Sharif Digital Repository

A one-dimensional kinetic Ising model at a finite temperature on a semi-infinite lattice with time varying boundary spins is considered. Exact expressions for the expectation values of the spin at each site are obtained, in terms of the time dependent boundary condition and the initial conditions. The solution consists of a transient part which is due to the initial conditions, and a part driven by the boundary. The latter is an evanescent wave when the boundary spin is oscillating harmonically. Low-and high-frequency limits are investigated in greater detail. The total magnetization of the lattice is also obtained. It is seen that for any arbitrary rapidly varying boundary conditions, this... 

Finding an optimum strategy to reach a certain destination by swimming in a background flow is an interesting question that leads to non-trivial results and swimming paths. Here we consider different strategies for various types of surface currents, including parallel currents, and currents resulting from spring sources, and sinks. Swimmers may instinctively swim toward the destination point. It turns out that this idea may not lead to the desired result in the presence of the background current. We will show in some cases the best strategy is to swim towards a certain point other than the actual destination. A different strategy may be to obtain the path of the least time and then follow... 

In the first part of the paper, using a direct calculation two-dimensional motion of a particle sliding on an inclined plane is investigated for general values of friction coefficient (μ). A parametric equation for the trajectory of the particle is also obtained. In the second part of the paper, the motion of a sphere on the inclined plane is studied. It is shown that the evolution equation for the contact point of a sliding sphere is similar to that of a point particle sliding on an inclined plane whose friction coefficient is 7/2 μ. If μ > 2/7 tanθ, for any arbitrary initial velocity and angular velocity, the sphere will roll on the inclined plane after some finite time. In other cases, it... 

Permutation approach is suggested as a method to investigate financial time series in micro scales. The method is used to see how high frequency trading in recent years has affected the micro patterns which may be seen in financial time series. Tick to tick exchange rates are considered as examples. It is seen that variety of patterns evolve through time; and that the scale over which the target markets have no dominant patterns, have decreased steadily over time with the emergence of higher frequency trading  

The lack of proper documentation makes program comprehension a cumbersome process for developers. Source code summarization is one of the existing solutions to this problem. Many approaches have been proposed to summarize source code in recent years. A prevalent weakness of these solutions is that they do not pay much attention to interactions among elements of software. An element is simply a callable code snippet such as a method or even a clickable button. As a result, these approaches cannot be applied to event-driven programs, such as Android applications, because they have specific features such as numerous interactions between their elements. To tackle this problem, we propose a novel... 

Predictive mutation testing (PMT) is a technique to predict whether a mutant is killed, using machine learning approaches. Researchers have proposed various methods for PMT over the years. However, the impact of unreached mutants on PMT is not fully addressed. A mutant is unreached if the statement on which the mutant is generated is not executed by any test cases. We aim at showing that unreached mutants can inflate PMT results. Moreover, we propose an alternative approach to PMT, suggesting a different interpretation for PMT. To this end, we replicated the previous PMT research. We empirically evaluated the suggested approach on 654 Java projects provided by prior literature. Our results... 

Predictive mutation testing (PMT) is a technique to predict whether a mutant is killed, using machine learning approaches. Researchers have proposed various methods for PMT over the years. However, the impact of unreached mutants on PMT is not fully addressed. A mutant is unreached if the statement on which the mutant is generated is not executed by any test cases. We aim at showing that unreached mutants can inflate PMT results. Moreover, we propose an alternative approach to PMT, suggesting a different interpretation for PMT. To this end, we replicated the previous PMT research. We empirically evaluated the suggested approach on 654 Java projects provided by prior literature. Our results... 

Context: Software testing is a pivotal activity in the development of high-quality software. As software is evolving through its life cycle, the need for a fault-revealing criterion assessing the effectiveness of the test suite grows. Over the years, researchers have proposed coverage-based criteria, including statement and branch coverage, to solve this issue. In literature, the effectiveness of such criteria is attested in terms of their correlations with the mutation score. Objective: In this paper, we aim at proposing a coverage-based criterion named statement frequency coverage, which outperforms statement and branch coverage in terms of correlation with mutation score. Method: To this... 

Context: Software testing is a pivotal activity in the development of high-quality software. As software is evolving through its life cycle, the need for a fault-revealing criterion assessing the effectiveness of the test suite grows. Over the years, researchers have proposed coverage-based criteria, including statement and branch coverage, to solve this issue. In literature, the effectiveness of such criteria is attested in terms of their correlations with the mutation score. Objective: In this paper, we aim at proposing a coverage-based criterion named statement frequency coverage, which outperforms statement and branch coverage in terms of correlation with mutation score. Method: To this... 

Despite the fact that hydrophobic nanosilica can improve the stability of water/oil emulsion, there exist controversies pertaining to its influence on oil-based drilling fluid rheological behavior and the subsequent formation damage. The present study addresses the above using a surface modified nanosilica, where the particles were functionalized with different silane-based groups to alter their hydrophilicity: 3-glycidoxypropyl-triethoxy silane (GPTS) and combined GPTS and propyl silane (PGPTS). The NPs were characterized through FTIR analysis, particle size, and zeta-potential measurements followed by flow behavior experiments, core-scale mud flow tests, Computed Tomography (CT) scanning... 

Background: Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) gene. A-T patients manifest considerable variability in clinical and immunological features, suggesting the presence of genetic modifying factors. A striking heterogeneity has been observed in class switching recombination (CSR) in A-T patients which cannot be explained by the severity of ATM mutations. Methods: To investigate the cause of variable CSR in A-T patients, we applied whole-exome sequencing (WES) in 20 A-T patients consisting of 10 cases with CSR defect (CSR-D) and 10 controls with normal CSR (CSR-N). Comparative analyses on modifier... 

Background: Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) gene. A-T patients manifest considerable variability in clinical and immunological features, suggesting the presence of genetic modifying factors. A striking heterogeneity has been observed in class switching recombination (CSR) in A-T patients which cannot be explained by the severity of ATM mutations. Methods: To investigate the cause of variable CSR in A-T patients, we applied whole-exome sequencing (WES) in 20 A-T patients consisting of 10 cases with CSR defect (CSR-D) and 10 controls with normal CSR (CSR-N). Comparative analyses on modifier... 

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder represented by the ingestion of the gluten protein usually found in wheat, barley and rye. To date, ELISA has been the most accurate method for determining the presence of anti-gliadin, which is cumbersome, expensive (compared to a suspension microarray technique), and requires extensive sample preparation. In this study, in order to establish a more accurate assay to identify gliadin at lower concentrations, optical nano biosensors using an indirect immunoassay method for gliadin detection was designed and fabricated. For this, polycaprolactone (PCL) nano- to micro-beads were fabricated as a platform for the gliadin antigen which were optimized and... 

This study investigates whether and how the pursuit of certain commercial business practices such as market orientation and market disruptiveness capability improves both the economic performance and social performance of social enterprises. Based on the empirical data collected from 164 UK social enterprises, our results show that market orientation improves social performance and economic performance simultaneously, whereas market disruptiveness capability improves only the economic performance, not the social performance, of social enterprises. However, we found a positive interaction effect of market disruptiveness capability and market orientation on social performance, while its effect... 

In this paper, the characteristics of a hybrid regenerative electromagnetic (EM) damper are first determined and experimentally examined. The main idea is to have two modes of operation for the EM damper, namely passive energy harvesting and semi-active modes. In the passive mode, the vibrational energy of an underlying structure is harvested and stored in a rechargeable battery. The harvested energy can then be employed in the semi-active control mode to supply the power demand for the required sensors and microcontroller. This hybrid damper would thus be capable of realizing the characteristics of a self-powered EM damper. A prototype of the damper was designed and tested under different...