Archives-J 

Test-task characteristics have been considered as an important factor affecting the test takers’ performance on a test (Bachman, 1990, p. 156). Response format is one part of test-task characteristics that affects the performance of test takers. This study investigates whether the kind of response format would affect the performance of test takers. For this reason two test methods - - multiple-choice and free-response - - have been compared. The tests, together with a checklist of test taking strategies were administered to forty undergraduate English students of Rasht Azad University. The analysis showed that two tests with identical content but different formats did not yield measures of the same trait. In addition, the discrimination indices showed that two reading tests could discriminate students differently. This was more investigated by analyzing data obtained from the checklists of test taking strategies.

The aim of present study is to investigate the impact of metacognitive strategies on the improvement of Iranian EFL learners? listening comprehension skill. In order to achieve the goal of present study, a sample test of KET was administered to 70 students to check whether two groups are homogenous or not. Their ages varies between 12-15, after doing language test, participants were divided into two groups as experimental and control groups. The experimental group received listening tasks through metacognitive strategies in three phase ( pre-listening, listening, and post-listening). The Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) was developed by Vangrift et al. (2006) is used for both groups. A pretest was chosen from Cambridge Practice Test was given to the participants that ensure there were no significant difference between experimental and control groups, and they belong to the same population.. The experimental group had 16 training sessions, two hours each sessions; twice a week .used same materials were used for both groups. The students were asked to answer 7 questions of self-report after listening and 16 questions of checklists. After the treatment all participants had Cambridge test as post-test to check possible differences between treatment group and control group. Key words: listening comprehension, listening strategies, metacognition, metacognitive strategies.

Currently it is observed that political participation by youth in Malaysia is increasingly less well received, this is because most of these people are more focused on their studies and their careers. Therefore this paper will discuss the factors that influence the political participation of youth in Malaysia. Among the factors that are highlighted are the Demographic factors, Leadership and Management Factors, the factor of the Leaders’ Communication, Mass Media Factors and Social Environmental Factors that consists of Family Influence, Peer Influence and Influence of the Local Community. From these factors, to a certain extent we are able to more or less see in detail the problems that exist in the political participation of youth, which can also provide some input in the best way to encourage political participation of youth in Malaysia.

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We have studied 276 cases in Hyderabad to investigate the persistence of TB and potential threat aspects for condensing TB, within which the positive kinfolk’s history of TB proves to be substantial threat factor. Previously diagnosed patients were poorly obedient to anti-TB treatment. This study focuses the exposure of convicts to TB due to the presence of highly transmittable cases. This study sturdily specified the necessity of an effective treatment program in the broad-spectrum community. This study was conducted in medical units 1of Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences (LUMHS) Jamshoro. Out of total, 274 patients studied, majority of the patients were from poor, deprived and lower social class. To control this infection early diagnosis of the disease and its treatment under the supervision is very important.

Present paper addresses the role of State Research problem is that legal discipline imposed by State is sometimes not admired by citizens and, consequently, political system faces with instability while laws and regulations should naturally establish public order. Therefore, the main question is that “what is the role of State in changing public order to legal order in responding people’s demands? Out hypothesis is that due to the emergence of human security and the rationality of structural functionalism theory, legal order by State can establish such function imposed by the concept of public order. Studies indicate that in general law, public order consists of citizens’ demands in the format of society’s value system. Since any legal norm should be implemented by political power support, the State which implements such rules is too important. Considering the existing values in the heart of new concept of public order and the possibility of changing society’s value system, State can provide such function committed to natural law approach and impartial in public arena. Such State should be also committed to the requirement of good governance theory in order to provide human security.

Helping English learners acquire a foreign language effectively is an essential issue which needs to be investigated. Obtaining a good listening comprehension which acts as a basis for the development of the other skills is very important. This study intended to explore and see whether using authentic English songs can improve the EFL learners’ listening comprehension. This paper reported the results of this study which was implemented on two groups in Tarlak English institute in Bandar Anzali. The study determined the effect of English songs on the language learners’ listening comprehension. This study was executed on 40 intermediate level students who were assigned to two groups as the control group and the experimental group. A pre and postlistening test was applied to both groups. The findings showed that the use of English songs had statistically significant impact on the language learners’ listening comprehension. Key Terms, listening, songs, authentic listening

This research was aimed at bio-ethanol production by fungi capable of producing cellulases and to convert pre-treated lingo-cellulosic material to fermentable sugars. The lingo-cellulosic material such as sugarcane bagasses, sugarcane leaves, rice husk or wheat bran were used as substrates. Fungi were isolated from soil samples collected from various regions. The pure cultures were screened for the ability to degrade cellulose. The fungi capable of cellulose production were identified as Trichoderma sp based on colony characters, microscopic observation and identification. The substrates were powdered and pretreated with fungal isolates using Mandels’ and Reese media. The substrates were used as a carbon source. Then optimization studies were carried out by using five bio-mass substrates at different pH, temperature and incubation period. Analysis was done by using Gas Chromatography. Sugarcane bagasses, Juice waste, Rice husk, Wheat bran, and Dry leaves were treated with Trichoderma isolates. Sugarcane bagasse and juice waste have shown highest concentrat ion of reducing sugars of 45.95 mg/g and 40.56 mg/g respectively and ethanol yield of 51.15 % and 46.5 % respectively. Dry leaves, Wheat bran and Rice husk have shown less reducing sugars of 33.32 mg/g, 30.32 mg/g, and 29.45 mg/g and ethanol yield 11.1 %, 7.15 %, and 6 % respectively as compared with sugarcane bagasse and juice waste.

The vertical distribution of phytoplankton in stratified water columns (upper 150 m), was studied at five stations around the cap Juby area, Moroccan Atlantic sea, during four periods in 2009. Five depth levels were sampled: 5, 25, 50m for coastal stations and up to 90, 150m for offshore stations. The vertical variability of the physical parameters was analyzed to assess the impact of hydrological fluctuations on phytoplankton vertical distribution. The maximal densities are noted at the surface in April and June, where the upwelling activity reaches its maximum, manifested by cold-water temperature, low salinities and an intense intake of nutrients. These observations are confirmed by the vertical distribution of dominant species, such as Thalassiosira spp, Leptocylindrus danicus, Leptocylindrus minimus, Nitzschia spp and Alexandrium spp. Indeed, these five common and frequently occurring phytoplankton species showed maximal proliferation, on the upper layers, in upwelling periods. In February and October, a considerable stratification of all parameters is noticed, leading to an unremarkable vertical variability in phytoplankton distribution.

Existing and in recent times proposed clustering algorithms are studied and it is known that the k-means clustering method is mostly used for clustering of data due to its reduction of time complexity. But the foremost drawback of k-means algorithm is that it suffers from sensitivity of outliers which may deform the distribution of data owing to the significant values. The drawback of the k-means algorithm is resolved by k-medoids method where the novel approach uses user defined value for k. As a result, if the number of clusters is not chosen suitably, the accuracy will be minimized. Even, K-medoids algorithm does not scale well for huge data set. In order to overcome the above stated limitations, a new grid based clustering method is proposed, where time complexity of proposed algorithm is depending on the number of cells. Simulation results show that, the proposed approach has less time complexity and provides natural clustering method which scales well for large dataset.

The applications of audio and video compression are limitless and the ISO has done well to provide standards which are appropriate to the wide range of possible compression products. MPEG coding embraces video pictures from the tiny screen of a videophone to the high-definition images needed for electronic cinema. Audio coding stretches from speech-grade mono to multichannel surround sound. This paper presents an overview of the video compression standards related to the MPEG family. MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 are specially covered including its latest standards. MPEG-7 is mainly used for object descriptions and MPEG-21 is for DRM (Digital Rights Management).