Sharif Digital Repository

Passenger Vehicle Type Choice (PVTC) has an undeniable impact on crash severity and costs. To estimate that, one must carefully consider subjective factors as well as objective ones. Ignoring the role of subjective variables can cause bias in the estimation of the effective variables' coefficients. The present paper investigates the impact of safety attitude, transportation attitude, and lifestyle on PVTC in a bi-level structure. To do so, we used the data from 633 face-to-face interviews conducted in Iran. The passenger vehicles investigated in this study are divided into five categories according to their weight and safety performance: mini, compact, medium, large, and sport utility... 

In this study, a conceptual framework is postulated to mathematically evaluate and ascertain the hypothesised relationship that perceived value and interactivity has with customer dissatisfaction issues. Then, the relationship between customer satisfaction issues and loyalty and customer acquisition, will be tested to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. For the qualitative part of the research, an interview survey was conducted of 40 employees at the Fremantle port of Western Australia and the collected data was analysed using NVivo. In the second data collection phase, a survey questionnaire was distributed to 60 port customers. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA), the important... 

Deception is mentioned as an expression or action which hides the truth and deception detection as a concept to uncover the truth. In this research, a connectivity analysis of Electro Encephalography study is presented regarding cognitive processes of an instructed liar/truth-teller about identity during an interview. In this survey, connectivity analysis is applied because it can provide unique information about brain activity patterns of lying and interaction among brain regions. The novelty of this paper lies in applying an open-ended questions interview protocol during EEG recording. We recruited 40 healthy participants to record EEG signal during the interview. For each subject,... 

Experiment is a procedure for verifying or establishing the validity of a hypothesis and then measuring or evaluating its outcomes. Due to the inherent uncertainties or ambiguities of its outcomes, a further treatment is needed for producing identical results. Fuzzy map is an approach for removing the uncertainties of the outcomes. In this manuscript, the procedure employed for conducting research and development in the field of nontechnology, in a developing country, is considered and the factors governing its success and its failures are analyzed. To accomplish this task, a thorough literature review was performed and the related critical factors were identified. Then an extensive survey... 

Iran is the fourth refugee-hosting country and Afghanistan is the second refugee-source country in the world. This research is qualitative and conducted with content analysis method. Twenty-seven individuals participated in the study. They were recruited from two midterm residential drug treatment centers in Tehran. Afghan refugees who use drugs felt and experienced stigma in five areas: family, friends, workplace, neighborhood, and treatment center. The consequences include frequent treatment failure, family relationship disruption, superficial conformity with the host society, and self-stigma. It is necessary to design interventions to reduce stigma and discrimination attached to refugees.... 

Smoking is known as a major cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and hence immediate and effective interventions are required for its elimination. This study aimed to collect valid data with regard to cigarette smoking in adult population of north of Iran for policy making by a meta-analysis of the documents of national non-communicable disease risk factors surveillance system. We investigated relevant evidences by searching in published and non-electronic databases. Data were extracted based on variables such as year of the study, sex, age group and prevalence of smoking habit. Based on results of heterogeneity, we applied fixed or random effects model to estimate the... 

It is widely recognized that knowledge is an essential strategic resource for a firm to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and Knowledge Management (KM) is a fundamental concept for those interested in the ever changing business world. However, KM has received little attention in Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). Unique characteristics of SMEs affect their approach in knowledge management, so different KM processes should be applied in these firms. SMEs have very simple structures, so they have less difficulty in managing their internal knowledge than large organizations. But this is not the case for external knowledge management, especially external knowledge acquisition... 

STUDY DESIGN. A cross-sectional study in pregnancy. OBJECTIVES. To differentiate between pregnancy related pelvic girdle pain (PGP) and low back pain (LBP) in Iranian women, and investigate the prevalence of each syndrome. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA. Most of the information about PGP and LBP has been obtained in Western countries. There are few studies to investigate pregnancy related lumbopelvic pain, and, especially, differentiate between PGP and LBP in non-Western countries, particularly in the Middle East. METHODS. This study included 325 pregnant women, ranging in age from 16 to 42 years. All pregnant women were interviewed using a questionnaire. Two trained physical therapists... 

The treatment facility of Albourz Industrial City was established in 1999 at the southeast of Albourz Mountain with an area of 200,000 square meters. Currently, 40,000 cubic meters of industrial wastes are treated daily utilizing biological method of activated sludge up to the second phase without chlorination in this treatment facility. Then, the discharged wastes are directed toward the lower agricultural lands. The environmental status of the region was investigated by testing the impact of wastewater and agricultural products in four tries. In two tries, the levels of COD and BOD were higher than the environmental standards, but there was no trace of heavy metal contamination in any of...