Equating test scores is an important issue in large scale testing. Almost all standardized tests have several forms which vary in difficulty. New forms are written and added every year. When the items in different forms of a test vary in difficulty, direct comparison of test-takers who have taken different forms and are at the same ability level is not possible, hence, the issue of test fairness arises. In such situations there is a need for equating test scores so that standards can be maintained from year to year. That is, there is the need to adjust the scores for the difficulty of the test forms and report a scaled score that is comparable across all forms of the test. In this study, two forms of a reading comprehension test were equated and the pass/fail decision consistency was investigated under two conditions of with and without equating. Concurrent common item equating with one parameter Items Response Model (IRT) was used to equate the two test forms. Results showed that the lack of equating leads to unfair pass/fail decisions. The implications for high-stakes large scale testing are thus discussed.

In order to study the genetic control of resistance to common smut in maize, two resistant inbred lines, K1264/1 and K47/2-2-21 and two susceptible inbred lines, K3304/1-2 and K47/2-2-1-3-3-1, were crossed as K1264/1 × K3304/1-2, K47//2-2-21 × K3304/1-2 and K1264/1 × K47/2-2-1-3-3-1. The F1, F2, BC1 and BC2 progenies were produced and evaluated along with parents using randomized compelet block design with three replications. All generations were artificially inoculated with spordia of Ustilago maydis suspension. Inoculation was carried out 7-10 days after silking through injection of 3 ml of 106 spores/ml fungal suspension, using tip injection method. At maturity, disease severity was determined based on ears infection and analysed according to generation means analysis method for three crosses. Joint scaling test showed that the presence of additive, dominance and epistasis effects, especially additive × additive and dominance × dominance type, and in lesser extent, additive × dominance, in genetic control of resistance to maize common smut. Average broad and narrow-sense heritability based on three crosses data were estimated 80.3 and 57.3, respectively.

The use of zeolite was investigated to improve the environmental condition of common carp. The fingerlings of 13 grams were tested in 4 treatments. Each treatment contained 60 fish and 3 replications, in RBD experiment design. The treatment was performed 20, 40, 80 and 120 mg/l and one without zeolite as control. EC, T, O2 and salinity was equal but the amount of No2, NO3, NH4 and total hardness, was lower in zeolite treatment compared to the control group. Other parameters such as TDS, pH and sulfide were not different. The results showed that using zeolite can improve the water condition but the SGR, PER, FCR and total weight, in spite of pronounced difference between the dosage of 8 and 120 mg/l, the difference was not significant. In treatment of 80 mg/l, weight increased for 31%, GR for 29%, SGR for 29%, PER for 42%, more than the control group. FCR in the control group was 3.07 while in treatment with 80 mg/l zeolite, it was 2.34.The present study showed by using zeolite and by good management to improve the water condition, it is possible to improve the growth parameters of fish.

Background Pregnancy is associated with many physiological and biomechanical changes that leading to common complaints. teaching to mother can empower her to minimize these complaints. the aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of not in perosn education, with face-to-face training on reducing to prevalence of pregnancy complications. Methods This is a pre-and post-semifinal study. In 2017, 100 pregnant women under the control of randomly selected 3 health centers in Mashhad were selected. After doing a pretest and, intervention was conducted using SMS, telegram and in-person training. One and two months after the intervention, a post-test questionnaire was completed. Data were analyzed using SPSS20 and Friedman, Kruskal-Wallis, Chi-square and Anova statistical tests. Findings The "common complaints rate of pregnancy", one-two week months after the intervention, before and after intervention in all three teaching methods, using telegram (p