Criticism is inherently impolite and a face-threatening act generally leading to conflicts among interlocutors. It is equally challenging for both native and non-native speakers, and needs pre-planning before performing it. The current research examines the production of non-institutional criticism by Iraqi EFL university learners and American native speakers. More specifically, it explores to what extent Iraqi EFL learners and American native speakers vary in (i) performing criticism, (ii) mitigating criticism, and (iii) their pragmatic choices according to the contextual variables of power and distance. To collect data, a discourse-completion task was used to elicit written data from 20 Iraqi EFL learners and 20 American native speaker

This study sought to determine the impact of spreading the culture of quality in improving the quality of tourism service in some hotels in Erbil governorate. The theme of excellence in providing service and attention to it has become the concern of most organizations in general and tourism service organizations in particular. Tourists try to establish the mental status of customers about their tourism organizations had to pay attention to the quality of service provided to the customer and work to develop them to the advanced stages of satisfaction and happiness of customers and this will certainly positively affect the improvement of service in the tourism sector, Of the research variables were examined statistically by distrib

The aim of this study is to investigate the behavior of composite castellated beam in which the concrete slab and steel beam connected together with headed studs shear connectors. Four simply supported composite beams with various degree of castellation were tested under two point static loads. One of these beams was built up using standard steel beam, i.e. without web openings, to be a reference beam. The other three beams were fabricated from the same steel I-section with various three castellation ratios, (25, 35, and 45) %. In all beams the concrete slab has the same section and properties. Deflection at mid span of all beams was measured at each 10 kN load increment. The test results show that the castellation process leads to

This study comprised three traverses extending parallel through the Northern, Central and Southern Mahmudiya districts, and perpendicular to the course of the Euphrates River. They were identified to collect (15) soil samples and some water samples as distributed within the land cover classes of the study area. Those classes were determined by visual interpretation and supervised classification for Landsat (TM) images obtained in August/2007. The digital classification was based on Maximum Likelihood method using six spectral bands excluding the thermal band. Chemical and physical laboratory analysis for the soil characteristics was performed to determine the types of land degradation in the study area.
The results showed that the hig

Background: To evaluate the ISO depth of cure of bulkfill composites and depth of cure which determined by Vickers microhardness test. Materials and Methods: Bulkfill resin composite specimens (n=150) were prepared of three bulkfill composite materials (TetricEvo Ceram, Quixfil and SDR) and light cured by Flash max p3 for 3, 10, 20 seconds and by wood pecker for 10, 20 seconds respectively, a mold was filled with one of the three bulkfill composites and light cured. The specimens removed from the mold and scraped by plastic spatula and the remaining length (absolute length) was measured which represent the ISO depth of cure. After that the specimens were returned into the mold and a microhardness indentation device applied on the specimen

The Hopfield network is one of the easiest types, and its architecture is such that each neuron in the network connects to the other, thus called a fully connected neural network. In addition, this type is considered auto-associative memory, because the network returns the pattern immediately upon recognition, this network has many limitations, including memory capacity, discrepancy, orthogonally between patterns, weight symmetry, and local minimum. This paper proposes a new strategy for designing Hopfield based on XOR operation; A new strategy is proposed to solve these limitations by suggesting a new algorithm in the Hopfield network design, this strategy will increase the performance of Hopfield by modifying the architecture of t

Background: Bisphosphonates are potent inhibitors of osteoclastic bone resorption and widely used for the treatment of osteoporosis, and osteogenesis imperfecta in children. Clinical and experimental studies have demonstrated that Bisphosphonates delay or inhibit tooth eruption. This study tries to focus on the effect of bisphosphonate on teeth development and jaw bones growth. Materials and methods: The present study includes 65 neonatal rats during lactation period from 15 Albino Wister rats mother. Alendronate (one type of Bisphosphonates) was administrated orally (15 mg/kg) into 10 pregnant rats two times a week, while other 5 rats regard as control. Then the neonatal rats sacrificed in I, 6, 11, 16 and 21 days. The lower first molar we

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Arthroscopic knee surgeries are performed in very large numbers worldwide, and in spite of relatively low complication rate, but the total number is significant. Some of these complications are due to tourniquet use and can be serious. OBJECTIVE: Is to asses if automated pump (with or without) dilute epinephrine saline irrigation can replace the tourniquet use in soft tissue arthroscopic knee surgeries. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 36 patients (9 females 25 % and 27 males 75 %) were included in this prospective experimental nonrandomized study, and were necessitated soft tissue arthroscopic knee surgeries. Patients were divided into two groups, in group A (patients) tourniquet and automated pump were used. In group B (18 pati

The work reported in this study focusing on the abrasive wear behavior for three types of pipes used in oil industries (Carbone steel, Alloy steel and Stainless steel) using a wear apparatus for dry and wet tests, manufactured according to ASTM G65. Silica sand with
hardness (1000-1100) HV was used as abrasive material. The abrasive wear of these pipes has been measured experimentally by measuring the wear rate for each case under different sliding speeds, applied loads, and sand conditions (dry or wet). All tests have been conducted using sand of particle size (200-425) µm, ambient temperature of 34.5 °C and humidity 22% (Lab conditions).
The results show that the material loss due to abrasive wear increased monotonically with

Background: The roles of AI in the academic community continue to grow, especially in the enhancement of learning outcomes and the improvement of writing quality and efficiency. Objectives: To explore in depth the experience of senior pharmacy students in using artificial intelligence for academic purposes. Methods: This qualitative study included face-to-face individual interviews with senior pharmacy students from March to May 2023 using a pre-planned interview guide of open-ended questions. All interviews were audio-recorded. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: The results were obtained from 15 in-depth face-to-face interviews with senior pharmacy students (5th and 4th years). Eight participants were male, an