Sharif Digital Repository

The primary objective of this thesis is to provide solutions addressing some security loopholes in continuous variables quantum key distribution protocols. The coherent detection method is utilized in this particular quantum key distribution scheme, which is a phase-sensitive detection. To measure in the quantum noise limit in the detection part, we need a local optical oscillator, which must possess a high intensity and a consistent phase correlation with the quantum signal. Therefore, reconstructing the emitter’s reference phase in the receiver’s detection system is considered as one of the most critical challenges in these protocols. In order to attain this goal, in the early versions of... 

In this thesis, we introduce a novel Artificial Intelligence (AI) system inspired by the philosophical and psychoanalytical concept of imagination as a ``Re-construction of Experiences". Our AI system is equipped with an imagination-inspired module that bridges the gap between textual inputs and other modalities, enriching the derived information based on previously learned experiences. A unique feature of our system is its ability to formulate independent perceptions of inputs. This leads to unique interpretations of a concept that may differ from human interpretations but are equally valid, a phenomenon we term as ``Interpretable Misunderstanding". We employ large-scale models,... 

According to today’s medicine progress, the need for improving the medical facilities have been increased. Within the human body, the biomolecules concentration gradient is regulating the cell functions. Biological processes such as immune response, wound healing, and cancer metastasis have been affected by the bimolecular concentration gradient. So understanding the cell behavior in the presence of a chemical gradient can improve the understanding from these biological processes, and also would help in medical researches. On the other hand, finding the appropriate dose of the drugs and in some cases finding the most effective drug is a clinical challenge that made a new field of research in... 

The development of clean, renewable and alternative sources of fossil fuels has increased in recent years due to various factors such as environmental pollution, reduced fossil fuel resources and increased energy consumption. The application of microbial fuel cells is one of the clean energy production methods using renewable sources such as municipal sewage. The microbial fuel cell converts the chemical energy stored in organic materials into electrical energy and simultaneously purifies the sewage. Increasing current density and power density are the most important challenges for microbial fuel cells. In this study, the two biocatalysts of Shewanella Oneidensis MR1 and Escherichia coli... 

International trade arrangements have been considerably developed in recent decadees. Especially, one can note the role of these factors in economic development and improvement of life standards in member countries. In the meantime, Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) was established in 1985, by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey and then extended by seven other countries: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Improving economic development and intra-group trade of member countries is one of the main objectives for the group. The purpose of this research is to estimate the ex-post effects of ECO on the intra-group trade of member countries.... 

Establishing an efficient free trade agreement (FTA) requires some conditions in both trading partners. The median voter approach insists on the direction of general interests (identified by the utility of a median voter) to explain how two countries may agree to sign an FTA. At the other side, lobbying approach emphasizes on the role of interest groups (groups with a large influence on the public decisions) in forming FTAs. Taking into account the theoretically based and empirically robust foundation of the median voter approach, we rely on it to investigate the major determinants of free trade agreements in the case of ECO countries besides all their main trade partners. The database... 

During the two last decades, Iranians have faced with a wide and substantial increase in housing prices, especially in great metropolitans such as Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan and Shiraz. This easily could be refered to a hyperinflation which significantly impeded the access of low and medium income families to housing. This study uses a structure model to recognize the responsible factors of such a rise in housing prices and to show whether there is any price bubble in market. The model consists of both supply and demand side determinants to explain the price changes across Iranian provinces over 1375-1390, in a panel data context. In particular, we use a longer and larger database which also... 

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has considerably increased in recent years and achieved two percent of the world GDP in 2009. The positive impact of FDI on many national economic variables such as export and employment has been a great motivation for countries to seek it. In spite of many promoting factors in Iran, the Iranian FDI inflow still remains small. Using a huge panel dataset including 2604 real observations, this study aims to recognize and evaluate the impact of main factors influencing FDI inwards across the world. Based on a theoretical approach, we develop an empirical gravity model which includes not only the traditional mass variables but also some specific factors to FDI... 

In last decades as the international volume of trade increased significantly, examination of the relationship between trade and economic growth is one of the interesting topics for economists and policymakers. Trade can affect performance of economics by many channels, such as trade specialization, human and physical capital accumulation, knowledge and technology transfer. In this regard the aim of this thesis is the examination of trade specialization in industries with high productivity (as one of the trade influences) effects on economic growth.In this research based on Hausmann et al. (2006), we use an economic model with two sectors: modern and traditional. This model gives a primary... 

Increasing popularity and use of smartphones has led to rapid growth in number of mobile applications. With the increasing number of available apps in app stores, some of them may have many similarities to each other in functional aspects. Detecting similar apps among a large number of different applications is an important and difficult problem which is useful in a variety of applications, such as app recommendation, comparing competitor apps, app search engines, etc. In order to investigate the functional similarities between applications, high-level and low-level characteristics can be used. With using the high-level characteristics, app functionality features can be extracted from... 

During fuel combustion, aromatic sulfur compounds in energy fuels convert into sulfur oxides, which cause major environmental problems such as acidic rain, global warming, and air pollution. Absorption desulfurization is one of the promising and economical methods to remove these sulfur compounds from fuels. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of nanoporous materials that are of interest for use as adsorbents due to their high specific surface area, unique surface adsorption properties, high adsorption capacity, tunable porosity, flexible dynamic behavior, and diversity in functional and metal groups. In this research, we first synthesized five metal-organic frameworks, namely...