Sharif Digital Repository

Artificial Life can be used as an agent training approach in large state spaces. This paper presents an artificial life method to increase the training speed of some speech recognizer agents which where previously trained by genetic algorithms. Using this approach, vertical training (genetic mutations and selection) is combined with horizontal training (individual learning through reinforcement learning) and results in a much faster evolution than simple genetic algorithm. The approach is tested and a comparison with GA cases on a standard speech data base is presented. COPYRIGHT © ENFORMATIKA  

A new magnetic quaternary photocatalyst, K4Nb6O17/α-Fe2O3/Fe3N/g-C3N4, was synthesized via a simple one-step thermal pyrolysis process. The prepared photocatalyst was well characterized, and its photocatalytic activity was evaluated towards acetamiprid pesticide degradation, CO2 reduction reaction, and U87-MG cell eradication. The coexistence of four different crystalline structures in the prepared photocatalyst could simultaneously facilitate photoelectron transport and suppress charge recombination through their coupled heterogeneous interfaces. Because of the coexistence of various photosensitive compounds, the prepared photocatalyst showed the excellent capability to harvest the visible... 

The adoption model in society in Brunei Darussalam is adoption that follows legal procedures and adoption based on mutual agreement or without going through legal procedures. This study discusses the implications of providing breast milk to adopted children and the importance of testimony (syahadat) in proving the implementation of ar-radha'ah in the Sharia Court of Brunei Darussalam. The research approach uses qualitative. The primary data source is the officers at the Sharia Court. Data collection techniques use document studies and interviews. The results indicate that Islamic law regulates adopted children who do not have a mahram relationship with their adoptive parents, even though... 

We report a simple synthetic approach to grow uniform CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite (PSK) layers free of pinholes via varied portions of silver iodide (AgI) added to the precursor solution. XRD/EDS elemental mapping experiments demonstrated nearly uniform Ag distribution inside the perovskite film. When the 1% AgI-assisted perovskite films were fabricated into a p-i-n planar device, the photovoltaic performance was enhanced by ∼30% (PCE increased from 9.5% to 12.0%) relative to the standard cell without added AgI. Measurement of electronic properties using a hall setup indicated that perovskite films show p-type character after Ag doping, whereas the film is n-type without Ag. Transients of... 

The In-Situ Combustion (ISC) as a thermal EOR process has been studied deeply in heavy oil reservoirs and is a promising method for certain non-fractured sandstones. However, its feasibility in fractured carbonates remained questionable. The aim of the present work was to understand the recovery mechanisms of ISC in fractured models and to evaluate the effect of fractures geometrical properties such as orientation, density, location and networking on the ISC recovery performance. Combustion parameters of a fractured low permeable carbonate heavy oil reservoir in Middle East called KEM; applied to simulation study. Simulator has been validated with KEM combustion tube experimental data and... 

Switched reluctance machines (SRMs) suffer from ultra-low-frequency torque ripple in single pulse mode. This ripple is the result of an imbalance in phase currents, when multiphase excitation occurs. This paper investigates the origin of this imbalance and identifies the imbalanced phase. Excitation shifting strategy, which delays excitation of the imbalanced phase, is then proposed. The delay angle adjusts current amplitude in the imbalanced phase to attain a perfect balance between all phases. The excitation shifting strategy is a general solution, which is applicable to both three-phase and four-phase machines. In addition, the proposed method can be implemented by a much simpler drive... 

The evidence suggests that monetary policy post 1988 became more forward-looking, invalidating the identifying assumptions in conventional methods of measuring monetary policy's effects, leading to spurious and unlikely results for this period. We propose a new identification scheme that uses factors extracted from Fed Funds futures to measure exogenous changes in policy. Using this shock series in a VAR, we recover the contractionary effect of monetary tightening on output. Moreover, we find that as much as half of the variability in output was driven by monetary policy shocks, and that there is a mild price puzzle  

Organizational change has become complex and challenging, and employee attitudes and beliefs toward change are even more important. This article proposes a theoretical framework on how authentic leadership may influence followers’ change-oriented attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors through follower psychological resources including hope, trust, optimism, self-efficacy, and resilience, which influence readiness for change and change implementation. We maintain that an authentic leader’s behavior can influence his or her followers’ change-oriented behaviors in participation in decision-making processes and change initiatives, organization citizenship behavior, organizational learning processes,... 

This paper examines the effect of experiencing a research collaboration between African scientists and their international partners on the African scientists' research impact, measured by scores based on the number of citations and journal impact factor. Using a difference-in-difference regression analysis on publication data of African scientists, the results show that international research collaboration in a given year has a positive and significant effect on research impact, which lasts in the subsequent years. The presence of such permanent effect suggests a sort of 'permanent learning by international collaboration'. The positive effect of international collaboration on research... 

A new poly (acrylonitrile) (PAN)-based gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) is fabricated to study the effect of carbon nanotube (CNT) on dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) efficiency. The GPEs are examined using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to analyze ionic conductivity. A maximum of 4.45 mS cm−1 ionic conductivity is achieved at room temperature with incorporation of 11 wt.% CNT. Performance of DSSC is examined with a solar simulator, and the highest energy conversion efficiency of 8.87% is achieved with the addition of 11 wt.% CNT. All GPE samples are found to follow Arrhenius model with temperature-dependent ionic conductivity testing. Structural properties are also characterized... 

A new poly (acrylonitrile) (PAN)-based gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) is fabricated to study the effect of carbon nanotube (CNT) on dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) efficiency. The GPEs are examined using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to analyze ionic conductivity. A maximum of 4.45 mS cm −1 ionic conductivity is achieved at room temperature with incorporation of 11 wt.% CNT. Performance of DSSC is examined with a solar simulator, and the highest energy conversion efficiency of 8.87% is achieved with the addition of 11 wt.% CNT. All GPE samples are found to follow Arrhenius model with temperature-dependent ionic conductivity testing. Structural properties are also characterized... 

This article presents the design and implementation of a microcontroller-based system for the automatic movement of control rods in nuclear reactors of either power or research types. This system is controlled automatically, is linked to a personal computer system, and has manual controlling ability as well. The important features of this system are: automatic scram of the control rods, activation of alarm in emergency situations, and the ability to tune the control rod movement course both upwards and downwards. In this system, a small tank has been improvised as a coolant reservoir for pool type reactors such as Tehran Research Reactor and its water level is continuously adjusted by... 

We consider a group of m trusted and authenticated nodes that aim to create a shared secret key K over a wireless channel in the presence of an eavesdropper Eve. We assume that there exists a state dependent wireless broadcast channel from one of the honest nodes to the rest of them including Eve. All of the trusted nodes can also discuss over a cost-free, noiseless and unlimited rate public channel which is also overheard by Eve. For this setup, we develop an information-theoretically secure secret key agreement protocol. We show the optimality of this protocol for "linear deterministic" wireless broadcast channels. This model generalizes the packet erasure model studied in literature for... 

We consider a group of m trusted and authenticated nodes that aim to create a shared secret key K over a wireless channel in the presence of an eavesdropper Eve. We assume that there exists a state-dependent wireless broadcast channel from one of the honest nodes to the rest of them including Eve. All of the trusted nodes can also discuss over a cost-free, noiseless and unlimited rate public channel which is also overheard by Eve. For this setup, we develop an information-theoretically secure secret key agreement protocol. We show the optimality of this protocol for 'linear deterministic' wireless broadcast channels. This model generalizes the packet erasure model studied in the literature... 

A power-law compensator scheme for achieving robust frequency compensation in control systems including plants with an uncertain pole, is introduced in this work. This is achieved through an appropriate selection of the compensator parameters, which guarantee that the Nyquist diagram of the open-loop system compensator-plant crosses a fixed point independent of the plant pole variations. The implementation of the fractional-order compensator is performed through the utilization of a curve-fitting-based technique and the derived rational integer-order transfer function is realized on a Field-Programmable Analog Array device. The experimental results confirm that the the phase margin is well... 

Zamin, is an Artificial Life ecosystem, suitable for cognitive studies such as evaluation of different thinking and acting methods. Up to now, simple models for decision making, generalization and abstraction, environment perception and pleasure computation is developed and tested in Zamin. In this paper, we have promoted the two layered decision-making system of Zamin creatures, the Aryos, to a three layered emotional decision making mechanism, compared the learning and coping with predators capabilities of the new creatures with the old ones and shown that they can defeat the previous, emotion-less creatures  

The seismic response of soil depends on proper evaluation and use of soil dynamic properties, including shear modulus and damping ratio at various strain levels. Despite extensive studies on the shear modulus and damping ratio of saturated soils, research on the dynamic properties of unsaturated fine-grained soils — especially at high suction — is limited. This study aims to investigate the dynamic properties of loess at a variety of initial states resulting from different specimen preparation techniques (reconstituted, recompacted, and intact) and their evolutions due to suction-induced desiccation. Results of resonant column tests show that at initial states, the specimen preparation... 

We investigate the possibility of correcting errors occurring on a multipartite system through a feedback mechanism that acquires information through partial access to the environment. A partial control scheme of this type might be useful in dealing with correlated errors. In fact, in such a case, it could be enough to gather local information to decide what kind of global recovery to perform. Then, we apply this scheme to the depolarizing and correlated errors and quantify its performance by means of entanglement fidelity  

Mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Mobile WiMAX) is a wireless access technology based on IEEE 802.16e. The two most important concepts are introduced in the MAC layer of Mobile WiMAX networks, handover and load balancing. In this paper, we have focused on balancing the load of the system, using handover mechanisms suggested by mobile WiMAX. The proposed algorithm, WQLB, concentrates on controlling the system load and keeping it in a balanced state by using a handover process. Also, the algorithm is designed to utilize resources efficiently, supporting QoS. As load definition is an essential criterion in load balancing algorithms, we have suggested a new load model for...