Experts

This study aimed to examine the policies in the Iranian English for Academic Purposes (EAP) education and the extent to which objectives match the policies and are materialized in practice. To this end, course descriptions in the syllabi for the EAP programs were evaluated through document analysis and triangulated with the experts’ perspectives through interviews to examine the current status of EAP policy-making and practice in Iran. Seven policy areas from Kaplan and Baldauf’s (2005) language-in-education planning were chosen as the framework of the study. Based on document analysis and interviews with the experts, the similarities and discrepancies in micro and macro levels were investigated. The results showed that EAP course descriptions do not include any comments on policy and there were discrepancies in policy and practice due to such factors as lack of communication channel between the EAP stakeholders and policy-makers. Finally, the study revealed that due to deficiencies in both policy and practice and in order to reach an acceptable status, EAP programs are in dire need for reconceptualizing policy-making and practice. The findings of this study have significant implications for EAP policies and practice in the academic system of Iran.

Community Question Answering has a crucial role in almost all societies nowadays. It is important for the owners of a community to be able to make it better and more reliable. One way to achieve this, is to find the users who have more knowledge, expertise, experience and skill and can well share their knowledge with others (which we call experts and aim to encourage them to be more active in the website). One method to use is to identify expert users, and whenever a new question is asked, we suggest this question to them to check and answer if its in their area of expertise. One way to encourage users to post replies, is to use gameplay techniques such as assigning points and badges to users. But as we will discuss, this method does not always detect expert users well, because some users will try to have small and insignificant but numerous activities that will make them gain a lot of points, however they are not experts. In this study, we examine the methods by which experts in a question-and-answer system can be found, and try to evaluate and compare these methods, use their ideas and positive points, and add our own new ideas to a new way of finding them. We used some ideas such as profile making for users, categorize users’ expertise, A-Priori algorithm and showed that neural networks method results the best for the purpose of expert detection.

INTRODUCTION: Despite the fact that natural disasters are on the rise in Iran, no study has yet explained the performance indicators in the relief supply chain in crisis situations. Creative leadership in the relief supply chain can be of great help to the enhancement of internal strengths, provision of creative solutions to potential threats, and maintenance and promotion of public health. The present study aimed to provide a Structural equation model of creative hospital leadership. METHODS: The present exploratory research was conducted on 215 cases that were selected as the sample size using Cochran's formula. The data collection tool was a standard questionnaire which was completed by managers, supervisors, and experts of hospitals in Isfahan province. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was assessed using SPSS software based on Cronbach's alpha test, which indicated the high reliability of the research tool. FINDINGS: A hierarchical structure was established using DEMATEL software, which is a variety of decision-making methods based on pairwise comparisons, and benefiting from expert opinion in extracting the factors of a system and their systematical structuring based on the principles of graph theory. CONCLUSION: Finally, the effectiveness and affectability of the components were expressed as the output of DEMATEL software in a way that their interaction effect was denoted as numerical values. Thereafter, the data were analyzed in linear structural relations (LISREL) software using structural equation modeling, and the creative leadership model was designed.

The purpose of this research was to identify the factors affecting the development of championship swimming in Yazd, Iran from the perspective of coaches, experts, and managers. 123 experts in the field of swimming were randomly selected as the research sample, and a researcher-developed questionnaire was used for data collection. Data analysis was performed using a one-way analysis of variance and the Kruskal-Wallis test. The results showed that all coaches, experts, and managers had a consensus on improving the level of scientific and technical knowledge of coaches, controlling and monitoring the activities of coaches, finding talent using scientific and specialized methods, and establishing swimming schools, facilities, and equipment. Therefore, these factors were found to be the most important and effective factors in developing the championship swimming in Yazd province.