Sharif Digital Repository

This article studies effects of store layout in a department store on buyer behavior towards new products. Shelf layout -in terms of parameters which influence buyer behavior- is formulated by two variables; pattern of prices and pattern of popularity. A novel method based on previous works of authors has been developed to measure these two factors, so that they can be compared against shares of department sales statistics. Investigating this relationship helps both retailers and marketing agents to better understand effect of shelf layout in promoting a newly developed product. Results show that correlation between price difference and department share is strong. There is also a weaker... 

This article studies effects of webpage layout in an online retailer on buyer behavior towards new products and is a sequel to a study performed by authors in department stores. Webpage layout -in terms of parameters which influence buyer behavior- is formulated by two variables; pattern of prices and pattern of popularity. A novel method based on above-mentioned study, has been developed to measure these two factors, so that they can be compared against retailer sales statistics. Investigating this relationship helps both online retailers and marketing agents to better understand effect of webpage layout in promoting a newly developed product. Results show that correlation between price... 

TiO2 and transition metal (Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn) doped TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by the sol-gel method using 2-hydroxylethylammonium formate as an ionic liquid. All the prepared samples were calcined at 500 °C and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET surface area determination, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) techniques. The studies revealed that transition metal (TM) doped nanoparticles have smaller crystalline size and higher surface area than pure TiO2. Dopant ions in the TiO2 structure caused significant absorption shift into the visible region. The results of... 

Demand-side management (DSM) and the integration of the energy hub concept as a main part of future energy networks play an essential role in the process of improving the efficiency and reliability of the power grids. In this paper, we consider a smart multi-carrier energy system in which users are equipped with energy storage and conversion devices (i.e., an energy hub). Users intend to reduce their energy payment by shifting energy consumption to off-peak hours and switching between different energy carriers. This system enables both users with shiftable loads and must-run loads to be active in a DSM program. We apply game theory to formulate the energy consumption and conversion for a... 

In this study, hydrogen generation is maximised by optimising the size and the operating conditions of an electrolyser (EL) directly connected to a photovoltaic (PV) module at different irradiance. Due to the variations of maximum power points of the PV module during a year and the complexity of the system, a nonlinear approach is considered. A mathematical model has been developed to determine the performance of the PV/EL system. The optimisation methodology presented here is based on the particle swarm optimisation algorithm. By this method, for the given number of PV modules, the optimal sizeand operating condition of a PV/EL system areachieved. The approach can be applied for different... 

Zeolite-based Ag/AgBr and Ag/AgBr/TiO 2 photocatalysts were prepared by sol-gel and deposition methods and were characterized. Their photocatalytic activities were evaluated by inactivation of Escherichia (E.) coli and the photodegradation of Acid Blue 92 and potassium permanganate. The composites containing Ag/AgBr showed the antibacterial activity in the dark by releasing Ag ions into the medium. The results for inactivation of E. coli indicated that Ag/AgBr/TiO 2 modified photocatalyst had better antibacterial activity than Ag/AgBr/zeolite, while zeolite and TiO 2/zeolite did not show any antibacterial activity under visible light and dark conditions. Photodecolarization rate was affected... 

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs), surmised as "the organic reaction medium of the century", have reverberated a new symphony throughout the present green millennium. A brief historical account of the DES systems and their physicochemical properties as task-specific and designer solvents for cross-coupling reactions are appraised including the hole theory that explains the underlying mechanistic pathway for this emerging neoteric medium. The insights into cross-coupling reactions and their applications are included, highlighting the significant achievements pertaining to the dual role of DESs as a solvent and catalyst. In addition, popular "name-reactions"for the carbon-carbon and... 

The aim of this research is the study of hexyltriphenylphosphonium bromide (HTPB) ionic liquid as a bifunctional promoter (solvent and catalyst) in the presence of cerium(IV) ammonium nitrate as a single electron oxidant for the Michael reaction at room temperature and solvent-free conditions. A novel, one-pot and environmentally benign the process to achieve the chemoselective of 2-(3-oxo-1,3-diarylpropyl)malononitrile derivatives instead of 2-(1,3-diarylallylidene)malononitriles using a three-component reaction involving acetophenone derivatives, various aromatic aldehydes and malononitrile was developed. This protocol is simple and provides biologically interesting products in good... 

Intermittency of height fluctuations in stationary state of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation with infinitesimal surface tension in 1+1 dimensions was discussed. Stochastic differential equations were used for the study. It was found that the probability density function [in 1+1] is independent of the coefficient of the linear term. When the random force with smooth spatial correlation was considered, the problem changed to a more complicated one  

Multi-component photocatalysts based on apatite-coated Ag=AgBr=TiO 2 were prepared by the deposition method. The effects of various kinds of apatites, with hydroxyl and fluoro substituents, on photocatalytic activity were investigated. The antibacterial processes in the dark, and under visible light, on two types of bacteria indicate that the multi-composites can inhibit the growth of bacteria by two different mechanisms. TEM images and optical microscopic data demonstrate that by attaching the nanosize catalyst to the outer membrane of the cell, the bacteria could not derive nourishment from surrounding media, i.e. this component acts as bacteria-static. The mechanism for deactivation of... 

Universal deployment of lightweight block ciphers increase the importance of cryptanalysis of these ciphers. In this paper, we focus on reduced round version of Piccolo-80 as a lightweight block cipher and try to analyze it by zero correlation linear attack. As a result, we proposed a new zero correlation linear attack on 12-round Piccolo-80 without whitening keys with computational complexity of 251.4, while memory and data complexities of the attack are equal to 258.2 and 250, respectively. Also, we proposed an attack on 12-round Piccolo-80 with whitening keys and 13-round Piccolo-80 without whitening keys. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first zero correlation attacks on... 

Shared Web Hosting service enables hosting multitude of websites on a single powerful server. It is a well-known solution as many people share the overall cost of server maintenance and also, website owners do not need to deal with administration issues is not necessary for website owners. In this paper, we illustrate how shared web hosting service works and demonstrate the security weaknesses rise due to the lack of proper isolation between different websites, hosted on the same server. We exhibit two new server-side attacks against the log file whose objectives are revealing information of other hosted websites which are considered to be private and arranging other complex attacks. In the... 

With the growing of network technology along with the need of human for social interaction, using websites nowadays becomes critically important which leads in the increasing number of websites and servers. One popular solution for managing these large numbers of websites is using shared web hosting servers in order to decrease the overall cost of server maintenance. Despite affordability, this solution is insecure and risky according to high amount of reported defaces and attacks during recent years. In this paper, we introduce top ten most common attacks in shared web hosting servers which can occur because of the nature and bad configuration in these servers. Moreover, we present several... 

In this paper the projected gradient method is applied as an effective gradient-based topology optimization algorithm in order to direct energy propagation through the desired region of composites microstructure. Rayleigh Damping model is also used in order to take the effect of internal damping mechanisms into account and thus, to fill in the gap between the designed layouts and those in reality. The success of the proposed algorithm is illustrated through several numerical experiments by revealing a set of various designed optimal layouts besides their corresponding energy distributions  

Gas sparging and back-flushing treatments were compared as a means to tackle the problem of fouling in yeast microfiltration. Based on the feed and membrane characteristics, it was shown that either of these techniques could be superior to the other in order to overcome the problem. At more concentrated feed streams the main cause of flux decline was cake formation. In this condition gas sparging showed greater efficiency in flux enhancement. On the other hand at lower feed concentration the relative importance of internal fouling due to pore blockage, increased. In this case back-flushing was more effective. © 2007  

In this paper, the three-dimensional large frictional contact deformation of powder forming process is modeled using a node-to-surface contact algorithm based on the penalty and augmented-Lagrange approaches. The technique is applied by imposing the normal and tangential contact constraints and modifying the contact properties of frictional slip. The Coulomb friction law is employed to simulate the friction between the rigid punch and the work piece. It is shown that the augmented-Lagrange technique significantly improves imposing of the constraints on contact surfaces. In order to predict the non-uniform relative density and stress distributions during the large deformation of powder... 

We investigate the stochasticity in temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. We show that the angular fluctuation of the temperature is a Markov process with a Markov angular scale, ΘMarkov = 1.01 -0.07+0.09. We characterize the complexity of the CMB fluctuations by means of a Fokker-Planck or Langevin equation and measure the associated Kramers-Moyal coefficients for the fluctuating temperature field T (n̂)and its increment, ∇ T = T(n̂2). Through this method we show that temperature fluctuations in the CMB have fat tails compared to a Gaussian distribution. © 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd and SISSA  

In the present work, multiple non existing model order reduction (MOR) techniques for unstable second-order form systems (SOSs) are proposed. For unstable SOSs, continuous-time algebraic Lyapunov equations get unsolvable that halt the reduction process. To avoid this problem, unstable SOS is first decomposed into stable and unstable portions and balanced truncation is applied to the stable part. The obtained reduced order model (ROM) for the stable portion is augmented with the unstable portion to obtain the overall reduced system. It is observed that the second-order structure in ROM for the first technique gets lost as well as augmented unstable dynamics degrade the ROM performance. To... 

In the present work, multiple non existing model order reduction (MOR) techniques for unstable second-order form systems (SOSs) are proposed. For unstable SOSs, continuous-time algebraic Lyapunov equations get unsolvable that halt the reduction process. To avoid this problem, unstable SOS is first decomposed into stable and unstable portions and balanced truncation is applied to the stable part. The obtained reduced order model (ROM) for the stable portion is augmented with the unstable portion to obtain the overall reduced system. It is observed that the second-order structure in ROM for the first technique gets lost as well as augmented unstable dynamics degrade the ROM performance. To...