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Background and purpose: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common metabolic diseases worldwide. Asprosin has been identified as a novel adipokine closely associated with hepatic glucose metabolism, but limited information is available regarding its role and the effect of exercise on it. Insulin resistance is a key factor in the pathogenesis of NAFLD, particularly in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Adiponectin, the most abundant fat-specific adipokine, plays a crucial role in reducing hepatic and systemic insulin resistance, as well as liver inflammation and fibrosis. Adiponectin levels are predictive of the degree of steatosis and the severity of NASH. While there is no proven pharmacological treatment for NASH, recent therapeutic strategies have focused on indirectly regulating adiponectin through the administration of various therapeutic agents and/or lifestyle modifications. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the effect of eight weeks of high-intensity intermittent swimming training on visceral adipose tissue asprosin protein and serum adiponectin in rats with NASH induced by a high-fat diet. Materials and methods: Forty male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into two groups: diseased (high-fat diet) (N=20) and healthy (N=20). For eight weeks, the diseased group received a high-fat diet in the form of a daily emulsion (10 ml/kg) via gavage, while the healthy group received an equivalent amount of saline solution. After eight weeks, and confirmation of the disease, the rats were further divided into four subgroups: healthy-control (N=9), healthy-swimming (N=9), diseased-control (N=9), and diseased-swimming (N=9). The swimming groups performed a high-intensity swimming interval training protocol three times per week for eight weeks, while the high-fat diet continued for the diseased groups throughout the training period. At the end of the study, serum adiponectin levels were measured using the ELISA method, and asprosin protein levels in visceral adipose tissue were measured using western blotting. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to confirm the normality of the data distribution, and one-way ANOVA was used to compare group differences. If significant, Bonferroni's post hoc test was applied to identify pairwise differences. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 26, with a significance level of P

In line with the exponential growth in English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher professional identity research, the present study was an attempt to develop and validate a questionnaire on EFL teacher professional identity. Following Pennington (2015), we defined EFL teacher professional identity as "a unique blend of individual teacher characteristics within the disciplinary knowledge, standards, and practices of the field" (p. 78), which is further comprised of a set of core and peripheral elements (Beijaard et al., 2004). In order to operationalize this construct, a sequential mixed methods design was utilized. Hence, a total number of 24 participants and 750 EFL teachers took part in the qualitative and quantitative phases respectively. Analysis of the qualitative data revealed the features characterizing EFL teacher professional identity. On the basis of the qualitative results, the first version of the inventory was developed through exploratory factor analysis and was validated using structural equation modeling. In general, the results of the study paint a multi-dimensional picture of EFL teacher professional identity. This picture depicts the core features of EFL teacher professional identity and a number of peripheral elements which change and harmonize in response to the individual, contextual, and socio-cultural factors. (Beijaard et al., 2004).

Some strands of research on teacher cognition have remained predominantly cognitive and overlooked the socially-mediated nature of teachers' thoughts. One such strand is the research on teachers' pedagogical knowledge base, defined as the thought units/categories underlying teachers' instructional performance. To address this gap, the present study investigated L2 teachers' pedagogical knowledge base with a specific focus on online reading instruction at a tertiary education level and the antecedents of such pedagogical thoughts. To this end, three novice and three experienced teachers were recruited as participants. A complete online instructional session per teacher was video-recorded and used as a stimulus for inspecting their pedagogical thought units (PTUs) and the antecedents driving/shaping the thoughts. The findings revealed striking differences in the pedagogical thought categories (PTCs) of the two groups. The results further demonstrated that experienced teachers' pedagogical knowledge was informed by both cognitive and social sources, whereas novice teachers' thoughts were more cognitively oriented. In particular, experienced teachers highlighted prior teaching experiences, students' feedback, and colleagues' advice as the mediators guiding their PTUs. In contrast, novice teachers relied on knowledge from research-based theories and teacher education courses to inform their pedagogical thoughts.

A large number of studies have explored grammar instruction through implicit and explicit instructional conditions. The general conclusion drawn from these studies points to the superiority of explicit instruction; however, the claim has been attenuated by a number of reservations raised regarding its generalizability across types of grammatical structures and learners of different characteristics. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the comparative effectiveness of these two types of instructional conditions in acquiring explicit and implicit knowledge of complex and simple linguistic features by participants holding different epistemic beliefs. The results demonstrated a relative advantage for explicit instruction. However, the results also showed that the effectiveness of explicit/implicit instructional conditions varied for the participants. Additionally, the findings provided evidence against the assumption that complex structures are best learned through implicit instructional conditions and simple structures are best taught explicitly. The hypothesis that learners with more sophisticated epistemic beliefs outperform those with more naive epistemic beliefs in learning complex grammatical structures was not borne out by the analyses. Conclusions and suggestions for further research are provided.

Introduction: Recent studies have reported that Astragalus spp. can display various biological effects, e.g., anticancer, antioxidant, antimicrobial, neuroprotective, and hepatoprotective activities. Here we decided to assess the ameliorating effects of Astragalus maximus methanolic extract (AMME) on inflammation and oxidative stress in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Methods: The dried aerial parts were extracted by maceration technique with 70% methanol. Diabetes was induced in rats via intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin at 65 mg/kg. Diabetic rats orally received AMME at 75-30 mg/kg for 28 days. The serum levels of glucose, insulin, liver enzymes, bilirubin, creatinine (Cr), urea (Ur), triglyceride, and cholesterol, as well as the tissue levels of oxidant/antioxidant enzymes and pro-inflammatory cytokines were evaluated by the diagnostic kits. The level of α-amylase inhibition by AMME was also determined. Results: AMME (150 and 300 mg/kg) treatment significantly reduced (P

In the light of evidence that attention can facilitate and enhance learning, this study attempts to investigate the allocation of attention to meaning and form simultaneously in reading comprehension in the foreign language among monolingual and bilingual learners of English. To this end, three groups of learners namely, bilingual (knowing Kurdish, Persian), monolingual (knowing Persian) learners of English and mixed (equal number of bilingual and monolingual learners) as the control group were selected based on the results of a language proficiency test (MTELP). The learners in the two experimental groups were asked to read a written text for meaning and circle a designated lexical form. The learners in the control group were only required to read the text for meaning and answer the follow-up questions. To examine whether the type of attentional condition and bilinguality, as the two independent variables of the study, have any significant effect on comprehension scores, a two-way ANOVA was run. Think aloud technique was also employed to elicit the learners' targeted thought processes from the groups which had to circle the targeted lexical form. The results indicated that the experimental group who paid simultaneous attention to form and meaning and processed the targeted item for both form and meaning gained better comprehension scores regardless of the number of languages they knew. Moreover, it was shown that deeper levels of processing are associated with better comprehension ability. Therefore, we may conclude focus on the lexical form might improve comprehension as indicated by comprehension scores and may be an effective way to make texts more comprehensible.

Objective: To assess the effect of oral treatment of methanolic extract of the aerial parts of Astragalus adscendens in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Methods: In order to induce diabetes, rats intraperitoneally received streptozotocin at 65 mg/kg. Sixty adult male Wistar rats were allocated into six groups (10 rats per each) including the healthy control group, the diabetic group as well as the diabetic group treated with Astragalus adscendens methanolic extract at 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg per day or glibenclamide (0.6 mg/kg/day) for 28 d. The effects of Astragalus adscendens methanolic extract on the levels of glucose, insulin, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, aspartate aminotransferase, bilirubin, creatinine, urea, uric acid, total protein, albumin, triglyceride, cholesterol, α-amylase, oxidant/antioxidant enzymes, and inflammatory cytokines were evaluated. Real time-PCR was also used for measuring the gene expression of caspase-3, Bcl2, and Bax. Results: The levels of glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, creatinine, urea, uric acid, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin, and malondialdehyde considerably declined (P

Rural migration crisis is one of the most challenging problems in the socio-economic space of Iran. In this study, the fuzzy approach is applied to examine the effects of some variables like poverty, rural unemployment rate, the rural Gini coefficient, urban to rural wage ratio, drought situation and literacy rate on migration. In order to find the appropriate model, the Tanaka and FLSR fuzzy regression approaches are compared. The effects of the socio-economic variables on rural migration in Iran are examined during the period 1990-2018

While research on EFL teachers' beliefs and the realization of these beliefs in their classroom practices has recently gained momentum in the field of applied linguistics, the study of teachers' beliefs as they relate to listening has received insufficient attention in the literature. This study was conducted to investigate Iranian EFL teachers' beliefs about listening and their beliefs-driven instructional practices. To this end, a listening beliefs questionnaire was administered to a total of 85 teachers (BA = 49, MA = 36), followed by classroom observation of 12 teachers (6 teachers per group) who were given an audio to teach. The results revealed that there was no significant difference between BA and MA teachers regarding their listening beliefs and beliefs-driven practices. The results of the Phi coefficient of correlation indicated that there was no significant relationship between teachers' beliefs about listening instruction and their listening instructional practices. Furthermore, the results of the interview showed that time, besides other impediments, was the major obstacle for teachers to actualize their listening beliefs. The implications of the study for teacher education are discussed.

Application of growth regulators like paclobutrazol and gibberellic acid is a suitable way to prevent excessive nitrogen consumption. Therefore, this 2-year research was conducted in Karaj, Iran. This research was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications in a split-plot arrangement in 2019–2021. Treatments included nitrogen at three levels: (60, 105 and 150 kg ha−1) which were placed in the main plots. The second factor was the foliar application of growth regulators at three levels: [gibberellic acid (100 ppm), paclobutrazol (200 ppm) and control]. The results showed that application of paclobutrazol and gibberellic acid raised super wheat yield and quality compared to control. The highest biological yield (27.67 ton ha−1), was observed in the interaction of nitrogen 150 kg ha−1 + gibberellic acid in the second year, which was the same with nitrogen 150 kg ha−1 + gibberellic acid in the first year and also interaction of nitrogen 150 kg ha−1 + paclobutrazol in the second year. The highest grain protein (14.69%) was seen in nitrogen 150 kg ha−1 + gibberellic acid in the second year and nitrogen 150 kg ha−1 + gibberellic acid in the first year. Growth regulators usage and increasing the nitrogen content (150 kg ha−1), improved the yield and grain quality of wheat. Therefore, the interaction of nitrogen 150 kg ha−1 + gibberellic acid and nitrogen 150 kg ha−1 +paclobutrazol, were the best treatments of this study, due to the creation of suitable environmental conditions for wheat, and these treatments can be suggested to the farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the recognition of the importance of teachers' professional development, the exploration of teachers' Critical Incidents (CIs) as a type of professional development initiative has received insufficient attention in L2 teaching contexts. Motivated by the dearth of research in this area and building on complexity theory as its conceptual framework, this study aimed to unearth Iranian L2 teachers' CIs over a three-month course. The initiative was framed around dialogic interaction among the participants who shared their written CIs, followed by online group reflection over the CIs. Post-course interviews were also conducted with the teachers to explore their reflections on the course. The analysis of the data through grounded theory indicated the interconnection among various factors and their contributions to the varied nature of the CIs experienced by the teachers, particularly the nonlinear nature of the CIs and their interpretations in the cognitive structure of the teachers. Additionally, the teachers regarded the initiative as a positive experience, enhancing their awareness of classroom occurrences and boosting their ability to manage their pedagogical decisions. The study concludes with a number of implications for teacher education.

In all educational settings, teachers are likely to encounter learners with different emotional and cognitive characteristics, particularly learners who are demotivated or disengaged and as a result misbehave in the classroom. Learned helplessness (LH) is associated with such emotional and motivational deficits in academic performance. This study investigated the feelings of LH experienced by secondary students in the public middle schools of Iran. To this end, we administered the Learned Helplessness Scale (LHS) and the Student Behavior Checklist (SBC) to 154 students in a public middle school in Tehran. We identified 58 students (aged 13-15 years) with school-related LH and randomly assigned them to the control and experimental groups. These students participated in a motivational intervention program based on Dörnyei's motivational strategies (MSs) with social reinforcement integrated into the English language classroom to improve their academic performance and alleviate feelings of helplessness. The results revealed positive effects of the program on the participants' academic achievement and experienced LH. The delayed posttests also showed acceptable durability effects of the program six months after the intervention. It was found that the teacher and his practices in the classroom could be an effective means of alleviating LH in public schools. Further implications are discussed.

Differentiated instruction (DI) has received extensive attention in general teacher education. Little research, however, has specifically focused on language teachers' understanding of DI, particularly the developmental trajectory of their understanding. The present study, framed within and informed by sociocultural theory, investigated EFL teachers' understanding of DI through exposure to and investigation of their own video-recorded classroom performance. The teachers also received three scaffolding sessions in which a number of DI-related notions were introduced to them to mediate the development of their understanding microgenetically. Analyses of the data revealed changes in the language with which teachers' understanding of the concepts was articulated and the scope of the understanding. Furthermore, the results of post-scaffolding interviews showed that the initiative had been productive in assisting the teachers with developing awareness of individual differences, particularly its contribution to enhancing their management skills.

Abstract During the production from shale oil formations, the produced water has been dedicated to different procedures such as chemical enhanced oil recoveries, drilling mud making (e.g., for various purposes of lubrication and cooling) and hydraulic fracturing. One of the main challenges of wastewater treatment corresponds to (TDS) total dissolved solids. To measure the required water needed for different processes, it is necessary to proceed with every step saving and then make an average to calculate the required freshwater. In this regard, we have selected five different oil wells with the same rock and reservoir characteristics. SOW#3 has the highest rate of treatment (26%) and SOW#1 has the minimum treated wastewater during hydraulic fracturing processes. It corresponds to the large volume of solid and oil particles, which remained in the treatment devices. However, it is observed that SOW#1 has the highest rate of treatment (32%) and SOW#4 has the minimum treated wastewater (14%) in chemical enhanced oil recovery methods. On the other hand, SOW#3 has the highest rate of treatment (27%) and SOW#5 has the minimum treated wastewater from drilling mud preparation and other well facilities. It is observed that SOW#1 has the highest rate of treatment (27%) and SOW#5 has the minimum saving water during hydraulic fracturing processes, SOW#1 has the highest rate of treatment (38%) and SOW#4 has the minimum saving water (9%).

The present study investigated the role of semantic priming in the processing of ambiguous sentences containing Relative Clauses (RCs) preceded by a complex Noun Phrase (NP) by Persian native speakers. To this end, in a self-paced reading task using E-prime software, 63 Persian native speakers read sentences containing ambiguous RCs in their L1, i.e. Persian. The type of semantic relationship in this study was the one between the RC and one of the NPs within the complex NP to find out whether priming one of the NPs through this semantic manipulation would affect Persian native speakers’ attachment preferences. The results of the off-line post interpretive (RC attachment preferences) and on-line data (reading times) revealed that semantic priming affects participants’ attachment preferences, which suggests that their parsing preferences are not guided purely by syntactic information. The findings are in line with constraint-based models of sentence parsing, which assume that, during parsing, multiple sources of information interact and each of them constrains the interpretation in a particular way. The results also support the predictions of the Spreading Activation Model and Lexical Priming Theory.

This study proposed a simple method to evaluate the effect of technological changes in sectors on energy consumption changes. Technological changes decomposed into two factors. Input substitution in sectors represents the changes in the share of each sector in total intermediate inputs used in a specific sector and changes in direct backward linkages. From the viewpoint of input supply, the TC decomposed into two factors: Changes in the structure of intermediate input supply by sectors (selling structure changes) and direct forward linkages. The proposed model is used for the decomposition of energy consumption changes in Iran during 2011–2016. The results showed that the changes in direct backward linkages and direct forward linkages coefficients helped to decline in energy consumption.

Research publication has increasingly turned into academics' top priority around the world. Since researchers' professional survival/growth in the current competitive academic atmosphere hinges upon their research profile, there is a need for investigating how researchers' possible selves may guide their research productivity. Therefore, in this study, we explored, through interviews and narratives, how ideal, ought-to, and feared selves of Applied Linguistics researchers at various academic career stages -- doctoral students, assistant professors and associate professors -- interact with their research productivity. The findings demonstrated that the ideal selves motivating the researchers to publish are oriented towards images of problem-solving or insight-providing, highly-focused, world-recognised, and influential life-long learner-researchers. Additionally, fears of ending up as publishing-or-perishing, unknowledgeable non-publishing, academically marginalised, and unfocused researchers are among the dimensions of researchers' feared selves which guide their research productivity. Furthermore, researchers' desires to gain visibility in the research community, fulfill the university requirements, preserve their international researcher positions, and turn into prolific publishing-practicing researchers trigger them to publish in top-tier publication outlets. The study provides practical implications for researchers, professors, and researcher educators.

The student's success at school greatly depends on quality teacher and this has led to the governments' growing focus on the quality of teacher education programs and production of quality teachers. This study explored the key stakeholders' views of the pre-service teachers' professional preparation in the latest teacher education program.The participants were 257 BA students in TEFL and 40 teacher educators. Data were collected through an adapted version of the Survey of Teacher Education Programs (STEP) (Williams-Pettway, 2005) and semi-structured interview. After analyzing data by employing descriptive and inferential statistics, the findings indicated that the participants positively evaluated the components in the program and found it effective in preparation of prospective teachers. However, some participants pointed to some drawbacks as the requirement of more input on language proficiency and knowledge of English language learners, more effective use of technology, more teaching practice opportunities as a means of experiential learning, and sufficient support from supervising teachers and teacher educators during teaching practicum courses for student teachers. The findings from this study may help the tomorrow’s educational leaders and syllabus designers to equip themselves with a visionary perspective and begin to form ideas for future change and direction in line with social influences.

The present study explored the effect of semantic priming in the resolution of ambiguous sentences containing Relative Clauses (RCs) preceded by a complex Noun Phrase (NP) by L1-Persian learners of L2 English. The type of semantic relationship examined was the one between the RC and one of the NPs in the complex NP to find out whether semantic manipulation through priming one of the NPs to the RC can affect L2 learners’ attachment preference. The participants were 60 L1-Persian learners of L2 English with different proficiency levels. In a self-paced Paraphrase Decision Task using E-prime software, their reading times and attachment preferences while reading ambiguous sentences were examined. The low-proficiency participants’ off-line (RC attachment preferences) and on-line data (reading times) were compared with off-line and on-line data obtained from high-proficiency participants. The results revealed that in both groups, semantic priming affected participants’ attachment preferences. These findings are consistent with Constraint-based Models of sentence processing, which assume that several sources of information, including semantics, are used in sentence processing. The results also support predictions of the Spreading Activation Model. There were also significant differences between the two groups, low-proficiency participants fully transferred their L1 (Persian) processing strategies to their L2 (English). However, high-proficiency participants processed sentences similarly to native English speakers even though there were still traces of their L1 parsing preferences which is consistent with Shallow Structure Hypothesis.

Purpose: This study aims to compare the efficacy of two non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDs), namely lornoxicam and etodolac for controlling pain, edema and trismus after removal of lower impacted third molars. Materials and methods: A total of 20 patients comprised of both genders with bilateral impacted lower impacted third molars (in similar positions) was included in the present study. Patients were randomly assigned either to the lornoxicam group (8 mg of lornoxicam) or to the etodolac group (400 mg of etodolac). The drugs prescribed were handed out immediately after tooth extraction. Postoperative pain was assessed using visual analog scale (VAS). Edema was evaluated using reference lines on the face. Trismus was assessed using a caliper at maximum mouth opening (mm). Results: There was no significant difference in postoperative pain, trismus, and edema between lornoxicam and etodolac group (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Based on the results obtained in the present study, ıt has been verified that both lornoxicam and etodolac were adequately effective in the management of pain following third molar surgery. Lornoxicam and etodolac had similar impacts on pain, edema and trismus after impacted lower third molar surgical extractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, research on the emotional side of language teachers' work has grown exponentially. One progressively-developing subset of this line of inquiry concerns how institutional discourses/expectations interact with teachers' internal feelings, which bears on how they manage their emotions in response to such an interaction and is known as emotion labor. One type of institutional expectation of concern to the present study is the feedback that institutional supervisors provided for the teachers and could be a source of emotion labor. Motivated by this consideration, this study explored 12 Iranian EFL teachers' emotion labor in relation to supervisor feedback on their classroom instruction. The context of the study was a language school governed by mostly top-down policies, especially those of classroom observation, realized mainly through providing post-class feedback by school supervisors, with little interaction between them and the teachers. Drawing on data from interviews and narrative frames, we report on how supervisor feedback on the teachers' classroom instruction functioned as a source of emotional tension for the teachers and how they engaged in surface- and deep-acting management of their emotions to navigate the supervisory feedback. Based on the findings, we provide implications for teacher educators and school supervisors to reconsider their post-class supervisory feedback so that teachers experience less emotional tension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher pedagogical knowledge base (PKB) has secured a notable position in research on teacher cognition. One obvious gap in this strand of research concerns variations in teachers’ thought processes in relation to individual difference variables despite indications that PKB is likely to differ across individual differences. To fill part of the void, this study investigated how teachers’ PKB—conceptualized as the frequency and dominance of pedagogical thought units/categories—vary as a function of teachers’ levels of grit. To this end, eight EFL teachers (four High-Grit and four Low-Grit) were chosen to participate in the study. Stimulated recall interviews were used to explore the pedagogical thought units that underlie the teachers’ instruction. The thought units of the two groups were then identified by segmenting, coding and categorizing them. The results showed that there were significant differences between the two groups of teachers in the number and list of dominant pedagogical thought categories. Language Management, Procedure Check, Affective, Self-Reflection, Progress Review, Beliefs, and Problem Check constituted the list of dominant PTCs of High-Grit teachers, whereas Low-Grit teachers’ dominant thought categories included Language Management, Procedure Check, Time Check, Progress Review, and Problem Check. The results advance the scholarship on teachers’ PKB by extending the findings to individual differences.