The speech act of refusals has been studied widely either alone or in relation to such areas as apology, requests, promotion, and invitation. The present study aims to investigate the strategies employed by Iraqi females in refusing marriage proposals. It attempts to explore their preferences to respond directly or indirectly in relation to their ages and educational background of the parents. The sample of the study consists of 25 participants; they are learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) at the College of Education for Women/ University of Baghdad. The data are collected by using a discourse completion task (DCT) followed by a follow up interview. The researchers used a Google form shared via emails to get responses from the participants. The items of the completion task are mainly designed by the researchers after surveying the literature so as to have the situations in the final shape. Beebe’s et al. (1990) taxonomy is selected as the most comprehensive modal for the analysis of refusal strategies of the respondents. The results indicated that the Iraqi females tend to use more indirect strategies to refuse the marriage proposals. The most frequently used order of responses began with an apology followed by gratitude and then the reason for refusal, as a typical Iraqi way of expressing their refusal. Based on the fact that the study sample are EFLs, there were signs of pragmatic failure as some of the responses carry some negative transfer, thus, the researchers recommend that future studies have to focus on teaching the methods of refusing appropriately by incorporating the teaching of speech acts, including the speech act of refusals, with more details in their Bachelor Program.
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Rehabilitation robots are widely recognized as vital for restoring motor function in patients with lower-limb impairments. A Modified Fractional-Order Proportional-Integral-Derivative (MFOPID) controller is proposed to improve trajectory tracking of a 2-DoF Lower Limb Rehabilitation Exoskeleton Robot (LLRER). The classical FOPID is augmented with a modified control formulation by which steady-state error is reduced and the transient response is sharpened. Controller gains and fractional orders were tuned offline using a hybrid metaheuristic Improved Elk Herd Optimization hybridized with Grey Wolf and Multi-Verse Optimization algorithms (IElk-GM) so that exploration and exploitation are balanced. Superiority over the classical FOPID
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Background: Raoultella planticola is a developing pathogen that can infect both humans and animals. Raoultella spp. commonly colonize the gastrointestinal and upper respiratory systems. It usually causes pneumonia, bile tract infections, and bacteremia. Aim: In this study, the anticancer activity of an isolated brown pigment of a Raoultella planticola isolate was tested in vitro. Methods: The laboratory examination included culturing in brain-heart infusion broth, conducting biochemical tests, using the automatic VITEK2 Compact for bacterial isolate identification, performing the MTT assay to evaluate the cytotoxic effect on both the mammary cancer cell line (AMN3) and normal rat fibroblast (REF), and utilizing enzyme-linked i
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Accurate estimation of permeability is essential for reliable reservoir characterization and simulation. However, core data are often limited due to their high cost and operational constraints, leading to significant uncertainty in uncored intervals. This study aims to reduce the dependence on core data for permeability estimation by integrating electrofacies derived from well logs and flow zone indicator analysis in the Mishrif Formation, Nasiriyah oil field. Electrofacies were generated using dynamic clustering based on the log data from 13 wells. This led to the identification of five electrofacies units that represent intervals with similar log responses, formed by merging 75 electrofacies, where flow zone indicators analysis id
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Green biosynthesized selenium nanoparticles from
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The new 4-[(7-chloro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole)azo]-4,5-diphenyl imidazole (L) have been synthesized and characterized by micro elemental and thermal analyses as well as 1H.NMR, FT-IR, and UV-Vis spectroscopic techniques. (L) acts as a ligand coordinating with some metal ionsV(IV), Fe(III), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II). Structures of the new compounds were characterized by elemental and thermal analyses as well as FT-IR and UV-Vis Spectra. The magnetic properties and electrical conductivities of metal complexes were also determined. Study of the nature of the complexes formed in ethanol following the mole ratio method.. The work also include a theoretical treatment of the formed complexes in the gas phase, this was done using the (hyperch
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