Sharif Digital Repository

Many physicians and tort reform advocates believe that most medical malpractice (med mal) claims are “frivolous.” As evidence, they often rely on reports that only about 20 percent of claims result in a payout. Many physicians and reform advocates also believe that plaintiffs lawyers often sue every health provider with even a remote a connection to the patient. Plaintiffs’ lawyers, however, insist that they screen med mal cases carefully, and when they bring a claim, are selective in whom they sue. Can these perspectives be harmonized? We study this question using databases of every insured med mal claim closed in Illinois during 2000–2010 and in Indiana during 1980–2015, and with... 

In this paper, we consider the problem of cross-layer radio resource management in heterogeneous networks (HetNets) with flexible backhaul, which aims at minimizing the total transmit power of base stations (BSs) while guaranteeing the average end-To-end data rate requirement of each data flow. We formulate the problem as a two-Timescale stochastic optimisation, where the long-Timescale control variables are flow control, routing control and interference coordination, while the short-Timescale control variable is instantaneous beamforming within each cell. Using a stochastic cutting plane (SCP) method, we propose a cross-layer queue-state information (QSI) aware radio resource management... 

In this work we report fabrication of a nanocrystal (NC)-based hybrid organicinorganic LED with structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/PVK/CdS-NCs/(Al or Mg:Ag). The hydrophilic CdS NCs were synthesized using a novel aqueous thermochemical method at 80 °C and sizes (around 2 nm) were controlled by thioglycolic acid (TGA) as the capping agent. The favorite feature of these NCs is their relatively high emission intensity and broad, near-white emission. The hydrophilic CdS NCs were successfully spin coated using Triton X-100 as the wetting agent. The fabricated LEDs demonstrated a turn on voltage about 7 V for Al metallic contact. The electroluminescence was a broad spectrum at 540 and 170 nm width, which... 

The bacterial mechanosensitive channel MscL gates in response to membrane tension as a result of mechanical force transmitted directly to the channel from the lipid bilayer. MscL represents an excellent model system to study the basic biophysical principles of mechanosensory transduction. However, understanding of the essential structural components that transduce bilayer tension into channel gating remains incomplete. Here using multiple experimental and computational approaches, we demonstrate that the amphipathic N-terminal helix of MscL acts as a crucial structural element during tension-induced gating, both stabilizing the closed state and coupling the channel to the membrane. We... 

This paper presents the acoustic and structure characteristics of chambers with elastic/rigid baffles and elastic walls using a novel formulation. The acoustic fluid is assumed to be compressible and inviscid, and the effect of mean flow is neglected. The acoustic field is formulated based on the dual reciprocity boundary element method (DRBEM), and the finite element method (FEM) is used to model the structural dynamics of elastic walls. The reduced-order model (ROM) of the coupled system is derived based on modal analysis of the acoustic field with rigid boundaries and the structure in a vacuum. Numerical examples are presented, and the acoustic modes and frequencies of the chambers are... 

In this paper, we aim to improve meeting summarization performance using discourse specific information. Since there are intrinsically different characteristics in utterances in different types of function segments, e.g., Monologue segments versus Discussion ones, we propose a new summarization framework where different summarizers are used for different segment types. For monologue segments, we adopt the integer linear programming-based summarization method; whereas for discussion segments, we use a graph-based method to incorporate speaker information. Performance of our proposed method is evaluated using the standard AMI meeting corpus. Results show a good improvement over previous... 

Linear segmentation of a meeting conversation is beneficial as a stand-alone system (to organize a meeting and make it easier to access) or as a preprocessing step for many other meeting related tasks. Such segmentation can be done according to two different criteria: topic in which a meeting is segmented according to the different items in its agenda, and function in which the segmentation is done according to the meeting's different events (like discussion, monologue). In this article we concentrate on the function segmentation task and propose new unsupervised methods to segment a meeting into functionally coherent parts. The first proposed method assigns a score to each possible boundary... 

In this paper we investigate the role of discourse analysis in extractive meeting summarization task. Specifically our proposed method comprises of two distinct steps. First we use a meeting segmentation algorithm in order to detect various functional parts of the input meeting. Afterwards, a two level scoring mechanism in a graph-based framework is used to score each dialogue act in order to extract the most valuable ones and include them in the extracted summary. We evaluate our proposed method on AMI and ICSI corpora and compare it with other state-of-the-art graph based algorithms according to various evaluation metrics. The experimental results show that our algorithm outperforms the... 

Summary keywords are words that are used in the reference extracted summary, therefore can be used to discriminate between summary sentences from non-summary ones. Finding these words is important for the extractive summarization algorithms that measure the importance of a sentence based on the importance of its constituent words. This paper is focused on extracting summary keywords in the multi-party meeting domain. We test previously proposed keyword extraction algorithms and evaluate their performance to determine summary keywords. We also propose a new approach which uses discourse information to find local important keywords and show that it outperforms all the previous methods. We... 

In this article we tackle the problem of multi-party conversation summarization. We investigate the role of discourse segmentation of a conversation on meeting summarization. First, an unsupervised function segmentation algorithm is proposed to segment the transcript into functionally coherent parts, such as Monologuei (which indicates a segment where speaker i is the dominant speaker, e.g., lecturing all the other participants) or Discussionx1x2,...,xn (which indicates a segment where speakers x 1 to xn involve in a discussion). Then the salience score for a sentence is computed by leveraging the score of the segment containing the sentence. Performance of our proposed segmentation and... 

A series of cross-linked ionic polymers based on styrene-functionalized imidazolium salts with chloride, hexafluorophosphate, or tetrafluoroborate counter anions have been prepared and characterized using a range of analytical and spectroscopic techniques and electron microscopy. The polymer with the chloride anion is an efficient catalyst for the cycloaddition of carbon dioxide with epoxides to afford cyclic carbonates. The cross-linked polymer is insoluble in organic solvents and is highly stable and therefore can be easily recycled and reused  

This paper proposes a constrained stochastic successive convex approximation (CSSCA) algorithm to find a stationary point for a general non-convex stochastic optimization problem, whose objective and constraint functions are non-convex and involve expectations over random states. Most existing methods for non-convex stochastic optimization, such as the stochastic (average) gradient and stochastic majorization-minimization, only consider minimizing a stochastic non-convex objective over a deterministic convex set. The proposed CSSCA algorithm can also handle stochastic non-convex constraints in optimization problems, and it opens the way to solving more challenging optimization problems that... 

In this paper, GyroSym, a compact highly-stable single-wheel robot is introduced. Symmetrical flywheels have been used as its stabilization mechanism to keep the wheel upright. Thanks to the type of the flywheel used, the dynamic equations of the robot is simplified, the torque needed to tilt the spin axis is reduced, and the space is drastically minimized. Besides, a centrifugal clutch is used to smooth the motion of the robot in forward motion. Two controllers, fuzzy and fuzzy-Padé, were implemented based on their ability to stabilize the robot. Although both prevented the GyroSym from falling over, neither can entirely cancel out the effects of nonlinear behaviors that is present in the... 

The petroleum industry suffers from reservoir souring phenomena, which has negative impacts on production facilities, health, and environment. Injection of incompatible water into the reservoir (waterflooding), which is considered as an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method, is one of the most common causes of reservoir souring. In general, injected brine, especially seawater, contains high amounts of sulfate ion (SO42−). A high concentration of sulfate in the presence of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) leads to the microbial reservoir souring. During this phenomenon, sulfide, specifically hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) appears in the producing fluid of the reservoir. In this paper, a coupled... 

In order to examine the impact of structural and thermal scale parameters on thermoelastic vibrations of Euler-Bernoulli nanobeams, this article intends to provide a size-dependent generalized thermoelasticity model with the help of nonlocal strain gradient theory (NSGT) in conjunction with dual-phase-lag (DPL) heat conduction model. To highlight the role of each scale parameter in size-dependent motion and heat conduction equations, normalized forms of these nonclassical coupled thermoelastic equations are extracted by introducing and exploiting some dimensionless parameters. By exploiting power series expansion as a general solution for arbitrary boundary conditions, system of partial... 

Due to the boom in world trade, port authorities are looking into ways of making existing facilities more efficient. One way to improve efficiency, increase capacity, and meet future demand is to use advanced technologies and automation in order to speed up terminal operations. In this paper, we design, analyze, and evaluate four different automated container terminal (ACT) concepts. These concepts include automated container terminals based on the use of automated guidance vehicles (AGVs), a linear motor conveyance system (LMCS), an overhead grid rail system (GR), and a high-rise automated storage and retrieval structure (AS/RS). We use future demand scenarios to design the characteristics... 

In order to examine the impact of structural and thermal scale parameters on thermoelastic vibrations of Euler-Bernoulli nanobeams, this article intends to provide a size-dependent generalized thermoelasticity model with the help of nonlocal strain gradient theory (NSGT) in conjunction with dual-phase-lag (DPL) heat conduction model. To highlight the role of each scale parameter in size-dependent motion and heat conduction equations, normalized forms of these nonclassical coupled thermoelastic equations are extracted by introducing and exploiting some dimensionless parameters. By exploiting power series expansion as a general solution for arbitrary boundary conditions, system of partial... 

MANET, which stands for Mobile Ad-hoc Network, is composed of a group of self-organized and wireless nodes that do not possess any predictable and fixed infrastructure. When nodes want to communicate with each other, they have to pass on their messages directly or indirectly. In case the destination node is out of the transmission range, the source node has to rely on intermediate nodes, which, in this case, is called indirect transmission. On the other hand, if the destination node is the neighboring node, there is no need to employ intermediate nodes, which, in this case, is called direct transmission. Over the past years, security issues in MANETs have received a great deal of attention... 

We propose a component model for the scheduling of combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units by mixed-integer programming (MIP) in which combustion turbines (CTs) and steam turbines (STs) are modeled as individual units. The hourly schedule of CCGT based on the component model is compared with that of the mode model. The modeling of modes, which includes a combination of CTs and STs, would require certain approximations for representing fuel input-power output curves, ramping rate limits, minimum operating time limits, etc. The approximations can result in sub-optimal schedules. Furthermore, the commitment and dispatch of CCGTs based on the mode model will require a real-time dispatch to... 

Private set intersection (PSI) is a fundamental cryptographic protocol which has a wide range of applications. It enables two clients to compute the intersection of their private datasets without revealing non-matching elements. The advent of cloud computing drives the ambition to reduce computation and data management overhead by outsourcing such computations. However, since the cloud is not trustworthy, some cryptographic methods should be applied to maintain the confidentiality of datasets. But, in doing so, data owners may be excluded from access control on their outsourced datasets. Therefore, to control access rights and to interact with authorized users, they have to be online during...