Sharif Digital Repository

During last 20 years, neuroimaging with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in people with drug addictions has introduced a wide range of quantitative biomarkers from brain's regional or network level activities during different cognitive functions. These quantitative biomarkers could be potentially used for assessment, planning, prediction, and monitoring for "addiction medicine" during screening, acute intoxication, admission to a program, completion of an acute program, admission to a long-term program, and postgraduation follow-up. In this chapter, we have briefly reviewed main neurocognitive targets for fMRI studies associated with addictive behaviors, main study types using... 

The activity and travel patterns of people with disabilities are generally distinct, as their activities are more dependent on others due to their special physical condition. This paper elaborates on the patterns of regular out-of-home activities (i.e. for different trip purposes) of disabled persons along with the way that they are accompanied to perform the activities. Household Travel Tracker Survey data collected by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning is used to develop new travel models. Two multinomial logit models are estimated to explore the influential variables and elaborate the consequences of ignoring their inter-dependency. From the influential parameters perspective,... 

A typical scientist has no responsibility other than to explain how a natural event occurred. However, when a philosopher asks about the conditions under which a scientist’s explanation is true, he is, in fact, raising an ultimate question, the concept which Karl Popper used for the first time. Answering this question requires that no elements are neglected in the explanation, and no significant factors in the explanation are overlooked. In other words, in explaining a phenomenon, at any level of its explanation, there should be no remainder. These requirements can be achieved through the full explanation. In the present article, by drawing on concepts such as theory-ladenness of... 

A typical scientist has no responsibility other than to explain how a natural event occurred. However, when a philosopher asks about the conditions under which a scientist’s explanation is true, he is, in fact, raising an ultimate question, the concept which Karl Popper used for the first time. Answering this question requires that no elements are neglected in the explanation, and no significant factors in the explanation are overlooked. In other words, in explaining a phenomenon, at any level of its explanation, there should be no remainder. These requirements can be achieved through the full explanation. In the present article, by drawing on concepts such as theory-ladenness of... 

In this paper, we have discussed the results of sensitivity analysis in a payoff matrix of the Matching Pennies game. After representing the game as a LP model, the sensitivity analysis of the elements of the payoff matrix is presented. The game value and the optimal strategies for different values of parameters are determined and compared  

In this paper, we have discussed the results of sensitivity analysis in a payoff matrix of the Matching Pennies game. After representing the game as a LP model, the sensitivity analysis of the elements of the payoff matrix is presented. The game value and the optimal strategies for different values of parameters are determined and compared  

Microvascular anastomosis is a common part of many reconstructive and transplant surgical procedures. While venous anastomosis can be achieved using microvascular anastomotic coupling devices, surgical suturing is the main method for arterial anastomosis. Suture-based microanastomosis is time-consuming and challenging. Here, dissolvable sugar-based stents are fabricated as an assistive tool for facilitating surgical anastomosis. The nonbrittle sugar-based stent holds the vessels together during the procedure and are dissolved upon the restoration of the blood flow. The incorporation of sodium citrate minimizes the chance of thrombosis. The dissolution rate and the mechanical properties of... 

Few studies have been conducted about team members’ individual beliefs of their team’s collective efficacy (personal collective efficacy). We argue that this individual belief is a motivational factor for teamwork along with self-efficacy for teamwork. This study investigated relationships between personal collective efficacy, self-efficacy for teamwork, collective orientations and perceptions of self in relation to other team members. In addition, relationships between personal collective efficacy and team members’ perceptions of team activities namely evaluating and integrating were explored. Multilevel analysis was employed in order to account for team level variation when testing... 

This paper reports the results of SIMD implementation of a number of interpolation algorithms on common personal computers. These methods fit a curve on some given input points for which a mathematical function form is not known. We have implemented four widely used methods using vector processing capabilities embedded in Pentium processors. By using SSE (streaming SIMD extension) we could perform all operations on four packed single-precision (32-bit) floating point values simultaneously. Therefore, the running time decreases three times or even more depending on the number of points and the interpolation method. We have implemented four interpolation methods using SSE technology then... 

COVID-19 is a global public health issue that poses a challenge to the education sector. The pandemic has a devastating impact on student entrepreneurial behavior and their mental health. This study aimed to examine the impact of COVID-19 on the student entrepreneurial intention/behavioral model with a mediating effect of proactive personality and the moderating role of anticipated regret. The sample of the study comprised 345 university students from Pakistan. Data were collected using a self-report and other report survey questionnaires. The hypotheses were investigated using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS–SEM) approach. According to the findings, COVID-19... 

A probabilistic video content analysis method called extended histogram (EH) is proposed for modelling temporal evolutions of a set of histograms extracted from video frames. In EH, the number of counts for each histogram bin is considered as a random variable (instead of a single value) to account for bin variations. This representation is especially suitable for modelling the dynamic behaviour of a tracked video content of interest in a general manner. The pitfall of such a modelling is its negligence of the temporal order of observations in the collection. To overcome that problem, a hierarchical approach called hierarchical extended histogram (HEH) is proposed for extracting EHs in... 

Nowadays the Internet users are from different ages and groups. Disabled people are a group of the Internet users. Some websites are especially created for disabled people and public access to them is undesirable. In this paper, for the first time, a method is introduced for distinguishing between deaf persons and other users using a new HIP (Human Interactive Proofs) system. In this method, the sign language is used. A word is shown as a movie using a sign language. The user should recognize the word and select it from a list. Only deaf persons can understand sign language and recognize the word, therefore other persons and also computer programs cannot enter the website. This project has... 

Grid infrastructures that have provided wide integrated use of resources are becoming the de facto computing platform for solving large-scale problems in science, engineering and commerce. In this evolution, desktop grid technologies allow the grid communities to exploit the idle cycles of pervasive desktop PC systems to increase the available computing power. In this paper we present DotGrid, a cross-platform grid software. DotGrid is the first comprehensive desktop grid software utilising Microsoft's .NET Framework in Windows-based environments and MONO .NET in Unix-class operating systems to operate. Using DotGrid services and APIs, grid desktop middleware and applications can be... 

Experiments are performed to investigate the atomization characteristics of mixed-interaction regions of sprays of two swirl injectors installed side by side. Both droplet size and velocity distributions on a plane perpendicular to the axes of the injectors are measured using a PDA system. As a result of the interaction phenomenon, a region of secondary atomization is identified that differs significantly from the hollow region spray of a single swirl injector. A neural network algorithm is used to reconstruct the entire spray field for both droplet size and velocity distribution in extrapolation regimes for injector spacing as well as three dimen sional spatial coordinates. Excellent... 

A 1.8-v 13-bit 25MS/S pipelined analog-to-digital (A/D) converter was designed and simulated using 0.18um CMOS technology. The proposed new high speed low power class AB opamp makes it possible to achieve requirements of 13-bit resolution and settling in 12ns within 0.01% accuracy. An optimum architecture for noise and power consideration is also selected to reduce power. Total Power dissipation is about 82 mw from a single 1.8 v supply, where INL and DNL are 0.7 LSB and 0.6 LSB respectively. SNDR of 75.5 dB is achieved