درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Purpose: Unusual or intense exercise causes minor damage (microtrauma) to muscle fibers. It is thought that this damage is accompanied by the release of certain enzymes into the blood serum. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of resistance training and retraining on the enzymes creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and aspartate aminotransferase in inactive young boys. Method: Twenty-four healthy inactive young boys volunteered for the present study and were randomly divided into two groups of 10. The exercise protocol consisted of five stations of biceps and shoulders with a barbell, squats, chest presses, and forearm presses. Each movement consisted of three sets of 12 repetitions. The exercise intensity was 75% of one repetition maximum. Serum levels of the enzymes creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and aspartate aminotransferase were measured before the activity and at intervals of 1 and 48 hours thereafter. For data analysis, repeated measures analysis of variance and independent t-test were used at a significance level of p≥0.05. Results: The results of the present study showed that the levels of creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and aspartate aminotransferase enzymes increased in both resistance training and resistance retraining groups compared to the pre-test at time intervals of 1, and 48. No differences were observed in serum levels of creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and aspartate aminotransferase between the two groups during and after retraining (p>0.05). Conclusion: Retraining may not be a significant variable affecting recovery after muscle injury. However, more research is needed in this area.

Purpose: Vigorous physical exercise causes notable alterations in the circulatory system, affecting stress hormones and plasma proteins. Cortisol serves as a primary glucocorticoid hormone, while albumin, globulin, and hemoglobin function as important carrier proteins. However, how cortisol levels after exercise interact with these proteins is not well understood. This research aimed to explore the association between serum cortisol and the levels of albumin, globulin, and hemoglobin following a single session of intense aerobic exercise in young male runners. Method: Twelve healthy young male runners (average age 21.38 ± 0.95 years; VO₂max 50.81 ± 2.35 ml/kg/min) completed a 15-minute Balke treadmill test. Blood samples were collected before exercise, immediately after, and three hours post-exercise (recovery) to assess serum cortisol, albumin, globulin, and hemoglobin concentrations. Hematocrit measurements were used to adjust for changes in plasma volume. Statistical analysis involved one-way repeated measures ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test and Pearson correlation. Results: Immediately after exercise, there were significant increases in cortisol (61.4%), albumin (7.5%), globulin (10.5%), and hemoglobin (10.5%) (p<0.05). After three hours of recovery, cortisol, albumin, and hemoglobin levels returned to baseline, whereas globulin remained significantly elevated (p<0.05). No significant correlations were detected between cortisol changes and any of the carrier proteins at any time point (p>0.05). Conclusion: A single session of intense aerobic exercise markedly raises serum cortisol and key carrier proteins in young runners. The absence of correlation between cortisol and these proteins suggests that their immediate post-exercise increases are likely driven by factors other than cortisol fluctuations, such as hemoconcentration and changes in hydrostatic pressure, rather than direct hormonal stimulation.

Dynamic Assessment (DA) has increasingly been recognized as a promising approach for integrating assessment and instruction in second language learning. Despite their growing application, limited research has systematically compared the two major DA paradigms (i.e., interactionist and interventionist), particularly regarding their short- and long-term effects on learners’ speaking performance. The present study aims to address this gap by investigating the immediate and delayed impacts of interactionist and interventionist DA on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ speaking complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). Eighty-six advanced EFL learners from a language center in Tehran, Iran were assigned to three groups based on the Oxford Placement Test. Following a speaking pretest, learners in the experimental groups received eight sessions of either interactionist or interventionist DA, while the control group underwent regular speaking assessment. An immediate and a delayed speaking post-test were used to evaluate both short-term progress and retention. Two trained raters scored the CAF measures, and the data were analyzed using repeated-measures two-way ANOVA and MANOVA. The findings indicated no significant differences between the two DA approaches; however, both experimental groups significantly outperformed the control group on the immediate and delayed post-tests. These results suggest that regardless of the mediation type, DA effectively enhances learners’ speaking performance and promotes the durability of learning gains. The study highlights the pedagogical value of embedding DA-based mediation into routine speaking assessment, enabling teachers to provide targeted scaffolding that supports both immediate improvement and longer-term development in learners’ oral proficiency.

Creativity, learning style, and metacognition are significant factors in education. Many research studies have been conducted on these three factors, but few studies have been carried out on the correlations among these factors and second/foreign language (L2) writing accuracy and fluency. Therefore, this mixed-methods study tried to clarify the best predictors of writing accuracy and fluency among these three factors. To achieve this purpose, 120 Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners were selected based on the results of the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). Three types of Questionnaires were used to collect data. In addition, the participants wrote about the intended topics to check their writing accuracy and fluency. Moreover, the accuracy and fluency frameworks were applied to rate writings. Further, a semi-structured interview was utilized. To analyze the data, the multiple regression analysis was run. The findings indicated all these three factors were the best predictors of writing accuracy among intermediate learners, while metacognition was the best predictor of writing accuracy among advanced learners. In addition, learning style and metacognition were the best predictors of writing fluency among advanced learners. This study has some significant implications for learning. The most important implication is that learners can become aware of their creativity levels, learning styles, and metacognitive activities. In addition, the findings can enrich the literature concerning the predictors of writing accuracy and fluency among these three variables.

Extensive research exists on the effects of task design features on measuring L2 learners’ implicit and explicit knowledge. However, the role of structure difficulty has received limited attention. Additionally, the use of fine-grained measures of implicit knowledge has remained underexplored. To address these gaps, utilizing objective criteria to select easy (plural -s) and difficult (third-person -s) structures, a total of 256 experimental items, equally divided into grammatical and ungrammatical, as well as easy and difficult structures, were developed and administered to 32 advanced L2 learners. A word monitoring task (WMT) assessed their implicit knowledge through reaction time (RT) and grammaticality sensitivity index (GSI), while a timed grammaticality judgment test (TGJT) measured their automatized explicit knowledge through accuracy scores. The WMT results showed longer RTs for ungrammatical items and larger GSI for the plural -s items, revealing participants’ more implicit knowledge of the easy structure. The results of the TGJT revealed that L2 learners judged grammatical items more accurately than ungrammatical ones and the plural -s items more accurately than third-person -s ones, showing participants’ more automatized explicit knowledge of the easy and grammatical structures. The findings highlight the influence of grammaticality and structure difficulty on knowledge retrieval and suggest that advanced L2 learners exhibit stronger implicit and automatized explicit knowledge of the easy structure. These findings underscore the need for tailored instructional approaches to address difficult structures and emphasize the importance of using real-time psycholinguistic measures to examine L2 learners’ implicit knowledge.

Due to the fact that job satisfaction plays a crucial role in teacher attrition, numerous scholars have investigated the predictive variables for occupational well-being in educational contexts. However, this research area has been relatively ignored in higher education contexts. To fill this lacuna, this research employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design to examine the predictive roles of teacher mindfulness and self-efficacy in impacting the job satisfaction of English instructors in various Iranian universities. In the quantitative phase, data from 226 EFL instructors were analyzed following a rigorous screening of an initial pool of 234 participants who completed measures of the focal constructs. Structural equation modeling (SEM) confirmed that teacher mindfulness and self-efficacy significantly predicted job satisfaction, with self-efficacy emerging as the strongest predictor. Furthermore, mindfulness exerted a significant indirect effect on satisfaction through the mediation of self-efficacy. In the subsequent qualitative phase, follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive subsample of 12 instructors to clarify the mechanisms underlying these statistical paths. Thematic analysis revealed that mindfulness facilitates a "psychological pause" through affective detachment, while self-efficacy provides the pedagogical agency necessary to maintain value-action congruence despite institutional stressors. These results suggest that mindfulness acts as a cognitive precursor that enhances pedagogical presence and professional resilience. The implications for developing targeted onboarding strategies and mindfulness-based interventions in higher education are discussed.