Sharif Digital Repository

Although clustering algorithms such as k-means and probabilistic clustering are quite popular and widely used nowadays, their performance are too sensitive to the presence of outliers where Even few outliers can compromise the ability of these algorithms to extract hidden data substructures. In this thesis, after going through the basics of some optimization methods such as BCD, EM, and MM, in Section 2 and a review of relevant clustering methods in Section 3, we explore the results of [Forero, et al., Robust clustering using outlier-sparsity regularization. IEEE Trans. Signal Process. (60), 2012] in Sections 4 and 5 where the outliers are handled by introducing a regularization term in the... 

The fratar model that is one of the most common models of travel distribution has some weak points. Due to its strong tendency to existing distribution and disregarding the zonal characteristics, this model is unable to consider sudden changes in plan on the horizon. In order to identify the variables affecting the distribution of travel, using the behavioral approach is vital. For this purpose, Multinomial Logit model is used for distribution of shopping trips in the city of Shiraz. The city of Shiraz is divided into 156 zones. If all zones be considered as the choice set for each traveler, the results of model won't be efficient. To address this problem, sampling should be done based on... 

Tipping points occur in diverse systems in various disciplines such as ecology, climate science, economy, sociology, and engineering. Critical thresholds in system parameters or state variables at which a tiny perturbation can lead to a qualitative change in the system exist in many subsystems in complex systems. These thresholds are called tipping points, and these subsystems are called tipping elements. Additionally, many systems with tipping points can be modeled as networks of coupled multistable subsystems. Domino-like tippings are called tipping cascades. Considering that these tipping cascades are primarily unprecedented, it is essential to study the dynamics and control of these... 

In this thesis, we have studied the ground state properties of one-dimensional many body electron systems using the extended Hubbard model. Following the important work of Tremblay and Davoudi, we have used the TPSC approach to derive explicit expressions for spin and charge response functions. The response functions are expressed in terms of the free response function χ_0 and local field factors U_cc and U_ss. The local field factors can be written in terms of the pair correlation functions. Also fluctuation-dissipation theorem allows us to write pair correlation functions in terms of the structure factors. In the first part of thesis, we study the ground state properties of the system by... 

Considering the fact that human capital is a crucial element in explaining the differences in income per capita and economic growth among countries, this research focuses on the effect of initial endowments of individuals on the process of human capital accumulation. One of the most important questions one can ask in this regard is whether individuals that are born in households with a low level of endowments, cannot develop their level of human capital due to a lack in the ability to obtain the factors required for their educational attainment. To answer this question, and considering the limitations of obtaining educational data, we aim to answer this question using district-level data.... 

In this work, we try to develop a method for searching for an object which is known to us and also returning it back where the search was begun, through shortest possible path. The surrounding environment was assumed unknown and only a stereo camera and an IMU exist to work with. The proposed method was developed in Linux using GPU and with C++ language and also achieved 58 fps. Parallel programming was utilized in different parts of the algorithm and obstacle avoidance is guarranteed. The surrounding environment and obstacles are assumed changing over the time  

Investigation of possible vibratory responses of dynamical systems around their stable equilibria is an essential step which must be taken before their both design and application. The attained results of such a study can largely help to prevent instability in closed-loop stabilized systems by avoiding excitation of the system in the neighborhood of its resonance. In this paper, nonlinear oscillations of a Rotary Inverted Pendulum (RIP) enjoying a full-state feedback controller is investigated. Lagrange’s equations are employed to derive an accurate 2-DoF mathematical model whose parameters are extracted by both measurement and 3D modeling of the real system components. The perturbative... 

Derivation of the dynamic stochastic equation based on experimental data to describe the behavior of the system has a wide application in various branches of natural sciences, social sciences, medical sciences and treatment, economics and financial markets, and so on. For this purpose, it is necessary to calculate the coefficients of the Kramers-Moyal equation from the data. The two common methods in statistical analysis and data mathematics for the numerical calculation of the coefficients of the Kramers-Moyal equation are the histogram method and the kernel method, each of which has limitations; including that they can be used in one and at most two dimensions. In this research, we present... 

Speech enhancement in noisy environments improves the quality and intelligibility of speech and reduces communication fatigue. High performance speech enhancement models are based on Bayesian estimation models, requiring estimations of the parameters of the functions that describe the likelihood and the prior distributions of the signal and noise processes. Two Bayesian speech enhancement models which are used in this thesis are Bayesian-Kalman filter and Bayesian MAP estimation.In real time applications including VoIP, in addition to additive noise, packet loss or packet delays might also occur. In real time communications the receiver terminal replaces silence for the duration of lost... 

Knowledge sharing as one of the most important knowledge management processes has been discussed in this research. The purpose of this study is investigating relationship between the Nonaka’s conditions for organizational Knowledge Creation and strengthening interpersonal Knowledge Sharing in the “Oil Industries Engineering and Construction Co. (OIEC)”. A quantitative questionnaire based servey was used to collect the required data and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test the questions. The findings suggest that the “project intention”, ”personal autonomy”, “autonomy of project team” and “requisite variety” have impact on “attitude toward knowledge sharing”, and there is no significant... 

Aphron drilling fluids or CGA fluids are the wellknown updated drilling fluids in recent years.this kind of drilling fluids can control the mud loss into the formation and thus reduce formation damage and drilling costs. its structure consists of two phase fluid (gas and liquid) that the aphrons are the micro bubbles with 10 to 100 micrometer diameter that have strong stability in liquid phase compared to foamy drilling fluids. Generally aphron drilling fluids are made of base drilling fluid and surfactants, for more stability, mixed surfactant-polymer additive is so beneficial. in the last two decades, the Lattice-Boltazmann method is introduced for computational fluid dynamic area and... 

In past decades, the measurement of partial discharges (PDs) in high voltage equipments, was appreciated as one of the most efficient methods for evaluation of the equipment insulation condition. Generators, transformers, cables and transmission lines are especially checked to detect the presence of any partial discharge.
In AC high voltage systems, the measurement method is well established and known. The Phase resolved method is used to determine the partial discharge signals. These methods have been used for many years and their success in differentiating the various sources of partial discharge have proven. Although phase resolved method works on AC; due to lack of frequency... 

Due to conspicuous increases in shopping and goods transportation in this unbridled world, a significant part of companies’ final interest and final cost are related to their distributions of goods. Meanwhile, because of practical constraints of service hours and service distances, logistics companies usually build multiple depots to serve a great number of dispersed customers. Hence, multi-depot vehicle routing problems (MDVRP) win more and more engineers’ and companies’ attention to thrift their cost by using optimization methods. Considering NP-hardness of MDVRP and the lack of optimal solution derived by heuristic and meta-heuristic approaches in the large scale problems, in this... 

Security for wireless communication networks has become a crucial issue because of the broadcast nature of wireless channels. On every cellular network Since it is possible for passive nodes to easily overhear the confidential information transmitted between transmitter and receiver, it is necessary to provide secure communication.When a cellular user wants to communicate with a node or base station on the cellular network, it expects that information will be transmitted and received without interference, with enough quality and without eavesdropping. On the other hand In practical scenarios, we know that cellular network nodes are not equipped with ideal equipment and some percent... 

Cancer is one of the most causes of mortality in the world. Leukemia is a type of cancer initiated by the rapid proliferation of blood cells including WBCs, RBCs, and Platelets, that classified into four general types of AML, ALL, CML, and CLL. The main treatment of leukemia is chemotherapy. Because of many problems that patients have with this treatment and not so good results of chemotherapy, we design a microfluidic chip that can perform personalized medicine treatment for leukemia patients.This microchip consists of two main parts, Concentration Gradient Generator (CGG), and cell culture. CGG system is a tree CGG with two inlets and four outlets, which makes a linear concentration of... 

In this thesis, we study the resilience of complex systems under structural perturbations. After a brief review of the resilience and its importance, we show that how one can map a system of N-coupled dynamical equations onto an effective one-dimensional dynamics. This procedure is based on a nearest neighbor averaging. The obtained map, helps us study the response of the system to the effective one-dimensional control parameter, instead of all parameters that are affecting the structure of the network. Next, we use this procedure and unveil the resilience pattern of second-order Kuramoto oscillators on complex networks. Moreover, we propose a control strategy for complex systems which is... 

In this thesis, we review recent advances on controlling of complex systems. We provide in details, the concepts of synchronizability and synchronization controllability.Then we will investigate synchronization controllability under different pinning schemes, and propose a new pinning strategy to increase controllability and consequently decrease the number of required pinned nodes (known as driver nodes) to assure a stable synchronized state. We also study the network characteristics of resulted sequence of driver nodes. Finally, we will employ our proposed schemes to study the controllability of complex networks of chaotic Rossler oscillators  

Identifying driving behaviors and building an efficient and accurate driving behavior recognition model is of paramount importance for improving driving safety. Nowadays, with the ubiquity of smartphone sensors, many researchers are using smartphone sensory data to create models which forecast driving behaviors. This research introduces a logit model that predicts nine types of driving events using accelerometer and gyroscope sensors with an accuracy of 76 percent  

Wettability is the cause of many interactions today and is definitely effective in almost all processes where liquid and solid phases are in contact. Wetting controls by surface engineering can accelerate the process in the industry or improve the quality of daily life. Therefore, the fabrication of complex surfaces with a specific purpose and different wettability has attracted the attention of researchers. In this thesis, silica nanoparticles were synthesized to create roughness and reduce contact between surfaces and liquids at first. Then, using chemical compounds to reduce the surface energy, a transparent (94.20%) superhydrophobic and oleophobic coating was created on the glass. The... 

Control of complex networks is the main topic in this study. In this thesis, we consider the methods to steer the dynamics of a network from an initial state to the desired final state. To achieve this goal, one needs to inject appropriate control signals from some of the network nodes, known as driver nodes. We consider the quadratic sum of control signals as a cost function, to control the dynamics of the network. By minimising the cost function, we obtain the control signals as well as driver nodes for a linear time-invariant system. As an example, we provide the results of an energy minimization strategy to control the second order Kuramoto and Rössler dynamics in Erdos-Renyi and...