Sharif Digital Repository

The present study is a nationwide survey of language identity among English language learners in Iran. The participants who completed the survey in this research included 1851 English language learners from different parts of the country who belonged to different genders, age groups and English language proficiency levels. The main instrument was a validated questionnaire which included 19 items and was administered online and by hand. The results of this survey revealed that Iranian English language learners had a moderate level of language identity and there was no significant difference between the language identity of male and female participants. In addition, the results indicated that... 

This research investigates a three dimensional parametric risk assessment model considering the 3rd factor to be the impact on business. In order to represent the 3rd order risk assessment matrix monitoring the impact of safety reports on the continuous economical performance of the airline, the other two factors, probability of safety and severity are redefined. Introducing two quantitative and qualitative assessment methodologies, the overall risk of the organization can be studied by means of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). providing an adequate background to define the safety goals of the organization  

Permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives have many advantages over other drives, i.e. high efficiency and high power density. Particularly, PMSMs are epoch-making and are intensively studied among researchers, scientists and engineers. This paper deals with a novel high performance controller based on genetic algorithm. The scheme allows the motor to be driven with maximum torque per ampere characteristic. In this paper assuming an appropriate fitness function, the optimum values for d-axis current of motor set points at each time are found and then applied to the controller. Simulation results show the successful operation of the proposed controller  

This paper applies different approaches to solve network reconfiguration and capacitor placement/setting problem. First, reconfiguration and capacitor placement is solved for power loss minimization. Second, medium and long-term planning perspective is considered for the problem which takes into account reliability cost in addition to energy losses cost. A heuristic algorithm is used in this study for reliability evaluation considering protection schemes and isolation points in the distribution network. The problems are solved by Harmony Search Algorithm, and it is shown that its performance is much more satisfactory than several other metaheuristic algorithms to solve reconfiguration and... 

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have unique electronic properties and remarkable optical properties. Despite of on layer thickness of CNTs, it has able to absorb photons from visible to far infrared and terahertz. These unique properties lets to create heterojunction devices by semiconductor/CNTs or metal/CNTs junctions e.g. photodiodes, sensor and heterojunction solar cell. The CNTs can play the role of a heterojunction component for charge separation as a high conductive network for charge transport and as a transparent electrode for light illumination and charge collection. The main objective of the present article is to establish a relation between interface recombination and the characteristics... 

Terephthalic acid is generally produced via oxidation of p-xylene. In this process, a large quantity of residue is produced containing cobalt, manganese, and bromine catalysts as well as by-products such as benzoic acid. Our purpose is to totally recover this residue. Extraction by water has been used as an efficient method to recover catalyst from this residue. In this study, the best condition for extraction was obtained at water/residue dilution ratio of 6: 1, extraction temperature of 45°C and extraction time of 40 min. Efficiency of catalyst recovery was 92 wt % at these conditions. The catalyst containing extracted solution can be reused in the oxidation process after being... 

In the present study, the electrodeposition of Fe, Pd and Fe-Pd alloys, in alkaline solutions, has been investigated. Using ammonium hydroxide and trisodium citrate as the complexing agents, it has been shown that the co-deposition of Fe and Pd is achieved due to diminishing the difference between the reduction potentials of these two metals. Cyclic voltammetry results clearly show that the electrodeposition processes are diffusion-controlled and the diffusion coefficients of Fe2+ and Pd2+ are 1.11 × 10-6 and 2.19 × 10-5 cm2 s -1, respectively. The step potential experiments reveal that nucleation mechanism is instantaneous with a typical three-dimensional (3D) growth. At low overpotentials,... 

In this work, Compressible Smooth Particles Hydrodynamics (C-SPH) is applied for numerical simulation of impulsive wave. Properties of linear and angular momentum in SPH formulation are studied. Kernel gradient of viscous term in momentum equation is corrected to ensure preservation of angular momentum. Corrected SPH method is used to simulate solitary Scott Russell wave and applied to simulate impulsive wave generated by two-dimensional under water landslide. In each of test cases, results of corrected SPH are compared with experimental results. The results of the numerical simulations and experimental works are matched and a satisfactory agreement is observed. Furthermore, vorticity... 

In this work, Weakly Compressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (WCSPH) is applied for numerical simulation of impulsive wave. Properties of linear and angular momentum in WCSPH formulation are studied. Kernel gradient of viscous term in momentum equation is corrected to ensure preservation of angular momentum. Corrected WCSPH method is used to simulate solitary Scott Russell wave and applied to simulate impulsive wave generated by two-dimensional under water landslide. In each of the test cases, results of corrected WCSPH are compared with experimental results. The results of the numerical simulations and experimental works are matched and a satisfactory agreement is observed.... 

This survey research investigated the attitude of Iranian Azeri native speakers towards Azeri language. A questionnaire was developed and its reliability was estimated (r = 0.74) through a piloting phase on 54 Azeri native speakers. The participants, for the main phase of this study, were 400 Azeri native speakers with different social and educational backgrounds and from some densely Azeri-populated provinces in Iran. They completed either the online or the printed version of the survey, the results of which indicated that Iranian Azeri native speakers have a high level of positive attitude towards their mother tongue in spite of the negligence of this language in the Iranian educational... 

Cognitive radio (CR) technology enables dynamic spectrum access (DSA) to improve the efficiency of under-utilized licensed bands and overcrowded unlicensed bands. However, providing an acceptable service for cognitive users requires more sophisticated approaches due to the existence of Primary Users (PU) with high priority over licensed bands. Additionally, it is of paramount importance that interference with PUs be reduced so that they can communicate without interruption. In order to meet requirements of users as much as possible and reduce interference with PUs, a new Class-based Multi-path Ondemand Routing protocol for Cognitive radio networks (CMORC) is proposed. CMORC is a multipath... 

An Al-5 wt% Ti composite was fabricated via powder metallurgy and hot extrusion from initial pure Al and Ti powders. The effect of subsequent heat treatment at 600 °C for different time intervals on microstructure and mechanical properties was investigated. XRD and EDS analyses showed the in-situ formation of Al3Ti intermetallic. SEM micrographs demonstrated the formation of core-shell structured particles in Al matrix for composites heat treated up to moderate heating times (4 h). Generation of voids and pores in the heat treated composites was considered as a result of the Kirkendall effect. Mechanical properties of composites were studied by hardness and tensile testing methods at room... 

The end-to-end throughput of multi-hop communication in wireless ad hoc networks is affected by the conflict between forwarding nodes. It has been shown that sending more packets than maximum achievable end-to-end throughput not only fails to increase throughput but also decreases throughput owing to high contention and collision. Accordingly, it is of crucial importance for a source node to know the maximum end-to-end throughput. The end-to-end throughput depends on multiple factors, such as physical layer limitations, medium access control (MAC) protocol properties, routing policy, and nodes' distribution. There have been many studies on analytical modeling of end-to-end throughput but...