Sharif Digital Repository

This MA dissertation is dedicated to the introduction and discussion of David Chalmers’ neo-Fregean account of the semantics of linguistic terms like proper names and natural kind terms and the consequences of these discussions for the problem of consciousness. Chalmers’ neo-Fregean framework which he calls “The Two-Dimensional Semantics” is developed to defend a neo-Fregean account of the meaning of linguisting terms while acknowledging the insights of Kripke’s criticisms of the crude Fregean view. In the first chapter I will introduce Frege’s original view and Kripke’s famous attacks on that view. In the second chapter, Chalmers’ two-dimensional semantics will be introduced. In chapter... 

New century came with changes in a series of global macro trends, especially a greater dispersion of knowledge, which undermines the effectiveness of innovation based on internal R&D. Many of successful organizations responded to this problem by opening their borders to exchange ideas and make cooperation with external actors in their innovation activities, which is known as "open innovation". Innovation in the defense industry, which always deals with challenges to keep its readiness alive, is traditionally based on internal R&D. These industries, as well as civilian industries, face the new macro trends including budget cut and knowledge dispersion, which reduces the effectiveness of their... 

The purpose of this study is to find the conflicting assumptions of the main actors in the legislation process of Knowledge-based Act. Collecting and classifying all documents related to this policy process, and based on interviews with main actors involved in this process (with different objectives) and using thematic analysis, we first attempt to classify the main actors involved in the process. Second, we analyze the conflicting paradigms which have led to political conflicts in the process. This analysis helps to improve the policy process of similar acts in future  

Economic growth and development are among the most critical challenges for policymakers in developing countries. The evolution of companies, especially large companies, has always been one of the main factors of economic growth in many studies on economic growth. Many developing countries have policies in place to support business groups. Still, these firms stop growing after they have grown to a certain extent and do not have technological innovation capability. In Iran, various policies have been adopting to support the growth of companies. However, only a handful of companies have achieved this capability. This study aims to understand the factors that have led Mapna Business Group in the... 

The thesis at hand provides a comparative study of Kantian and Fichtean ethics. In the course of this study, the ethical theory of these philosophers will be analyzed through three stages of “Foundation of Ethics,” “System of Ethics,” and “Application of Ethics”: Foundation of Ethics seeks out human will as the sole possible ground for ethical theory of both Kant and Fichte; System of Ethics follows the endeavors of the two thinkers in deducing concept of ethics from this sole ground; and lastly, Application of Ethics introduces the ethical thoughts resulting from a Fichtean account of ethics. This thesis is mostly based upon studies of Allen W. Wood of the ethical thoughts of Kant and... 

How do we enter into empathic relations with inanimate objects (IO)? Do we indirectly infer that they possess mental states, or directly perceive them as mental things? In recent years these questions have been addressed by a number of authors. Some argue in favor of an indirect approach that involves mediatory procedures; others defend a direct approach that postulates no intermediate. In this paper I argue on the side of the latter. I show that Simulation Theory (ST), one of the most elaborated versions of the indirect approach, does not have the capacity to account for our empathy with IO.Investigating ST paves the way for criticizing a special kind of indirect theory, namely Imaginative... 

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... 

In this research we study multi-commodity inventory-location problem under disruption risk that is formulated to a nonlinear integer-programming model. The objective function of this model is minimization of inventory and location costs simultaneously under disruption risk. These disruptions may be caused by natural events such as earthquake, flood, fire and man-made sources like labor strike or terrorist attack. The structural design of a supply chain greatly affects how these kinds of disruption risks influence the network. In this regard, this study proposes a strategy to reduce the impacts of disruption risk by considering substitute commodity in the multi-commodity inventory-location... 

The aim of this investigation is the experimental study of nozzle exhaust jet flow effects on aerodynamic behavior of an air vehicle at transonic speeds. For this sake, a secondary jet injection is used by the ejector into test model. The ejector total pressure for jet injection varies between 0 (jet off) to 4 bar for simulating nozzle exhaust jet flow and supplying intake’s required mass flow rate. All tests were conducted at QRC Trisonic wind tunnel and at Mach number of 0.5 to 0.85 and angles of -4 to 6 deg. The aerodynamic force and pressure results were recorded in order to analyze the exhaust jet flow. This study revealed that the aerial vehicle drag becomes bigger than its free flight... 

This study aims to evaluate aerodynamic coefficients of an airplane with air breathing engine experimentally. In these experiments, an ejector is used to better simulate flying conditions and aerodynamic interferences generated in inlet and exhaust engine. Therefore, at first, an ejector was designed for simultaneous simulation of exit cold flow and inlet flow of engine. All tests were conducted at QRC Trisonic wind tunnel and at Mach number of 0.5 to 0.85, angles of -4 to 6 deg. and for various amounts of pressure ejector and control surfaces angles. Finally, for the Mach number of 0.5, effect of roughness on the aerodynamic coefficients was examined. The results showed that, drag... 

Bracing Systems are usually a set of inclined members that are embedded in structures to resist lateral forces and control lateral displacements. There are different types and behaviors for Bracing Systems depending on the way of assembling and locating them in the structure. Braced Frames, such as Concentrically Braced Frames (CBFs), generally have high stiffness and low ductility. Another Type of Braced Frames is Eccentrically Braced Frames (EBFs) which improves CBFs by establishing suitable ductility as well as stiffness. Inelastic behavior of Links involved with EBFs caused this in EBFs. Nevertheless, these systems have no efficiency in next earthquake, because links are parts of beams... 

High-altitude simulation lab of chemical thrusters is one of the most important infrastructures for the development of space thrusters technology. In these laboratories, different sections are designed according to the requirements for simulation of the thrusters at specific pressure and temperature. The purpose of this research is to design a subset of the creation and preservation of vacuum for the purpose of ground testing of chemical thrusters. Vacuum preservation is more comprehensive than the vacuum creation and is usually the bottleneck of design, so the design of this subset is intended in the present study. To illustrate this, after introducing the basic concepts required, two...