Sharif Digital Repository

Understanding the relationship between different kinds of mechanical loading and the failure of the intervertebral disc is difficult to study in vivo and in vitro. Through finite element studies some of these issues may be overcome enabling more detailed assessment of the biomechanical behavior of the intervertebral disc. The objective of this paper is to develop a nonlinear axisymmetric poroelastic finite element model of intervertebral disc and show its capability for studying the time-dependent response of disc. After comparison of the response of different models in quasi-static analysis, the poroelastic model of intervertebral disc is presented and the results of a short-term and... 

This study investigates different types of career orientation of a sample of Iranian software engineers and antecedents of these orientations. A qualitative study was conducted in seven Iranian small to large sized companies, where forty-nine software engineers were interviewed. Using the thematic analysis technique, technical, managerial, entrepreneurial, project based, and hybrid orientations were identified. For some orientations, several sub-orientations were also identified. In addition, the results propose some antecedents of career orientation, mainly based on engineer needs, competencies and values, which may be moderated by some external factors, including organizational and... 

In this paper a new method of modeling shear force-displacement relationship for confined masonry walls by neural networks has been presented. Although the mathematical models have been very useful in the simulations so far, however developing more accurate models is necessary. While developing precise mathematical models for highly hysteretic materials is itself challenging and practically cumbersome, the use of learning algorithms is an attractive alternative. The issue of material modeling by neural networks has been a challenging one itself, noticing available neural networks have some limitations in the learning of non-linearity. In this paper a new type neural network, called Prandtl... 

Model-driven approaches to software engineering have expanded their influence in recent years, with Object Management Group's Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) being the major force behind this boost. However, despite its merits, MDA remains insufficient for software system development, in the sense that it does not provide a concrete and comprehensive process for governing software development activities. There is therefore a strongly felt need for new model-driven software development methodologies. In this paper we review a number of existing model-driven methodologies, and propose a general framework for Model-Driven Development (MDD) based on MDA. The framework can be used for assessing...