Sharif Digital Repository

The presence of the desired signal (DS) in the training snapshots makes the adaptive beamformer sensitive to any steering vector mismatch and dramatically reduces the convergence rate. Even the performance of the most of the existing robust adaptive beamformers is degraded when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is increased. In this study, a high converging rate robust adaptive beamformer is proposed. This method is a promoted eigenspace-based beamformer. In this paper, a new signal-plus-interferences (SPI) covariance matrix estimator is proposed. The subspace of the ideal SPI covariance matrices is exploited and the estimated covariance matrix is projected into this subspace. This projection... 

Social tagging is a process in which many users add metadata to a shared content. Through the past few years, the popularity of social tagging has grown on the web. In this paper we investigated the use of social tags for web page classification: adding new web pages to an existing web directory. A web directory is a general human-edited directory of web pages. It classifies a collection of pages into a wide range of hierarchical categories. The problem with manual construction and maintenance of web directories is the significant need of time and effort by human experts. Our proposed method is based on applying different automatic approaches of using social tags for extending web... 

in recent decades, DEP due to its high efficiency has been exploited widely in separation and manipulation of bioparticles. In the present work a simple, low-cost, and efficient procedure for fabrication of microfluidic chips applied in medicine and biochemistry has been presented. In this method, electrodes are not in direct contact with biological samples which results in elimination of conventional systems' cons. Efficacy of the designed system has been evaluated by injecting samples containing yeast and Ecoli cells into the system and analyzing their trajectory. Experimental results demonstrate that precise adjustment of voltage and frequency can lead to the desired separation in this... 

In this paper we consider a multiple products inventory location problem with disruption. Disruptions may occur in any supply chain due to several reasons such as earthquakes, floods, fires, labor strikes, terrorist attacks, equipment breakdowns and economic crises. We develop a model by assuming that facilities may fail partially in case of disruption and considering substitutable products as a strategy to mitigate the risk of disruption. The developed model is a non-linear integer programming model and NP-Hard. To solve the model, a hybrid algorithm including Tabu Search (TS) and Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) is proposed. Numerical results show reasonable performance of the algorithm... 

The presence of the desired signal (DS) in the training snapshots makes the adaptive beamformer sensitive to any steering vector mismatch and dramatically reduces the convergence rate. The objective of the present study is to propose a new adaptive beamformer which is robust against direction-of-arrival (DOA) mismatch and its convergence rate is not sensitive to the presence of the DS. This method is applicable to the arrays with specific structure such as the linear array. Our approach is based on the DS elimination from the training snapshots and the sub-array beamforming technique. To accomplish this goal, a blocking matrix which converts the primary data to the DS-free data is... 

Direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms usually impose high computation burden and most of them are incapable of facing the coherent sources. In this paper, a new computationally efficient algorithm that is robust against the coherent sources is proposed. This method is based on a combination of the Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Orthogonal-Matching-Pursuit (OMP) algorithms. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has good performance in the small sample size cases and the coherency does not affect its performance  

Submarine pipelines as the principal structural components are prone to fail by circumferential buckling under the effect of hydrostatic external pressure. Basically, the buckling capacity of a thin-walled pipe is dependent on "radius to thickness" ratio. At least two modes of local and overall buckling are possible in any pipeline system, which could be developed in pipe wall. A method of strengthening of pipes is developed in this paper to stop the failure. A total of 21 stiffened models are generated and analyzed using the well-known finite element program ABAQUS. In this study, the buckling and post-buckling behaviour of stiffened pipes are investigated by carrying out linear and... 

The planning and operation problems of parking lots of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are studied in this paper. Herein, each distribution company (DISCO) allocates the parking lots to the electrical feeders to minimize the power loss and expected energy not supplied of the system, and consequently minimize the total cost of the planning problem over the given time horizon. In addition, the generation company (GENCO) manages the charging time of PEVs parked in the parking lots to defer the more expensive and pollutant generation units, and as a result maximize its daily profit. In both planning and operation problems, the behavioral model of PEVs' drivers are modeled with respect to the... 

The planning and operation problems of parking lots of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are studied in this paper. Herein, each distribution company (DISCO) allocates the parking lots to the electrical feeders to minimize the power loss and expected energy not supplied of the system, and consequently minimize the total cost of the planning problem over the given time horizon. In addition, the generation company (GENCO) manages the charging time of PEVs parked in the parking lots to defer the more expensive and pollutant generation units, and as a result maximize its daily profit. In both planning and operation problems, the behavioral model of PEVs' drivers are modeled with respect to the... 

In recent years, applications of dielectrophoresis-based platforms have been recognized as effective and dependable approach to separate cells and bioparticles, suspended in different carrier fluids, based on particle size and electrical properties. In this study, a microfluidic device was fabricated by an unprecedented electrode pattern, and several experiments were performed to enrich samples including either of yeast, Escherichia coli, or latex particles. A chemical deposition-based method was employed for fabrication of microelectrodes, inducing nonuniform electric field required for dielectrophoresis-based separation. One major advantage of our employed method is low fabrication cost,... 

Three-dimensional orbits in the vicinity of the collinear libration points of the Sun-Earth/Moon barycenter system are currently being considered for use with a number of missions planed for 2000 and beyond. Since such libration point trajectories are, in general, unstable, spacecraft moving on these paths must use some form of trajectory control to remain close to their nominal orbit. In this paper, circular restricted three body problem is reviewed and a numerical method to control spacecrafts on periodic halo orbits around L1 and L2 collinear points of the Sun-Earth/Moon barycenter system is investigated. The control approach is based on the optimal control theory and implements variation... 

Liquefaction-induced lateral spreading has imposed severe damages to many important structures supported on pile foundations during past earthquakes. As a result, evaluation of pile response to lateral spreading is an important step towards safe and resistant design of pile foundations against this destructive phenomenon. Current paper aims to study the response of a group of piles subjected to liquefaction-induced lateral spreading using a large scale 1-g shake table test. General test results including time-histories of accelerations, pore water pressures, displacements and bending moments are presented and discussed in this paper. In addition, distribution of lateral soil pressure on... 

This paper presents a new negotiation model for designing Market- and Behavior-driven Negotiation Agents (MBDNAs) that address computational grid resource allocation problem. To determine the amount of concession for each trading cycle, the MBDNAs are guided by six factors: (1) number of negotiator's trading partners, (2) number of negotiator's competitors, (3) negotiator's time preference, (4) flexibility in negotiator's trading partner's proposal, (5) negotiator's proposal deviation from the average of its trading partners proposals, and (6) previous concession behavior of negotiator's trading partner. In our experiments, we compare grid resource consumer (GRC) of type MBDNAs (respectively... 

Providing an efficient resource allocation mechanism is a challenge to computational grid due to large-scale resource sharing and the fact that Grid Resource Owners (GROs) and Grid Resource Consumers (GRCs) may have different goals, policies, and preferences. In a real world market, various economic models exist for setting the price of grid resources, based on supply-and-demand and their value to the consumers. In this paper, we discuss the use of multiagent-based negotiation model for interaction between GROs and GRCs. For realizing this approach, we designed the Market- and Behavior-driven Negotiation Agents (MBDNAs). Negotiation strategies that adopt MBDNAs take into account the... 

In both public and private sectors, critical technology-based tasks, such as innovation, forecasting, and road-mapping, are faced with unmanageable complexity due to the ever-expanding web of technologies which can range into thousands. This context cannot be easily handled manually or with efficient speed. However, more precise and insightful answers are expected. These answers are the fundamental challenge addressed by tech-mining. For tech-mining, discovering the associations among them is a critical task. These associations are used to form a weighted directed graph of technologies called “association tech-graph” which is used for technology development, trend analysis, policymaking,... 

In both public and private sectors, critical technology-based tasks, such as innovation, forecasting, and road-mapping, are faced with unmanageable complexity due to the ever-expanding web of technologies which can range into thousands. This context cannot be easily handled manually or with efficient speed. However, more precise and insightful answers are expected. These answers are the fundamental challenge addressed by tech-mining. For tech-mining, discovering the associations among them is a critical task. These associations are used to form a weighted directed graph of technologies called 'association tech-graph' which is used for technology development, trend analysis, policymaking,... 

One of challenging problems in the domain of web services is the web service composition (i.e the task of composing web services to create new services, capable of fulfilling a need that no single service can satisfy). In real application, there will be a lot of relevant web services for a simple goal, so the search space for such a problem is huge. In this research statement, we show how by extracting some prior knowledge and using simple heuristics, search space and search time can be reduced significantly  

One of the most important aspects of a successful space mission is the transition to the correct orbit and maintaining it. As a result, many modern orbit transfer techniques have been developed in space industry in order to accomplish this task in a more reliable and less expensive way. However, when it comes to the design of student satellites, usually there are serious limitations on the financial resources, technical database and satellite industry experts. These limitations may compromise the access to advanced methods and techniques. Therefore, reliability and expenses may no longer be the only criteria to be met in the process of design. As a result, at each step of the design, a... 

Thanks to a wide range of pore sizes by nano/macro composites of SiOC/Al2O3, such composites can serve as different layers of the structure of Packed Bed Reactor Membranes (PBRM). In the present study, the Polymer-Derived Ceramics method (PDC) has been used to synthesize nano/macro structures. Firstly, the effect of toluene as an extra carbon source on structure and microstructure of SiOC glass-ceramics was evaluated, such that, 4% (Vol) toluene was recognized as the proper amount to facilitate the synthesis of β-SiC at 1300 °C proved by XRD, Raman spectroscopy, and HR-TEM. Moreover, the presence of micro/meso-porosities was assessed by BET and TEM, indicating the capability of SiOC to serve... 

Kaolin clay material was loaded with potassium carbonate by impregnation method as a novel, effective, and economically heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production of sunflower oil via the transesterification reaction. The structural and chemical properties of the produced catalysts were characterized through several analyses including the X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller specific surface area. These revealed the best catalyst for the investigated reaction among different ones prepared based upon various impregnation extent of the potassium carbonate. The influence of this parameter was examined through a...