Phenol interaction with different nano-cages with and without an electric field: A DFT study

The adsorption properties of the phenol molecule (C6H5OH) upon the outer surfaces of C24, B12P12, B12N12, Al12N12, and Al12P12 were investigated using density functional theory calculations. Our calculations reveal that the phenol molecule can be chemisorbed on the sidewalls of Al12N12 and Al12P12 with adsorption energies of -1.03 and -0.76 eV, respectively. While the adsorption energy of C6H5OH on Al12N12 is typically more than that of Al12P12 cluster. We also considered the adsorption of the C6H5OH molecule under a strong electric field over Al12N12. The results indicate that Al12N12 has high sensitivity to the phenol molecule in the presence of an electric field. © Springer Science+Business Media 2014

Women's voices: The journey towards cyberfeminism in Iran

The working paper looks at the history of Iranian media by and for women, culminating in cyberfeminism. The main focus are women's websites and cyber campaigns dedicated to improving women's rights, and how they helped to mobilize Iranian women's movements. There are two main case studies: The main case study on websites is the "Feminist School" as an important site for feminist discourse and women's movements managed from inside Iran. The main case study in relation to cyber campaigns is the "My stealthy freedom" campaign which is undertaken from outside Iran. Through these two case studies, the paper aims to answer the following questions: To what extent and how do these sites provide strategic opportunities for the Iranian women's movement to advocating gender equality and women's rights? And did the cyber campaign help to build coalitions between women's movements inside Iran and diaspora activism outside of Iran? The case studies are based on the author’s earlier work on the history of the women' movement, interviews with leaders and directors of women's websites and directors of mobilizing cyber campaigns along with self-reflective and discourse analysis of the websites and campaigns. A biography of the author can be found here: (http://www.pen-deutschland.de/en/themen/writers-in-exile/ehemalige-stipendiaten/mansoureh-shojaee/

Representing a Model about the Effective Factors on Corporate Image

Management researchers, always focus on volume of sales, profit, costs, operations and factors which influence the improvement of organization and try to help management to better operate and differentiate the organization from their competitors. It seems that what has been neglected is the role of determining and key factors affecting the stakeholders and organization’s audience mentality. Since stakeholder’s mentality constitute their view about the organization and their views form their operation which would be luck for the organizations or not. According to previous studies, few research has been conducted about the dimensions of imaging in stakeholders minds. The models provided in this paper by Kenndy (1977),Dowling(1986),Abratt (1989),Leblanc & Nguyen(1996) refers to very small area of the importance of these factors on corporate image. In this paper, corporate imaging dimensions is viewed from three aspects of strategic and a model has been introduced in the end which includes 1) single product and multi product (each contains sub categories) strategy. 2)competitive aspect of strategy which includes geographic rang, position in the market and competitive weapon 3)operational aspect which includes managers characteristics, type of transaction with staff, competitors, customers, stockholders, market and industry. The author believes that managers can better manage stakeholders minds by implementing these dimensions and in the end achieve success for the organization

Effect of Country of Manufacture and Brand Image on Iranian Customers’ Purchase Intention Case Study: Foreign Made Home Appliances

With the removal of trade barriers between countries and spread of network mechanisms, today’s world is witness to globalization of international trade which, in a sense, is equivalent to establishment of multinational companies and consumers’ direct encounter with the products of these companies. As a result, facing a large volume of products manufactured in various countries around the world, consumers would have to turn to important information sources and symbols in an effort to simplify their buying decisions and to ensure they have made correct decisions. Country of manufacture (COM) and product brand image are among the established information symbols which customers have come to rely on. In other words, country of manufacture and brand image can play a significant role in the acceptance of a product by consumers. Moreover, international producers are well aware that country of manufacture and brand image are counted on as distinctive features of products. For this reason, they take sufficient care in selecting the country which is to manufacture their products and, thus, try to create a favorable mental image of their brand in their customers. A theoretical framework was proposed in the present study to describe the effects of country of manufacture and brand image on customers’ decision to buy. Although the influencing factors of “country of manufacture” and “brand image” depend on the specific product type, the findings in this study showed that, in general, brand image had a stronger influence than country of manufacture on Iranian customers as far as hybrid products were concerned. Keywords: Country of manufacture (COM), brand image, quality dimensions, purchase attitude, purchase intentio