Sharif Digital Repository

We consider the deterministic pilot design problem for sparse channel estimation in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system. Our design is based on minimizing the coherence measure of the Fourier submatrix associated with the pilot subcarriers. This is done by optimizing over both pilot locations and pilot powers. As finding such global minimizer is a combinatorial problem, we resort to a greedy pilot allocation method. The resulting method achieves a suboptimal solution in a sequential manner and with reasonable computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme performs similar to the existing methods with significantly lower computational... 

Zinc oxide thin films were deposited on soda-lime glass substrates from an aqueous zinc- containing complex by two-stage chemical deposition (TSCD) method. Longmuir adsorption model showed that the adsorption of atoms on the surface of the substrate was typically physical. The relation between the fractional coverage, θ, with the equilibrium constant of the adsorption reaction was nonlinear indicating that the adsorption was non-ideal. The percentage of porosity, 1-θ, of the thin layer was determined as a function of Zn 2+ concentration of the solution. By application of XRD technique, it was shown that pure crystalline ZnO of controllable thickness could be deposited by TSCD method on the... 

Analysis of gamma-ray spectra is an important step for identification and quantification of radionuclides in a sample. In this paper a new gamma-ray spectra analysis algorithm based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is developed to identify different isotopes of a mixed gamma-ray source and determine their fractional abundances. PSO is an iterative algorithm that imitates the social behaviors observed in nature to solve complex optimization problems. The PSO method is used for complex fitting to the response of a 3 [Formula presented] 3 inch NaI (Tl) scintillation detector and the fitting process is controlled by a test for significance of abundance and computation of Theil coefficient.... 

The pipe-spool fabrication process is a critical operational section in the piping projects that usually used to accelerate and discipline the installation process, especially, when we have a particular deadline for the project. For this reason, the fast and optimal scheduling of the fabrication activities with considering the real conditions and using manual or traditional methods is a significant problem for the decision-makers. In this paper, we use a novel linear programming model to schedule the spool fabrication activities based on the flexible job shop scheduling problem (FJSP). Because FJSP is a challengeable NP-hard problem, we solve the proposed mathematical model with a heuristic... 

We compare and contrast the physisorption behavior of imidazolium and butyltrimethylammonium based ionic liquids (ILs) on mono-vacant nitrogen and boron defective hexagonal boron nitride nanoflakes (h-BNNF) using M06-2X/cc-pVDZ level of theory. The presence of defects on the nanoflakes results in an increase in IL binding energy by ~ 1–27 kcal/mol partly due to the lowering of the energy band in the defective nanoflakes. Imidazolium based ILs adsorb energetically more favorably on h-BNNF-VB than on h-BNNF-VN while butyltrimethylammonium based ILs prefer to adsorb on h-BNNF-VN. Upon adsorption of imidazolium ILs on the nanoflakes, an increase in both HOMO and LUMO orbital energies is observed... 

We consider a problem of localizing a temporal path signal that evolves over time on a graph. A path signal represents the trajectory of a moving agent on a graph in a series of consecutive time stamps. Through combining dynamic programing and graph partitioning, we propose a path-localization algorithm with significantly reduced computational complexity. To analyze the localization performance, we use two evaluation metrics to quantify the localization error: The Hamming distance and the destination's distance between the ground-truth path and the estimated path. In random geometric graphs, we provide a closed-form expression for the localization error bound, and a tradeoff between... 

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems are so popular in aerial imaging because of their high resolution. Ground moving target indication (GMTI) is one of the most challenging problems in this field. The use of multiple antennas in transmit and receive is an innovative idea that can overcome the limitations of SAR systems. In this paper, after modelling the received signal and focusing it, we propose an algorithm for GMTI with the use of compressed sensing. The proposed algorithm has low complexity compared to similar algorithms. Simulation results show that this approach is accurate in estimation of positions and velocities of moving targets. © 2018 IEEE  

In this paper, we study the problem of delay minimization in NFV-based networks. In such systems, the ultimate goal of any request is to compute a sequence of functions in the network, where each function can be computed at only a specific subset of network nodes. In conventional approaches, for each function, we choose one node from the corresponding subset of the nodes to compute that function. In contrast, in this work, we allow each function to be computed in more than one node, redundantly in parallel, to respond to a given request. We argue that such redundancy in computation not only improves the reliability of the network, but would also, perhaps surprisingly, reduce the overall... 

The emergence of the globalization paradigm in manufacturing industry has changed the markets’ circumstances, and accordingly manufacturing systems need to be compatibilized with these situations. There are many solutions to assist manufacturing systems for this purpose. Computerized systems and their related solutions were being the most attractive ones for manufacturing systems in recent decade. Developing such systems and exploiting from the advantages of such solutions requires a consistent foundation. Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) emerged as a philosophy to provide such foundation, and to assist the computerized manufacturing solutions. Despite of the high potentials of the... 

For the first time the new 32-membered macrocyclic dinuclear palladium complex of two aza-crown macrocycles, bearing two pyridine arms, Pd2L2Cl4 was synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, IR, NMR spectroscopy and single crystal X-ray diffraction methods. Pd2L2Cl4 was investigated as a moisture/air-stable catalyst for Sonogashira cross-coupling reaction in the absence of copper and phosphine ligand in DMSO. Thermal stability, possible occurrence of tandem reactions, promoted catalytic performance as well as synergistic effects are of advantageous features of Pd2L2Cl4. By employing Taguchi method, optimum conditions (110 °C, 6 h, KOAc, 2 mol% cat.) were determined. Moreover, the... 

Providing backhaul connectivity for macro and pico base stations (BSs) constitutes a significant share of infrastructure costs in future heterogeneous networks (HetNets). To address this issue, the emerging idea of flexible backhaul is proposed. Under this architecture, not all the pico BSs are connected to the backhaul, resulting in a significant reduction in the infrastructure costs. In this regard, pico BSs without backhaul connectivity need to communicate with their nearby BSs in order to have indirect accessibility to the backhaul. This makes the radio resource management (RRM) in such networks more complex and challenging. In this paper, we address the problem of cross-layer RRM in... 

In this paper, a novel identification method for discrete-time linear systems when input–output observations are contaminated by coloured noise (errors-in-variables models) is proposed. To develop the new approach, modified prediction error and covariance matching methods are utilised. It is proved that the proposed approach leads to a consistent estimation. System identification through the proposed approach entails the existence of a flat frequency interval in power spectra of input and ratio of noise-free input to input signals which is a somewhat mild assumption. Two Monte Carlo simulations are provided to explain the efficiency, numerical complexity and the application of the proposed... 

Respiratory activity influences electrocardiographic measurements (ECG) in various ways. Therefore, extraction of respiratory information from ECG, namely ECG-derived respiratory (EDR), can be used as a promising noninvasive method to monitor respiration activity. In this paper, an automatic EDR extraction system using single-lead ECG is proposed. Respiration effects on ECG are categorized into two different models: additive and multiplicative based models. After selection of a proper model for each subject using a proposed criterion, gaussian process (GP) and phase space reconstruction area (PSRArea) are introduced as new methods of EDR extraction for additive and multiplicative models,... 

Energy Harvesting (EH) is a novel technique to prolong the lifetime of the wireless Ad-hoc and sensor networks with replenishable nodes. In this sense, it has emerged as a promising technique for Green Communications. On the other hand, cooperative communication with the help of relay nodes improves the performance of wireless communication networks. In this paper, we investigate the cooperation in EH nodes. We consider the optimal power and rate allocation in the full-duplex Gaussian relay channel in which source and relay can harvest energy from their environments. In our model, the energy arrivals at the source and the relay are general stochastic processes with known EH times and amounts... 

In this paper, we propose a scheme referred to as integer-forcing message recovering (IFMR) to enable receivers to recover their desirable messages in interference channels. Compared to the state-of-the-art integer-forcing linear receiver (IFLR), our proposed IFMR approach needs to decode considerably less number of messages. In our method, each receiver recovers independent linear integer combinations of the desirable messages each from two independent equations. We propose an efficient polynomial-time algorithm to sequentially find the equations and integer combinations with maximum rates and analyze its complexity. We evaluate the performance of our scheme and compare the results with the... 

Because damage identification results based on the Lamb waves propagation approach can be influenced by varying environmental and operational conditions, development of a robust monitoring system with no need of the prior measured data of the structure has gained much attention recently. The instantaneous baseline damage detection technique is one of the promising methods that overcome the mentioned obstacles. For this, the material properties, electromechanical characteristics, and the geometric features must be identical. Also, sensor distances in similar paths and the geometric dimensions of the transducers must be the same. So, implementing the instantaneous baseline damage... 

The modal analysis of a lossy coupled plasmonic waveguide consisting of two graphene sheets sandwiched among three SiO 2 layers is presented. This analysis extracts even and odd complex propagation constants in addition to even and odd characteristic impedances at various Fermi levels. It is shown that the first even mode is lossless in theory, but other modes are very lossy. Taking into account the losses, first, the transmission line (RLCG) model, including self and mutual elements, is constructed for various Fermi levels and frequencies. Then, the length of a lossy plasmonic directional coupler based on the coupled plasmonic waveguide is designed for a variety of Fermi levels. The... 

Producing mature and functional cardiomyocytes (CMs) by in vitro differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) using only biochemical cues is challenging. To mimic the biophysical and biomechanical complexity of the native in vivo environment during the differentiation and maturation process, polydimethylsiloxane substrates with 3D topography at the micrometer and sub-micrometer levels are developed and used as cell-culture substrates. The results show that while cylindrical patterns on the substrates resembling mature CMs enhance the maturation of iPSC-derived CMs, sub-micrometer-level topographical features derived by imprinting primary human CMs further accelerate both the... 

The hospital location and service allocation is one of the most important aspects of healthcare systems. Due to lack of studies on covering location-allocation and scheduling problems with respect to the uncertain budget, this paper develops a bi-objective hybrid model to locate hospitals and allocate machines and services scheduled. The costs of establishing facilities are assumed to be uncertain, while a robust counterpart model is employed to overcome the uncertainty. Covering the demand of each service is limited as well. Moreover, hospitals have a limited space to the specialized equipment like CT scan and MRI machines, while there is a cost constraint on hospitals and the specialized... 

Visual interpretation of complex visual patterns in non-urban environments is necessary for many applications in smart rural community management, smart farming and smart jungles. In this paper, the Glimpse-Gaze framework for deep learning based visual interpretation of complex rural and jungle environment scenes is proposed. The proposed framework is used for decision support and navigation by a multi-agent robotic system singularly referred to as MOdular RApidly Deployable Decision Support Agent (MORAD DSA). A set of deep con-volutional neural networks are trained for fast and accurate interpretation of jungle scenes. Transfer learning and auxiliary pretraining on salient regions of the...