Sharif Digital Repository

Mobile phones as new addition to information and communication technologies have created new ways to help learners in the process of foreign language learning. Given the importance of academic vocabularies for university students, this study tried to investigate the effectiveness of SMS on Iranian university students' vocabulary learning and retention. To this end forty five university freshman students with upper intermediate proficiency level were chosen to take part in this study. During 16 weeks of experiment, the participants of the experimental group (N = 28) were taught 320 head words from the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000) via SMS. During the same period of time the participants... 

In this paper we investigate multi-path transmission of video over Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs). Our objective is to provide a transmission mechanism to improve the video quality perceived at the receiver while considering energy, bandwidth and delay constraints of the network. Our approach is based on packet and path priority scheduling in multipath video transmission over WMSN. Video packets are classified according to their types and more important packets are transmitted through paths with better conditions. Path conditions are evaluated by a score mechanism using variant parameters such as free buffer size, energy, hop count and packet loss. Since path conditions are... 

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a systemic inflammatory disorder of joints and entheses. Recent studies have reported an increased prevalence of dementia in AS patients. However, data for exploring the association between dementia and AS remain uncertain. In this study, enriched pathways and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in whole blood transcription data of AS patients obtained from the gene expression omnibus (GEO) database; using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and differential expression analysis. Four pathways, including oxidative phosphorylation, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's diseases were significantly enriched in AS patients compared to the... 

This paper assesses message missing failures in a FlexRay-based network. The assessment is based on about 35680 bit-flip fault injections inside different parts of the FlexRay communication controller; the parts are: controller host interface, protocol operation control, coding and decoding unit, media access control and clock synchronization process. To do this, a FlexRay communication controller is modeled by Verilog HDL at the behavioral level. This HDL model of the controller is exploited to setup a FlexRay-based network composed of four nodes. The results of fault injection show that about 35% of faults led to the message missing failures. The controller host interface and the clock... 

This paper evaluates the error propagation and its effects in babbling idiot failure in a FlexRay-based network. The evaluation is based on about 35680 bit-flip fault injections inside different parts of the FlexRay communication controller. To do this, a FlexRay communication controller is modeled by Verilog HDL at the behavioral level. Then, this controller is exploited to setup a FlexRay-based network composed of four nodes. Nodes in this experiment are considered in two forms: 1) node without bus guardian, 2) node with bus guardian. The results of fault injection show that in first form about 4.57% of faults lead to the babbling idiot failures. Also in second form about 0.75% faults lead... 

Objectives: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a rheumatic disorder that is mostly determined by genetic and environmental factors. Given the known importance of macrophage in AS pathogenesis, we investigated the transcriptional profile of macrophage cells in the disease. Methods and Results: Two approaches of differential expression and subsequently, weighted gene co-expression network analysis was utilized to analyze a publicly available microarray dataset of macrophages. Integral membrane protein 2A (ITM2A) was among the most significant genes with a decreased trend in the common results of both methods. In order to confirm the finding, the expression of ITM2A was evaluated in... 

A novel intelligent semi-active control system for an eleven degrees of freedom passenger car's suspension system using magnetorheological (MR) damper with neuro-fuzzy (NF) control strategy to enhance desired suspension performance is proposed. In comparison with earlier studies, an improvement in problem modeling is made. The proposed method consists of two parts: a fuzzy control strategy to establish an efficient controller to improve ride comfort and road handling (RCH) and an inverse mapping model to estimate the force needed for a semi-active damper. The fuzzy logic rules are extracted based on Sugeno inference engine. The inverse mapping model is based on an artificial neural network... 

Using CNG as an additive for gasoline is a proper choice due to higher octane number of CNG enriched gasoline with respect to that of gasoline. As a result, it is possible to use gasoline with lower octane number in the engine. This would also mean the increase of compression ratio in SI engines resulting in higher performance and lower gasoline consumption. Over the years, the use of simulation codes to model the thermodynamic cycle of an internal combustion engine have developed tools for more efficient engine designs and fuel combustion. In this study, a thermodynamic cycle simulation of a conventional four-stroke spark-ignition engine has been developed. The model is used to study the... 

With the declining energy resources and increase of pollutant emissions, a great deal of efforts has been focused on the development of alternatives for fossil fuels. One of the promising alternative fuels to gasoline in the internal combustion engine is natural gas [1-5]. The application of natural gas in current internal combustion engines is realistic due to its many benefits. The higher thermal efficiency due to the higher octane value and lower exhaust emissions including CO2 as a result of the lower carbon to hydrogen ratio of the fuel are the two important feature of using CNG as an alternative fuel. It is well known that computer simulation codes are valuable economically as a cost... 

Gaining insight into possible vibratory responses of dynamical systems around their stable equilibria is an essential step, which must be taken before their design and application. The results of such a study can significantly help prevent instability in closed-loop stabilized systems by avoiding the excitation of the system in the neighborhood of its resonance. This paper investigates nonlinear oscillations of a rotary inverted pendulum (RIP) with a full-state feedback controller. Lagrange’s equations are employed to derive an accurate 2-DoF mathematical model, whose parameter values are extracted by both the measurement and 3D modeling of the real system components. Although the governing...