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The effect of the implementation of student response systems (SRSs) in teaching on the critical thinking (CT) of young students was investigated. The study benefited from a quasi-experimental design and a pretest/posttest set-up. Subjects consisted of 156 K-8 students in Tehran during 2016-2017, selected through a multistage cluster sampling, and randomly assigned to either the experimental group (EG) or the control group (CG). The regular curriculum of the students contained a weekly session of a course titled "Thinking and Lifestyle." Ten sessions of the course were conducted using SRS (aka clickers) for EG, whereas CG kept receiving the same content in the conventional form. The teaching period was followed by the posttest. ANCOVA showed that, in contrast with CG, EG scored significantly higher on CT test after the intervention. The effect was shown to be only significant for the students at the lower side of the performance spectrum. Thus, in this inaugural study of clickers in schools in Iran, it was empirically demonstrated that clickers, as a relatively new piece of technology, can be successfully utilized during early adolescence in the pedagogical strategies in general and for the improvement of CT of students in particular.

Cooperative teaching is the result of efforts made by two educators for teaching a heterogeneous group of students, especially one including those with specific needs, due to reading disorders for instance. The present study serves as an experimental investigation focusing on the effect of cooperative teaching on the development of reading skills among students with a reading disorder. To achieve this, three female students were selected from a regular primary school in the 2nd education district of Tabriz, Iran. The research design was a multiple baseline single subject design with different children, in which we used the reading and dyslexia test (RDT) and the revised Wechsler Intelligence Scale to diagnose reading disorders, and a researcher-made hundred-word test to measure the development of reading skills. The children received five cooperative teaching sessions during only the (experimental) intervention, i.e. in the baseline and the follow-up stages, they were not exposed to any cooperative teaching. The comparisons of the students' performance in experimental phases showed that cooperative teaching is an effective technique for developing reading skills and that the effectiveness of this technique was also maintained over time. This work is the first empirical demonstration of the effectiveness of co-teaching in dealing with dyslexic reading disabilities. It additionally serves as the first instance of applying co-teaching to any form of reading disability in Iran.

The application of nitric oxide synthase compound in the stabilization of the tetrahydrobiopterin cofactor radical is discussed. The unusual catalytic one-electron chemistry exhibited by these compounds is also explained.

Ag6(VIVO)2(PO4)2(P27) was obtained by reaction of Ag3PO4 and (VO)2P2O7 (sealed ampoule, 550 °C, 3 d). The crystal structure of the new mixed ortho-pyrophosphate was determined from X-ray single-crystal data [Pnma, Z = 4, a = 12.759(3) Å, b = 17.340(4) Å, c = 6.418(1) Å, R1 = 0.071, wR2 = 0.184 for 3174 unique reflections with F0 > 4σ(F0), 141 variables]. Ag+ ions are located in between layers [(VIVO)2(PO4)2(P2O7)]6-. Equilibrium relations of the new phosphate to neighboring phases were determined. The electronic structure of the (VIV≡O)2+ group was investigated by polarized electronic absorption spectroscopy (ν1a = 9450 cm-1, ν1b = 9950 cm-1, ν2 = 14750 cm-1), EPR spectroscopy [X- and Q-band, powder and single crystal, orthorhombic crystal g-tensor with g1 = 1.9445(3), g2 = 1.9521(3), g3 = 1.9695(3)] and magnetic measurements (powder, μexp/μB = 1.71, Θp = -1.7 K). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]