Structural vibration control is one of the most important features in Structural engineering. Real-time information about seismic resultant forces is required for deciding module of intelligent control systems. Evaluation of lateral forces during an earthquake is a complicated problem considering uncertainties of gravity loads amount and distribution and earthquake characteristics. An artificial neural network (ANN) has been trained in this article to estimate these forces. This ANN was trained on the results of time history analysis of a three-story building under 702 different loadings. Results of numerical examples verify that the trained ANN can predict the expected forces with negligible deviations.

Owing to new developments in Structural engineering, in reduction of Structural response during earthquakes, several proposals have been introduced One of the latest proposals is the use of liquid dampers inside the structure. For this, engineers and scientists have suggested two distinct liquid dampers namely Sloshing and Column dampers. In this paper tuning liquid column dampers is investigated and applied on a 20-story building to check the Structural behavior. The study shows a great improvement in both acceleration and displacement of the equipped building; therefore, suggested is the use of these dampers in controlling the Structural response in earthquakes.

Competition law is a newcomer to the legal system recently. A sound understanding of competition policy can provide us with sufficient bases to apply a fundamental and normative view of the issues of competition law. The difference in supervision and regulation determines how the market functions and in order to understand this difference one must understand competition policy. Competition policy may be based on governmental support for national production and industry or on a non-interventional and regulatory posture. Moreover, supervision, based on the principle of non-intervention in the market mechanism, is rooted in liberal ideas; however, regulation, whether as a rule or an exception, is based on the assertion that the market has been ineffective in attaining its goals. Therefore, the government will resort to interventions to regulate inefficiencies.  This paper aims to analyze Supervisory Authority in Implementing Competitive Policy by employing the description method. In this article the author tries to first delineate competition policy, its related requirements and imposed deviations to the market. Then, by defining the supervisory entity and clarifying its distinction from the regulatory institutions, the author considers the characteristics of an appropriate supervisory entity conducting a comparative study of this issue in Iran and the U.S.A. This form of Competition policy because of its applicable experiences which have been well described by recent scholarship is considered suitable for the native system.

Interaction between a structure under base excitation and heavy non-Structural elements that it supports is significant in the seismic analysis and design of the structure. Heavy non-Structural elements may slide/rock under base excitation, and this dynamic action affects the seismic behavior of the supporting structure. Hence, in this study, a numerical model was presented to describe the seismic behavior of a primary structure (PS) supporting non-Structural elements referred to as secondary bodies (SBs). The governing equations of motion for PS and SBs were developed considering Coulomb's friction model. Seismic hazard levels corresponding to Indian seismic zone III (medium hazard level) and V (highest hazard level) were considered. A parameter called displacement ratio (DR) was defined to quantify the sliding effect of SBs on the displacement response of the PS. A parametric study has been conducted to understand the variation in the DR due to varied time period of the structure, live loads to structure mass ratios and coefficients of friction between PS and SBs. From the analysis of results, it was concluded that the DR varies significantly with the time period, mass ratios, and coefficient of friction values. It can also be found from the study that the energy dissipation due to sliding of SBs was more in the highest hazard level than medium hazard level. Finally, the conditions for which the full mass of sliding secondary bodies should be considered in the seismic design of the structure are also presented.

In order to survive in the complex environment, budget programming or forecasting models have been criticized as inadequate for today’s business environment. Organizations have to use strategic planning to evaluate internal and external situation, then formulate proper strategies and implement them. The key to execute strategy is to have people in the organization understand it. Strategy map has a significant role in the strategic management due to describing strategies of organization and to help people understand strategies. Strategy map is essentially a graphical depiction of the causal model of an organization’s strategy then developing the causal model of the strategy is also important. This paper presents innovative approach to determine causal relationship and levels of strategic objectives in strategy map. For this purpose an interpretive Structural modeling (ISM) based approach has been employed to strategy map. This paper also utilizes the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) methodology to understand the interrelationships among the objectives so that those driving objectives, which can affect others and those dependent objectives, which are most influenced by driving objectives are identified. It emphasizes that interrelationship among objectives isn’t only down to up, it is on both side. An actual example of a small case pipe and fittings manufacturing company provides some managerial insights into the methodology.

Objective: CREB1 is an important downstream protein for many signaling pathways. By designing efficient siRNAs against CREB1, it may be possible to assess the role of molecules involved in signaling pathways in different cell types. In this research the efficiency of CREB1 knockdown by two different siRNAs in K562 cells has been studied. Materials and Methods: siRNAs have been designed according to the criteria suggested by Reynolds et al. K562 cells were transfected by siRNA using Lipofectamine 2000. The efficiency of CREB knockdown has been assessed by quantitative relative Real-time PCR. Results: Our results have shown that only one of the siRNAs has a high level of inhibitory effect on CREB1 gene expression. The expression of CREB1 by this siRNA was knocked-down by 87% in K562 cells. Conclusion: In this research, although two siRNAs were designed according to the Reynolds et al. criteria, only one showed an inhibitory effect. Reasons other than the aforementioned criteria may be involved in effectiveness of siRNAs.

The construction of high-rise and light-weight buildings is widespread. These structures are highly flexible, usually have low damping levels, and are sensitive to dynamic loads such as earthquakes. Consequently, Structural control devices are becoming an integral part of Structural systems. ATMD is an active Structural device successfully used for suppressing building vibrations. This study focuses on application of an active tuned mass damper (ATMD) for controlling the response of an 11- story realistic building. The control action is achieved by combination of a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) and the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method. The fuzzy logic controller is used to handle the uncertainty and nonlinearity phenomena, while the Particle Swarm method is used for optimization of the fuzzy system, known as PSFLC. Minimization of the top floor displacement has been used as the optimization criteria. The optimization process of the fuzzy logic system has been performed for an 11-story building with an active tuned mass damper placed on the top floor, under earthquake excitations recommended by the International Association of Structural Control (IASC) committee. Hachinohe and El Centro earthquakes are used for far-field ground motion and Kobe and Northridge earthquakes as near-field ground motion. Performance of the designed PSFLC has been checked for different disturbances of both far-field and near- field excitations. It is found that the active tuned mass damper system, driven by a fuzzy logic controller, with the help of the Particle Swarm method, is highly effective in reducing the maximum displacement of the building and the Root Mean Square (RMS) displacement of the top floor. The results show that although the maximum required control force in PSFLC and FLC systems are approximately the same, PSFLC decreases peak displacement and the RMS displacement of the top floor by about 10%-30% more than that of the FLC.

One of the factors that can be the link between our intentions and actions and their external consequences is human agency, which indicates the conscious design and intentional execution of actions by the individual in order to influence future events.Objective and Method: This research with a developmental approach of psychometric method and method 1, examines the psychometric indices of the Human Factor Characteristics Scale using the classical theory of test score measurement and the graduated question-answer theory. The purpose of this study, which included high school students in Tehran, was selected by cluster sampling of 500 people as a sample size and statistical analysis was performed on 481 data. To collect the data, the ion Human Agent Characteristics Scale (2011) was used and the research questions were evaluated using IRTPRO and SPSS software.Results:The assumption of local independence based on Pearson x2 index was established by applying Simjima's calibrated question-answer theory and the assumption of being one-dimensional based on the analysis of multidimensional question-answer theory. Diagnosis parameters with question-answer approach and classical approach Test score Both item 25 approach had the lowest and item 2 had the highest diagnosis parameter. The answer thresholds for all the questions were so far apart that no option was covered by the other option, and the options were independently selected by individuals at intervals of theta. The total scale was calculated with Cronbach's alpha of 0.945, intentionality of 0.894, foresight of 0.780, self-reactivity of 0.871 and rethinking of 0.762. Also, the role of each item in internal consistency was investigated by the loop method, which all questions had a favorable role in internal consistency of this scale. The value of the validity coefficient obtained from the question-answer theory was obtained by marginal method for intentionality 0.92, forethought 0.85, self-reaction 0.91, rethinking 0.83..

This paper investigates the performance of unidirectional tuned liquid damper (TLD) that relies upon the motion of shallow liquid in a rigid tank for changing the dynamic characteristics of a structure and dissipating its vibration energy under harmonic excitation. A series of experimental tests are conducted on a scaled model of structure tuned liquid damper systems to evaluate their performance under harmonic excitation. One rectangular and one square TLD with various water depth ratios are examined over different frequency ratios, and time histories of accelerations are measured by precisely controlled shaking table tests. The behaviour of TLD is also studied by changing the orientation of the rectangular TLD subjected to the given range of harmonic excitation frequencies.The effectiveness of TLD is evaluated based on the response reduction of the structure. From the study, it is found that for each TLD, there exists an optimum water depth that corresponds to the minimum response amplitude, and the maximum control of vibration is obtained under resonance condition with the attachment of TLD.