Sharif Digital Repository

The type of consumers’ perceptions of brands is a key factor in establishing long-term business-consumer relationships. As a result, building strong brand perceptions is a principal priority for companies today. Research in brand image has long been one of the main areas in marketing research, because it plays a vital role in building brand equity. Concerning the rise in the number of product categories and the number of similar brands, firms have felt a need to know their brand images among competing brands from the consumer’ s point of view in order to invest in their brands and approach their brand images to the consumer’ s preferable image. Because of the fact that the brand image... 

This paper is concerned with the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) in a fleet with customer loyalty. In this work, we consider priority for customers according to their loyalty and try to declare an objective function which concerns customers' satisfaction along other normal VRP objectives like route optimization  

The main approach of this thesis is to study the performance and efficiency of agricultural biomass derived extractive phases in sample preparation methods. In this regard, different types of agricultural biomasses and various important factors in the production of biochar from biomass were studied by two physical and chemical methods. Accordingly, different types of biochars have been made and applied in different extraction setups along with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) and gas chromatography-electron capture (GC-ECD) to detect agricultural pesticides. Also, validated developed methods were used to investigate the safety of some highly... 

Optical Wireless Communication is believed to have a great potential in establishing point to point connection and have attracted an unexpected growth in research , applications and market. Furthermore, Optical wireless systems have recently emerged as a new means of communication, especially in places where electromagnetic interferences is of utmost concern such as in passenger planes and hospitals and in other communications applications where cost could is of concern. In this thesis we build upon previously introduced wireless optical code-division multiple –access communication. In the context of an OCDMA system we begin our study by considering synchronization circuit via a... 

Today, cancer mortality is one of the most important problems, even considering the scientific advances that offer more effective solutions to treat some diseases, providing a way to prevent and treat this disease is one of the most important issues that engineers have considered. This is achieved by designing a controller to minimize the size of the cancer tumor population, increase healthy cells, optimize treatment time, and drug dose.To achieve this goal, pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, tumor growth, and healthy cell growth models, and mathematical models for subsystems that affect tumor growth, such as the angiogenic system, have been studied to develop a single mathematical model. In... 

Environmental management with emphasis on protecting environment is today one of the most important problems for customers, governments, employees and competitors, and international and global pressures has required organizations to produce environmentally consistent products and services. This challenge has resulted in emergence of a new concept namely green supply change management in the realm of business which is a combination of environmental thinking and supply chain, which will be followed by competitive advantages for firms. This approach has widely attracted the attention of industries, governments and institutions relevant to environment. The aim of this study is to identify main... 

This thesis concerns the modeling of precipitation processes aimed at predicting product particle characteristics especially particle size distribution. A mixing-precipitation model (based on SFM) linked to the population balance is used for a single-feed semi-batch precipitation process to describe the mixing effects on the final particle-size distribution (PSD) and mean size, considering the agglomeration mechanism. The model describes mixing on two zones: the feed and bulk zone with different levels of super saturation. To solve a full population balance equation containing nucleation, growth and agglomeration, discretization method was performed witch is more accurate and low... 

The aim of this study is the fabrication of 3D porous PCL scaffolds contain core-shell fibers for cartilage tissue engineering. The novel fabrication method is co-axial wet electrospinning simultaneously. These tablets like scaffolds have superior porosity and pore sizes for cell culturing and cell-cell interaction as they have good mechanical properties for cartilage tissue engineering in comparison to 2D electrospun scaffolds. The structure of these 3D scaffolds is mimicking the ECM of cartilage. This study presents the coaxial electrospinning of PCL nanofibers encapsulated with bovine serum albumin and platelet rich plasma for demonstration of controlled release and bioactivity retention,... 

Taking advantage of aluminum and its alloys in industry is increasing. A common method in metal forming is hot forming. In this condition a precise prediction of flow behaviour of the alloy is necessary to achieve a product of desirable mechanical and physical properties. In this situation, influence of parameters such as chemical composition, temperature, strain, strain rate as well as recovery and recrystallization phenomena should be considered and by using a suitable model, the metal behavior prediction is possible. Distribution of coherent Al3Sc dispersoids in high volume fraction accompany with Al6Mn result in strengthening to this alloy. Because of the high stacking fault energy,... 

Friction Stir Spot Welding as a solid state process is able to solve some of the disadvantages of fusion welding processes. On the other hand, this welding method has disadvantages such as low connection surface due to the hole left by the pin and poor resistance to fatigue loading. In this study, a method called friction stir spot welding via consumable pin was used so that the hole caused by the pin no longer remains at the welding site. The process is done in such a way that first a hole is made in the center of the overlap of the sheets. The rotating tool, in which the consumable pin is made of 6061 aluminum alloy with a diameter equal to the diameter of the hole is lowered at a... 

Expansion of using social networks for reading and sharing news on the one hand, allows for quick and easy access to the news, but on the other hand, increases the spread of fake news and misleads many users. Therefore, identifying the fake news and attempting to mitigate its spreading on social networks is one of the major research areas in recent years. An important issue in this regard is reducing the time gap between news release time and identifying it as fake and starting to take action. Many researches has been done on detection of fake news, but since there is a trade-off between minimizing the time gap and maximizing accuracy, work on these models continues. There are also different...