ABSTRACT:Coast is a unique environment in which atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere contact each other.Coastline is one of the most important linear features on the earth's surface, which display a dynamic nature. Coastal zone, and its environmental management requires the information about coastlines and their changes. This paper examines the current methods of coastline change detection using satellite images. Based on the advantages and drawbacks of the methods, a new procedure has been developed. The proposed procedure is based on a combination of histogram thresholding and band ratio techniques. The study area of the project is Urmia Lake; the 20 th. largest, and the second hyper saline lake in the world. In order to assess the accuracy of the results, they have been compared with ground truth observations. The accuracy of the extracted coastline has been estimated as 1.3 pixels (pixel size=30 m). Based on this investigation, the area of the lake has been decreased approximately 1040 square kilometers from August 1998 to August 2001. This result has been verified through TOPEX/Posidon satellite information that indicates a height variation of three meters.

ABSTRACT:Underground railway systems, can generate heat from their operations to raise the temperatures of carriages and the station substantially. This may lead to passenger discomfort and complain especially in warm weather conditions that prevail in Tehran if underground environment is not cooled. Transportation air conditioning Committee of American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and air-conditioning Engineers proposed the Relative Warmth Index for thermal comfort design and investigation in subway environment. In this research, thermal comfort at Tehran metro stations and carriages of lines 1 and 2 has been studied using this index. The measurements were taken during two periods of September 2006 and July 2007 at different zones of stations. For this purpose, temperature, relative humidity and air velocity were measured at different times. The status of the air-conditioning systems together with passenger traffic was also recorded. A total number of 231 measurements including 114 and 117 measurements were carried out in September 2006 and in July 2007 respectively. The measurements in September 2006 did not exceed the thermal limit. However, it did exceed in July 2007. In comparison, with thermal comfort level of metros all over the world, Tehran Metro stands in an acceptable condition, while the maximum capacity of air-conditioning systems was not used, if so the thermal comfort condition would be better.

AB STRA CT: Irregular patterns of precipitations from temporal as well as spatial perspectives not only cause destructions but also waste surface water resources. Hence, controlling surface water and leading the flood to underground stores improve the efficiency of water usage. Selecting appropriate sites for optimal use of water floods is one of the most important factors in recharging underground water tables in dry lands where the agricultural and rangelands are vulnerable. Traditional methods of site selections are, however, time consuming and error prone. This paper attempts to; analyze existing schemes of site selection; introduces an appropriate method of locating flood-spreading sites using Geospatial Information System; implements the strategy in a case study; and scientifically assesses its results. The study area of this research is Samal sub-basin covering 31571.7 ha of Ahrom basin in Boushehr province. In the present research, factors pertain to earth sciences (quaternary units, slope and landuse) and hydrology (runoff infiltration rate and aquifers' depth) are considered. Information layers are weighted, classified and integrated through several models such as boolean logics, index overlay and fuzzy logics. The results are then checked against the existing sites to estimate their accuracy. The results of this research demonstrated that fuzzy logic operators including gamma=0.1, gamma=0.2 and products of fuzzy logics yield the best when compared to control fields and therefore, the models are introduced as the most suitable site selection strategies for flood spreading.

The purpose of the present paper was the study of learning styles, thinking styles, and English language academic self-efficacy among the students of Islamic Azad University of Behbahan considering their field of study and gender. The method of the study was 'surveying' in nature. The statistical population pool of the study included all the students of the Islamic Azad University of Behbahan (7941). The sample (367 students) was determined based on Morgan and Jesri table and was selected via stratified sampling technique. To collect data, Kolb's learning styles questionnaire, Sternberg's thinking styles questionnaire and the researcher-made questionnaire on the English lesson academic self-efficacy of students were used. In order to analyze the data, different statistical techniques which included mean, standard deviation, t-test, and chi square were utilized for examining the difference between the variables of gender and field of study. The results showed that the engineering students had more academic self-efficacy than humanities students. The rate of academic self-efficacy among male students was greater than that among female students. Male students had more assimilate learning style but female students had more divergent learning style. Humanities students had more divergent accommodate learning styles, but engineering students had more convergent and assimilate learning styles. The results also showed that the prevailing thinking style among male students was the judicial thinking style, but the prevailing thinking style among female students was the executive thinking style. Humanities students had more executive thinking style, but engineering students had more legislative thinking style.

Abstract-Dynamic assessment has opened new horizons for teaching and assessment of language learning. The present study was undertaken to explore the impact of dynamic assessment on improving overall language attainment of elementary Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) students. To make sure about the homogeneity of the participants in both groups the standard Placement Test of Top Notch was administered on 74 male students and 40 students were selected for this research. They were randomly placed in two control and experimental groups each group including 20 participants. Then, the participants in the control group were taught Top NOTCH-FUNDAMENTALS A in the normal class procedure until the post test. But, participants of the experimental group were taught through dynamic assessment technique. After the treatment, to see whether participants' overall language attainment has been improved through dynamic assessment, a post-test was administered to the participants of both groups. The result of post-test showed that there was significant difference between two groups' overall language attainment, that is, group dynamic assessment outperformed control group. The findings can have pedagogical implications for language teachers, testers, teacher educators, and syllabus designers.

Abstract-One of Vygotsky's contributions to education was the emergence and development of dynamic assessment which stresses the need for unifying assessment and instruction. This research was an attempt to investigate whether there is difference between female and male EFL learners regarding the effect of dynamic assessment on grammatical accuracy of their writings or not. To this end sixty five male and female preintermediate Iranian EFL were randomly assigned into two groups namely control and experimental. After the pre-test of grammatical accuracy in essays, eight session mediations were implemented for experimental groups; however, for the control group no mediation of examiner was provided. The interventionist sandwich format of dynamic assessment was applied followed by the post-test. Both control and experimental groups were implemented the same the pretest and posttest in a non-dynamic way. The data obtained from both pretest and post-test were statistically analyzed through running independent-samples t-test. The results indicated that there is no difference between females and males regarding the effect of dynamic assessment on grammatical accuracy their writings. These findings can have pedagogical implications for language teachers, teacher educators, test developers, and syllabus designers.

Abstract-This study investigates the most important historical factors of language change in Iran. Based on writings from history, politics, sociology and linguistics it generally discusses different causes of language change in the world and tries to arrive at a framework to describe the status of non-Persian languages in Iran, in particular Azerbaijani Turkish, and whether these languages are endangered. Data extracted from a study in which some Azerbaijani youth living in Tabriz were selected and given questionnaire to answer to several questions about their attitudes to mother tongue. The results of this study show that respondents have highly positive attitudes towards their ethnic identity and Azerbaijani language as one its indices. According to UNESCO (2003) criteria Azerbaijani Turkish now is safe. Theoretical discussions of this paper engross advocates of linguistic rights and linguists in the situation of languages in Iran and also it can inform policymakers to take compensatory measures to support these languages. Also, this study warns families and indigenous societies about the fate of their languages and can awaken them to be more faithful to their culture and to maintain their languages.