Sharif Digital Repository

Due to the interference problems of complex on-site installations attached to shield tunnel lining surface, deep learning models, developed for leakage datasets of shield tunnels, are not prepared to meet engineering requirements. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to optimize the original model based on the characteristics of leakage datasets. For this purpose, the present study adopted Mask R-CNN as the baseline and improved its performance from two aspects, including the properties of shield tunnel leakage datasets and detection errors of the original model in the testing set. With reference to the properties of leakage datasets, the model compression technique was implemented to... 

Nondestructive estimation of physicochemical properties, post-harvest physiology, and level of ripeness of fruits is essential to their automated harvesting, sorting, and handling. Recent research efforts have identified machine vision systems as a promising noninvasive nondestructive tool for exploring the relationship between physicochemical and appearance characteristics of fruits at various ripening levels. In this regard, the purpose of the current study is to provide an intelligent algorithm for estimating two physical properties including firmness, and soluble solid content (SSC), three chemical properties viz. starch, acidity, and titratable acidity (TA), as well as detection of the... 

Islanding detection methods are divided into three main groups as remote, active and passive. Although passive schemes have larger Non Detection Zones (NDZ) relative to other schemes, they are more used in utilities due to their low costs and less PQ problems than other schemes. Passive Schemes are based on the measurements of passive system parameters. These parameters are measured at the point of common coupling (PCC). A new approach in passive techniques is the use of data-mining to classify the system parameters. In this paper, massive indices are collected by simulation of a practical distribution system in PSCAD/EMTP environment. These indices include voltage, frequency, current,... 

This paper proposes an efficient concurrent error detection method using control flow checking for embedded processors. The proposed method is based on the co-operation of two hardware modules: 1) an on-chip hardware component to detect branch instructions and generate signatures for the running program, and 2) an external watchdog processor to compare runtime signatures and branch addresses with the information extracted offline. The proposed method is implemented on an embedded processor core and is evaluated by a simulation based statistical fault injection approach where faults are injected into cache and main memory. Experimental results show that the proposed method detects more than... 

Rice bran is one of the most important co-products in the rice milling. In this research, antioxidant activity of two Iranian rice bran varieties, Fajr and Tarem, extracted by three different solvents (methanol, ethanol and ethyl acetate) was evaluated. The order of antioxidant activity was evaluated by measurement of total phenolic content, antioxidant activity in linoleic acid system, reducing power and scavenging capacity by DPPH radical. The methanolic extract of Fajr rice bran showed a total phenolic content of 3.31 mg Gallic acid/gr rice bran and a DPPH free radical-scavenging activity of 93.91%, achieved at 50 mg/ml concentration, and a percent inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation... 

Assistant robots are widely used in laparoscopic surgery to facilitate the camera holding and manipulation task. A variety of a hands-free operator interfaces have been implemented for user control of the robots, including voice commands, foot pedals, and eye and head motion tracking systems. This paper proposes a novel user control interface, based on processing of the laparoscopic images, that enables the robot to automatically adjust the view of the laparoscopic camera without disturbing the surgeon's concentration. An effective marker-free detection method was investigated to track the instrument position in the laparoscopic images in real time so that the robot could center the... 

In this paper, we have proposed a new face detection method which combines the AdaBoost algorithm with skin color information and support vector machine (SVM). First, a cascade classifier based on AdaBoost is used to detect faces in images. Due to noise and illumination changes some nonfaces might be detected too, therefore we have used a skin color model in the YCbCr color space to remove some of the detected nonfaces. Finally, we have utilized SVM to detect faces more accurately. Experimental results show that the performance of the proposed method is higher than the basic AdaBoost in the sense of detecting fewer nonfaces  

Cascaded H-bridge converter has been utilized recently in different high-power applications due to its modular and simple structure. In order to have a balanced operation after a fault occurrence in this converter, it is necessary to detect the switch fault and its location. In this paper, a fast power-switch fault detection method is presented to identify a fault and its location. Only one voltage measurement per phase is required by this method, and the fault detection is faster compared to the existing methods. Moreover, it is suitable for implementation on an FPGA device due to the use of simple math, relational, and state machine blocks. The proposed method is verified by computer... 

Currently, the HIFU (High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound) therapy method is known as one of the most advanced surgical techniques of tumor ablation therapy. Simulation of the non-linear acoustic wave and tissue interaction is essential in HIFU planning to improve the usefulness and efficiency of treatment. In this paper, linear, thermoviscous, and nonlinear equations are applied using two different media: liver and water. Transducer power of 8.3-134 Watts with the frequency of 1.1 MHz is considered as the range of study to analyze the interaction of wave and tissue. Results indicate that the maximum focal pressure of about 0.5-4.3 MPa can be achieved for transducer power rates of 8.3 to 134 W.... 

The supernatant obtained from the extracellular laccase produced by Phanerochaete chrysosporium was used as the enzyme source to conduct a partial purification, characterization and dye decolorization study. The partially purified enzyme was stable in the pH range of 3–5 and showed an optimum activity at pH 4.0, using guaiacol as a substrate. Laccase stability of pH was determined and discovered to retain 100% of its activity at a pH of 4.0 after 2 h. The maximum enzyme activity was obtained between 30 and 50 °C. The maximum velocity and Michaelis constant were calculated as 3.171 µM−1·min and 1628.23 µM, respectively. The enzyme was activated by Fe2+, Zn2+, Ca2+ and Cu2+, while Hg2+, Mn2+,... 

Hydrodynamics of highly nonlinear cnoidal waves and their subsequent strong plunging breakers are among the least understood and most significant issues in coastal engineering. In this work, a weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) formulation is used for the study of the generation and propagation of cnoidal waves and investigation of the characteristics of the induced strong plunging breakers. Numerical results show the capability of the SPH scheme for properly simulating the cnoidal waves. For the case of strong plunging breakers, dynamic and kinematic features of the flow are computed and compared with certain implementations of other numerical techniques. SPH is shown... 

A comprehensive optimal bidding strategy model has been developed for renewable micro-grids to take part in day-ahead (energy and reserve) and real-time markets considering uncertainties. A two-stage stochastic programming method has been employed to integrate the uncertainties into the problem. Moreover, the Latin hypercube sampling method has been proposed to generate the wind speed, solar irradiance, and load realizations via Weibull, Beta, and normal probability density functions, respectively. In addition, a hybrid fast forward/backward scenario reduction technique has been applied to reduce the large number of scenarios. Furthermore, the risk of participation in the markets has been... 

Brain Computer Interface (BCI) systems, which are based on motor imagery, enable humans to command artificial peripherals by merely thinking about the task. There is a tremendous interest in implementing BCIs on portable platforms, such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAS) due to their low-cost, low-power and portability characteristics. This article presents the design and implementation of a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system based on motor imagery on a Virtex-6 FPGA. In order to design an accurate algorithm, the proposed method avails statistical learning methods such as Mutual Information (MI), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), and Support Vector Machine (SVM). It also uses... 

In this paper, we describe a real-time Gradient-based Multiple Faces Tracking (GMFT) algorithm in complex background. In GMFT method first faces are detected by combination of morphological facial feature extraction and gradient-based edge detection methods. After a face is reliably detected, it is tracked over time with a novel real-time algorithm. The algorithm has been implemented and tested under a wide range of real-world conditions. The resulting system runs in real-time on a standard PC, being robust to face scale variations, rotations in depth, and fast changes in subject/camera position. It has consistently provided performance which satisfies the following requirements: 1) able to... 

Flat plate solar collectors lose a massive part of heat accumulated near the contact region because of the poor thermal characteristics of the working fluid. A new cost-effective design is numerically studied to cover up such deficiency by equipping the flat plate collector with revolutionary tubes and magnetic field inducer to affect Fe3O4/water working nanofluid in the collector tubes. Results substantiate that each of the applied rotary tubes and magnetic field inducer improves the convection mechanism in the tubes by circulating the flow inside the tubes and saves more of available solar energy. Results reveal that 27.8% and 10.44% of lost energy are restored in the solar collector... 

For traditional calculations of relative phase permeability (Kr) from coreflood Steady-State Test (SST), the capillary pressure (Pc) is required. Usually, Pc is determined from a separate test, using a centrifuge or porous-plate methods. However, during SSTs, water cut and pressure drop are measured during the transition period between two sequential fractional-flow steps. We developed a novel method for simultaneous determination of Kr and Pc from SST by using both steady-state and transient data. In the proposed method, the transition data on the pressure drop across the core are used instead of the traditionally utilised Pc-curve. The main idea is that the stabilisation period during each... 

Bathymetric mapping for an accurate estimation of stored water volume in drying lakes is a key information for an effective monitoring of their recession or restoration status. Extraction of bathymetry in shallow saline lakes using remote sensing techniques has always been challenging due to the complex influences imposed by the physical properties of substrate and the spatial variability of salinity. In this study, we developed a machine learning-based model to quantify the implicit, non-linear relationship between water depth and surface reflectance by leveraging extensive in-situ data and high-resolution satellite imagery. We trained and tested the learning model in the hyper-saline Lake... 

Optimal hyperplastic coeficients of the micromechanical constituents of the human brain stem were investigated. An evolutionary optimization algorithm was combined with a Finite Element (FE) model of a Representative Volume Element (RVE) to nd the optimal material properties of axon and Extra Cellular Matrix (ECM). The tension and compression test results of a previously published experiment were used for optimizing the material coeficients, and the shear experiment was used for the validation of the resulting constitutive model. The optimization algorithm was used to search for optimal shear moduli and ber sti ness of axon and ECM by tting the average stress in the axonal direction with the... 

The solar collectors absorb solar irradiation and then produce thermal energy; however, they cannot generate electrical power. Electricity and thermal energy can be produced by the photovoltaic thermal module, simultaneously, while the outlet temperature of the photovoltaic thermal module is not usually high enough to provide thermal requirements of a building such as hot water or space heating. This work proposes a novel compound system created by the connection of a solar collector in series with a photovoltaic thermal module to resolve the issue of low outlet temperature in the photovoltaic thermal module and lack of electrical power in solar collectors. To examine the feasibility of this... 

CaO derived from calcined eggshell was doped with Na–K by wet impregnation method and the effect of different Na/K molar ratios was investigated on biodiesel production from canola oil. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), and Thermogravimetric (TGA) analyses. FAME yields were determined by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The Na–K/CaO catalyst with Na/K molar ratio of 1 showed the highest FAME yield of 97.6% at optimum reaction conditions. Structural investigation of materials revealed that FAME yield was proportional to the number of basic sites on...