The present study on politeness is an attempt to examine (dis)agreeing strategies utilized by EFL learners while chatting on the INTERNET. Subjects of the study were forty male and thirty-three female Iranian natives whose INTERNET RELAY chat (IRC) interactions, composed of 400 excerpts, were collected between December 2007 and September 2008. Data analysis was based on the general taxonomy of politeness strategies suggested by Brown and Levinson (1987) which is the baseline of many politeness studies today. The results indicate that IRC is a mode of communication whose characteristics are typically different from face-to-face and real-life conversational settings. Some common face threatening acts (FTAs) like ‘direct disagreements’ are performed widely in chat channels. Furthermore, gender-oriented differences were found not to be statistically significant on the INTERNET.

The aim of this paper is to inspect the effects of using the INTERNET (chat) on interpersonal interactions among INTERNET users of university students. In this paper, the theories of some pioneer scientists on social interactions such as Giddens, Peter Blau, Homans, Weber, and Habermas have been used; besides, the conceptual framework is consisted of Masoud Chalbi's "Interaction Theory" which is based on Parsons' AGIL theory. We have tried to embed the concepts and variables altogether in order to evaluate the causal mechanism of using the INTERNET (chat) and its effects on the interpersonal interactions as dependent variables.This survey and the necessary information are gathered through a questionnaire. The statistical society, of which we have sampled 300 students, consists of the students of Azad Islamic University in Roudehen, Iran. The sample was selected through Cochran formula. The data of this paper is analyzed through quantitative analysis methods including univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analysis, regression and path analysis. All data analysis was performed with the help of the 19th version of SPSS.

This study aims at explaining informal INTERNET-based chat format with respect to its genre and writing components and system. The researchers analyzed 53 chat samples which were produced by 53 Iranian students in high intermediate and advanced levels of English in a private institute while chatting with foreigners. Besides the genre analysis, the purposes why people all around the world chat on the INTERNET were investigated based on these samplesi. Five moves and seven purposes were found. Our data suggest that although purposes of samples are different, they follow the same moves. The results show that informal INTERNET based chat concerns with different purposes as chatting for improving English language, familiarity with different peoples and countries, friendship, finding a sexual partner or talking about religious or political ideas.

The aim of this paper is to consider whether critical rationalism has any ideas which could usefully be applied to the INTERNET.  Today we tend to take the INTERNET for granted and it is easy to forget that it was only about two decades ago that it began to be used to any significant extent. Accordingly in section 1 of the paper, there is a brief consideration of the history of the INTERNET.  At first sight this makes it looks implausible that any of Popper’s ideas could be applicable to the INTERNET, since Popper died before the INTERNET came into general use.  However, section 2 argues that Popper’s theory of World 3 does apply very well to the INTERNET.  This application is significant because, as shown in section 3, it leads to the problem of misinformation, which is one of the most significant problems generated by the INTERNET.  In section 4 there is an attempt to solve this problem using ideas taken from Popper’s epistemology. It is argued that there should be changes in education designed to prepare students for the INTERNET age. Teaching in the INTERNET age should focus on presenting to the students not just the accepted theories but also the evidence on which they are based. An illustration of how this might be done is given by considering an example from science teaching, namely the teaching of Newtonian mechanics in the last years of school or first years of university.

We address the throughput maximization problem for downlink transmission in DF-RELAY-assisted cognitive radio networks (CRNs) based on simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) capability. In this envisioned network, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) RELAY and secondary user (SU) equipment are designed to handle both radio frequency (RF) signal energy harvesting and SWIPT functional tasks. Additionally, the cognitive base station (CBS) communicates with the SU only via the MIMO RELAY. Based on the considered network model, several combined constraints of the main problem complicate the solution. Therefore, in this paper, we apply heuristic guidelines within the convex optimization framework to handle this complexity. First, consider the problem of maximizing throughput on both sides of the RELAY separately. Second, each side progresses to solve the complex problem optimally by adopting strategies for solving sub-problems. Finally, these optimal solutions are synthesized by proposing a heuristic iterative power allocation algorithm that satisfies the combinatorial constraints with short convergence times. The performance of the optimal proposed algorithm (OPA) is evaluated against benchmark algorithms via numerical results on optimality, convergence time, constraints’ compliance, and imperfect channel state information (CSI) on the CBS-PU link.

In this study, we introduce a new two-way RELAY channel and obtain an inner bound and an outer bound for the discrete and memoryless multiple access RELAY channels with receiver-source feedback via two-way RELAY channel in which end nodes exchange signals by a RELAY node. And we extend these results to the Gaussian case. By numerical computing, we show that our inner bound is the same with one obtained by Hou-Koetter-Kramer, for the channel with RELAY-source feedback.

The ever-increasing application of computer and INTERNET mandates a longer domain for computer-mediated-communication (CMC). INTERNET chat as a principal feature of CMC has attracted tremendous attention among the youths in recent years. Thus, this study has focused on the written CHATS of 100 Iranian university students majoring in different disciplines. We analyzed 400 chat samples (composed of 4000 moves) in terms of opening and continuing speech functions based on Eggins and Slade’s (1997) model of casual conversation. We also examined humor and paralinguistic features based on taxonomies of Huffaker and Calvert (2005) and Nastri, Pen a, and Hancock (2006). Among the various types of speech functions, nine opening speech functions, seven continuing speech functions and four humor and paralinguistic features were investigated. The analysis of the data shows that the salient opening speech function has been‘ statement: opinion’ which provides attitudinal and evaluative information. Additionally, the outstanding types of continuing speech functions are ‘prolong: extend’, ‘prolong: enhance’, and ‘append: elaborate’. Therefore, it is in order for the participants to offer additional or contrasting information to the previous move or qualify it by giving details of time, place, condition, etc. Moreover, in case of interruption by the other chatter, the participants mostly tend to clarify, exemplify or reiterate the previous move. Furthermore, the participants produced irony, as a humorous element, in a great volume which is indicative of their tendency toward being indirect during conversation. The subjects also used many paralinguistic features such as misspellings and repeated punctuations in order to express their emotions and attract their partners’ attention in the absence of verbal communication.

Minimization of the discrimination time between the backup and main overcurrent RELAY is one of the most critical issue in RELAY coordination of power system. Determination of time setting multipliers (TSMs) using evolutionary algorithms has been studied in previous papers. In this paper, TSM, various characteristics of the overcurrent RELAYs and pickup currents are simultaneously considered to improve coordination of main and backup overcurrent RELAYs. Furthermore, the coordination problem can also be considered as an optimization problem which can be solved using artificial intelligent methods. Recently, a novel optimization algorithm, called hyper-sphere search (HSS) algorithm, has been introduced. In this paper, Improved HSS (IHSS) is introduced. Based on the problems mentioned in this paper, the IHSS algorithm is more appropriate for obtaining the characteristics of the overcurrent RELAYs, pickup currents and their TSMs. The result of IHSS is compared with HSS algorithm which has been used in previous studies. The simulation results on the test network show the efficiency of using IHSS and considering pickup currents in term of better RELAYs coordination.