Sharif Digital Repository

This study aimed to investigate the leadership roles of subsidiary board chairpersons (SBCs). To this end, the study focused on the effect of the context of the parent company on the roles of SBCs in enhancing board effectiveness. This can be a response to the call for further investigation on the role of contextual and institutional factors in board effectiveness. An embedded multiple-case study design was used to compare the leadership role of chairpersons of the two groups of boards with high and low effectiveness in a corporation assessed via a multi-source appraisal method. Based on a series of interviews, we compared the mechanisms that differentiated the two groups of boards. Managing... 

The present study presents a new risk-constrained bidding strategy formulation of large electric utilities in, presence of demand response programs. The considered electric utility consists of generation facilities, along with a retailer part, which is responsible for supplying associated demands. The total profit of utility comes from participating in day-ahead energy markets and selling energy to corresponding consumers via retailer part. Different uncertainties, such as market price, affect the profit of the utility. Therefore, here, attempts are made to make use of Information Gap Decision Theory (IGDT) to obtain a robust scheduling method against the unfavorable deviations of the market... 

A new risk-constrained bidding curve construction method is presented in this paper. A Day-ahead energy market has been chosen for competition of GenCos and the Information Gap Decision Theory (IGDT) is used for modelling the Day-ahead market price uncertainty and its corresponding risk. The bilateral contracts of the GenCo are also considered in the proposed framework. A Bi-level optimization problem is incorporated in the proposed method to guarantee a pre-specified level of revenue. The proposed IGDT based method constructs the non-decreasing bidding curve while dispatching units based on the uncertain forecasted prices of the next-day market. The verification of the proposed method is... 

Isolated Word Recognition (IWR) is becoming increasingly attractive due to the improvement of speech recognition techniques. However, the accuracy of IWR suffers when large databases or words with similar pronunciation are used. The criterion for accurate speech recognition is suitable segmentation. However, the traditional method of segmentation equal segmentation does not produce the most accurate result. Furthermore, utilizing manual segmentation based on events is not possible in large databases. In this paper, we introduce an intelligent segmentation based on Hierarchical Temporal Decomposition (HTD). Based on this method, a temporal decomposition (TD) algorithm can be used to... 

This paper presented a combined scheduling and bidding algorithm for constructing the bidding curve of an electric utility that participated in the day-ahead energy markets. Day-ahead market price uncertainty was modeled using non-probabilistic information gap decision theory (IGDT). The considered utility consisted of generation units and a retailer part; the retailer part of the utility and its demand response program (DRP) could affect the utility's profit, which should be considered in the bidding strategy problem. The bidding strategy algorithm proposed in this paper dispatched units by optimizing the demand response programs of the retailer part. In addition, non-decreasing bidding... 

In recent years, IWR (Isolated Word Recognition) was one of the main concerns of speech processing. The challenging problems in this field appear when the database become so large or when we have a lot of word with similarly pronounce in the database. This paper introduces a general solution for a traditional problem in isolated similarly pronounced word recognition, especially in large databases. One the important problem of traditional IWR is referred to their segmentation algorithm, their methods were lacking in efficiency due to the following reasons: First, using equal segmentation is not at all intelligent at all and as a result, cannot produce accurate results; besides, utilizing... 

This study presents analysis on the vibration behavior of the two-dimensional functionally graded (2D-FG) nano and microbeams which are made of two kinds of porous materials for the first time, based on Timoshenko beam theory. The material of the nano and microbeams is modeled as 2D-FGMs according to the power law. The Eringen's nonlocal elasticity and the modified couple stress theories are used, respectively in case of nano and microbeams. The boundary conditions are considered as clamped (CC), simply supported (SS), clamped–simply supported (CS), and cantilever (CF). The governing equations are solved using the generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM). The effects of FG power... 

This article aims to study the buckling and free vibrational behavior of axially functionally graded (AFG) nanobeam under thermal effect for the first time. The temperature is considered to be constant and variable along thickness and different boundary conditions. The governing equation is developed using the Hamilton’s principle considering the axial force. The Euler–Bernoulli beam theory is used to model the nanobeam, and Eringen’s nonlocal elasticity theory is utilized to consider the nano-size effect. The generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM) is used to solve the equations. The small-scale parameter, AFG power index, thermal distribution, different functions of temperature... 

This work is aimed to present analysis on the thermal vibrational behavior of two-dimensional functionally graded porous microbeams based on Timoshenko beam theory. According to the power law function, the material composition and so the material properties are varying along thickness and axis of the microbeam. The governing equations are derived on the basis of the couple stress theory and the generalized differential quadrature method is used to solve the equations. The temperature gradient is considered to be uniform and nonuniform across the thickness of the microbeam. The results are presented to show the effect of temperature change, porosity, functionally graded and axially... 

In this paper, a new algorithm for solving the shortest loop design problem is presented. The shortest loop design problem is to find the shortest loop for an automated guided vehicle covering at least one edge of each department of a block layout. In this paper, first it is shown that this problem can be represented as a graph model. The properties of the presented model enable us to design a meta-heuristic based on ant colony system algorithm for solving the shortest loop design problem. Computational results show the efficiency of our algorithm in compare to the other techniques  

In a series of articles, Asbjorn Steglich-Petersen and Nick Zangwill argue that, since propositional attitude (PA) ascription judgements do not behave like normative judgements in being subject to a priori normative supervenience and the Because Constraint, PAs cannot be constitutively normative.1 I argue that, for a specific version of normativism, according to which PAs are normative commitments, these arguments fail. To this end, I argue that commitments and obligations should be distinguished. Then, I show that the intuitions allegedly governing all normative judgements do not even purport to hold for commitment-attributing judgements. Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2020  

A number of philosophers have argued that there is a basic problem in the no-guidance argument against content normativism. The problem is that the argument restricts the essential normativity of intentional states to the formation of these states being guided by certain norms. But it is suggested that the essential norm-governedness of intentional states can be equally plausibly construed as the assessability of these states by norms, which does not imply complying with them. Although I concur with the problem diagnosed in the no-guidance argument, I take issue with the alternative conception of normativity which is put forward. In its stead, I argue that considering intentional states as... 

A number of philosophers have argued that there is a basic problem in the no-guidance argument against content normativism. The problem is that the argument restricts the essential normativity of intentional states to the formation of these states being guided by certain norms. But it is suggested that the essential norm-governedness of intentional states can be equally plausibly construed as the assessability of these states by norms, which does not imply complying with them. Although I concur with the problem diagnosed in the no-guidance argument, I take issue with the alternative conception of normativity which is put forward. In its stead, I argue that considering intentional states as... 

Abraham’s Dilemma is the conjunction of three jointly inconsistent propositions: (i) God’s commands are never morally wrong, (ii) God has commanded Abraham to kill his innocent son, and (iii) killing innocent people is morally wrong. Drawing on an overlooked point from the Qur’an regarding the content of the command as well as a conceptual analysis of intentional action, this paper proposes a novel solution to the dilemma by discarding proposition (ii) in a new way. Current approaches to rejecting proposition (ii) tend to appeal to epistemic failure on the side of Abraham. In my approach, which draws on the so-called accordion effect in intentional action, God’s command is interpreted in... 

In what sense can one claim that intentional explanations are essentially normative, given that people’s actions and thinking are replete with various irrationalities, yet are still pretty well explained by this explanatory framework? This article provides a novel response to this enduring objection. First, following Brandom, it is suggested that, to understand the normativity of intentional states, we should countenance and distinguish between two normative categories of commitment and entitlement, only the former of which is argued to be essential for intentional explanations. Conflating these two normative dimensions is noted to be one of the main sources of the objections leveled against... 

Abraham’s Dilemma is the conjunction of three jointly inconsistent propositions: (i) God’s commands are never morally wrong, (ii) God has commanded Abraham to kill his innocent son, and (iii) killing innocent people is morally wrong. Drawing on an overlooked point from the Qur’an regarding the content of the command as well as a conceptual analysis of intentional action, this paper proposes a novel solution to the dilemma by discarding proposition (ii) in a new way. Current approaches to rejecting proposition (ii) tend to appeal to epistemic failure on the side of Abraham. In my approach, which draws on the so-called accordion effect in intentional action, God’s command is interpreted in... 

In what sense can one claim that intentional explanations are essentially normative, given that people’s actions and thinking are replete with various irrationalities, yet are still pretty well explained by this explanatory framework? This article provides a novel response to this enduring objection. First, following Brandom, it is suggested that, to understand the normativity of intentional states, we should countenance and distinguish between two normative categories of commitment and entitlement, only the former of which is argued to be essential for intentional explanations. Conflating these two normative dimensions is noted to be one of the main sources of the objections leveled against... 

Introduction: Proximal spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is one of the most significant neurodegenerative diseases amongst the autosomal-recessive genetic disorders which is caused by the absence of protein survival of motor neuron (SMN). A critical nucleotide difference in SMN2 compared to SMN1 gene leads to an inefficient protein. Hence, homozygous lack of SMN1 provides a progressive disease. Due to the high prevalence, up to now, several molecular diagnostic methods have been used which most of them are lengthy, expensive, and laborious. Methods: In the present study, we exploited a gold nanoprobe-based method for semi-quantitative SMN1 gene dosage analysis compared to SMN2. The assay was... 

Although numerous molecular methods for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) detection have been exploited, most of hem are laborious, time consuming and costly. Recently, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have attracted attention in the field of colourimetric bioanalysis, because AuNP aggregation can be tracked with the naked eye as well as ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) peak analysis. Here, based on a non-cross linking platform, a colourimetric-based method was used to evaluate the capability of thiolated oligo-AuNPs (Au nanoprobes) to distinguish between normal individuals, carriers and those with SMA. In this platform, removal of the repulsive force of the Au nanoprobes using high salt concentration... 

In this paper we describe some mechanical, hardware and software aspects of our robots specially used in teamwork. The pneumatic design of the gripers and kicker enables the robot to make a good control of ball when dribbling and also passing the ball in short and long distances. The teamwork software enables our robots to perform a cooperative behavior by dividing the field to three major regions and assigning each robot a role such as defender, forward and middle in these three regions. The server can order the robots to change their role when needed and make them return to their original state after a short time. © 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg