Sharif Digital Repository

In this paper, using kinetic calculations and accurate 1D2V particle-in-cell simulations, we point out the important role of initially energetic electrons of the distribution tail in the behavior of high amplitude electron plasma waves (EPWs). In the presence of these electrons, the conventional warm fluid theory (WFT) breaks at very high wave amplitudes that are still noticeably lower than the wave breaking amplitude (WBA). The fluid breakdown results in electron super-heating with respect to the adiabatic laws. Indeed, a new kinetic regime of the relativistic EPWs appears below the WBA. It is argued that the mentioned super-heating results in WBA values lower than the corresponding WFT... 

A general method for deriving electromagnetic particle in cell (EMPIC) algorithms has been given by Eastwood [Comput. Phys. Commun. 64, 252 (1991)]. This method devises variation of the action-integral to find discrete governing equations. The most important advantage of this method is automatic inclusion of the time coordinate via the action integral into the computational domain. This inclusion is inevitable because electromagnetic algorithms are based on time evolution of the system from its initial state. The drawback of this method is that it is rather abstract. This causes obscurity of particle-mesh interactions and makes it hard to analyze physical treatments of the computational... 

A warm relativistic ideal fluid theory is proposed to study the dynamics of laser-induced high amplitude longitudinal waves in rarefied plasmas. It is demonstrated that fluid equations may be closed using an adiabatic approximation in the local rest frame of the plasma fluid. It is shown that considering three-dimensional thermal fluctuations of plasma for an interacting laser pulse that is invariant in transverse directions, considerably changes the features of describing fluid equations compared to that of previously considered one-dimensional thermal-fluctuations models. For a given shape of laser pulse these equations are solved numerically and their results are compared with those... 

DNA nucleobases strongly absorbed onto a graphene sheet placed between two gold electrodes in a contact–channel–contact configuration were distinguished. We analyzed the system using the nonequilibrium Green’s function method combined with density functional theory. The changes of the electric field in the middle of the vacuum gap (channel) were investigated. The Mulliken population was deciphered for graphene and the nucleobases. We also extracted the image plane, which was found to lie very close to the position of peak induced density. The projection of the electron difference density and electrostatic difference potential of the nucleobases are also presented. The nucleobases were... 

Dental composites of A2 color using Bis-GMA, urethane dimethacrylate and triethyleneglycol dimethycrylate resins (70/20/10), and silica filler (70 wt%, 75 wt%, and 80 wt%), a hybrid of nano- and microsilica particles, are made and subjected to the following tests: Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), particle size analyzer, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and also cytotoxicity. FTIR results show that an increase in filler amount yields to a decrease in degree of conversion. Therefore, there should be a compromise between degree of conversion and the filler amount. SEM images manifest the uniformity of silica particles. It is shown from the cytotoxicity tests that as the... 

As concerning with water insecurity driven by water scarcity threatens the lives and livelihoods of humanity worldwide, urban water demand management is focused on promoting residential water conservation behaviors (WCBs) as a critical policy response to water scarcity. However, urban water conservation initiatives cannot be successful unless households involve in residential WCBs voluntarily by adopting water curtailment and/or water-efficiency actions. Thus, understanding motivations and mechanisms underlying accepting these two types of WCBs and interpreting their distinctions are primary policy considerations to make sustainable water consumption behaviors. Hence, the purpose of this... 

With the aid of nanotechnology and understanding of visual and retinal neuroscience, tremendous advances have been achieved in the treatment of people who have lost their vision. Among vision restoration techniques, stem cells or gene therapy remain in their early phases of development, while visual prosthesis (bionic eye) attains some approaches in vision restoration. There are several ongoing projects around the world on visual prosthesis, including Argus II (received FDA approval), Boston Retinal Implant Project, Epi-Ret 3, Intelligent Medical Implants and Alpha-IMS (Retina Implant AG). One of the most crucial traits of implants is vision resolution that theoretically correlates with... 

In this paper we examine demodulation methods for nonuniform Pulse Position Modulation (PPM), which is generated by the crossings of a modulating signal with a sawtooth wave. Here, we are interested in PPM at the Nyquist rate and illustrate the efficiency of the iterative methods. Several iterative methods such as Wiley/Marvasti, Time-varying, adaptive weight, Zero-order-hold, Voronoi, linear interpolation algorithms are discussed, where the PPM demodulation is converted as a nonuniform sampling reconstruction problem. Also another approach called the inverse system approach is introduced and the performance of the two algorithms is assessed. © Springer-Verlag 2004  

A nonmodel and output-only-based framework incorporating an Auto-Regressive model and roof absolute acceleration response are hired in this study to compute a robust wavelet-based damage-sensitive feature (rDSF) and estimate engineering demand parameters (EDPs) of buildings with eccentrically braced frames (EBFs). A large database is recruited to estimate the peak and residual story drift ratios and peak floor absolute accelerations as EDPs. The database comprises cmorfb-fc wavelet-based rDSF, number of stories, building heights, and EDPs of the 4- and 8-story EBF archetypes, resulting from 44 far-field ground motions through incremental dynamic analysis. The capability of both the... 

This article deals with stabilization of Lotka-Volterra (LV) systems in the presence of interval uncertainty and a physical limitation on the control input, which restricts this input to be strictly positive. Considering the positiveness property of LV systems, a quasi-monomial structure for the state feedback based control input is proposed. Considering this structure, stability of the closed-loop system with no uncertainty is analyzed. This analysis leads to an algebraic inequality, whose satisfaction guarantees stability of the closed-loop system. To extend this result to uncertain LV systems with interval parameter uncertainty, a new approach, by which stability of the positive... 

We present an asymptotically convergent nonlinear attitude estimator using a rate gyro and GPS. Double-difference (DD) carrier phase measurements are provided by at least two GPS antennas. The unknown integer ambiguity factor related to GPS carrier phase measurement is estimated along with the attitude. An observability condition is derived to guarantee the convergence of the estimator when a single baseline vector is available with more than four satellites in view. A systematic procedure for tuning observer parameters is also presented. Finally, the experimental test from a light fixed-wing aircraft illustrates the performance of the proposed observer. © 1993-2012 IEEE  

This paper presents an asymptotically-convergent nonlinear attitude estimator for rigid bodies using a rate gyro and GPS. Double-difference carrier phase measurement are provided by at least two GPS antennas. The unknown integer ambiguity factor related to GPS carrier phase measurement is estimated along with the attitude. An observability condition is derived to guarantee convergence of the estimator when a single baseline vector is available with more than four satellites in view. Finally, experimental test from a survey boat illustrates performance of the proposed observer. © 2018 IEEE  

Diabetes can result when the accurate control of insulin levels fails in the body. As a result, insulin has been conventionally administered for the treatment of diabetes mainly through subcutaneous injection. There have been several attempts to administer insulin orally. However, the oral bioavailability of insulin is strictly limited, mainly by low permeability across biological membranes. Advances in biotechnology and nanotechnology have recently led to the discovery of several new approaches for the delivery of drugs. In this concept, nanobiomaterials have been shown to be promising candidates for oral insulin delivery. This chapter describes the recent advances and future prospects of... 

The objective of the present contribution is to use a portable near infrared (NIR) spectrometer (in spectral range of 900–1700 nm) as a rapid, facile, and nondestructive technique in combination with ensemble methods, for detection of water in bovine milk samples in concentration range 1% to 30% (v/v). On this matter, the pattern of the milk samples (pure and adulterated) was explored by principal component analysis (PCA). Then, random subspace discriminant ensemble (RSDE) was used for classification. The classification figures of merit for the RSDE method was evaluated in terms of sensitivity (Sen), specificity (Spe), accuracy (Acc), error rate (ER), and reliability (Rel). All the values... 

Improving the methods of identification and control of nuclear power reactors core is an important area in nuclear engineering. Controlling the nuclear reactor core during load following operation encounters some difficulties in control of core thermal power while considering the core limitations in local power peaking and safety margins. In this paper, a nuclear power reactor core (VVER) is identified using a multi nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous inputs (NARX) structure, including neural networks with different time steps and a heuristic compound learning method, consisting of off- and on-line batch learning. An intelligent nuclear reactor core controller, is designed which... 

In the last decade, the intelligent control community has paid great attention to the topic of intelligent control systems for nuclear plants (core, steam generator). Papers mostly used approximate and simple mathematical SISO (single-input-single-output) model of nuclear plants for testing and/or tuning of the control systems. They also tried to generalize theses models to a real MIMO (multi-input-multi-output) plant, while nuclear plants are typically of complex nonlinear and multivariable nature with high interactions between their state variables and therefore, many of these proposed intelligent control systems are not appropriate for real cases. In this paper, we designed an on-line...