Sharif Digital Repository

In this paper, we investigate the achievable secrecy rate in a relay channel where the source and the destination wish to keep the information confidential from an untrusted relay (potential eavesdropper). The relay has no energy supply, and harvests its required energy for relaying from its received signals. For radio-frequency (RF) Energy Harvesting (EH) at the relay, we adopt power splitting (PS) approach. We study the problem of achieving positive secrecy rates between the transmitter and the receiver while making use of an untrusted relay. Energy limitation at the relay makes the problem more interesting. Because, the relay must choose either to eavesdrop the signal to be able to decode... 

A numerical study on mixing/segregation phenomena in a pressurized fluidized bed with large particles of Geldart D type of binary density but same diameter with high velocity gas was performed by the use of discrete particle simulation. Particle mixtures are composed of spherical particles with 2mm diameter and 1g/cm3 flotsam density and different jetsam densities of 1.25, 2 and 2.5g/cm3 with jetsam volume fraction of 0.5. The particles are initially packed approaching perfect mixing state in a rectangular bed and then fluidized by gas uniformly injected at the bottom of the bed. Effect of increase of pressure and density ratio was investigated and mixing/segregation behavior is discussed in... 

Recently, many researchers and practitioners have shown interest on profile monitoring as a relatively new subarea of statistical process control. One main reason for this interest, and perhaps a key factor for the contributions of many researchers to this field, is the various applications of profile monitoring in real life. Although one can easily encounter many univariate applications of profile monitoring in service and manufacturing environments, there exist situations where quality of a product or process needs to be modeled in multivariate terms. In this paper, we investigate monitoring of multivariate simple linear profiles in phase II when independence assumption of observations... 

Metal plates are essential parts of structures such as ship hulls and offshore oil platforms. These plates are typically under compressive axial forces. Hence, one of the main mechanisms for failure and collapse of such structures is buckling of plates. Thus, for safe and secure design, buckling strength of plates should be evaluated. Finite element analysis techniques are perfect tools for this purpose because of the accuracy and flexibility for performing simulations with different variables. In this study, the strength of aluminum plates has been studied using finite element analysis software and it was tried to study the influence of variables such as initial imperfections, plate... 

Tailoring the properties of electrospun fibers requires a detailed understanding and control of their microstructure. We investigate the structure/property relationships in fabrics of randomly aligned fibers of polylactide, a prevalent biopolymer, either as-spun or after annealing and solvent-induced crystallization. In-depth characterization by field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), and modulated temperature differential scanning calorimetry (MT-DSC) reveals that the as-spun fibers comprise crystalline and mesomorphic phases, as well as oriented but mobile amorphous chain... 

The influence of particle size and surface modification on sonocatalytic activity of TiO2 nanoparticles was investigated by measuring the degradation efficiency of methyl orange (MO) as a model pollutant. Crystalline TiO2 nanoparticles with different particles and aggregate size were prepared through solution-phase method with varying synthesis temperatures. Coating with polyvinyl alcohol was performed to enhance colloidal stability of the particles over a wide range of pH values (1.5–7.5). Characterization was carried out using X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, and Fourier-transformed infrared techniques. It was found that... 

In this study, we have investigated the potential of a native bacterial strain isolated from an Iranian oil field for the production of biosurfactant. The bacterium was identified to be Bacillus mycoides by biochemical tests and 16S ribotyping. The biosurfactant, which was produced by this bacterium, was able to reduce the surface tension of media to 34 mN/m. Biosurfactant production was optimized by the combination of central composite design (CCD) and response surface methodology (RSM). The factor selected for optimization of growth conditions were pH, temperature, glucose and salinity concentrations. The empirical model developed through RSM in terms of effective operational factors... 

In this paper, we focus on a cognitive network scenario, comprised of a multi-hop IEEE 802.11-based WLAN overlaid on a cellular network. In this scenario, the wireless nodes in a WLAN, i.e., cognitive nodes, use the downlink frequency channels of the cellular network opportunistically, such that at each packet transmission all idle channels have been exploited. In order to evaluate the capability of the considered cognitive network scenario, we propose an open queueing network model such that different packet transmission phases are mapped onto different queueing nodes. We also map different types of collisions, i.e., collision on control signals as well as collision on data transmission due... 

Low-carbon steel sheets are severely plastic deformed to strains of up to ≈3.48 and subsequently heat treated by conventional annealing followed by water-quenching. Four temperatures are chosen for the annealing below and over the Ac1 and Ac3 transformation lines. The effects of post-deformation heat treatment are investigated by evaluating the microstructure and mechanical properties, including strength, ductility, work hardening capability, and hardness. A maximum increase of 86% in the strength is obtained through intercritical annealing and quenching of the samples subjected to strain of 1.16. It is interesting that both the elongation and ultimate tensile strength values are higher... 

Deteriorated urban areas in large cities have poor living standards, are inaccessible and small-sized, and have unstable building structures. Earthquake hazards may turn such situations into human disasters. In most cases, neither the governments nor the owners of these properties have enough budgets for renovating them. The purpose of this paper is to take advantage of Transit Oriented Development concepts to simultaneously solve two major urban area problems: (a) renovation of deteriorated urban areas and prevention of urban sprawl, and (b) design of transit network and promotion of transit-oriented development to reduce traffic congestion, pollution, and other unwanted outcomes of the... 

Deteriorated land-uses constitute vast portions of the metropolitan areas, being small lots of land, hardly accessible, structurally unstable, and extremely vulnerable to moderate earthquakes. We present the results of a stated preference survey done to support the viability of administering a novel tri-lateral Public–Private Partnership of Build-Operate-Transfer type proposal of Government (G)-Residents (R)-Private Sector Investors (P). In this proposal, the (low income) R in a zone trade their lands for an equivalent value of safe housing built by P next to a newly constructed Bus Rapid Transit line built by G in the same zone, thus a Transit-Oriented Development. P, in return, receives... 

The potential of an indigenous bacterial strain isolated from an Iranian oil field for the production of biosurfactant was investigated in this study. After isolation, the bacterium was characterized to be Paenibacillus alvei by biochemical tests and 16S ribotyping. The biosurfactant, which was produced by this bacterium, was able to lower the surface tension of media to 35. mN/m. Accordingly, thin layer chromatography (TLC) and FT-IR has been carried out to determine compositional analysis of the produced biosurfactant. After all the tests related to characterization of the biosurfactant produced by the isolated bacterium, it was characterized as lipopeptide derivative. The combination of... 

Biosurfactant production from two indigenous consortia has already been investigated in two previous studies. In this study, comparison and modification of those models for having as much biosurfactant as possible was conducted. After characterization of bacteria by biochemical tests and 16S ribotyping, a fully modification on the final models was presented. Response surface methodology has the ability to investigate the liability of the parameters and models by the help of Desirability mode and R2 coefficient in Design Expert software. Our models in the previous works follow the style of (y=f(A,B,. . .)) and two Desirability of 0.968 and 0.996 for Paenibacillus alvei ARN63 and Bacillus...