Sharif Digital Repository

Governments in developing countries have invested in institutions of higher learning in order to develop homegrown, high technology products. Among these, the National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia), recognized as a Research University, is actively involved in projects related to medical technology through its various faculties. The net result of these activities is impressing from the point of view of patents and publications, but unfortunately not yet in terms of commercialization. This paper starts by presenting the main obstacles towards the objective of bringing a laboratory prototype to the market in the context of Malaysia. Then, a framework is presented... 

Background: One of the negative effects of cardiac sympathetic hyperactivity is pathologic hypertrophy. Recent studies have indicated that large tumor suppressor (LATS) is one of the molecules which play a critical role in cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Considering the preventive role of exercise training, we evaluated the effects of endurance training on LATS gene expression and its upstream pathway in the present study. Methods: Eighteen male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 2 groups: Endurance and control. Endurance training was performed for 8 weeks, 1 hour per day, and 6 days per week on the treadmill at a 15° inclination. Pathologic hypertrophy was induced with the injection of 3... 

Today, many students are study computer science. Although they study different courses, they rarely do homework or projects related to real world problems. In this paper, we design a project to show some of the problems which are occured during implementing a real word project to the students. In this project, the students are asked to implement the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) algorithm on a personal computer and then port the program to a smartphone using J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) programming language. By doing this project, the undergraduate computer science students will become familiar with the limitations of small devices such as smartphones. They also learn the process of porting a... 

Recently Mobile Learning (M-Learning) has attracted much attention. Due to advantages of SMS (Short Messaging Service) on mobile phones we present a safe and protected method for taking multiple-choice quizzes by using the SMS on mobile phones in this paper. In this method questions of quiz are sent to students along with their answers through some SMS messages. The students will receive their grades immediately after answering the questions and this grade is also sent to the instructor or professor along with the student's answers through an SMS Picture Message. Answers of questions and the student's grade are hidden in SMS picture message through stenography and then they are sent. The... 

Virtual learning is a new idea that has gotten a new form with the emergence of new technologies such as the wireless networks. The mobile phone (cell phone) is a device that is used by most people nowadays. Therefore, one can use the mobile phone for virtual learning on a wide scale. One of the popular and at the same time simple and inexpensive services on the mobile phone is the SMS (Short Message Service). In this paper I propose a method for taking multiple-choice quizzes by using the SMS on mobile phones. In the provision of these tests, some SMS messages were sent to the student along with the answers of the questions, which were steganography in an image. The student, after receiving... 

One of the most important aspects of a successful space mission is the transition to the correct orbit and maintaining it. As a result, many modern orbit transfer techniques have been developed in space industry in order to accomplish this task in a more reliable and less expensive way. However, when it comes to the design of student satellites, usually there are serious limitations on the financial resources, technical database and satellite industry experts. These limitations may compromise the access to advanced methods and techniques. Therefore, reliability and expenses may no longer be the only criteria to be met in the process of design. As a result, at each step of the design, a... 

Background: The development of endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) training simulators for clinical environment applications has reduced the existing shortcomings in conventional teaching methods, creating a standard environment for trainers and trainees in a more accurate and repeatable fashion. Materials and methods: In this research, the validation study of an ESS training simulator has been addressed. It is important to consider components that guide trainees to improve their hand movements control in the orbital floor removal in an ESS operation. Therefore, we defined three tasks to perform: pre-experiment learning, training, and evaluation. In these tasks, the critical regions introduced in... 

This study investigated Iranian language students' perception of and familiarity with plagiarism, their attitudes toward their professors regarding this issue, and their reasons for doing so. The participants were 122 undergraduate and graduate language students in Translation, Literature, TEFL, and Linguistics who filled out a validated and piloted questionnaire. Overall, the results indicated that students had different views about the definition of plagiarism and plagiarism was mostly perceived by students as using someone else's words as if they were their own rather than taking someone's ideas without permission. It was also found that in their academic career, students mostly consider... 

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the English for publication purpose practices of doctoral students in Iran. The overall objective was to explore their motives, hurdles and strategies in academic writing. Design/methodology/approach: This case study draws on a narrative inquiry to explore nine science and engineering doctoral students’ perceptions of academic publication. The data were analyzed through a hybrid process of inductive and deductive thematic analysis. Findings: The qualitative results showed three dominant themes, namely: motives for publication, hurdles to publication and strategies for dealing with these challenges were extracted. The main sources of... 

An educational robot is described, which is designed and constructed for use in the laboratory of Principles of Electrical Engineering. The discrete nature of design, conforming to a simple block strategy, allows for fairly easy introduction of basic and fundamental concepts of Electrical Engineering to the freshman students, including control, actuation, wireless signal transmission, and analogue/digital conversions. Each block or module represents one or few engineering ideas and helps the students to understand the interplay and connection between system divisions, and enhance their creative thinking. Circuits are designed and implemented such that both structure and functionality of each...