Sharif Digital Repository

Autonomous robots' vision is one the most important parts in their navigation system and omni-directional stereo vision is an approach to improve this module. Conventional cameras have restricted field of view while omni-directional cameras provide 360-degree field of view. Depth information obtained from stereo vision is very useful for robot navigation in complex environments. This paper presents an omni-directional stereo vision system for Arvand robots constructed by Sharif CE Middle size RoboCup team. We have used two catadioptric cameras aligned vertically. To compute depth, we have used a neural network. In our approach, we trained the neural network without unwrapping the images and... 

Clinical and experimental observations show individual differences in the development of addiction. Increasing evidence supports the hypothesis that dopamine receptor availability in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) predisposes drug reinforcement. Here, modeling striatal-midbrain dopaminergic circuit, we propose a reinforcement learning model for addiction based on the actor-critic model of striatum. Modeling dopamine receptors in the NAc as modulators of learning rate for appetitive-but not aversive-stimuli in the critic-but not the actor-we define vulnerability to addiction as a relatively lower learning rate for the appetitive stimuli, compared to aversive stimuli, in the critic. We... 

Over the last decades, several approaches have been proposed in the literature to incorporate users' perceptions of travel costs, their bounded rationality, and risk-taking behaviors into network equilibrium modeling for traffic assignment problem. While theoretically advanced, these models often suffer from high complexity and computational cost and often involve parameters that are difficult to estimate. This study proposes an alternative approach where users' imprecise perceptions of travel times are endogenously constructed as fuzzy sets based on the probability distributions of random link travel times. Two decision rules are proposed accordingly to account for users' heterogeneous... 

Zeolitic imidazole frameworks (ZIFs) provide an exciting platform to design and fabricate non-precious-metal carbon-based catalysts for oxygen reduction/evolution reaction (ORR/OER). Herein, we elaborately design a facile enzyme-assisted synthetic strategy that enables to tailor the ZIFs precursors into structural stable decussation shape, which derived Co nanoislands grafted on decussate N-doped carbon nanoleaves (D-Co@NC) can well retain the interpenetrating nanostructure. Benefiting from the combined advantages of compositions and interpenetrating nanostructures, D-Co@NC possesses 5.2 times higher exposed electrochemical active area than the conventional dodecahedral one, thus endowing... 

In this paper, the interaction between various window specifications and different climate conditions is investigated. For this purpose, simultaneous effects of several aspects including glazing system, glass type, filling gas, glass thickness, window frame fraction, and interior shading are considered under three different climatic conditions. To evaluate the energy performance of various considered alternatives, the energy simulation of a base case building is evaluated in a computer environment. Using the validated model, the energy analysis is quantitatively performed, and cost-benefit analyses from the viewpoints of both residents and government are carried out based on the domestic and... 

Some tetra substituted derivatives of 2,2′ and 4,4′ bithiazoles have been synthesized and characterized in various solvents  

A mathematical time-dependent and isothermal model based on the grain model has been developed to simulate the kinetic and thermal behaviors of a porous iron oxide pellet undergoing chemical reactions with a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and water vapor. Its novelty consists in fact that it can deal with a multi-species reducing gas and oxide pellet. In spite of previous models in which the pure reductant was applied as reducing gas, this model can indicate an actual view of pellet reduction including the effects of reducing gas utility and reducing gas ratio. A finite volume fully implicit technique was applied for solving the governing equations. The model has been... 

In the present study, for the first time, a thermodynamically consistent large deformation theory is developed to model the multi physics problem of axonal swelling which is the hallmark of most of the brain diseases. To this end, the relevant axonal compartments are first explained and the corresponding model parts are introduced. Next, the problem is formulated as an open thermodynamic system and the corresponding constitutive and evolution equations are extracted utilizing the balance laws. Here, a multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient is used to capture the active behavior of the axonal actin cortex. Specific free energy functions are given for the model parts to... 

Rockfall is a significant hazard to sites that are located at the foot of rock slopes. In such sites, there is a notable need to evaluate the potential for rockfall, estimate the extent of areas at risk, and design retaining structures to reduce the risk of rockfall-induced. This paper presents a probabilistic framework for predicting the formation and progression of rockfalls and for evaluating the performance of retaining walls under rockfalls. To this end, first a probabilistic model for the rock projectile motion on a slope is presented. The model accounts for prevailing uncertainties, i.e., the trigger points, rock shape, projectile path, and slope material properties, which include... 

This paper presents an effective control scheme in dc microgrids to precisely share the load current oscillatory and dc components among distributed generation (DG) units. The proposed control strategy includes current and voltage control blocks. The current control block consists of oscillatory and dc current-sharing units. The main idea of the proposed method is to share the load current oscillatory and dc components among the DG units based on their rated power, by assigning appropriate output impedance values and droop coefficients to each DG unit. The voltage control block is a multiloop voltage control unit employed to control the microgrid voltage. The detailed model of the proposed... 

We study the asymmetric primordial fluctuations in a model of inflation in which translational invariance is broken by a domain wall. We calculate the corrections to the power spectrum of curvature perturbations; they are anisotropic and contain dipole, quadrupole, and higher multipoles with non-trivial scale-dependent amplitudes. Inspired by observations of these multipole asymmetries in terms of two-point correlations and variance in real space, we demonstrate that this model can explain the observed anomalous power asymmetry of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) sky, including its characteristic feature that the dipole dominates over higher multipoles. We test the viability of the... 

NiTi alloys have exhibited significant potential as a matrix of wear resistant composites. In this study, in order to examine the effect of starting materials on the wear performance of NiTi-based composites, both elemental Ni/Ti and prealloyed NiTi powders were used to fabricate NiTi-6wt% nano-Al2O3 composites using hot isostatic pressing (HIP). Nanoindentation and microhardness test results indicate that the composite samples produced from the elemental Ni/Ti powders exhibited higher hardness and lower pseudoelasticity properties than those of the samples fabricated from the prealloyed NiTi powders; this is attributed to the higher amount of... 

Deployment of low-power low-cost small access points such as femtocell access points (FAPs) constitute an attractive solution for improving the existing macrocell access points' (MAPs) capacity, reliability, and coverage. However, FAP deployment faces challenging problems such as interference management and the lack of flexible frameworks for deploying the FAPs by the service providers (SPs). In this paper, we propose a novel solution that jointly associates the user equipment (UE) to the APs, and allocates the FAPs to the SPs such that the the total satisfaction of the UEs in an uplink OFDMA network is maximized. We model the competitive behaviors among the UEs, FAPs, and SPs as a dynamic... 

In this study, the enhanced trichloroethylene (TCE) degradation performance was investigated by polyvinyl alcohol coated calcium peroxide nanoparticles (PVA@nCP) as an oxidant in Fe(II)-based catalytic systems. The nanoscale iron sulfide (nFeS), having an average particle size of 115.4 nm, was synthesized in the laboratory and characterized by SEM, TEM, HR-TEM along with EDS elemental mapping, XRD, FTIR, ICP-OES, and XPS techniques. In only ferrous iron catalyzed system (PVA@nCP/Fe(II)), TCE degradation was recorded at 58.9% in 6 h. In comparison, this value was increased to 97.5% or 99.7% with the addition of citric acid (CA) or nFeS in PVA@nCP/Fe(II) system, respectively. A comparative... 

In this study, the enhanced trichloroethylene (TCE) degradation performance was investigated by polyvinyl alcohol coated calcium peroxide nanoparticles (PVA@nCP) as an oxidant in Fe(II)-based catalytic systems. The nanoscale iron sulfide (nFeS), having an average particle size of 115.4 nm, was synthesized in the laboratory and characterized by SEM, TEM, HR-TEM along with EDS elemental mapping, XRD, FTIR, ICP-OES, and XPS techniques. In only ferrous iron catalyzed system (PVA@nCP/Fe(II)), TCE degradation was recorded at 58.9% in 6 h. In comparison, this value was increased to 97.5% or 99.7% with the addition of citric acid (CA) or nFeS in PVA@nCP/Fe(II) system, respectively. A comparative... 

Motivated by the puzzling optical conductivity measurements in graphene, we speculate on the possible role of strong electronic correlations on the two-dimensional Dirac fermions. In this work we employ the slave-particle method to study the excitations of the Hubbard model on honeycomb lattice, away from half-filling. Since the ratio U/t ≈ 3.3 in graphene is not infinite, double occupancy is not entirely prohibited and hence a finite density of doublonscan be generated. We therefore extend the Ioff-Larkin composition rule to include a finite density of doublons. We then investigate the role played by each of these auxiliary particles in the optical absorption of strongly correlated Dirac... 

In this study, the effects of CeO2 nanoparticle addition on tensile strength and formation of interfacial intermetallic compound layer for lead-free Sn-3.5Ag-0.7Cu solder joint were investigated. The results showed that the thickness of intermetallic layer was decreased with increasing weight percentages of CeO2 reinforcements, and the growth of the intermetallic layer was remarkably suppressed during isothermal aging at 150 C. It was also found that the tensile strength of the solder joint gradually increased with the addition of CeO2 particles, reached to the maximum value at 0.5 wt% CeO2 and then decreased drastically with further increase in CeO2 content. Microstructural investigation of... 

In Industry 4.0, the emergence of new information technology and advanced manufacturing technology (e.g., digital twin, and robot) promotes the flexibility and smartness of manufacturing systems to deal with production task fluctuation. Digital twin-driven manufacturing system with human-robot collaboration is a typical paradigm of intelligent manufacturing. When production task changes, manufacturing system reconfiguration with dynamic opeartion task allocation between operator (human) and robot is a key manner to maintain the production efficiency of intelligent manufacturing system with human-robot collaboration. However, the differences between operator and robot are neglected during... 

Corrosion and time–dependent oxide film growth on AA5052 Aluminum alloy in 0.25M Na2SO4 solution containing H2O2 was studied using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, potentiodynamic polarization, chronoamperometric and open circuit potential monitoring. It was found that sequential addition of H2O2 provokes passivation of AA5052 which ultimately thickens the oxide film and brings slower corrosion rates for AA5052. H2O2 facilitates kinetics of oxide film growth on AA 5052 at 25° and 60 °C which is indicative of formation of a thick barrier film that leads to an increment in the charge transfer resistance. Pitting incubation time increases by introduction of H2O2 accompanied by lower... 

Background: Kinetic andmorphological aspects of slurry propylene polymerization using a MgCl2-supported Ziegler-Natta catalyst synthesized from a Mg(OEt)2 precursor are investigated in comparison with a ball-milled Ziegler-Natta catalyst. Results: The two types of catalyst show completely different polymerization profiles: mild activation and long-standing activity with good replication of the catalyst particles for the Mg(OEt)2-based catalyst, and rapid activation and deactivation with severe fragmentation of the catalyst particles for the ball-milled catalyst. The observed differences are discussed in relation to spatial distribution of TiCl4 on the outermost part and inside of the...