Sharif Digital Repository

The paper investigates the deep structure of the human mind by analyzing multiple intelligences theory. Regarding serious critiques proposed by a number of cognitive neuroscientists, psychologists, philosophers, and educational theorists (i.e. Sternberg 1983, 1991; Eysenck 1994; Scarr 1985; Klein 1998; Demetriou and Kazi 2006; Demetriou, Mouyi, and Spanoudis 2010, among others), it seems that the different types of intelligence introduced by Gardner (1983) have a shared feature. The authors believe that this particular shared feature can be counted as the key point of the underlying system of human knowledge. Since human cognition may be analyzed by means of universal structures of the mind,... 

Sulfur mustard (SM) is a vesication chemical warfare agent for which there is currently no antidote. Despite years of research, there is no common consensus about the pathophysiological basis of chronic pulmonary disease caused by this chemical warfare agent. In this study, we combined chemometric techniques with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to explore the metabolic profile of sera from SM-exposed patients. A total of 29 serum samples obtained from 17 SM-injured patients, and 12 healthy controls were analyzed by Random Forest. Increased concentrations of seven amino acids, glycerol, dimethylamine, ketone bodies, lactate, acetate, citrulline and creatine together with the... 

Human posture control is a complex issue in biomechanics. Human body is unstable without any controller. The stabilization of the body is achieved by the activation of the muscles and creating the joint torques. In this paper, human body in upright standing position has been modeled using an inverted double pendulum. Since the body parameters are different among the individuals, it is assumed that these parameters are not known exactly and are uncertain. An adaptive controller based on the inverse dynamics in addition to parameter adaptation law has been designed. The simulation of the system using this controller shows the effectiveness of the proposed method in controlling the human... 

This paper investigates anti-Fourier heat transfer phenomenon in a rarefied gas confined within a lid-driven cavity using a novel flow decomposition technique in the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method proposed by Stefanov and co-workers. An isothermal cavity with different degrees of flow rarefaction from near continuum to mid transition regimes was considered to investigate cold-to-hot heat transfer from ballistic/collision flow decomposition viewpoint. A new cold-to-hot heat transfer indicator in the form of a scalar product of normalized heat flow vector and normalized temperature gradient vector has been introduced for the overall, ballistic and collision parts of these vectors.... 

Human motion tracking has many applications in biomedical and industrial services. Low-cost inertial/magnetic sensors are widely used in human motion capture systems to obtain the orientation of the human body segments. In this paper, we have presented a quaternion-based unscented Kalman filter algorithm to fuse inertial/magnetic sensors measurements for tracking human arm movements. In order to have a better estimation of the orientation of the forearm and the upper arm, a constraint equation was developed based on the relative velocity of the elbow joint with respect to the inertial sensors attached to the forearm and the upper arm. Also to compensate for fast body motions, we adapted the... 

The protection system plays a vital role in maintaining a high degree of service reliability in present-day power systems. Considerable work has been done to examine different aspects of protection systems and their associated reliability. All of the reliability predictive methods are based solely on equipment failures, neglecting the human component of the protection system. In this paper, a modified Markov model is presented that incorporates human errors in reliability evaluation of protective devices. Two main types of relay failure (failure to operate and inadvertent operation) are taken into account in the proposed model. The model also considers routine test inspections, the... 

Providing home hemodialysis (HHD) therapy is a complex process that not only requires the use of a complex technology but also involves a diverse group of stakeholders, and each stakeholder has their requirements and may not share a common interest. Bringing them together will require the alignment of their interests. A process management perspective can help to accomplish the alignment of their interests. To align their interests, it is crucial to identify interest groups and understand their interests. The main objective of this paper is to identify the stakeholders and represents their interests as a list of requirements in the HHD process. An extensive literature review has been carried... 

In this paper, the original SIR model is improved by considering a new compartment, representing the hospitalization of critical cases. A system of differential equations with four blocks is developed to analyze the treatment of severe cases in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The outgoing rate of the infected individuals who survive is divided into nI and bI/1+b where the second term represents the transition rate of critical cases that are hospitalized in ICU. The findings demonstrate the existence of forward, backward and Hopf bifurcations in various ranges of parameters. © 2022 Roostaei et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution... 

In this paper, a nonlinear model reference adaptive impedance controller is proposed and tested. The controller provides asymptotic tracking of a reference impedance model for the robot end-effector in Cartesian coordinates applicable to rehabilitation robotics or any other human-robot interactions such as haptic systems. The controller uses the parameters of a desired stable reference model which is the target impedance for the robots end-effector. It also considers uncertainties in the model parameters of the robot. The asymptotic tracking is proven using Lyapunov stability theorem. Moreover, the adaptation law is proposed in joint space for reducing the complexity of its calculations;... 

Background. Although the relationship between collective efficacy and group performance has been frequently investigated, a few studies have investigated the development of collective efficacy. Aim. This paper proposes some determinants of collective efficacy in small university groups. Group level hypotheses and research questions relating collective efficacy to collective cognition activities, task interdependence, self-efficacy for group work, and collective orientation were posited. Sample. The sample comprised 145 university students in 40 work-groups. Method. A two-phase longitudinal design was employed in the context of university student groups. All groups were required to perform... 

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... 

In this study, the effects of an exercise therapy comprising yoga exercises and medial-thrust gait (YogaMT) on lower-extremity kinetics, pain, and function in patients with medial knee osteoarthritis were investigated. Fifty-nine patients were randomly allocated to three treatment groups: (a) the YogaMT group practiced yoga exercises and medial thrust gait, (b) the knee-strengthening group performed quadriceps-and hamstring-strengthening exercises, and (c) the treadmill walking group practiced normal treadmill walking in 12 supervised sessions. The adduction and flexion moments of the hip, knee, and ankle; pain intensity; and 2-min walking test were assessed before and after treatment and at... 

The importance of tracing dopaminergic agents in the progression assessment of Parkinson's disease has boosted the demand for fast, sensitive, and real-time multi-analyte detection. Herein, visual and fingerprint fluorimetric patterns have been created by an optical sensor array to simultaneously detect and discriminate among levodopa, carbidopa, benserazide, and entacapone, as important dopaminergic agents. A dual emissive nanoprobe consisting of red quantum dots and blue carbon dots with an overall pink emission has been fabricated to provide unique emission patterns in the presence of the target analytes. The sensor elements in the array come from it's differential response in the absence... 

Backgrounds In order to move towards the elimination and eradication of malaria in the world, the development of vaccines is inevitable. Many modern vaccines are based on recombinant technology; however, they may not provide a fully protective, long-lasting immune response. One of the strategies to improve recombinant vaccines is designing the nanovaccines such as self-assembling protein nanoparticles (SAPNs). Hence, the presentation of epitopes in a repeat array and correct conformation should be considered. P. falciparum generative cell-specific 1 (PfGCS1) is a main transmission-blocking vaccine candidate with two highly conserved fragments, HAP2-GCS1 and cd loop, inducing partial malaria... 

Increasing demand for wearable devices has resulted in the development of soft sensors; however, an excellent soft sensor for measuring stretch, twist, and pressure simultaneously has not been proposed yet. This paper presents a novel, fully 3D, microfluidic-oriented, gel-based, and highly stretchable resistive soft sensor. The proposed sensor is multi-functional and could be used to measure stretch, twist, and pressure, which is the potential of using a fully 3D structure in the sensor. Unlike previous methods, in which almost all of them used EGaIn as the conductive material, in this case, we used a low-cost, safe (biocompatible), and ubiquitous conductive gel instead. To show the... 

The present study examined the effects of auxetic shoes on the biomechanics of the spine, as compared to barefoot and conventional shoe conditions, during gait and drop vertical jump (DVJ) activities using a combined in vivo and musculoskeletal modeling approach. Motion and force-plate data as well as electromyographic (EMG) activities of select trunk muscles of 11 individuals were collected during foregoing activities. In DVJ activity, two main phases of first landing (FL) and second landing (SL) were studied. In the FL phase of DVJ noticeable alternations were observed when auxetic shoes were used. That is, compared to the conventional footwear condition, smaller EMG activities in extensor... 

Background: Brucellosis is a common zoonotic infection of humans from livestock. This bacterial infection is acquired from infected animals and their products. The pathogen of this disease is a genus of bacilli called Brucella, and no effective vaccine has been discovered yet for the prevention of human brucellosis. Objectives: The present study is mainly conducted to diagnose brucellosis accurately and timely, using Data Mining techniques. Based on the knowledge discovered with Data Mining and opinions of specialist physicians, this study aims to propose instructions for diagnosing brucellosis. Materials and methods: The dataset used in this study contains 340 samples and is extracted from... 

Astaxanthin (AXT) is one of the most important fat-soluble carotenoids that have abundant and diverse therapeutic applications namely in liver disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer treatment, protection of the nervous system, protection of the skin and eyes against UV radiation, and boosting the immune system. However, due to its intrinsic reactivity, it is chemically unstable, and therefore, the design and production processes for this compound need to be precisely formulated. Nanoencapsulation is widely applied to protect AXT against degradation during digestion and storage, thus improving its physicochemical properties and therapeutic effects. Nanocarriers are delivery systems with many... 

Essential oils (EOs) are valuable natural products that are popular nowadays in the world due to their effects on the health conditions of human beings and their role in preventing and curing diseases. In addition, EOs have a broad range of applications in foods, perfumes, cosmetics and human nutrition. Among different techniques for analysis of EOs, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is the most important one in recent years. However, there are some fundamental problems in GC-MS analysis including baseline drift, spectral background, noise, low S/N (signal to noise) ratio, changes in the peak shapes and co-elution. Multivariate curve resolution (MCR) approaches cope with ongoing...