Sharif Digital Repository

In this paper, we investigate optimal coding strategies for a class of linear deterministic relay networks. The network under study is a relay network, with one source, one destination, and two relay nodes. Additionally, there is a disturbing source of signals that causes interference with the information signals received by the relay nodes. Our model captures the effect of the interference of message signals and disturbing signals on a single relay network, or the interference of signals from multiple relay networks with each other in the linear deterministic framework. For several ranges of the network parameters we find upper bounds on the maximum achievable source-destination rate in the... 

The main point of this paper is to present a time domain strategy for drug dosage to treat psychiatric disorders. A time domain model of emotion is obtained from an extension of a recently developed fractional nonlinear dynamic model of happiness. First, the Fractional Optimal Control law for incommensurate multi state systems is obtained. It will be then applied as an optimal drug administration procedure in the line of psychiatric disorders treatment. Results of this paper show that optimal control scheme is a proper approach to face the difficulties of analysis and control the incommensurate systems. It can be also clearly seen from the simulation results that this approach is very... 

The main purpose of this paper is to use variational calculus and Pontryagin's minimum principle to propose a solution scheme for time optimal control problem stated on the fractional systems defined in the sense of Caputo. After deriving the necessary optimality conditions, a novel numerical solution is used to solve the problem. Afterwards, a simple case study shows the effectiveness of the proposed method. © 2017  

The HIGHT algorithm is a 64-bit block cipher with 128-bit key length, at CHES'06 as a lightweight cryptographic algorithm. In this paper, a new related-key impossible differential attack on the full-round algorithm is introduced. Our cryptanalysis requires time complexity of 2127.276 HIGHT evaluations which is slightly faster than exhaustive search attack. This is the first related-key impossible differential cryptanalysis on the full-round HIGHT block cipher. Copyright  

Poly (vinyl alcohol)/graphene oxide (PVA/GO) gamma irradiated nanocomposite films and hydrogels were prepared. In composite films, GO was initially irradiated by gamma ray in order to improve interactions between GO and PVA. The film containing 1 wt-% GO was very strong where tensile modulus and tensile yield strength were 45 and 115% higher than those of pure PVA. In the second set of experiments PVA/GO hydrogels were made by irradiating PVA/GO suspensions by gamma ray at various doses. It was an interesting finding that GO increased the gel portion of hydrogels through contribution of H-bonds between PVA and GO. The hydrogels prepared at 20 kGy had remarkable water swelling ratio that... 

In this study the extrudate swell of polymer solutions is estimated using the microstructure of polymer molecules. When a flexible polymer chain goes through a narrow die shear stress exerting on the chain will cause the polymer chain to be stretched along the flow direction. After emerging from die all external stresses vanish immediately and the chains tend to recover their previous state due to elastic recovery. This phenomenon will results in a gradual increase in extrudate diameter and this is used as the key idea for estimating swell ratio. A Giesekus based conformational model was used in order to predict polymer chains microstructure everywhere in the domain. The resulting PDE set... 

The discovery of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has envisioned an excellent outlook for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Among numerous efforts proposed for CTCs isolation, vortex separation is a well-known method for capturing CTCs from blood due to its applicability, low sample volume requirement, and ability to retain cell viability. It is a label-free, passive, low-cost, and automated method, making it an ideal solution for lab-on-a-chip applications. The previous designs that employed vortex technology have shown reaching high throughput and 70% separation efficiency although it was after three processing cycles which are not desired. Inspired by our earlier design, in this work, we... 

First principles density functional theory (DFT)-based molecular dynamics (MD) is used to study some physical and electronic properties of amorphous silicon (a-Si) samples, as-quenched and annealed containing dangling and floating bonds (pertinent to the threefold- and fivefold-coordinated defects, respectively) as well as distorted tetrahedral bonds. Surprisingly, except for the work of Pantelides (1986) who gave a rough estimate for the effective electron correlation energy, Ueff of a floating bond on the fivefold-coordinated Si, to date, there are no theoretical studies in the literature for the calculation of Ueff pertinent to this type of defect. In this work, Ueff for each type of... 

Examination of the role of strain on the quantum spin hall (QSH) effect and band inversion for the monolayer of tin, stanene, is of interest. To this end, several uniaxial and biaxial strain loadings along the armchair (AC)- and zigzag (ZZ)-directions are applied using first principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT). We observe QSH insulator as well as semi-metallic property associated with the strained stanene. © 2017 Elsevier B.V  

Background: Newcastle disease virus (NDV) has shown noticeable oncolytic properties, especially against cervical cancer. However, in order to improve the spread rate and oncotoxicity of the virus, employment of other therapeutic reagents would be helpful. It has been shown that some viral fusogenic membrane glycoproteins (FMGs) could facilitate viral propagation and increase the infection rate of tumor cells by oncolytic viruses. Additionally, immune checkpoint blockade has widely been investigated for its anti-tumor effects against several types of cancers. Here, we investigated for the first time whether the incorporation of influenza hemagglutinin-2 (HA2) FMG could improve the oncolytic... 

This paper contains analysis and simulation of recent dynamic models, describing human emotion. The pharmacological discussions lead to a new model of drug taking, which also have a better performance for description of psychological and psychiatric phenomena. Studying the effects of the order of fractional model, obtains an advantage of the fractional order model over the integer order one  

Rolling-element bearing (REB) failure is one of the general damages in rotating machinery. In this manner, the correct prediction of remaining useful life (RUL) of REB is a crucial challenge to move forward the unwavering quality of the machines. One of the main difficulties in implementing data-driven methods for RUL prediction is to choose proper features that represent real damage progression. In this article, by using the outcomes of frequency analysis through the Envelope method, the initiated/existed defects on the ball bearings are identified. Also, new features based on developing faults of ball bearings is recommended to estimate RUL. Early-stage faults in ball bearings usually... 

The ability of Paraconiothyrium variabile, a laccase producing ascomycete recently isolated from soil, was studied to eliminate chlorophenol derivatives in submerged culture medium. Among the tested compounds, ρ-chlorophenol (ρ-CP) and pentachlorophenol (PCP) were found to have minimum and maximum toxic effects, respectively, on the growth of the microorganism and at the same time high and low bioelimination percentages. The fungal strain was able to remove 86% of ρ-CP (with initial concentration of 40mgl -1) and 56% of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP; with same concentration as ρ-CP) after 9 days of incubation while no elimination was observed in the presence of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol... 

Sit to stand (STS) is one of the most important activities of daily living that is shown to be affected in low back pain (LBP) patients. It requires a fundamental coordination action among all segments (DOFs) of the body in order to control important performance variables such as body's center of mass (CM) within base of support (BOS). In this study, possible differences in joint coordination and variability patterns between chronic LBP and healthy control subjects were investigated during STS task. Eleven adults with nonspecific chronic LBP and 12 healthy controls were recruited in the study. The participants performed the task in 3 exerimental conditions including: rigid surface, open eyes... 

We study the problem of finding a target t from a start point s in street environments with the cooperation of two robots which have a minimal sensing capability; that is, robots do not know any information about the workspace including information on distances, edges, coordinates, angles etc. They just can detect the discontinuities in the visibility region of their location. The robots can detect target point t as soon as it enters their visibility region and have communication peripherals to send messages to each other. Our aim is to minimize the length of the path passed by the robots. We propose an online algorithm for robots such that they move in the workspace and find the target.... 

In the present study, the effect of nanosized graphene oxide layer on thermal stability and biocompatibility of gold nanorods has been examined. The graphene oxide-wrapped gold nanorods were prepared by electrostatic interaction between negatively charged graphene oxide and positively charged nanorods. The resulting nanohybrids were then heated at different time intervals to 95 °C in a water bath to assess the effect of heat on the rods morphology. The structural changes in gold nanorods were monitored via UV-Vis spectroscopy measurements and transmission electron microscopy images. In similar experiments, the graphene oxide used to wrap gold nanorods was reduced by ascorbic acid in a 95 °C... 

In the present study, the effect of nanosized graphene oxide layer on thermal stability and biocompatibility of gold nanorods has been examined. The graphene oxide-wrapped gold nanorods were prepared by electrostatic interaction between negatively charged graphene oxide and positively charged nanorods. The resulting nanohybrids were then heated at different time intervals to 95 °C in a water bath to assess the effect of heat on the rods morphology. The structural changes in gold nanorods were monitored via UV-Vis spectroscopy measurements and transmission electron microscopy images. In similar experiments, the graphene oxide used to wrap gold nanorods was reduced by ascorbic acid in a 95 °C... 

Based on the solution of the Wigner-Boltzmann (WB) equation, quantum correction in the drift-diffusion (DD) model is proposed. The new model, which is a form of the quantum DD model, can show quantum phenomena such as tunneling and quantum repulsion. To evaluate the proposed model, potential barrier and potential wells are simulated. Simulation results show the electron tunneling through and repulsion from the potential barrier. © 2007 The Japan Society of Applied Physics  

The present work aims to provide an accurate description of the tensile behavior of the planar as well as low-buckled stanene and to capture their ideal strength in armchair (AC)- and zigzag (ZZ)-directions. For an accurate description of anisotropic response of such hyperelastic materials as stanene, consideration of a highly nonlinear constitutive model in which up to the fourth power of strains is incorporated is inevitable. By utilizing first principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT), the second, third, fourth, and fifth order elastic moduli tensors corresponding to both planar and low-buckled states are obtained. Moreover, the morphology of the free-standing...