مطالب

While the bulk of literature repletes with studies on emotional intelligence and its effect on teachers' performance and students' academic achievement, few have been released as to the potency of the factors that can foster emotional intelligence inside classrooms. Accordingly, the present study aimed to investigate the extent to which spiritual intelligence could be a predictor of emotional intelligence. The data were collected through a merger of the Brief Emotional Intelligence Scale (BEIS-10) and Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory (SISRI).  The evolved 34-item questionnaire was translated into Persian to ensure maximum comprehension of participants. The sample of this study consisted of 847 undergraduate Iranian EFL learners from two provinces in Iran. Three phases were in this study. First, an exploratory factor analysis of SISRI-24 was performed. Second, confirmatory factor analysis of both inventories, individually, was done by IBM SPSS AMOS. This was followed by CFA of the 34-item questionnaire. Last, multiple regression analysis was modeled to find the predictive relationships. The results of PCA revealed a three-factor model of SISRI (18 statements). CFA also verified both inventories under investigation. The model fit estimated of the 34-item questionnaire was sufficiently adequate to approve the model. Multiple regression analysis also indicated that critical existential thinking could predict both appraisal and regulation of own emotions as well as utilization of emotions. Likewise, conscious state expansion could predict the utilization of emotions. It was also found that personal meaning production could predict the appraisal of other emotions. 

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of task-based instruction (TBI) and project-based instruction (PBI) on the improvement of EFL learners' referential and expressive writing performance. To accomplish this objective, 60 students majoring in English translation participated in Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT), but out of them 50 students were selected as the members of a homogeneous sample. Then, they were assigned into two experimental groups. They were exposed to IELTS module task-based writing pre-test, treatment, and post-test, to assess the participants' writing performance. The participants in first experimental group received TBI to practice the referential and expressive types of writing, while those in the second group received PBI. The results showed that TBI and PBI affected the development of both referential and expressive writing among EFL learners. In addition, the results revealed that there was not any statistically significant difference between the effect of PBI and TBI on developing expressive and referential writings among EFL learners. The pedagogical implications of the study are discussed at the end of the paper.  

This paper reports the study undertaken on types of defense mechanisms used by Iranian EFL teachers. Furthermore, the significant differences between male and female EFL teachers at different age groups in the use of defense mechanisms are also considered. In the first phase of the study, the focus was on identification of defense mechanisms teachers generally adopt in their daily activities, while the second phase was exclusive to the deployment of defense mechanisms inside EFL classes. Accordingly, Defense Style Questionnaire was distributed among 100 EFL teachers. Next, to capture in-class atmosphere, the researchers carried out 30 semi-structured interviews with Iranian EFL teachers. All the participants (15 males and 15 females) were teaching in public schools as well as private institutes at the time of the interview. The results of the questionnaire indicated that teachers used two mature defense mechanisms, namely, anticipation (M=13.8) and rationalization (M=13), in their daily lives more than the others. Nonetheless, the results of the interview denoted the dominance of pseudo- altruistic behaviors (N=30), as a neurotic mechanism, in EFL classes. Sublimation and humor (N=29), as two mature defense mechanisms, were also frequently used. On the other hand, splitting (N=2), passive aggression (N=2), and projection (N=3), all of which are considered to be immature mechanisms, were the least-frequently used mechanisms. Moreover, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests signified no significant differences in terms of gender and age in the use of defense mechanisms among Iranian EFL teachers.

The tremendous advances in artificial intelligence over the past decade have led to their increasing use in financial markets. In recent years a large number of investment companies and hedge funds have been implementing algorithmic and automated trading on their trading. The speed of decision-making and execution is the most important factor in the success of institutional and individual investors in capital markets. Algorithmic trading using machine learning methods has been able to improve the performance of investors by finding investment opportunities as well as time entry and exit of trading. The purpose of this study is to achieve a better portfolio performance by designing an intelligent and fully automated trading system that investors with the support of this system, in addition to finding the best opportunities in the market, can allocate resources optimally. The present study consists of four separate steps. Respectively, tuning the parameters of technical indicators, detecting the current market regime (trending or non-trending), issuing a definite signal (buy, sell or hold) from the indicators’ signals and finally portfolio rebalancing. These 4 steps respectively are performed using genetic algorithm, fuzzy logic, artificial neural network and conventional portfolio optimization model. The results show the complete superiority of the proposed model in achieving higher returns and less risk compared to the performance of the TEDPIX and other mutual funds in the same period.

The growth and complexity of society justify the need for relevant economic information, information systems, and information-generating processes, and the need for auditing as part of the information reporting process increases. This has affected the professional functions of auditors. The purpose of this research is to choose the influential dimension of mindfulness of auditors' professional judgments based on social pressure analysis based on Rough Theory. The methodology of this research is mixed and it has been used by Meta-synthesis, Delphi and Rough Theory. The target population was the qualitative, similar research and academic experts in the field of accounting. However, the target population in a small number of 19 audit partners had more than 5 years of work experience, which is acceptable from the statistical population due to the requirement of Ruff theory analysis. In this study, based on the Meta-synthesis analysis of selected researches, 4 propositions of pressures based on social compliance and 3 components of auditors' professional judgment were determined. The results in this section show that the most effective proposition of social compliance pressures was the market pressure proposition, which affects the inferential consciousness of auditors in their professional judgment and violates the auditors' mental functions such as skepticism and objectivity.

This paper aims to show the asymmetric effect of oil shocks on Iran’s economy. It uses nonlinear time series models to investigate the asymmetric effect of oil shocks on resource allocation in Iran’s economy. The results show that adverse oil shocks have been more persistent during the last decades and severely negatively affect resource allocation in Iran’s economy. Different oil shocks have different implications for importing and exporting countries, and the rigidity of state fiscal systems in exporting countries causes adverse oil shocks to be more persistent. The oil economy’s response to positive and negative oil shocks depends on the structure of the economy. The government budget and trade balance have significant implications for the effects of oil shocks on oil-exporting economies. The government budget is highly dependent on oil revenues, so in the case of adverse oil shocks, the pass-through exchange rate will cause high inflation because of foreign exchange shortage and overshoot in the exchange rate.