Sharif Digital Repository

From the creation of the first robots, researchers have been fascinated by the possibility of interaction between a robot and its environment, by the possibility of robots interacting with each other and with humans. The common, underlying assumption is that humans prefer to interact with machines in the same way that they interact with other people. In this work, an assistant robot is developed based on a commercial platform, known as Alice R-50 (with the Iranian name of Mina). Alice is designed specifically for human-robot social interaction and has been used widely for studies on developmental and social robotics. It is used to improve and encourage the development of communication and... 

In this thesis, the purpose of the research was to develop a four-wheeled Mobile platform (Lower body) with three degrees of freedom for a humanoid robot upper body which is called RASA. RASA robot was designed and constructed for helping kids who have speech and hearing impairments. The objective was to develop a low-cost and affordable robot as compared to its international models to be used at home or school as a teacher assistant. RASA can help kids to learn signs as fast as possible due to the game-based and entertaining education system. The wheeled base platform consists of a new mechanism with 6 bar linkage for bending robot from the hip to about 60 degrees from a vertical position... 

Innovations in laser, microwaves, and similar technologies have significantly advanced thermal treatments for diseases or even injuries concerning skin tissue. For a thorough understanding in the underlying mechanisms of bioheat transfer behavior of skin,a1D unsteady non-dimensional hyperbolic model of heat transfer through this tissue with metabolic heat generation which is subject to specific boundary conditions, is solved numerically using the finite difference method. A thermal shock is generated at the base of the tissue, which moves forward with a finite speed. A Numerical solution for a simple one-layer skin tissue is obtained. Then, the effects of various parameters, time step,... 

Suspension systems play a significant role in vehicles. They are responsible for providing ride comfort to the passengers and maintain car handling. Vibrations induced by the road can cause harmful effects on human body and this reveals the importance of designing and controlling the suspension system. Semi-active control is a reliable and safe method that has attracted a great deal of attention in the suppressing the car vibration. MR damper is a sample of semi-active control method. In most of the studies that have been done in literature the human body model has not been considered in designing the control strategy. In this study, a complete model of suspension system integrated with the... 

When classical Fourier law of heat conduction is not applicable due to finite speed of heat propagation in a medium, non-Fourier heat conduction is used. In non-Fourier heat conduction, heat transfer is studied considering finite speed of heat flux (thermal wave) or temperature gradient or both (dual phase lag). Biological tissues like skin are one of the materials which show non-Fourier behavior during usual heating processes. In this research heat transfer in human skin is modeled by Fourier, thermal wave and dual phase lag (DPL) models. The equations are solved using the finite difference method and the temperature distribution across the tissue is calculated. In thermal wave model,... 

This thesis discusses a real-time vision-based framework for the purpose of hand region detection and hand gesture recognition. Our proposed methods include detecting hand regions in the cluttered background, based on Viola-Jones object detection algorithm and improving the classification of detected hand gestures regions in a novel contour-based framework. Our studies have demonstrated that deformability and high degree of freedom (DoF) of human hand as a non-rigid object besides diversity of skin color types, undeniable effect of cluttered background complexity, scalability and being robustness against rotation are the main reasons for considering some simplifications in visionbased... 

A survey on the methods of detecting a human body inside surrounding captured images of a machine, optimizing one of these methods and finding an injured person in a captured picture is our target. Using neural networks for better detection and making RBFN network, make it possible to use high altitude captured pictures with lower resolution and light changes. Modifying RBFN to MRBFN network for an optimized processing with effect of living signs seems to be an applicable approach. These methods can extended from detecting an injured person in a captured picture, to analyze the medical images like detecting a special pattern in MRI picture. Of course it’s a start for many future... 

The goal of the research presented in this thesis is assessment of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) reflectometry as a potential method for non-invasive detection of skin cancers. The reasons for choosing mm-waves are lower penetration, higher resolution and technology maturity. The main work of this research is numerical simulation of reflection from skin and other media as well as reflection measurement of some skin-equivalent phantoms at mm-wave frequencies. By exposing the skin to mm-waves and studying the characteristics of the reflected wave malignant lesions are differentiated from benign and normal skin tissues. Since Oxygen molecules have strong attenuation peaks around 60 GHz band, this... 

The present study was conducted to provide an overview of engineers and employers to select the best exterior procedure of the facade by examining the influential factors and the advantages and disadvantages of each facade in terms of construction. Therefore, to select the most efficient type of facade for each project, the types of external facade procedures have been examined from different perspectives.In this study, to obtain the results of the questionnaires, a statistical population of 100 people consisting of engineers was used to collect information. These questionnaires are defined around the factors influencing the facade's choice (economic, human, sustainable, and technological... 

This thesis presented a state-of-the-art algorithm for perspective projection reconstruction of non-rigid surfaces from single-view and realistic videos. Which overcomes the limitations arising from the usage of orthographic camera model and the complexity and non-linearity issues of perspective projection equation. Unlike traditional non-rigid structure-from-motion (NRSfM) methods, which have been studied only on synthetic datasets and controlled lab environments that require some prior constraints (such as manually segmented objects, limited rotations and occlusions, and full-length trajectories); the proposed method can be used in realistic video sequences. In addition, contrary to... 

The world around us changes almost every second, so the economy in this world feels it more by every single minute. When we look at the organizational structures, they experience lots of things for keeping the companies competitive and the human resources have the main role among the other stimulating factors.The human resource management and its improvements have done a lot in this century to organize and manage the human problems in organizations. After that those companies that had more effective strategies become on top of this important management system. By changing fast the work models companies experience more and immediate changes that may not happen even through the years. In this... 

Project is defined as all activities with a definite beginning (start) and end (finish) aiming to achieve a defined target through defined resources. Literature reviews in the field of project management have shown the importance of project management capabilities for evaluation and optimization. There are many factors in project management which can lonely disrupt the timing and progress of the project. One of the most important factors that in effective and unfortunately has been less measured due to its intangible characteristic in the project is known to be the "human factor". This factor is involved from the first day a project starts and will continue till the end of the project.... 

An impedimetric human papilloma virus (HPV) DNA biosensor based on gold nanotubes (AuNTs) in label free detection was materialized. The AuNTs decorated nanoporous polycarbonate (AuNTs-PC) template as biosensor electrode was fabricated by electrodeposition method. The single strand DNA (ss-DNA) probe was covalently immobilized onto the AuNTs-PC electrode. The hybridization of target sequences with the ss-DNA probe was observed by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The biosensor showed high selectivity and could differentiate between the complementary, mismatch and non-complementary DNA sequences. The EIS measurements were matched to Randle's equivalent circuit. The... 

We examine the economic implications of the SEC disclosure rules for companies doing business with Iran on their riskiness of debt. We exploit Section 219 of the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act (ITRA), which requires companies listed on U.S exchanges to disclose their activities and transactions with Iranian institutions. We analyze the impact of the first ITRA disclosure on the cost of capital for both American and foreign companies listed on the US exchanges. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we document a negative impact of ITRA disclosures on loan spread and credit rating of foreign companies. Further, using textual analysis, we identify the elements in the... 

Privatization in Iran was primarily driven by the 2004 amendment to the Article 44 of the Iranian Constitution. Improving firms' efficiency is cited as the key goal of the privatization program. The two prominent characteristics of the privatization program in Iran are complex ownership structure and transferring ownership from the government to government-affiliated institutions and organizations. For these reasons, the consequences of privatization in Iran may differ from those of other countries. Therefore, this study explores the relation between privatization and firm performance, as measured by firm efficiency, labor efficiency, investment, and the number of employees. As a significant... 

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that strengthen and inhibit the integration of organizational units in the university environment, specifically the integration of the "support" unit and "human resources" unit, which in this study is called "human capital"unit. In the integration literature, the integration of the two units of support and human capital has been less discussed. In particular, it seems that this issue needs more research in the academic environment with its own characteristics.This is an exploration research with the qualitative method and according to a case study of the Sharif University of Technology. To answer the research questions, several... 

The Iran-Iraq war between 1980 to 1988 involved Iran's western borders and inflicted heavy casualties. This war was also spread to the central provinces of Iran in several periods as a result of Iraqi missile attacks, known as the War of Cities. The attacks were mainly intended to intimidate people, leaving relatively few deaths and injuries. In this study, we seek to estimate part of the hidden and long run impacts of these attacks. Using a two-percent sample of Iran’s 1990 census and the information of the location and timing of missile attacks, and by incorporating the difference in difference method, we estimate the causal impact of missile attacks on the years of education of those who... 

Inequality and the feeling of injustice governing in the work environment place is one of the important and influential factors on employees'affecting productivity. If Should the employees believe that they are getting lower wages despite having the same productivity as their colleagues, they receive less wage than those co-workers, they might find the firm's behavior unfair and thus, they would loweradjust their performance accordingly. This problem is of great importance, hence the numerous related studies in the literature. This study investigates the effect of inequal unequal payment and promotion on the productivity of the employees by designing and implementing a natural work... 

The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of human capital on the performance of startups in Iran so that its findings can be used to guide the startups and companies, policymakers, and entrepreneurs. According to a study by Aguin andcolleagues. (2009), the establishment of new firms through entrepreneurial activities can increase national economic growth, creativity and productivity at the national level. Joseph, in 1995, stated in an article what has been pointed out by some researchers in the field of entrepreneurship in developing countries, Programs and strategies that succeed in a country will not necessarily succeed in another country, due to cultural and governmental... 

Considering the fact that human capital is a crucial element in explaining the differences in income per capita and economic growth among countries, this research focuses on the effect of initial endowments of individuals on the process of human capital accumulation. One of the most important questions one can ask in this regard is whether individuals that are born in households with a low level of endowments, cannot develop their level of human capital due to a lack in the ability to obtain the factors required for their educational attainment. To answer this question, and considering the limitations of obtaining educational data, we aim to answer this question using district-level data....