Sharif Digital Repository

Examining composite quantum systems through quantum thermodynamics, we face the new concept of binding energy. In this thesis, we are going to present a general definition for binding energy in quantum systems which covers any kind of interactions. First of all, we examine the possibility of energy exchange in a quantum system using quantum thermodynamics. In this theory, energy exchanges of an open quantum system may be divided in to two portions: heat and work; due to an accepted definition, heat is the portion of energy that is supposed to change entropy, while work has no influence on that. In this research, we restrict our calculations to the systems which are thermally closed and... 

One of the new paradigms in information retrieval is to develop textual Question-Answering systems. Question-Answering (QA) is an advanced IR process at which for a natural language question, the answer is extracted and issued in natural language. The QA systems are divided into two general groups: Open-Domain QA and Restricted-Domain QA.
In this research field, a number of different models and methods are developed in which a document collection is used to retrieve candidate answers and then different methods are deployed to detect and eliminate irrelevant ones from answer set. Most of these methods decide based on expected semantic answer type, which is determined using pre-defined... 

The existing continual learning methods are mainly focused on fully-supervised scenarios and are still not able to take advantage of unlabeled data available in the environment. Some recent works tried to investigate semi-supervised continual learning (SSCL) settings in which the unlabeled data are available, but it is only from the same distribution as the labeled data. This assumption is still not general enough for real-world applications and restricts the utilization of unsupervised data. In this work, we introduce Open-Set Semi-Supervised Continual Learning (OSSCL), a more realistic semi-supervised continual learning setting in which out-of-distribution (OoD) unlabeled samples in the... 

One of the main tools of the developing quantum technology is making the desired quantum gates and processes in the presence of the environmental noises. In this thesis, we first derive a Markovian master equation which defines purely the time evolution of the dynamics (process matrix) of the open system rather than its state (density matrix). This master equation indeed describes the time evolution of the Choi-Jamiolkowsli matrix which is independent of the state of the system at all times including the initial state. The n, by using this master equation we provide a scheme to manipulate optimally and locally the dynamics of the open system by external coherent agents. Such scheme... 

In this work, dispersion of a spinning projectile has been reduced by modifying its configuration and using a simple open-loop guidance. The traditional nose is replaced with a new nose with controllable fins, the spin of which is isolated from the remained body using a roller bearing. To check out the dynamic behavior of the projectile, non-linear simulations has been used which were developed at preceding research projects. To carry out this project, important errors that make the dispersion of the projectile have been investigated. Then, assuming projectile is controlled ideally, an open-loop guidance has been achieved and the appropriate times for the implemention of the guidance... 

Conversational Question Answering (CQA) has gained significant attention in recent years due to its potential to facilitate natural language interactions between humans and machines. The ability to effectively incorporate relevant history turns, which are previous utterances in a conversation, plays a crucial role in improving the overall performance of CQA systems. In this master's thesis, we explore the importance of conversational question answering and propose a novel approach for selecting relevant history turns to enhance the accuracy and relevance of the system's responses. Initially, we provide an overview of the recent models developed for addressing the CQA challenge. We analyze... 

Let C(S) and C(T) denote the sup-normed Banach spaces of real or complex-valued continuous functions on the compact Hausdorff spaces S and T, respectively. A linear map H:C(T)→C(S) is called separating if, for x,y∈C(T), xy≡0 implies HxHy≡0. In the second chapter of this thesis, we will show that any continuous separating map is a continuous multiple of a composition map. Moreover, it will be proved that any linear separating isomorphism of C(T) onto C(S) is continuous. We will also define separating and biseparating maps on the rings of continuous functions equipped with the compact-open topology. In addition, vector-valued separating maps will be investigated. For example, assume that C(T)... 

It has been of great interest to know whether quantum effects can play an essential role in the biological processes. Considering that quantum features, such as coherence and entanglement,can be harnessed to perform quantum information processing tasks, which are believed to be hard classically, the question is whether nature has also exploited these features in order to enhance the performance of biological systems. Although the presence of warm and wet environment around the biological systems results in the rapid destruction of quantum effects, recent experiments reported the existence of quantum coherence in light-harvesting complexes of some photosynthetic systems.This coherence lasts... 

One of the lateral-load bearing systems that has been recommended since almost 40 years ago is the steel plate shear wall (SPSW) system, which consists of a steel plate surrounded by beams and columns in each story. As for the performance of SPSWs, it is assumed that the boundary members of the wall’s plate, i.e. beams and columns, have sufficient stiffness and strength, so that they would not yield by the tensile stresses exerted due to the post-buckling behavior of the plate (tension field); and the global stability of the structure is still maintained. This assumption leads to significantly increased dimensions of the sections applied in the wall’s boundary members, particularly its... 

The aim of the work presented in this thesis is deal with some of the aspects in the FEM analysis of sandwich panels containing holes which comprised with foam core. It is a new topic in this field; so the activities that have been done about this case are poor with respect to its performances in engineering. The main emphasis is placed on the treatment of the foam core since the core often is the weakest part of the sandwich and therefore in many ways governs the capacity and lifetime of the whole sandwich structure. Because of increasing application including construction, aircraft and transportation, marine and etc., different load conditions are considered for the analysis and... 

In current research, two zirconium-based metal-organic frameworks, MIP-202 (Zr) and UIO-66(CO2H)2 were employed as catalysts in the epoxy ring-opening reactions by amino and alcoholic nucleophiles. Firstly, these metal-organic frameworks were prepared under mild synthetic conditions and then characterized by means of spectral techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), electron microscopy Scanning (SEM) and X-ray energy diffraction (EDAX) spectroscopy were confirmed. Finally, their catalytic activity in epoxy ring-opening reactions was investigated and in to determine optimal conditions, the... 

Steel shear wall is a lateral load resistance system, which has been taken into consideration in recent decades for designing and reinforcing high-rise buildings. This system is comprised of steel filler panel surrounded by frame members including beams and columns. Steel shear walls are presently fabricated in two types, stiffened and unstiffened. According to numerous conducted research, it can be stated that the stiffened type has better seismic performance. The use of stiffeners with a great number of executive details is required to spend more time and costs on the construction sector. In order to solve these problems, some experimental and numerical studies have been conducted on... 

This paper deals with no-wait open shop scheduling with sequence dependent setup times and release dates, minimizing total completion times. In spite of practibility of the problem, there is no substantial work dealing the problem. We present three formulation of the problem based on different decision variable paradigms and investigate some computational and efficacy aspects of the models. For large size problems, we first propose a novel encoding and decoding scheme of and present four particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)-based algorithms and four Tabu Search (TS)-base algorithms. To evaluate the performance of the algorithms we carry out two cpmputational experiments; in the first experiment... 

The Multi-Depot Traveling Purchaser Problem under Shared Resources (MDTPPSR) is a new variant of the Traveling Purchaser Problem (TPP). In this problem, each depot can purchase its products using the shared resources of other depots, and vehicles do not have to return to their starting depots. The routing of this problem is a Multi-Trip, Open Vehicle Routing Problem. A tailored integer programming model is formulated to minimize the total purchasers’ costs. Considering the complexity of the model, we have presented a decomposition-based algorithm that breaks down the problem into two phases. In the first phase, tactical decisions regarding supplier selection and the type of collaboration are... 

Quantum mechanics, in the first place, investigates systems by introducing some principals about Hilbert space, Schrodinger equation etc. which are recognized as closed quantum systems. In principal, this is not possible to separate a system from its surrounding environment. Thus, the implications of the environment on the evolution of the system must be taken into consideration. As a matter of fact, all systems are considered open in a sense that, it is interacting with another system called the environment. In such circumstances, we tend to represent a description of open quantum systems in a way that following the evolution of the total system, i.e. system and the environment, is not... 

In this thesis, a special case of the Traveling Purchaser Problem (TPP) is considered in which instead of one vehicle there are multiple vehicles as purchasers. Furthermore, the vehicles start their path from a set of starting points and after visiting a number of markets they return to the depot. Moreover, each of the products needs a special loading condition and the vehicles have multiple compartments to meet these loading constraints and the products are loaded in their appropriate compartments. This problem is at first modeled as a MIP formulation and then by decomposing the problem a Column Generation procedure is developed to solve the problem. To enhance the speed of the column... 

The electrical voltage, current and power output is calculated due to harmonic forced vibration of shell energy harvester. So five electromechanical equation together with Gauss equation is solved for doubly curve shell harvester in steady state condition in order to derive voltage, current and electric power output. The effect of shell curvature in cylindrical and spherical shells, the harvester series or parallel connection of layers and thickness of substrate and piezoelectric layer, is also considered in order to obtain maximum power output. The results show for small shell curvatures a high frequency load is needed to obtain maximum power and when the shell arc length is three times to... 

In some cases, because of the need for installations, creating cutouts in the existing RC slabs will be necessary whereas these cutouts can cause weakness in the strength and stiffness of the slabs. Nowadays, expanding the use of FRP materials can provide the possibility of easier strengthening of such slabs. There are various methods for strengthening with FRP including Externally Bonded FRP sheets, Near Surface Mounted FRP rebars, and Mechanically Fastened FRP sheets. To select the most appropriate techniques for strengthening RC slabs with cutouts, it is essential to know different structural performance of these strengthened slabs. This research tends to model one and two-way spanning RC... 

It has been about a century since the introduction of the theory of quantum mechanics. This theory is a branch of physics that describes the behavior of nature in very small scales and microscopic systems . Since no quantum system is entirely isolated from its surroundings , it is necessary to study their interactions with the environment to understand them accurately. The theory of open quantum systems provides the theoretical and conceptual framework needed to consider these interactions. Then using the appropriate quantum operations , the evolution of the combined system can be investigated. Moreover , considering the environmental effects, some quantum features such as dissipation... 

Today, with the development of information systems and the use of information technology in organizations and the act of IT department to become out of isolation mode and also alignment of IT with the strategies and goals of the business units, many believe that the information should flow in organization without any borders. In addition to having common points, each of these frameworks have different features that make organizations have difficulties in choosing between them. It should be noted that the implementation of two or more frameworks together, can waste time and money, cause lots of rework, and also can lead conflicting outcomes in their organizations. Enterprise architecture...