Sharif Digital Repository

Particulate air pollution is one of the top environmental health risks. Industrial processes like power generation from fossil fuels and steel and cement manufacturing release a huge amount of particles into the atmosphere. Moreover, internal combustion engines produce a considerable amount of particulate matter in populated areas. The usual way to overcome this risk is using air-cleaning devices such as filters. Filters are designed for specific purposes like removing aerosol particles, aerosol sampling and collecting valuable particles. Because of its diverse applications, filtration has become an active area of research and many kinds of filters are currently available. One type of... 

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... 

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) which are commonly understood as the combination of membrane filtration and biological treatment using activated sludge have several advantages, but membrane fouling reduces the membrane efficiency, permeability and lifetime. An alternative is replacing a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) with the activated sludge system which may reduce the effect of membrane fouling. The sludge produced in MBBRs has poor settling characteristics, therefore, their efficiency is limited by the sedimentation tank performance and they require a larger settling surface. The combination of moving bed biofilm reactors and membrane bioreactors can compensate for the drawbacks of both of... 

In this text to find the answer of the question “ what is it to be physical” in a definition form or a scheme of the term physical, firstly we sought for a possible consensus among recent physicists and philosophers. But from their answers not only we did not find any clear consensus but also most of them confess that the term is ambiguous and unclear. In a general aspect, we can categorize the answers to two theoretical and realistic perspective. The theoretical perspective, beside circularity and Hempel’s triviality, seems not to present any criteria for being physical. In realistic perspective, it seems that there is no ontologic constraint for being physical, that is from “being... 

The application of membranes for separate of particles in mainly microbial flacs , are fast growing in biological treatment systems. Membrane bioreactors are now considered as one of the major new processes in wastewater treatment. However , membranes are expensive and costly. This study is carried out to test an innovative , locally made filters for separation of flocs in an MBBR reactor. This innovative filter is replacing a traditional settling tank. This type of filters is made very cheaply and has important advantages in installing and operation. Experiments were carried out in a laboratory scale MBBR unit. A filter unit consisting of 3 innovative filter tubes were placed and the... 

This thesis addresses the problem of dynamic security assessment in power sys-tems with an emphasis on its application in restructured power systems and issues arising in its applications. The new electric utility environment has an immedi-ate consequence of emphasis on reliability and secure operation of power systems. This requires faster and more precise methods to assess the dynamic aspect of se-curity. On the other hand, this issue is becoming challenging when the determined dispatch might not be accommodated due to violation of the limits.This thesis addresses the problem of dynamic security assessment in power sys-tems with an emphasis on its application in restructured power systems... 

Are the returns of the mineral companies in Tehran Stock Exchange affected by the changes in the commodity price at the Iran Mercantile Exchange? By implementing a Multi-Factor Model we will calculate the firms’ value elasticity to the commodity price changes. We try to explain the estimated elasticities on the basis of the firm’s fundamental variables using a discounted cash flow valuation model. An unbalanced panel data estimation is employed for this purpose. Afterwards, we will suggest a novel model on the ground of the assumption that the commodity prices and firm values follow the Geometric Brownian Motion. The result of the model is that the elasticity can be explained by commodity... 

Rotor contact with a stationary element of a rotating machine and the subsequent rubbing at the contact area is a serious malfunction that may lead to the machine’s catastrophic failure. In the past decades, many studies have been done on the rubbing phenomena, its different regimes and its various consequences on the machine performance and safety. However, most of them have used a simple model to investigate the rubbing interaction between the rotor and the stator. This simple model consists of the Jeffcott rotor, as a model for the real rotors, and a rigid annular block surrounding the rotor, as a model for the real stators. The objective of this thesis is to build an algorithm to... 

Complex networks serve as generic models for many social, technological and biological systems that have been shown to share a number of common structural properties such as power-law degree distribution and small-worldness. These networks determine interactions and influence the spread of diseases, behaviours and ideas. Epidemics and failures like new behaviours ideas and innovations can spread throughout a network and prevent it from doing its functionalities. In this work, we investigate error and attack tolerance of epidemic spreading in complex networks. The main content of this thesis is arranged in three sections as follows: Firstly, the effect of random and systematic failures is... 

Value at risk of an asset, is the asset’s expected maximum loss for a certain period of time and at a specified confidence level. Value-at-Risk can be calculated in the bank with its inter-nal method or standardized method. when a method have more violation number then bank need to keep more daily capital requirements. under the Basel 2 agreement if the violation of method more than 10 times in year, the Bank uses the standardized method.
There are trade off Between daily capital charge and violations. Therefore, existing methods for calculating the value at risk, usually lead to much daily capital charge or many violations. Studies show with combination of different methods to calculate... 

The purpose of introducing this thesis is to review the difference between Standard Quantum mechanics and Bohmian Quantum mechanics. The aim of this dissertation is not only to contrast these theories with respect to formulation, but also to briefly review their historical, philosophical and sociological aspects. This dissertation consists of two main sections. The first section is about reviewing the emergence profile of these theories and the formation of each theory along its historical path. In addition some beliefs about the founders of these theories and the impact of their beliefs on the evolution of their theories are put forward. As a complement to the above, the prevailing social... 

Value at risk (VaR) is the maximum loss of the asset portfolio at the specified confidence level and certain time horizon. This tool is used to measure market risk and also used as a basis in determining financial standards for international financial instituation. Conditional Autoregressive Value at Risk models or CAViaR models introduced by Engle and Manganelli (2004). This models calculate VaR base on quantile regession approach and show some promising performance properties.
In order to propose a more accurate model for calcutating VaR , we develop CAViaR models by incorporating them with intraday information then we calculate VaR with this kind of models and CAViaR... 

Frequency scarcity has emerged the necessity of opportunistic utilization of frequency bands, which can be realized through a cognitive radio system. During an agile communication between unlicensed users, a cognitive radio system must avoid collision with licensed users. Hence it should continuously observe the band of interest and report the presence of licensed user signals. This task is fulfilled by a vital part of a cognitive radio system, called the spectrum sensing core. Recently several techniques have been proposed for the spectrum sensing in literature. Some of them like matched filtering, cyclostationarity based detection are based on primary user signal features. However energy... 

In the recent years, the problem of modeling a cognitive task using phase oscillators has been receiving a significant attention. In this view, single neurons are no longer elementary computational units. Rather, coherent oscillating groups of neurons are seen as nodes of networks performing cognitive tasks. From this assumption, we develop a model of stimulus-response learning and recognition. The most significant part of our work is defining learning methods for natural frequencies and coupling weights in a coupled phase oscillator network under Kuramoto conditions. In this thesis, we improved the previous models by not only emphasizing on the frequency of the oscillators but also taking...