Sharif Digital Repository

In this research, we consider the application of copulas in multivariate quality control problems. In particular, we consider two specific problems. The first problem concerns the situation where the normality assumption is rejected. In this case, copulas can be used as a flexible tool to define a broad range of multivariate distributions with different dependence structure as well as marginal distributions. The second problem concerns proposing control charts to monitor the dependence structure among quality characteristics. The proposed method not only produces an out-of-control signal when dependence structure among variables deviates from the specified one, but also can be used to... 

Impedance spectroscopy is known as one of the important integrated sensing methods in micro scale Biosensors and electrochemical sensors. Recently, Impedance spectroscopy has been noticed in many micro scale applications. These micro scale applications is being developed specially in bioelectronics and biomedical. The goal of this thesis is designing an on-chip impedance spectroscope system for high frequency with 10 bits resolution via fully electrical blood glucose concentration measurement. This system extracts the blood glucose concentration data through measuring the permittivity coefficient of blood at 1 GHz frequency. In this thesis, new method for high frequency high resolution... 

Institution covers wide range of rules, laws and policies. Two bodies of literature around institutions and resource curse have evaluated institutional quality by limited indices. In addition, although different institutions have different effects on economy, the literature hasn’t classified different kinds of institution. Furthermore, resources can affect institutions in different ways. This research has been surveyed the impact of resource dependence on institutional quality. Institutions that regulate relation between governors and citizens were named governmental institutions. Institutions that regulate the relation of citizens were named nongovernmental institutions. Governmental... 

The formation of development-supporting economic institutions, particularly through the lens of political institutions, remains a central question in political economy. This study distinguishes two key components of political institutions—power distribution and power transition—and empirically demonstrates that power distribution has a significant positive effect on economic institutional quality, while power transition becomes statistically insignificant once power distribution is controlled for. Based on whether political power is centralized or decentralized and whether its transfer is democratic or non-democratic, we define four political regimes: decentralized democracy, centralized... 

Heartbeat is the result of contractions of over 10 billion cardiac cells. These cells’ cytoplasms are connected to each other by gap junctions which are arrays of intercellular protein channels. Thus action potential can propagate from one cell to another and cause its contraction. In core-conductor model, one-dimensional microscopic representation of cardiac tissue, cells are attached to each other to form a ladder network. The parallel elements are connected to each other by series resistors which represent gap junctions. These resistors are nearly always considered as static elements. In this thesis I have investigated the effects of incorporating the dynamicity of gap junction resistors... 

Simulation of cardiovascular system functionality during various physiological conditions is essential at different diagnostic and clinical levels. A first step in studying the roots of cardiovascular diseases and abnormal activity is to study a practical yet complete model of the cardiovascular system. In this thesis we introduced a new approach for defining the distributed model of the cardiovascular system. Initially, we chose an appropriate subsystem, namely Arch of Aorta, and proposed a distributed model for it. The elements of the proposed model were nonlinear RLC elements that simulate resistance, blood viscosity and vessel elasticity respectively. To minimize the system complexity,... 

To actualize and making the outputs of a project effectual, it is necessary to conduct an effective management during a project. This case may not be possible without accurately planning for activities, management and controlling all phases of a project ignoring the risk management of that project. If risks of a project cannot be detected before conducting a project, it is possible to challenge the performance and even effectiveness of the project. In current conditions, the most important problem of managers and executives of construction projects through the country is risk management of projects, not acknowledging with definitions of risk, models of risk management and lack of a model for... 

Disconnections in neural paths from the central nervous system to the muscles or vice versa cause different neuropathies, thus paralysis in different limbs may occur. As a result of the lack of muscular activity and the decrease in blood perfusion in paralyzed limbs, problems like osteoporosis, increase in the risk of breaking, decline in muscle size, cardiovascular diseases, renal dysfunction, bedsores, etc may happen. In order to induce movement in paralyzed limbs, thus preventingmentioned problems, rowing exercise through Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) may be utilized. In FES, electrical Stimulation using current stimulating pulses is applied to contracting and relaxing muscles,... 

A Balanced Scorecard (BSC) model is proposed to evaluate performance of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) management systems. This model includes key performance indicators at three integrated levels. It has been tested and verified in a project-based organization in Iran, active in the area of power and energy. Results show that the company has done well in implementing HSE management processes, but no so well in growth and learning. This model may be used as a basis for comparing different companies and various proposed programs in the field of HSE management systems. The model includes indicators and sub-indicators in each category particularly related to stakeholders, processes, and... 

World-wide, Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) takes hundreds of thousands of lives each year. This chronic heart disease causes poor performance of the heart and insufficient blood pumping to the organs. A significant percentage of patients with CHF require heart transplants for their survival. The high cost of heart transplant, shortage of donor hearts and possibility of its rejection by recipients are serious problems of this type of treatment. Therefore a large number of heart patients are potential beneficiaries of artificial blood pumps such as Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) and Total Artificial Heart (TAH). Performance of these systems must be compliant and complementary to the existing... 

In this study, factors which lead in failures in reengineering processes in project based companies have been investigated. The research used qualitative methods, and finally using theme analysis to identify the main factors.Consequently, the main causes of failure of re-engineering projects have been identified and classified in six basic categories including: organizational leadership, planning, human resources management, mental models causing resistance, culture and organizational climate and communication. That each of these themes includes some subset of the agents it represents. In this study, a suitable pattern for organizations which intend to perform reengineering has been... 

Supply chain management has been developed extensively in second half of last century and the development has been continued up to present century. Nowadays Development and conformity of production and inventory control methods with JIT philosophy in production line level is one of the topics that received much attention from researchers. An increasing interest in the scope of JIT philosophy is on the extension and adaptation of Pull policies such as Kanban and CONWIP for materials and production control. In a real-life environment, companies are subjected to various types of uncertainties such as stochastic processing times and variable demand. This uncertain environment could cause lots... 

In this study a variational framework for joint segmentation and motion estimation is provided for inspecting heart in Cine MRI sequences. In the first work, a functional including Mumford-Shah segmentation and optical flow based dense motion estimation is proposed. However, the motion estimation technique is replaced with warping estimation in the second work to reach in more regular and smooth motion field based on tracking of cardiac boundaries. Both of these functionals are then approximated by using the phase-field method to make them suitable for extracting Euler-Lagrange equations. Numerical solution to the optimization problem, when the time and image spaces are discretized by finite... 

In many modern medical procedures, needle insertion is an inevitable part of the diagnosis or treatment protocols. The accuracy of the needle insertion is adversely affected by a number of factors. A needle, frequently assumed to be flexible, is inserted into a soft tissue and induces complex mechanical interactions that may result in considerable uncertainties. Tissue intrinsic characteristics as well as its deformation and rotation may cause dramatic complexities. This work considers the needle movement inside the tissue from the dynamics and control point of view. The proposed approach can be regarded as an initial step towards automation of needle insertion procedures; it can also be... 

Medical needle interventions are a common technique for accessing tissue structures.In these procedures, needles are used, for example, to extract biopsy samples, brachytherapy, and to insert drugs. In TRUS guided prostate brachytherapy application, Physicians used ulterasound imaging to steer the needle and insert radioactive seeds into cancerous tumors to irradiate surrounding tissue over several months. Prostate rotation, deformation, and unavailability of imaging data during part of the insertion path result in misplaced seeds. To overcome these problems, in this research, we modeled the prostate, its membrane and the surrounding fatty tissue as linearly elastic homogenous material, and...