javid fereidoni

This study investigates the use of apologizing strategies by speakers of Azerbaijani Turkish in Iran. One hundred and twenty (60 male and 60 female) randomly selected speakers of Azerbaijani Turkish from Tabriz participated in a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and returned 2400 apology speech acts. The DCT included 20 scenarios representing 10 discourse situations. The acts were analyzed based on the categorization suggested by Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984), which included Illocutionary Force Indicating Device, Taking on responsibility, Explanation, Offer of repair, Promise of forbearance, Concern for the hearer, and Nonverbal strategies. The findings indicated that the highly preferred apology strategies among the participants are explanation and offer of repair. Moreover, there was a statistically significant association between the independent variables (the participants’ age, gender, and level of education) and the choice of apology strategies. However, such an association was only significant for some discourse situations; e.g., in interaction with relatives that are in an equal status with the participant and in an adult-child interaction where the participant has a superior status.

This article examines the impact of gender, age, and education on the attitudes of Kurdish speakers in Mahabad towards standard Persian and the Kurdish language. Since people’s emotions towards their own or others’ languages are related to their language attitudes, this important component plays a significant role in measuring success in language planning, learning speed, language selection and use, and predicting the extinction or sustainability of a language. The study’s statistical population consisted of 80 Kurdish-Persian bilinguals in Mahabad who were randomly selected. This study is situated within the theoretical framework of sociocognitive linguistics, and the research perspective was measured through an indirect method (matched-guise test). After distributing the questionnaire and conducting the matched-guise test, the collected data were analyzed. The results of the statistical analysis showed that the variables of gender, age, and education in Mahabad had no significant impact on the attitudes of bilingual Kurdish speakers towards standard Persian and the Kurdish language. The Kurdish speakers of Mahabad exhibited numerically positive attitude towards the standard Persian language compared to Kurdish language, but no significant difference in terms of any of the mentioned variables was observed between the two languages under study.

An important issue in learning a second language is to withdraw from learning the second language which affects directly the learning quality and arriving at educational objectives and its adverse consequences have been always aimed at language learners. Therefore, studying the effective factors in this social complex issue to take appropriate prohibitory strategies seems necessary. The statistical population of this study constitutes of 800 language learners of UACECR. The volume of the statistical sample was considered 261 persons using Morgan Table and with a 95% confidence coefficient. After arranging the statistical population based on the total score and given the provided categorization in this article, 261 statistical samples were selected with a simple random method from the first, third, and fourth quarters. The samples were composed of 12 to 18 years old boy and girl learners at the elementary level. The effect of the "gender" factor was studied in addition to the correlation between "absence" and "withdrawal of learning" factors. For this purpose, the samples were separated into two groups "the language learners with a total score higher than 90" and "the language learners with a total score lower than 80". The study's assumptions were studied using the chi-square test at SPSS V.24 software. The results of obtained data analysis indicated that the total absence coefficient of the boys is 123.2% which is 15.1% higher than the total girls. It is worth noting that girls in the diligent group absented 26.8% less, and the girls in the less diligent group absented 10.6% more compared to their boys' counterpart group. Meanwhile, the less diligent boys and girls absented 48% and 10.6% more compared to their same gender in the diligent group. The relative percentage indicated the learning withdrawal of the studied groups to the total complex. As indicated 19.95 of the girls in the studied population withdraw from learning the language in the next term of which 27.6% were related to the less diligent group and 47.4% were related to the diligent boys' group.  The coefficient of absence and learning withdrawal were significantly correlated with  0.048 and 0.011 respectively for diligent and less diligent groups at a 5% level. No significant correlation was seen among other variables at the 5% level. It can be also said that although according to structural strain theory, totally boys are more subjected to language learning withdrawal, this is completely reversed in the "less diligent" girl group. In other words, this group of girl language learners even withdraw more compared to their boy counterparts. Finally, it seems that the "absence" variable can be considered an appropriate factor to predict language learning withdrawal of English learners.

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women and the seventh most common worldwide.

The present study aimed at investigating the usability of curemodels in analyzing patients’ survival. Besides, the factors affecting the long-term and short-term survival of the patients were determined, usingWeibull, log-logistic, and log-normalmodels.

The sample population of the study included 109 female patients with cervical cancer referred to Motahhari Hospital of Urmia (West Azerbaijan province) from 2004 to 2015. The cure survival analysis was used to determine the patients’ survival.

The mean and standard deviation age at diagnosis was 50.1 ± 11.7 years. The patients’ age, age at marriage, and the disease relapse were significant in the single-variable model on the long-term survival function of the patients. Moreover, the findings showed that Cured Log Logistic Parametric Model was more suitable for analyzing survival data in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. The relapse variable was significant for all the parametric models.

Given the divided sample population into immune and susceptible groups, the mixture cure models can be used to analyze the long-term and short-term survival of the patients with cervical cancer. Moreover, these models can be used to recognize the factors affecting both groups simultaneously.

Code switching, as an outcome of linguistic contact, can be seen in most of the multilingual societies. The present field study was conducted in Urmia, a multilingual city of Iran. The purpose of the study was to compare the frequency and direction of code switching among female elementary and high-school students representing high, middle, and low social classes. Applying a non-participant observation method, the required data was extracted from the casual conversations of the students through voice recording. The extracted data was then, exposed to statistical analysis using SPSS software. According to the findings, there was a statistically significant relationship between the direction of code switching and social class of the participants, i.e. the dominant code switching direction among high-class was Fasri-Turkish, while students in the low and middle classes mostly switched in the reverse direction. Furthermore, the results showed no significant relationship between sex and frequency of code switching. Also, no significant relationship was observed between sex and direction of code switching neither.

Code switching, as an outcome of linguistic contact, can be seen in most of the multilingual societies, including Urmia, the capital city of West Azerbaijan province, Iran. The present field study aimed to compare the frequency, direction (from Turkish to Persian or vice versa), and categorical levels (affix, word, phrase, or sentence) of code switching among female elementary and high-school students representing high, middle, and low social classes. In order to do this, the required data were extracted from the casual conversations of the students which were collected using a non-participant observation method through voice recording in public places. According to the findings, code switching was more frequent among high-school students representing the middle social class. Besides, according to the results, words were the most frequent, and affixes were the rarest code-switched elements in the data. Moreover, most of the students switched the code when their mother language was the dominant language of the conversation. Also, high-school students favored code-switching at word level, compared to the elementary students who switched sentences most.

The occurrence of errors in writing skill in English language is a typical issue among the foreign language learners that requires an error analysis in detail. Accordingly, the purpose of present study is to analysis the type of written errors in papers submitted to Nursing and Midwifery Journal of Urmia University of Medical Sciences before conducting any scientific editing. In order to analyze the errors, from among a number of papers submitted to the journal, the English abstract of 50 papers were selected randomly, and the type of written errors were analyzed regarding the frequency and percentage of their occurrence. To analyze the data, SPSS software, version 16 was used. The findings revealed that the ratio of errors in terms of interlanguage interference (first language interference) in the target language (English) was more than the errors in the intralanguage interference (the target language itself), and they were more related to grammatical and lexical errors. The findings showed that first language has a significant effect on the occurrence of written errors in the target language. Therefore, by analyzing the type of errors, and rooting out their causes, we can evaluate the writing proficiency level of the submitters in the target language (English), to prevent the repetition of same written errors in their written materials.

Methodology as a critical factor plays a significant role in achieving the acceptable results in educational fields, particularly in the process of language teaching and learning in applied linguistics. Analyzing the teaching methodology from different perspectives such as satisfaction is also important. Accordingly, the purpose of present paper is to evaluate the satisfaction level the students of medicine about GTM and CLT methods in UMSU.
To this end, a designed questionnaire was used among 35 students of medicine (17 males and 18 females) as a convenience sample ranging from 19 to 22 years to assess their beliefs about GTM and CLT. The quantitative and descriptive statistical methods were used to evaluate the students’ satisfactions level toward GTM and CLT. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software, version 17. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test was applied to evaluate the normal distribution of data in different variables (p> 0.05). In order to compare the mean scores of two methods, a paired t-test was used, respectively.
The findings indicated that there is a significant difference in students’ perception between GTM and CLT method in the presentation of contents. Students had positive attitudes toward deductive and lectured-based learning, and they were satisfied with GTM. In other four remained options, no significant differences were observed.
According to the results, it was revealed that although CLT method is confirmed and suggested by a large number of scholars to be an effective method in language teaching, its state of the practice is not in favor of learners in some cases, mainly among the students of medicine at UMSU.

After kidney transplantation, many risk factors can lead to graft rejection and force the patient to return to dialysis treatment.
This study aims to identify risk indicators of renal graft failure, such as serum creatinine, on long-term graft survival, using a novel statistical technique.
In this historical cohort study, 129 patients who underwent kidney transplants were assessed and followed up from September 2003 to December 2014 in Urmia, Iran. The main outcome of the study was assessing the survival rate of kidney transplant in these subjects. In addition, the serum creatinine levels were measured repeatedly for one year after the operation, as the most important risk indicator of graft failure. In addition, the effect of other indicators on graft survival were assessed using a joint modeling of longitudinal and survival technique, using the R software, version 3.0.2.
One-, three-, five-, and ten-year graft survival was 93.8%, 86.8%, 76.6%, and 37.4%, respectively. The results of the joint model showed that risk indicators, such as serum creatinine level (P In general, our study showed that short-term graft failure in Iran is almost equal to the reported rates in some developed countries, but its long-term failure is rather high compared to these same countries. In this context, monitoring the post-operative risk indicators of graft rejection, such as the serum creatinine level, plays an important role in increasing the survival rate of kidney transplantation. The present model can be used to design similarly structured datasets.

The use of coping strategies in reducing the adverse effects of stress can be helpful. Nero‑linguistic programming (NLP) is one of the modern methods of psychotherapy. This study aimed to determine the effect of NLP on occupational stress in nurses working in critical care units of Urmia.
This study was carried out quasi‑experimentally (before–after) with control and experimental groups. Of all the nurses working in the critical care units of Urmia Imam Khomeini and Motahari educational/therapeutic centers, 60 people participated in this survey. Eighteen sessions of intervention were done, each for 180 min. The experimental group received NLP program (such as goal setting, time management, assertiveness skills, representational system, and neurological levels, as well as some practical and useful NLP techniques). Expanding Nursing Stress Scale (ENSS) was used as the data gathering tool. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. Descriptive statistics and Chi‑square test, Mann–Whitney test, and independent t‑test were used to analyze the data.
The baseline score average of job stress was 120.88 and 121.36 for the intervention and control groups, respectively (P = 0.65). After intervention, the score average of job stress decreased to 64.53 in the experimental group while that of control group remained relatively unchanged (120.96). Mann–Whitney test results showed that stress scores between the two groups was statistically significant (P = 0.0001).
The results showed that the use of NLP can increase coping with stressful situations, and it can reduce the adverse effects of occupational stress.

Morphine and tramadol which have analgesic effects can be administered acutely or chronically. This study tried to investigate the effect of these drugs at various times by using different methods of administration (intraperitoneal, oral, acute and chronic). Sixty adult female rats were divided into six groups. They received saline, morphine or tramadol (20 to 125 mg/kg) daily for 15 days. A hot plate test was performed for the rats at the 1st, 8th and 15th days. After drug withdrawal, the hot plate test was repeated at the 17th, 19th, and 22nd days. There was a significant correlation between the day, drug, group, and their interaction (P<0.001). At 1st day (d1), both morphine, and tramadol caused an increase in the hot plate time comparing to the saline groups (P<0.001), while there was no correlation between drug administration methods of morphine and/or tramadol. At the 8th day (d8), morphine and tramadol led to the most powerful analgesic effect comparing to the other experimental days (P<0.001). At the 15th day (d15), their effects diminished comparing to the d8. After drug withdrawal, analgesic effect of morphine, and tramadol disappeared. It can be concluded that the analgesic effect of morphine and tramadol increases with the repeated use of them. Thereafter, it may gradually decrease and reach to a level compatible to d1. The present data also indicated that although the analgesic effect of morphine and tramadol is dose-and-time dependent, but chronic exposure to them may not lead to altered nociceptive responses later in life.