal of this study was to identify factors motivating pragmatic transfer in advanced learners of English. Based on a cross-cultural comparison of requesting behavior between Koreans and Americans, this study determined the impact of individual subjective motives on pragmatic language choice. Two different groups of subjects participated in this study: 30 Korean participants and 30 American college students. Data were collected by using a Discourse Completion Task. Korean participants provided the data for Korean and English versions of DCT. (...) Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 13 Korean ESL learners who showed the most and least amount of pragmatic transfer. Findings showed evidence of pragmatic transfer in the request responses given by Korean ESL learners in their requestive strategies, level of directness, and perspectives of head acts. The interview data revealed that Korean students were conscious of differing rules for making requests. Learners’ judgment of L2 pragmatic norms, perception of their own language, and their attitudes of the target language influence language use. Furthermore, findings showed that purpose of learning English, different types of motivation, and the length of intended residence contribute to the extent of pragmatic transfer. (shrink)

BackgroundMedical education is currently more considerate about the human dimension. The present qualitative study aimed to explain the experiences of clinical professors with regard to humanism in clinical education in Iran.MethodsThis mixed methods study had two phases, a quanitative phase of scientometrics and a qualitative phase of a content analysis. In the scientometrics phase, Ravar PreMap and VOSviewer software programs were utilized for plotting the conceptual networks. The networks were analyzed at the micro-level based on centrality indices. The conceptual network (...) was plotted and the prominent topics in clinical education were identified using co-word analysis. In the second qualitative phase on the topic, based on the scientometrics phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with clinical professors. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed.ResultsOn the basis of the analysis of titles, abstracts, and keywords of the retrieved articles on clinical education from ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed, 1412 keywords were extracted. After the refining process, 356 keywords with 6741 relations remained. Upon plotting the conceptual network, 19 conceptual clusters related to clinical education were obtained. Then, micro-level network analysis indicated that the keyword humanism with the frequency of 137 had the highest rate, closeness, and betweenness. Moreover, from the interview data analysis, two themes of “intertwined nature of the human spirit in clinical education” and “humanistic behavior of professors in clinical education” were extracted.ConclusionAs a part of the educational culture, humanistic values must be intertwined with the medical education curriculum. In this regard, humanism and clinical reasoning are the two major clusters of clinical teaching; moreover, altruism and adherence to humanistic values, and scientific qualification are other main pillars that should be considered as the criteria for the selection of clinical professors and medical students. (shrink)

Benchmarking is the major reason for the widespread use of DEA models for efficiency analysis. Determining the closest targets for DMUs, DEA models play a key role in benchmarking their best performance. In fact, these models help develop certain performance enhancement plans that need fewer attempts made by DMUs. Therefore, this study proposes a novel method based on the network DEA to determine the most appropriate target for every stage in addition to benchmarking the DMUs. The proposed model differs from (...) those proposed by other studies in the fact that all DEA models of benchmarking consider input and output values to be linear. However, in real-world problems, many DMU inputs and outputs have nonlinear values, something which was taken into account in the modeling process in this study. The proposed model was employed to benchmark cement factories listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. (shrink)