Sharif Digital Repository

We focus on two metric clusterings namely r-gather and (r, ?)-gather. The objective of r-gather is to minimize the radius of clustering, such that each cluster has at least r points. (r, ?)-gather is a version of r-gather with the extra condition that at most n? points can be left unclustered (outliers). MapReduce is a model used for processing big data. In each round, it distributes data to multiple servers, then simultaneously processes each server's data. We prove a lower bound 2 on the approximation factor of metric r-gather in the MapReduce model, even if an optimal algorithm for r-gather exists. Then, we give a (4+ δ)-approximation algorithm for r-gather in MapReduce which runs in O(... 

We focus on two metric clusterings namely r-gather and (r, ?)-gather. The objective of r-gather is to minimize the radius of clustering, such that each cluster has at least r points. (r, ?)-gather is a version of r-gather with the extra condition that at most n? points can be left unclustered (outliers). MapReduce is a model used for processing big data. In each round, it distributes data to multiple servers, then simultaneously processes each server's data. We prove a lower bound 2 on the approximation factor of metric r-gather in the MapReduce model, even if an optimal algorithm for r-gather exists. Then, we give a (4+ δ)-approximation algorithm for r-gather in MapReduce which runs in O(... 

In this paper, photonic cavities made of point defects in 2-D photonic crystals are modeled by finite-size transmission lines terminated at both ends by appropriate scalar impedances. The proposed model forms a simple transmission line resonator and is demonstrated to be quite beneficial in fast extraction of resonant frequency, quality factor, and mode profile of such photonic cavities. In this manner, an approximate yet quite accurate approach is introduced to characterize the electromagnetic properties of photonic crystal cavities. This method is successfully applied to different structures for both major polarizations and is shown to be as accurate as rigorous numerical methods, viz. the... 

A theory is presented for the quantum radiation emitted from a single exciton in a quantum dot. We assume that the quantum dot is in strong coupling to a slab photonic crystal cavity. A dielectric function of spatial coordinates is used to explain the effects of the macroscopic medium. It has been proved that the electric field in such a medium can be described using the so-called K-function. We derive a formula for obtaining the frequency spectrum, and present an analytical result for the optical spectrum, which is dependent on the K-function. We also have considered a slab photonic crystal configuration with hexagonal structure containing a cavity to evaluate the frequency spectrum in such... 

After publication of this article [1], it was brought to our attention that there are some errors in the section of 'Authors' contributions'. The correct Authors' contributions should be: MK, FS, and AG collected literature, designed and wrote the manuscript. FS and MM edited and prepared the manuscript for submission. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. © 2019 The Author(s)  

Oncolytic virotherapy has currently emerged as a promising approach upon which scientists have been able to induce tumor-specific cell death in a broad spectrum of malignancies. Paramyxoviruses represent intrinsic oncolytic capability, which makes them excellent candidates to be widely used in oncolytic virotherapy. The mechanisms through which these viruses destroy the cancerous cells involve triggering the autophagic machinery and apoptosis in target cells. Interestingly, oncolytic paramyxoviruses have been found to induce autophagy and lead to tumor cells death rather than their survival. Indeed, the induction of autophagy has been revealed to enhance the immunogenicity of tumor cells via... 

Background: Newcastle disease virus (NDV) has shown noticeable oncolytic properties, especially against cervical cancer. However, in order to improve the spread rate and oncotoxicity of the virus, employment of other therapeutic reagents would be helpful. It has been shown that some viral fusogenic membrane glycoproteins (FMGs) could facilitate viral propagation and increase the infection rate of tumor cells by oncolytic viruses. Additionally, immune checkpoint blockade has widely been investigated for its anti-tumor effects against several types of cancers. Here, we investigated for the first time whether the incorporation of influenza hemagglutinin-2 (HA2) FMG could improve the oncolytic... 

Insulated rail joints (IRJs) are widely used in signaling and broken rail identification systems. Track deterioration adjacent to IRJ is frequent due to excessive dynamic forces generated at IRJs by the repetitive passage of the ongoing traffic. Hence, they exhibit low service life and are considered high-risk elements and maintained through high standards. With a view to increase operational speed and the annual operational throughput, many improved structural designs have been proposed, of which inclined IRJs are the focus of this paper. To compare noise, vibration, and adjacent sleepers' vertical displacement of square and 30° and 45° cut joints, a series of field tests have been carried... 

Riding quality and safety of rail tracks are directly influenced by track geometry; hence, their degradation along time could reduce safety and cause serious accidents. Standards propose thresholds for track geometrical parameters to keep track safety and riding comfort at an acceptable level. In this study, a method is proposed to select or define a set of proper thresholds for geometrical parameter irregularities according to desirable to safety level. The impact of track geometry irregularities on the derailment index has been investigated through the finite element model. The results suggest that twist and gauge shortage have a greater effect on the derailment index compared to the... 

Many authors simply use band structure of infinite photonic crystals to predict the beam's direction in a finite structure. The validity of this approximation for high frequencies has been questioned by Felbacq (PRL 92, 193902) and instead a dressed (by evanescent waves) transfer matrix has been suggested. In this work, we show through numerical examples that the direction obtained by conventional band structure is more accurate than that of dressed transfer matrix of Felbacq et. al. We also demonstrate that this approximation can be improved by taking the effect of evanescent Bloch modes into consideration. The effect of these modes leads to a constant shift of beam's center inside and far... 

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated malignancy remain a main cause of cancer in men and women. Cancer immunotherapy has represented great potential as a new promising cancer therapeutic approach. Here, we report Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as a carrier for the delivery of oncolytic Newcastle disease virus (NDV) for the treatment of HPV-associated tumor. Methods: For this purpose, MSCs obtained from the bone marrow of C57BL mice, then cultured and characterized subsequently by the flow cytometry analysis for the presence of cell surface markers. In this study, we sought out to determine the impacts of MSCs loaded with oncolytic NDV on splenic T cell and cytokine immune... 

We substitute different types of photonic crystal waveguide components by approximate transmission line circuits. The proposed distributed circuits exploit the analogy of wave propagation in photonic crystal waveguides and transmission lines. They are either cascaded to each other or inserted like stubs to imitate wave propagation within the photonic structure. Notable examples, e.g. coupled waveguide-cavity systems, sharp 90° bends, and T-junctions, are studied in detail. It is shown that analysis of the proposed circuits here can yield accurate enough results and thus substitute the brute-force numerical methods. The privilege of having analytical models is exploited to improve the... 

Compared with conventional cancer treatments, the main advantage of oncolytic virotherapy is its tumor-selective replication followed by the destruction of malignant cells without damaging healthy cells. Accordingly, this kind of biological therapy can potentially be used as a promising approach in the field of cancer management. Given the failure of traditional monitoring strategies (such as immunohistochemical analysis (in providing sufficient safety and efficacy necessary for virotherapy and continual pharmacologic monitoring to track pharmacokinetics in real-time, the development of alternative strategies for ongoing monitoring of oncolytic treatment in a live animal model seems... 

Cancer immunotherapy has been emerged as a promising strategy for treatment of a broad spectrum of malignancies ranging from hematological to solid tumors. One of the principal approaches of cancer immunotherapy is transfer of natural or engineered tumor-specific T-cells into patients, a so called "adoptive cell transfer", or ACT, process. Construction of allogeneic T-cells is dependent on the employment of a gene-editing tool to modify donor-extracted T-cells and prepare them to specifically act against tumor cells with enhanced function and durability and least side-effects. In this context, CRISPR technology can be used to produce universal T-cells, equipped with recombinant T cell... 

Aims: Due to large sized genetic database of population in a given society, researchers face serious problem to analyze genetic data and provide accurate genetic identification. Variation in molecular markers such as SNPs, mtDNAs, STRs and Y-chromosome are utilized for different purposes, including genetic identification. In our country due to natural disasters and imposed war, the use of this technology was considered and according to the requirements, an optimal database was designed that has the capability of analyzing genetic data. Methods: After obtaining individual genetic information, a software was designed for the analysis of genetic information as well as to serve as a common... 

An approximate circuit model is proposed for mode extraction in two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides. The dispersion equation governing the complex propagation constant of the photonic crystal waveguide is then related to the resonance condition in the proposed circuit model. In this fashion, a scalar complex transcendental equation is given for mode extraction. To avoid searching for the complex roots of the derived scalar dispersion equation, however, the real and imaginary parts of the sought-after propagation constant are extracted by using the physical resonance condition and its corresponding quality factor in the here-proposed circuit model, respectively. All the necessary... 

A transmission line model is developed for coupled plasmonic metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguides. In the proposed model coupling between electric fields of two plasmonic waveguides is modeled by distributed mutual capacitor while distributed mutual inductor accounts for magnetic field coupling. These mutual elements are determined using propagation constants of supermodes of coupled waveguides. The model is applied to analyze coupled line directional coupler and side-coupled rectangular resonators. The effectiveness of the model is assessed using fully numerical finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique. The results have excellent agreement with the numerical methods  

An easy-to-design single-stub nano-coupler is proposed to increase the direct coupling efficiency between metal-insulator-metal (MIM) plasmonic and high-index dielectric waveguides. The modal reflection and transmission from the junction are exploited to provide a circuit description for the structure. The return loss of direct coupling is then minimized by loading the MIM waveguide with a single stub. Numerical examples are given, and the accuracy of the model is examined via finite-difference time-domain method  

Aim: Hepatitis E is a form of acute viral hepatitis, which is caused by hepatitis E virus (HEV). The study objective was to evaluate the prevalence of HEV to provide an overall relative frequency in Iran. Methods: In this study, databases such as PubMed and Scopus were searched using the following keywords according to MeSH, "Hepatitis E virus", "Epidemiology", "Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)" and "Iran". Then studies which had reported prevalence of HEV were selected. Results: We selected 36 researches out of 9246 for our study. From all the samples, the pooled estimated prevalence of HEV positive was 9.7%. It should be noted that HEV infection's relative frequency varied from...