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

Otitis media with effusion (OME) is the long-term deposition of mucus in the middle ear cleft. It is the leading cause of childhood hearing loss and a common childhood infection. It can impair communication and life quality. OME's direct and indirect costs are also crucial. Improving OME care is crucial. This study examines intranasal mometasone's efficacy in treating otitis media with effusion. A clinical trial study was conducted during a period from January 2021 to June 2022. It included 80 patients suffering from otitis media with effusion bilaterally (160 ears) who had an intact tympanic membrane and tympanometry type B. These patients were included only if they had a hearing change or loss noted by the parents or by the patien

The research aims to determine the required rate of return according to the Fama and French five-factor model, after strengthening it by adding the indebtedness factor to build the Fama and French six-factor model FF6M-DLE. The effect of the indebtedness factor on the company's profitability and the real value of the ordinary shares calculated according to the (equivalent ascertainment) model and its suitability with the company's situation, and an analysis of the fluctuation between the market value and the real value of the ordinary stocks.

Insulin like growth factor-1 has metabolic and growth-related roles all over the body and is strongly associated and regulated by growth hormone. It is produced by almost any type of tissue, especially the liver. The study aimed to measure insulin like growth factor in growth hormone deficient patients and find its relation with other studied parameters. The Subjects in the study were 180 studied in the National Diabetic Center for Treatment and Research/Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad/Iraq for the period from November 2021 to April 2022. Blood was drawn and investigated for the levels of IGF-1, IGFBP-3, LH, and FSH. Also testosterone and statistical analysis was carried out to find the potential correlations. The results relived t

A three-stage learning algorithm for deep multilayer perceptron (DMLP) with effective weight initialisation based on sparse auto-encoder is proposed in this paper, which aims to overcome difficulties in training deep neural networks with limited training data in high-dimensional feature space. At the first stage, unsupervised learning is adopted using sparse auto-encoder to obtain the initial weights of the feature extraction layers of the DMLP. At the second stage, error back-propagation is used to train the DMLP by fixing the weights obtained at the first stage for its feature extraction layers. At the third stage, all the weights of the DMLP obtained at the second stage are refined by error back-propagation. Network structures an

To demonstrate the effect of changing cavity length for FM mode locked on pulse parameters and make comparison for both dispersion regime , a plot for each pulse parameter as Lr function are presented for normal and anomalous dispersion regimes . The analysis is based on the theoretical study and the results of numerical simulation using MATLAB. The effect of both normal and anomalous dispersion regimes on output pulses is investigate Fiber length effects on pulse parameters are investigated by driving the modulator into different values. A numerical solution for model equations using fourth-fifth order, Runge-Kutta method is performed through MATLAB 7.0 program. Fiber length effect on pulse parameters is investigated by driving th

Experimental tests were conducted to study the behavior of skirted foundations rested on dry medium sandy soil subjected to vertical and inclined loads. To achieve this goal, a small-scale physical model was designed and performed which contained an aluminum circular footing (100 mm) in diameter and (10 mm) in thickness and skirts with different heights, local medium poorly graded dry sand is placed in a steel soil container (2 mm) thick with internal dimensions (1000 mm x 1000 mm in cross section and 800 mm in height). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the response of skirt attached to the foundation at different skirt (L/D) ratios (0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5) and is subjected to point load at different angles of inclinat