The present study attempted to investigate the effect of semantic mapping strategy instruction on vocabulary learning of Iranian intermediate students. A further concern of this study was to explore the probable interaction between the effect of teaching semantic mapping strategy and gender. Initially, 134 available male and female EFL students participated in this study. The instruments utilized in the study were a Nelson test and a teacher-made vocabulary test, which were employed at pre-test and post-test phases. Having established the homogeneity of the subjects in terms of general language proficiency, the 120 selected students were divided into four groups: 2 experimental (male-female) and 2 control groups (male-female). Then, in order to ascertain the homogeneity of the subjects in terms of vocabulary knowledge prior to the treatment, the vocabulary test was administered to all the groups. During the eight instructional sessions, the experimental groups received semantic mapping strategy instruction after reading each passage and then did the exercises. In the control groups, students were not taught how to use semantic mapping strategy and they were exposed only to the conventional vocabulary instruction activities. That is, they read the passages, did the exercises and activities, and new words were introduced through contexts and exercises. At the end of the experiment, the post-test was administered the results of which indicated that there was a significant difference among the means of the experimental and control groups. It was also revealed that there was no interaction between the effect of semantic mapping strategy instruction and gender. Hence, it is concluded that semantic mapping strategy instruction has a significant impact on vocabulary learning of Iranian intermediate EFL students regardless of their gender.

Urban tourism is a complex, multi-sectoral and dispersed activity, the product of which is the sale of tourists' experiences of the city's attractions, facilities and services. Paying attention to and organizing natural, human and visual factors influencing the beauty of the environment is the most effective way to increase the quality of the travel experience. Considering the undeniable necessity of mental image in attracting urban tourists and the role of this type of tourism in the economy, in this study, an attempt has been made to provide a qualitative model of factors affecting mental image with the aim of boosting urban tourism using semantic cognitive mapping method. For this purpose, after stating the subject, theoretical foundations and reviewing the research background, 30 interviews were conducted using the qualitative research design until the theoretical saturation was reached. The study population consists of urban tourists and tourism experts. Then, using the semantic cognitive mapping approach, a conceptual model was extracted and drawn from the dimensions and components of the mental image. The obtained semantic cognitive mapping has 6 main categories and 30 theoretical propositions that can help policymakers in policy making and better and deeper understanding of this concept.

This study has examined the effect of semantic mapping on learning vocabulary across genders. The researchers selected 120 intermediate students after the administration of a standard proficiency test. A vocabulary test was also used to measure the students’ vocabulary knowledge. The experimental group received semantic mapping in the pre-reading stage, but the control group did not receive this treatment. The results of the study, based on statistical analysis of ANCOVA, indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group in vocabulary learning. As for the gender differences, the results indicated no significant difference between males and females. It can be suggested that semantic mapping can be used as an efficient methodology for teaching vocabulary, a technique which is equally effective for male and female EFL Learners.

This article examines the Zoroastian Middle Persian modal verbs in terms of typology. The type of research is qualitative and its method is descriptive-analytical. The framework in this study is adapted from Nauze. The Middle Persian modal verbs are: abā, yē, d, š, ā, yē, d, tuwā, n, sazē, d and kā, mistan. The data is collected through the Zoroastian Middle Persian texts. After collecting data, the type of modal verbs in the data was determined and then the semantic mapping of each verb was specified on the conceptual space. The results showed that Nauze framework is not suitable for covering the meaning of Zoroastian Middle Persian modal verbs. So, the probability axis was added on the vertical axis of the conceptual space. Also, this research showed that the Middle Persian data contradicts the typology that Nauze had presented.

Background: A major metacognitive learning strategy that appears to improve students learning experience is concept mapping. Purpose: To determine the effects of teaching by concept mapping method on meaningful learning of a group of bachelor degree program nursing students. Methods: Students studied in fourth year of Nursing, Bachelor’s Program, in two nursing faculties located in Tehran were selected by simple sampling method and randomly assigned into intervention and control groups. The selected materials were taught by concept mapping strategy for the intervention group while in the control group traditional lecturing method was used. A teacher-made, criterion referenced test was used as instrument to evaluate meaningful learning of participants in two groups. Results: Based on intended criteria 230 fourth year students wereincluded.25 students were excluded due to lack of one or more including criteria. The remaining students were divided randomly into two intervention (106 students) and control (99 students) groups. The study was conducted during a 5-week period. The results showed that there was a significant statistical difference between the mean scores of retention test of learning in the case (72.40 %) and control (53.30 %) groups (P<0.005). T-test also revealed that there was a significant statistical difference between the mean scores of cumulative post-test for the case group (73.29 %) and the mean scores of cumulative posttest for the control group (68.69 %). Conclusion: Based on our findings it can be concluded that teaching by concept mapping strategy has significant effects on meaningful learning and retention of the students. By addressing these issues it is suggested that more nurse educators would attempt to use the concept mapping strategy in the promotion of meaningful learning.

Predicting pedestrians' intentions to cross paths with cars, particularly at intersections and crosswalks, is critical for autonomous systems. While recent studies have showcased the effectiveness of deep learning models based on computer vision in this domain, current models often lack the requisite confidence for integration into autonomous systems, leaving several unresolved issues. One of the fundamental challenges in autonomous systems is accurately predicting whether pedestrians intend to cross the path of a self-driving car. Our proposed model addresses this challenge by employing convolutional neural networks to predict pedestrian crossing intentions based on non-visual input data, including body pose, car velocity, and pedestrian bounding box, across sequential video frames. By logically arranging non-visual features in a 2D matrix format and utilizing an RGB semantic map to aid in comprehending and distinguishing fused features, our model achieves improved accuracy in pedestrian crossing intention prediction compared to previous approaches. Evaluation against the criteria of the JAAD database for pedestrian crossing intention prediction demonstrates significant enhancements over prior studies.