Factors contributing to university image: the postgraduate students’ points of view

Despite several studies having been conducted to examine organizational image from a business perspective, there has not been adequate research in the area of perceived image in nonprofit organizations such as universities. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the factors contributing to university image, from the postgraduate students’ point of view. In addition, the impact of the students’ perceived university image on their organizational trust was examined. The population of this study consisted of postgraduate students in 10 of the top Iranian universities. Questionnaires were used to collect the required data. The findings indicated the difference between current practices and ideal values of the factors contributing to the university image. Based on our findings, the factors contributing to university image range from internal and international reputation, university members, and academic planning, to university environment. Furthermore, we found that university image has a significant impact on students’ trust in their university.     

Ranking scientific articles based on bibliometric networks with a weighting scheme

As the volume of scientific articles has grown rapidly over the last decades, evaluating their impact becomes critical for tracing valuable and significant research output. Many studies have proposed various ranking methods to estimate the prestige of academic papers using bibliometric methods. However, the weight of the links in bibliometric networks has been rarely considered for article ranking in existing literature. Such incomplete investigation in bibliometric methods could lead to biased ranking results. Therefore, a novel scientific article ranking algorithm, W-Rank, is introduced in this study proposing a weighting scheme. The scheme assigns weight to the links of citation network and authorship network by measuring citation relevance and author contribution. Combining the weighted bibliometric networks and a propagation algorithm, W-Rank is able to obtain article ranking results that are more reasonable than existing PageRank-based methods. Experiments are conducted on both arXiv hep-th and Microsoft Academic Graph datasets to verify the W-Rank and compare it with three renowned article ranking algorithms. Experimental results prove that the proposed weighting scheme assists the W-Rank in obtaining ranking results of higher accuracy and, in certain perspectives, outperforming the other algorithms.     

Performance-oriented parallel distributed compensation

The main idea of the original parallel distributed compensation (PDC) method is to partition the dynamics of a nonlinear system into a number of linear subsystems, design a number of state feedback gains for each linear subsystem, and finally generate the overall state feedback gain by fuzzy blending of such gains. A new modification to the original PDC method is proposed here, so that, besides the stability issue, the closed-loop performance of the system can be considered at the design stage. For this purpose, the state feedback gains are not considered constant through the linearized subsystems, rather, based on some prescribed performance criteria, several feedback gains are associated to every subsystem, and the final gain for every subsystem is obtained by fuzzy blending of such gains. The advantage is that, for example, a faster response can be obtained, for a given bound on the control input. Asymptotic stability of the closed loop system is also guaranteed by using the Lyapunov method. To illustrate the effectiveness of the new method, control of a flexible joint robot (FJR) is investigated and superiority of the designed controller over other existing methods is demonstrated.     

Eccentricity and thermoviscous effects on ultrasonic scattering from a liquid-coated fluid cylinder

Calculation of the scattered field of the eccentric scatterers is an old problem with numerous applications. This study considers the interaction of a plane compressional sound wave with a liquid-encapsulated thermoviscous fluid cylinder submerged in an unbounded viscous thermally conducting medium. The translational addition theorem for cylindrical wave functions, the appropriate wave field expansions and the pertinent boundary conditions are employed to develop a closed-form solution in the form of infinite series. The analytical results are illustrated with a numerical example in which the compound cylinder is insonified by a plane sound wave at selected angles of incidence in a wide range of dimensionless frequencies. The backscattered far-field acoustic pressure amplitude and the spatial distribution of the total acoustic pressure in the vicinity of the cylinder are evaluated and discussed for representative values of the parameters characterizing the system. The effects of incident wave frequency, angle of incidence, fluid thermoviscosity, core eccentricity and size are thoroughly examined. Limiting case involving an ideal compressible liquid-coated cylinder is considered and fair agreement with a well-known solution is established.     

Performance improvement of a crumb rubber modified bitumen using recycled glass powder

In this study, the efficiency of bitumen and asphalt mixtures modified with crumb rubber （CR） and recycled glass powder （RGP） is evaluated. From an environmental point of view, the application of RGP in asphalt mixtures is considered beneficial since it prevents accumulation of waste glass in the natural environment. Rheological and mechanical properties of modified bitumen samples were investigated by laboratory methods such as bitumen conventional tests and dynamic shear rheometer （DSR）, and also by asphalt mixture performance tests including Marshall stability, indirect tensile strength （ITS）, compressive strength, and indirect tensile stiffness modulus. The results showed that the application of RGP in place of CR has no negative impact on the efficiency of bitumen and asphalt mixtures and even improves their engineering properties except for the toughness index （TI）. Moreover, a modification with 5% CR and 5% RGP in asphalt mixtures results in the best overall performance.     

Inertial cell sorting of microparticle-laden flows: An innovative OpenFOAM-based arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian numerical approach

The need for cell and particle sorting in human health care and biotechnology applications is undeniable. Inertial microfluidics has proven to be an effective cell and particle sorting technology in many of these applications. Still, only a limited understanding of the underlying physics of particle migration is currently available due to the complex inertial and impact forces arising from particle–particle and particle–wall interactions. Thus, even though it would likely enable significant advances in the field, very few studies have tried to simulate particle-laden flows in inertial microfluidic devices. To address this, this study proposes new codes (solved in OpenFOAM software) that capture all the salient inertial forces, including the four-way coupling between the conveying fluid and the suspended particles traveling a spiral microchannel. Additionally, these simulations are relatively (computationally) inexpensive since the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation allows the fluid elements to be much larger than the particles. In this study, simulations were conducted for two different spiral microchannel cross sections (e.g., rectangular and trapezoidal) for comparison against previously published experimental results. The results indicate good agreement with experiments in terms of (monodisperse) particle focusing positions, and the codes can readily be extended to simulate two different particle types. This new numerical approach is significant because it opens the door to rapid geometric and flow rate optimization in order to improve the efficiency and purity of cell and particle sorting in biotechnology applications.     

In vitro assay for the anti-brucella activity of medicinal plants against tetracycline-resistant Brucella melitensis

Brucellosis, a zoonosis caused by four species of brucella, has a high morbidity. Brucella melitensis is the main causative agent of brucellosis in both human and small ruminants. As an alternative to conventional antibiotics, medicinal plants are valuable resources for new agents against antibiotic-resistant strains. The aim of this study was to investigate the usage of native plants for brucellosis treatment. For this purpose, the anti-brucella activities of ethanolic and methanolic extracts of Salvia sclarea, Oliveria decumbens, Ferulago angulata, Vitex pseudo-negundo, Teucrium polium, Plantago ovata, Cordia myxa, and Crocus sativus were assessed. The activity against a resistant Br. melitensis strain was determined by disc diffusion method at various concentrations from 50–400 mg/ml. Antibiotic discs were also used as a control. Among the evaluated herbs, six plant (Salvia sclarea, Oliveria decumbens, Ferulago angulata, Vitex pseudo-negundo, Teucrium polium, and Crocus sativus) showed anti-brucella activity. Oliveria decumbens was chosen as the most effective plant for further studies. A tested isolate exhibited resistance to tetracycline, nafcillin, oxacillin, methicillin, and colistin. Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) values for Oliveria decumbens against resistant Br. melitensis were the same (5 mg/ml), and for gentamicin they were both 2 mg/ml. Time-kill kinetics for a methanolic extract of Oliveria decumbens was 7 h whereas for an ethanolic extract it was 28 h. Also, Oliveria decumbens extracts showed a synergistic effect in combination with doxycycline and tetracycline. In general, the similar values of MIC and MBC for Oliveria decumbens suggest that these extracts could act as bactericidal agents against Br. melitensis. In addition to Oliveria decumbens, Crocus sativus and Salvia sclarea also had good anti-brucella activity and these should be considered for further study.     

Do tax incentives and direct funding enhance innovation input and output in high-tech firms?

Tax incentives and direct funding are two different public support instruments used to facilitate the formation and growth of firms. Limited empirical evidence has compared the effectiveness of two different policies and their interactions for firms. In this paper, we investigate the main and interaction effects of these interventions on high-tech firms. Since large and small firms innovate in different ways, we compare the use of both incentives by Iranian high-tech SMEs and large firms through a factorial design technique. This paper presents significant differences both across instruments and across firm size. Results show that for SMEs, tax exemption has a significant effect on R&D investment, and funding has a significant effect on R&D investment, R&D employees, and new products. However, there aren't any interaction effects between instruments. For large firms, funding is an effective instrument for R&D investment. Also, there is an interaction effect between tax incentives and direct funding on new products. These findings indicate that funding is a more effective instrument than tax exemption, especially for SMEs, but suggest some changes in supporting policies of high-tech firms in Iran.     

Computerized testing in reading comprehension skill: investigating score interchangeability,item review,age and gender stereotypes,ICT literacy and computer attitudes

Education and Information Technologies - Score interchangeability of Computerized Fixed-Length Linear Testing (henceforth CFLT) and Paper-and-Pencil-Based Testing (henceforth PPBT) has become a...     

Supplementation of urban home visitation with a series of group meetings for parents and infants: results of a "real-world" randomized, controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: Home visitation has been shown to be effective in reducing rates of child maltreatment and in enhancing psychosocial outcomes in children and their parents. Even when available, however, it is underutilized by parents in some urban settings. We tested a supplemental 10-session group intervention for its ability to increase active participation in home visitation, enhance the quality of caregiving behavior of parents, and improve social developmental outcome in children. METHOD: A randomized controlled design was utilized, involving two separate cohorts of parents of 3- to 18-month old infants, totaling 148 parent-child dyads. The intervention focused on practical experience in promoting parent-infant attachment relationships. RESULTS: At 6 months follow-up, there was a substantial increase in the proportion of intervention group parents participating in home visitation, compared to parents in the control group (Fisher's exact p = .008). Parents in the intervention group exhibited a trend for improvement in their capacity to appropriately interpret infants' emotional cues (p = .08), independent of the effects of home visitation itself. Attrition in both the treatment and control groups was inversely associated with income and level of education. CONCLUSIONS: Group meetings may constitute an effective means of engaging stressed urban families in home visitation.